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MURAD AND MALAMITA
Dr.S.V.Raghavan
The topic is very aptly chosen as it underscores
the attitudes the sadhaka has to develop and
maintain throughout his sadhana as an ideal disciple
and as a person who has moved significantly in the
path securing close proximity to the Divine. We also
note that the first type is according to the
classification of disciples by Rev. Babuji Maharaj
while the other one follows the classification of
devotees according to their stage by Rev. Lalaji
sahib.
MURAD
Murad is the ideal disciple who has become the
cynosure of his Master’s eyes. Murad refers to
‘desired object’ or ‘object of love’ and Murid
refers to ‘desirer of object’ according to a Sufi
Glossary. Murid is a person who has decided to
follow a master (‘Murshid’) in the spiritual path.
The term is more often used to mean a novice.
We are aware that the Master has classified
disciples and gurus in His work Sahaj Marg
philosophy (Ref. 1 pg 66) and we get an elaboration
of the same in ‘Types of gurus’ (Ref. 2 pg 448-449).
He mentions five types of disciples out of which the
highest category is the ‘devout disciple’ as per Ref
1 and specified as ‘murad’ in Ref.2. The class
ranked just below the highest one is ‘the earnest
disciple’ as per Ref.1 (called ‘devotee’ in Ref. 2).
The earnest disciple is the one who tries follow in
the steps of the master and tries to copy him. ‘He
starts from the condition of devotee and loves the
Master intensely. He always keeps himself internally
connected with his guru. Men of this type possess
all those qualities that should be present in a
disciple. From among these devotees rarely one or
two acquire the condition of a Murad (devout
disciple). A murad is one who has become the object
of love of his master’(Ref. 2). Such a disciple has
become the focus of his master’s attention. He is
perfectly oriented to his master always and is in
his constant remembrance. The master can not help
remembering such a disciple and is ever restless to
grant him stages on the path. The disciple on his
part is totally resigned to his master’s will in
every respect and has nothing else in view except
the master who is all in all for him.
Master has also mentioned another way to
characterize the disciples following the sages,
namely ‘manmatha’ and ‘gurumatha’ (Ref. 1 p 66), the
former being those who approach the guru with some
particular worldly end in view such as relief from
misery, desire for wealth etc.
They submit to him only so long as they are
hopeful of satisfaction of their desires and quit if
they happen to meet with any disappointment in that
regard. There is no question of obedience or
submission in their case not to talk of surrender.
On the contrary the gurumatha disciples obey the
commands of the master in all matters and try to
submit to his will in all possible ways. Submission
begins with obedience which follows as a consequence
when the seeker is impressed by the great powers of
the master of higher attainments of spirituality.
The murad is then the crest jewel among the
‘gurumatha’ disciples.
We can easily infer that the murad has developed
real faith, shraddha, one of the higher attainments
constituting six sampattis mentioned by the
vedantins. As a matter of fact he would possess in
addition sama, dama, uparathi, ekagra, and samadhan
in their states of maturity. It goes without saying
that he would be endowed with viveka and vairagya
(which result automatically when sham the first
sampatti is practiced) in their mature
manifestation. At this stage he becomes a mumukshu
and Master states (see Ref.3 p 208 below), ‘Little
remains now to be accomplished when a man comes to
this stage except to develop close association with
Absolute Reality or actual merging in the state of
non-entity’. The article ‘Spiritual Training’ (Ref.
3 p 205-214), a correlative study linking the above
states with the knots, may be referred for an in
depth understanding of the above subject. As the
subjects of devotion, faith and surrender have been
exhaustively treated in our literature, I would
merely touch upon their states of exaltation which
ought to find expression in a murad with a view to
recall them to our minds for betterment in our
sadhana.
