My Savitri work with the Mother

04 November 1961

On 4th November 1961 she made me understand the eighth picture of the same book, the same canto:

The darkness failed and slipped like a falling cloak
From the reclining body of a god.

She went into a deep meditation for quite a long time. When she opened her eyes, I felt as if she were still dreaming. The Mother said:

I saw in 1904 the vision of a Spirit when I went into the Inconscient. The form of this Spirit was neither of man nor of woman. Nor was it Vishnu or Shiva or Krishna.

Once again she closed her eyes to recall what she had seen in the fathomless darkness. When she awoke she instructed me:

Child, you must paint a pale gold reclining figure of a God. His right cheek is resting on his right palm. His head with long golden hair is on a white cushion. And in the background you must show a myriad rainbow hues of opals. Also the black colour of the darkness sliding off Him.

You see, my child, this Being is the first Avatar from the Transcendent.

The Mother has stated in one of her writings:

I saw a Being of irised light reclining with his head on his hand, fast asleep.

All the light around him was iridescent.

When I told Theon what I was seeing, he said it was "The Immanent God in the depth of the Inconscient."

According to Sri Aurobindo the Inconscient is the Superconscient's sleep.

That experience of descending to the very bottom of the Inconscient and finding there the Divine Consciousness, the Divine Presence, in one form or another has happened quite frequently.

...And it is remarkable that this marvellous Being strangely resembled him whose vision I had one day: the Being who is found at the other extremity—at the borderline of the form and the Formless. Only the latter was in a golden glory, carmine, while in its sleep this other Being was diamond White, emanating opalescent rays.

That, in fact, is the original of all the Avatars.

According to the Mother:

The Avatar—the Supreme manifested on Earth in a body.

Sri Aurobindo states:

The Avatar is necessary when a special work is to be done and in crises of the evolution. The Avatar is a special manifestation while for the rest of the time it is the Divine working within the ordinary human limits as a Vibhuti.

It was difficult to paint rainbow colours. I could not finish the painting. That very night I had a vision:

The shimmering waves of the divine white Light enveloped me as they turned into brilliant multi-colours. They were in gradations—from pale blue to night sky, from shell-pink to deepest crimson, from pale green to Nile green, and the same with the rest of the hues.

Then suddenly they assumed the faces of beautiful beings—but their lower bodies were like trails of different colours. These beings mingled with one another, yet retained their individualities. Their dancing movements were like music, the tinkle, the chime of numerous bells echoing and re-echoing through the sweet silence of eternity. My eyes drank in the melody of the vivid, various colours with as much joy as I would have had hearing an ethereal symphony in perfect harmony in the Divine Light.

This was an ecstasy, an indescribable thrill. I was floating upward into a realm of glory beyond anything I had ever beheld or ever known.

This vision of mine reminds me of Sri Aurobindo's poem The Life Heavens:

Sounds, colours, joy-fiamings. Life lies here
Dreaming, bound to the heavens of its goal,
In the clasp of a Power that enthrals to sheer
Bliss and beauty body and rapt soul.

Indeed the Savitri paintings were expressed in multi-colours to accord with the twelve dimensions known to occultism.

In connection with the twelve dimensions, I came across The Illustrated Weekly of India dated 9th March 1981:

Letter to the Editor
by Vs.Gawarikar—New Delhi

Sir—For a scientist of Prof. Abdul Salam's stature to have imagined eleven dimensions is not a very extraordinary thing. The Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram had told a small group of her student-disciples long ago that there were 12 dimensions and that, although scientists had postulated only 4 dimensions, they would find 12 eventually.

The Mother has revealed about the dimensions as follows:

I said that it was a revolution of the basic equilibrium, that is, a total reversal of consciousness comparable with what happens to light when it passes through a prism. Or it is as though you were turning a ball inside out, which cannot be done except in the fourth dimension. One comes out of the ordinary three-dimensional consciousness to enter the higher four dimensional consciousness, and into an infinite number of dimensions. This is the indispensable starting-point. Unless your consciousness changes its dimension, it will remain just what it is with the superficial vision of things, and all the profundities will escape you.

The Mother, Questions and Answers (1950 - 1951): 4 January 1951

The next morning I finished the picture, and showed it to the Mother in the afternoon. She clasped my hands, looked into my eyes for a moment or two and gave me a kiss on my forehead. Her gesture conveyed to me everything.

My memory winged back to the year 1958. On 8th February in the evening the Mother and I had met. She looked at me for a few seconds and plunged into deep meditation. I could not have cared less, did not respond, did not concentrate; my vagrant thoughts rambled on. She was serenely peaceful, unruffled, untouched. Then the Mother opened her eyes and said with great regret:

Just now I saw in my vision beautiful luminous beings from above bringing precious gifts for you. They wished to enter your whole being with these boons. But unhappily, you were completely shut up and denied them. So they went back to where they had come from.

There were no tears in my eyes—only solid, unutterable despair.

The Mother looked at me and smiled—a sad smile. I had failed to collaborate, to receive, to assimilate. I felt sick, very sick, in my heart, mind and body. She leaned from her couch, patted my cheeks and affirmed:

The luminous beings will return one day and enter your whole being.

So they came back to me by the Divine's Grace.

This impressive experience reminds me of the following verses from Savitri, Book Three, Canto 4:

"I saw the Omnipotent flaming pioneers
Over the heavenly verge which turns towards life
Come crowding down the amber stairs of birth;
Forerunners of a divine multitude,
Out of the paths of the morning star they came
Into the little room of mortal life." ||90.28||

According to Sri Aurobindo, the Rainbow signifies

Peace and Deliverance

Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III: Sky, Weather, Night and Dawn

Regarding the Rainbow it is said that the white colour of the rays of the Sun can be classified into seven colours—rainbow colours: seven colours—violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red—that is VIBGYOR.

For green, much importance is given: The green colour comes exactly in the middle. So Nature accepted the middle way and gave prominence to the green colour.

According to the Mother, green signifies 'Life'.

The Savitri-paintings left me day after day in wonder. The Mother took me with her to the world of true art—the world of Beauty from where all the inspiration came—a world of ecstatic joy, unbounded happiness—a world of magnificence.

Sri Aurobindo has written:

The Mother believes in beauty as a part of spiritual and divine living.