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The Mother in Visions, Dreams and Experiences
Seeing the Mother in Visions and Dreams
Recently I notice that before the Mother comes down from the terrace in the evening she stands there for a long time. I feel that at that time she gives us something specially, so I concentrate to receive and feel what she gives. But this evening suddenly I saw (while looking at her) that her physical body disappeared —there was no sign of her body, as if she were not there! Then after a few seconds her figure reappeared. I felt at that moment that she mixed with the ether and became one with all things. Why did I see like this? The Mother makes an invocation or aspiration and stands till the movement is over. Yesterday she passed for some time beyond the sense of the body and it is perhaps this that made you see in that way. 29 August 1932
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The day before yesterday I saw in a dream: The Mother is standing in a high place; before her there is a pillar with the Tulsi plant on it. What does it signify? That she has brought down and planted Bhakti, I suppose. Today while meditating in the Pranam hall before the Mother came down, I saw: From a high place the Mother is coming down in us, wearing a rosy coloured sari and having a “Divine Love” flower in her hair. What does this signify? It is a symbol of the descent of Divine Love. 5 June 1933
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I saw Mother’s form in a dream last night. Was it real or merely an imagination?
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What do you mean by real? It was the form of Mother in a dream experience. Imagination applies only to the waking mind. 3 July 1933
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When I asked whether the form of the Mother in my dream was real or not, I meant: Was it the Mother herself or was it some false forces taking the form of the Mother? If false forces take the form of the Mother, it will be with some bad object. If there is no attack or wrong suggestion, you need not suppose that it is false forces that have done it. Of course it is always possible that something in your own consciousness has constructed a dream about the Mother or put her figure there when she herself was not there. That happens when it is only a dream, a number of ideas and memories etc. of the mind put together and not an experience on another plane. 5 July 1933
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Today while meditating in the Pranam hall before the Mother came down, I saw in meditation: ” The Mother is absorbed in deep concentration.” Why did I see her like that? The Mother is always in a concentrated consciousness in her inner being —so it is quite natural that you should see like that. 5 July 1933
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About the dream of which I wrote yesterday, you have written, “It has a reality and a significance”, but you have not written the significance. Will it be wrong if I ask it? The dream in short was that I saw the Mother standing on a high place, as if on a terrace. At first I could not see her because it was dark, but afterwards she held up a torch directing its rays to her face so I could see her smiling. Then the focus of the light was thrown by her on my face and what happened afterwards I did not remember. The significance is plain —it refers to the difficulty in seeing
Page – 272 the Mother within you because of the darkness in Nature and the Mother herself holds the light first so that you can see her and then so that the light can fall on you —a symbol of self-knowledge. It is a sort of promise for the sadhana. 13 July 1933
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The day before yesterday, just before the Mother came down for her evening walk, I saw: The fire of aspiration is rising from my heart and its flame is slowly going upward as I constantly remember the Mother. Then I saw: The Mother, as we see her every day, is descending in the fire and filling my mind, vital and physical with peace and strength. In the second vision why did I see the Mother’s image exactly as we see her every day? It indicates an aspiration and an action for realisation in the external nature and not only in the inner being. When it is an inner action or action of another plane one can see the Mother in any of her forms, but for realisation in the physical her appropriate form is that which she wears here. 15 July 1933
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Two days back I saw in a dream that I was lying in a bed in a room and the Mother entered with a big rosy coloured horse. Seeing the horse I told the Mother: “Mother, the horse is mad; he will bite me.” The Mother told me: “No, the horse is not mad; he will not bite you.” What is the meaning of this dream? Rose is the colour of psychic love —the horse is dynamic power. So the rosy coloured horse means that the Mother was bringing with her the dynamic power of psychic love. 3 August 1933
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Today while meditating in the Pranam hall I saw: The sky is filled with blue light. From the sky a long path is coming down on earth. The path is beautifully paved. On this path the Mother is slowly and joyfully coming towards the earth. Her whole body is white and full of golden light and this light
