3 November, 1952
On November 3, she was at Pondicherry. At eleven in the morning that day, she had a meeting with "The Mother", who stood in the sitting room of Sri Aurobindo. Mother looked at her for a long time with a fixed gaze as Ma looked at her with a natural poise. Mother's eyes blinked after a long time. She presented Ma with a rose, a 'ball' flower (globe lily) and two pieces of chocolate. Ma returned the rose and one piece of chocolate. Mother kept the chocolate but gave the rose back. This exchange of flowers was repeated twice or thrice after which Mother tore a portion off the rose and returned the rest to Ma.
Translated in English from Gurupriya Devi's notes
Anandamayi Ma’s account of her meeting with the Mother was recorded by Gurupriya Devi, a disciple of Anandamayi Ma. Gurupriya Devi writes in the Ananda Varta magazine :
One day, when a number of us were sitting in Her room, the conversation turned to Mataji’s visit at the Pondicherry Ashram....
During this conversation Professor Jyotish Das Gupta, the brother-in-law of Sri Nalini Sen, who is an inmate of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, was present. He said: “Ma, I also have been to Pondicherry. There someone told me that tbe Mother looked straight at you with a steady gaze and you, unable to bear it, lowered your eyes.” Professor J. Das Gupta related more of the kind and wanted to know what Mataji had to say about it all.
Mataji listened to everything and then said with a smile: “She is the Mother and this (pointing to Herself) Her little daughter. What more is to be said about it ?”
But some of us including myself begged of Mataji: “Should not the actual facts be disclosed? Do please speak, Ma! For in this case it cannot be as it would with ordinary people like ourselves.”
When we went on pressing Mataji to explain to us what had really happened, She laughed heartily and at last responded: “As you know, Sri Haribabaji took this small child with him when he went on a pilgrimage to South India. This is precisely how this little child went to see the Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. This body did not approach the Mother in quest of spiritual experience or the like; a little girl is simple and natural in the presence of her own mother. You well know that the behaviour of this body is quite Unpredictable (‘elomelo‘ in Bengali): here there is no question of giving or receiving power, of finding anything bearable or unbearable - whatever comes to pass at any time is as it should be ('jokhon ja hoye jaye'). As this body feels here with you now, just exactly the same it felt at Pondicherry. What is the difference between this body, the Mother and you all? From your angle of vision only they are different one from the other.
“Very well then, since you are eager to hear, listen. When the Mother came and stood before this body, this body out of its own kheyal looked straight into the Mother’s eyes and for a moment, just as it looks at all of you; but then the kheyal came that the sadhus who had come with us were all being kept standing and so this body for a second looked in their direction; then again there was the kheyal to respond fully to the blinkless gaze of the Mother. Thus this body of its own accord did look directly into the Mother’s eyes for some length of time, did it not ? Then the Mother herself lowered her glance and put a flower into my hand; an exchange of flowers followed.”
Turning to us Mataji added : “You all witnessed this yourselves. The Mother’s eyes did not even radiate intense light while focused on this small girl. In other words did my Mother attract and hold the eyes of this small girl with her glance as is done in the case of others? This is the exact truth of the matter.”
After pausing for a while, Mataji spoke again. “Some years ago, when this body met Satubhai (Satyendra Thakore of Sri Aurobindo Ashram), he talked about the Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and said that when one goes for her darshan she gazes straight and steadily into one’s eyes. At that time this body had the kheyal ‘Very well, if ever circumstances bring about a meeting of this body with the Mother, this body will behave quite naturally according to its kheyal; whatever happens is as it should be’.”
