"On Prayer"
As far as we are concerned, the form that we approach directly is that of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. And here, a very important point has to be understood: "every Avatar in history incorporates within himself the powers of all the earlier avatars, the powers of the all the gods, all the attributes and functions of the One." So if I end that in some of Sri Aurobindo's dairy notes, or in letters, there are some intriguing references, somewhere he notes: "The part of me that is Shiva." Or, I recall an incident where a sadhika narrates that, after visiting the Mother for the first time, when she came down and went to the Samadhi not knowing what the Samadhi is, she saw a huge figure of Shiva over the Samadhi. Or, when in 1926, there was the descent of the Sri Krishna Consciousness, the Overmental consciousness descending and establishing itself in the physical. Or, in one of the letters, someone sees Sri Aurobindo in a different form and Sri Aurobindo makes the comment to that letter, saying that "[It] may be one of my aspects though I don't, I am not as profusing aspects as the Mother." One sees, even in Sri Aurobindo, all these different aspects, forms, attributes of consciousness present simultaneously. You will recall [that] in our tradition we have symbolically the same truth explained, when Sri Rama breaks the bow in order to win Sita. At that point, it is the first moment in his life when his avatarhood is displayed to humanity. And, it has then that Parshurama becomes all angry: "Who dares to break this bow" he says. And when he sees Rama, he recognises in him the next Avatar and hands over all his weapons to Rama. Symbolical of the handing over [of] all his powers; and then you never hear of Parshurama again. Or, in the training of Sri Krishna, you find all the gods come to train him and each one gives his favourite weapon to Krishna. Again, symbolical of the handing over [of] all the powers. So, it has that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother contain in themselves all these different attributes, deities and their powers. The Mother, as you know, at different times, on specific occasions, manifested Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Mahasharaswati. Even some of the photographs taken on those occasions have been named thus by her, or even Durga. Again, I recall that incident narrated by a sadhika: when she first came to the Mother she didn't know who She was, but she bowed before her and, looking at her, she had this sense of recognition and spontaneously, from deep within her heart, the question welled up: "Are you That, the One that I have been praying all these years?" – whom she knew till then in the form of Saraswati, Lakshmi or Durga – "Are you That?" It was an unspoken question which the Mother understood and, looking [at] her, straight into her eyes, nodded in acknowledgment. Such recognition, spontaneously rising, confirms that we need not look beyond this form that is most complete in manifestation so far.
Still, some sadhaks had their doubts and learnt through experiences and their stories are interesting. One name I can mention in passing is [that] of a businessman, I'll not mention the name, but in the early days of the Ashram when he had come here, he approached the Mother and said: "My wife had prayed to the family deity in Gujarat, in our village. And the condition of the prayer was if the boon would be granted then she would go and offer a special pooja. So, we want your permission to go there." Mother looked at him and said: "Why do you want to go there? I'm her." And this person says: "No Mother, it is to that family deity that [the] prayer was done and we have to go there." So, Mother said "All right, you go, then tell me what you see." They went. It was a very crowded day. Somehow, the poojari took both of them straight in to the inner room of the temple and, standing before the deity, they were surprised that the statue, which they were so familiar with, had a different head. It was the Mother smiling at them, seeing it with the physical eyes, open eyes and the inner state. On their return, they rushed to the Mother and before they could say a word, Mother said: "Now you understand." I, also, had an unusual experience. Once when I was passing through Chandigarh: there is a temple there to Mansa Devi. And it was at a time when I was passing through some inner difficulty. I felt disconnection, a distance. I didn't know why it was there, I couldn't overcome it on my own. And the constant prayer was: "Why have you abandoned me? Why have you let me loose like this? Where are you?" My host, who was with me, said: "Why don't we visit this temple." I said, "Fine, I have no problem, it doesn't matter to me which temple we go to, I will pray to the Divine Mother wherever it is." Somehow, we went through the backgate, we stood in front of the sanctum. And there was a huge queue of several hundred people, but nobody bothered us. While the queue went on, we were allowed to stand in front. I looked inside, more out of curiosity than of devotion. And there was a power failure; I could make out vaguely the form, a white marble figure. It was strange. It was very familiar. So I kept on staring, "What is this figure?" Gradually, as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I recognised the familiar smile of the Mother. I said: "What is this, am I dreaming?" So, I blinked my eyes, I looked away: 'maybe it is just a momentary hallucination. I'm not very much attuned within or outside'. And I looked: the face was smiling, the eyes blinked and I stood there for 20 minutes, the figure [was] continuously smiling, moving, eyes [were] blinking. Ande finally, as if to dispel any remnant of doubt, the lights came on all of sudden and in bright light I could still see the same face. And, if at all there was [any] trace of doubt left, the music began, the cassette, which had been put in the player, now started chanting 'OM Anandamayi, Chaitanayamayi, Satyamayi Parame…' – Sri Aurovindo's Mantra to the Mother.
