The Mother : Contact
THEME/S
Mother Durga! Rider on the lion, giver of all strength, Mother, beloved of Siva!...
O Mother of the world, dispel all ills....
Mother Durga! Giver of force and love and knowledge….
Today is Durga-puja, 28th Ashwin 1398 (15th October 1991).
Shakuntala, Krishna and several others are decorating the Meditation Hall under Milli-di’s guidance. People keep dropping in to have a glimpse. My mind goes back to the days of yore. The first Durga-puja took place here in 1944, the year that I came to the Ashram for good. Watching the billowing white clouds unfurl on the bright blue autumn skies, I would remember Durga-puja in Bengal. That was a time when I felt a little heavy-hearted. The thought that kept weighing on me was how I was going to spend these days of the Puja all alone. I kept wishing:
“Ah, if only there was Durga-puja here too!”
In South India during this same period there were various colourful pujas connected with other gods and goddesses, especially Ganesh. But unfortunately there was no tradition of Durga-puja! I suppose each state or region focusses on one particular deity, Vishnu, Shiva, Kartikeya or Ganapati. In the Ashram itself, however, pujas had never been celebrated. That is why I could never imagine that my wish could come true.
On the saptami (the seventh day of the Durga-puja) I went to the Ashram and what did I see? Minnie-di, Milli-di, Gauri, Bibha, Krishnalal-ji, Jayantilal-da and some others were busy decorating the Meditation Hall below and the staircase with vines and flowers. Ila-di (Chitra’s mother) was also deeply absorbed in the work. Sujata, Sumitra, Suprabha, Chitra and the younger ones were running around getting everything that was needed for the decoration. Very nervously I stood near Nolini-da’s room and watched all this while my childhood memories of the puja in Bengal overwhelmed me.
In our uncle’s house (in Patgram, in the Niyogi House) the preparations for the making of Durga’s image started almost a month before the puja. The artists who made this image were truly spiritual people by nature. We youngsters would surround them in the Durga-mandapa (the pavilion where the Durga-image is made). It was but natural that we made a lot of noise and the artists would tell us:
“Keep quiet now! Can’t you see we’re making the image of the Mother?”
Some would run away out of fear but I stayed on to watch with great curiosity the making of the image right from the beginning. Once the bamboo frame was ready, the body and the limbs were made with stuffed straw. Then a coat of clay was put over it which was subsequently painted. One thought kept buzzing in my head even as I watched all this:
“Good Lord !What kind of Ma Durga is this? How can this be a goddess? This is but a doll!”
These preparations went on for over a month.
One day I could not hold myself any longer and I blurted out:
“Where is Ma Durga? When will She come?” The oldest among the artists answered:
“The day there is the cakshudan ceremony (the bestowing of the eyes), the pran-pratishtha (descent of the Presence) will happen. That is the day when Ma Durga will come down into this clay image.”
My child’s mind was delighted to hear this.
Let me tell you about another incident in this connection. I was reading something on the life of Rammohun a few days back and I found out that when Rammohun was a little boy he was once watching the making of the Durga-image. Then the puja started. Everyone recited a mantra and bowed to the image of the goddess. Little Rammohun, however, did not. He said:
“But this is only a doll of clay and straw. I have seen it being made. How can this be divine?”
Everyone was shocked. His father scolded him fiercely. An atheist had been born in a Brahmin family! Rammohun’s mother, Tarinidevi, came running to save the boy from further disgrace. Durga was a goddess, the Mother of the Universe, but little Rammohun refused to understand. He had seen the artist making the image and he himself had applied some clay onto it.
His mother began crying in helplessness. Little Rammohun could not bear to see his mother’s tears. So he quickly bowed to Ma Durga and said:
“O Lord of my Mother, I bow down at Your Feet!” However, I could not doubt this clay image like little Ram-
mohun because the artist had himself explained to me that Ma Durga descended into the statue as soon as the pran-pratistha happened.
In a child’s innocent mind such an explanation left a deep imprint. Don’t they say: It is with faith that you meet Hari, with argument you push him very far away. And so we little ones used to really feel the presence of Mother Durga in the clay image. She was for us an ever-living goddess.
Mother Durga! We are thy children, through thy grace, by thy influence may we become fit for the great work, for the great Ideal. Mother, destroy our smallness, our selfishness, our fear.
