圣母崇拜
本译文由人工智能辅助工具生成，可能存在不准确之处。如需查阅权威文本，请参考英文原文。
AI-translated. May contain errors. For accurate text, refer to the original English.
中文
我们永远摆脱不了感知中的两个相伴事实——快乐和不快乐——给我们带来痛苦的事物也带来快乐。我们的世界由这两者构成。我们无法摆脱它们；随着生命的每一次脉动，它们就在那里。世界忙于调和这些对立面，圣贤们试图找到这些对立面交织的解答。灼热的痛苦被间歇性的休憩所中断，光芒的闪烁划破黑暗，但只是间歇性的闪烁，反而使阴暗更加深沉。
孩子们天生是乐观主义者，但此后的人生是一场持续的幻灭；没有一个理想能被完全实现，没有一种渴求能被满足。于是他们继续前行，试图解开这个谜，而宗教承担起了这一使命。
在二元论的宗教中，在波斯人那里，有一位上帝和一个撒旦。这通过犹太人传遍了整个欧洲和美洲。几千年前这是一个可行的假设；但现在我们知道，那是站不住脚的。没有什么是绝对的善或绝对的恶；对一个人是善，对另一个人是恶；今天是恶，明天是善，反之亦然……
上帝最初当然是一个部族之神，后来成为众神之神。对于古埃及人和巴比伦人来说，这种（二元的上帝和撒旦的）观念被非常切实地贯彻了。他们的摩洛赫成为众神之神，被俘获的诸神被迫在祂的殿堂中俯首致敬。
然而谜题依旧：谁主宰这个恶？许多人抱着渺茫的希望认为一切都是好的，只是我们不理解。我们在抓住一根稻草，把头埋在沙子里。然而我们都遵循道德，道德的精髓是牺牲——不是我，而是你。然而这与宇宙那位伟大善良的上帝多么矛盾！祂是如此自私，是我们所知最具报复心的存在，带着瘟疫、饥荒和战争！
我们都必须在此生中获得经验。我们可以试图逃避苦涩的经验，但迟早它们会追上我们。我同情那些不面对全貌的人。
吠陀中的摩奴·天王在波斯被转化为阿里曼。于是对这一问题的神话解释已经死去；但问题依然存在，却没有回答，没有解决之道。
但在古老的吠陀赞歌中，有向女神致敬的另一个观念："我是光。我是日月之光；我是那赋予一切众生以生命的气。"这就是后来发展为母亲崇拜的萌芽。母亲崇拜并不意味着父亲和母亲的区别。它所蕴含的第一个观念是能量——我是存在于一切众生之中的力量。
婴儿是一个感觉的人。他不断成长，直到成为一个力量的人。善恶的观念起初并未被分化和发展。不断进步的意识将力量显示为原初的观念。每一步都有阻力和斗争，这就是法则。我们是两者的合力——能量与阻力，内在力量与外在力量。每一个原子都在运作和抵抗，心中的每一个念头亦然。我们所见所知的一切，都不过是这两种力量的合力。
这种关于神的观念是全新的。在吠陀赞歌中，伐楼拿和因陀罗将最珍贵的恩赐和祝福赐予虔信者，这是一种非常人性化的观念，甚至比人本身更加人性化。
这就是新的原则。在一切现象的背后有一种力量。力量在任何地方都是力量，无论它是以恶的形式还是以世界拯救者的形式出现。所以这就是新的观念；旧的观念是人格神。这是"一种宇宙普遍力量"观念的首次展开。 "当鲁德罗欲要毁灭邪恶时，是我为祂张弓"（《梨俱吠陀》十·125，天女赞歌）。
很快，在《薄伽梵歌》（九·19，又十·4-5）中，我们发现："阿周那啊，我既是有（Sat），也是无（Asat），我既是善，也是恶，我是圣者的力量，也是恶人的力量。"但随后讲述者又修补了真理，这一观念又沉睡了。只要善在行善事，我就是善中的力量。
在波斯的宗教中，有撒旦的观念，但在印度，没有撒旦的概念。后来的典籍开始认识到这一新的观念。恶是存在的，这一事实无可回避。宇宙是事实；如果是事实，它就是善与恶的巨大复合体。无论谁统治，都必须统治善与恶。那使我们活着的力量，同样使我们死去。笑与泪是同胞，而这个世界上泪多于笑。谁造了鲜花，谁造了喜马拉雅山？——一位非常善良的上帝。谁造了我的罪孽和软弱？——业、撒旦、自我。结果就是一个跛脚的、独腿的宇宙，自然地，宇宙之神也成了一个独腿的神。
善与恶绝对分离的观点——两种截然分开的存在——使我们成为缺乏同情心的野蛮人。好女人从街头流莺身边跳开。为什么？她在某些方面可能比你好得无可比拟。这种观点在世界上带来了永恒的嫉妒和仇恨，在人与人之间、在好人与相对不那么好或恶的人之间树起了永恒的壁垒。这种野蛮的观点是纯粹的恶，比恶本身还恶。善与恶不是分离的存在，而是善的进化过程，我们将较少善的部分称之为恶。
