Life’s challenges push us to grow spiritually with an endless parade of surprises. A comedian gets the audience expecting a certain conclusion, but he hits it from an unexpected quarter. So the surprised audience laughs.
Life’s punch lines leave us laughing, or crying. But we’re always left changed in some way.
More often, however, we’re granted less dramatic ways to learn, serve, and thereby grow. “Anita” has an instructive story for us. It shows how a gentle but firm hand can help someone in a spiritual way.
During an ECK service, a chela came to Anita. “A man outside wishes to speak to you,” the chela said.
Anita opened her heart to see how the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ, the Inner Master, wished her to handle an encounter with the fellow. His request for an audience during the service was certainly a surprise. What others did he hold in store? Emboldened by the Master’s presence, she went to find out.
The man spoke freely. It seems he’d been in ECKANKAR forty years ago (the early 1970s) but had gone inactive long since.
Lately, he’d come to HU Chants and was dismayed at the changes. He’d returned to see how the ECKists were doing things. “You don’t even know how to sing HU anymore. The tone is high; you sing it very low. You don’t ask people to put their hands like Paul Twitchell said. Nor do you use Paul’s books anymore. Where is The Spiritual Notebook?”
There were so many changes in ECKANKAR, “Paz” lamented.
When he had stopped to replenish his lungs, she said, “Well, first of all, thank you for coming and sharing your feelings about ECKANKAR. This means you really care about these teachings.”
In regard to the HU, she asked, “Is the HU sung from the mind or the heart?”
“From the heart, of course!”
“Well, each heart has a different tone. Here, in our HU songs, sometimes we sing it high, sometimes low, but always with love.”
She paused, then added, “And you’re very right about the changes. I have been in ECKANKAR almost twenty-four years, and I have seen a lot of changes. Some I liked, some I didn’t like so much. But don’t you think that things have changed in the world over all these years?”
Paz reflected, “Well, yes, that’s true. . . .”
“So,” she said, “ECKANKAR has also had to change, to serve our spiritual needs better.”
Anita had observed how his face and attitude had been lightening during their conversation.
Before taking leave, he said, “I want to thank you so much for listening to me. Another person would have kicked me out of here, and I think I will come again to sing HU.”
She had demonstrated the ECK way to handle a critic of the ECKANKAR practices. Her first instinct had been to ask the Master’s guidance. Thereafter, her ideas and words had come easily, addressing Paz’s concerns in a forthright manner.
A less satisfactory approach in such a situation is to adopt a defensive mode. In some cases, though, it may be the only alternative.
But always declare yourself an instrument of the SUGMAD, the ECK, and the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ, the Living ECK Master.
Life will always serve up surprises. But love for the divine will carry you, each and every time.
—Sri Harold Klemp
Maybe there is a particular question you hope nobody ever asks you about ECKANKAR, because you feel unprepared. Write it down, and in contemplation ask the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ to help you sort out an answer that feels right for you today.
Should you ever be asked that question in daily life, listen for the Master’s guidance in the moment, and speak Soul to Soul. It’s all in the living!
“But love for the divine will carry you, each and every time. ”
-Sri Harold Klemp.
A married couple were talking to me about the meaning of life.
There three years old boy hung onto a toy.
As soon as the conversation turned into ECK,
The child calmly left the toy and walked across the room to sit by my side.
The game of materialism can chill.
Divine love is why I’m here.
One never gets away from divine love.
It is like running away from oneself.
Love of the divine transforms one into a divine being.
A fool for God is not a fool at all.
Without divine love from the MAHANTA all life shall wither away.
HU helps me climb the mountain of divine love.
Thanks to the Holy Spirit that plays Its flute for me.
The Sound of ECK is the Voice of divine love.
It succeeds where material love fails.
Divine love is the philosophy of the ECK Masters.
“The MAHANTA, the Living ECK Master is therefore not a product of modern civilization as many believe.”
-SHARIYAT KI SUGMAD, page 397.
Yesterday, as I sat on the front seat of a commercial bus waiting for it to be filled with passengers, an elderly man showed up and wanted to share the front seat with me. I gladly obliged and shifted to the less comfortable position between the driver and the prime front seat.
Shortly after, the bus Conductor came around asking for the fare. I dipped my hand into my pants pocket to fish out some money. As my fingers searched for the money, the bus Conductor, sounding impatient, aggressively demanded again for the fare, but guess what
The elderly man beside me gently told him: “he is bringing it”!. Instantly, the fellow let me be and turned to other passengers behind us.