As children we were greatly attracted to lions but greatly frightened too. We would watch the lion in awe.
“The lion is the Mother’s vehicle,” the artists explained to us.
We did not quite understand what that meant.
“Can you touch the lion?” Kalpana-mashi asked me.
With firm steps I moved towards the lion and embraced him.
“See! I am not scared!”
I looked straight at the lion and said:
“What if you’re jungle-king! You cannot cross my way!” We had just read the story of Sarvadaman where these
lines occur:
World-tamer is my name, you I’ll tame today.
What if you’re jungle-king! You cannot cross my way!
And now I was bent on showing some more heroic acts! But then the chief artist came running:
“Move away, move away! You should not touch anything before the puja is over!”
“I am not scared of the lion,” I said. “That’s why I showed it to them. The lion is my friend. I love him very, very much!”
Everyone started laughing and said: “You’re a real hero!”
Let me tell you why I started talking about the lion. About a year or two after coming to the Ashram I dreamt one night that I was standing alone in the Meditation Hall. There was nobody anywhere around. But as soon as my gaze fell on the staircase I saw a huge white elephant coming down. This elephant was so stunningly beautiful that I cannot describe it. All of a sudden I saw an enormous tiger coming to attack this white elephant. But just then an extremely handsome gigantic lion jumped on the tiger. What a battle followed between the two! I quickly hid behind one of the columns of the Meditation Hall and began watching the battle. There was no way of escape me and I was terrified.
When I went to see the Mother the following morning, She asked me:
“What did you dream last night?”
The Mother used to ask me this question every morning and listen most attentively to my dream. I too enjoyed recounting it to Her. One could fill up whole storybooks just with all these dreams. The Mother used to ask almost everybody about their dreams. This dreamworld is a strange, mysterious world. Both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have explained the deeper meaning of dreams to sadhaks and sadhikas in writing as well as orally. So anyway, I told the Mother about my dream in minute detail. She listened with great interest and then said:
“Why did you feel scared of the lion? That is my vehicle. The lion is your friend.”
I just kept staring at the Mother, transfixed. That childhood memory returned while I was embracing the lion during Durga-puja and telling everybody:
“The lion is my friend.”
But I could not take my eyes off the Mother.
Everything in a man’s life is preordained. I began to understand this slowly with time.
When the Mother Herself said: “The lion is my vehicle. He is your friend”, my heart filled with joy. I cannot translate that experience. Quite a few years later I prepared and offered to the Mother some golden buttons in the shape of a lion’s face for Her gown. Dyuman-bhai had got me everything I needed. In the translation-class I offered a lion-shaped paperweight to keep her papers together. Bhabhi-ji (Violette) had got this brass paperweight for me from Delhi.
So the lion was indeed my friend. In childhood one’s consciousness and power are very much awake. That is what I discovered in this churning of my childhood memories.
This tremendous attraction and affection that we Bengalis have for the Durga-aspect of the Mother, this too is surely preordained. Nolini-da has written:
The Bengali’s puja is that of the marvellous variety of the Divine, of plenitude. The Bengali’s deity is not one but many, a combined Power of all the deities together…. In the image of the Bengali puja I see the synthesis of diverse divine powers. The worship of the Ten-armed one has not captured the heart of any other community as it has the Bengalis. There is in Bengal too the worship of each of the different gods but it is the worship of the Ten-armed Mother that is truly the puja of the Bengalis….
The main goal of the Bengali is that Divine Plenitude that comes about by the commingling of the divinity of all the gods in every limb and at every level. This is why the Bengali’s deity is this compound form. Silent Shiva Mahadev is above all and towers above still and firmly established. This Ten-armed One wielding diverse arms is but His expression. This Narayani Lakshmi bestows beauty, wealth and good fortune. Saraswati is the source of divine knowledge, Kartikeya, the source of divine heroism. Ganapati is the symbol of this combined sadhana. To such an extent that the representation of the pure Shakti of the physical consciousness is the lion, the king of the animal world.
