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<title>I Bow to the Mother</title>

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<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><b
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><font size="4">I Bow to the Mother</font><o:p></o:p></b></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><i><span style='font-size:
15.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>THOSE of you who came to
the Ashram as children <span lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>recognised</span>
the Mother and called her by that name practically from your birth, that is,
from the moment you began to recognise things. We the grown-ups did not have that
privilege. It has taken us a long long time to open our eyes and know. We have
lost valuable time, almost wasted it. But, as you know, it is never too late to
mend and it is possible to recover and even to make amends for lost time; there
lies an interesting secret.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:8.15pt 198.2pt;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>But as I was saying, you did not have to be told
about the Mother, for you have almost been born and brought up in her lap. In
our case somebody had to introduce us to the Mother, for we had been born and
brought up in a step-motherly lap, although that too was one of her own forms, her form of Maya.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
first time I heard about the Mother was shortly after our arrival here. It was
Sri Aurobindo himself who told us about a French lady from Paris who was a
great initiate. She was desirous of establishing personal contact with Sri
Aurobindo. That the Great Soul whom she meant was no other than Sri Aurobindo
would be evidenced by a sign: she would be sending him something that he might
recognise. That something was Sri Aurobindo's own symbol – in the form of a
diagram, known as Solomon's <span class=GramE>Seal</span>. Needless to add,
after this proof of identity, steps were taken to facilitate her coming.
Monsieur Paul Richard was at that time much interested in spiritual thought and
practice and he could</p>

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<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 494<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>I find an opportunity for
coming here: he wanted to find out if he could get elected as one of the
Representatives of French India in the French Parliament and he stood as a candidate
for election. In those days, there used to be two elected representatives of
French India, one in the Upper Chamber, the <i>Sénat, </i>the other in the
Lower House, the <i>Chambre des Députés. </i>I have already spoken to you about
this business of elections; this was a real bloody affair with murders and
mob-attacks that caused terror among the populace.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
first time he came here for canvassing, he was alone. The Mother accompanied
him the next time. To all outward appearances they arrived here to canvass support
for the election, although M. Richard did not in the end get very many votes.
But this provided the occasion for the Mother to meet Sri Aurobindo and gather
a few trusted friends and devotees. In this connection the Mother had to pay a
visit to Karikal once. This was her first direct experience of the actual
India, that is, what it is in its crude outward aspect. She gave us an amusing
description of the room where she was put up, an old dilapidated room as dark
as it was dirty and a paradise of white ants. Thus it was that the Divine
Mother, One who is fairer than the fairest and lovelier than infinite beauty
had to come down and enter the darkness and evil of this human life; for how
else could these poor mortals have a chance?<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>When
it first came to be bruited about that a Great Lady like this was to come and
live close to ourselves, we were faced with a problem: how should we behave? <span
class=GramE>should</span> there be a change in our manners? For we had been
accustomed to a bohemian sort of life, we dressed and talked, slept and ate and
moved about in a free unfettered style, in a manner that would not quite pass
in civilised society. Nevertheless, it was finally agreed that we should stick
as far as possible to our old ways even under the new circumstances, for why <span
class=GramE>should we</span> permit our freedom and ease to be compromised<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 495<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span class=GramE>or</span>
