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EDITORIAL
“When the path is made, everything else follows. The cars and buses will come. Travellers and pilgrims will come. Resources and facilities will come. Town itself comes into being,” said Krishnananda, a saintly soul from Canada who has made Rishikesh his home. He was of course speaking from personal experience. He had been chastened and illumined with an austere life in Badrinath and other places about the Himalayas. He had shed tears in quest of a Guru and then found one and followed him. In his own way Krishnananda had laid out some paths for the Western seekers who came in search of truth to India.

I reflected upon his words. True, when the path is made, everything else follows, especially so in the larger spiritual context. It’s not as though the Truth does not exist, it always does. But there are no seekers. And there are no seekers because there’s no path. If there were a path, many a man would care to tread upon it.

We have heard it often said, “Had I known about this book about twenty years ago, I wouldn’t have wasted so much of my valuable time pursuing shadows.” Seekers will more than agree with me if I were to say nothing is more important to spiritual seeking than being on the right path and making the best use of time. There would be no irony in noting in this context that more than three quarters of life is spent finding the right path, the walk itself is hardly time-consuming.

The Mother completes one year in Jan-Feb 2013 (with this issue) in the new format! In the year that passed, we were able to treat our readers with words of wisdom primarily from leading saints. Sri Sri Sitaramdas Omkarnath, Raman Maharshi, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Sivananda, Swami Chandrashekharendra Saraswati, Swami Chidananda Saraswati, Swami Praphupada, Swami Satya Saibaba. Swami Ramdas - these have left the body, but their teachings lived on in the pages of The Mother.

We are proud that the wisdom from living Masters like Swami Satyamitrananda Giri of Bharat Mata Mandir, Kinkar Vitthal Ramanuja of Akhil Bharat Jai Guru Sampradaya, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev of Isha Foundation, Swami Chidananda of Paramarth Niketan, Rasanath Dasa of East Village Monastery Manhattan, Chandrabhanu Satpathy of Sai Movement, Yogacharya BKS Iyengar of Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute also blazed forth from the pages of The Mother. All glory to them!

When the path is made, everything else follows. Saints are indeed the pathfinders of spirituality. Self-realised Masters chart out the pathway towards supreme realisation. They are the mahajans (high souls). The Mother repeatedly bows before them.

There’s a verse in the Mahabharata (Vana-parva 313.117) which aptly describes who really is the path-finder, who needs to be followed.
tarko pratisthah srutayo vibhinna
nasav rsir yasya matam na bhinnam
dharmasya tattvam nihitam guhayam
mahajano yena gatah sa panthah
"Dry arguments are inconclusive. A great personality whose opinion does not differ from others is not considered a great sage. Simply by studying the Vedas, which are variegated, one cannot come to the right path by which religious principles are understood. The solid truth of religious principles is hidden in the heart of an unadulterated self-realized person.

Consequently, as the shastras confirm, one should accept whatever progressive path the mahajanas advocate."

The Mother is a journal devoted to the path and the great souls who lay down the path. Many readers have observed that The Mother does not offer much by way of contemporary affairs. Well, it does not.

Though The Mother brings you wisdom of the day, we’re in no way interested in popularising this journal with articles of topical interest. The duty of The Mother is to bring a genuine report of Spirituality, to bring the readers in touch with the precepts of eternal religion, perennial philosophy, enduring spirituality, timeless wisdom and abiding moral laws.

The Rita is majestic and longstanding. The truths of Sanatana Dharma are eternally valid. Adhyatma Jnana is revelatory. As one saint observed, “times may change, ages may roll by, continents may rise and disappear, but values of life like truth, love, compassion, one's duty to mother, father, preceptor and to fellow beings, and the eternal reality of the spirit and unity of all life, are truths and values that subsist and will subsist for ever. These are the eternal values and truths which are embedded in the Vedas and are embodied in the religion that had evolved out of Vedas. These values being of eternal validity and universality, are the justification for the religion that embody them, for being called as Sanatana Dharma, the eternal Dharma, law/religion.”

The Annual Edition of The Mother is now before you. If it reads like a book, instead of a journal, we are only too pleased. Truths which pass with the sands of time are not dear to this journal, let them slip by.

We are never going to delete old articles from The Mother website. You’ll always be able to read old editions. Because the words of mahajanas will never be outdated. They will always bring spiritual illumination and direction. We are carefully including articles which can be read and re-read, so that The Mother is able to assist the readers in going closer to God who pervades the entire creation, who inheres in all the beings and who holds all the creations together.

Enjoy The Year of The Mother Omni edition!

May the Divine Mother always set forth what is revealed to the seers during their transcendental and intuitive communion with the Divine.

Raj Supe (Kinkar Vishwashreyananda)
The Editor