Lord Maitreya Buddha WeshaK
Keeping Open the Path to the Light
Lord Maitreya - The World TeacherEvery concept has many dimensions. If we look at it only from one side, we cannot understand it correctly. A partial truth leads to prepossession. Holding on to views and concepts is an obstacle to our growth. Every time teachings are received, they are being interpreted and also recorded according to one’s own personality.
The Teachings suffer the fate of being handed down incorrectly, being understood wrongly and spread in the wrong way. All fighting about them is based on thinking that you yourself are right and the others are wrong. Wisdom however is simply there – for those who align with it. It doesn’t advertise and proselytise, much less does it take on a militant view.
Humanity has not yet grown so far into the light that it is ready for a comprehensive understanding.
It needs time to understand that those who have reached truth take sanctuary in it without taking up a fixed position, without claiming something for themselves and without defending themselves.
Jesus demonstrated this to the West by not defending himself. Yet truth defended and glorified him. We defend ourselves with our personalities, because we haven’t yet reached this truth.
Wisdom lives by the principle of making itself available.
The teachings are given to those who are searching for them.
The teachings of the World Teacher emanate through the Spiritual Hierarchy and their disciples from time to time to inspire those few human beings who are sincerely searching for Truth.
The World Teacher has committed himself to keep the path to the light open for the people during the present dark age or Kali Yuga.
Friend of All Beings
For over 5,000 years, Lord Maitreya has been holding the office of the World Teacher.
Other World Teachers in other cycles have preceded him.
The World Teacher is the head of the Spiritual Hierarchy; he is revered by the Hindus as Maitreya, by the Buddhists as Bodhisattva Maitreya and by the Christians as Christ.
word “Maitreya” comes from the Sanskrit root “Mitra”, meaning friend.
Maitreya is friendly towards all beings, irrespective of their behaviour; he does not play the game of love and hatred.
This friend is in us the I AM-consciousness, which has its seat in the heart centre. Therefore, the heart centre is related to the Spiritual Hierarchy; it is the seat of love and of compassion.
He who works on the path of the World Teacher remains simple – common among common people.
He inspires the persons in his surroundings by his silent spiritual work in all areas of life, without declaring that he works with the Hierarchy.
Lord Maitreya said: “Be the same as your fellow human beings, without being as ordinary as they are.” This means, behave like all others do.
Maitreya’s Training
In the incarnation in which Lord Maitreya was appointed to the office of the World Teacher, he was a young, beautiful prince of Benares-Kaashi in Northern India, who was considered to be very intelligent and virtuous.
He knew the martial arts as well as the wisdom teachings, and he was also a great healer.
In his younger days, he heard of Parasara, the World Teacher back then.
So he travelled to the Himalayas to meet the master, around whom he found many advanced souls. He felt as if he had come home.
Parasara permitted him to stay and trained him together with three other disciples on the same level of wisdom.
Parasara explained to them: “The Highest Lord has decided to come to the planet and he needs some co-workers for His work. My work will be fulfilled when I can hand over to Him these helpers.” Maitreya was very much inspired by these words.
He returned home and explained the whole wisdom that he had received to his father and also explained the plan of the descent of the Avatar.
Then he requested that he should be relieved from his princely responsibilities, so that he can work for the Plan. The father was happy about the decision of his son and gave the succession to the throne to the brother of Maitreya.
After having achieved yogic powers through his training, Maitreya came with the proposal to his teacher that he would like to work for the Light and fight against evil.
Parasara told him: “Since you have been born in a royal family, there is still the instinct of fighting within you. If however you stoop to fighting, you will lose this wisdom and destroy yourself.
If you continue with the truth, you will have the opportunity to experience some of the highest enlightenments.” And thus Maitreya learned that destroying evil through fighting is not part of the divine Plan, but rather enlightening the ignorant.
A man of wisdom should realise the duality of life and settle in the golden mean. It is his task to transform ignorance into knowledge, darkness into light and evil into good.