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is spreading out on all sides. When the Mother has come to the end of the path, her body will get mixed with the soil of the earth. Then I suddenly woke up from meditation. Was this a vision? What plane was it from? Yes, it is a vision from the plane of mind (not ordinary, but higher mind). It indicates the descent of the Mother with her light of purity and Truth (white and golden) into Matter. 5 August 1933
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This afternoon in a dream I rose up very high and entered a beautiful temple shining with bright white light. In that temple I felt the pressure of the divine consciousness. The Mother and I and others were there. Then at the temple gate I saw red pieces of paper; on each piece was written the name “Mira”. Then X called me and brought me down to Y‘s room to learn a new song. After that, I again went up to the temple by a staircase, but it was a difficult climb. Inside the temple there was the full power of the divine consciousness. What is the meaning of my dream? The temple is the Mother’s consciousness into which you enter by sadhana (as in your other experience described today you entered into the world of the Mother’s consciousness and saw things from there) and you come out of it when you turn to something outward but can ascend again at will once you have been there. 16 September 1933
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I have heard that the colour of Kali is black and she has four hands. But I saw her with only two hands and her colour was bright white. Why did I see her like this? The black Kali form is a manifestation on the vital plane of Mahakali —but Mahakali herself in the Overmind is golden. What you saw was the Mother herself in her body of light with the Mahakali power in her, but not the actual form of Mahakali. 26 September 1933
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Page – 274 Last night I saw in a dream that Light from the Mother’s body was coming down into my body and transforming it. Good —it is the opening of the physical consciousness to the Mother. 30 September 1933
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The bodies I wrote about this morning were like shadowy pictures, not distinct, and seemed to be like stones, not white in colour but black. Why was that? It was probably the subconscient physical that you saw —that would explain the shadowy character; the stone indicates the material Nature. 30 September 1933
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In the afternoon I went to sleep remembering the Mother. After a while I saw that my subtle mind, vital and body had risen up high into a beautiful world, profound and peaceful. Then I saw many saints, sages and Gods tirelessly calling the Mother in their meditations. The joy of that world was truly deep. What a beautiful world! Then I saw the Mother slowly descend into their midst; she had ten arms and a bright white complexion. Suddenly I woke up. But lying quietly on the bed, I realised that my outer mind, life and body were moving inside the Mother’s circle. In this condition I looked at my body and saw that my gross body had a beautiful golden colour. All this time I kept calling the Mother quietly. Is all this true? You seem to have ascended into a plane of the Higher Spiritualised Mind with a descent into it of Maheshwari bringing the power of the Divine Truth. The result in the physical consciousness was a perception of the One Consciousness and Life in all things and an illumination of the cells of the body with the golden light of the higher Truth. October 1933
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While looking at the Mother when she came on the terrace, I suddenly saw in her lap a baby whom I took to be Jesus Christ
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as it resembled his figure. The vision lasted for about a minute and I saw it with open eyes. It may be so —as Jesus was a child of the Divine Mother. 25 November 1933
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I saw the Mother in the colour of the flower we call “Detachment”. Does it have any meaning? It must mean that that was the force which she was offering to you or else which you needed from her. 10 January 1934
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Could a vision of the Mother or seeing her in dream or in waking be called a realisation? That would be an experience rather than a realisation. A realisation would be of the Mother’s presence within, her force doing the work —or of the Peace or Silence everywhere, of universal Love, universal Beauty or Ananda etc. etc. Visions come under the head of experiences, unless they fix themselves and are accompanied by a realisation of which they are as it were the support —e.g. the vision of the Mother always in the heart or above the head etc. 12 March 1934
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Watching the Mother while she was meditating on the terrace, I saw a white light coming down from the sky and passing through the crown of her head. The light was not bright white, but a little blue, like the colour of the flower “Krishna’s Ananda”. The lights represent forces —I suppose you saw some force of Ananda coming down. 2 April 1934
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Today while offering flowers to the Mother, I concentrated with my eyes shut. I saw the Mother’s bright white form amidst a beautiful dazzling light whose colour I cannot describe.
