Remarks of Nirodbaran:
Vivekananda, if I remember rightly, and Nivedita too perhaps have
said what a fine life it would have been to pass one's days sitting
at the feet of Sharada Devi, the Mother of the Ramakrishna Ashram,
instead of spending all one's energy in useless hectic activities!
A moment's mood, it may be, but the truth of the feeling is unmistakable.
But the wonder of wonders was the voice! It bears out the truth of
what the Mother had said, "I see Sri Aurobindo all the time busy
with you."
But if one bows down to a person who has embodied the Divine Consciousness
- of course with faith - then that person can more easily transmit
his consciousness or experience to the other.
The Mother always observed the rules of the game: once she had given
the authority to a person, she rarely used her absolute power.
People may think, "What a bother about a small and universally
accepted practice!" I would have thought the same if I had been
outside. But yogic insight is so often at variance with our ordinary
sight!
Rough and hard was not the way she adopted when dealing with anyone,
especially children.
The Mother never wanted to take the help of the Police or of the law
court in any of our internal matters. I cannot forget the loss of
the doubly precious ring.
I realised once more Sri Aurobindo's remark that behind diseases,
as behind everything else, there are forces that work for our weal
or woe. Doctors are instruments only in creating such conditions as
may help the benevolent forces to work without any hindrance.
When someone had remarked to Sri Aurobindo that the Mother lacked
humour he replied that her humour was very subtle.
Her nature always invited forwardness; we should come forward and
not wait to be called.
Words of the Mother:
Myself: Yes, Mother. I feel much better and stronger, but I can't
get rid of the suggestion that I am getting on in age.
Mother: No, you must not listen to it. It is a collective suggestion
thrown upon everybody. One can go on being active in spite of age.
I have seen people of 90 who were younger than boys of 10. No, you
must get rid of that suggestion altogether.
"Why not punish such miscreants?" asked Sanyal.
Mother: I don't believe in punishments.
Sanyal: Can't these force be changed?
Mother: If they want, otherwise they suffer their fate. But they serve
a purpose: they show your weak points in the body and you work on
them. Transformation of the body is not easy. If it were not for this
aim, I would have gone to Heaven long ago.
Mother: "It doesn't matter! We are all new hands."
"Why raise this issue again? Its necessity is over." A significant
remark which implied that she was always guided by inner laws and
inner movements.
She remarked: "There is a power in the family that acts through
them."
Mother: Compulsion is necessary. If you want to remain in the Group,
you have to obey the Group discipline. That is quite reasonable. I
will tell you one thing: without discipline, strict discipline, no
progress can be made in life. No yoga is possible without it. You
can't take one step forward without strict discipline. You may utter
a mantra for a hundred years, but without discipline you wont
be able to see beyond the tip of your nose.
Mother: But once you have made your choice, you have to stick to it
till the end of the year.
Mother: Where and when have I supported indiscipline?
Mother: Since he has taken refuge in me, I can't hand him over to
the Police. But he must leave the Ashram this very night; otherwise
I will call the Police. Go with him to the station and see that he
leaves.
One day it was raining heavily and it was school-time. As I approached
the Mother for my flower, I said, "How to go to school in this
rain, Mother?". "Why? what has rain got to do with the school?"
she replied.
"Few are those from whom the Grace withdraws, but many are those
who withdraw from the Grace," Sri Aurobindo has said.
When I reported it to the Mother, she told me, "The fear was
the cause. But why should you fear? If it comes, surrender it to the
Divine: that's the way to get rid of it."
Mother: Lack of strength does not depend upon the loss of blood. Strength
depends on making contact with the universal Force. Try to draw that
Force.
On one birthday I told her that I felt I was making no progress in
sadhana; everything seemed to remain at status quo. She replied,
"You know you were playing with doubt for a long time. Now you
are coming out."
Mother: And you know, from the point of view of humour, I have never
read anything more wonderful, oh!... He had a way of looking at things...
it's incredible. Incredible. But it seems that for him, the outside
world was something... absurd, you know.
Mother: I am hearing - through Nirod - things that Sri Aurobindo said,
and he himself says that he contradicted himself a number of times...
and that, of course, the two or three different ways are true. So
we can be as... wide as he!
The Mother answered, "Why double attraction? There is no opposition.
When I used to walk in the verandah of Sri Aurobindo's first house
[the Guest House], Krishna used to walk with me. Sri Aurobindo would
see us from his room, but nobody else could."
The question was: "What is the best way to prepare ourselves
so that we may be able to put in place the new structures?"
The Mother replied: "Naturally you have to enlarge your consciousness.
But how to do it? If each one of you could find your psychic being
and unite with it, all the problems would be solved. The psychic is
the representative of the Divine in the human being, isn't it?.....
Usually it takes a whole life, at times for some people many lives.
Here, in the present conditions, you can do it in a few months...
those who have an ardent aspiration can do it..."
Mother: (After a silence) My God! It is 60 years since I knew what
the fourth dimension is... Indispensable! indispensable! life starts
with it.
Mother: Consciousness should be able to be lucid and without words.
Altogether luminous, warm and strong and the true peace that is neither
inertia nor immobility.
Om - I implore the Supreme Lord
namo - pranam (obeisance) to him
bhagavate - make me 'divine'.
Mother: When he left his body I continued to live here in order to
do his work which is, by serving the Truth and enlightening mankind,
to hasten the rule of the Divine's Love upon earth.
Mother: Above all you must tell your ego: "Your hour is gone."
Mother: I ask only one thing: do not listen to the ego.
Mother: If there is in you hearts a sincere Yes, you will satisfy
me completely. I do not need words, I need the sincere adhesion of
your hearts. That's all.
Mother: You are never abandoned.
In fact I hold myself responsible for everyone, even for those whom
I have met only for one second in my life.
Mother: He will be Kali for the worshippers of Kali, and Beatitude
for the Bhakta..... The Divine is indeed what you expect of him in
your deepest aspiration.
Words of Sri Aurobindo:
It is better not to speak of the Mother to your friends - they do
not know her, therefore they can take no interest in her. The more
you live close to the Mother yourself, the less you will need to speak
of her to others. - Sri Aurobindo
You are a child of the Divine Mother, be tranquil, calm and full of
force. There is no special procedure. To take the name of the Mother,
to remember her within, to pray to her, all this may be described
as calling the Mother. As it comes from within you, you have to call
her accordingly. You can also do this - shutting your eyes you can
imagine that the Mother is in front of you or you can sketch a picture
of her in your mind and offer her your pranam, that obeisance will
reach her. - Sri Aurobindo
"Always behave as if the Mother was looking at you; because indeed
she is, always present."- Sri Aurobindo
"The Mother is not a disciple of Sri Aurobindo. She has had the
same realisation and experience as myself." - Sri Aurobindo.
Sri Aurobindo's opinion about vaccination was that "it is a very
nasty affair, this vaccination. The whole Pasteurian affair is to
me antipathetic - it is a dark and dangerous principle however effective..."
"One of the two great steps in this yoga is to take refuge in
the Mother." ( The other is "Aspiration of the sadhak for
the divine life.") - Sri Aurobindo.
Nirodbaran
in "Memorable Contacts with the Mother"
published by Sri
Aurobindo Ashram - Pondicherry
diffusion by SABDA
Note of Bernard: Not having the book, I could
not control the text.