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ASPECTS AND POWERS OF THE MOTHER EXPLANATION OF SOME TERMS IN “THE MOTHER”
1. FALSEHOOD AND IGNORANCE
Ignorance means Avidya, the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life that flow from it and all that is natural to the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life. This Ignorance is the result of a movement by which the cosmic Intelligence separated itself from the light of the Supermind (the divine Gnosis) and lost the Truth, ― truth of being, truth of divine consciousness, truth of force and action, truth of Ananda. As a result, instead of a world of integral truth and divine harmony created in the light of the divine Gnosis, we have a world founded on the part truths of an inferior cosmic Intelligence in which all is half-truth, half-error. It is this that some of the ancient thinkers like Shankara, not perceiving the greater Truth- Force behind, stigmatised as Maya and thought to be the highest creative power of the Divine. All in the consciousness of this creation is either limited or else perverted by separation from the integral Light; even the Truth it perceives is only a half-knowledge. Therefore it is called the Ignorance.
Falsehood, on the other hand, is not this Avidya, but an extreme result of it. It is created by an Asuric power which intervenes in this creation and is not only separated from the Truth and therefore limited in knowledge and open to error, but in revolt against the Truth or in the habit of seizing the Truth only to pervert it. This Power, the dark Asuric Shakti or Rakshasic Maya, puts forward its own perverted consciousness as true knowledge and its wilful distortions or reversals of the Truth as the verity of things. It is the powers and personalities of this perverted and perverting consciousness that we call hostile beings, hostile forces. Whenever these perversions created by them out of the stuff of the Ignorance are put forward as the Truth of things, that is the Falsehood, in the Yogic sense, mithyā, moha.
Page – 61 2. POWERS AND APPEARANCES
These are the forces and beings that are interested in maintaining the falsehoods they have created in the world of the Ignorance and in putting them forward as the Truth which men must follow. In India they are termed Asuras, Rakshasas, Pishachas (beings respectively of the mentalised vital, middle vital and lower vital planes) who are in opposition to the Gods, the Powers of Light. These too are Powers, for they too have their cosmic field in which they exercise their function and authority and some of them were once divine Powers (the former gods, pūrve devāÊ, as they are called somewhere in the Mahabharata) who have fallen towards the darkness by revolt against the divine Will behind the cosmos. The word “appearances” refers to the forms they take in order to rule the world, forms often false and always incarnating falsehood, sometimes pseudo-divine.
3. POWERS AND PERSONALITIES
The use of the word Power has already been explained ― it can be applied to whatever or whoever exercises a conscious power in the cosmic field and has authority over the world-movement or some movement in it. But the Four (Maheshwarj, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati.) of whom you speak are also Shaktis, manifestations of different powers of the Supreme Consciousness and Force, the Divine Mother, by which she rules or acts in the universe. And they are at the same time divine personalities; for each is a being who manifests different qualities and personal consciousness-forms of the Godhead. All the greater Gods are in this way personalities of the Divine ― one Consciousness playing in many personalities, ekam sat bahudhā. Even in the human being there are many personalities and not only one, as used formerly to be imagined; for all consciousness can be at once one and multiple. “Powers and Personalities” simply describe different aspects of the same being; a Power is not necessarily impersonal and certainly it is not avyaktam, as you suggest, ― on the contrary, it is a manifestation acting in the worlds of the divine Manifestation.
Page – 62 4. EMANATIONS
Emanations correspond to your description of the Matrikas of whom speak in your letters. An emanation of the Mother is something of her consciousness and power put forth from her which, so long as it is in play, is held in close connection with her and, when its play is no longer required, is withdrawn back into its source, but can always be put out and brought into play once more. But also the detaining thread of connection can be severed or loosened and that which came forth as an emanation can proceed on its way as an independent divine being with its own play in the world. All the Gods can put forth such emanations from their being, identical with them in essence of consciousness and power though not commensurate. In a certain sense the universe itself can be said to be an emanation from the Supreme. In the consciousness of the Sadhak an emanation of the Mother will ordinarily wear the appearance, form and characteristics with which he is familiar.
In a sense the four Powers of the Mother may be called, because of their origin, her Emanations, just as the Gods may be called Emanations of the Divine, but they have a more permanent and fixed character; they are at once independent beings allowed their play by the Adya Shakti and yet portions of the Mother, the Mahashakti, and she can always either manifest through them as separate beings or draw them together as her own various Personalities and hold them in herself, sometimes kept back, sometimes at play, according to her will. In the supramental plane they are always in her and do not act independently but as intimate portions of the supramental Mahashakti and in close union and harmony with each other.