Page – 276 It was the psychic light, I suppose, and the Mother in it. 6 April 1934
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During my noon nap, I was in the Mother’s lap. She put her transforming palm on my head. With her thumb she was pressing the Brahmic centre at the top of my head and opening it; I felt that something was being received from there. Then suddenly there was a shift of the consciousness into some world other than the terrestrial. A supraphysical light was experienced in the cells of the body, which was already flooded with the light. The physical itself was taken up. Can this experience be explained? There is nothing to explain. It was what you describe. At once the raising of the consciousness to a higher plane and the descent of that into the physical. 5 September 1934
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X told us today that on the Puja day the Mother was trying to bring down the personality of Durga. There was no trying —it came down. When I came for Pranam, the Mother’s grandeur and magnificent appearance made me feel that she was Durga herself. I don’t know whether such a feeling arose out of the association with the Puja on that day, or quite independently of it. But one cannot take such feelings seriously (perhaps you will rebuke me for saying that) . . . All that is the silliness of the physical mind which thinks itself very clever in explaining away the inner feeling or perception. because these feelings are so vague, abstract and momentary! What else do you expect the first touches to be? It is difficult to distinguish the borderline between imagination, intuition and feelings unless they are substantiated by
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something like a concrete vision. To give you one instance: I heard as if the Goddess Bhagawati were telling me, “I am coming” and many other things which I don’t remember now. These things are at least a proof that the inner mind and vital are trying to open to supraphysical things. But if you belittle it at once the moment it starts how can it ever develop? 26 October 1934
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I had a dream in which the Mother seemed to be ill. Once when she smiled, I imagined that I saw all the worlds in her mouth, as Yashoda saw them in Krishna’s mouth. Immediately after this, I felt myself being lifted up above the world and looking at it as a witness. But the sense of the Mother being ill made me wonder if it was really her or someone else —some other influence. I don’t think it was another influence. It reads like a very genuine experience. 19 June 1935
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The other day while I was having a nap in the afternoon, I had a vision of a very beautiful woman (pardon me, more than a woman) sitting under the sun. The rays of the sun were either surrounding her or were emanating from her body —I can’t precisely say which. The appearance and dress seemed to be European. It is not a woman. A woman does not radiate and is not surrounded by rays either. Probably a Sun Goddess or a Shakti of the inner Light, one of the Mother’s Powers. 20 December 1935
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Just yesterday you wrote to me, “The next step is to be conscious in the samadhi” and today it actually took place. A great Holy Woman had come. Several of us went for her darshan. When my turn came, without looking at her face, I threw myself on her lap. She put her hands on my head, caressed me slowly, and gave me two spiritual powers. After a while,
Page – 278 I raised my head and looked at the Holy Woman. Her face appeared like the Mother’s. Then I said, “May I ask you a question?” She did not seem to like this, but as she had not refused, I repeated the question. She said, “No, I don’t like questions.” Then we entered into a trance together. After a long time we both came back to consciousness. This whole thing is beyond my understanding. Please tell me: (1) Who was the Holy Woman? (2) Why did she grant me the gift of higher powers? (3) A trance within a trance? Obviously the Holy Woman was the Mother herself in a supraphysical form. It was natural that she should not like questions —the Mother does not like mental questions very much at any time and least of all when she is giving meditation as she was doing in this experience. It is rather funny to ask “why” (your eternal why) higher powers should be given. People do not question the gifts of the Shakti or demand reasons for her giving them, they are only too glad to get them. Trance within trance of course, since your sadhana was going on in the trance, according to the ways of trance. It is also in this way that it can go on in conscious sleep. 10 June 1936
