Theos-Talk Archives (March 1998 Message tl00200)

On Sunday, March 01, 1998 4:56 PM, theos-l@vnet.net [SMTP:theos-l@vnet.net]
wrote:
>
> I am curious about P R Sarkar. Is he the one who launched the Ananda Marga,
> which ran into legal problems in India as well as in several countries?
>
> mkr

Yes, but all 'legal problems' ended up to be no problems.  These are just
little quirks in the spiritual life.  Krsna was after all born in prison.  In
history all great spiritualists have had to face these things.  Its nothing
new.

I post below his discourse on how the mission started.

      Discourse 150

      SPIRITUAL TRUTH SURPASSES EVERYTHING

      The tiny organisation which first saw the light of day
in a small town in 1955 - you may call it the 'Jamalpur
Organisation' because in those early days it was confined to
Jamalpur town - has today, due to your efforts, been
transformed into a mighty global organisation.

      Each and every entity grows step by step due to its
own inherent strength, not by acquiring strength from any
external source. If internal strength is lacking, it serves
no purpose to inject additional strength from outside. The
day we started our journey we only had a fixed goal ahead of
us, nothing else. In those days we had neither structure nor
financial capacity, nor even a small office room. Yet our
organisation continued to grow and has become so large today
that there is hardly any country left where its branches and
ramifications have not spread. The A'nanda Ma'rga of today
is no longer the small Jamalpur Organisation of those early
days : the people of Jamalpur have had to surrender it to
the population of the world. During the twelve years since
1966, I have not been to Jamalpur. In those early days,
people used to talk about the 'Head of A'nanda Ma'rg of
Jamalpur', but these days they no longer use such words.

      Every entity develops by virtue of its own internal
strength. But where does that internal strength come from?
The strength acquired from the external world is
fundamentally crude. Food, air and water are created from
the five fundamental factors which, being crude, can only
directly help the growth of physical energy and not the more
subtle psychic energy and spiritual energy. One should not
be overdependent upon that physical source of energy as it
is transient by nature. From the very beginning it was my
opinion that it would not be wise to depend on external
objects alone. This is the advice I have given to members of
A'nanda Ma'rga, saying that they should rather depend upon
psychic energy. Psychic energy is of two types. One is a
product of physical energy, the other a product of spiritual
power. Suppose some people stop eating food for a number of
days : their physical and psychic stamina will be affected.
They will be unable to continue their studies and other
activities due to a lack of physical stamina. Their minds,
infatuated with food, will repeat 'bread, bread' instead of
'Krs'n'a, Krs'n'a'. Thus, crude psychic power which is a
product of physical energy is also undependable. The second
type is internal psychic power. Those who are moralists,
those who are armed with spiritual power, naturally develop
a kind of psychic power. Whether they eat or not, their
strength remains unaffected. Staunch moralists would never
agree to drink alcohol even if they were about to die. Their
moral strength is so strong that they would rather put their
heads in fire than violate their ideology. The energy that
originates from crude food is not adequate for the
development of this sort of indomitable psychic power - It
requires spiritual strength, spiritual moral force which
originate, from unit consciousness or a'tman. In the absence
of spiritual power, this unflinching psychic power and moral
force quickly fade. That is why from the very beginning I
have been stressing that human beings should depend more on
spiritual power. A'nanda Ma'rga firmly believes that human
life should be based on this inherent moral spiritual force.
Those who possess such crude physical force tried their
utmost to eliminate us. Their days are gone. The crude
mental force which is a product of physical energy is
expressed as vanity or ego. There is nothing more foolish.
You must have observed that when one strikes at vanity it
shatters into pieces. Thus, I advise you to depend upon the
inherent psychic force under all circumstances. I do not say
that you should depend only on the inherent psychic force
because that psychic force itself depends on spiritual
force. This is what intelligent people should do. That is
why we have followed this path from the very beginning. The
small nucleus of an organisation which we first started at
Jamalpur has extended its circumference far beyond the small
frontiers of that small town, and has now spread all over
the world. It has spread to each and every neighbourhood and
is still spreading. Today, you should remember that A'nanda
Ma'rga is not limited to a handful of honest and
intellectual people. Rather, it is trying to rally thousands
of people under the banner of one sublime ideology. I
dedicate A'nanda Ma'rga in this DMC [ Dharma Maha Cakra: a
spiritual gathering during which the Guru delivers, several
discourses ] to all sections of society. Prior to this DMC,
I would only discuss intellectual topics, but from this DMC
onwards I have become a man of the people because I believe
that dharma is the property of the masses, not the exclusive
monopoly of a handful of so-called educated middle class
elite. Dharma belongs to one and all. From this DMC, I
recognise it as the property of the common people.

      Patna, 3 January '79