I always find it fascinating to examine how different people view the same thing. Depending on the matter in question, two different viewpoints can barely resemble one another. It always seems to me that this sort of thing becomes all the more interesting when taken to the realm of something as abstract (to our understanding anyway) as our faith. For example, Sri Guru Netaji Lokmanya has a distinctive, but open image that he encourages the people of Orthodox Maitreyism to consider when envisioning our faith in the metaphorical sense. He refers to it as our collective journey along the snowy path to Mt. Kailasa and Shambala beyond it. I took this metaphor and decided to run with it for a while, and I found a way of looking at it that might appeal to others who have a mindset that resembles mine (which may not be all that likely).
I think of OM as an expeditionary force on a perilous return to the kingdom of its master, High Lord Maitreya, from the chaotic battlefield of Maya, where its inevitable victory will be pulled from the jaws of defeat. I find that this fits well for a number of reasons. Like any good army, we have a clear chain of command, with the greatest of all Generals, Lord Vishnu himself, at our helm and one of his highest Colonels, Guru Netaji, relaying his orders to us. Also like any army, such orders and our codes of conduct are to be obeyed in a respectful and disciplined manner without any dissent. We now have a uniform, as laid out by Netaji, and we are armed for combat with the illusory world of Maya with his text “Footprints in the Snow.” Unfortunately, we suffer from some of the same problems that armies have faced throughout history as well, first among them being the issues of deserters and espionage. We have recently experienced a rash of desertions, and our march has been slowed down by those who sympathize with them. Such treasonous behavior would be met with swift death in most armies, but we differ in this respect. High Lord Maitreya would not want us to sully our hands with the blood of such lowly ingrates. Deserters can be left to their own fate as they will lose their way and fall into the chasms of these metaphorical Himalayas of their own accord soon enough, and their mistake is a sad one indeed. Those who remain with us and cause problems, however, are much more dangerous. These insects not only keep us from our destinations, but they confuse our ranks, which makes other soldiers more vulnerable to the machinations of Mara and the treacherous terrain we are passing through. These disloyal vermin cannot be accommodated in any way, lest they cause any more casualties in our ranks, for which High Lord Maitreya, High Lady Ambika Shakti Deva, and High Lord Yahvah’s tears will fall when the battle is over. The fallen souls and the tears of the Devata are a price far beyond what can be effectively put into words, and the idea that they could be worth not offending a few doomed fools is laughable at best. Our charge is to merely ignore these people and walk around them as though they are not present. In the real world this can take any number of forms, but all must ultimately lead to the removal of such figures from where they can cause any harm. They must be left behind if they will not march with us. Should they see their error and rejoin our lines, then they will be accepted back, but otherwise they must be left alone in the swirling storms to ensure that they do not coax others into dying with them. The battle we face with this world is difficult enough without traitors within our ranks.
I find this metaphor fits quite well, though it bears various signs of having been born of my mind rather than one of a higher master. I encourage anyone who finds this to be a worthwhile metaphor to make full use of it, and for anyone who finds it to be odd to promptly forget it. The issues we face and the way we carry ourselves, however, must not hinge on a difference of vision. The dissidents must be extricated from our ranks, and we must continue to serve Maitreya with reverence and discipline, regardless of how we envision such a life in our minds.