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Some months ago in a vision, I offered the Mother three flowers of “Divine Love”. Has this any meaning for my sadhana? It is not quite clear what this number 3 means in this connection. Possibly it is the aspiration for the Divine’s love in the three parts of the being. 12 July 1936
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The lotus you saw above the Mother’s head was the highest centre of the embodied consciousness (where it communicates with the higher Truth) fully open with the golden light of the divine Truth pouring upon it and filling it. It is that full opening which the Mother was bringing down and which has to happen eventually in the sadhak. 23 July 1936
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Once in a vision I saw the Mother in the physical dressed in a red sari. What does it mean? Simply the presence of the Mother in the physical consciousness. Red is the colour of the physical. September 1936
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I see a rough rock. Sunlight falls upon it and the rock changes: in the centre a hollow circle is made and rocks arrange themselves round the circle. In the centre of the circle appears a stone image of Shiva nearly two feet high. Afterwards, out of this image the Mother emerges. She is in meditation. The sunlight falls just behind the Mother’s body. What does it signify? Rocks = the physical (most material) being. An opening in the material making room for the formation of the spiritual consciousness there. Stone image of Shiva = the realisation of the silent Self or Brahman there (peace, silence, wideness of the Infinite, purity of the witness Purusha). Out of this silence emerges the Divine Shakti concentrated for the transformation of the material. Sunlight = Light of Truth. 12 October 1936
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Whenever I have seen snakes in dream or anywhere else, I have had to go through many difficulties, so I have always believed that seeing snakes is not very auspicious. Is this true? Serpents are energies —those of the vital are usually evil forces and it is these that are usually seen by people. But favourable or divine forces are also imaged in that form —e.g., the Kundalini Shakti is imaged in the form of a serpent. Serpents turning over or round the Mother’s head would rather recall the Shivamurti and would mean numberless energies all finally gathered up into one infinite energy of which they are the aspects. 28 October 1936
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Page – 280 Once I saw the Mother sitting on the peak of an icy mountain; a narrow path led there and I was gradually advancing towards that. This is simply a symbol of the purity and silence of the higher consciousness which has to be reached by the path of sadhana. The narrowness symbolises the difficulty because one has not to slip to one side or the other, but go straight. 7 December 1936
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I saw the Mother sitting on her seat. There was a cobra behind her with many hoods covering the Mother’s head. The cobra was a shining golden colour with a shining red round spot in the centre of each hood. What did it signify? The cobra is an emblem of Nature —Energy —golden = the higher Truth —Nature —many hoods = many powers. Red is probably a sign of Mahakali power. The cobra covering the head with its hoods is a symbol of sovereignty. 23 January 1937
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Two years before I came here I had a vision one night: High above in the sky I saw two dark blue feet. So far as I remember they were adorned only with anklets. The soles were the colour of the red lotus. I concluded they were the Mother’s lotus feet because that is how I felt and immediately saw a spotted cloth that is used in India in the Mother’s worship descending from Her right side. Who could be this Mother? There is here a general symbolism in the details of the figure, but it is clearly the same experience [as in the next two visions] at its first stage in the first contact. The same night or the next, I had another vision. In front of me I saw a pure white staircase; it went up for countless steps until the top of it got lost in the sky. A white figure in a pure white gown (European style) rapidly descended the upper part of the stairs and, taking her stand on the staircase, opened her arms to me. Who was this Mother?
