Antidote Index | Indian Background Index APPENDIX A ( 1 )

From Mahatma Purnanand, Divine Light Mission, B. 19/3 Shaktinagar, Delhi-6. To Dr S. Radhakrishnan, Vice-President of India, New Delhi. Dated, Dehra Dun, August 7,1961. Rev. Sir, I very gratefully acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated, July 22,1961 and thank you for the same. There can be no two opinions that improvement in human behaviour is essentially necessary for averting world crisis and securing permanent peace. But the question is how this improvement can be brought about easily and effectively. Academic education has created indiscipline and unrest. Newspaper publicity is of little avail. Lectures and sermons of great leaders and politicians fall on deaf ears because the gulf of disparity between their practice and profession has become well-known. The ancient dictum-plain living and high thinking-has been reversed. Raising the living standard without restraint has created a mad race for accumulation of money mostly by shameful, illegal and inhuman means. Shifting of reverence from human values and virtues to wealth and power, however, ill-gotten, cognisance of wealth for distribution of power and privileges and undue patronage to wrong yes-men have killed the incentive to acquisition and development of virtues and righteousness. Consequently human mind has been enlaced in greed, jealousy, hatred and complete infatuation and it has lost placidity and equanimity. And unfortunately enough, all these are the inevitable result of the atheistic policy of the present-day government. In such circumstances, would you kindly let me know what other efforts are being made to bring about the desired improvement in human behaviour ? We read in the Gita and other religious scriptures that peace is a sublime faculty which only equanimous, tranquil and concentrated mind attains. An equanimous and concentrated mind is absolved of conceit, egoism, self-interest and other evils and acquires altruism and all his actions and behaviours are initiated with a sense of well beings of all alike. And mind acquires these virtues by (i) constant meditation on the ever-existent, all pervading, life-generator secret Name of God which is called MAHAMANTRA, which has neither beginning nor end, which is meditable in all circumstances and at all times without a break and by (ii) being merged in the Self-effulgent DIVINE LIGHT which is also ever-existent in the hearts of all beings. Hence for the improvement in human behaviour, training of the human mind to acquire the aforesaid virtues is absolutely necessary. There is, however, a great misconception about the method of acquisition of these virtues. They maintain that mind acquire these virtues and realises DIVINE LIGHT by austere penances, through sacrifices, through recitation of scriptures and various names of God, through gifts and charity and through worship of the images of various gods and past gurus. But this is fallacious. The Gita teaches us clearly otherwise without any ambiguity. You are yourself well-versed in all the religious scriptures and your scholasticism is well-known throughout the world. So to refer the teachings of the Gita to you would be nothing short of showing a little candle to the sun and an act of imprudence. Still I am tempted to recall your attention to the following:- (a) God is the Supreme Light of all lights and is seated in the hearts of all (Gita Ch. XIII. V. 17; Ch. XV Ver. 15). (b) The self-effulgent DIVINE LIGHT, the abode of God is not illumined by the sun, the moon and the fire and having reached it, no Jiva returns from it. (Gita Ch XV Ver. 6). (c) The splendour of the self-effulgent DIVINE LIGHT cannot be approached by the effulgence of a thousand suns bursting forth all atonce. (Gita Ch. XI. Ver. 12). (d) The DIVINE LIGHT cannot be seen by anyone with these material eyes. It can be seen only with DIVINE EYE which is bestowed by the living SAD-GURU alone. (Gita Ch. XI. Ver. 8). (e) The DIVINE Light can never be seen through the study of Vedas, through austere penances, through sacrifices, gifts, charity etc. (Gita Ch. XI. Ver. 48 and 53). (f) Only the living Tatwadarsi Gyani SAD-GURU is capable of imparting true knowledge i.e. bestowing DIVINE EYE, showing the DIVINE LIGHT and imparting the knowledge of the real Name of God which he does on an earnest request with great reverence and unreserved devotion to him, (GITA. Ch. IV. Ver 34). In face of the above unambiguous assertions of Lord Krishna, any expectation to realise DIVINE LIGHT through other means betrays complete lack of wisdom and is fruitless. To expect any help and guidance from any deceased Guru or saint is also meaningless and quite unwise. Three personalities Viz, the SAD-GURU, the king and the doctor are always helpful only during their life-time. No privilege can be secured from a deceased king however powerful and benevolent he might have been in his life, in the same way no ailment can be got treated by a deceased doctor however experienced he might have been in his life-time. Similarly no true knowledge, nor DIVINE EYE nor knowledge of his Holy Name i.e. MAHAMANTRA can be acquired from a deceased SAD-GURU. There are some wrong notions about the mode of acquisition of the knowledge of MAHAMANTRA, realisation of DIVINE LIGHT and attainment of concentration of mind. The notion that 'OM' is MAHAMANTRA or the various mantras mentioned in religious books are Mahamantra or the various names of God connoting His attributes and mentioned in religious books are Mahamantra is quite wrong and misleading. The real Name of God which is ever-existent in all the animate and inanimate objects alike, which provides concentration of mind, which has neither beginning nor end, which purifies the heart instantaneously, which is not capable of being written by alphabets nor of being uttered with tongues, which is meditable at all times and in all circumstances alike, which is meditated upon by the JIVA in the womb of mother, during slumber and during unconsciousness and the existence of which alone generates life-force is Mahamantra. None of the names which is written and uttered can stand the above test and as such none of them is MAHA MANTRA and none of them can provide concentration of mind and help realisation of DIVINE LIGHT. The knowledge of Mahamantra can be acquired from the living SAD-GURU alone. There is absolutely no other way. As for realisation of DIVINE LIGHT, it has already been shown that it can be done only through the personal aid and guidance of the living Sad-GURU. The other notion that God-realisation is possible only after purification of heart by austere penances etc. is also untenable and fallacious. Heart can never be truly purified before realisation of DIVlNE LIGHT and knowledge of MAHAMANTRA. It is a common knowledge that darkness is removed by burning a light. Removal of darkness never precedes burning of light or rising of the sun. Similar is the case for the purification of the heart. It can never precede realisation of the DIVINE LIGHT. In the circumstances, if the leaders of the country take pains to acquire the knowledge of MAHAMANTRA, to realise DIVINE Light withinself and then to take all possible steps for the dissemination of the secret knowledge to the general public, through the help of the living SAD-GURU, by a planned programme then only desired improvement in human behaviour can be really brought about. Since You are not only the highest dignitary in the country but an ardent well-wisher of humanity, I appeal to you to pay due consideration to my humble suggestion and to take possible steps to try this method if you find substance in it. With profound respects and expecting a line in reply, I remain, Yours very truly, Sd/- Mahatma Purnanand