5. GODS
These four Powers are the Mother’s cosmic Godheads, permanent in the world-play; they stand among the greater cosmic Godheads to whom allusion is made when it is said that the Mother as the Mahashakti of this triple world “stands there
Page – 63 (in the Overmind plane) above the Gods”. (Part One, p. 23.) The Gods, as has already been said, are in origin and essence permanent Emanations of the Divine put forth from the Supreme by the Transcendent Mother, the Adya Shakti; in their cosmic action they are Powers and Personalities of the Divine, each with his independent cosmic standing, function and work in the universe. They are not impersonal entities but cosmic Personalities, although they can and do ordinarily veil themselves behind the movement of impersonal forces. But while in the Overmind and the triple world they appear as independent beings, they return in the Supermind into the One and stand there united in a single harmonious action as multiple personalities of the One Person, the Divine Purushottama.
6. PRESENCE
It is intended by the word Presence to indicate the sense and perception of the Divine as a Being, felt as present in one’s existence and consciousness or in relation with it, without the necessity of any further qualification or description. Thus, of the “ineffable Presence” it can only be said that it is there and nothing more can or need be said about it, although at the same time one knows that all is there, personality and impersonality, Power and Light and Ananda and everything else, and that all these flow from that indescribable Presence. The word may be used sometimes in a less absolute sense, but that is always the fundamental significance, ― the essential perception of the essential Presence supporting everything else.
7. THE TRANSCENDENT MOTHER
This is what is termed the Adya Shakti; she is the Supreme Consciousness and Power above the universe and it is by her that all the Gods are manifested, and even the supramental Ishwara comes into manifestation through her ― the supramental Purushottama of whom the Gods are Powers and Personalities. Page – 64 ADYA SHAKTI
Adya Shakti is the original Shakti, therefore, the highest form of the Mother. Only she manifests in a different way according to the plane on which one sees her. 22-7-1933 THE DIVINE MOTHER
The Divine Mother is the Consciousness and Force of the Divine ― which is the Mother of all things.
THE MOTHER AND THE ISHWARA
The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Divine ― or, it may be said, she is the Divine in its consciousness-force. The Ishwara as Lord of the cosmos does come out of the Mother who takes her place beside him as the cosmic Shakti ― the cosmic Ishwara is one aspect of the Divine.
THE DIVINE MOTHER IN THE GITA, THE TANTRA AND THE INTEGRAL YOGA
The Gita does not speak expressly of the Divine Mother; it speaks always of surrender to the Purushottama ― it mentions her only as the Para Prakriti who becomes the Jiva, that is, who manifests the Divine in the multiplicity and through whom all these worlds are created by the Supreme and he himself descends as the Avatar. The Gita follows the Vedantic tradition which leans entirely on the Ishwara aspect of the Divine and speaks little of the Divine Mother because its object is to draw back from world-nature and arrive at the supreme realisation beyond it; the Tantric tradition leans on the Shakti or Ishwari aspect and makes all depend on the Divine Mother because its object is to possess and dominate the world-nature and arrive at the supreme
Page – 65 realisation through it. This Yoga insists on both the aspects; the surrender to the Divine Mother is essential for without it there is no fulfilment of the object of the Yoga.
In regard to the Purushottama the Divine Mother is the supreme divine Consciousness and Power above the worlds, Adya Shakti; she carries the Supreme in herself and manifests the Divine in the Worlds through the Akshara and Kshara. In regard to the Akshara she is the same Para Shakti holding the Purusha immobile in herself and also herself immobile in him at the back of all creation. In regard to the Kshara she is the mobile cosmic Energy manifesting all beings and forces.
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The experience of the Mother being the Supreme is the Tantric experience ― it is one side of the Truth.
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Q: The Tantrics used to invoke Shakti in their Sadhana. Was it the same Force and Consciousness which is in the Mother here ? A: It depends on what they invoked ― it was usually some aspect of the Mother that they called.