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Here and in the next it is obviously the Mother here. The staircase is a very usual symbol seen by many and it meant the acceptance and call to the ascent. A third experience I had when I came here for the first time. One night I heard something descending with a revolving motion above my head. No sooner did I hear the sound than I saw a smaller image of the above white Lady entering into me from above and stopping somewhere in the heart region. Who is this Power and Personality? How is she related to the second, the second to the first and all the three to you? How can I be true to her and to you? By self —opening and an increasing self —giving to the Divine. All these are visions of the Mother and it agrees with what she felt when she first saw you. 22 March 1938
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Yesterday night in a dream I was in a garden —it was night perhaps; there was not much light. I was there with some other sadhaks and we were there to meditate with the Mother. I could not see Mother but I knew she was there, high up, waiting to give us meditation. But some of the sadhaks were careless, some were yawning, some were lying down. I was trying to meditate and I felt Mother’s hand come down and touch my forehead for about a minute. Then I felt something in me being drawn up through my whole body as she slowly drew her hand back, and I felt something being taken away. But when I woke up, I did not know if it was a good or bad thing Mother took away. What was it? It was certainly a true dream of the lower vital or perhaps subtle physical plane, where the laziness, indifference, frivolity of the sadhaks is a fact and the chief obstacle to the supramental descent into Matter. Because in your inner physical you were sincere and aspiring, the Mother’s blessing came upon you and removed something there that was in the way. There is no indication in the dream as to what it was, but something in the lower vital or physical connected with this general defect.
Page – 282 Developing the Ability to See the Mother
Mother said she would try to make you see her because it is not always easy for people to see her even when she is near them. It is also easier to see with eyes shut than with eyes open —though this too is possible —because it is a sight within you that has to open in order to see her. It is not necessary to call her for any fixed number of hours. It is enough if you love her always, remember her often, sit every day a little time before her photograph and call her. You must never doubt that Mother loves you and you need never weep for that, for her feelings towards you cannot and will not change. Of course you can take the photographs given to you by the Mother and keep them with you there. 7 May 1935
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It is not that because the Mother loves you she can show herself to your physical eyes at a distance. The physical eyes of men are not made so as to see in that way. It becomes possible only after long sadhana. First one sees with the eyes closed, because that is easier. When one is accustomed to see with the eyes closed, then afterwards it becomes more possible to see with the eyes open. So you should not be too eager to see at once in the more difficult way. It will come in the end, if you want it, but it does not come at once. Don’t mind if it takes time. You must grow first more and more able to feel the Mother near you; that you can do by thinking of her and calling her often. Then seeing will be more easy. 8 May 1935
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Do not mind about the time that it will take —one can’t fix the time of these things beforehand. When you feel the Mother’s presence more and more, when you begin to see her with the inner sight, then it can come. It is better not to speak of the Mother to your friends —they do not know her, therefore they can take no interest in her.
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The more you live close to the Mother in yourself, the less you will need to speak of her to others. 9 May 1935
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To see you must be more quiet within —then after a little the sight begins to come. An inner sight opens, one begins to see what the outward senses cannot see —and it is then possible to see the Mother there.
Experiences of the Mother and Her Powers
In the morning I was feeling that the mind is quite empty. In the afternoon I saw an intense compact golden light there in front, at some distance outside the mind. The golden light is the promise of the higher knowledge. For the coming of that knowledge the silence of the frontal exterior mind is necessary. Today I felt that a part of the mind is or can be always open to the higher light, but realisation has to depend on what comes from below and accordingly change in its character and intensity. Remaining for some time in this condition is like seeing the Divine, now apparent in so many things and movements. I understood how it is to be done, but a long time is necessary in order to be established in this consciousness which has no end. Rising higher also becomes a part of this movement. I feel that all will be done, only time is needed for fixing the new consciousness. Very good. All that you write on this page is entirely sound and accurate; it shows that you are getting the true knowledge. Most in fact of the day’s experiences are signs of the true consciousness coming. The Mother’s consciousness with the wideness of the light, the white light in the vital, the golden light in the silence of the outer mind, the change in the vital, the quiet and natural trust and confidence are all signs and circumstances of this opening to the true consciousness. As you say, there must be established
