His Magic Stick

It seems that all of history’s great Tantrics had to undergo either great suffering or great austerities.

• Buddha lived as an ascetic and later fasted for 40 days.
• Krishna was born in jail and persecuted throughout much of his life.
• Jesus embraced poverty, was tormented throughout the years of his missionary work, and underwent the harshest torture on the cross.
• 7000 years ago, the first known Tantric guru, Shiva, had the habit of thrashing his leading disciples with a burning stick.

Baba is no different.

After seven years in prison, a poisoning that would have killed anyone else, and more than five years of fasting. He has picked up the work of building His mission and running the organization as if He had merely gone out for a walk, and like Shiva He is a fierce disciplinarian.

[Author note: Before I explain about today’s reporting session with Baba, I want to write a little introductory material. Two or three years before I joined Ananda Marga, I began reading spiritual books. One of the first was the biography of Milarepa, the most famous Tantric in the history of Tibet. Milarepa’s guru, Marpa, severely tested him even before giving him initiation. The guru alternated between ignoring him, treating him brutally, and making fun of him. Milarepa was ordered to build a house of stones. This back-breaking work took him many months. When he completed it, the guru ridiculed him, and told him to build it again in a different way and in a different spot. This happened six times. Besides treating Milarepa severely, the gum even pre¬ tended to be dmnk. Finally Milarepa’s despair overcame him. Fie left his gum and went to another teacher. A few days later he realized his mistake, returned to his gum, begged forgiveness, and pleaded for the initiation. The gum replied, “If only you had built one more house, your ego would have shmnk to the proper size. You would have burned most of your karma. After initiation you would have achieved liberation within a short time. Now I am forced to give you initiation, but you will have to practice meditation and austerities for many years to get your self-realization.”

41 The diary refers to samskara. For every action there is a reaction. Until the reaction occurs, the unexpressed reaction awaits expression. This unexpressed reaction is termed samskara. Sooner or later it must be expressed. Every thought is also an action, and is like a seed sown in the mind, changing the mind from its original equilibrium. A reaction is needed to return to that equilibrium. When the mind’s balance is disturbed, an opposite expression of an equivalent quantity of energy is thus required. If there is a delay in time," equivalent quantity’ 1 takes that into account, and often requires a greater suffering or pleasure in order to balance the original disturbance. It is something like interest accrued in a bank account over time. Due to psychic suppression or repression, a person may have difficulty expressing samskaras. One may have mental blocks or fear. This causes a slowing down of spiritual development. Such blocks are to some extent inevitable in every person because of our human weaknesses. Because the very presence of Baba caused a strong stir in everyone’s mind, M argis and workers always experienced an increase in the speed of expression of their samskaras just after seeing Baba. This was especially true when one had personal contact.

For the next years, Milarepa lived in below-freezing conditions without clothing, ate no food except nettle soup, and practiced long meditation in lonely mountain caves. During this time, his gum died. Milarepa persisted until he achieved his goal. Fie then gradually created a large school of disciples. In his later life, though he underwent painful diseases which were said to be beyond the endurance of normal human beings, he was always in a blissful mood.

From that young age I understood the spiritual path gradually demands greater and greater commitment. The goal is reached only if one is prepared to sacrifice everything for God.

Tantric scriptures specify that a hue gum’s relationship with a disciple must swing according to need from strictness and strong punishment to intimacy and affection.

There are similarities to this concept in many traditions having elements of Tantra. Both Chinese and Japanese Zen owe their origins directly to Tantra. One of the most renown Zen masters. Linji Yixuan (in Japanese: Rinzai), who lived in the 9th century, was famous for using anger to awaken his disciples. He said, “Sometimes a shout is like the precious sword of the Diamond King; sometimes a shout is like a golden-haired lion that creeps forward in a crouch; sometimes a shout is like a lure stick with a tuft of grass dangling on the end; sometimes a shout is not used as a shout at all.”

Ekido was a particularly severe teacher. His pupils feared him. One of them on duty, striking the gong to tell the time of day. missed his beats when his eye was attracted by a beautiful girl passing the temple gate. At that moment Ekido, who was directly behind him, hit him with a stick and the shock happened to kill him. Ekido’s attitude remained absolutely unchanged by this incident. After this took place, he was able to produce under his guidance more than ten enlightened successors, a very unusual number.

Of course, I do not condone such a killing, and rather consider that it may have been due to Ekido’s carelessness. I simply mention it to demonstrate that harshness from the side of the teacher is a normal technique, and does not necessarily indicate a loss of control. As far as I know. Baba’s punishments never produced any permanent harm.

Yet another example concerns the master Inzan, who showed no distinction to his disciple Gisho on account of her sex. He scolded her like a thunderstorm. He cuffed her to awaken her inner nature. After her enlightenment, Inzan wrote a poem in her honor:

This nun studied thirteen years under my guidance.

In the evening she considered the deepest koans.

In the morning she was wrapped in other koans.

The Chinese nun Tetsuma surpassed all before her.

And since Mujaku none has been so genuine as this Gisho!

Yet there are many more gates for her to pass through.

She should receive still more blows from my iron fist.

Now I turn back to Baba. There are many stories about His reporting sessions, the countless displays of His spiritual power and love, and the punishment He metes out to His workers. A reporting session with Baba is always something extraordinary. For those who never experienced it, no words can adequately describe it. From the organizational standpoint, it serves as an occasion for Baba to examine our work output, and give guidance for improvements.

More significantly, it is a time for us to be close to our guru, and for Him to stir into our hearts whatever spiritual ingredients we need. Part of His method for doing this involves stimulating different emotions in us, like shame, fear, love, anger, anxiety and compassion. His techniques for doing this change constantly and continuously. All of our work targets are difficult and often impossible, thus giving Baba plenty of opportunity to isolate the real causes for our failures. And those causes are always psychic weaknesses. In one way or another, by subtle indirect methods, He brings out these weaknesses, and then helps us to overcome them.