THE
MOTHER’S ‘ANTARDHAANAM’:
HER
GATHERING INWARD
Dr. H. MAHESHWARI, M.A.,
Ph. D.
“The One whom we adore
as the Mother is the divine Conscious Force that dominates all existences, one
and yet so many-sided that to follow her movement is impossible even for the
quickest mind and for the freest and most vast intelligence.”
–SRI AUROBINDO
The phenomenon overtly
known and called ‘the Mother’s passing’ has created really a bewildering stir
in the minds or all those who came to be associated with her in one way or
another, by faith or experience, by love or adoration, by prayer or devotion,
by belief or intuition, even by wishful expectation. The common concern of them
all is: Why at all the Mother should have passed away despite the prevalent belief
and an undisputable understanding that she would not, and particularly in view
of the assurance that she having come upon the earth the work of physical
transformation would be accomplished by her in her own body to initiate a
superhuman evolution of the human race in the terrestrial life. Thousands of
her devotees all over the world had lodged in themselves the conviction that
she was not an ordinary evolutionary being, and though born in a human way she
was not to pass through the portals of man’s mortality; she would rather cancel
by her single will and divine power ‘Nature’s harsh economy’ and change the
course of life. From her ‘Notes On The Way’ we had all started gathering with
hope the impression that the transformational change in her body cells was
progressing with speed and the work would be accomplished sooner than expected,
some had even started cherishing miraculous things by the year of her Birth
Centenary in 1978.
The undeniable as also
inexplicable fact that she left her body on the 17th of November, 1973, is now
the topic round which many of us are temperamentally constructing, rather
reconstructing, the entire thought regarding the Mother’s Being, her
personality, her work and her role in the Yoga of Transformation. Many others
are eager to hear a congruous note from those who matter. Many have found an
occasion to voice what sometimes crossed their minds as candid doubts relating
to the very idea of death-defying existence, though not very boldly. Many are
recollecting hitherto unheeded experiences containing some clues or hints about
the otherwise unimaginable and unpredictable event for some explanatory
hypotheses. Some find their minds open to hostile suggestions as if all their
past belief stands collapsed for want of a real foundation, and, still worse,
as if they now see no grounds to stand upon! The entire spiritual endeavour to
such persons appears to be at stake.
Besides, the situation
has thrown open the gates to ‘whisper’ and vain words and weakening
suggestions. Man’s ‘prudence’ seems to sound its own sense of caution against
all validity of adventure into the yet unchartered. A variety of hypotheses are
springing up inviting attention to their own claims to probable truth, and our
frail mentality, used so far to assured faith, seems now to face an unexpected
challenge with insecure possibilities, our confidence as if threatened, our
faith and reliance as if self-suspicious.
Quite normal, no doubt,
it may be for us, human as we are, to ask: What is this phenomenon we call the
Mother’s passing? For indeed it cannot be a mere case of natural decay of her
body. Even in the case of ordinary yogins and pious souls, we have heard
the recognised truth, there is no absolute helplessness in respect of death and
an element of their will is, if nothing more, at least a contributing factor
while leaving their bodies. In the case of advanced Yogins their will is well
recognised to be often the determining factor rendering a voluntary control
over their death termed as ichchaa mrtyuh. In the case of our Divine
Mother, then, who knows what maternal ‘power’ of her immutable Being
condescended to the Infantile game of necessity and dispersal? What eternal
principle of her Force made a gesture of allowance to the god of mortality to
have the thrilling touch or her divine body? What command of her occult
Authority hinted to the nature’s economy for effecting a retirement in the
workings of eternity? What plan of her ulterior work designed a pause in the
exteriors of its operations? What scene of her aeonic Drama provided for a
curtain-drop on the stage during its continuously sustained play? What mood of
her cosmic Muse called in a suspense in the world’s rhythms of constant
concerts? What image of her perfect Art concentrated onto a dark dot among the
exuberant touches o her colourful designs?
If it is beyond human
mind to understand even the sense and meaning of the event of her passing, much
too above human comprehension would be its reason or its significance, its
purpose or its justification, its import or its implication. Howsoever deeply
concerned we might humanly feel, no amount of mental effort can help us or
explain the situation. And then have we not been told by Sri Aurobindo that “to
follow her movement is impossible even for the quickest mind and for the freest
and the most vast intelligence”? The fact, therefore, that nobody expected the
event of her passing is at the most indicative of the habit and disposition of
our mind to its own clumsy methods of calculation, and can have no bearing or
relevance to her movements or her steps. All our mental approach shows simply
that we are somehow so disposed as if our first or our sole concern is to see
what the Mother does and why she does, what she does.