Taking up devotion first, its finest
manifestation has been given in the following words
by the Master, ‘But then there is the electric fire
as well, which by passes the first two stages
(suppressed smouldering giving out thick smoke and
the second with occasional sparks in it) and appears
only in the final state (a bright burning flame
capable of reducing everything to ashes in a
moment’s time), free from smoke and vapour.---Real
devotion has no tinge of affection in it and goes
hand in hand with enlightenment.—The superfine level
of devotion may be spoken of as total self-
surrender from which awareness of surrender has been
withdrawn by the grace of the Supreme Master’(Ref.1
p 62-3). He bears a love for the master which is
continuous and endowed with intimacy characterized
by Rev. Lalaji as ‘uns’ wherein it is not known what
for such a love is there (Ref. 5 p 161-2).
As regards ‘real genuine faith’ the Master
states, ‘(It) is so firmly established that a man
cannot even for a moment get away from it.
The reasons for this are, however, beyond his
understanding.—It begins to assume the form of self-
surrender’ (Ref.4 p 250). Master speaks of such
faith as an unspeakable virtue beyond the scope of
religion; it is the dauntless courage which leads us
to success, the ubiquitous force which makes our
path smooth and the only thing which solves the
problem of life. Real faith constitutes a lively and
unbreakable link connecting the mortal with the
Immortal and the link is affected through the medium
of the Master who is Himself connected with the
Immortal. This unshakable faith (in the Supreme
Master) which endures despite all the trials and
tribulations one encounters in life leads the
aspirant to the farthest limit of spiritual
attainment. The special will which every aspirant is
encouraged to develop for effective participation in
the Master’s work is rooted in the bedrock of such a
faith.
Considering the mature state of self-surrender
Master states, ‘A man does everything thinking it to
be his Master’s will. The question of right or wrong
does not at all arise in his mind, or it becomes
absolutely certain that by following his Master’s
will he is doing nothing but the right, feeling it
to be his Master’s will’ (Ref.4 p 262). In line with
the above we find Him saying, ‘in surrender the
abhyasi’s will merges into Master’s will.’ (Ref. 2 p
262) In the same vein there is yet another statement
of His, viz. ‘Self-surrender is nothing but a state
of complete resignation to the will of the Master,
with total disregard of self. A permanent stay in
this condition leads to the beginning of negation.’
(Ref.1 p 65) He states further, ‘Surrender is free
from any conscious idea of ego. Everything there
goes on in an automatic way according to the need of
the moment without any previous or after thought.’
(Ref.2 p 484-5)
Master has also stated, ‘Such people (murads) are
rarely found and like wise the Gurus also are rare.
Rev. Lalaji had written to me in one of His letters
that in these days as many ‘murids’ are seen as the
pores of the body, but ‘murads’ are very rare’
(Ref.2 p 449) We need not look beyond the Master
Himself for a murad as he is one in whom Rev. Lalaji
merged.
MALAMITA
Rev.Lalaji in His article, ‘Spiritual journey’
(Ref.5 p 170-4) talks about three stages of devotees
of God, Sant and Sadhu viz., 1) Ayad or Abid 2)
Sufia and 3) Malamita. We need to look at the first
two stages for gaining a proper understanding of the
Malamita stage by means of contrast, though the
topic under consideration is the third one.
People in the first category perform external
prayers, such as, Fasting, Sandhya, Puja etc., and
are busy doing good things like yajna, vrata, daan,
pilgrimage etc. They do not have happiness and bliss
like the Sufis who pay much more attention to
internal sadhana. If, however, an ayad experiences
happiness he moves to the category of the Sufis. The
Abid category do not follow the above said
observances but make others to perform the same and
are Pujaris, another name for Abid. They are not
interested in meditation and internal practices like
Sufi and Sadhu.
The persons in the malamita stage, though they
belong to a category of Sufis, dress like common
people unlike the Sufis in general who wear the
special uniform. The malamitas live like common
people; they perform external worship like the rest
but do not exhibit any miracle and supernatural
things. Nor do they pose as famous persons. They try
their best not to reveal themselves in social
gatherings and among friends. They practice also
internal sadhana with dedication such as dhyana,
dharana and Samadhi step by step.
All their dealings will be like ordinary grihastas
and they try to maintain friendship and
socialization to the extent possible. They also go
by the names, Sufi, Sant, Vali Siddha and Sadhaka.
