The One Whom We Adore as The Mother

Speaking about her photographs, the Mother had once said:

“…each photo represents a different aspect, sometimes even a different personality of my being; and by concentrating on the photo, one enters into relation with that special aspect or different personality which the photo has captured and whose image it conveys.” (CWM, 16: 232)

As a humble offering on this special occasion of 143rd birthday of the Mother, shared below are a few photographs of Her that for the last few days have been the focus of my concentration. Each of these photos became a means for me to discover a little more of Her and to feel the joy of Her various aspects. Selecting the words to accompany these photos became another opportunity of concentrating on Her and invoking Her Presence. There is a certain rhythm or a flow to the sequence in which each photo and the accompanying passage is presented – something that came spontaneously, but perhaps it too was guided by Her.

With Love for the Mother, offered at Her Lotus Feet.

~ Suhas

“The One whom we adore as the Mother is the divine Conscious Force that dominates all existence, one and yet so many-sided that to follow her movement is impossible even for the quickest mind and for the freest and most vast intelligence. The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Supreme and far above all she creates. But something of her ways can be seen and felt through her embodiments and the more seizable because more defined and limited temperament and action of the goddess forms in whom she consents to be manifest to her creatures.”

~ Sri Aurobindo (CWSA 32:14)

“There are three ways of being of the Mother of which you can become aware when you enter into touch of oneness with the Conscious Force that upholds us and the universe. Transcendent, the original supreme Shakti, she stands above the worlds and links the creation to the ever unmanifest mystery of the Supreme. Universal, the cosmic Mahashakti, she creates all these beings and contains and enters, supports and conducts all these million processes and forces. Individual, she embodies the power of these two vaster ways of her existence, makes them living and near to us and mediates between the human personality and the divine Nature.”

~Sri Aurobindo (CWSA 32:14)

“For the knowledge of the mission, it is difficult to say when it came to me. It is as though I were born with it, and following the growth of the mind and brain, the precision and completeness of this consciousness grew also.”

~ The Mother (CWM 13:38)

“Between 11 and 13 a series of psychic and spiritual experiences revealed to me not only the existence of God but man’s possibility of uniting with Him, of realising Him integrally in consciousness and action, of manifesting Him upon earth in a life divine. This, along with a practical discipline for its fulfilment, was given to me during my body’s sleep by several teachers, some of whom I met afterwards on the physical plane.”

~ The Mother (CWM 13:38)

“Later on, as the interior and exterior development proceeded, the spiritual and psychic relation with one of these beings became more and more clear and frequent; and although I knew little of the Indian philosophies and religions at that time I was led to call him Krishna, and henceforth I was aware that it was with him (whom I knew I should meet on earth one day) that the divine work was to be done.”

~ The Mother (CWM 13:38)

“In the year 1910 my husband came alone to Pondicherry where, under very interesting and peculiar circumstances, he made the acquaintance of Sri Aurobindo. Since then we both strongly wished to return to India — the country which I had always cherished as my true mother-country. And in 1914 this joy was granted to us.
As soon as I saw Sri Aurobindo I recognised in him the well-known being whom I used to call Krishna…. And this is enough to explain why I am fully convinced that my place and my work are near him, in India.”

~ The Mother (CWM 13:38)

“Let Thy Light be in me like a Fire that makes all alive; let Thy divine Love penetrate me. I aspire with all my being for Thy reign as sovereign and master of my mind and heart and body; let them be Thy docile instruments and Thy faithful servitors.”

~ The Mother (CWM 01:03)

“Yesterday I got a letter from the director of the [All India] Radio, in which he said he wanted to make a “spectacular” broadcast on February 21; and at the end, to “crown” the thing, he asked me to give “reminiscences of my life in India”! (Mother laughs) So I’ve prepared my answer….

“The reminiscences will be short. I came to India to meet Sri Aurobindo, I remained in India to live with Sri Aurobindo, when he left his body I continued to live here in order to do his work which is by serving the Truth and enlightening humanity to hasten the rule of the Divine’s Love upon earth.”

There, and that’s that. Period.”

~ The Mother (Agenda 9: 35)

“There is one divine Force which acts in the universe and in the individual and is also beyond the individual and the universe. The Mother stands for all these, but she is working here in the body to bring down something not yet expressed in this material world so as to transform life here — it is so that you should regard her as the Divine Shakti working here for that purpose. She is that in the body, but in her whole consciousness she is also identified with all the other aspects of the Divine.”

~ Sri Aurobindo (CWSA 32: 50)

“Everyone who is turned to the Mother is doing my Yoga. It is a great mistake to suppose that one can “do” the Purna Yoga―i.e. carry out and fulfil all the sides of the Yoga by one’s own effort. No human being can do that. What one has to do is to put oneself in the Mother’s hands and open oneself to her by service, by bhakti, by aspiration; then the Mother by her light and force works in him so that the sadhana is done. It is a mistake also to have the ambition to be a big Purna Yogi or a supramental being and ask oneself how far have I got towards that. The right attitude is to be devoted and given to the Mother and to wish to be whatever she wants you to be. The rest is for the Mother to decide and do in you.”

~ Sri Aurobindo (CWSA 32:152)

“Make of us the hero warriors we aspire to become.
May we fight successfully the great battle of the future that is to be born, against the past that seeks to endure; so that the new things may manifest and we may be ready to receive them.”

~ The Mother (CWM 14:85), 21 February 1958

“The Mother would raise all by a free self-giving of her forces, the sadhakas would realise in themselves her realisations and would by the force of an unfaltering aspiration and a surrender free from narrow personal demand and self-regarding littleness, consecrated wholly to the divine work, return her forces for a new progress.“

~ Sri Aurobindo (CWSA 32:532)

“Always behave as if the Mother was looking at you; because she is, indeed, always present.”

~ Sri Aurobindo