On the Mahashtami (the eighth day) the puja acquired a much more festive, colourful rhythm. There was a collective arati in the evening. How our uncles used to dance while doing the arati carrying big incense-burners! Each one tried to outdo the other, showing off his skill. The whole Chandi-mandapa was enveloped in incense-smoke! Through this smoke the image of Mother Durga looked really mysterious! Father also would join this competition with the drummer. And we little ones would let ourselves go in this dancing in the courtyard. There was so much joy and enthusiasm all around!
Our uncles were from Patgram, a well-known village in the Dacca district. After undivided Bengal was cut up into two by our blind foolish politicians, this village was swallowed up by the all-destroying fury of the Padma river. No trace was left of the village. Today you see only water everywhere, just water. I feel the village was unable to bear the pain of this partition and so drowned itself into the bottomless deeps of the Padma. Like Sita’s entry into the netherworld.
We used to collect all sorts of flowers during the few days of the Durga-puja: Shiuli, land-lilies, clitoria (especially the white variety). The boys used to get white and pink lotuses from the lotus ponds. These flowers are a must in the floral offerings for Durga-puja. It was after coming to the Ashram that I discovered that every flower had an inner meaning. The Mother had named flowers according to this inner meaning. The shiuli flower was called Aspiration by the Mother, the lily was called Divine’s Grace. What is astonishing is that these flowers bloom during Durga-puja in autumn! The first line of The Mother comes to mind:
There are two powers that alone can effect in their conjunction the great and difficult thing which is the aim of our endeavour, a fixed and unfailing aspiration that calls from below and a supreme Grace from above that answers.
It is amazing to think that our reverent rishis and munis had experienced this confluence of aspiration and divine Grace in their consciousness thousands of years ago. And they established this tradition of offering both these flowers during Durga-puja. The descent of the Mother’s Compassion onto the earth is made easier when from our side the fire of aspiration rises within us. We did not know anything about the special force and importance of flowers, either in our childhood or even later, until we came here.
The significance of the white and blue aparajita that we used to collect for the Durga-puja is also particularly pertinent. The Mother called the blue aparajita, Radha’s Consciousness. Radha is the symbol of this deep yearning for the Lord in our human consciousness. Pure love and limitless tenderness, consecration and surrender. The significance of the white aparajita is Purified Senses.
A poem from my childhood comes to mind:
‘Defeated’ you are before flowers all,
Then ‘Un-defeated’ why do they you call?
No fragrance doth your heart exhale,
Or colour to lift your aspect pale!
From black-eyed flower tears run down
I’ve nothing, poor me, I have no renown.
The name you’ve given me with so much grace
Is all I have, dear, nothing more can I trace.
My only refuge is the goddess’ Feet,
Worshipful adoration is my life’s heartbeat.
Will She too, like you, send me crying away,
Who everything knows, send me crying away?
Compared with other flowers, the aparajita flower holds an important place for us and this poet’s poem is indeed so true. Worshipful adoration is my life’s heart-beat. This line seems to describe Radhika’s profound yearning to offer herself entirely to Sri Krishna. How marvellous indeed!
How we enjoy reading the Mother’s Radha’s Prayer! The Mother is showing us through this prayer how to lose oneself totally in the Divine:
Thine are all my thoughts, all my emotions, all the sentiments of my heart, all my sensations, all the movements of my life, each cell of my body, each drop of my blood. I am absolutely and altogether Thine, Thine without reserve.
Here are the significances of the red and white lotus:
Red lotus: Symbol of the manifestation of the Supreme upon earth.
White lotus: Symbol of the Divine Consciousness.
The Mother gave these significances on 2nd February 1930 on the occasion of Champaklal-ji’s birthday.
Let me tell you now about an extraordinary incident connected with the red and white lotus.
It was Champaklal-ji’s birthday on 2nd February, 1940. He felt a strong wish to give something to the Mother on this day. Champaklal-ji was a good artist and so he thought about painting the red and white lotus. And quite amazingly he found a pair of white and red lotus just at that time. Although he wanted to finish the paintings in one sitting, due to a lot of work he could not do so. He would paint a little everyday. In any case, when the paintings were done he was satisfied with them and on his birthday he took his painted lotuses to the Mother.
No sooner had the Mother seen the paintings than She exclaimed:
“Very beautiful! Very beautiful indeed!”
The Mother wanted to give these painted lotuses back to
Champaklal-ji so She told him:
“These two paintings are for you, Champaklal. They’re most beautiful! Keep them with you.”
