MINAKSHI IYER (1899 – 1993)
Born on 20th of December 1899 at Tiruchengodu to Venkatarama Iyer, a devout Shaivite, Minakshi was named after Sri Minakshi Sundereswarar of Madurai, an incarnation of Shiva’s Consort. Her father, she once told me, disliked public observances of worship and, if chided, would say, "He is my Father! However long I tarry on the path, His gates will never be closed to me."
By the time she was ten, Minakshi took every opportunity to go up to the temple of Shiva perched on a hillock near her house. "In my childhood," she told me on 23rd January 1987, "although I never saw an elder in my family dying, I saw many children in the neighbourhood dying; one of them, a younger brother of a close friend. Later, during another severe epidemic,[1] my father had to pack our belongings into bullock carts, and we joined other families leaving the town. Every time I saw or heard of a child being seriously ill, I prayed fervently to God, asking Him to cure the child as it would make everybody, especially the child’s family, happy; but the children died. Naturally, after some time I forgot the shock and the pain, but I never stopped wondering why God so often lets children die and the old linger on. Perhaps that is why I had to see so many of my own family die before me."
"Like a flame that burns in silence, like a perfume that rises straight upward,"[4] the silent thirst of Minakshi’s soul fused with the thirsts of the other souls of the same Family,[5] and their collective call merged in Mother’s prayer of 15 February 1914:
O Thou, Sole Reality, Light of our light and Life of our life, Love supreme, Saviour of the world, grant that more and more I may be perfectly awakened to the awareness of Thy constant presence…. Give me the peace of perfect disinterestedness, the peace that makes Thy presence felt and Thy intervention effective, the peace that is ever victorious over all bad will and every obscurity….
Minakshi was acquainted with this prayer before her first darshan of Mother and Sri Aurobindo in August 1926, as her husband, Doraiswamy Iyer, was a disciple and knew this was Mother’s favourite prayer.[6] Again, on 4th June 1928, two days before Minakshi joined the Ashram, Kapali Sastriar, a relative and friend, then staying in their house in Madras, received a copy of Mother’s prayers.[7] His note on this prayer could thus paraphrased thus: "By ‘Sole Reality’, ‘Love supreme’, ‘Absolute Consciousness’ is meant the Divine Mother who will save the world by bringing it back to its original purity and power and light and life, by a fuller manifestation for which it is being moulded through suffering and darkness. For this consummation to be possible there must be a readiness in the physical consciousness to open to the influence of the psychic being, the inner soul."[8]
Soon after joining the Ashram, she took up embroidery — an excellent means of concentration and sadhana. "Yoga would be impossible, except for a very few," we read in Sri Aurobindo’s Synthesis of Yoga, "if the intellectual figure of knowledge arrived at by the speculative or meditative Reason were its indispensable condition or a binding preliminary. All that the Light from above asks of us that it may begin work is a call from the soul and a sufficient point of support in the mind."[9] One of the silk sarees she embroidered and offered to the Mother, had a stream of the flower Divine’s love. A life-size photograph of the Mother wearing it on 25th October 1954 (Kali Puja day), stands in the ground floor Meditation Hall.[10] Minakshi also embroidered sarees with the flowers Grace and Realisation.
Sadhana was in those days the beginning, the middle and the end of Ashram life. For many years, each one was given a day to go and meditate alone with the Mother. Not only was their sadhana strictly and directly under the Mother’s control — they were to do nothing, not even talk to one another, without her permission or without reporting it to her. Even what you perceived as a real necessity often turned out to be not really so from the yogic point of view. There was a time when Minakshi and Rukmini had only one almirah between them. But when Minakshi wrote to Sri Aurobindo enquiring if it was possible to have another almirah, he replied, "Not necessary." Inmates were not allowed to visit each other without permission. Servants swept only the passage outside the room, they were not to enter it. The only time you saw other inmates was at the Dining Room and when you went to the Ashram for meditation or Darshan. When relatives came, you met them only in the Reception Room. When you were sick, only your attendant came to your room, and only for the time and work required. Birthdays were a personal affair between you and the Mother — an interview and meditation, its only external expression.
Rukmini and Minakshi were among those allowed to cook a few dishes for Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo was very fond of Minakshi’s lemon rice preparation. Minakshi’s mother sometimes sent a basket of fruits for Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. The Mother always sent down some to them, and told Minakshi what to reply when her mother asked about her offering. Once, Mother forgot to send them any. It was only when she asked her if she had liked the mango, did Minakshi reveal the error. Her reply to her mother had to be diplomatic! Incidentally, whenever her mother came for a visit, they were allowed to meet only in the Reception Room.
"In my earliest days," Minakshi said, "I did not know Ashramites called each other by their first names. I was stunned when one day a sadhak I hardly knew, shouted ‘Minakshi’ from behind me. Afterwards, I realised how this could help keep one’s ego in check and remember we are all equal in Mother’s eyes." This was a most healthy practice, judged in the light of Mother’s declaration: "With those whom I have accepted as disciples, to whom I have said Yes, there is more than a tie, there is an emanation of me."[23] Minakshi could easily adjust to both practices. She and Rukmini were, in those days, given rooms in ‘Saravana House’ (later becoming ‘Huta House’).
The Mother encouraged Minakshi to learn French since she already had sufficient English to get by. [25]
When Minakshi’s two daughters, Kowshiki and Anusuya were old enough, Mother called them and asked them their plans for their future. The former chose marriage and the latter to join the Ashram. Doraiswamy consulted the Mother in the matter of choosing the groom for Kowma. When the time came, Mother gave Kowma a message which can be inspiration for anyone choosing to get married.[26] The marriage took place in March 1933. Minakshi’s not attending the marriage created a sensation among family-members and society but did not disturb her. In the same spirit, she obeyed Mother’s advice and did not visit her father on his deathbed or join Ashramites going to Tiruvannamalai for a darshan of Bhagawan’s body after he passed away. Actually, the night he passed away, in April 1950, Bhagawan had come and blessed Minakshi in her dream.
Minakshi continued her work in the Embroidery department until glaucoma prevented her from doing so... She left her body in 1993.
[The above is a modified extract from A stream of Surrender.]
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