THE WORLD-MOTHER
The Ishwari Shakti, divine Conscious-Force and World-Mother becomes a mediatrix between the eternal One and the manifested Many. On one side, by the play of the energies which she brings from the One, she manifests the multiple Divine in the universe, involving and evolving its endless appearances out of her revealing substance; on the other, by the reascending current of the same energies she leads back all towards That from which they have issued so that the soul in its evolutionary manifestation may more and more return towards the Divinity there or here put on
Page – 66 its divine character. There is not in her, although she devises a cosmic mechanism, the character of an inconscient mechanical Executrix which we find in the first physiognomy of Prakriti, the Nature-Force; neither is there that sense of an Unreality, creatrix of illusions, or semi-illusions, which is attached to our first view of Maya. It is at once clear to the experiencing soul that here is a conscious Power of one substance and nature with the Supreme from whom she came. If she seems to have plunged us into the Ignorance and Inconscience in pursuance of a plan we cannot yet interpret, if her forces present themselves as all these ambiguous forces of the universe, yet it becomes visible before long that she is working for the development of the Divine Consciousness in us and that she stands above drawing us to her own higher entity, revealing to us more and more the very essence of the Divine Knowledge, Will and Ananda. Even in the movements of the Ignorance the soul of the seeker becomes aware of her conscious guidance supporting his steps and leading them slowly or swiftly, straight or by many detours out of the darkness into the light of a greater consciousness, out of mortality into immortality, out of evil and suffering towards a highest good and felicity of which as yet his human mind can form only a faint image. Thus her power is at once liberative and dynamic, creative effective, ― creative not only of things as they are, but of things that are to be; for, eliminating the twisted and tangled movements of his lower consciousness made of the stuff of the Ignorance, it rebuilds and new-makes his soul and nature into the substance and forces of a higher divine Nature. [The Synthesis of Yoga (Centenary Edition, 1972), pp. 116-17.]
THE MOTHER AND THE LOWER PRAKRITI
It is a mistake to identify the Mother with the lower Prakriti and its mechanism of forces. Prakriti here is a mechanism only which has been put forth for the working of the evolutionary Ignorance. As the ignorant mental, vital or physical being is not itself the Divine, although it comes from the Divine ― so the mechanism of Prakriti is not the Divine Mother. No doubt something of her
Page – 67 is there in and behind this mechanism maintaining it for the evolutionary purpose; but what she is in herself is not a Shakti of Avidya, but the Divine Consciousness, Power, Light, Para Prakriti to whom we turn for release and the divine fulfilment.
THE COSMIC FORCE OF IGNORANCE AND THE DIVINE MOTHER
There is this much truth that the Cosmic Force works out everything and the Cosmic Spirit (Virat Purusha) supports her action. The Cosmic Force is a Power that works under the conditions of the Ignorance ― it appears as the lower nature and the lower nature makes you do wrong things. The Divine allows the play of these forces so long as you do not yourself want anything better. But if you are a Sadhak, then you do not accept the play of the lower nature, you turn to the Divine Mother instead, and ask her to work through you instead of the lower nature. It is only when you have turned entirely in every part of your being to the Divine Mother and to her alone that the Divine will do all actions through you.
SAGUNA AND NIRGUNA ISHWARA AND THE MOTHER
Nirguna, Saguna are only aspects taken by the Divine in the manifestation. It is the Mother who manifests (creation is only manifestation) the Saguna or the Nirguna Ishwara. 28-6-1933 THE SILENT ATMAN, THE DYNAMIC SELF AND THE MOTHER
The experiences were all right ― but they give only one side of the Divine Truth, that which one attains through the higher mind ― the other side is what one attains through the heart. Above the higher mind these two truths become one. If one realises the silent Atman above, there is no danger, but there is also no transformation, only Moksha, Nirvana. If one realises the
Page – 68 cosmic self, dynamic and active, then one realises all as the Self, all as myself, that self as the Divine, etc. This is all true; but the danger is of the ego catching hold of the “my” in that conception of “all is myself”. For this “myself” is not my personal self but everybody’s self as well as mine. The way to get rid of any such danger is to remember that this Divine is also the Mother, that the personal “I” is a child of the Mother with whom I am one, yet different, her child, servant, instrument. I have said that you should not stop realising the Self as the cosmic consciousness, but should at the same time remember that all this is the Mother. 13-10-1933
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It is possible to go towards the knowledge by beginning with the experience of dissolution in the One, but on condition that you do not stop there, taking it as the highest Truth, but proceed to realise the same One as the Supreme Mother, the Consciousness- Force of the Eternal. If, on the other hand, you approach through the Supreme Mother, she will give you the liberation in the silent One also as well as the realisation of the dynamic One, and form that it is easier to arrive at the Truth in which both are one and inseparable. At the same time, the gulf created by the mind between the Supreme and his manifestation is bridged, and there is no longer a fissure in the truth which makes all incomprehensible.