Champaklal-ji did not say anything. Neither did he take the two paintings from the Mother’s hands.
The Mother repeated:
“Here, Champaklal, take these two paintings. I am giving them to you.”
Then Champaklal-ji replied: “Mother, I painted these for you.”
The Mother understood Champaklal-ji’s feelings as She burst into a charmingly beautiful laughter. Then as if in a most secretive way She very sweetly told him:
“Champaklal, I will take these two paintings to Sri Aurobindo and I shall ask Him to write something over them.”
“You will take these paintings to Sri Aurobindo?” Champaklal-ji asked. “If you do, then please request Sri Aurobindo to write their significances over them. That would be wonderful. Mother, Sri Aurobindo will write over the white lotus and you will write over the red lotus.”
The Mother took the two paintings to Sri Aurobindo. Champaklal-ji was in the room at that time. The Mother showed the two paintings to Sri Aurobindo and said:
“See, how beautiful they are! Today is Champaklal’s birthday. He has painted these for me. If you can write the significance of the flower then I can give them to Champaklal. Champaklal would very much like you to write over the white lotus and me to write over the red lotus.”
Sri Aurobindo smiled a sweet, gentle smile. Then saying a soft “umm…” he wrote:
Aditi
The Divine Mother
He wrote under the red lotus:
To Champaklal
With blessings
Sri Aurobindo
2.2.40
After writing this Sri Aurobindo looked at Champaklal and gently smiled. An indescribable, marvellous smile.
The Mother wrote over the red lotus:
The Avatar
Then under the white lotus She wrote:
With blessings to my dear child
Mother
The Mother asked Champaklal not to show these two paintings of lotuses to anyone.
Many years later blocks were prepared from these two paintings for printing at our Press. The Mother distributed this painting to all of us on an important occasion. And that is how we came to know about the significance of the red and white lotus.
I can picture before my eyes Sri Aurobindo writing
and the Mother watching this being written. Then the Mother writing
and Sri Aurobindo watching the Mother writing this.
What an unbelievable event that must have been in the earth’s history at that moment! We will probably understand its full import only later. 2nd February 1940 will be written down in golden letters on the pages of earth’s history. In that auspicious moment the Lord Himself revealed the Divine Mother Aditi and Aditi Herself revealed the Lord to us human beings. Sri Aurobindo announced in writing that She was Mother Aditi and the Mother announced in writing that He was the Lord and Avatar. What an incredible coincidence occurred on the earth! The two unveiled each other’s truth to ignorant beings like us. What an unimaginable, inconceivable divine Grace! These totally unexpected showers of Grace have been our lot uninterruptedly in our lives. And Champaklal-ji was the witness of this moment eternal, Champaklal-ji, the consecrated servitor of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Not the gods but a son of this resplendent earth was the witness of this divine revelation.
It is from the Mother that we understood the deeper significance of this tradition of offering different flowers during the puja for different forms of the Mother. That is why I wrote at length about the significance of flowers.
Let me now tell you about the dashami puja (the tenth and final day).
On the Vijayadashami day before taking Mother Durga for immersion, all the mamimas and mashimas and others from the village would bow down before the Mother and then put a sweet in everybody’s mouth saying repeatedly:
“Mother, do come back.”
Their prayer was vibrant with sincerity: “Mother, do come back.”
Mother Durga was then taken for immersion. Ganesha and Kartik too were carried in the procession. I ran behind Ganesha. We little ones were very fond of this god, Gajanana. The Mother has told us that god Ganesha’s face looks indeed like an elephant’s. The Mother loved Ganesha very much. There are a lot of images of gods and goddesses in the Mother’s room. The biggest number is that of Ganesha. The Mother used to talk with them. The statues of Ganesha and Narayana are together next to the Mother. The Mother said that in every image of a god or a goddess there is their Presence and one can experience it. The Mother had images of gods and goddesses in metal, ivory, wood. And in each of these images their presence can be felt. As soon as the Mother held a statue that particular god or goddess would descend into it. The Mother once told Satprem [Conversation of 29 April 1961]:
People have given me statuettes of various gods, little things in metal, wood or ivory; and as soon as I take one in my hand, the god is there. I have a Ganesh (I have been given several) and if I take it in my hand and look at it for a moment, he’s there. I have a little one by my bedside where I work, eat, and meditate. And then there is a Narayana which comes from the Himalayas, from Badrinath. I use them both as paperweights for my handkerchiefs! (My handkerchiefs are kept on a little table next to my bed, and I keep Ganapati and Narayana on top of them.) And no one touches them but me—I pick them up, take a fresh hand-kerchief, and put them back again. Once I blended some nail polish myself and before applying it, I put some on Ganapati’s forehead and stomach and fingertips! We are on the best of terms, very friendly. So to me, you see, all this is very true.