有些人是圣者，有些人是罪人。太阳平等地照耀善人与恶人。它有任何区别吗？
关于上帝为父的旧观念与上帝主持幸福的甜美概念相连。我们想要否认事实。恶是不存在的，是零。"我"就是恶。而"我"的存在实在太充实了。我是零吗？每一天我都试图发现自己如此，却失败了。
所有这些观念都是试图逃避恶。但我们必须面对它。面对全部！我难道与谁签了合同，只在幸福和善中向上帝献上偏颇的爱，而不在苦难和恶中？
那盏灯，一个人借着它的光伪造文书，另一个人借着它的光为饥荒开出一千美元的支票——灯照耀着两者，不作区分。光不知恶；是你和我让它成为善或恶。
这一观念必须有一个新名字。它被称为"母亲"，因为从字面意义上说，它很久以前起源于一位被尊为女神的女性作者。后来出现了数论（Samkhya），随之一切能量都是女性的。磁铁是静止的，铁屑是活动的。
在印度，一切女性类型中最崇高的是母亲，高于妻子。妻子和孩子可能抛弃一个人，但他的母亲永远不会。母亲始终如一，或者说，她也许爱孩子更多一些。母亲代表着不知交易的无色之爱，永不消亡之爱。谁能拥有这样的爱？——唯有母亲，非子，非女，非妻。 "我是那无处不在而显现的力量。"母亲如是说——她正在化现出这个宇宙，她也正在引出随之而来的毁灭。无需说毁灭只是创造的开端。山顶不过是山谷的起点。
勇敢些，如实面对事实。不要被恶追得满宇宙跑。恶是恶。那又如何？
毕竟，这不过是母亲的游戏。没有什么是严肃的。什么能撼动全能者？是什么使母亲创造了宇宙？她不可能有目标。为什么？因为目标是尚未达到之物。这个创造是为了什么？只是游戏。我们忘记了这一点，便开始争吵和忍受苦难。我们是母亲的玩伴。
看看母亲在抚养婴儿时所承受的苦楚。她享受吗？当然。禁食、祈祷、守护。她爱这一切胜过任何其他事物。为什么？因为没有自私。
快乐会来——好的：谁禁止了？痛苦会来：也欢迎它。一只蚊子坐在公牛的角上；然后它的良心不安了，它说："牛先生，我坐在这里好久了。也许我打扰了你。抱歉，我要飞走了。"但公牛回答说："哦，不，一点也不！把你全家都带来住在我的角上吧；你能对我怎样呢？"
为什么我们不能对苦难也这样说呢？勇敢就是对母亲有信心！ "我是生命，我是死亡。"她的影子就是生与死。她是一切快乐中的快乐。她是一切苦难中的苦难。如果生命来了，那是母亲；如果死亡来了，那是母亲。如果天堂来了，有母亲在。如果地狱来了，那里有母亲；纵身跳入。我们没有信心，我们没有耐心来看到这一点。我们信任街上的陌生人；但宇宙中有一位存在我们从不信任，那就是神。当祂按我们的意愿行事时，我们才信任祂。但终有一天，在一次又一次的打击之下，自以为是的心将会死去。在我们所做的每一件事中，那条自我的蛇都在昂起头来。我们庆幸道路上有那么多荆棘。它们刺击着眼镜蛇的颈冠。
最终将到来的是自我臣服。那时我们将能够把自己交付给母亲。如果苦难来了，欢迎；如果幸福来了，欢迎。然后，当我们达到这种爱时，一切曲折都将变直。对于婆罗门、贱民和狗，都将有同样的视野。除非我们以同等的目光、以无偏的不灭之爱来爱整个宇宙，否则我们将一次又一次地错失。但那时一切都将消失，我们将在一切之中看到同一位无限的、永恒的母亲。
English
The two conjoint facts of perception we can never get rid of are happiness and unhappiness—things which bring us pain also bring pleasure. Our world is made up of these two. We cannot get rid of them; with every pulsation of life they are present. The world is busy trying to reconcile these opposites, sages trying to find solution of this commingling of the opposites. The burning heat of pain is intermitted by flashes of rest, the gleam of light breaking the darkness in intermittent flashes only to make the gloom deeper.
