The Sun and The Rainbow

THE MOTHER'S WORK IN A

DREADFUL PLACE

AN EXPERIENCE OF SEHRA PRESENTED

 BY AMAL KIRAN

Perhaps the most frightening peep into the unknown which Sehra ever had was recounted by her to the Mother in a letter dated 11 March 1957:

"Before going to bed I asked myself why my prayer for quick recovery in the Mother's eye-trouble had not been answered. Then I went to sleep. Suddenly someone spoke: 'Would you like to know why your prayer is not answered and why this attack has come on the Mother's body?' He took my hand and we went down and down as if into a deep well. Soon I found myself in a place which was dark and yet visible. The Voice said: 'The sun never shines here. This place is always as you see it now.'

"I saw people there with human forms, but they were not human beings. They were very huge and hideous, with one or two or three teeth protruding from the mouth. The women were good-looking, yet there was something vicious and dreadful in them. Then we walked along and on a sudden we came to a narrow street. There on both sides human corpses were heaped, bodies over bodies. We went a little further and I saw those strange ugly beings dragging out the corpses, tearing them into pieces and each one looking at his possession and saying, 'Look what I have got.'

"The bleeding pieces from different parts of the bodies re-

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presented different desires and feelings — lust, greed, hatred, jealousy, etc And the beings who took the pieces and some of whom started eating them were themselves representative of the same desires and feelings. Each got what corresponded to his own nature. All were enjoying themselves over the hold they had on human beings. Many of the corpses were also enjoying what was happening to them. They were not really dead but only looked so: they were alive. A few of them were repelled by the touch of those non-human creatures, yet even these had somewhere a tiny bit in themselves that found . enjoyment.

"Then I said, 'Oh please take me away from here.' And the Voice replied, 'This is where the Mother's work is going on and where the attack comes from. Her work is to pull all the human corpses away from this darkness and from these people. The corpses don't allow her to save them. They on the contrary throw on her their evil desires and feelings. So your prayer cannot be answered quickly.'"

When Sehra met the Mother the next day, she told her how utterly sick she was feeling. (She actually took over a fortnight to recover.) The Mother said: "You have seen correctly. I am now working in the subconscient. It is a very terrible region and even worse than what you have described. I am not surprised that you are feeling unwell. But be calm and call my protection and light. You will recover. There is something written by Sri Aurobindo on the subject. I shall tell Nolini to show it to you."

What exactly Nolini showed Sehra — or whether he could find anything quite to the point — is not within recollection. But I do remember Sehra and me thinking: "How little we realise what a stupendous labour of love the Mother has undertaken for us all."

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