17th Nov 1973 is regarded as the Mother’s Mahasamadhi day. This day and event has become the subject of much speculation. The sceptics wonder about the fate of
Integral Yoga without a spiritual successor, especially since they think that the task of physical transformation undertaken by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother has been left incomplete. Some use the term postponed, others say it has been temporarily abandoned. The faithful however continue to repose their trust in the Mother and accept everything as part of Her Divine Lila even if they do not comprehend it.
This article (running in ten parts) is an effort to take a look at some of these issues with regard to the Integral Yoga and its many-sided fulfillment.
Part 10 (Conclusion). The Unfailing Help.
Yes some would perhaps say but whom do we write and get answers to our questions? Well perhaps it is time to change our mental questions into an inner quest and then we shall see that the answer does come, not in a mental way (though that too is possible) but in an even more tangible way, as a divine response. After all even when people received written replies how much did they follow it, mentally and otherwise. But the inner response is very different; it not only satisfies our understanding but gives us the strength to accomplish. In a certain sense Sri Aurobindo and the Mother no more tied to a gross material body are even more easily accessible to us now than when They had assumed a human body for a very specific work. What the Mother says Here for Sri Aurobindo and His Samadhi, applies as much to Her:
If ever something torments you or you are in difficulty and you do not know what to do, quieten yourself at once and go inwards. That means, you enter within, and sincerely ask your inner being, the psychic being, and you will get the answer, — clear and precise, like this. It will tell you what is to be done. It will guide you invariably….
And there is also another means which is very effective and you will succeed each time you ask. If you are in difficulty or you want an answer, it could be anything, or if you are not feeling quite at ease or something is tormenting you or you have made a mistake which makes you feel uneasy, — supposing you become angry and are discontented, which may be very insignificant, quite ordinary and without any value, even for things of which you do not know the cause, if something is not all right, not as it should be, — at that time, if you want to get rid of this somewhat unhappy state, come directly to the Samadhi, and bow down your head at the Samadhi and speak frankly to Sri Aurobindo all that you have to say, without hesitation, without doubt, as you come to tell me — and you have seen so many times that your difficulties have disappeared at once, vanished completely the moment you spoke to me. You got rid of them because I chased them out of you. And you felt yourself free from these negative or even harmful formations and you felt light because I had removed from you this burden and you went back happy. Do you remember? So many times you have told me that.
Yes, Mother, many times.
In the same manner, you should tell Him (Sri Aurobindo); like this, you should keep your head on the Samadhi (the Mother bows Her head) and you tell Him to get rid of your difficulties. Or you send a prayer like this, (the Mother makes a movement with the hand from the region of the heart upwards) but very sincerely, and you bring the concentration at the very depth of your being. I am sure that He will hear you and He will give you your answer. Without doubt, you can now communicate easily with Him. There are many who put themselves in contact with Him and find their answers. He has become more accessible to us and He is much more active. You see then, in this way you don’t have to wait — first to inform me and then I would have to choose a convenient date, a precise time, and also see if I have the time or not so that I could listen to what you have to tell me, and then I would answer. A whole process to be followed before you get the answer. It is long, it takes a lot of time and above all, you have to have the patience to wait…. But this method is convenient and more direct and more accessible. At any time you can ask. You just come to the Samadhi to have your answer.
If something is not all right and you would like to know the cause, or you want to get rid of a weakness, or get cured, or be cleansed, to have a difficulty removed in order to be purified, — for any answer, come and ask Sri Aurobindo at the Samadhi and you will have the answer. Not only His answer but also His blessings, His compassion, His peace and His illumination. You will be engulfed and seized by His love that is all-powerful. Once you abandon yourself to Him, you will be protected against all mishaps. It is like this — His influence. He reveals Himself to all those who are simple, sincere and humble. He is there, perfectly conscious, and He directs all the activities of the world…..
