Some Answers from the Mother
1935
Q: To talk of surrender is easy, very easy indeed. To think of surrender in all its complexity is not easy, not so easy at all. But to achieve even the beginning of a genuine surrender of self, oh, how difficult it is, Mother! There are many things wrong with me, I know. But there must be something fundamentally wrong that stands in the way of my genuine surrender to you. What is it, Mother?
A: Nothing special to you. It is the same difficulty that exists for all human beings: pride and blindness of the physical mind.
1936
Q: There is an old Hindu belief that one should not lie down or sleep with one’s head towards the North. Has it any real significance?
A: Many things have been said on the subject but, as far as my own experience goes, I do not attach much importance to that belief.
24.3.1936
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You must know that yoga frees us from all subjection to the horoscope, the horoscope expresses the position one has in relation with the material world, but by the sadhana we get free from the slavery to that world.
14.9.1936
1937
I want you to ask freely what you need….
From your mother you can always take, it is quite natural, especially when things are given to you full-heartedly — and am I not your mother who loves you?….
3.1.1937
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Q: Though I do not understand my own nature and its highest needs, I feel that you know me better than myself and that my life and its aspirations are safe in your keeping.
A: Yes, my will is to lead you to the realisation of your highest aspiration.
Q: And though I do not know what true love is, I love you in my own crude way. May I offer you my love such as it is?
A: Your love is welcomed and receives the answer of our love and blessings.
9.9.1937
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Q: How I long for the day when I can truly feel and say that my one desire and happiness in life is to love and serve you. Will it come to pass?
A: I see no reason why it should not!
30.9.1937
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You can be sure of my love and affection — and my help and force will never fail you.
18.11.1937
1938
I always mean what I say.
4.5.1938
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I know that it is only the weak who complain. The strong never do because they can’t be hurt. So I never attach much importance to complaints.
9.10.1938
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Q: Has the psychic flame any correspondence to the Vedic Agni? They seem to have more or less the same chief qualities.
A: Yes, these are two names for the same thing.
20.10.1938
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Q: Lead me to Thy own home in truth, Mother. I offer Thee my will of progressive submission and increasing adoration.
A: The way is opened, my dear child, and I am waiting for you with my arms wide to receive and enfold you affectionately.
22.10.1938
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Q: I also want to come to you, for in your arms alone will I have peace and joy and Ananda and the true truth and fulfilment of my life and being. But still the way is not clear to me. And how shall I be ever able to climb to your dizzy heights with the heavy chains of a mortal’s nature at my feet?
A: Let me carry you in my arms and the climbing will become easy.
25.10.1938
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Q: Here is my pledge, Mother. I place the whole responsibility of my life into your hands. Now do what you like with me. Carry me in your arms, if you please. Whatever happens to me, in me or around me, I shall try to have the faith that it is your Will, Divine Will, that it should be so, but that I am always safe in your arms. Yes, Mother?
A: Yes, my dear child.
26.10.1938
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Q: How shall I ever repay you for your exquisite act of love, Mother? You are very, very kind to your little child who loves you and is happy.
A: My dear child, live in my love, feel it, be filled with it and be happy — nothing can please me more than that.
29.10.1938
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Q: I am your child first and last and the work that I do has no other value for me except that through it I can serve your Will, except that through it I can grow to be a better and truer child to you….
A: Yes, you are my child and it is true that of all things it is the most important…. Dear child, I am always with you and my love and blessings never leave you.
31.10.1938
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Q: On my last birthday, your parting words to me were, “Keep your faith.” I am still wondering what exactly you meant. What kind of faith would you like me to aspire for?
A: Faith in the Divine’s Grace and its power to transform you.
4.11.1938
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Q: Dear Mother, every day you are growing more and more lovable and adorable to me. By what divine Mystery do you cast this sweet spell on us?
A: The only mystery, the only spell is my love — my love which is spread over my children and calls down upon them the Divine’s Grace to help and protect.
6.11.1938
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Q: You send me your love and blessings everyday of late, and in rare blessed moments I do sense that we are always surrounded by your love. But as for a real response, my heart seems to be made of stone, otherwise, why should it refuse to open itself to your love? The more you shower your love, the more I feel ashamed of myself … I have no power. Thy will be done.