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It is the Divine who is the Master ― the Self is inactive, it is always a silent witness supporting all things ― that is the static aspect. There is also the dynamic aspect through which the Divine works ― behind that is the Mother. You must not lose sight of that, that it is through the Mother that all things are attained. 1-9-1933
Page – 69 You are seeking for Seif-realisation ― but what is that Self if not the Mother’s self ― There is no other. 29-9-1934 The Self has two aspects, passive and active. In the first it is pure silence, wideness, calm, the inactive Brahman, in the second it is the Cosmic Spirit, universal not individual. One can feel in it union or oneness with the Mother. Intimacy is a feeling of the individual, therefore of the psychic being. 12-10-1934
THE MOTHER’S UNIVERSAL AND PERSONAL PRESENCE
What people mean by the formless svarūpa of the Mother, ― they mean usually her universal aspect. It is when she is experienced as a universal Existence and Power spread through the universe in which and by which all live. When one feels that Presence one begins to feel a universal peace, light, power, bliss without limits ― that is her svarūpa. One meets this more often by rising in consciousness above the head where one is liberated from this limited body consciousness and feels oneself also as something wide, calm, one self with all beings ― free from passion and disturbance in an eternal peace. But it can be felt through the heart also ― then the heart too feels itself wide as the world, pure and blissful, filled with the Mother’s presence. There is also the Mother’s personal and individual presence in the heart which brings immediately love and Bhakti and the sense of a close intimacy and personal oneness. 9-6-1935
FAITH IN THE DIVINE SHAKTI AND THE ISHWARA
The faith in the divine Shakti must be always at the back of our strength and when she becomes manifest, it must be or grow
Page – 70 implicit and complete. There is nothing that is impossible to her who is the conscious Power and universal Goddess all-creative from eternity and armed with the Spirit’s omnipotence. All knowledge, all strengths, all triumph and victory, all skill and works are in her hands and they are full of the treasures of the Spirit and of all perfections and Siddhis. She is Maheshwari, goddess of the supreme knowledge, and brings to us her vision for all kinds and widenesses of truth, her rectitude of the spiritual will, the calm and passion of her supramental largeness, her felicity of illumination: she is Mahakali, goddess of the supreme strength, and with her are all mights and spiritual force and severest austerity of Tapas and swiftness to the battle and the victory and the laughter, the aððahāsya, that makes light of defeat and death and the powers of the ignorance: she is Mahalakshmi, the goddess of the supreme love and delight, and her gifts are the spirit’s grace and the charm and beauty of the Ananda and protection and every divine and human blessing: she is Mahasaraswati, the goddess of divine skill and of the works of the Spirit, and hers is the Yoga that is skill in works, yogaÊ karmasu kauśalam, and the utilities of divine knowledge and the self-application of the spirit to life and the happiness of its harmonies. And in all her powers and forms she carries with her the supreme sense of the masteries of the eternal Ishwari, a rapid and divine capacity for all kinds of action that may be demanded from the instrument, oneness, a participating sympathy, a free identity, with all energies in all beings and therefore a spontaneous and fruitful harmony with all the divine will in the universe. The intimate feeling of her presence and her powers and the satisfied assent of all our being to her workings in and around it is the last perfection of faith in the Shakti.
And behind her is the Ishwara and faith in him is the most central thing in the śraddhā of the integral Yoga. This faith we must have and develop to perfection that all things are the workings under the universal conditions of a supreme self-knowledge and wisdom, that nothing done in us or around us is in vain or without its appointed place and just significance, that all things are possible when the Ishwara as our supreme Self and Spirit takes up the action and that all that has been done before and all
Page – 71 that he will do hereafter was and will be part of his infallible and foreseeing guidance and intended towards the fruition of our Yoga and our perfection and our life work. This faith will be more and more justified as the higher knowledge opens, we shall begin to see the great and small significances that escaped our limited mentality and faith will pass into knowledge. Then we shall see beyond the possibility of doubt that all happens within the working of the one Will and that that will was also wisdom because it develops always the true workings in life of the self and nature. The highest state of the assent, the śraddhā of the being will be when we feel the presence of the Ishwara and feel all our existence and consciousness and thought and will and action in his hand and consent in all things and with every part of our self and nature to the direct and immanent and occupying will of the Spirit. And that highest perfection of the śraddhā will also be the opportunity and perfect foundation of a divine strength: it will base, when complete, the development and manifestation and the works of the luminous supramental Shakti. [The Synthesis of Yoga (Centenary Edition, 1972), pp. 752-53.]