Those seeming opposites complement each other; synthesis serves to accept duality and to transcend it, without taking sides.
The talks between Maitreya and Parasara were recorded in the very first purana, the Vishnu Purana.
The details of the biography of Lord Maitreya are contained in the Bhagavatam Purana and also in the book “Music of the Soul” by Master EK.
There are countless stories in the Puranas telling of the great beings who are guiding us today.
The Radiant White Robe
Together with Parasara and other masters Maitreya participated in a ritual which provided a pure EATHERIC body, into which the avatar, Lord Krishna, could descent.
This body is also called the radiant white robe and has been maintained on the planet:
Before Krishna finally left his body, he transferred this etheric body to Lord Maitreya.
According to the wisdom teachings this body of light was later also given to Gautama Buddha and again to Jesus during the last three years of his life.
Therefore Jesus was called the Christ, and Jesus referred to it when speaking of his radiant white robe.
The great initiate Shankaracharya also had the same etheric body.
This robe was given as a blessing, so that the teaching of synthesis and of compassion could be imparted to the people from time to time.
Through Lord Krishna Maitreya achieved awareness of synthesis.
Sri Krishna gave him the wisdom as a plan for the future, how the wisdom is to be spread and darkness is to be transformed into light, and also how those who hate and kill are to be included into the synthesis.
Krishna promised him to give His presence for the fulfilment of this plan, for the presence, the soul awareness, can transform and lift up the personality.
The Community of Lord Maitreya
Krishna also gave Maitreya the direction for the foundation of the Spiritual Hierarchy, as it is existing on the planet.
An esoteric triangle was formed between Lord Maitreya, Master Morya and Master Koot Hoomi, through which the entire hierarchy manifested itself.
A lower triangle was formed with their main disciples,
Master Djwhal Khul and two other masters. Together with Buddha in the centre they form a septenary that works for the benefit of the planet in order to manifest the Plan.
At his departure from the physical, Lord Krishna installed Maitreya as the World Teacher to help people on the path of evolution.
Since then, Maitreya has imparted the “Word” through the path of yoga, through service and sacrifice. “Yoga” means “union” and stands for the state of fusion of the individual self with the Divine.
And yoga practice means the transformation of the human nature through systematic, scientific exercises.
This subtle process has been going on for more than 5,000 years. Some people realise it and consciously cooperate with it. If we are receptive and align with it, it is more active for us, but it progresses, whether we recognize it or not.
To say that Lord Maitreya is coming nearer only means that his work has come into the lives of many and that perhaps we are opening now our window.
The community of Lord Maitreya arises out of the unification of souls and overcoming of the personalities. We must see what we have in common.
An awareness of the differences leads us to disagreements and diverging opinions. If we look at what is common we tend to be more together in communities.
Thus we connect ourselves with the soul in the others. At first we see ourselves, the light in us, then we see the light in the others. Then we try to see the light in all others. Thus nothing but light remains.
“Maitreya, in Buddhism, the future Buddha, a Buddha who will be reborn in a period of decline to renew the doctrine of the founder of Buddhism,
The Buddha. Maitreya is believed to be a bodhisattva, one who refuses entry into nirvana, a transcendent state free from suffering, out of a compassionate desire to help others. At present, he is believed to reside in Tushita Heaven, where he awaits his rebirth which is expected to occur in 30,000 years”. -
REASEARCH -MATERIAL...VEDIC PROOFS..
Before the onset of the Mahabharata War Vidura leaves the scene on pilgrimage because he is in total disagreement with what is going on under Duryodhana’s leadership in Hastinapura. He comes back after several years but in the meantime he meets Uddhava, a relative as well as a most sincere devotee of Krishna, on the banks of the Yamuna. To Vidura’s enquiry about Krishna, Uddhava had to break the news of the end of Krishna’s life on earth.