A: Nothing can resist the steady action of love — it melts all resistances and triumphs over all difficulties.
9.11.1938
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Q: Open my entire being to your love. Purify my being of all sensuality and take me in your Arms. Otherwise I will surely be lost.
A: To lift you out of the ordinary vital nature, my love and help and blessings are always with you.
15.11.1938
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Q: My most humble salutations to the Lord and my very special love and greetings to the Divine Mother for the coming darshan.
A: Remain quietly and joyfully open on the 24th to receive the special Light, Love and Force which will be given on that day.
21.11.1938
1939
Q: I know your love and blessings are always with me and I sometimes wish you had not been so invariably kind and gracious to me. For it makes it still more hard for me to tell you that there are difficulties of my nature which make it difficult for me still to accept you and your yoga in the requisite spirit. And without this what is discipleship?
A: It is not as a Guru that I love and bless, it is as the mother who asks nothing in return for what she gives.
9.7.1939
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Q: It was very sweet of you to tell me that yours was the love of the mother who does not ask for anything in return. That is all right for you, for yours is a self-fulfilled life. But I have yet to achieve everything, yet to justify my human existence. I have yet to know my soul and my self, to know and love the Divine and above all to have the vision of the World-Mother, Mahashakti, who will know what is best for me. Then how can I do without a Guru who will lead me to Her Feet?
A: I do not see anybody in the world more qualified than Sri Aurobindo to lead you at the feet of the Mahashakti.
16.7.1939
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Q: There happen to be bad sons now and then, but a bad mother never.
A: But what a joy and love it is when both mother and son are good! My love and blessings to my dear (good) child.
27.7.1939
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Q: I know you mean well, but to be good, truly good, may be possible only for those who have gone beyond all egoism. But if my mother chooses to see only the good in her child, that only speaks of the goodness of the Mother’s heart.
A: My child’s heart is filled with love and light from the Divine, let them shine throughout your whole being and the clouds, if any, will soon disappear.
28.7.1939
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Q: I have approached Thy feet with great hopes, O Mother, and let it not be said that I had to return empty-handed.
A: My love is always with you, let it fill your hands and your heart, let it fulfill your aspiration.
30.7.1939
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My love and blessings, help and protection to my dear child whom I would like to see always happy.
4.8.1939
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(On receiving a pot of pickles from the Mother)
Q: You overwhelm me with your love, dear Mother. I do not deserve one iota of the kindness you show to me, but then what shall I say to you, you whose very nature is an overwhelming divine love? Your love itself is a priceless gift. Why then these other gifts?
A: There is a great joy in giving; there is a still greater joy in pleasing those we love … and when you will eat the pickles you may remember me and think, ‘Mother loves me’…
6.8.1939
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Q: Dear Mother, in the lotus of my heart may I have your lotus-feet permanently installed on the throne of love.
A: My dear loving child, your heart is quite a sweet place because of your love — let me remain always there so that I may fill your whole being with light and love and joy.
8.8.1939
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Q: In the sweet recesses of my heart’s chamber I have always been aware of an instinctive belief that you are an Avatar of the Divine Mother whom I adore, but whom I know not except by Her lotus-feet. That is the reason why my eyes seek Her in your lotus-feet and my heart yearns to press them to itself knowing them as its sole refuge.
A: Let the Light of a conscious certitude and the joy of the everlasting Presence be always with you — concretely — in the sweetness of love divine.
10.8.1939
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Q: Will you kindly tell me, dear Mother, if you love me truly and genuinely in spite of my poor humanity or is it all an experiment? If feel ashamed to pose such a question to you, but I hear the word ‘experiment’ used so often and in such a variety of ways that I feel frightened and would like to hear from you personally if you are not merely experimenting with us.
A: Well — the best thing you could do is not to listen to what people say, it would save you from many falls of consciousness –
This afternoon when I looked at you in silence I told you, “be faithful to your love’’. I suppose this is a sufficient answer and you do not expect me to justify my love in front of the foolish ignorance of such interpretations. Whether you believe it or doubt, my love and blessings are with you.
