My Savitri work with the Mother

06 October 1961

Now the month of October 1961 had arrived—slowly, like a benediction, hope and peace diffused in my whole being. The Mother called me to the Meditation Room upstairs on 6th October 1961 in the morning at 10 a.m. to take up the work of Savitri painting. She and I exchanged flowers and smiles. Then I looked at her eagerly to show me how to do the first painting. I felt as if the doors of hidden worlds were going to open before me. From the Mother's expression I gathered that now I would always be submerged in this wonderful consciousness from where I would never come out. And it is true so far!

The date 6th was auspicious—according to the Mother, the number 6 signifies "New Creation". The Mother sat on the high-backed carved chair with her radiant smile. She received me cordially. Then she was absolutely indrawn in sheer silence. After her deep contemplation she looked at me—unblinking—then there was the sudden flicker of a smile in her eyes when she spoke:

Child, have you thought of painting the jacket of the book which will be published after we have finished some paintings of Savitri?

Once more she lapsed into a profound trance. She awoke, took a piece of paper and a pencil and drew a cover picture. She explained:

Show the descent of the Supreme Mother. A flash of white Light forming the feet which rest on the globe of the earth. Don't forget to paint the outline of a lotus which must be mingled with the white Light.

She also made me understand the colour-scheme. Then she held my hands, pressed them in order to fill them with her Consciousness. She kissed my forehead.

With a blank mind I reached my apartment, sat on a chair in my studio where the Mother herself had sat when she had declared open my apartment on 10th February 1958. There was the jumble of colour-tubes, brushes, palette, knives, distilled turpentine, linseed oil and rags. I put the canvas board on the easel and squeezed liberal quantities of pigments on a palette. The Mother had shown me how to arrange colours on the palette when she had started teaching me painting on 11th December 1956. I finished the painting and sent it to the Mother that very morning. She returned it along with a note:

There is no need of changing anything. It is excellent.

A feeling of immense happiness and satisfaction warmed my heart. This was how our Savitri work began.

The Mother valued more the true feeling and right consciousness than any precise and decorative work without life, and the vibration of Light which alone can give life and vividness of colours to every scene.

In the morning the Mother revealed her visions for each painting by doing sketches and explained the colour schemes. I would go to my apartment and do the picture in order to show it to the Mother in the afternoon. There was no time to rest. Thus I was doing one painting a day. I went to the Mother twice—in the morning and in the afternoon. Along with instructing and guiding me about Savitri paintings, she disclosed the hidden truth behind them. Now my life assumed a regular pattern.

It is impossible for me to give the full description of all the Savitri paintings here. But I shall try to convey glimpses of some of them.

The second picture depicted the incessant wheeling.

Athwart the vain enormous trance of Space,
Its formless stupor without mind or life,
A shadow spinning through a soulless Void,
Thrown back once more into unthinking dreams,
Earth wheeled abandoned in the hollow gulfs
Forgetful of her spirit and her fate. ||1.6||

When the Mother saw the painting, she made a gesture with her right hand—moving a finger round and round as if there was no end to the same tardy process of the Earth which went on and on. Then she laughed and said:

Ah! Nobody can escape this wheel!