Page – 284 the fixing of this consciousness. The constant openness of part of the mind to the higher light will bring the silence of the whole mind and it is in the silent mind that the true knowledge will come —and indeed it has begun already to come. The change you note in the vital must also continue. 26 March 1930
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I remember that formerly at night I became conscious of the mind rising upward and then I saw many points all around rising up with aspiration, as if each point was aspiring in a different light that was guided by the Mother. Nowadays I think that if there is one aspiration, there will be constant contact. Yes —one aspiration to live in the Mother’s light and force which bring the true knowledge and the true power. If that aspiration is fulfilled, then all else needed can be fulfilled —all the other lights can be contained in the Divine Light. 17 February 1931
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Today in meditation my entire body opened and spread out infinitely. I felt a slight uneasiness at first, but I could feel the Mother’s force. It carried me deeper and deeper into dense darkness through immense worlds of disgust and depression. Though I felt no peace and joy on this long journey, I continued to walk steadily and swiftly. Someone seemed to say, “Do not be depressed. Walk on, proceed. You have to cross through still darker worlds of disgust and depression, but keep on going.” Along with this experience, I felt a great force. My heart opened wide; peace and profound contentment descended into it and I saw white light playing everywhere. Crossing another dark world, I saw a vibrant golden light. How powerful and beautiful that golden light was! My body, mind and heart were satisfied. I felt a sense of fearlessness. A sadhak’s life is like the life of a warrior. However long the struggle, whatever the obstacles, we will ascend to the Supreme Truth. Is this the right way to observe my problems and difficulties? Yes, that is the attitude you have to keep. If it is kept, then
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there will be no disturbance or only a superficial unease. The experience itself was that of the descent of the Mother’s light of Divine Consciousness into domains of being which are ignorant or inconscient and obscure. The Mother herself has descended into these domains and moved through them to bring light there. 10 September 1933
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This morning during my meditation before the Mother, a very tender feeling rose from within me. She was sitting before us with an ocean of compassion and love which she wants to give away unconditionally and without reserve. But we cannot receive it; and instead of reproaching ourselves for our inability, we put the blame on the Mother, pouring our venom on her which she swallows and offers back to us as Amrita in return. This experience brought me a mixed feeling of peaceful silence, self —reproach and a touch of sadness. It has remained with me all day, but now I apprehend a reaction; for usually my experiences recede, leaving me with depression or emptiness. What you felt was an opening of the psychic being in your heart and the perceptions that came to you were perfectly true. The reaction you speak of does often come after an experience. But if the depression can be avoided, emptiness does not matter. Up to a certain stage the nature needs after an experience a quiescent period to assimilate experience. One has then not to be depressed but to remain quiet waiting and aspiring for more experience, more opening, a more continuous flow of the truth. 5 September 1934
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Yesterday the whole day I felt an opening far above the head and there the individual Mother became wide and active. I felt the play of various ideas and forces and I felt her assurance that she would manifest in me. But also the intensity led to nervous disturbances. The pressure in my head —nerves was almost unbearable, and even today some disturbance in the physical is there. Is it due to some mistake I have made?
Page – 286 The Mother “manifesting” in you is an ambiguous expression —it is the Mother’s consciousness, the higher consciousness with the light, strength that has to come down in each sadhak, with the Mother’s presence always there. Along with this experience there must have been an attempt at surrender or an initial answer in the lower vital, but as a reaction the nervous disturbance came back —the old lower vital nature not being ready to give up possession reasserted its disturbances which were about to abate. 6 November 1934
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Sometimes when I sit in meditation, I find that instead of myself, the Mother is sitting. Even my body seems to be that. Pray let me know what it means. Probably you became aware of some part of your being which feels united with the Mother. 24 August 1935
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From the morning I was feeling an intense aspiration to get lost in the Mother’s consciousness. Then I felt my consciousness frequently rising and stationing itself above. Before Pranam I felt as if even the parts near the navel and below were being drawn upwards. After Pranam I experienced for some time a different kind of atmosphere almost concretely around me, so I imagined that the Mother may have put a strong spiritual influence on my subconscient and environmental consciousness. It is very good. You are right about the subconscient and environmental, —for it is there that the influence must fall so that the consciousness may go upward and spread itself out widely in a free peace, light and joy connecting them down to the subconscient with the higher consciousness. It is then that the loss of the ego in the Mother’s consciousness becomes possible. 25 September 1935