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From Sri R. S. Yogi, Divine Light Mission, B. 19/3, Shaktinagar, Delhi-6. To Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Prime Minister of India, New Delhi: Dated, Dehradun, the 21st July, 1961. Rev. Sir, I crave your kind indulgence to address you this personal letter in the interest of humanity in general and our own country in particular. None is more aware of the reality than your goodself that the world is passing through a great crisis and all attempts to achieve permanent peace have so far failed. In our own country also in spite of your best efforts to keep the country united, fissiparous tendencies are on the increase and no sign of their abatement and of true unity is visible. The doctrine of Punchsheel with emphasis on the unity amongst diversities and co-existence with different ideologies enunciated by you has not borne the desired fruits. Even the countries who had friendly ties with us for centuries past are turning hostile to us one by one and the greatest danger to our land is apprehended from our erstwhile friends. Contrary to this, we all know that Ashok, the Great was able to conquer the hearts of the people of a good many countries by his message of love and friendship and eradicate the evils of hatred and corruption from his land and unite the people in a common tie in spite of the inadequacy of the means of communication and other facilities which are available in abundance in our times. Thus we find that where Ashok, the Great succeeded in his mission with the same approach, we have miserably failed. This goes to prove beyond any shadow of doubt that there is something wrong somewhere in the application of our approach. Hence if we really wish to succeed in our mission to avert impending disaster and save humanity, we have to find out the appropriate way and method of application of the approach which Ashok the Great adopted. There is absolutely no other way to save mankind. A thorough research of that method is therefore the least that is expected by the human race from the politicians of our country. But since the politicians have so far failed, I crave your leave to suggest that a congregation of the saints of the country be called and they should be requested to throw light on it. Since the seed does never become extinct, I am sure some real saint would come forward and show the way. Since the real saints prefer detachment, they would not come forward on their own accord, but when a request is made to them, they would certainly reveal the secrets of the methods adopted by Ashok and which could be conveniently adopted by us to save the humanity. I hope you will not make little of the above suggestion and laugh it out but try to see if it proves fruitful. With profound respects and expecting a line in reply, I remain, Sir Yours very truly, R. S. Yogi.

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