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The Universal Mother (Viswajanani), Sri Achyutaand Srikshetra are all dedicated to one objective :service through sacrifice and compassion. Theyare the eternal guides. The principle they adopt is‘adhyatma vidya’ (spiritual knowledge or thescience of soul).

Vedamata Gayatri is Viswajanani. She isalso the almighty Mother Mahalakshmi,Mahasaraswati and Mahakali (Durga). She is theholy river Mandakini and the source of all Vedicand spiritual knowledge. The ChhandogyaUpanishad says whatever exists in this world, allthose are Gayatri Mantra. (Prajna Samachar, May1-15,2011 P.2). The Narada Purana also holds,the wisest man is he, who while doing his dailyduties utters Gayatri Mantra with the Pranava‘Om’: He never fears any circumstance (ibid).Scholars hold ‘Vedas’ to be the ancient. “As inthe Gita, the Bhagabat Purana also does not talkof God having made the ‘Vedas’. The ‘Vedas’are said to have manifested from His heart. Theword used is ‘sputa’ which means a suddenmanifestation of something already existing. Itdoes not refer to a situation where something notalready in existence has been brought into being.Brahma, the first born was the first Rishi, Whocame to know all Veda Mantras. He is madeaware of these by ‘lswara’. He (lswara) gave themthrough his heart. The opening verse of Bhagavata

Universal Mother (Viswajanani),Sri Achyuta and Srikshetra

Dr. Kanhu Charan Sarangi

Purana refers to it, as ‘tene brahmahridayaadikavaye”. (Chandra Sekharendra Saraswati,The Vedas, 1988, P-7). This means that theVeda’s existed when none but the Lord existed.This also means that the ‘Viswa Janani’ in the formof ‘Veda Mata Gayatree’, also existed alongwiththe Lord. The Almighty Father and the AlmightyMother are thus one and inseparable.

Shrikshetra, as the name denotes, is thekingdom of ‘Maa Mahalaxmi’ the almightyMother, and the consort of Lord Sri Jagannath.‘Sri’ stands for the Divine Mother. The temple ofLord Sri Jagannath (within the sacred precinctsof Meghanada Walls) is, therefore, situated in theempire of the Universal Mother (Viswajanani) whois the ‘Force, the Inevitable Word’. In Sabitri,Sri Aurobindo writes.

She is the golden bridge, the wonderful fire.The luminous heart of the unknown is She,A power of silence in the depths of God;She is the Force, the Inevitable Word,

(Savitri, Book-three, Canto-2, P-314)

The almighty Mother, from timeimmemorial is showering Her blessings on thehumanity in particular and the entire creation ingeneral. She is the ‘Vedamata’ (the Divine MotherGayatree), She is the ‘Gomata’ (the DivineMother Kamadhenu in form of all cows). She isthe ‘Bhumata’, our own motherland, and She is

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also the ‘Nijamata’ (our own mother). When thegreat Bhisma, prior to the battle of Mahabharata,was in a dilemma whether he would support hisdearest grandsons the Pandavas, or the royalthrone represented through Duryodhan, heapproached with all devotion his own mother, themost adorable Sacred Ganges (the Divine GangaMata) for an advice. The Divine Mother told him,“Son ! there is no Dukha (sorrow) which mother’spious hands cannot wipe out. However, if youthink that your sorrow is greater and beyond thereach of your mother’s affection, then approachLord Sri Krishna, the ‘Yogeswar’. This was nota mere advice. It was something like showing lightto the right direction. The Divine MotherGangamata represents the Universal Mother. Inthe form of holy river also, her water is consideredto be sacred. Her shore is the best place for‘Tapasya’ (penance). Not to speak of Indiansages, even the Greek scholars like ‘Aristotle’observed meditation on the banks of the holyGanges to conceive the concept of immortality ofthe soul. In Skandha Purana ‘Vaishnava Khanda’it is described that Yuga like ‘Sathya’, month likeKartika, scriptures like ‘Vedas’, sacred place likethe holy banks of river Ganges’ are extremely rarein the human civilization (Prajna Samachar, May1-15, 2011, P.2). Srimad Bhagavatam alsodescribes the glories of the Mother as follows:

Dhatu kamanduijalam tadu rukramasyapadabanejanapabitrataya narendraswardhunyabhunahnabhasi sa patatinimarshti lokatrayam bhagavate visadeva kirti

(Srimad Bhagavatam, VIII-XXI 4)

The water poured from the pot of Brahma(the first born) and hallowed by washing the LotusFeet of the Lord, turned to be heavenlycounterpart of the holy Ganges (Mandakini).Descending on earth from the heavens, like thespotless fame of the Lord, it continues to sanctifythe three worlds to this day. (Tattvavivecani, 472).