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Over my head I see a plane of infinite and eternal Peace. The Mother is the Queen of this plane. From there I feel a ceaseless
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flow coming down towards me. It first touches the higher being and then the lower parts. When they are prepared, the Peace or silence descends like a current of water which passes through the Brahmic hole. That is quite correct. In many however it descends in a mass through the whole head and not in a current through the Brahmic hole. 13 February 1936
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The experience of a concrete presence of the Mother in the photograph and the immediate effect on the health are things of the subtle physical acting on the physical mind and body —such things can happen only when the physical consciousness has begun to open —that is why I said it was a sign. Of course the full effects of the spiritual experiences can only come when the whole consciousness is entirely open and receives and responds to them. The presence of the Mother in all can be felt when one begins to have the widening of the consciousness in which it is not shut up in the personal self and the body but is extended everywhere. That comes usually with the descent of the higher consciousness from above. But one can also feel a beginning of it through the opening of the psychic. Then of course anger and jealousy do not remain —they fall away from the sense of spiritual oneness. 3 May 1936
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X told me that she was in constant touch with the Divine Mother long before she came to Pondicherry. She saw her not only in meditation or vision but before her wide —awake eyes, in a concrete form. She often conversed with her; especially when some difficulty arose, the Mother would come and tell her what to do. If what she says is correct, she must be a very advanced sadhika. How much truth do you find in her experiences and visions? She has not related them to us. But there is nothing improbable in it. It means simply that she externalised her inner vision and experience so as to see through the physical eyes also, but it was
Page – 288 the inner vision that saw and the inner hearing that heard, not the physical sight or hearing. That is common enough. It does not indicate an “advanced” sadhana, whatever that phrase may mean, but only a special faculty. I have heard that there are people here who feel the Mother’s presence or open directly to her inner knowledge. But this is not the same as seeing her with the physical eyes or having conversations with her. These things are extremely common among those who practise Yoga everywhere. In the Asram the sadhaks are too intelligent, sceptical and matter of fact to have much of that kind of experience. Even those who might develop it are repressed by the outward —mindedness and physical —mindedness that dominates the atmosphere. 2 July 1936
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The experience you had in your sleep was that of going into the vital world and meeting there one of the hostile vital beings who wished to menace or attack you, but could not attack you because of your call on the Mother. There are two things that must be acquired in these passages through the vital world —first this immediate call on the Mother’s protection and, second, the throwing away of all fear. To those who do not fear them, these beings or forces can do nothing —in any meeting or conflict with them the Mother’s name is a sure protection even if some fear should come. The other experience was due to your mind dwelling in the state of the Mother’s constant presence and its results. What you say is true, about these results, but it is not easy for the mind or vital or physical consciousness to get or keep the Mother’s conscious presence —it is only the psychic that keeps it easily. So the thought brought down a pressure from above and a concentration within in the heart with a healing there and a pain of the yearning within followed by its sweetness. This pain is that of the psychic sorrow or perhaps rather of the psycho —vital
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sorrow and yearning —for the psychic sorrow itself is usually sweet and not painful. 2 August 1936
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Nowadays I get an inspiration to see all in the Mother and the Mother in all —to see the Vishwarupa in her as Yashoda saw it in Sri Krishna. Will I ever be able to have this vision? To see all in the Mother and the Mother in all is a necessary experience in the Yoga. There is no reason why it should not happen. 29 April 1937
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Kindly let me know the significance of my frequently coming to the Mother on the vital plane. I suppose the meeting was sometimes on the supraphysical plane. Did my vital come to the Mother for refreshing its energy, for purification, etc.? This kind of vital coming to the Mother all the sadhaks have in their sleep and dreams, if they are a little conscious there. Even those who are not sadhaks or others who do not know her come, but they are not aware of it. The vital plane is a supraphysical plane —the vital moves about in its own plane and is not limited by the physical mind or its consciousness or experience. 13 July 1937
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Kindly enlighten me as to what is the object and what the result of my coming to the Mother on the vital plane during sleep or dream. It may be for any object or without any specific object —there is no rule in such matters. 14 July 1937
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This morning I saw within me a flash of golden light and felt the vivid presence of the Mother. I felt myself to be within her. I felt all to be within me and this “me” was something wider than I as a man.