Uddhava also told Vidura how Maitreya had met Krishna at the same time as he met him and how the Lord had instructed Maitreya to teach Vidura the supreme wisdom about the Atman. Though Uddhava himself was capable of teaching Vidura, and though the latter was eager to learn it from him, Uddhava wanted to obey the Lord’s last command and accordingly,
Vidura was directed to go to Maitreya.
So we now have a long conversation between Vidura and Maitreya. The subjects dealt with cover a wide range – like,
Brahma’s original creation called ‘sarga’ consisting of the elementary creation of sixteen items of matter, and further elaborate details of various subcreations, which together constitute what is called ‘visarga’.
Before Creation the Lord, the Soul of all souls (*AtmA AtmanAM vibhuH * - III – 5 – 23) was the Only One.. When there was no Seer nor Seen, it appeared as if there was a void. During Creation, by His icchA shakti He appears to be multifold.
The Lord created this universe of multiplicity out of His own Cause. The Cause and Effect were the same. This phenomenon is called mAyA. (III – 5 – 25):
sA vA etasya sandrashhTuH shaktis-sad-asadAtmikA /
mAyA nAmA mahAbhAga yayedaM nirmame vapuH //
The latent Power in Him as Eternal Time caused the manifestation of the mahat-tatva, the supreme sum-total of matter, from which all the manifested universe of matter arose. Maitreya gives a fantastic amount of details about creation. And Vidura asks very pertinent questions.
“How is it, the Absolute which is immutable and which is beyond all guNas, resorts to action resulting in creation of the universe?
Even as a Leela, is it not incompatible with the nirguNa nature of the Transcendental Absolute?” (III – 7 – 2).
“You said, Oh Maitreya, that it is through avidyA (Cosmic Ignorance) that the Lord creates, sustains and dissolves the universe. But He the Almighty is beyond time and space. How did He associate Himself with avidyA?
In all bodies the experiencer that is the jIva is also nothing but a spark of the Absolute. How can he then lose the Bliss that he came from and how can he suffer because of actions?” (III – 7 – 4 to 6).
Maitreya replies (III – 7 – 9):
seyaM bhagavato mAyA yanna yena virudhyate /
Ishvarasya vimuktasya kArpaNyam-uta bandhanaM //
In fact, it appears to be a contradiction that to the Lord who is devoid of all avidyA, there happens due to avidyA a bondage and a fall of Knowledge. This appearance is nothing but mAyA. Just like, in a dream, a person dreams that his head has been cut off. Just like, the reflected moon in water assumes all the vibratory movements of the water.
So the non-real BMI produces the appearance to the dreamer-jIva and not to the Lord. The same guNas of the BMI reach their end by the practice of renunciation and by Bhakti in the Lord. When the senses are taken away from their objects, all sorrows and experiences merge in the fullness of the Absolute, as they do in sleep. (III – 7 - 10 to 12).
At this point, there is a beautiful analogy by Shri Jnaneshvar for illustrating the “Actionlessness” of the Lord.
In a forest, a monkey and a human being , scared of a lion which is chasing them, climb a tree and station themselves on the branches of the tree, safely away from the clutches of the lion. The lion keeps banging on the shadow of the monkey. Every time the lion hits the monkey’s shadow, the monkey on the tree gives out a shriek, jumps from branch to branch and thus gets more and more excited. In its excitement, in due time, after its shadow has received a few beatings from the lion’s paw, the monkey falls from the tree and duly becomes an easy prey for the lion. Now the lion starts beating the shadow of the man, but the man uses his discretion and is unperturbed by the lion’s beating of his shadow. Finally, the lion gets tired, goes its way and the man is saved.
Now Jnaneshvar says, when experiences, good or bad happen to you, think that they are happening to your shadow; then you will not be affected either by happiness or by misery.
The Lord behaves like that in every one of His actions and so He is not touched by them !
Creation is nothing but the imbalance in the guNas in the Cosmic Personality, caused by His mAyA.