Eventually, the seemingly elusive money accepted my fingers’ quest and I fished out a single ‘000 note of our local currency and gave it to the Conductor. Jokingly, I said: “Now, I wait for my change”!. The old man smiled then asked me for directions to a particular area in the metropolis.
Not sure of the exact location, I decided to turn on Google Map in my phone and showed him where the area he sought is located. I was startled by his next question. Who’s the man in that picture in your phone, he asked. Promptly, I said: “my spiritual teacher!”. As I started to highlight the Mahanta’s photo in order to show it to him properly, he said: “he is my teacher too”.
Boy! Was I caught off guard! Surprised, I asked: ‘Are you an Eckist?” “Yes”, he replied. Instantly, that indescribable feeling of peace and comfort after a not so comfortable several hours of hopping around the city in search of “care” for a particular need enveloped me. No need for words as we settled down and waited for the driver to commence the journey.
On the front cover if the “Way of the Initiate”, it is written:
“The world will look for the grace of the Mahanta in you, so let your heart be pure before God, and let your light shine before all”
To which I will like to add: “in small or big things, wherever you find yourself, in whatever you do, whenever”.
Thank you, dear Mahanta
What a beautiful and insightful experience. Thank you Master for sharing.
Several months ago, one of my Eckist friends ask me a question that I didn’t know it’s answer, and don’t know now too! He asked me do you think the earth is the center of univers that God put the Mahanta on it? You know there are existences on the other planets. Have they thire own Mahanta the living ECK Master, or you think, HE is just live on the earth? I try to explained him the difference between the Mahanta and the living Eck Master, but he wants to know this Shariat Ki Sugmad words that says, there is only one Mahanta the living Eck Master in a certain period of time. Do the other creatures that live on the other planets, which may have different physical shape, have thire own living Eck Master? If so, the Shariat sentence…
My friend had some the same questions that I didn’t know the answers. As an Arahata decided to leave these questions aside until the day that I can understand.
Thank you dear Wahz. I love you so much
“In whatever way you sense him, he is always with you.
This is one of the miracles of ECK, to be sure. The fact is that behind the face of every ruler of every plane of God is really the Mahanta, the Living ECK Master. The Mahanta is the ECK and therefore everywhere at once.
This is why every Living ECK Master in history can make the statement, “I am always with you.”
—Sri Harold Klemp, Youth Ask a Modern Prophet about Life, Love and God, page 278.
Thank you D.N. for your answer. I think, this is the meaning and explanation of Mahanta, not the Living ECK Master. The presence of the Mahanta with us in every seconds, as the Holy ECK, is an ancient truth; a loving gift of Sugmad. My friend’s question was about the living ECK Master.
With regards to the comment about the center of the universe, the Shariyat Ki Sugmad states:
“One must set aside all ideas, opinions, theories, and beliefs and look earnestly and intently at the one great principle of ECK, the “I AM.”
Whosoever does this will find himself awakened by the knowledge of the divine Self, that there is no other center of the ECK than himself. “
—Shariyat Ki Sugmad, page 17.
“The Mahanta is never the physical body; the Mahanta uses the physical body. “
—Sri Harold Klemp, The Golden Heart, page 263.
The three aspects of the SUGMAD are different from the Trinity of Christianity and Hinduism, and also different from the Trikaya of Buddhism, since it covers all things in life. The triple aspects are the three bodies of the MAHANTA.
First there is the absolute primordial, the eternal MAHANTA, called the clear Voice of God, which dwells in the heart of the Ocean of Love and Mercy. There is no way to compare this with anything in Christianity, Hinduism, or Buddhism.
Second is the body of glory; the ECK, the Cosmic Spirit, the Sound Current which is in all life, giving existence to all things.
Third is the body of manifestation, the transformation, the historical MAHANTA. This is the Living ECK Master in every age, who is the Eternal One, the bodily manifestation of the SUGMAD.
The historical MAHANTA is the bodily manifestation of the SUGMAD.
The historical MAHANTA is the bodily manifestation of the eternal MAHANTA and is the aspect in which the Divine One becomes incarnate in human form. The historical MAHANTA possesses the same qualities as the Divine One in Its second aspect and manifests them as far as they can be manifested within the limitations of human nature within a definite point of history.
Then with contemplation on this page discover an aspect of the Mahanta’s presence and love that has not been noticed before.
I am grateful for the greater understanding of the Master’s presence. Sound current, Hu, Eck and SUGMAD.
– Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad, p. 33