Narayana came first. I put him there and told him to stay and be happy. A while later, I was given a very nice Ganapati; so I asked Narayana—I didn’t ask his permission, I told him, “Don’t be angry, you know, but I’m going to give you a companion; I like you both very much, there’s no preference; the other is much better looking, but you, you are Narayana!” I flattered him, I told him pleasant things, and he was perfectly happy.
The four-year-old son of one of my maternal cousins always went around holding Ganesha in his arms. He would bathe him, chat with him, worship him with flowers. He had collected all kinds of Ganeshas, big and small, in his house and created an entire family as it were. Once he came to Pondicherry and as soon as he arrived he decided that he had to have a statue of Ganesha. Finally we bought him a big statue of Ganesha. He would spend the whole day talking to him about all sorts of things and worshipping him. Then before leaving Pondicherry he brought a statuette of Ganesha and offered it to me.
“Pishi, offer flowers to my god Ganesha everyday.”
I have kept this statuette near the photo of the Mother’s
Feet.
We little ones knew that Mother Parvati was god Ganesha’s mother. Ganesha was the Divine Mother’s first child and a most loved one too. Ganesha is the Giver of siddhi (realisation). He especially controls worldly wealth and money. All worldly realisations are in his control. There are innumerable stories about Ganesha. One of these stories is very well-known but I still feel like telling it to you.
The Supreme Mother told Ganesha and Kartik:
“Let me see, who can go round the universe and return to me first.”
Kartik at once mounted his peacock and set off.
Ganesha sat on his vehicle, the mouse, and circled around his mother and stood respectfully in front of her.
When Kartik returned completely exhausted from his trip around the universe, he noticed Ganesha still standing in front of their mother. So, naturally Ganesha had not gone around the universe.
But their mother said:
“Ganesha went around me because he feels I am the universe, I am his whole world. Going around me is like going around the universe.”
Tell me, which mother would not love a darling son like him?
Here let me tell you about an extraordinary incident. Those who have come to the Ashram must have certainly seen a Ganesha temple very close to the Ashram main-building. There are crowds of devotees who go to worship him there. There was hardly any place for the devotees to go around the deity. One day Ganesha himself turned up near the Mother and told Her:
“There is not enough space in my temple for devotees to circumambulate. Please give me some extra space so that everyone can comfortably go around the sanctum. Please help me, Mother.”
The Mother sent someone to find out. And indeed the temple lacked sufficient space for a proper circumambulation. So the Mother gave some extra land by breaking down the wall of the adjacent property which belonged to the Ashram in order to make the circumambulatory space adequate. And so in this way gods and goddesses would come to the Mother and tell Her about their various difficulties.
I feel as though I am writing a story from the Mahabharata. In our small, ordinary lives we had the privilege of witnessing so many different marvellous forms of the Mother! And now during the puja we had the Mother Herself in Her Durga aspect right here upon the earth.
Now let me return to the main story.
During the first Durga-puja in this new environment I felt very lonely. Everyone was unknown to me. Suddenly Ila-di came to me and held me affectionately:
“Why don’t you go with Chitra to Golconde and bring some grass from there?”
Ila-di was very fond of me and had understood that I was feeling lonely. The memories of the pujas in Bengal were haunting me.
