Twenty-Eight
The Mother's Question and the Guru's Answer
In the human household, the mother's responsibility is the most difficult. So the mother came first to the guru and asked—
Mother: Guru, what is our duty?
Guru: Before you can know duty, you must first know—who you are, what your true identity is.
The Nature of Motherhood
The guru said—the maternal body is distinct. All beings are born from the mother's womb. The mother is the foundation of creation. Because she is distinct, she remains whole even as she creates. Giving birth to a child does not diminish the mother in any way. When the child is in the womb, mother and child are one being, but after birth, when the umbilical cord is cut, the child becomes distinct. Because the mother is distinct, from her comes the distinct child.
The Cause of Suffering
The guru said—you do not know your own infinite power and glory, and so you have diminished yourselves. Had you first recognized your own strength, you would not have lost the love of your husband or the respect of your children. You have been walking the wrong path for a long time, and so your strength has been wasted. I have been within you since the very beginning of creation, but you never thought you needed me. Only now, when your strength is exhausted and you are driven by want and incompleteness, have you found me.
The Guru's Instruction
The guru assured and said—there is nothing to fear now. I will determine your duty for you. Listen—
You are a mother, you are the center of the household; husband and children revolve around you, and all the deeds of the household turn upon your axis. Therefore you must always remember: as the center of the household, you must fulfill your duty.
Twenty-Nine
The Household as a Field of Learning
God has created for humanity in this world a household like a cottage on a small plot of land—where husband, wife, children, and kinfolk live together. The purpose is that through this household, by learning practice, humanity may gain the experience of the whole world.
The Mother's Role and Service
First, one must acquire knowledge, wisdom, power, and capacity within oneself. Then, having grown experienced in practical life and the inner world, one must devote oneself to serving others. For it is through service that all the flaws and faults of the household are removed.
The Guru and the Natural Path
This wisdom cannot be understood merely by reading books or listening to words; it must be grasped through the experience of action. What exists within is expressed without. If nothing exists within, nothing will be expressed without. Therefore, to bring forth the true nature of motherhood, what is needed is a method of work rooted in one's own nature. Humanity is created from nature, so the path of duty is also hidden in nature itself. It cannot be found in gods or goddesses. This path is called the natural way or the way of one's own nature. This is the only means for the full flowering of humanity.
The Meaning of Full Humanity
Full humanity means—to remove the deficiencies in a person's body, mind, soul, and consciousness, and establish them in their own nature. Yet even today, humanity has not found this path. For from birth onward, people have not pursued the cultivation of humanity, but have run after God, Brahman, deities, liberation, salvation, and nirvana. So in seeking something else after losing humanity, they have finally grown despairing and are running to find themselves again—but they cannot find the way.
Humanity as the First Goal
Actually, there is only one path—hidden within one's nature. The first and foremost goal of humanity is to achieve full humanity. Through humanity, one can know oneself, understand others, love, and fulfill all wants and grievances. Therefore, the awakening of humanity is most urgent.
The Wrong Side of Love
We have learned to love God, the divine, the deities; but we have not learned to love humanity itself. So we have not been able to love people either. We have posed as yogis, sages, judges, weighing right and wrong on our scales, but the true purpose has not been fulfilled.
# The Goal Still Lies Distant
## A Fresh Endeavour
Now, mankind has begun to gradually relinquish all hope and desire, and to advance once more along the path of attaining complete humanity.
## Thirty
## The Question of Humanity
Man may come to know God through divinity, but can he truly know and love man? The resolution to all of man’s wants, grievances, and sufferings lies solely within humanity itself. It is natural that man should be known, understood, and his suffering felt as one’s own through humanity.
## The Source of Humanity
The source of this great convergence of humanity is the heart of the mother. The mother is the worshipper of humanity. Therefore, a mother’s character, education, conduct, and progress must be built upon the foundation of ordinary humanity. A mother is not a goddess, not divine—she is simply a mother. She is the mother of God, the mother of the divine, the mother of Jesus, the mother of all.
## The Character of the Mother
If the mother is not simple and plain, how will an innocent child taste the essence of motherhood? Therefore, in all things—her form, her qualities, her education, her conduct, her dress, her bearing—there must be simplicity, plainness, and grace. A mother is not the mother of just a few children; she is the mother of the entire world. Her heart, her lap must have space enough for all creation.
## The Guru’s Instruction
When the mother raised this question, the guru said: “The fundamental basis of your formation is nature. What is self-complete in nature is what is real. Therefore, womankind must be complete in action, knowledge, mind, and character. Thus will emerge true maternal character, which will spread through husband and child alike.”