Mataji laughed and then continued : “If someone had told this body that at the Pondicherry Ashram it was a rule to respond from the very beginning to the Mother’s gaze and look straight into her eyes, this body would have had the kheyal to do accordingly. Every place and every condition, wherever and whatever they may be, are but the ONE. If the kheyal had come, this body would spontaneously have acted (to whatever extent it might be) as consistent with the demands of that particular place. Where this body was made to stay, there it stayed. When and where it was taken to see (someone or something ) it did go and see at the appointed time and place. Further it sat down or stood up, etc. for precisely the length of time and at any particular spot that was in keeping with the ritual of the place, so far as it had been made known to this body. From your worldly point of view there are no doubt a great many different ways of expressing things. So long as the individual is what it is and has not been freed from its knots, how can a correct solution of any problem be arrived at ? Suppose the Mother’s gaze had been met by the gaze of this body from beginning to end, this might have given you the chance of saying : ‘Look, Mataji held the eyes of the Mother with such power that the Mother was incapable of averting her eyes.”
Here Mataji broke out into ringing laughter and then remarked : “This is the kind of thing you might have said, is it not ? Look, all forms are but the expressions of the Power of the One Lord; at different times He manifests in different ways.”[3].
Source:Gurupriya Devi > “Pages from my Diary” Ananda Varta, Vol VII, No. 4 1960. p 171
Adjacent to the main Playground at Puducherry, there was the courtyard of the building known as ‘Guest House’ .... I was present there,...
Having seen the Mother busy with a ceremony, stealthily Mataji reached the rank of kids who were waiting for Prasad, and knelt down. Every day the Mother distributed hot roasted peanuts; on special occasions, instead, she asked the Cottage Service to prepare delicate toffees with almond paste. That being the case, when the Mother was in front of her, pretending to be surprised to see her there, Mataji folded her hands and, with a mock impish smile claimed: 'ami-o to tor chhoto méyé; amay mishti dibi né?'' ('I too am your little girl; won’t you give me sweets?'). I clearly remember that particular regional speech she practiced. There was an exchange of hearty smiles....
The daily ceremony I mentioned above consisted of a garland that my parents — Usha-di and Tejen-da — brought every afternoon, waiting for the Mother near the passage between the Guest House and the Play Ground. They handed the garland over to Pranab-da: he took it to bedeck the Mother’s neck. Late in the evening, on returning to the Main Building of the Ashram, the Mother placed the garland at Sri Aurobindo’s feet.
...After Mataji’s leaving the Play Ground, the Mother informed my parents that the experience with the garlands was over. She needed no garland any more. Nobody knows the significance of this mysterious coincidence.
Source
I remember that some old sadhaks told me that when Anandamayi Ma came to the Playground some Ashramites rushed to make pranam to her. She admonished them, "Make pranam to her who is the Mother of all of us."
As reported by M.P. Pandit
Once Ma Anandamayi's photograph was shown to Sri Aurobindo by Dilip Kumar Roy. Sri Aurobindo said she was in the Sachchidananda consciousness. The question came up how can you have Sachchidananda consciousness unless you have supramental consciousness? How did she get Sachchidananda without doing the grades? Do you mean to say she has realised super-mind, that was the question. Sri Aurobindo said: No, one does not have to pass through all these graded levels of consciousness to experience the Sachchidananda for the simple reason that Sachchidananda is not only up there but here throughout. It is behind all, supporting all. The Upanishads say sarvam khalvidam brahma— Brahman is all this. And Sachchidananda being part of Brahman is also behind everything. At every level there is Sachchidananda. So even at the physical level, even without being highly developed mentally, without knowing the Sastras, without having to pass through all these, one can just deepen the consciousness and realise the Sachchidananda. So there is a realisation of Sachchidananda at the physical level, at the vital level, every level. But if you want to realise it evolutionarily, confirming it in every part of the being, you have to go through the gradations. If one has realised Sachchidananda at the physical or the emotional level, it is only there; the mind need not be illumined by Sachchidananda, the person may be very crude, undeveloped, but at a particular level he has the Sachchidananda Consciousness. Now Sri Aurobindo and Mother have emphasised the necessity of evolving spiritually because the whole of the person, right from the body upwards, is to be enlightened, illumined, possessed by the highest Consciousness. So it is only if you want to go up the evolutionary ladder that you have to go through the supermind, but you can always withdraw from the course of evolution and realise the Divine where you are.
No source
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