15. GODS
Mother always had several types of relationships with the Gods. She once saw a film on Anusuya, the wife of a rishi. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva appeared before Anusuya and asked food to be served by her naked. Anusuya turned the Tirumurthis into babies by the power of her chastity and served them food. Mother commented that it was a lovely story. Mother explained that through her devotion Anusuya invoked the Supreme to come to the rescue of her husband against the erratic wishes of the Tirumurthis.
Mother used to conduct meditation in the hall and several gods, goddesses and rishis used to regularly participate in the meditation. She said they perched themselves on the cornices of the meditation hall pillars. Durga came every year a day or two before the puja for Durga. Mother spoke to Durga about surrender to the Supreme. This concept was new to Durga and she was intrigued. Later she understood. Durga explained that the gods never thought of surrender. It was not their way. When Durga understood and offered surrender to the Supreme, she enjoyed the new experience.
Once Mother spoke to the sea god and asked him not to disturb her work by encroaching into her building. Mother had heard a lot about Ganesh. One day she meditated to see him. She saw him approaching with his trunk and a smile. She was surprised that he did exist. He was happy to do anything for Mother. Mother expressed her need for money for the work. He agreed to do his part. Mother said that for ten years money flowed in constantly. Later she took up work in America. By that time money had dried up. She called Ganesh and asked him what happened to his promise. Ganesh expressed his inability, saying that Mother’s need was too big and his resources were limited. Mother explained that since people in America had no knowledge or faith in Ganesh, he could not give her money for work in America.
A Ganesh temple near the Ashram was being renovated and there was not enough space on one side. Ganesh came to Mother and asked her for space from one of her adjacent buildings. Mother called her people and arranged for it.
Mother returned to her room one day and found Shiva standing there. He was as tall as the room. His head reached the ceiling. She had a conversation with him and he said he was willing to help her. She wanted her physical ego to be eliminated. Shiva consented and the next moment the sensation in the cells showed that the dissolution of her physical ego had begun. She told Sri Aurobindo what had happened. He felt it was not necessary at that time. Immediately every movement in Mother’s cells stopped.
Mother had asked Shiva and Krishna to incarnate in the body of Sri Aurobindo to expedite his mission. Shiva was unwilling and said he would come after the advent of the Supermind. Krishna agreed and entered into Sri Aurobindo’s body. Mother says she saw with her own eyes Krishna incarnating in Sri Aurobindo’s body. She reported all that to Sri Aurobindo and found that he was not interested.
Sri Aurobindo used to say that he never wanted to be limited by the gods. The gods belong to the overmental plane. Their dimension, Mother says, belongs to the dimension of earth. Overmind is a plane where the full power of truth does not exist. It is a plane where truths can protect themselves and act, eliminating the destructive influence of ignorance. Overmind brings together several truths to act in unison. Krishnavatar came from this plane. The color of this plane is blue. Sri Aurobindo explained to Mother that the overmental truth had no power to transform ignorance into knowledge. It can function successfully protecting its truth and avoiding the warping influence of ignorance. Truth is self-existent in the next plane of Supermind. Here there is no ignorance. Power of Supermind can enter into ignorance, reach its foundation of truth, unite all of them and from there transform ignorance into knowledge. Without that seed of truth, however little, neither ignorance, nor evil, nor falsehood, nor even hostility can exist. Beings of the supramental plane are of the dimension of the universe. On February 29, 1956 when the Supermind descended, Mother found herself as big as the universe and in a golden form. The gods have a limitation when they come to function in the supramental plane. Sri Aurobindo had declared he never wanted to be limited by the gods in his work.
After 1950, Mother sometimes took to walking. She was walking daily on the verandah outside Sri Aurobindo’s room. After a few days, she found Krishna walking alongside her. Much later, she found Sri Aurobindo instead of Krishna walking with her. These were adorable moments in her life. She remarked to Sri Aurobindo how nice it was to walk with him. It was much better than the other work she was doing. From that day onwards, he stopped coming. After sometime Mother found that, when she walked on the verandah, She was followed by HERSELF.