The incomprehensible
being incomprehensible, and yet the human being human, we could justifiably as
well as usefully engage our mind in reviewing whatever is reviewable for
helping us out of the bewildering weakness of thought and emotion. If our
“expectation” purports to seek its own raison de etre in such a context,
it must only stand prepared for the “unexpected”, all its calculated moments
must attentively turn towards “the hour of the unexpected.” Not so much for
this or that kind of explanation as for a rehabilitation of ourselves may we
observe that the whole of the past decade is resonant with the Mother’s
charging messages, her heralding commandments delivered to her children
successively year after year on each New Year Day.
In the year 1963 came
her message: “Let us prepare for the hour of God.” How inspiringly inviting!
How powerfully charging! How meaningfully arousing in us the spiritual
awareness and awakening our souls to “the hour of the unexpected,” the boon to
the sincere, the terrible “blow” to the deceitful. The Words of Sri Aurobindo
are there to guide us for the “preparation”:
In the hour of God
cleanse thy soul of all self-deceit and hypocrisy and vain self-flattering that
thou mayst look straight into thy spirit and hear that which summons it. All
insincerity of nature, once thy defence against the eye of the Master and the
light of ideal, becomes now a gap in thy armour and invites the blow. Even if
thou conquer for the moment, it is the worse for thee, for the blow shall come
afterwards and cast thee down in the midst of thy triumph. But being pure cast
aside all fear; for the hour is often terrible, a fire and a whirlwind and a
tempest, a treading of the winepress of the wrath of God; but he who can stand
up in it on the truth of his purpose is he who shall stand; even though he
fall, he shall rise again; even though he seem to pass on the wings of wind, he
shall return. Nor let worldly prudence whisper too closely in thy ear; for it
is the hour of the unexpected.
(“The Hour of God”)
The “hour” perhaps continues and the terms of
preparation are unambiguously imperative. Whether we prepared ourselves or
neglected the command is a matter of the past review; whether even today we are
preparing or simply slumbering, whether we “stand for the true purpose” or are
given to “insincerity”, is a matter or our present reflection. Who knows
whether the “hour” with its “blow” has not come to cast us down and whether the
“worldly prudence” is not “whispering too closely” in our ears? Is it not that
our worldly sense of security has been knocked down and the shock has been sent
to wake us up from our indolent stupor and all-corrupting insincerity? And yet
who knows whether this casting down is not a deliverance in disguise? Shall we
then rise to the present “hour” as the hour of “terrible” awakening!
The very next year,
i.e., in 1964, the Mother asked and simply: “Are you ready?” What a searching
message, a charge, a call, an invitation! Was it not rather a whole life
programme and a life long search? We might review whether and in what measure
we truly attended to it; we may even today assess our readiness.
Ready for what? could be
asked by the year 1964 only by missing the full hint of the year 1963 for the
“hour of God”. The “hour” surely was decreed; our readiness was for our
privilege to welcome the “breath of the Lord”. And the Mother’s words hymned
the year 1965: “Salute to the advent of Truth.” The hymn continues, and whether
our hearts reverberate with it or lie dull and insensitive, is what we might
ask ourselves while recalling the past for self-assessment And is not that
“salutation to the advent of Truth” all-promising to us in our souls’ seekings,
much above our mentality failing always in its calculations? Shall we now,
heart and soul, join the hymn and salute the Truth that has come not only to
visit but to abide and conquer and rule our nature?
Yes the Truth, the
supreme inescapable Truth, which the whole of our being must receive and which
no part of our life must resist or neglect! The Mother’s message for 1966
guided: “Let us obey the Truth. Cling to Truth.” The simplest advice, the most
direct command, the absolutely categorical direction, the sole formula for
rising to the occasion! Whether we obeyed the Truth or attended to the whisper
of Falsehood, whether we clung to Truth or stuck to Error, is what the
self-examining eye in us can ever revise. Obedience to Truth is not a temporary
formula; it affords an everlasting life-regulation, and in that the Mother’s
guidance is ever fresh.
When falsehood persists
and there lingers human indolence, the Divine warns and sometimes absolutely.
The year 1967 received for us, one and all, such a warning from the Mother:
“Men, countries, continents! The choice is imperative: Truth or the abyss.”
Perhaps we had not started obeying the Truth, or, perhaps, we were still given
to mixed allegiance, our profiteering ego compromising with falsehood or
submitting to its enticing influence! Nothing can hide itself from the
all-seeing Eye of the Truth, and the Divine’s compassion allows a chance,
provides a choice. We might inwardly refer whether or not we had made our
choice even when available. Who knows whether the choice still continues!
Perhaps a postponement of choice can never save us from the “abyss”! Will the
Truth wait?”
