Against the Gatekeeping of the Mother

Guruji, Guru Garu, Aiya

(from "The Goddess Lives in Upstate New York"):

When I asked Aiya if any of these people were upset at him for printing Śrī Vidyā rituals in Tamil script, he insisted that they were not at all. The one exception was an ochre-robed sannyāsī whom he met later in Madras. Aiya recalls their conversation:

Aiya:
He said to me, “You should never have written this book in Tamil.”
I asked him, “Sir, with all due respect, why not?”
He said, “If people are interested in it they must study Sanskrit.”

Then I told him, “Sir, with all due respect again, you know that Sanskrit is usually only taught to the brāhmaṇa children. And the brāhmaṇa children who grow up will not teach Sanskrit to anybody else. Are you telling me that the Mother is not to be accessible to other people, but exclusively to the brāhmaṇa community?”

He looked at me and wouldn’t answer yes or no. Then I knew that he was still holding onto the notion that the brāhmaṇas were superior and that it should not go to anybody else.

He said, “I don’t care about this, but you should not have written it in Tamil.”

I said, “I beg to differ with you. Because I have written the book, and the reason I have written is that at least five hundred people, to my knowledge, have now been given access to this and are doing the pūjā in their house.”

[He responded,] “How do you know they are doing it right?”

Then I said, “Can I ask you a question? How do I know that you are doing the pūjā right?”

Corinne:
That was very brazen of you.

Aiya:
Right. But my Guruji, he was sitting right next to me. And he always told me, “If you find that somebody is denying knowledge to really interested seekers, you have to stand up. Because for too long this has been going on.”

Aiya went on to assert to the sannyāsī that only the Mother can determine whether or not someone is doing pūjā correctly; it is not for us to judge. Aiya also told him about the promise he gave his guru upon initiation—that he share the vidyā with anyone who wanted to learn. He reasoned, “I don’t think you or anybody else, even the Śaṅkarācārya, has any right to deny me that.”

Apparently the sannyāsī was unmoved, not persuaded by Aiya’s appeal to his Guru, or even the Goddess herself. The fact that Aiya ultimately did not have to heed the sannyāsī’s opinion is, as he sees it, the marvel of his tradition:

“And thank God Hinduism is not organized. If there were a head or any such thing I’d have to listen to him. There’s no such thing. So I told [the sannyāsī], ‘With all due respect, you do what is right and I will do what I think is right. And I will leave everything to my Guru. If there is any mistake, let him tell me to stop and I will stop.’ And Guruji looked at me and sweetly smiled and said, ‘You carry on.’”

[Aiya laughs heartily]