Tapati and I arrived here in 1941 during the August Darshan. In those days the Mother used to come every evening and stand on the staircase, just above where the large photograph of the Mother stands today in the Meditation Hall. A meditation would take place then and the disciples and devotees would meditate sitting below, facing the Mother. I sat next to Ila-di. As soon as the Mother arrived on the staircase, Ila-di signalled to me to go and sit on the step of the staircase the Mother was standing on. Faithfully following her instruction, I went and fearlessly sat down at the Mother’s Feet like a puppy. I was totally new and did not know anything about the customs or rules of the place. But as Ila-di had asked me I went and sat down near the Mother’s Feet. What was amazing is that the Mother looked at me in a very friendly way as if She had always known me. And I kept sitting there at Her Feet in total trust like a puppy. She made me feel as if that was indeed my assigned place. I was so very young then. The little girl sat there under Her intense love and confidence. What peace I felt that day! And during the whole time that I was in the Ashram on that visit I would go and sit at the Mother’s Feet for the evening meditation. That became my place and that day my life took another turn.
Sujata, Chitra, Suprabha and I went to Golconde to pluck some grass. Then I sat down again to watch the Puja-decorations. Now they began making the alpana (painted decorations with rice paste on the floor). This was Bibha’s idea so Bibha requested Milli-di to take the Mother’s permission to do the alpana. Milli-di went up to the Mother and got Her permission. The next day was Durga-puja. Bula-da also was very happy and stood there to watch the alpana being done. He remarked:
“This is how they make the alpana in Shantiniketan.” Champaklal-ji was also delighted and returned again and
again to see the work proceeding. Bibha, Minnie-di, Milli-di started in the afternoon. They also decorated the Mother’s chair beautifully. Bibha had been used to doing alpana in her house for all the pujas when she was in Bengal. Bibha’s father and elder brother, Sanjiban-da, were real artists and the sisters also had inherited this artistic and literary trait.
And so it was natural that on this first puja, Bibha felt like taking up the alpana-work. And she got permission to do it so easily, as if this entire Durga-puja work was meant for them. And so from 1944 onwards the Mother started coming down every year to give us puja-blessings. The staircase that the Mother used and the two halls were also tastefully decorated with flowers, garlands and vines. The Mother’s chair was decorated with a Benarasi silk sari and this is done with the same dedication and skill even today by Shakuntala, Krishna and others. The Mother’s chair was placed exactly where the large photo of the Mother stands today. Every year the Mother would bless us on the Mahaashtami and the Vijayadashami day with flowers. On Mahaashtami the Mother wore a red Benarasi sari with golden zari flowers. It was extraordinary to see our lovely, impressive Mother come down the staircase like a radiant flaming fire. All the sadhaks of the Ashram were delighted to see this new aspect of the Mother on the occasion of the puja as well as the very festive air but probably they were also a little surprised. It was beyond anyone’s imagination that such an event would take place in the Ashram. The joy of the puja came down into that still, sober atmosphere of the Ashram of those days.
Durga-puja became in the history of the Ashram the harbinger of a great change. The Mother revealed Herself to the whole world.
Mahaashtami and Vijayadashami are a marvellous synthesis of power and beauty and the Mother assumes an unusual form on these days. On Mahaashtami the Mother battles fiercely with the Asuras. The animal sacrifice on this day is symbolic of the offering of one’s lower nature at the Mother’s Feet: laying one’s egoism, pettiness, baseness at the Mother’s Feet is the inner meaning of Durga-puja.
Sri Aurobindo prays on behalf of all of us:
On Vijayadashami the back and the sides of the Mother’s chair were decorated very tastefully and this continues to be done to this day. The flower that is offered on this day has been called Victory by the Mother. The Mother wore a golden Benarasi sari with zari flowers. When the Mother came down the steps we would watch Her, mesmerised. Through the darshan of this glorious, dignified aspect of the Mother, poised yet compassionate, beautiful and royal we felt blessed! How manysided the Mother was! When She came down the staircase you felt as if She was saying:
I am Durga, goddess of the proud and strong.
I remember Mohendra’s darshan of goddess Durga in Anandamath:
The ascetic said “Come by this way,” and began to ascend another underground passage. Suddenly the rays of the morning sun shone in their eyes and from every side the sweet-voiced family of birds shrilled in song. In a wide temple built in stone of marble they saw a beautifully fashioned image of the Ten-armed Goddess made in gold, laughing and radiant in the light of the early sun. The ascetic saluted the image and said, “This is the Mother as she shall be.... Behold her, with the regions for her arms,... wielder of manifold weapons, trampler-down of her foes, with the lion-heart for the steed of her riding; on her right Lakshmi as Prosperity, on her left Speech, giver of learning and science, Kartikeya with her as Strength, Ganesh as Success. Come, let us both bow down to the Mother.”...
