Mother's Chronicles - Book Five

63

They Meet

She who was to be his companion in this dangerous enterprise was on her way.

"I began my Yoga in 1904 without a Guru," wrote Sri Aurobindo ; "in 1908 I received important help from a Mahratta Yogi and discovered the foundations of my Sadhana;" then, clearly he said, "but from that time till the Mother came to India I received no spiritual help from anyone else."

When they met, they helped each other in perfecting the Sadhana. To his realisations, which otherwise would have remained 'theoretical,' she showed the way to a practical form. For Mirra had brought with her all the accumulated knowledge of her own experiences, over and above all that she had learnt from Max Theon and Alma. She shared it all with Sri Aurobindo.

She also shared Sri Aurobindo's love for India, which she made her home for more than fifty years. On the day of Independence, 15 August 1947, standing on the terrace in front of her room Mother read to us her 'Invocation.'

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"O our Mother, O Soul of India, Mother who hast never forsaken thy children even in the days of darkest depression, even when they turned away from thy voice, served other masters and denied thee, now when they have arisen and the light is on thy face in this dawn of thy liberation, in this great hour we salute thee. Guide us so that the horizon of freedom opening before us may be also a horizon of true greatness and of thy true life in the community of the nations. Guide us so that we may be always on the side of great ideals and show to men thy true visage, as a leader in the ways of the spirit and a friend and helper of all the peoples."

Like Sri Aurobindo — and Vivekananda before him — Mother too believed that India was destined to do a singular work for the human race: the spiritualization of the race.

But in 1947, Mirra was already the Mother. She had returned to Pondicherry on 24 April 1920 after a long stay in France and Japan. She had left Pondicherry on 22 February 1915, after spending almost a year in India.

On her eightieth birthday, 21 February 1968, Mother declared, "The reminiscences will be short." And short they were! "I came to India to meet Sri Aurobindo; I remained in India to live with Sri Aurobindo. When he left his body, I continued to live here in order to do his work which is by serving the Truth and enlightening humanity, to hasten the rule of the Divine's Love upon earth."

It had been a pretty long voyage. Since March 7 Mirra

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had not put her foot ashore, till the Kaga Maru reached Colombo. There, small boats were bobbing up and down to ferry the passengers to the shore. As she jumped from the ship's ladder to a waiting boat, Mirra missed a step, saved herself the best she could with a jerky movement. Now, Mirra happened to have a gold pencil given to her by her grandmother ; she considered it to be the most precious thing in the world and was greatly attached to it. She always wore it on a watch-chain round her neck. But her jerky movement made the gold pencil fall into the sea and sink right down to the bottom. She felt deeply troubled at first; but then it struck her that the mishap was no mishap perhaps: "Ah, the effect of India: I am being liberated from my attachments." After narrating this story, Mother added, "After all, avalanches of trouble are always for sincere people"!

From Colombo to Dhanushkodi where the Richards disembarked, on the eastern tip of the Rameswaram island, then a long train journey without a halt had brought the travellers to Pondicherry.

What could have been Mirra's thoughts during that train journey? Did they turn to the series of visions she had had all those years ago? They were still so fresh in her mind's eye! Oh, that Being of Light, with a golden-bronze hue, almost thin, a clear-cut profile, an unruly beard, long hair, dressed in a dhoti with one end thrown over his left shoulder. Bare-armed and bare-footed, and bare was a part of his body. Would her visions prove to be premonitory? What lay at the end of her journey?

They met.

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It was on Sunday the 29^th of March, 1914, at 3:30 in the afternoon, at N°41 rue Francois Martin.

"I came here.... But something in me wanted to meet Sri Aurobindo all alone the first time. Richard went to him in the morning and I had an appointment for the afternoon. He was living in the old Guest House. I climbed up the staircase and he was standing there, waiting for me at the top of the stairs.... EXACTLY my vision I Dressed the same way, in the same position, in profile, his head held high . He turned his head towards me .. . and I saw in his eyes that it was He."The recognition was mutual.

The recognition was mutual.

"The Mother's consciousness and mine are the same," Sri Aurobindo said simply, "the one Divine Consciousness in two, because that is necessary for the play."

He stated further, setting at rest any doubt anyone could have, "There is no difference between the Mother's path and mine; we have and have always had the same path, the path that leads to the supramental change and the divine realisation; not only at the end, but from the beginning they have been the same."

The next day, on 30 March 1914, Mirra wrote in her diary, Prayers and Meditations: "It matters not if there are hundreds of beings plunged in the densest ignorance. He whom we saw yesterday is on earth: His presence is proof enough that a day will come when darkness shall be transformed into light, when Thy reign shall effectively be established upon earth."

Their meeting was the turning point in the destiny of the earth.

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No, it is not their own salvation that they sought but a terrestrial realization. Their concern was the earth. "My Sadhana was not done for myself but for the earth-consciousness."

The fulfilment of evolution.

Concentrated into a brief period.

To bring down the Spirit Divine into Matter.

To raise up the Divine latent in Matter.

To join the Two.

The Life Divine upon Earth.

Here and now.

"It is now, in this life that I insist on it and not in another or in the hereafter."

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The stairs Mirra climbed to meet Sri Aurobindo