A collection of short prose pieces on the Mother and her four great Aspects - Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati, along with 'Letters on the Mother'.
Integral Yoga
This volume consists of two separate but related works: 'The Mother', a collection of short prose pieces on the Mother, and 'Letters on the Mother', a selection of letters by Sri Aurobindo in which he referred to the Mother in her transcendent, universal and individual aspects. In addition, the volume contains Sri Aurobindo's translations of selections from the Mother's 'Prières et Méditations' as well as his translation of 'Radha's Prayer'.
THEME/S
Why do I sometimes feel myself far from the Mother? I want to be able to feel her constantly with me.
The Mother is always there with you. You have only to throw away the forces of Ignorance to feel her with you always.
1 August 1933
You have said: "Always behave as if the Mother was looking at you; because she is, indeed, always present."1 Does this mean that the Mother knows all our insignificant thoughts at all times, or only when she concentrates?
It is said that the Mother is always present and looking at you. That does not mean that in her physical mind she is thinking of you always and seeing your thoughts. There is no need of that, since she is everywhere and acts everywhere out of her universal knowledge.
It seems to me that the more we communicate our thoughts to her, the more we open ourselves to her forces and the more effective becomes our surrender to her. Am I right?
Yes, quite right.
12 August 1933
In what sense is the Mother "everywhere"? Is it because she has descended to the universal and has complete knowledge
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of the forces working there? I suppose the universal or "everywhere" includes the physical plane. If so, does the Mother know all the happenings and events on the physical plane?
Including what Lloyd George had today for breakfast or what Roosevelt said to his wife about their servants? Why should the Mother "know" in the human way all such happenings on the physical plane? Her business in her embodiment is to know the working of the universal forces and use them for her work; for the rest she knows what she needs to know, sometimes with her inner self, sometimes with her physical mind. All knowledge is available in her universal self to her, but she brings forward only what is meant to be brought forward so that the work may be done.
13 August 1933
I had a dream in which I was walking alone in the desert. Was the meaning of the dream that this sadhana is very dry and difficult?
No. It is perhaps how some part of the vital or physical consciousness figured it. But the path is not a desert nor are you alone, since the Mother is with you.
2 November 1933
My vital does not seem to have devotion for the Mother. Instead of loving her, it gets mixed with undivine forces. Protect me from these vital obstructions. I wish to feel that I am lying in the Mother's lap.
The Mother is always with you. The vital has its desires and therefore does not believe in the Mother's presence. You have to call down the Mother's Force into it to remove its doubts and desires.
11 November 1933
The Mother is always with you. Put your faith in her, remain quiet within and do with that quietude what has to be done. You will become more and more aware of her constant Presence, will
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feel her action behind yours and the burden of your work will no longer be heavy on you.2
21 April 1935
You have written: "Always behave as if the Mother was looking at you; because she is, indeed, always present." On the other hand, you wrote to me recently that it was not physically possible for her to be present everywhere. When I asked the Mother about this, she said that she could be present in many places. How to reconcile these contradictory statements?
If by physically you mean corporeally, in her visible tangible material body, it is obvious that it cannot be. When you asked Mother the question she did not understand you to mean that—she said she could be present everywhere, and she meant, of course, in her consciousness. It is the consciousness and not the body that is the being, the person; the body is only a support and instrument for the action of the consciousness. Mother can be personally present in her consciousness. The universal presence of course is always there and the universal and personal are two aspects of the same being.
25 August 1936
Sometimes the thought comes to me: "Outwardly and inwardly, I am very far from the Mother." Why does it come?
It is the feeling of the physical or outward being which is by its ignorance unable to feel the Mother's nearness.
How can I convince myself of the falsity of this thought and drive it away?
The Mother is always near and within, it is only the obscurity of mind and vital that do not see or feel it. That is a knowledge which the mind ought to hold firmly.
29 April 1937
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