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Forms, Powers, Personalities and Appearances of the Mother
Nirguna and Saguna (Formless and with Form)
My being rose higher and higher. I saw God’s power of creation, and from there worlds, beings and gods were spreading out. Even God, through this power of creation, was getting expressed as different forms: Saguna, Nirguna, etc. God and this creative power are one; this creative power is his Shakti, the Mother. Is this correct? It is right. There is no difficulty about it. 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 June 1933
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This morning I perceived the Mother both as with Form and as the Formless. Both experiences are correct. What is opposite and incompatible to the mind which thinks by limitations is not so to the Higher Consciousness. Neither Form nor Formlessness is the sole truth by itself excluding the other; the Divine manifests through both, but is bound by neither. 4 September 1933
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My wife wishes to have explicit instructions from the Mother as to which of the following two procedures would be most conducive to her spiritual evolution:
(1) Should she meditate on the Lotus of the Heart and think of Mother as the Light of Lights situated therein, which is the real Bliss, Omnipresent and Omniscient, which supports everything in the universe and which sustains all by giving support and life to every variety of existence? Forms, Powers, Personalities and Appearances
Page – 64 (2) Or should she think of Mother in her present form which she sees during Pranam, as separate from her physically and apart from her in her suite at the Ashram? She has been brought up and moulded spiritually in the first way. She always cognises the Divine as Formless, Immanent and Omnipresent. But now if you advise it, she is willing to worship the Mother in her heart in a personal way. To meditate on the Mother as the formless Divine is a good meditation and can be continued, but for the full effect in this Yoga it is not enough. To meditate on the personality of the Mother in the heart is also necessary —but whether she should do that now or not depends on the feeling in herself —whether she needs it or feels ready for it. 28 May 1935
I see the Mother in various forms but I am unable to understand their meaning. Is it true that she shows herself to us in different forms and aspects? Of course. The Mother has many forms on the supraphysical planes. 12 March 1933
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Sometimes when I see the Mother I feel as if she is the image of divine Ananda and her form looks like that of a young girl. Is there any truth in my feeling? Ananda is not the only thing —there is Knowledge and Power and Love and many other powers of the Divine. As a special experience only it may stand. 30 April 1933
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I can see the Mother in different forms, on every level, in my adhara. I cannot understand what is the purpose of her taking different forms. It is always so —the Mother manifests in many forms according to the need of what has to be done. 29 January 1934
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Adyashakti is the original Shakti, therefore the highest form of the Mother. Only she manifests in a different way according to the plane from which one sees her. 22 July 1933 Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati
Yesterday night I saw Maheshwari above my head, Mahakali in my vital being and Mahalakshmi seated in my mind and heart. Each one radiated a different light from her body. Then I saw a few subtle powers descending into my being. Maheshwari’s natural place is in the higher consciousness above mind, for she is the wideness and largeness and wisdom of the Divine. Mahakali acts most naturally through the higher vital which is the instrument of force and power. Mahalakshmi acts through the heart —in your case at present she is acting through the mind also, though that is less usual —ordinarily it is Mahasaraswati. 31 August 1933
Is Maheshwari on the Intuitive and the Overmind levels? These Powers can manifest on all levels from the Overmind to the Physical. 25 August 1933
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I had a talk with X in which he said that Athena is a form or representation of Maheshwari. Some of my visions of Gods like Shiva were in forms resembling human forms, but I thought this was due to my having seen them on the planes relating to the human mind and so my mind saw them in that way. Before the material creation took place, the vital and mental worlds existed and before that the planes of the higher hemisphere existed. But did the Gods on these planes exist with forms and shapes or did they only exist as impersonal forces without forms?