You know, earlier, when He was in His body, people used to say that He was very far, remote and inaccessible to men and that He was not concerned about the affairs of the sadhaks here. It is not quite correct, for indeed He used to spend night after night replying to a heap of letters instead of doing His work of uplifting the world and preparing it for the advent of the Supramental world. He used to take pains to follow their progress and occupy Himself with matters concerning the sadhaks. And yet He had arranged things in such a way that the sadhaks could communicate directly with me and receive my blessings and my help practically on the physical plane as well as inwardly for the sadhana. It was through me that they could realise the heights of consciousness towards the Supramental or surmount any difficulty. At that time, He was preoccupied to gain control, not only to conquer but to subjugate and master the different worlds, the diverse powers and the innumerable states of consciousness that were opposing and standing like an obstacle to our work — the quest towards the Supramental. And the mundane affairs were left to me to resolve and also all this organisation of the Ashram as well as the progress of the individuals and the effort towards the collect- ive yoga. During that period He had hardly any time to occupy Himself with the people or hear their complaints. But now He has universalised Himself, become vast, very intimate and close. There is a bond with everyone, through a nearness and a direct influence so that everyone can have access to Him.
It is formidable. His presence vibrates, concrete, all around the Samadhi. And His influence penetrates and touches the central being and awakens the consciousness to the spiritual life. Even the agnostics, the unbelievers, people of bad-will who come out of curiosity to visit the Samadhi, return amazed by a mysterious alchemy and find an inner peace, because there He showers His peace and His compassion constantly. It is this that bathes them when they pass before Him. It is an unbelievable surcharged activity of His force and His presence.
When I look at the Samadhi and see what is happening there, I am astonished to find this column of dazzling light vibrating with an energy and a transforming force. It rises like this – (Mother makes an upward movement with the hands) with a splendour and a brilliance like an effusion of light from the length and breadth of the Samadhi. It is the New Light materialising….
Let us then take the leap of faith which is indeed the first and last step of the journey. If we can do so we shall find that nothing essential has changed. Aspiration, sincerity, devotion, faith and surrender remained the pillars of yoga then even as they remain so now. Let us close with gratitude remembering words that always inspire and invite us:
The inner fruit of the Avatar’s coming is gained by those who learn from it the true nature of the divine birth and the divine works and who, growing full of him in their consciousness and taking refuge in him with their whole being, manmaya mam upasritah, purified by the realising force of their knowledge and delivered from the lower nature, attain to the divine being and divine nature, madbhavam. The Avatar comes to reveal the divine nature in man above this lower nature and to show what are the divine works, free, unegoistic, disinterested, impersonal, universal, full of the divine light, the divine power and the divine love. He comes as the divine personality which shall fill the consciousness of the human being and replace the limited egoistic personality, so that it shall be liberated out of ego into infinity and universality, out of birth into immortality. He comes as the divine power and love which calls men to itself, so that they may take refuge in that and no longer in the insufficiency of their human wills and the strife of their human fear, wrath and passion, and liberated from all this unquiet and suffering may live in the calm and bliss of the Divine. Nor does it matter essentially in what form and name or putting forward what aspect of the Divine he comes; for in all ways, varying with their nature, men are following the path set to them by the Divine which will in the end lead them to him and the aspect of him which suits their nature is that which they can best follow when he comes to lead them; in whatever way men accept, love and take joy in God, in that way God accepts, loves and takes joy in man.
[Sri Aurobindo CWSA 19: 176]
And the Mother:
Certain prophets in the past have had this apocalyptic vision but, as usual, things were mixed, and they did not have together with their vision of the apocalypse the vision of the supramental world which will come to raise up the part of humanity which consents and to transform this physical world. So, to give hope to those who have been born into it, into this perverted part of human consciousness, they have taught redemption through faith: those who have faith in the sacrifice of the Divine in Matter will be automatically saved, in another world — by faith alone, without understanding, without intelligence. They have not seen the supramental world nor that the great Sacrifice of the Divine in Matter is the sacrifice of involution which must culminate in the total revelation of the Divine in Matter itself.
[The Mother CWM 9: 300 – 301]