This first creation is the mahat principle.
From this is created ahamkAra.
From this the tanmAtras which cause the five elements, and the subtle seeds of jnAnendriyas and karmendriyas.
The fourth stage of creation is the indriyas themselves.
The fifth is the set of devatAs which are the substrata for the indriyas.
The sixth is tamas or avidyA.
All these six stages of creation constitute the prAkrta creation.
Next comes the universe of matter including all plants that go up to grow but show no external signs of consciousness.
The eighth is the world of birds and animals. No consciousness of the future, a mind of darkness, capacity of different kinds of intuitive sense and an ignorance of the self – these are the common characterisitics of the world of birds and animals.
The ninth stage of creation is the human species.
Food goes downward in them. They are rajas-dominated. They concentrate on their work. They find pleasure even in misery.
The seventh, eighth and ninth creations constitute what is called vaikRRita-sRRishhTi.
Beyond this there is the creation of devas and asuras, gandharvas, yakshas, rakshasas, bhutas, pitRs, kinnaras etc.
All this is the work of the Absolute who takes the form of Brahma and through him carries out the different creations.
All creation is only with respect to the three lokas – bhUloka, bhuvar-loka and suvar-loka.
All that is animate and inanimate, all pitrs, and all devas and asuras are constituents of these three worlds bhU, bhuvaH and suvaH and they rise and fall, in each day of Brahma’s kalpa.
Beyond this there are four more lokas, (maho-loka, jano-loka, tapo-loka and satya-loka) which do not come under the daily creation and dissolution scheme of Brahma’s cosmic day (kalpa).
When creation comes Time also starts ticking.
There are four yugas: kRRita, tretA, dvApara and kali.
Their durations are respectively 4k, 3k, 2k and k,
where k = 432,000 years.
The four yugas together constitute one chatur-yuga. It has 10k, that is 4,320,000 years, or 4.32 million years.
One thousand such chaturyugas constitute one day of Brahma. In other words the duration of one Brahma’s day is 4.32 billion human years.
One day of Brahma (also called Cosmic Day) is technically known as one kalpa.
In one kalpa there would be fourteen Manus.
Each Manu is the physical King of the universe during his period of Manu-ship, called a Manvantara.
Its duration is a little more than 71 Chatur-yugas. Brahma’s nights are as long as His days. Kalpa after kalpa, creation and dissolution go on. Each year of Brahma has 360 cosmic days and nights
The present Brahma has already spent His fifty years of an allotted total of a hundred years of life. The second half has just started.
Each half is called a parArdha. His ‘today’ is the first day (first kalpa) of his second ‘parArdha’. (Also see Hindu Concept of Time). By the way parArdha is a mathematical word in Sanskrit denoting 1017.
The powers of 10 upto the power 17 have technical words in Sanskrit:
Eka-dasha-shata-sahsra-ayuta-laksha-prayuta-koTi-arbuda-
Abja-kharva-nikharva-mahApadma-shankha-jaladhi-antya-madhya-parArdha.
On the very first day of His first parArdha, that is, on Day 1 of His life (of 100 Brahma years) that was the day on which the Vedas came out from His breath by the call of the Absolute.
That first kalpa is called ‘brAhma kalpa’.
At the end of the first parArdha (50 Brahma years), there was the last kalpa called pAdma-kalpa, because in that kalpa, Brahma came out from the divine Lotus springing from the navel of Narayana. The present kalpa is called ‘shveta-varAha kalpa’.
The first creations of Brahma were the four kumAras, named, Sanaka, Sanandana, SanAtana and Sanatkumara.
But from the time of their creation they were enlightened and so they did not prefer to contribute to further creation.
Brahma got angry at the failure of purpose of his very first creation and from his anger rose Rudra and all his gaNas.