lost? This indeed is the way in which the arrogance and ignorance of man assert
the glory of their individuality!<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
Mother arrived. She would meet Sri Aurobindo in company with the rest at our
afternoon sessions. She spoke very little. We were out most of the time, but
also dropped in occasionally. When it was proposed to bring out the <i>Arya </i>she
took charge of the necessary arrangements. She wrote out in her own hand the
list of subscribers, maintained the accounts herself: perhaps those papers
might be still available. And afterwards, it was she herself who helped M.
Richard in his translation of the writings of Sri Aurobindo into French for the
French edition of the <i>Arya. </i>The ground floor of Dupleix House was used as
the stack room and the office was on the ground floor of Guest House. The
Mother was the chief executive in sole charge. Once every week all of us used
to call at her residence accompanied by Sri Aurobindo and had our dinner
together. On those occasions the Mother used to cook one or two dishes with
her own hands. Afterwards too, when she came back for good, the same
arrangement continued at the Bayoud House; I have told you of that before. About
this time, she had also formed a small group with a few young men; this too I
have mentioned earlier. A third line of her work, connected with business and
trade, also began at nearly the same time. Just as today we have among us men
of business who are devotees of the Mother and who act under her protection and
guidance, similarly in that period also there appeared as if in seed-state this
particular line of activity. Our Saurin founded the Aryan Stores, the object
being to bring in some money: we were very hard up in those days – not that we are
particularly affluent now, but still... The Mother kept up a correspondence
with Saurin in connection with these business matters even after she left here
for Japan.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>At
one stage, the Mother showed a special interest in cats. Not only has she been
concerned with human beings, but the animal creation and the life of plants too
have shared in<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 496<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span class=GramE>her</span>
direct touch. The Veda speaks of the animal sacrifice, but the Mother has
performed her consecration of animals in a very novel sense; she has helped
them forward in their upward march with a touch of her Consciousness. She took
a few cats as representatives of the animal world. She said, the king of the
cats who ruled in the occult world – you might call him perhaps their Super-cat
– had set up a sort of friendship with her. How this feline brood appeared
first in our midst is somewhat interesting. One day all of a sudden a
wild-looking cat made its appearance at the Guest House where we lived then; it
just happened to come along and stayed on. It was wild enough when it came, but
soon turned into a tame cat, very mild and polite. When it had its kittens, Sri
Aurobindo gave to the first-born the name of Sundari, for she was very fair
with a pure white fur. One of Sundari's kittens was styled Bushy, for it had a
bushy tail, and its ancestress had now to be given the name of Grandmother. It
was about this Bushy that the story runs: she used to pick up with her teeth
all her kittens one by one and drop them at the Mother's feet as soon as they
were old enough to use their eyes – as if she offered them to the Mother and
craved her blessings. You can see now how much progress this cat had made in
the path of Yoga. Two of these kittens of Bushy are well-known names and became
great <span lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>favourites</span> with
the Mother; one was Big Bay and the younger one was Kiki. <span
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>It<b> </b></span>is said about one of them – I
forget which, perhaps it was Kiki – that he used to join in the collective
meditation and meditated like one of us; he perhaps had visions during
meditation and his body would shake and tremble while the eyes remained closed.
But in spite of this sadhana, he remained in his outward conduct like many of
us rather crude in many respects. The two brothers, Big Boy and Kiki, could
never see eye to eye and the two had always to be kept apart. Big Boy was a
stalwart fellow and poor Kiki got the thrashings. Finally, both of them died of
some disease and were buried in the courtyard. Their Grandmother <span
class=SpellE>disap<span
class=GramE>peared</span> </span></p>