They are characterized by Ikhlas –a pure intention
without any fluctuating temperament, the inner and
outer being the same without any duplicity. Action
follows words and vice versa. They hide their
identity from the common people copying God in this
respect even as He has hidden Himself from the eyes
of every body though He is present every where.
There is no ahankar in them or any desire for pomp
and show. They have attained the state of Abhudiat,
so highly spoken of by our Master.
In contrast with some saints (fakirs) who believe
that there is none who would deserve more to be
worshipped than them and also prevail upon people to
worship them, the malamitas entertain no such
feelings. They would however willingly assist any
person seeking such assistance on the Path as a
fellow being in the spirit of total dedication,
service, sacrifice and fraternal duty. The feeling
of orthodox gurudom is totally absent in them. This
is despite the presence of all attainments, merits
and qualifications in them to function as masters.
In spite of being complete Jnani they do not think
or act against nature.
Rev. Lalaji mentions in passing another subgroup
in the above category considered as ‘thucch’ (to be
looked down upon as blemished or blameworthy). They
exhibit themselves, though not violating dharma
internally, in such a way that is found normally
objectionable to the common people who are not able
to appreciate the subtlety involved. For instance
they may talk incoherently, shouting like a mad man
and doing several things which would make the common
people think of them derogatively or as ‘thucch’.
They are however much lower in rank amongst the
Sufis and whatever they exhibit is artificial. I
feel that this is the sect called- ‘malamati- (malamat
–blame) or those who follow the path of blame, in
the Ref.6 cited earlier. The followers of the path
of blame believe that blame has a great effect in
making love sincere. It helps in cultivating
humility; also it has the effect of isolating the
devout seekers from the worldly persons who are made
to despise and shun them by their outwardly
offensive behaviour. The Malamitas (apart from the
above group) are however much better because the
common people consider them to be similar to
themselves. This frees the malamitas in an entirely
natural way from feelings of self-conceit, the worst
and toughest of the veils between God and man and
which every seeker has to strive to eliminate by
assiduous sadhana, self-analysis and not the least,
indispensable grace of God.
The above description of malamitas (especially
the highest category among them) reminds us firstly
of the lives of the Masters of the Order and their
close followers. Their life exhibits the 9th
commandment namely ‘live in such a way as to induce
love and piety in others’. It also evokes the
definition of mahatma given by our rev. Master viz.,
‘I would define a Mahatma as the most insignificant
being or rather a neglected figure, beyond all
feelings of greatness, pride or egoism, dwelling
permanently in the state of complete self-negation’
(Ref. 2 p 71-2) If the goal is complete laya avastha
in brahm (through laya avastha in Master) the most
effective means for attaining it is only through
total negation. Our rev. brother KC Narayana states
in ‘Our Spiritual Order’ (Ref. 7 p 96-7), ‘God or
the Ultimate has been viewed and loved from
different angles and accordingly the means were
chosen. The Natural Path is characterized
fundamentally by the principles of cooperation (Pranahuti),
integration and negation. The approach in sadhana of
Dr.KC Varadachari is that integration is a positive
way of looking at negation. We find that Dr KC
Varadachari is unique in reaching the goal of
Negation by extinguishing himself utterly by living
as an intimate of his Master.’
May the Master bless us all with His bounteous
grace so that we assiduously follow in the footsteps
of the Great Masters of the Order through meticulous
sadhana and enthusiastic participation in the
execution of the Divine plan of transformation and
uplifting of human consciousness.
References:
1. Wisdom Unfurled;
2. Silence Speaks – Second Edition May 2007
3.Bodhayanti Parasparam V1, Third Edition, 2003
4. Basic Writings of SriRamchandra, 2008
5. Journey to Infinity, 2008
6. ‘The Kashf al Mahjub’, Ali bin Uthman Hujwiri,
(Eng. Tr. Prof. R.A.Nicholson);
7. Bodhayanti Parasparam V5., 2007
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