Read Tara's correspondence with The Mother - from the period spanning 1932-1942
The Mother : correspondence
THEME/S
Born on 9 August 1912, the Gujarati disciple Tara Patel joined the Ashram on 21 November 1929 at the age of seventeen. The Mother called her "Little Star". She worked first in the Dining Room and then in the Mother's Kitchen and the Embroidery Department. She lived in the Ashram for eighty-two years, until her passing on 12 June 2012 at the age of ninety-nine.
Tara's correspondence with the Mother covers the period from 1932 to 1942.
Tara,
It would be good if the kitchen was cleaned thoroughly once a week or at least once in a fortnight. Will you take the charge of this work? I am sure that A is ready to help you.
You will let me know what day you have chosen for the cleaning.
22 September 1932
If you feel tired, it is better to stop the paper work in the evening for a few days. We have informed D. You must not overwork yourself.
7 October 1932
My little Tara,
Why did you not send me tonight your usual note in English? I would have been pleased to receive it.
With love
16 December 1933
My dear little child,
You have sent me a nice necklace with many sweet words. I am sending you another one with my love and blessings.
25 January 1934
My little child,
I have received your nice letter so well written and the bag on which you have made such nice embroidery.
Yes, I agree with you that your mind must become quiet and peaceful and I hope it will happen soon.
With love and blessings
16 March 1934
The three handkerchiefs are so pretty and nice ...and what a sweet little tomato!
With all my love
29 March 1934
What people say is not true. I have given the charge of the work (and that only partially) to J only for the time of D's illness. As soon as D will get quite strong he will take back his work and you can always ask him all you want about the kitchen and the Dining Room work.
Certainly you can ask for the bowls from the Building Department.
Be quiet and happy, my love is always with you.
Blessings
10 April 1934
Mother,
I am happy to be working again. All Your Love, Grace and Protection are with me, Your Presence is in me and, Mother, surely the Divine Grace shall manifest.
Keep this quietness and this faith, let nothing disturb them. If there are things to be changed, do it slowly, not in a hurry—time is a great helper when we know how to make use of it—and change only what is quite indispensable. Rules must not be too rigid—the Divine's working needs suppleness and plasticity—and for the workers, a too rigid rule is a big strain for the nerves. It is only when the liberties taken are dangerous and harmful that they must be checked.
And be sure that all will be all right.
24 April 1934
Little star-child,
Do not worry about this morning's kitchen incident. You had no bad intention against T and this is the most important.
27 April 1934
Love and blessings to my little star-child.
Do not worry, all the obstacles will fall away.
My little star,
Be quiet and courageous and do not lose confidence; all the difficulties are bound to come to an end one day.
2 May 1934
My dear little star,
It is always our weaknesses that make us sad, and we can easily recover by advancing one step more on the way.
12 May 1934
My dear little star-child,
I received the three beautiful roses, what fine smell they have! They are quite like the soul of my little child.
Love and blessings always
25 May 1934
Indeed what a nice little bird you would make! But your soul is already like a bird and flies to me whenever it wants to see me and then goes back to you bringing from me love and strength.
26 May 1934
Dear little star,
I heard that you have finished the nice handkerchiefs, so to you also I shall say how pretty they are. Sri Aurobindo has taken his two in his room.
3 June 1934
You see the little light is still burning very well to meet my love and blessings.
5 June 1934
Yes, you will become more and more quiet and happy; your mind also will be calm and silent and nothing more will disturb you.
June 1934
My dear Mother,
Whenever I have been stiff, harsh, stubborn or rough, it was all ego. And I see before me many people, both men and women, hurt by that ego. I ask Your Grace for pardon. May my consciousness grow and become a part of Your Consciousness.
Yes, my dear child, your aspiration is sure to get fulfilled and your consciousness to unite with the Divine Consciousness. Always with you
16 March 1936
Yes, all my love and help will always be with you to keep you in a happy and peaceful condition. If wrong suggestions come do not listen to them and call me to help you in chasing them.
