Learning with the Mother

WIZARD OF OZ

Every Saturday a movie was shown in the Playground for all the Ashramites and the children. Since as children we had no entertainment we, all looked forward to the Saturday movies with great excitement. The Mother would always screen the movies herself in advance and get the unwanted portions edited before they were shown on Saturday.

The Wizard of Oz was a children’s award winning movie and to the surprise of all of us, the Mother completely rejected the movie from being screened in the Playground for the children.

Since I was sitting beside her when She was seeing the movie I too was disappointed and when I went to see Her upstairs the next day, I asked Her why She had rejected such a beautiful movie for children. She explained to me that She found it disappointing that when this little girl in the film got an opportunity to go over the rainbow and see the beautiful worlds beyond, She kept asking to go back home.

When the Mother realised that so many children of the Ashram were disappointed at not being able to see the film, She wrote out an explanation for it which She read out in the Green Group class and gave a detailed explanation of how to see the film and understand its deeper significance.

We give here the Mother’s written explanation.

A short note by the Mother on the movie

Wizard of Oz

A short explanation will surely increase the interest of the picture shown to you tonight.

This picture is in three sections, two black and one, the most extensive in colour. The two black sections (first and last) show how things appear in the physical world; the coloured one expresses a similar sequence of events and similar characters in the vital world, the world where one can go when the body is in deep sleep, when one gets out of the body. So long as you have a physical body, no true harm can happen to you in the vital world, for the physical body acts as a protection, and you can always return into it at will. This is shown in the picture in a classical way. The little girl wears on her feet some magic ruby-red slippers, and so long as she keeps the slippers on her feet, nothing wrong can truly happen to her. The ruby-red slippers are the sign and the symbol of the connection with the physical body, and as long as the slippers are on her feet, she can, at will, return to her body and take shelter therein.

Two other details can be noted with interest. One is the snow shower that saves the party from the influence of the wicked witch who by her black magic has stopped their advance towards the emerald castle of beneficent vitality. In the vital world, snow is the symbol of purity. It is the purity of their feelings and intentions that saves them from the great danger. Note also that to go to the castle of the good wizard they must follow the golden bricks, the path of luminous confidence and joy.

The second is when Dorothy throws water on the straw man to save him from burning, some water falls on the face of the wicked witch who lit the fire and at once she gets dissolved and dies. The water is the symbol of the power of purification and no hostile being or force can resist this power handled with good will and sincerity.

Finally, when the good fairy teaches the little girl how to go back home by knocking her two red slippers one against the other, she says that nothing is better than home; by “home” she means the physical world which is the place of protection and realisation. As you see, the subject of this picture is interesting and not altogether devoid of knowledge. Unhappily the rendering is not as beautiful and harmonious as it could have been. In the setup there are some serious faults of taste and many regrettable vulgarities.