Living in The Presence

ornaments, to offer to the Mother. On the 18^th, after the Mother's evening meditation and blessing, we took permission from Her to go and see Her for the next darshan that was to take place upstairs. I had put all the jewels in a beautiful silver box embedded with precious stones, which I was carrying with me. As soon as I found myself in front of Her, I spontaneously opened the silver box and said, "Sweet Mother, Ma and I could bring only these for you from Calcutta. They are for you. Please accept our humble offering." Saying this, I handed over the box to Ma and she handed it to the Mother. The Mother began looking at the contents. There was an exquisite pearl-and-diamond necklace I used to wear which She took out to examine closely and then exclaimed, "Lovely!" Ma and I could not take our eyes off from Her as we enjoyed this intimate closeness with the Mother to our heart's content. She continued looking at all the jewels, one by one. Then She stopped to look at a pair of filigree bangles from Orissa, "Exquisite work!" We know how much the Mother appreciated beautiful things. After looking at the ornaments, She turned Her gaze on me. I felt the jewels had been blessed by the Mother's divine hands. My eyes remained in that speechless wonder, as She looked at me in silence. It was as if my surrender and Her acceptance met in that magical moment! Then She held Ma's right hand with Hers and gazed at her for some time. This time it was Ma's surrender and Her acceptance. After a While, She sweetly smiled and said, "You're giving me ALL this.? I will use this box for my own ornaments!" She handed over the box to Champaklal-ji who was standing close to the door. Then, She took a big 'surrender' rose and offered it to Ma and gave me some other flowers whose spiritual significance I did not know then. Both of us bowed down to Her and came out wondrously fulfilled! That was the end of that day's darshan of the Mother and the beginning of a new life for Ma and me.