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<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 497<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<span class=SpellE>one day as suddenly as she had come and nobody
knew anything about her again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
style in which these cats were treated was something extraordinary. The
arrangements made for their food were quite a festive affair; it was for them
alone that special cooking was done, with milk and fish and the appropriate
dressings, as if they were children of some royal family – all was according
to schedule. They received an equally good training: they would never commit
nuisance within doors for they had been taught to use the conveniences provided
for them. They were nothing like the gipsy-bedouin cats of our Ardhendu.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>In
the days before the Mother came, we used to have a pet dog. Its story was much
the same. All of a sudden one day there appeared from nowhere in our earliest
residence a common street dog – it was a bitch; she too came and just stayed
along. Sri Aurobindo gave her the name of Yogini. He used to tell a story about
her intelligence. It was already nightfall and we did not know that she had not
yet turned in. She came to the front door, pushed against it and did some
barking, but we heard nothing as we were in the kitchen next to the back-yard.
Suddenly she recalled there was a door at the back through which she might perhaps
gain entrance or at least draw our attention. She now ran around three corners
of the house and appeared at the back door. From there she could make herself
heard and was admitted. She too bore some puppies and two of them became
particular <span lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>favourites</span>
with Sri Aurobindo. I cannot now recall how they were called.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>You
all know about the deep oneness and sympathy the' Mother has with plants, so I
leave out that subject today. As with the world of animals and men, so with the
beings of the supraphysical worlds – from the little elves and fairies to the
high and mighty gods, all have had their contacts with the Mother, all have
shared in her Grace as you may have heard, but the Grace could mean at times
thrashings too!<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 498<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:13.5pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Today
I leave aside the Mother's role as our Guide on the path of sadhana or yogic
discipline. Let me speak in a very general way of an aspect of her teaching
that concerns the first principles of the art of living.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
core of this lies in elevating our life to a cleaner level, and the first and
most important need is to put each thing in its place. The training that the
Mother has throughout been giving us – I am not here referring to the side of
spiritual practice but to the daily routine of our ordinary life – is precisely
this business of putting our things in order. We do not always notice how very
disorderly we are: our belongings and household effects are in a mess, our
actions are haphazard, and in our inner life we are as disorderly as in our
outer life, or even more. Indeed it is because we are so disordered within that
there is such disorder in our outer life. Our thoughts come to us pell-mell and
our brains are crowded with straying bits of random thought. We cannot sit down
quietly for a few minutes and pursue a particular line of thought with any kind
of steadiness or order. Our heads are full of noise like a market-place without
any peace or restraint or harmony. If the mind is in such a state, the vital
being is still worse. You cannot keep count of the strange desires and impulses
that play about there, <span class=GramE>If</span> the brain is a market-place,
the heart is no better than a madhouse. Well, I shall not now enlarge further
on the state of our inner being. One of the things the Mother has been trying
to teach us both by her word and example is this, namely, that to keep our outer
life and its materials in proper order and neat and tidy is a very necessary
element in our life upon earth. I do not know to what extent we have yet been able
to assimilate this teaching in our individual or collective living. How many of
us have <span lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>realised</span> that
beauty is at least half the sense of life and serves to double its value? And
even if we do sometimes realise, how many are impelled to shape our lives
accordingly? The Mother taught us to use our things with care, but there was
more to it than this.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 499<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>She uses things not merely
with care but with love and affection. For, to her, material things are not
simply inanimate objects, not mere lifeless implements. They are endowed with
a life of their own, even a consciousness of their own, and each thing has its
own individuality and character. The Mother says about material things what the
ancients have said about the life of plants, that they have in them a
consciousness that responds to pleasure and pain, <i>antahsanjñah
bhavanti ete sukha-duhkha-samanvitah. </i>We are all aware how carefully
the Mother treasures old things and <span class=GramE>does</span> not like them
to be thrown away simply because they are old. The reason for this is not
niggardliness or a conservative spirit; the reason is that old things are to
her like old friends, living companions all.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Let
me illustrate the point with something Sri Aurobindo once said. One of the
inmates had written to him that as the gate of his house seemed to have got
jammed and could not be opened, he had to make it open by giving a strong kick.
The door did open but it hurt the foot rather badly. So what he wanted now was
some ointment along with Sri Aurobindo's blessings. Do you know the answer he
had from Sri Aurobindo? &quot;If you kick at the door, the door will naturally
kick back at you<span class=GramE>&quot; !</span><o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>As
I told you in the beginning, the Mother did not appear to us, the older people,
as the Mother at the outset; she came to us first in this garb of Beauty. We
received her as a friend and companion, as one very close to ourselves, first,
because Sri Aurobindo himself received her like that, and secondly because of
her qualities. Now that we are on this subject of her qualities, although it is