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Q: In “The Mother” you have said that the Mother as the Cosmic Mahashakti determines “all that shall be in this universe and in the terrestrial evolution by what she sees and feels and pours from her, she stands there above the Gods and all her Powers and Personalities are put out in front of her for the action and she sends down emanations of them into these lower worlds to intervene, to govern, to battle and conquer, to lead and turn their cycles, to direct the total and the individual lines of their forces”. ( Part One, p. 23.) Does this imply that the World War or the Bolshevic Revolution or the Satyagraha movement, etc. were in some manner arranged and determined by the Mother ? A: They are incidents in the cosmic plan and so arranged by the
Page – 72 Cosmic Mahashakti and worked out by men under the impulse of the forces of Nature. 1-6-1933 THE MOTHER’S SUPRAMENTAL POWER OF LOVE AND ANANDA
Q: In the “Chandi” (A Tantric scripture forming a part of Markandeya Purana.) the names of the four Cosmic Powers of the Mother ― Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati ― are mentioned along with others, but the name “Radha” is not mentioned. This is a clear proof of the fact that when the “Chandi” was composed the Radha -Power was not manifested to the vision of the saints and that the “Chandi” mentions only the Cosmic Powers of the Mother and not her supramental Powers. In the book “The Mother”, after describing the four Powers of the Mother, you have said: “There are other great Personalities of the Divine Mother, but they were more difficult to bring down and have not stood out in front with so much prominence in the evolution of the earth-spirit. There are among them Presences indispensable for the supramental realisation, ― most of all one who is her Personality of that mysterious and powerful ecstasy and Ananda which flows from a supreme divine Love, the Ananda that alone can heal the gulf between the highest heights of the supramental spirit and the lowest abysses of Matter, the Ananda that holds the key of a wonderful divinest Life and even now supports from its secrecies the work of all the Powers of the universe”. (Part One, pp. 35-36.) Is not the Personality referred to in this passage the Radha -Power which is spoken of as Premamayi Radha, Mahaprana Shakti and Hladini Shakti ? A: Yes; but the images of the Radha-Krishna līlā are taken from the vital world and therefore it is only an inner manifestation
Page – 73 of the Radha-Shakti that is there depicted. That is why she is called Mahaprana Shakti and Hladini Shakti. What is referred to [in the passage quoted] is not this inner form but the full Power of Love and Ananda above. 7-2-1934 THE MOTHER’S POWERS ON ALL PLANES
Q: Does Maheshwari belong to the Intuitive and the Overmind levels ? A: These powers can manifest on all levels from the Overmind to the Physical. 25-8-1933 MANY FORMS OF THE MOTHER’S POWERS
As to the gods, man can build forms which they will accept but these forms too are inspired into man’s mind from the planes to which the god belongs. All creation has the two sides, the formed and the formless, ― the gods too are formless and yet have forms, but a godhead can take many forms, here Maheshwari, there Pallas Athene. Maheshwari herself has many forms in her lesser manifestation, Durga, Uma, Parvati, Chandi, etc. The gods are not limited to human forms ― man also has not always seen them in human forms only.
KRISHNA – MAHAKALI
The Mother in her cosmic power is all things and all divine Personalities, for nothing can be in manifestation except by her and as part of her being. But what was meant in the Visions and Voices (A book by a Sadhak.) was that the Ishwara and the Divine Shakti were one Person or Being in two aspects and it puts forward this vision of
Page – 74 them as Krishna-Mahakali as a great power for the manifestation. 20-10-1936 DURGA
Durga combines the characteristics of Maheshwari and Mahakali to a certain extent, ― there is not much connection with Mahalakshmi. The combination of Krishna and Mahakali is one that has a great power in this Yoga and if the names rise together in your consciousness, it is a good sign. 21-3-1938 *
Durga is the Mother’s power of Protection. 15-4-1933 *
The lion with Durga on it is the symbol of the Divine Consciousness acting through a divinised physical-vital and vital-emotional force.
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The lion is the attribute of the Goddess Durga, the conquering and protecting aspect of the Universal Mother. The Death’s Head is the symbol of the Asura (the adversary of the gods) vanquished and killed by the Divine Power.
MAHAKALI AND KALI
Mahakali and Kali are not the same. Kali is a lesser form. Mahakali in the higher planes appears usually with the golden colour.