Page – 66 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 manifestations, Durga, Uma, Parvati, Chandi etc. The Gods are not limited to human forms —man also has not always seen them in human forms only. 1 September 1935
Why is the Mother working in the form of Maheshwari in me? Why is she working so slowly? If she worked in the form of Mahakali, everything troubling me would flee from fear and the Mother’s luminous Sun would rise in me. Mahakali can work only when there is a calm inner being and a resolute will facing without disturbance all the difficulties. When there is not that, then it is only possible for Maheshwari to work in order to bring her calm and wideness into the being. 20 November 1933
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Has anyone here concretely experienced the intense action of Mahakali and successfully come through that? Yes. There is at least one instance in which it was called down by the sadhaka and he met it full. There was a violent action shattering his old sanskaras, attachments etc. into atoms and he came through it all right. 13 January 1934
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
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and Voices1 was that the Ishwara and the Divine Shakti were one Person or Being in two aspects and it puts forward this union of them as Krishna —Mahakali as of great power for the manifestation. 20 October 1936
What is the essential difference between the Mahakali form as described in the Chandi and the Shyama form? These —Kali, Shyama, etc. —are ordinary forms seen through the 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 February 1934
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Sometimes I see the Mother in the form of Mahakali or as the Transcendent and Universal Mother. But I see her in a white colour. I know that Kali is called Shyama because her colour is black, but I saw white. Why is this? Mahakali and Kali are not the same, Kali is a lesser form. Mahakali in the higher planes appears usually with the golden colour. 13 March 1934
While praying today I saw the image of Mother Kali. She was black and naked and standing with her foot on the back of Shiva. Why is Kali seen in such a form and on what plane is she seen like this? It is in the vital. It is Kali as a destroying Force —a symbol of the Nature Force in the ignorance surrounded by difficulties, trampling and breaking everything in a blind struggle to get through till she finds herself standing with her foot on the Divine itself
1 By K. Amrita. Published in Amrita (Pondicherry: Sri Mira Trust, 1995), pp. 49 67.
Page – 68 —then she comes to herself and the struggle and destruction are over. That is the significance of the symbol. 9 February 1934
The lion is the attribute of the Goddess Durga, the conquering and protecting aspect of the Universal Mother. 12 July 1929
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Durga is the Mother’s power of Protection. 15 April 1933
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The lion with Durga on it is the symbol of the Divine Consciousness acting through a divinised physical —vital and vital —material force. November 1933
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What aspect of the Mother’s personality comes out on Prosperity day? Is it something like the goddess Annapurna, who satisfies one’s material needs? I suppose it would be some aspect like that —an aspect of Durga. 2 March 1934
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Your attitude towards any divine manifestation in the Mother’s external consciousness is illuminating, “terrifying not only to the Asuras, but to the sadhaks”. And yet it was only a limited and particular force —the Durga power! Others did not go so far as that, but they found her high, far —away, aloof, severe —asked what was the cause of her displeasure against them. And that comes to the same —to be severe against the Asuras is also to be severe against the sadhaks. A few struck a different note, delight at the greatness of the Power they felt, or, even when feeling nothing of that, a sense of the sudden lifting of obstacles. But that is not the general tone. It follows that the Mother cannot manifest anything in her external material because she has to
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keep on a level with the sadhaks. And what then? If she is not to be allowed to protect herself, the work, the sadhaks, against the attacks of the Asuras on the physical plane —for it is there that there is the whole question, —then what is to be done? what can be done? Nothing. We can only wait for the supramental descent —and that descent is methodical but slow, for the opposition to that too is obstinate in the material Nature. However, we must go on and do what can be done under these difficult conditions. I do not know how far it is wise not to come to pranam, —the results in others have not been brilliant but if it is only for a few days, and you insist, I shall not refuse. The real thing is however a change of the mental attitude —getting out of the world of ideas and feelings built by your mind which is a prison into a freedom and openness to the Divine that would be the most helpful to you. There would soon then be a compass and a rudder. 17 October 1934
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Is Durga a form and name of Mahalakshmi? Recently I heard the name “Durga” repeating itself in me and I felt release from heavy oppression. I am also attracted to the name “Krishna” and sometimes in a semi —sleep condition I find myself repeating “Durga —Mahakali —Krishna”. 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 March 1938
A verse from the Chandi on Mahalakshmi came to me a minute or two after the Mother began to meditate with me. Afterwards the Mother explained that three forms of Mahalakshmi appeared in the meditation in response to my invocation. The first, the Mother said, was the original (Overmental) form of
Page – 70 Mahalakshmi, and the second was the traditional one. About the third, the Mother did not speak fully. The form was threefaced with something like a crown on top. Is there any tradition in India or outside of a three —faced form of Mahalakshmi? And what is the significance of the same goddess —personality of the Mother —Mahalakshmi —appearing in three successive forms? The Mother told you all that she saw about the last form —it disappeared almost immediately. The first form was the true one, that which she wears on the Overmind Plane which is the home of the greater Gods —as soon as it touched your mind, it took the traditional form which is the one with which your mind is familiar. The third shape must be a symbolic one (not traditional) —it would seem to be a correspondent one on the Shakti side to the Trimurti, indicating the unity in difference of three powers in the Cosmic Consciousness —in it is the same manifestation in different forms, —the Overmind Power, the traditional Lakshmi and the One Power in the Mother here. 3 September 1936
Today, immersed in deep meditation, I saw a beautiful chakra opening above my head, and on that chakra two lotuses were blooming and on those lotuses you and the Mother were sitting. After that, I invoked the Mother in my entire being and then I saw Mahasaraswati descending. Why did Mahasaraswati descend at my call and why did the chakra open above my head? It is Mahasaraswati’s work to use the power and light and experiences that come in from above so as to change in detail the whole outer nature. 24 April 1933
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Is it mostly the Mahasaraswati aspect of the Mother that works in our sadhana here?
