Learning with the Mother

A LESSON IN EQUANIMITY AND SELF—CONTROL

During one of the classes, Mother was probably telling a story to the children. Her chair was always placed in front of the verandah pillar. That day, there were two big fat lizards fighting on the pillar. While Mother was telling the story, suddenly both the lizards fell on Her back. She flinched for a second at the contact and then sat straight calmly while Amiyo Da tried to remove them from her back. It must have taken fifteen seconds before he succeeded but the Mother remained unruffled and immobile.

The children however got agitated. When the lizards were down on the ground and were running helter and skelter, the children started shouting and screaming and running here and there. It took the lizards a few minutes to move out of the children’s space. Finally when the lizards were out of the way, the children got back to their places and settled down.

All through this, the Mother remained calm and composed. As soon as the children had settled down, She admonished them. She asked them why they were afraid of these tiny creatures who would do no harm to them. She explained at length to them why it was necessary to have equanimity and self -control in all circumstances.

It may be interesting to note here that there was a lizard on the first floor of the ashram in the Mother’s room. Every day when the Mother would have her dinner late at night, this lizard would come to the Mother and feed out of Her hand. I don’t know how long this lasted.

There were two very special incidents that happened during these years which I want to share. Although this did not happen during the Tuesday, Friday or Sunday classes, the incidents involved the Green Group class children, hence are worth mentioning.