Page – 290 To have that is very important —to get into something wider than the I as a man —into one’s own cosmic Self and universal consciousness —in the Mother.
In the morning at Pranam while putting my head in the Mother’s lap, I heard some voice. I felt it to be the Mother’s. Did she really speak or was it an illusion? It may have been that the Mother conveyed something to you. At this moment she does not remember. 27 April 1933
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When is one said to be ready to hear the Mother’s voice from within? When one has equality, discrimination and sufficient Yogic experience —otherwise any voice may be mistaken for the Mother’s. Can one rely solely upon the voice from within from the beginning? If it is the Mother’s voice; but you have to be sure of that. 7 July 1933
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Is it true that when one tries to do something which is contrary to the Divine’s Will, the Mother tells him inwardly not to do it? It is the discriminating mind or the psychic that tells. Is it true that to hear the Mother’s voice inwardly and to recognise it as hers is not difficult? No, to hear and recognise the Mother’s voice within is not so easy
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Is one who has gone far on the path able to hear her voice? There is no rule. 8 July 1933
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In Bases of Yoga one reads: “It is with the Mother who is always with you and in you that you converse.”1 Could you tell me briefly how a sadhak converses with the Mother? One hears the voice or the thought speaking inwardly and one answers inwardly. Only it is not always safe for the sadhak if there is any insincerity of ego, desire, vanity, ambition in him —for then he may construct a voice or thought in his mind and ascribe it to the Mother and it will say to him pleasing and flattering things which mislead him. Or he may mistake some other Voice for the Mother’s. 2 July 1936 Visions, Voices and Progress in Sadhana
One who can have faith without visions and voices is much farther on the true inner path than one who needs them to have faith. Visions and voices are not meant for creating faith; they are effective only if one has faith already. Visions and voices are often indulged in unnecessarily by people. Sometimes they interpret them wrongly or give them too much value. Thus they nourish their egos. But this capacity is by no means a sign of progress. What do you mean by progress? The Mother spent many years entering the occult worlds and learning all that was to be learnt there. All that time she was making no progress? She sees things always when she goes into trance. Her capacity is a thing of no value? Because a great number of people don’t know how to
1 See the letter of 7 December 1933 on pages 311 12. That letter was published, in a revised form, in Bases of Yoga in 1936. —Ed.
Page – 292 use these faculties or misuse them or give them excessive value or nourish their ego by them, does it follow that the faculties themselves have no Yogic use or value? 8 July 1936
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When I said, “But this capacity is by no means a sign of progress”, I meant that the capacity by itself is not a sign of spiritual progress. I forgot to write “by itself” and this changed the whole meaning. Even by itself, it is a progress in the development of the consciousness though it may not carry with it any spiritualisation of the nature. 9 July 1936
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At a certain stage of the sadhana, everybody receives some occult opening or other: visions, voices, subtle smells or touches. I was told that each occult opening helps one, but none of them has helped me in my practical sadhana. I do not know what you mean by practical sadhana. If one develops the occult faculty and the occult experience and knowledge, these things can be of great use, therefore practical. In themselves they are a proof of opening of the inner consciousness and also help to open it farther —though they are not indispensable for that. Those who have the faculty of vision may not use it properly or take full advantage of it. Take X. She claims that the Divine Mother comes to her and tells her how to solve her difficulties. But if the Mother ever tried to interfere with those defects and imperfections, I suppose X would not like it. I don’t suppose she would —the supposition is rather gratuitous and assumes that she is false and insincere. Every sadhak has a good amount of defects and imperfections and the majority of them seem as unable to get rid of them as X. 9 July 1936
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