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At present since the sadhana came down to the physical consciousness —or rather it is a combination of MaheshwariMahasaraswati forces. 25 August 1933
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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? Yes —all perfection in intricacy of detail shows the touch of Mahasaraswati. 19 September 1933
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Sitting in meditation today I saw a river flowing from the higher consciousness level to the heart level in me. On this river was a golden boat and seated in it was Mahasaraswati, travelling down the river in golden and white light. What is the meaning of this? That is the work of Mahasaraswati to move between the higher consciousness and the heart and through them establish the rule of the Truth in all details of the mind and life and physical nature. 7 December 1933
In the Chandi 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
Page – 72 , 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 Forms, Powers, Personalities and Appearances 73 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 other Powers of the universe.” [pp. 23 24] Is not the Personality referred to in this passage the Radha —Power, which is spoken of as Premamayi Radha, Mahaprana Shakti and Hladini Shakti? Yes —but the images of the Radha —Krishna lila are taken from the vital world and therefore it is only a minor manifestation of the Radha Shakti that is there depicted. That is why she is called Mahaprana Shakti and Hladini Shakti. What is referred to is not this minor form, but the full Power of Love and Ananda above. 7 February 1934
You write in The Mother that there are Vibhutis of the powers and personalities of the Ishwara and Vibhutis of the Mother, but that in both cases it is the action of the Grace of the Mother that alone can effect a transformation of the Vibhuti [p. 16]. I would like to know the difference. Take for example Christ, Chaitanya, Ramakrishna, Confucius, Zarathustra, Buddha, Shankara, Mohammed, Alexander, Napoleon —among these well —known figures, which are Vibhutis of the Mother and which are Vibhutis of the Ishwara? And what about the Mother’s action in Avatars like Rama and Krishna? The Mother’s Vibhutis would normally be feminine personalities most of whom would be dominated by one of the four personalities of the Mother. The others you mention would be personalities and powers of the Ishwara, but in them also as in all the Mother’s force would act. I do not quite catch the question about the transformation of the Vibhutis. All creation and transformation is the work of the Mother. 29 October 1935
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Since all creation is the Mother’s 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 Vibhuti? 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 October 1935 Different Appearances of the Mother
When I look at the Mother during the morning pranam, she looks different than in the evening when she walks on the terrace or when I go to see her. Is it only my eyes or does she actually do something? The Mother has not only one appearance, but many at different times. 14 May 1933
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Today while seeing the Mother on the terrace, I clearly saw the Mother’s light and that her height was a bit taller than normal. Was this true? Yes. Many see like that, as if the Mother were taller than her ordinary physical appearance. 29 September 1933
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The Mother has many different personalities and her appearance varies according as one or another predominates. The something common, of course, exists. There is first, the one whom all these personalities manifest but that cannot be expressed in name or word —there is also the supramental personality which from behind the veil presides over the aim of the present manifestation. 9 November 1933
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Page – 74 Why does the Mother appear different at different times, as at Pranam or Prosperity or while giving interviews? Sometimes even anatomical differences are visible. What is the reason for these differences in her appearance? Does it depend on the extent to which she turns outwards? It is rather, I think, dependent on the personality that manifests in front —as she has many personalities and the body is plastic enough to express something of each when it comes forward. 4 December 1933 False Appearances of the Mother
In a dream I saw the Mother and made pranam to her. She was weeping and pitying me in my unfortunate state. But now I feel that the personality to whom I made pranam was not the Mother, but someone disguised as her. It must obviously have been some force taking the form of the Mother —that often happens on the vital plane. Suggestions are given by these disguised forces which have to be rejected as you rejected this one. 7 September 1938
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