With our blessings always
22 June 1935
I am sure you will do your best to remain quiet and happy and have no doubt about the success of your endeavour—our love, help and protection are always with you.
23 June 1935
I am glad you are feeling all right now. The great thing is indeed to be quiet and to remain quiet—when the quietness is established the happiness is sure to follow.
Our love and blessings are always with you.
24 June 1935
I am happy you have taken the decision to have patience until the end of August at least. I truly hope you will feel in a condition to come to me on your birthday.
My love is always with you, I so hope you can feel it...
4 August 1935
To our dear little star,
Our best wishes, love and blessings for her birthday and many happy returns of the day
9 August 1935
"Mon cher petit", my dear little star,
It was indeed a very good and intimate meeting we had yesterday. You are truly my dear child, "my little one", and uniting our strength, I am quite sure we shall overcome all that tries to disturb our sweet intimacy.
My love and blessings are always, always with you.
10 August 1935
"Mon cher petit",
I take you in my arms and keep you on my heart with love and blessings.
18 November 1935
Mon cher petit,
I would like to have news from you, won't you write? Our love and blessings are always with you.
5 December 1935
Sri Aurobindo has written to you but somehow the letter has got lost. He will write to you again this afternoon.
With our love and blessings
28 December 1935
Take refuge in my love and blessings which never fail you.
1 January 1936
If you have some difficulty to overcome or something to say, do not hesitate to write.
4 February 1936
My dear little star, "mon cher petit",
With all my love and affection I answer to your prayer and take you in my arms on my heart, so that you may find there protection and peace.
My blessings are always with you.
5 February 1936
Love and blessings to mon cher petit—what beautiful handkerchiefs you have done for me!
17 April 1936
Love and blessings to my dear little star—I hope the finger will soon get cured.
22 June 1936
What a wonderful piece of work! I was truly moved when I received it.
All love and blessings to you, my little star
17 July 1936
I have a very nice work for you if you wish to do it. A chaddar (upper cloth) is needed for Sri Aurobindo on the 24 November. Will you do it for him? D will give the size and the cloth.
Love and blessings to mon cher petit
11 September 1936
Such a long time without a line from you! Will you not write to give us news?
3 October 1936
Love and blessings to mon cher petit,
Won't you go for a walk on the seashore with L daily? It would be nice...
21 October 1936
Yes, the peace must come down, pure and sweet and settle in you to never leave you.
15 November 1936
Dear little star, mon cher petit,
My protection is always with you and nothing bad can happen. But you must take the decision to shake off the fear and then my force can work fully.
With my love and blessings
27 October 1937
My dear little star, mon cher petit,
You are already sleeping with me and that is why you must not be frightened because I am always there to protect you.
Love and blessings to my dear little star
31 October 1937
If the treatment gives you a relief, even if it be temporary, it might be better not to drop it altogether ...
My love and blessings are always with you.
6 November 1937
If you have finished the medicine for your arm, you need not take anything more. As for taking medicine to become tall I do not advise you to do it as it may not be safe.
Love and blessings to "mon cher petit"
7 November 1937
To say that your cooking is bad would not be fair. At most what I can say is that it is not always equally good, but bad it is not, and some dishes are quite successful. It may be that a period of inner difficulty has passed over you, but you are bound to come out of it stronger than before. When the inner difficulty is removed the cooking will be as regularly good as it was before.
24 December 1937
It is not correct to say that I have dropped you—I never did—only I had to wait for your physical consciousness to be ready to open itself again.
I think you will understand me better if I speak to you, so I shall see you on the 25th Tuesday at 1.45 p.m.
Love and blessings to my dear little child
21 January 1938
It is very good that you have become conscious of the mistakes and defects of the nature. Once you are conscious it is always possible to rise out of them and to change the nature. My help will always be with you for that.
23 January 1938
About the embroidery: the time in which it is finished does not matter. You can take all the time that is needed to finish it, but I do not want you to overstrain your eyes by too long embroidery work.