Needless to mention that the Divine Mother cutas under the bonds of earthly existence andenlightened Bhisma to follow the right way. Onbeing prayed, Lord Krishna advised Bhisma tofollow the same path, he had been following sofar, as that was his duty at the given hour and theneed of the hour.

The Divine Mother, thus, shows thecorrect path. She develops the quality of fortitudein the devotee ‘the strength not to yield to theopinions of others unless you find them to be rightand the courage to bear criticism and face slander’(Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. XIV, P-297). It is thealmighty Mother who promts the devotee to treadthe path of truth, not getting affected by thechanging process of the ever-changing world.What exactly is truth? Lord Sai has defined thesame as the power or strength ‘which elevates’ itholds forth ideals; it inspires the individuals andthe society. It is the light that illuminates man’spath to God. A life inspired by ‘Truth’ will enableman to live as man not degrade himself, to thestatus of a lower species. (Ibid P.281-282).

The Divine Mother is ‘Prakriti’. Underthe guidance of the Supreme Father, She hascreated this universe of animate and inanimatebeings. The creation is changeable. But theSupreme Lord, the embodiment of the Truth isunchangeable and eternal. The Lord has said toArjuna in the Gita.

mayadhyakshena prakriti suyate sacharacharamhetuna anena kaunteya jagad viparivartate.

(Chapter IX, Verse 10)

Thus, between the Supreme and thecreation, the Divine Mother is the golden bridge.She holds the key of ‘Brahmavidya’, knowingwhich all ignorances vanish.

In the entire world, there is no comparisonto Srikshetra Puri. Among the ancient names of

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Puri the following are important, ‘Antarvedi’,Neeladri, Neelakshetra, Uddiyan Pitha etc.(Dukshishyam Behera, Srikshetra Jijnasa (P-6).Whereas, ‘Sri’ stands for the almighty Mother,Mahalakshmi, Srikshetra refers to a place, visitingwhich the human beings are purged of all theirsins and cross the obstacles caused due to‘adhyatmic, adhibhautika and adhivaidic’ (Ibid)confusions. In chapter 13 of Srimad BhagavadGita, it is described:mahabhutani ahamkarah buddhi avyaktam eva chaindriani dasai ekam cha pancha cha indriyagocharaiccha dvesa sukham dukham sanghata chetana dhrtietat kshetram samasena savikaramudharitam.

(verse 6 and 7).

The Lord says that the five elements, theego, the intellect, the Unmanifest (PrimordialMatter), the ten organs of perception and action,the mind and the five objects of the sense, alsodesire, aversion pleasure, pain, the physical body,consciousness firmness, thus is the kshetra withits evolutes, (Gita, Tattvavivechani, P-551). In thenext five verses the lord enumerates the virtueswhich bank upon the spiritual wisdom. Such asabsence of pride; freedom from hypocrisy; non-violence; forbearance; straightness of body;speech and mind; devout service of the preceptor;internal and external purity; stead-fastness ofmind; and control of body, mind and the senses;absence of attachment and the feeling of minenessin respect of son, wife home etc.; constantequipoise of mind; both in favourable andunfavourable circumstances; unflinching devotionfor the Lord; living in secluded and holy places;finding no attachment in company of men; fixity inself-knowledge and seeing God as the object oftrue knowledge; dispassion towards the objectof enjoyment of this world and the next; ponderingagain and again on the pain and evils inherent inbirth, death, old age and disease. Thus, whenKshetra according to the Gita is our worldly

existence (Ibid PP. 552-554) Srikshetra is aKshetra added with the virtues as cited aboveand as explained in verse 7 to 11 of chapter 13 ofthe Gita.

In simple analysis ‘kshatat trayate itikshetram’ that which saves from injury of all typesis ‘khsetra’. The Skanda Purana defines‘Srikshetra’ as the body of the divine.

Etat kshetra varam chasya vapurbhutam mahatmanahSwayam vapusman yatraste swanama kshyapitam hi tat.

(Utkalkhanda 1/10)

The Kshetra as defined above is the bodyof Paramatma Vishnu. The Lord has assumedHimself the form of this place and has given it Hisname i.e. Purusottam (Srikshetra Jijnasa PP-1-2)

Thus ‘Srikshetra’ is the symbol of boththe almighty Mother and almighty Father, createdwith the nobel objective of bestowing upon theirdevotees compassion and guiding them in the truespirit of divine knowledge. G.C. Tripathy in hisbook, ‘The Cult of Jagannatha and the RegionalTradition of Orissa’ citing from Skanda Puranahas written:

All the males of the world are the formsof Vishnu and all the females, the forms ofLakshmi. There is nothing beyond these two,whether in the race of Gods, human beings oranimals. (PP-55-56)

Professor Sri Sarveswar Dash has alsomade reference to the same in his book Sri-Jagannatha Rahasya. (P.62) Viewed from theabove, it may be humbly stated that there is nodifference between Lord Balabhadra and LordJagannatha. Elsewhere in Puri the LordBalabhadra who is incarnation of Lord Shiva isworshipped as Lord Srilokanatha. Similarly thereis no difference between the almighty MotherMahalakshmi and the almighty Mother Vimala.

