Contact with The Mother

CALL TO THE SOUL

My friend’s father after staying in England for two years started for India. As the Suez Canal was closed he came via Africa. He alighted at Mombasa, having decided to stay there a few months. Just by chance he applied for a permanency, which was granted—now an almost impossible thing. Before settling down he thought it would not be possible to visit India for at least five years, so he made the decision in a day and again applied for a permit to leave the country. The Immigration Department was astounded that this man after getting his permanency should go risking his grant. But he was given permission for six months.

He came to Bombay on 19th November. His ticket for Pondicherry was ready but he could not come here and thought he would come on his birthday, 1st January. He reached Pondicherry on 31st December but was disappointed as he could not see the Mother. He stayed on, and from 15th January he got Balcony Darshan. He had planned to leave Pondicherry for a South-India trip on 20th January, but he got fever on the 18th. He thought it was something ordinary and would subside. He wrote a letter to the Mother informing her about his intention to leave, but she was reported to have just smiled.

The fever continued. It did not come down at all to normal for days. His trip was cancelled. His ticket to Delhi on the 3rd was also cancelled. He had a disdain for medicine and tried out his own Naturopathy, in which he had acquired a diploma in England. He fasted for 20 days. On 15th February he was normal. He even got out of his bed, but otherwise was very weak.

On the 28th, at 10.55 p.m., just ten minutes before the Ashram Gate is locked, he asked his son to go to the Samadhi and bring flowers from there. When the flowers were brought, he reverently caught them to his breast. But his wife saw that his condition was a little serious and sent a neighbour to fetch the doctor. His feet were getting cold. So she applied some ginger powder. He said: “Don’t call the doctor. I am quite all right.”

At about 11.35, the doctor came. After feeling the pulse of the patient for a few seconds he said it was all finished. My friend’s father had passed away without his family knowing it.

In the morning the doctor informed the Mother about it. She sent two beautiful roses to the wife and son and said, in effect: “Tell them not to sorrow. I had called his soul from Africa. He had no disease at all. It was just an excuse to leave the body. The soul had made the decision to leave. This might have happened in Africa. The soul is with me.”

The brother of the deceased had been trunk-called in the night and he arrived with his wife in a plane which he had caught shortly after getting the news of his brother’s death. He reached Pondicherry at 1.30 p.m., as if all had been planned.

The whole family went to the Mother on 1st March at the time of “Prosperity” blessings. The 1st of each month is the day when the Mother provides the sadhaks for their needs of the month and gives her blessings. The Mother caressed and blessed the wife of the departed and behaved as if she were removing all the looming grief off her environment. The wife left the Mother full of peace and gratefulness.

This reminds me of another similar incident, in which the Mother explained how she removes people’s grief when they come to her for blessings with entreaties and prayers. A man had died. His brother who was in the Ashram had not broken the news to the man’s family who were about to leave the Ashram that very evening, after getting the news of his illness. They were waiting near the door of the Mother’s Interview Room for her parting blessings. The brother of the deceased told the Mother about the recently-received telegram concerning the death. The Mother took him to the Interview Room and worked in such a way that when he and the rest of the family went to their house and when their near and dear came with condolences and sympathies, the latter looked more sorrowful for the death than the members of the family who could not grieve, could not but remain peaceful and confident. The Mother explained to the brother in some such words: “When anybody comes to me full of grief and sorrow, I just make a movement like this as with a pin” (here she drew her finger in a line across her heart) “and by that I take away the grief. Then I stream out from my depths towards him a calmness, peace and joy that relieves him of all his worries.”