Who is Mother? I can hear you, dear Reader, wondering. You ask, "What is so interesting in the story of Mother?" Let me ask you: Do you like thrillers that take you hunting for the hidden treasure? Do you like historical novels that take you back in time? Do you like space odysseys that take you forward in time? Do you like science fiction stories that break all bounds of space and time? Do you like scientific discoveries in which scientists painstakingly gather proof after proof and note meticulously their findings? Do you like the story of evolution? Evolution that never stops, evolution that has produced you and me—mankind. And finally, who does not like love stories, love so fierce and absolute that it descends into inferno and confronts death in order to retrieve the beloved? Dear Reader, if you like any or many or all of these things, then come with me. Let us walk together in Mother’s Geography and find out. Then, perhaps, we shall know: Who is MOTHER. S.N. MIRRA is book one in MOTHER’S CHRONICLES. Its story covers Mother’s background, from her maternal grandmother, her parents and brother to her birth and childhood, mostly narrated in her own words, including her many extraordinary experiences. This book brings the reader up to the time of her marriage, when she was nineteen.
Matter.
What is the reality of Matter?
"I was only a child," Mother narrated to us one day, "when I was told that everything is ‘atoms’ (that was the term used in those days). They said, ‘You see this table? You think it’s a table, that it’s solid and it’s wood—well, it is only atoms moving about.’ I remember, the first time I was told that, it made a kind of revolution in my head, bringing such a feeling of the complete unreality of all appearances. All at once I said, ‘But if it’s like that then nothing is true!’"
Mother was no more than fourteen or fifteen years old when she had that decisive experience.
This "revolution in my head" led Mother to the quest of Real Matter. For over eighty years she relentlessly hunted down the falsehood of appearances. And she found Real Matter, the supreme Reality hidden in the centre of the atom.
Before we embark with her on this hunt and this quest, let us cast a glance at her background, which will help us to better understand all that was to follow.
"The direct power of mind-force or life-force upon matter can be extended to an almost illimitable degree," wrote Sri Aurobindo on 24 October 1938 to Prithwi Singh Nahar. "It must be remembered that Energy is fundamentally one in all the planes, only taking more and more dense forms, so there is nothing a priori impossible in mind-energy or life-energy acting directly on material energy and substance ; if they do they can make a material object do things or rather can do things with a material object which would be to that object in its ordinary poise or ‘law’ un-habitual and therefore apparently impossible."
Agni is the builder of forms.
In the same letter speaking about the ‘origination of matter’, Sri Aurobindo said, "But it is a fact that Agni is the basis of forms as the Sankhya pointed out long ago, Le. the fiery principle in the three powers radiant, electric and gaseous (the Vedic trinity of Agni) is the agent in producing liquid and solid forms of what is called matter."
"In the times of the Mahabharata," Sri Aurobindo wrote* "the earth was reeling under the weight of demoniac might.... If Sri Krishna had not destroyed that might and established a kingdom of the Law of Truth ... India would have fallen untimely into the hands of barbarians.
"We must remember that the Kurukshetra war occurred five thousand years ago. Only after two thousand five hundred years passed was the first successful attack by barbarians able to reach the other shore of the Indus river. Therefore the Kingdom of Truth founded by Arjuna had still so much power of the warrior-force, inspired by spiritual force, that it was able to protect the country for such a long time.
"Even then, there remained such an accumulation of warrior-force that a mere fraction of it kept the country safe; great men like Chandragupta ... Vikram.... Pratap ... Shivaji, etc., fought the country’s misfortune with the strength of that warrior-force. Only the other day, in the Gujerat war [1848] and the funeral pyre of Lakshmibai [the Indian Joan of Arc, died 1858], was its last spark extinguished. Then the good effect and puissance of Sri Krishna’s statesmanship were exhausted.
"To save India, to save the world, there then became necessary another full Divine Manifestation, purna avatar."
Once upon a time, long, long ago, before I or you were born, before our parents or grandparents were born, even before their grandparents were born, some thousands of years ago, the Vindhya mountain was upset one day. And why was he so upset? "Why," he asked the Sun and the Moon, "why do you not go around me? Aren't I a greater Mountain than the Meru?"
The Sun thought to himself, "Oh, these old fellows! Look at his pride! Comparing himself with the golden Mahameru. Really!" Instead of answering politely, the Sun went on his daily business of going round the mountain Meru.
That surely made Vindhya angry. "Ah, old! Am I! I shall show you who is old!" He too sent a silent message to the rude Sun. Vindhya was indeed a venerable old mountain. It bifurcates India into north and south, and was much older than the young Himalayas.
Vindhya then began to grow. He grew and grew and grew. He pierced the sky. When the Sun wanted to return to the South he found his way blocked by Vindhya. Vindhya now smiled grimly at the Sun. The Sun had to remain in the North. The constant heat of the Sun burnt the northern plains, while the South remained in constant darkness. An eternal day and an eternal night. The suffering was terrible on both sides of the Vindhya mountain. "How long! oh, how long, is this state of affairs going to last?" A desperate prayer from birds and beasts and trees and rivers rose to the Supreme God. "Come, oh come, and help us, Lord."
The Lord had been looking on the goings-on. He was not one to move a finger without being asked! But now that the whole creation was asking Him to do something, He gave the situation a thought. It was quite like Him to come up with an impish solution.
"Agastya," He spoke to the Rishi seated in front of him. "Will you do me a favour?"
Agastya was ever ready for adventures. He also knew some- thing about the Lord. So he inclined his head.
"You see, Agastya," the Lord said sweetly, "how the creatures are suffering. Will you not help them?"
"How?" enquired Agastya.
"Well, you are the Guru of Vindhya. So when you go to him, he will bow down to you. And then ... then you tell him this ..." The Lord whispered into the Rishi’s ear.
The valiant Agastya smiled. Maybe a little sadly? But he was game.
When he saw his guru approaching, Vindhya bowed down his head at his guru’s feet, like the good-mannered person he was. Agastya blessed him. And then said, "O great Vindhya, I am pleased with you. But I have some urgent business down south. Will you please keep your head bowed like this till I come back?" Vindhya assented.
But Agastya never came back.
Since those times Vindhya never raised up his head again. And Agastya remained in the South.
Repeating history, the Uttara Yogi, the Yogi from the North, came down to South India in our own times, but a few decades back. And he too never returned to the North.
He too had received a Command from the Lord.
The Uttara Yogi was our Sri Aurobindo.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
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Vedas (1279)
Upanishads (477)
Puranas (740)
Ramayana (893)
Mahabharata (329)
Dharmasastras (162)
Goddess (475)
Bhakti (243)
Saints (1292)
Gods (1283)
Shiva (334)
Journal (132)
Fiction (46)
Vedanta (324)
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