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Rudrajamala Tantra describes ‘Odresu VimalaSakti Jagannathstu Bhairavah’. Thus, theSrikshetra-dhiswari is the almighty Mother inwhatever form we may worship her, and Srikshetrasymbolizes forgiveness, tolerance, truth, sacrifice,and compassion. Besides, ‘Srikshetra’wonderfully establishes the unity of all cults, thetrue principle of harmonious existence.

Nearly five hundred years back whenPrataprudra was the ruler of Puri, five greaterudite, Sri Jagannath Das, Sri AchyutanandaDas, Sri Balarama Das, Sri Yasovanta Das andSri Sisu Ananta inspired the wise and pious menof Srikshetra in the path of devotion. Each one ofthem, was wise and great in his own sphere. SriAchyuta among them, who is believed to havetaken birth previously as Sri Sudama in DwaparYuga, Sri Nala in Tretaya Yuga and as SriKrupajala in Sathya Yuga, was a brilliant exponentin all branches of knowledge including that ofastrology. Words are incomprehensible. Theycannot comprehend the incomparable talent thisgreat genius of the soil, Utkal Janani had. Firm,and decisive in his opinion, Sri Achyuta was‘humility personified’. His ‘Bhaja Achyutam’ iscomparable only with Jagadguru Shankar’s‘Mohamudgarah’.

Sri Achyutananda worships the almightyMother Mahalakshmi in the following words:

adisakt yoga sambhuta, sarvada yogarataarupa, ananta, chinmayee, tinipura vandita.

The Divine Mother is worshipped in theheaven, in the world, and in ‘Patala’, the worldbelow. She is eternal, formless, embodiment ofconsciousness, always engrossed in Yoga and isalso born out of Yoga. She is the ancient immortalpower. Sri Achyuta further describes, the almightyMother Mahalakshmi as ‘Abhaya’ i.e. giver offearlessness. She is also, giver of prosperity andsalvation and destroyer of all sins. (Saranapanjara,P-58)

The concept of ‘Viswajanai’ is sometimesequated with the concept of ‘Yogamaya’. ‘Maya’as Swami Vivekananda writes is not a theory forthe explanation of the world. It is simply astatement of facts as they exist — that the verybasis of our being is contradiction, that everywherewe have to move through this tremendouscontradiction, that wherever there is good, theremust also be evil, and wherever there is some evilthere must be some good. Wherever there is life,death must follow as its shadow. And everyonewho smiles will have to weep and vice versa.(Vedanta. Voice of Freedom, P.137). But asDryden writes, “Errors like straws upon surfaceflow; he who would search pearls must divebelow”, the illusion is available only in the surface.One has to cultivate the traits of Mahatma Bhisma,who remained unattached to these contradictionsand was guided by the ‘Omniscient’ to work withpatience and equanimity and maintain his‘Rajadharma’. Swami Vivekananda affirms that :

… the vedantic position is neither pessimism noroptimism. It does not say that the world is evil orgood. It says that our evil is of no less value thanour good, and our good of no more value thanour evil. They are bound together. This is theworld, and knowing this you work with patience.(ibid, 138)

The Lord preached in the Gita, theprinciples of Yoga. The Yoga is the process tosecure freedom from bondage and to attain thestatus of ‘Jivan Mukta’. For a ‘Jivanmukta’ theworld is not a world of illusion. It is the world ofthe Divine Mother, Whose divine benedictionsshow the path of Yoga and equanimity. A.G.Krishna Warrior writes, ‘The Jivanmukta’perceives that both liberation and bondage are ofGod’s making (God in Advaita, Preface viii).Knowing this the liberated man ‘cuts his way, asit were, out of nature to freedom’ (Vedanta, theVoice of Freedom, 138).

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Faith is the ultimate victory of truth andlove. Love for the Almighty and fear for the sinslead one to truth and while marching on the pathof truth, the devotee partakes of the divinepleasure. In this journey, the Divine Mother is thephilosopher and guide. The Lord declares in theGita that He is ‘adhyatma vidya vidyanam’,(Chapter 10, verse 32) (of Science, the Scienceof Soul), ‘Adhyatwavidya’ or Brahmavidya is thatbranch of knowledge “which deals with the self,throws light on the self and enables the soul torealize Brahma easily. All other branches ofknowledge in the world, known or unknown areinferior to ‘Brahmavidya’, for they strengthen thebonds of ignorance rather than break them.Through ‘Brahmavidya’, however, the knot ofignorance is untied for ever and the truth relatingto God is realized. Hence it is superior to all otherbranches of knowledge and that is why the Lorddeclares it to be His ownself (Srimad BhagavadGita, Tattvavivecani, 473). The noblest way toapproach ‘Brahmavidya or adhyatmavidya’ isservice through sacrifice and compassion. It isno exaggeration to say that the ‘adhyatma vidya’is achieved only by the Divine Mother’s gracewho is the embodiment of sacrifice and kindness.

