My Savitri work with the Mother

20 May 1963

Again I sent the rough painting of the Realms and she wrote on 20th May 1963:

It is much better.

Of course, not perfect. But can anything upon earth now be perfect? You can do the final picture like that, only try that the third (lightest) gold is less 'grey', when you concentrate on the painting, you can clearly feel something, this is very good.

Then I did the final painting of the different Realms. The Mother liked the painting but I cannot say she was completely satisfied.

For picture eight,

... His hope a star above a cradle and grave. ||19.18||

when I took the painting of a cradle and a grave to the Mother and she saw it, then very suddenly the tears welled into my eyes... I sobbed... because I was sorry—really sorry for the life of human beings: from cradles to graves, and from graves to cradles—where would be the end? I then said to the Mother that I was not sorry or weeping over my own unhappiness.

The Mother replied:

I know, my child.

Picture nine was quite difficult also. I sent the rough sketch. The Mother wrote:

See my sketch. The floor short, the stained window lower the vault must be high.

I asked in what colour the arches should be painted. She wrote:

Stone colour, some bluish, mauvish grey darker in shadow

For the cathedral, I am sending you a book where you will find a picture that may help.

Again she wrote:

Here are some pictures, which will be most useful to give you the right idea about the cathedral.

Height, colour, windows—all are there—the impression of infinity of the height must be given.

With the picture, you will surely understand

And I got the idea all right. But I never copied either cathedral or anything while I was painting. I always followed the inspiration. The Mother said:

This is how paintings must be done. This is the right thing. You can do without copying.

As a matter of fact, I did the paintings of Book One, Canto 5 in 1963; but later, that is to say in 1964, when the paintings were ready to go for block-making, I asked the Mother whether I should retouch them. And she graciously permitted me—not only did she allow but she saw all the paintings and herself told me what was to be done.

She asked me to re-paint five paintings on new boards. The painting of the Realms was among them also.

First I sent the sketches for her approval. She wrote:

The sketches are all right—and the vision will come in due time. Do not fear about the fourth one (The Realms)—it is only symbolic.

Then I painted them all.

Picture ten, the portrait of Aswapathy, I painted twice. For the old one, the Mother said:

You have painted his beard as if it was false and stuck... better paint it again—another portrait of Aswapathy.

And I did so.

For picture seventeen I had to draw the "Yantra"—symbol of the Divine Shakti (Power). The Mother said jokingly:

Now look, we must paint the "Yantra" correctly; otherwise, wise people will surely find out our mistakes...

I said to her that I would surely copy it nicely from one of the cards of Shakti, sent by the Mother, so that there would not be any chance for committing a mistake. And the painting was done.

For picture nineteen, I did not quite understand what she had said about the painting of a soul and how it could be done. So, I wrote to her asking what she had meant by

ladder not to be seen through the soul...

And she replied:

I meant that the soul must not be transparent and the ladder must not be seen through the soul.

There! A question of commonsense only! But sometimes one loses it, when many things pile up in one's head! However, the last painting of Canto 5, the Mother admired also. Thus I had finished the paintings of Book One, Canto 5.

In 1963, another book of Meditations on Savitri, Volume II, was published. And happily, this time, the Mother approved some of her sketches to be published in the book.

Her message for the second part was:

Here is again a humble attempt to make you see some of the realities which are still invisible for the physical eyes.