“The Mother of Dreams” — Some Experiences from 1973 (2)

2

Dream of 29-8-1973

Early this morning I had another dream of the Mother. I dreamt that some time in the late afternoon I went to see her. From an outer room I passed into an inner one. Before entering the latter, I picked up a tubular flashlight, its body tarnished and old-looking. But, as soon as I got in, the “torch” disappeared from my hand.

I found the Mother standing, in a long robe, as I have often seen her in the years immediately following 1954. When I approached her she smiled a little and gave me a bunch of flowers for myself and another bunch for Sehra. One flower was prominent in each bunch. It was positioned like a leader of the three or four others. The Mother, pointing to it, said, “Seventy times” — and, pointing to the rest, she added, “Forty times.” Then she mentioned the significance of my leading flower and that of Sehra’s. Mine was “Vital Protection”. Sehra’s was “Radha’s Consciousness in the Vital”.

I asked the Mother whether the significance of these flowers were to be spoken out by us 70 times and those of the remainder 40 times. She answered, “Concentrate on them inwardly.” I then bent down to her hand-level, kissed her left hand, and received the blessing from her right.

As I was taking my leave she called me back, “Aren’t you going to wish me a happy birthday?” I looked somewhat puzzled. Either Vasudha or Kumud explained, “Mother couldn’t celebrate her birthday on the 21^st February. So she’s doing it now.” I walked back to the Mother. She opened her arms and we warmly embraced. Before the embrace ended, she kissed me on my right cheek. I first kissed in the air in response but soon brought my lips to her left cheek and kissed it.

Then I left her, saying to myself, “This is the most wonderful day of my life!”

When I woke up, I took the old tubular flashlight standing on the table next to my bed and with its dim glow read the time on my wrist-watch. It was 3.08 a.m.

Looking back, the first thing that struck me was the numerological aspect. Like the number 47 which had figured on my card in the dream of August 18, there were 70 and 40 in this dream. The same two numbers 4 and 7 were here, though in the opposite order. And their total, either way, was 11 which, again, totalled (1+1=)2. Even the time of waking was 3+8=11=2. And the date itself — the 29^th — amounted to 11=2. Perhaps we can ignore the waking time and the date, but the recurrence of 4 and 7 is quite intriguing.

I noted that along with the 2 ultimately resulting from the addition of these figures there were 2 words — “Matter-of-fact” and “Independence” — in the earlier dream and again 2 words for me — “Vital Protection” — in the present case.

Curiously enough, the second dream came 11 days after the first which had come on the 18^th — a time-length which once more adds up to 2. Finally, if we add the pair of dates — 18 and 29 — what do we get? Precisely the numerals which in different ways were given by both my dreams: 47. And, of course, 47 is 2.

What is the significance of this recurring 2? I can think only of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo side by side — joined and inseparable.

I may observe that in the meeting with the Mother there was no sense of cataract, no dimness of vision: everything was clear and normal. The cataract-sense and the dim vision must have been there when I took hold of that old tarnished flashlight. But the complete disappearance and forgetting of it when I received flowers from the Mother showed the change in the state of sight. It was as if the Mother were giving me some power of seeing which I did not lately have. But what exactly was I called upon to see?

Later Comment

Perhaps I had to see the reason why the Mother’s birthday was being observed in the month of August in my dream. The Mother may have been passing at that time through a period in which one could declare that a special birthday for her in some sense was occurring in the same month as Sri Aurobindo’s birthday. The month being the same should suggest an extra-strong linking of them, so as to give a particular point to the side-by-sideness I have read in general in the number 2 produced by 47=11. The Mother’s departure from her physically embodied state in 1973 joined her most literally with Sri Aurobindo, setting her close beside him on the subtle plane and marking the commencement of a new life one with his work from there, the birth of a new activity on her part as the Shakti of Sri Aurobindo.