My Savitri work with the Mother

22 February 1962

Regarding one of my paintings the Mother gave this meaning to it. This was not a Savitri painting.

Thought from the moon

I gave the print to the Mother. Next day I wrote a letter asking whether she valued the picture. She answered:

22.2.62

You are mistaken when you think that I did not value the picture you gave me with your love—on the contrary it touched me—it is the kind of thing I value much more than beautiful presents made with a cold or interested thought.

With love

The Mother made me understand the eighth picture of Savitri, Book One, Canto 2, according to the following verses:

Almost they saw who lived within her light
Her playmate in the sempiternal spheres
Descended from its unattainable realms
In her attracting advent's luminous wake,
The white fire dragon bird of endless bliss
Drifting with burning wings above her days.
Heaven's tranquil shield guarded the missioned child. ||4.5||

She said:

You must paint the white fire dragon bird.

I was confused and thought what on earth the "bird" could have looked like. Then, of course, she led me into Sri Aurobindo's room and showed me only for a moment the white bird which was painted on a wall. Now the whole set up in Sri Aurobindo's room has changed. The Mother asked me whether I had got the idea. I replied:

Then I painted the bird on 25th January 1962, thanks to my good memory. Otherwise it was not easy to grasp the whole thing in a moment, but, I felt that the Mother's Force was there to give me a clear vision. The Mother praised immensely the painting of the white-fire dragon bird.

Days rolled on and I was absorbed more and more in the fascinating work of Savitri. The Mother and I began Canto 3 of Book One.

For picture two she said:

Child, there are actually twelve bodies in human beings.

You see, I go out of these bodies one after another successively, consciously, and enter into the subtle worlds. I can stop on any plane, do what I have to do over there. I move around freely, and observe the secret of the realms.

In each plane there are beings.

I saw the beauties of the higher and luminous worlds, as well as the horrible, dark and ugly worlds where numerous beings were submerged in the subconscient. I saved them. But it was a most difficult and dangerous task.

I am aware of all the details of my subtle bodies. Then finally I return and enter gradually in my physical body—in the world of Matter.

Moving on, I had to show Aswapathy receiving the Light from above: that is to say, from the blue stars and the blue square. I did the painting—I painted two straight white lines of the Light on Aswapathy's palms, coming from above. I showed the painting to the Mother. And how she laughed! She said:

You have painted Aswapathy as if he was balancing two sticks on his palms. Do you think he is giving a performance in a circus?

We both, then, laughed heartily. Then of course, I did the same painting again, this time very carefully, and the Mother liked it. But still she was not quite satisfied with the blue colour of the star and the square.

For picture five, she said:

Yes, you see, this cobra is very cunning, he will never let anybody cross the threshold until and unless one is absolutely pure.

For picture ten, the Mother said:

You must show the centres of Consciousness with golden dots, in painting—one in the heart, one in the throat, the forehead and above the head....

I did not know where exactly I had to put the dots in the figure of Aswapathy. The Mother did not explain to me in detail. Once again she had left me to my own devices. So I took refuge in Sri Aurobindo's books and found out exactly all about the centres, colours, their meaning, function and so on.

Many a time the Mother wanted me to find out certain things by myself. And that helped me a lot to develop my consciousness.

For picture sixteen, the Mother did the sketch as she always used to do. I thought she did two heads on her sketch. So, I painted two heads and she said:

Why, but they are absolutely symbolic.

Now we took up Canto 4 of Book One of Savitri. For picture two, she said:

I saw Aswapathy in my vision with bright red dhoti, over and over again. So, you must paint a red dhoti,

For picture three, she said:

It is nice and pretty, but for the sake of the reproduction (Block-making) it might be better to have a little more colour to cover the rough surface of the board.

I did according to her wish.