## The Learning and Limits of the Past
From the age of truth, education was given upon the foundation of celibacy, character, and virtue. But today that has crumbled. Even then, the sages and seers, clinging to celibacy and remaining in spiritual practice, could not attain their goal. The reason: the lack of restraint, patience, perseverance, and the right environment.
Man has sought servitude to gods, to the divine, to Brahman, but has not sought humanity. Therefore, the old spiritual paths, celibacy, and restraint, proved wholly unable to reach the true goal.
## The New Path: The Yoga of Nature
Just as man cannot maintain restraint without spiritual power, so too the yogis and sages could not become immortal in this mortal body. Therefore, now we must think anew—by what path can celibacy, restraint, character-building, and the perfection of man arise naturally?
This path is called the Yoga of Nature. Its aim is singular—the attainment of complete humanity. Man’s true naturalness is to reach humanity. Everything beyond this is unnatural and incomplete.
## Thirty-One
## The Guru’s Word After Silence
After hearing the guru’s teachings, the mother, father, and child all fell silent. In stillness, each turned inward, thinking: “What a terrible error we have committed all these years!” A profound silence descended upon all around.
Then the guru broke the silence and said:
“If anyone harbors a question in their heart, ask without fear. I shall answer.”
## The Father’s Question
The father spoke with humility:
“Master, from the counsel you have given concerning the mother’s duty, I too have learned much. But if there is yet something more that I should know about my own role, I humbly ask you to tell me.”
## The Guru’s Reply
The guru said:
“Yes, my son, there is indeed something I must tell you.
Knowledge is the root of action, and knowledge itself drives action. Therefore, the father is the embodiment of knowledge. The father’s duty is to become a complete knower and a complete householder. Only then can he fulfill his responsibility to wife and child, and to the family, and reach the goal.
If you wish truly to understand the counsel I have given concerning the mother’s duty, then you too must, through action and work, fix upon a single aim and become a knower of true wisdom. Only then will the management of your household become joyful and easy for you.
This is what I had to tell you.”
## Thirty-Two
## The Child’s Question
After coming to know the nature and duty of mother and father, the child spoke:
“O Supreme Father, from the counsel you have given my mother and father, I have come to understand much about my duty toward them. Now, if there is yet something remaining, I humbly ask you to tell me.”
## The Guru’s Teaching
The guru said:
“My child, you are the embodiment of wisdom in mother and father.
Where you have come to know the Mother in the form of Action, the Father in the form of Knowledge, there you must also come to know yourself in the form of Science.
Just as a child is the distinct form of both mother and father, so too is Science the harmonized and distinct form of Action and Knowledge combined. I trust you now understand your true nature and your duty.
Your first duty is this—to know what Action is, and what complete Action is. When you engage in action, you will acquire knowledge through experience. And when this knowledge becomes full and whole, then you will know the Father.
Once you have come to know the Mother-like Action and the Father-like Knowledge, there will remain nothing left to learn about yourself. Then you yourself will perceive your duty. This will be the child’s fulfillment. Then you will become the true teacher of all other children of the world, and they too will gain genuine humanity from you.
Always remember this—though the Mother, Father, and Child are distinct, in their essence and nature they are one. Only when these three become one does a human being become complete. And this completeness itself is the ultimate fruit of endless striving, endless austerity, and endless union.
Thirty-three.
Human Birth and Its Meaning
Through the whirlpool of countless births and deaths, traversing eighty-four hundred thousand species, humanity at last attains human birth. Within this infinite creation of nature—from the still and the moving, the conscious and the unconscious, from the tiniest creeping vine to the mightiest beast—the complete form of all things finds expression in the human being. Within humanity lies the absence, the complaint, the characteristic, and the experience of all creation. Thus it is the human alone who, through consciousness, tastes the infinite joy and sorrow of creation.
The Place of Human Life
A human being, living on a small plot of earth, in a solitary hut, experiences within the limits of birth and death the infinite play and variety of creation. Yet from birth itself, the human is cut off from wholeness—of this they remain unaware. Driven by fragmented knowledge and intellect, humanity loses itself and loses the Creator as well. Through fragmented spiritual practice, education, rules and laws, the human fails to recover their natural, unbroken essence.
Two Currents of Tendency
Humanity has been flowing through two main currents from the very dawn of knowledge—
The Current of the Material World: These are those attached to worldly life and earthly wealth. In the governance, nourishment, administration of society and in material progress—from life to death their time is spent.
The Current of the Sacred World: These are those who withdraw from society and devote themselves to spiritual practice. Absorbed in the search for God, the Divine, the Absolute, they attempt, through various scriptures and disciplines according to their own understanding, to guide society.
The Primal Form of Humanity: These two tendencies constitute the most ancient division of human society—the material human and the spiritual human.