not necessary for a child to proclaim the virtues of his mother, I cannot here
&quot;'refrain from telling you about another point in her teaching. This
concerns something deeper. The first time Sri Aurobindo happened to describe
her qualities, he said he had never seen anywhere a self-surrender so absolute
and unreserved. He had added a comment that perhaps it was only women<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 500<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span class=GramE>who</span>
were capable of giving themselves so entirely and with such sovereign ease.
This implies a complete obliteration of the past, erasing it with its virtues
and faults. The Mother has referred to this in one of her Prayers and
Meditations. When she came here, she gave herself up to the Lord, Sri
Aurobindo, with the candid simplicity of a child, after erasing from herself
all her past, all her spiritual attainments, all the riches of her
consciousness. Like a new-born babe, she felt she possessed nothing, she was to
learn everything right <i>from </i>the start, as if she had known or heard
about nothing.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Now
to come back to a personal experience. The first thing I heard and came to know
about the Mother was that she was a great spiritual person. I did not know then
that she might have other gifts; these were revealed to me gradually. First I
came to know that she was a very fine painter; and afterwards that she was an
equally gifted musician. But there were other surprises in store. For instance,
she had an intellectual side no less richly endowed, that is to say, she had
read and studied enormously, had been engaged in intellectual pursuits even as
the learned do. I was still more surprised to find that while in France she had
already studied and translated a good number of Indian texts, like the Gita,
the Upanishads, the Yoga-sutras, <span class=GramE>the</span> Bhakti-sutras of
Narada. I mention all this merely to tell you that the Mother's capacity of
making her mind a complete blank was as extraordinary as her enormous mental
acquisitions. This was something unique. In the early days, when she had just
taken charge of our spiritual life, she told me one day in private, perhaps
seeing that I might have a pride in being an intellectual, &quot;At one time I
used to take an interest in philosophy and other intellectual pursuits. All
that is now gone below the surface, but I can bring it up again at will.&quot;
So, I need not have any fears on that score! It was as if the Mother was trying
to apologise for her deficiencies in scholarship. This was how she taught me
the meaning of humility, what we call Divine Humility.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 501<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>As
I was saying, this capacity for an entire rejection of the past has been one of
the powers of her spiritual consciousness and realisation. It is not an easy
thing for a human being to wash himself clean of all his past acquisitions, be
it intellectual knowledge or the habits of the vital, not to speak of the
body's needs, and step forth in his nude purity. And yet this is the first and
most important step in the spiritual discipline. The Mother has given us a
living example of this. That is why she decided to shed all her past, forget
all about it and begin anew the a-b-c of her training and initiation with Sri
Aurobindo. And it was in fact at the hands of Sri Aurobindo that she received
as a token and outward symbol her first lessons in Bengali and Sanskrit,
beginning with the alphabet.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>But
all this is simply an attempt on the part of the small to comprehend something
of the Vast; it is as if a particle of sand was trying to reflect a little of
the sun's rays, a dwarf trying to catch at the high tree-top with his uplifted
arms, a child prattling of his mother's beauty.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>In
the beginning, Sri Aurobindo would refer to the Mother quite distinctly as
Mira. For some time afterwards (this may have extended over a period of years)
we could notice that he stopped at the sound of M and uttered the full name
Mira as, if after a slight hesitation. To us it looked rather queer at the
time, but later we came to know the reason. Sri Aurobindo's lips were on the
verge of saying &quot;Mother&quot;; but we had yet to get ready, so he ended
with Mira instead of saying Mother. No one knows for certain on which
particular date, at what auspicious moment, the word &quot;Mother&quot; was
uttered by the lips of Sri Aurobindo. But that was a divine moment in
unrecorded time, a moment of destiny in the history of man and earth; for it
was at this supreme moment that the Mother was established on this material earth,
in the external consciousness of man.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Let
me now end this story for today with a last word about myself.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 502<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>

<hr size=2 width="100%" align=center>

</div>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.45pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>I
have said that so far the Mother had been to us a friend and companion, a
comrade almost, at the most an object of reverence and respect. I was now about
to start on my annual trip to Bengal – in those days I used to go there once
every year, and that was perhaps my last trip. Before leaving, I felt a desire
to see the Mother. The Mother had not yet come out of her seclusion and Sri
Aurobindo had not yet retired behind the scenes. I said to him, &quot;I would
like to see <span class=GramE>Her</span> before I go.&quot;- Her with a capital
<span style='mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>H<b>, </b></span>in place of the
Mother, for we had not yet started using that name. Sri Aurobindo informed the
Mother. The room now used by Champaklal was the Mother's room in those days. I
entered and waited in the Prosperity room, for Sri Aurobindo used to meet people
in the verandah in front. The Mother came in from her room and stood near the
door. I approached her and said, &quot;I am going,&quot; and then lay
prostrate at her feet. That was my first Pranam to the Mother. She said,
&quot;Come back soon.&quot; This &quot;come back soon&quot; meant in the end,
&quot;come back for good.&quot;<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 503<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>

<hr size=2 width="100%" align=center>

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