12.8.1939
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Q: I apologise humbly for my yesterday’s query and pray to be forgiven. How could I question your love, you who are the soul of truth and love and goodness? If you were not true, you who are the incarnate Divine Mother, what else could be true in this world of death, disease, ignorance and incapacity? You are right, Mother, it is for me to be faithful to my love and to your lotus-feet.
A: I knew that it was a passing mood and that you would soon come out of it, — but let this love and this truth be your shield and protect you against the intrusion of any force of falsehood. My love and blessings will lead you to the goal.
13.8.1939
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Q: But time is flying and I must hasten to offer my humble love to my dearest Mother, to see whom is to love her. How sweet you are, Mother!
A: If only you could keep always your inner happiness, it would please me immensely and help you very much on the way.
17.8.1939
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Q: Your love for me is my true refuge and sole strength. What I offer you is a turbid mixture of which I am ashamed but which you alone can purify.
A: Whatever is the nature of the offering when it is made with sincerity it always contains a spark of divine light which can grow into a full sun and illumine the whole being. You can be sure of my love, you can be sure of my help and our blessings are always with you.
19.8.1939
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Q: How extremely loveable you are, dear Mama! Is there anyone like you in the whole world?
A: Love, love, love to my very dear child, all the joy, all the light, all the peace of the divine love and also my loving blessings.
20.8.1939
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Q: I have returned the pot of pickles but I still have the pickles and whenever I see them I remember you and say to myself, “The Mother loves me.” On the crest of a great wave of love the gift came to me and I have felt the presence of the ocean which projected that wave. With that pot in hand when you called me, you know of whom I was thinking? I was thinking of Kali standing before me ready to give a boon! In fact, I was invoking Her and there you were with the pot of pickles and an ocean of Love! Such is your play, dear Mother!
A: Indeed, that day I heard you distinctly calling me and I wanted to answer very concretely to your call.
21.8.1939
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Q: You were asking me this morning as to what was the matter with me. It is the same old thing but nonetheless distressing. It is a civil war, a conflict between two different tendencies and ideals, a war on all the fronts, mental, vital and physical. But I am deeply sensible of your kindness and grateful too.
A: There is no contradiction that cannot be solved and harmonised in a synthesis if you rise up high enough in the intuitive mind and yours is not at all irreducible. I am sure that one day you will find this out.
27.8.1939
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Q: Accept my love and forgive my lapses, as you have been doing for so many years. I expect these moods will come and go, but may I never lose sight of your luminous smiling face through all these passing clouds!
A: I truly hope you will soon be out of all your troubles. Just one good jump to the higher consciousness where all problems are solved and you will get rid of your difficulties. I never feel that I am forgiving. Love does not forgive, it understands and cures.
28.8.1939
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Q: Sometime back you wrote to me, “One good jump to the higher consciousness where all problems are solved and you will get rid of your difficulties.” What exactly is this higher consciousness and how may I rise or jump into it? And again you have said, “Let divine love be your goal. Let pure love be your way. Be always true to your love and all difficulties will be conquered.” Is this higher consciousness the same thing as a state of pure love and, if so, how would it be related to a state of higher knowledge?
A: The higher consciousness is a state of pure love but it is also a state of pure openness to divine knowledge. There is no opposition there between these two kindred things, it is the mind that makes them separate.
The best way to get to it is to refuse all mental agitations when it comes, also all vital desires and turmoils, and to keep the mind and heart turned as constantly as possible towards the Divine. The love for the Divine is the strongest force for doing this.
19.10.1939
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Q: You once said “I am in you”. This form and force of your divine self in me, this “Little Mother”, is the secret tie between you and me. Like you she is very modest in her demands and very, very patient (so far); but I know that so long as she chooses to make her abode in my being, sooner or later, poor me will have to abdicate in favour of Her Imperial Majesty and till that day comes there will be no rest for me.
A: So, the best thing to do is to abdicate at once and to get rest, peace and joy. When you have to get rid of an obstinate resistance, you must not make more delay than when you have to pull out a bad tooth.
Inside, outside and everywhere is this help of the mother.
29.10.1939