I cannot answer your question in the way you put it, because I make no difference between work and yoga. Work itself is yoga if it is done in a spirit of dedication and surrender.
25 January 1938
It is not that you cannot do the yoga; you were doing it all right at one time. The difficulty is only in the physical mind where the resistance you speak of has a strong hold. If you can keep very quiet, not upset or discouraged and allow our force to work from behind the mind it will after a time eliminate the obstacle.
3 February 1938
I told you already several times that I do not approve of your going. Do you believe that by insisting you will make me change my mind? I will tell you again and again:
1) I do not approve at all of your going.
2) I do not approve also of your jealousy which is baseless and meaningless and the best thing to do is to overcome it by thinking a little more of your work and a little less of yourself (I told you the same thing already once). I am not of the same opinion as you about the work you are doing, I find it quite useful.
3) I still hope that you will pick up some courage to overcome the present difficulty and to come back to a normal condition in which you can do your work quietly without disturbance.
My love and help are always with you—you have only to remember them and you will easily find them.
20 June 1939
I am quite satisfied with your work, both with the quantity and the quality and all I want is that you should go on like that. When I speak of the work, what I mean to say is that when you work in a satisfactory way you ought to feel at peace and happy.
My love and blessings
21 June 1939
My dear child,
Do not make mountains out of small things. All this has no importance whatever and ought not to disturb you or your work.
I hope that by tomorrow you will be quite well and that you will do your work as usual.
24 August 1939
It is very good of you to offer your services at this time that there will surely be the need of them. I will let you know what can be done; meanwhile if any good idea comes to you for the work you can inform me of it.
13 September 1939
Now times are difficult for everybody. There is war and everybody suffers.
Those who have the immense privilege of being here quiet and in safety must at least show their gratitude by discarding all petty quarrels and silly grievances.
Everyone must do his or her work conscientiously and earnestly, and overcome all obscure selfish movements.
My help, love and blessings are always with you.
27 September 1939
I have not yet decided on what work to give you—but I appreciate your wish to do the work in the right spirit and I will look for some occupation that will help you in your resolution.
15 February 1940
I am glad to hear that you are getting better and I hope you will soon be quite all right.
It is not because of the past—let the past be past and no more think of it!—that more work was not given to you; it was because I did not want to make you tired. Now that I know you are better D will give you more work, and when I shall have something to be done I will give it to you also.
The curtains you did are quite well done; they are put in place since the 24th.
29 April 1940
Well if you are sure that the servants are robbing, it proves that they are not properly supervised and you will have to look to it more carefully.
19 July 1940
You must not be sorry or depressed. I am quite satisfied not only with your work which is excellent but also with your spiritual progress.
If somebody has told you otherwise, do not listen to what this person says, because it is not true.
With my love and blessings always
26 October 1941
I trust you fully and know you are capable of fulfilling quite well your responsibilities. As for the difficulties and deficiencies, everybody has some and one is here to overcome them. This is the meaning of the sadhana of works. Moreover I know nobody to whom I could entrust this responsibility—so I must ask you to go on courageously with your duties, keeping all faith in the Divine and relying only on the Divine's help and grace.
6 January 1942
My dear Mama,
It would be better if somebody helps me in embroidery. If you prefer to give the whole work to someone else than me, I have no objection to it.
Can you propose somebody who could help you? I do not see how it could be given entirely to somebody else. Even if you could not do at all embroidery yourself you would have to supervise and see that it is done properly.
Among those who know embroidery several have not much work just now and could help you. But I do not know with whom you would like to work. That is why I ask you to suggest one or two names.
Undated
O my dear Mama,
Mama, I pray and pray and pray to You. Come, come, come, O my sweet Divine Mother. Come spread thy light in the heart and make it bright, for it is full of darkness.
Surely, dear little star, you will become all luminous as it is the nature of a star to be.
My love and blessings to mon cher petit
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