The two men bowed down with awe and love; and when they rose, Mohendra asked in a broken voice, “When shall I see this image of the Mother?”
“When all the Mother’s sons,” replied the Brahmacharin, “learn to call the Mother by that name, on that day the Mother will be gracious to us.”
The Mother has come down to our dust-soiled earth in this age and time. She is gracious now. The Mother is now all Her children’s life-breath.
The Mother has called Vijayadashami the Victory day. On this day the Mother’s battle with the asuras ends and as Durga, the slayer of asuras, She destroys the asuras. We have been listening to this story right from our childhood. That is why the dashami day is called Vijayadashami. But we had not the slightest idea how very true all this was. The Mother has Herself said that during the Durga-puja She destroys the asuras. This battle with the asuras has been going on since time immemorial.
Mother Durga! Giver of force and love and knowledge, terrible art thou in thy own self of might, Mother beautiful and fierce. In the battle of life, in India’s battle, we are warriors commissioned by thee; Mother, give to our heart and mind, a titan’s strength, a titan’s energy, to our soul and intelligence a god’s character and knowledge.
The Mother told Mona about an extraordinary incident:
…It is something that happened here not long ago. There were a man, a lady and two children who had come to see me. It was a family and the woman was full of devotion. It was N who had brought this family. Then a strange thing happened… For me it was not an uncommon thing because…each time I was coming down to give my blessings on the days of Puja, there was always someone with me. Either Durga, or Lakshmi, there was always someone on these days. And when I need them, I call them. But on that day, as I was waiting for the family—I had seen other people already,—when they came in I felt a strong presence of Durga. I was not ready for this intrusion of Durga at that moment because each time these gods come, I know it beforehand. But this time I was not prepared and I told myself: “What is this intrusion? Durga has come and she entered within me, like that (gesture) from above, like a mantle.” Like that…and to my surprise, I saw her talking with this lady who was in front of me. This man, the lady and the children were with N, in front of me. And they remained there for a few moments. And then I understood why Durga had come. This lady was a worshipper of Durga and it was she who had called Durga… Then I told myself: “Yes, it was an exceptional lady who could bring Durga with her, even when I didn’t know it. It was very interesting, because I was there, and Durga was within me and, maybe, she was seeing Durga.”
I came to know that later, when N came back; he told me that the lady who had been there was a great worshipper of Durga. She had also some experiences; for example, when she was working, Durga came to help her and from time to time She was under the protection of Durga, and her life was moulded by the influence of Durga. “Today when she was there before You,” N said, “she saw Durga and it was Durga who was speaking with her, that’s what Mother felt.”
Then the Mother turned to Mona and asked:
And do you know who Durga is? The relation between us is that of the father and the child. Not quite, because between the father and the child, the relation is not so supple, so full of joy, it is a little restrained, whilst between myself and Durga it is a more intimate relation; she is like my daughter, my little daughter, and it is more like that… (hands interlocked in a gesture of intimate union) I mean,
…more complete, plastic, and something from beyond that that we cannot find here. A true, complete relation, in a perfect understanding. It is so sweet, so full of love, intimate and, at the same time, infinitely vast and spontaneous.
Every year the Mother manifests herself as Durga in Bengal, in India and in the whole world, to battle with the asuras during these few days of the puja and come out victorious. This is not just an ancient tale. The Mother Herself told us this story of the battle with the asuras in an evening class in the Playground. What excitement we felt that day! The Mother Herself telling us about Her own battles!
The Mother told us in the class:
You know the story of Durga, don’t you? Durga who every year has to destroy her asura; and she is always compelled to begin again. It goes on in this way till the end of the reign allotted to the titans. When they are banished from this world, things will not be the same. But till then, that is as long as they are useful for intensifying the aspiration, clarifying the consciousness, for putting to the test the sincerity of people, they will be there. The day the test will not be needed, the day the sincerity will be pure and self-existent they will disappear. Then that day, Durga will no longer need to begin her battle over again every year.
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Mother Durga! When we possess thee we shall no longer cast thee away; we shall bind thee to us with the tie of love and devotion. Come, Mother, manifest thyself in our mind and life and body.
A day shall come when not a single asura will remain. That day is not far.
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