Children are born optimists, but the rest of life is a continuous disillusionment; not one ideal can be fully attained, not one thirst can be quenched. So on they go trying to solve the riddle, and religion has taken up the task.
In religions of dualism, among the Persians, there was a God and a Satan. This through the Jews has gone all over Europe and America. It was a working hypothesis thousands of years ago; but now we know, that is not tenable. There is nothing absolutely good or evil; it is good to one and evil to another, evil today, good tomorrow, and vice versa. . . .
God was first of course a clan-god, then He became God of gods. With ancient Egyptians and Babylonians, this idea (of a dual God and Satan) was very practically carried out. Their Moloch became God of gods and the captured gods were forced to do homage in His temple.
Yet the riddle remains: Who presides over this Evil? Many are hoping against hope that all is good and that we do not understand. We are clutching at a straw, burying our heads in the sand. Yet we all follow morality and the gist of morality is sacrifice—not I but thou. Yet how it clashes with the great good God of the universe! He is so selfish, the most vengeful person that we know, with plagues, famines, war!
We all have to get experiences in this life. We may try to fly bitter experiences, but sooner or later they catch us. And I pity the man who does not face the whole.
Manu Deva of the Vedas, was transformed in Persia as Ahriman. So the mythological explanation of the question was dead; but the question remained, and there was no reply, no solution.
But there was the other idea in the old Vedic hymn to the Goddess: "I am the light. I am the light of the sun and moon; I am the air which animates all beings." This is the germ which afterwards develops into Mother-worship. By Mother-worship is not meant difference between father and mother. The first idea connoted by it is that of energy—I am the power that is in all beings.
The baby is a man of nerves. He goes on and on till he is a man of power. The idea of good and evil was not at first differentiated and developed. An advancing consciousness showed power as the primal idea. Resistance and struggle at every step is the law. We are the resultant of the two—energy and resistance, internal and external power. Every atom is working and resisting every thought in the mind. Everything we see and know is but the resultant of these two forces.
This idea of God is something new. In the Vedic hymns Varuna and Indra shower the choicest gifts and blessings on devotees, a very human idea, more human than man himself.
This is the new principle. There is one power behind all phenomena. Power is power everywhere, whether in the form of evil or as Saviour of the world. So this is the new idea; the old idea was man-god. Here is the first opening out of the idea of one universal power. "I stretch the bows of Rudra when He desires to destroy evil" (Rig-veda, X.125, Devi-Sukta).
Very soon in the Gita (IX.19, also X.4-5) we find, "O Arjuna, I am the Sat and I am the Asat, I am the good and I am the bad, I am the power of saints, I am the power of the wicked." But soon the speaker patches up truth, and the idea goes to sleep. I am power in good so long as it is doing good works.