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This Kali, Shyama, etc. ― are ordinary forms seen through the
Page – 75 vital; the real Mahakali form whose origin is in the Overmind is not black or dark or terrible but golden of colour and full of beauty, even when formidable to the Asuras. 10-2-1934 *
Q: While praying today I saw the image of Mother Kali. She was black and naked and was standing with her foot on the back of Shiva ― as she is traditionally described. Why is Kali seen in such a form and on what plane is she seen like this ? A: It is in the vital. It is Kali as a destroying Force — a symbol of the Nature Force in the ignorance surrounded by difficulties, wresting and breaking everything in a blind struggle to get through till she finds herself standing with her foot on the Divine itself — then she comes to herself and the struggle and destruction are over. That is the significance of the symbol. 9-2-1934 ACTION OF THE MOTHER’S MAHAKALI POWER
Q: In “The Mother” it is said about the Mahakali power of the Mother that “her hands are outstretched to strike and to succour”. (Part One, p. 29.) What is meant by “strike” here ? A: It expresses her general action in the world. She strikes at the Asuras, she strikes also at everything that has to be got rid of or destroyed, at the obstacles to the Sadhana, etc. I may say that the Mother never uses the Mahakali power in your case nor the Mahakali pressure. 5-6-1936 *
Q: About the Mother’s Mahakali aspect it is said in “The Mother”: “When she is allowed to intervene in
Page – 76 her strength, then in one moment are broken like things without consistence the obstacles that immobilise or the enemies that assail the seeker”. (Part One, p. 29.) How is this intervention of the Mahakali force felt ? A: It is felt as if something swift, sudden, decisive and imperative. When it intervenes, it has a kind of divine or supramental sanction behind it and is like a fiat against which there is no appeal. What is done cannot be reversed or undone. The adverse forces may try, may even touch or invade, but they retire baffled and it is seen as soon as they withdraw that the past ground has remained intact ― it is felt even in the attack. Also the difficulties that were strong before it touched by this fiat lose their power, their verisimilitude destroyed or are weak shadows that come only to flicker and fade away. I say “allowed”, because this supreme action of Mahakali is comparatively rare, the action of the other Powers or a partial action of Mahakali is more common. 24-8-1933 MITRA (A Vedic god.)
Yes, Mitra is rather a combination of two powers [Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati].
THE TOUCH OF MAHASARASWATI
Q: What is the wisdom that brought deeper gyri in the human brain, the perfect septa in the ventricles of the heart and such other details of structure ? Is it the work of Mahasaraswati ? A: Yes ― all perfection in intricacy of detail shows the touch of Mahasaraswati. 19-9-1933 Page – 77 THE PRESENT WORKING OF SADHANA
Q: Is it true that it is mostly the Mahasaraswati aspect of the Mother that works in our Sadhana here ? A: At present since the Sadhana came down to the physical consciousness — or rather it is a combination of Maheshwari – Mahasaraswati forces. 25-8-1933 THE VIBHUTIS OF THE MOTHER
Q: What is the difference in the form of expression or realisation between the Vibhutis of the Ishwara and the Vibhutis of the Mother ? A: The Mother’s Vibhutis would usually be feminine personalities most of whom would be dominated by one of the four personalities of the Mother. The others you mention (Christ, Buddha, Chaitanya, Napoleon, Caesar, etc.) would be personalities and powers of the Ishwara, but in them also, as in all, the Mother’s force would act. All creation and transformation is the work of the Mother. 29-10-1935 *
Q: Since all creation is her work, can it be taken that it is the personalities of the Mother who, behind the veil, prepare the conditions for the descent of the Avatar or Vibhutis ? A: If you mean the divine Personalities of the Mother ― the answer is yes. It may even be said that each Vibhuti draws his energies from the Four, from one of them predominantly in most cases, as Napoleon from Mahakali, Rama from Mahalakshmi, Augustus Caesar from Mahasaraswati. 31-10-1935 Page – 78 CHIT SHAKTI, JIVATMA, SOUL AND EGO
Chit Shakti or Bhagavat Chetana is the Mother ― the Jivatma is a portion of it, the psychic or soul a spark of it. Ego is a perverse reflection of the psychic or the Jivatma. If that is what you mean, it is correct. THE SOUL AND THE DIVINE MOTHER
It is true of every soul on earth that it is a portion of the Divine Mother passing through the experiences of the Ignorance in order to arrive at the truth of its being and be the instrument of a Divine Manifestation and work here.
THE SUPREME MOTHER ― A MANTRA
(The last two words in the English transliteration of this Mantra have been added by the Mother as they were not written by Sri Aurobindo in the original.)
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