Brahma went back for meditation, at the end of which he created the ten PrajApatis, known by the names:
Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Brighu, Vasishta, Daksha and Narada. There also came out Yama and two other prajApatis called Kardama and Ruchi. And at the end of these creations, his own body (Brahma’s body) split into two, one male and one female. The male form became to be known as SvAyambhuva and the female form as ShatarUpA. After this, creations of the human species were in the worldly manner of biological union.
SvAyambhuva was the first Manu of the present kalpa. From him ShatarUpA gave birth to two sons, Priyavrata and Uttanapada and three daughters AkUti, DevahUti and PrasUti.
These three were given in marriage respectively to the prajApatis Ruchi, Kardama and Daksha. From these three couples the world began populated.
All this is told in the first 12 chapters of the third skanda.
Thereafter seven chapters (from #13 to 19) are devoted to Varaha Avatar and the killing of Hiranyaksha. We shall take this up when we come to Narasimha avatar, in the seventh skanda.
Continuing the story of creation, we take up the story of Kardama-Devahuti couple. Before they were married, Kardama did a monumental tapas for 10000 years.
The Lord appeared before him and commanded him to accept Devahuti when she is presented to him by Svayambhuva Manu. Kardama was also told by the Lord that the Lord Himself would be born to him, after he begets nine daughters from Devahuti.
Svayambhuva Manu came to Kardama’s Ashram on the banks of the Saraswati and offered his daughter Devahuti in marriage. Kardama accepted it on condition that he will stay as a married householder only till a son is born to him.
The Manu accpted this condition and the marriage took place with all rituals from ShAstras. In fact this was the first marriage ritual ever performed. To remember this and propitiate this couple, even today, our marriage homas and havans have a whole package of mantras offering ghee and samit in the Fire with the invocation: “devahUtyAM svAhA”.
Satisfied more than ever by the services rendered by his devoted wife Devahuti, he granted her by his yogic powers all that he had acquired by his tapas, samAdhi, vidyA and yoga.
The superhumanly conjugal and amorous pastimes that this first couple enjoyed for 100 years are elaborately described in Chapter 23 of the third skanda. Kardama created a vimAna for her and took her around the whole world. He split himself into nine bodies and gave her superlative sensual pleasure. She gave birth to nine daughters on the same day. They are known as
KalA, anasUyA, ShraddhA, HavirbhU, Gati, KriyA, KhyAti, arundhati and ShAnti.
These were given in marriage respectively to
Marichi, atri, angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Brighu, Vasishta and atharvA.
Devahuti yearned for a son. When Kardama Prajapati expressed his intention to renounce the householder Ashrama, Devahuti pleaded with him to give her a son and then go. They also remembered how the Lord Himself had promised earlier to Kardama Prajapati that He will be born to him as a son.
The time has come now. In expressing this Devahuti makes a thought-provoking statement. “Oh Lord of my life! All these years I did not understand your spiritual greatness. I wasted my time in sensualities. But my attachment to you cannot be said to be misplaced.
If one cultivates attachment to persons who are ignoble, then that will lead to further samsAra. Whereas, attachment placed on nobilities like you actually leads to the end of all attachment. (III – 23 – 55).
So my attachment to worldly things has all vanished now. Please enlighten me on the Self”.
In reply to this, Kardama tells her that she is going to have the Lord Himself as her son. He is going to be a great sage called Kapila. He will impart to her, says Kardama PrajApati, that spiritual wisdom for which she is rightly yearning.
The Lord kept His promise. He incarnated as their son, Kapila.
The father Kardama knowing full well that it is the Lord who has come as their son, made prostrations to the Avatar, entrusted the mother to the son and left for the forest to do his tapas. In due time he reached his divine destination.
Now comes a sequence of seven chapters (#s 26 to 32), which constitute Sage Kapila’s teachings to Devahuti, his mother, on the spiritual path and goal.
These chapters are known as Kapila Gita and form an important part of the Bhagavatam.
NAMASKARAMs Master .
Now Master EK took his office. LORD Maitreya Stood as Buddha for the planet .
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