In western literature we find poets likeWordsworth and Shelly also worshipping theWorld Mother. While for Wordsworth the‘Nature’ was the symbol of Universal Mother,for Shelly it was the ‘Intellectual Beauty’. Shellywrites: ‘Thy light alone.., gives grace and truth tolife’s unquiet dream’ The Divine Mother, (herethe Intellectual Beauty) guides the individual soulto realize that it is a part of the universal Soul andwith this realization, it becomes serene and calmand loses all fear. Shelley calls the IntellectualBeauty as ‘Spirit of Beauty that does consecrate’with her own hues all she does shine upon. TheIntellectual Beauty is the ‘Spirit of Beauty’,immaculate and inexpressibly blissful. In queer

contrast to this, stands this transitory world, whichis nothing but a repository of sorrows, failuresand frustrations ‘a vast vale of tears, vacant’ anddesolate’ as Shelly calls it. Everywhere there is agloom and man is a silent onlooker. The Gita alsodescribes this earth as ‘an ocean of death andexistence’ (mrutyu samsar Sagarat, XII, 7), theLord, being the only saviour.

Only when the Divine Mother’s blessingsare achieved through the path of devotion andright action, the Saviour unfurls his‘abhayamudra’. True dedication to the IntellectualBeauty has aroused two attitudes in the poet’smind to fear himself and to love all human kind.Selfishness and egotism are manifestation ofnarrowness and the poet tries to keep them atarm’s length. Thus, the Intellectual Beauty whichis another form of the Universal Mother for thepoet kindles the lamp of mind which makes thisnight of earth (vale of tears) so beautiful by virtueof love, not for any particular individual but forthe whole humanity. (Kenneth Neil Carmeron,Shelly, the Golden Years, 1974, P.242).

Sri Achyutananda was born in a time whenthe modern medical science was not developed,as it is today. He was moved by the sorrow(dukha), grief (shoka) and the disease (roga)which people of the time were suffering from. Tohelp the society and the human civilization fromthe above misfortunes, Sri Achyutananda, theGreat Soul contemplated the Sunya Pothi. Heprayed to Lord Sri Jagannatha for the same andas per the Lord’s directives, the Sunya Pothi wascreated. Besides, Sri Achyuta was a brilliantexponent in the field of astrology. By the God’sgrace he was able to say about the past, presentand future of the people and society,communicating the same through the above SunyaPothi. The purpose was to help those needyhuman beings and purge the society and peopleof their evils, sins and miseries. The entire process

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is ‘adhyatma vidya’ (spiritual knowledge). Theabove self-less service continues as a miraclebeyond the comprehensive reach of modernscience. No self-desire, no attachment, the onlyconcentration is on the Lotus Feet of the Lord,‘padapadma vinu ana asha nahin, AchyutanandaKahai’ (Sharana Panjara, 77).

The Universal Mother (Viswajanani) SriAchyuta and Srikshetra are all dedicated to oneobjective, service through sacrifice andcompassion. They are the eternal guides. Theprinciple they adopt, is adhyatmavidya (spiritualknowledge or the science of soul). The Lord hasheld in the Gita, as earlier discussed, that He is

himself ‘adhyatmavidya vidyanam’ i.e. spiritualknowledge or the science of soul in the realm ofknowledge. Hence all the three divinemanifestations are the eternal chariots, thecharioteer being Lord Sri Krishna, Sri Jagannath,the Pranava ‘Om’ who is the beginning, the middle,and the end of all creations (aham adischamadhyam cha bhutanam anta eva cha) (The Gita,Chapter 10, verse 20.)

Dr. Kanhu Charan Sarangi, Secretary, State InformationCommission, Toshali Plaza, Satya Nagar, Bhubaneswar.

Oh God !Transform me suchThat I would chant

The soulful songs to youReplete with devotion.

Oh God !Transport me unto

Such a worldWhere I would feel you

Manifesting through the voidSans form

And expression.

Dr. Bhagaban Jaysingh, Editor, ‘Sanskrutira Abhinandanika’, “Senapati Bhawan”, Grand Road, Puri - 752001

A PrayerShyam Prakash Senapati

Tr. by Dr. Bhagaban Jaysingh