Shambhavi reads and riffs on a beautiful teaching from Anandamayi Ma on refuge. God, our own Self, always holds out a hand to us even when we turn away. A podcast from Satsang with Shambhavi
Podcast First Words
Anandamayi Ma said, “For one who knows me, I am one with him. For one who wants to know me, I am very near to him. And for one who does not know me, I am a beggar at the door.”
This has always been one of my favorite Ma teachings, or utterances. “For one who knows me, I am one with him.” This means that if you truly know the guru, or if you truly know the essence of the form of the teacher, then you know God. And then you know yourself. If you truly know the essence of the teacher, then you know your own essence nature, and you know they are one and the same.
You could also say that with respect to the formless. So if you have a full experience of living presence, you know that that is you. You know that it is your own self. So for one who knows, for one who has knowledge of the ultimate, for one who has knowledge of the supreme, for one who has that direct encounter, you know that that is you.
Ma is the first person that I heard the phrase direct realization from—pratyaksha darshana. And then later I found it in some Trika texts, which was kind of interesting. It came at a very fortuitous time.