The imperative nature of
the “choice”–“Truth or the abyss”–surely calls for a zealous strength of will
and the Mother’s Force brought the charge of an unfailing enthusiasm against
all possibility of despondency through her message for the year 1968: “Remain
young! Never stop striving towards Perfection”. What could be a greater secret
of youthful strength, a more elevating inspiration of life, a better sustaining
power to follow unfailingly our choice for the Truth? But whether we
courageously strove towards perfection or easily rushed towards alluring
conveniences is a rather heart-searching question. And yet the inspiration to
“strive towards Perfection” is always rejuvenating and the path ascending to
the heights of true Perfection is never barred either in scope or by time.
The Perfection-oriented
youthful striving to which our Mother beckoned, nay beckons ever more, would
meaningfully be a sole preoccupation with no wasteful allowances. Prome as man
is to talkative indulgences, tempted often to “announce” much more than
“realize”, our Mother’s guidance commanded by her imperative message for the
year 1969: “No words –acts”. Brief like a syllable, potent like a seed, her
command was and is all-sufficient. We could turn to ourselves in silent
self-examination to at least look into the proportions between our words and
our acts!
How far we the humans
prepared ourselves and lived and acted up to the divine advice is not the total
story. The role of Mother Nature, responding to “the advent of Truth” in “the
hour of God” enacted on the world scene found its worthwhileness in an all
round preparation, and the Mother announced in her invitational message for the
year 1970: “The world is preparing for a big change. Will you help?” How
significant the privilege offered to us to “help” in what the Divine would
accomplish as perhaps the very fulfilment of the world’s long cherished
destiny, the “big change” towards transformation! One is reminded here of the
significance of the legend of Sri Krishna’s lifting the mountain Govardhana on
his all-supporting, all-directing finger and at the same time providing a full
scope to his human playmates, the Gopas, to have the privilege of contributing
their mite by applying their sticks in support, and having thus the delight of
their collaboration. Whether and how far we truly resolved to “help” and
collaborate for the “big change” or whether we indolently stood idle and
unheeding, is simply a matter of self-retrospection, important and meaningful
to ourselves though perhaps insignificant as far as the Divine’s work is
concerned. The privilege of collaboration surely is never denied.
One could quite
sincerely ask: How to help? What would be the help? And, particularly when the
whole world was preparing for “a big change,” no customary sense of
world-service could suffice for the true meaning of “help” nor any
socio-political programme of reform could serve as the ways and means to that
“help.” The enlightening message of the Mother for the year 1971 came to guide
us in that regard and significantly declared: “Blessed are those who take a
leap towards the Future.” Herein is revealed to us not only the true secret of
“help” in the context but also its incalculable value. The world of humanity is
in the divine scheme of things to rise above its present limitations and fast
move towards its destined superhuman excellence. That would need an exceeding
of the normal speed of its progress through slow changes in our life, without
or without. The usual habit of remaining secure in the beaten track of the past
cannot let us move towards “big changes”. Adventurous strides would be
necessary, for the great Future awaits us eagerly. The pioneering effort can be
made not by all at once; the brave, the strong, the hero are called upon to move
ahead, “take a leap” and plunge into the yet unexplored verities of life. What
could be a greater gain in life? What could be more valuable than being
“blessed” by the Divine Mother for a forward leap into the “Future” of her
vision? Whether we have taken a “leap”, whether we are now ready for it, is of
utmost importance in the present situation, for, who knows whether our sweet
Mother has not herself assumed a cosmic “Leap” to see us brave and make of us
her worthy hero children.
Her message for the year
1972 came to us not only in silent communication but also in her eloquent
voice, each of its syllables releasing a tremendous vibrant energy: “Let us all
try to be worthy of Sri Aurobindo’s Centenary.” Compassionate and soft and
loving and linient is her motherly advice when asking us to “try”, but
imperative and unexempting is her commandment to “us all.” To be “worthy of Sri
Aurobindo’s Centenary” at once means to be worthy of the age and (future)
history of Sri Aurobindo himself, who in the words of the Mother “represents a
decisive action direct from the Supreme”.
With the messages of the
past decade rings again and again her assurance: “All things promised shall be
fulfilled.”
Although our fallen
minds forget to climb,
Although our human stuff
resists or breaks,
She keeps her will that
hopes to divinise clay;
Failure cannot repress,
defeat o’erthrow;
Time cannot weary her
nor the Void subdue,
The ages have not made
her passion less;
No victory she admits of
Death or Fate.
Always she drives the
souls to new attempt;
Always her magical
infinitude
Forces to aspire the
inert brute elements;
As one who has all
infinity to waste,
She scatters the seed of
the Eternal’s strength
On a half animate and
crumbling mould,
Plants heaven’s delight
in the hearts passionate mire,
Pours godhead’s seekings
into a bare beast frame,
Hides immortality in a
mask of death.
–Savitri