In the religion of Persia, there was the idea of Satan, but in India, no conception of Satan. Later books began to realise this new idea. Evil exists, and there is no shirking the fact. The universe is a fact; and if a fact, it is a huge composition of good and evil. Whoever rules must rule over good and evil. If that power makes us live, the same makes us die. Laughter and tears are kin, and there are more tears than laughter in this world. Who made flowers, who made the Himalayas?—a very good God. Who made my sins and weaknesses?—karma, Satan, self. The result is a lame, one-legged universe, and naturally the God of the universe, a one-legged God.
The view of the absolute separation of good and evil, two cut and dried and separate existences, makes us brutes of unsympathetic hearts. The good woman jumps aside from the streetwalker. Why? She may be infinitely better than you in some respects. This view brings eternal jealousy and hatred in the world, eternal barrier between man and man, between the good man and the comparatively less good or evil man. Such brutal view is pure evil, more evil than evil itself. Good and evil are not separate existences, but there is an evolution of good, and what is less good we call evil.
Some are saints and some sinners. The sun shines on good and evil alike. Does he make any distinction?
The old idea of the fatherhood of God is connected with the sweet notion of God presiding over happiness. We want to deny facts. Evil is non-existent, is zero. The "I" is evil. And the "I" exists only too much. Am I zero? Every day I try to find myself so and fail.
All these ideas are attempts to fly evil. But we have to face it. Face the whole! Am I under contract to anyone to offer partial love to God only in happiness and good, not in misery and evil?
The lamp by the light of which one forges a name and another writes a cheque for a thousand dollars for famine, shines on both, knows no difference. Light knows no evil; you and I make it good or evil.
This idea must have a new name. It is called Mother, because in a literal sense it began long ago with a feminine writer elevated to a goddess. Then came Samkhya, and with it all energy is female. The magnet is still, the iron filings are active.
The highest of all feminine types in India is mother, higher than wife. Wife and children may desert a man, but his mother never. Mother is the same or loves her child perhaps a little more. Mother represents colourless love that knows no barter, love that never dies. Who can have such love?—only mother, not son, nor daughter, nor wife. "I am the Power that manifests everywhere", says the Mother—she who is bringing out this universe, and She who is bringing forth the following destruction. No need to say that destruction is only the beginning of creation. The top of a hill is only the beginning of a valley.
Be bold, face facts as facts. Do not be chased about the universe by evil. Evils are evils. What of that?
After all, it is only Mother's play. Nothing serious after all. What could move the Almighty? What made Mother create the universe? She could have no goal. Why? Because the goal is something that is not yet attained. What is this creation for? Just fun. We forget this and begin to quarrel and endure misery. We are the playmates of the Mother.
Look at the torture the mother bears in bringing up the baby. Does she enjoy it? Surely. Fasting and praying and watching. She loves it better than anything else. Why? Because there is no selfishness.
Pleasure will come—good: who forbids? Pain will come: welcome that too. A mosquito was sitting on a bull's horn; then his conscience troubled him and he said, "Mr. Bull, I have been sitting here a long time. Perhaps I annoy you. I am sorry, I will go away." But the bull replied, "Oh, no, not at all! Bring your whole family and live on my horn; what can you do to me?"
Why can we not say that to misery? To be brave is to have faith in the Mother! "I am Life, I am Death." She it is whose shadow is life and death. She is the pleasure in all pleasure. She is the misery in all misery. If life comes, it is the Mother; if death comes, it is the Mother. If heaven comes, She is. If hell comes, there is the Mother; plunge in. We have not faith, we have not patience to see this. We trust the man in the street; but there is one being in the universe we never trust and that is God. We trust Him when He works just our way. But the time will come when, getting blow after blow, the self-sufficient mind will die. In everything we do, the serpent ego is rising up. We are glad that there are so many thorns on the path. They strike the hood of the cobra.
Last of all will come self-surrender. Then we shall be able to give ourselves up to the Mother. If misery comes, welcome; if happiness comes, welcome. Then, when we come up to this love, all crooked things shall be straight. There will be the same sight for the Brahmin, the Pariah, and the dog. Until we love the universe with samesightedness, with impartial, undying love, we are missing again and again. But then all will have vanished, and we shall see in all the same infinite eternal Mother.
## Footnotes
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。