The Mother

Pranam and the Mother's Contact

Mother's contact is there all the day and the night also. If one keeps the right contact with her inwardly all day, the Pranam will bear its right fruit, for you will be in the right condition to receive. To make the whole day depend upon the Pranam, the whole inner attitude depend on the most outer aspect of the outer contact is to turn the whole thing topsy-turvy. It is the fundamental mistake made by the physical mind and vital which is the cause of the whole trouble.

16-3-1935

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It is only if one can feel the inward touch of the Mother without the necessity of the physical contact that the true value of the latter can be really active. Otherwise there is a danger of its becoming like a mere artificial stimulant or a pulling of vital force from her for one's own benefit.

2-3-1937

If they are so dependent on the physical touch that they cannot feel anything when it is not there, this means that they have not used it at all for developing the inner connection; if they had, the inner connection after so many years would already be there. The inner connection can only be developed by an inner concentration and aspiration, not by a mere outward Pranam every day. What most people do is simply to pull vital force from the Mother and live on it―but that is not the object of the Pranam.

4-3-1937

Yes, but the vital's test is very foolish. If the Sadhana goes on whether you see the Mother or not, that would rather show that the psychic connection is permanently there and active always and does not depend on the physical contact. The vital seems to think the Sadhana ought to cease if you do not see the Mother but that would only mean that the love and devotion need the stimulus of physical contact. The greatest test of love and devotion is on the contrary when it burns as strongly in long absence as in the presence. If your Sadhana went on as well on non-Pranam as on Pranam days it would not prove that love and devotion are not there, but that they are so strong as to be self-existent in all circumstances.

8-6-1936

Q: It is curious that I feel Mother nearer at Pranam

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time than when she meets us and speaks to us familiarly. Is it because of a defect of the physical mind?

A: Yes―or at least of some part of the physical consciousness.

30-4-1934

Q: Just after making my Pranam to the Mother I experienced an unimaginable depth in the heart and a fire bursting out.

A: That is of course the psychic depth and the psychic fire.

5-5-1936

Q: When the Mother pressed her hand on X's head to bless, I felt her touch concretely on my head! How does this happen?

A: It shows that the subtle physical is growing conscious and felt the touch and blessings of the Mother which is always there.

20-3-1935

There is always a touch coming from Mother at Pranam, one has to be conscious and open to receive it.

14-11-1933

Q: Is it possible to receive the Mother's influence at a distance in the Ashram in the same way as we receive it at Pranam?

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A: It is possible to receive, but not in the same way. There is an element, a touch on the physical consciousness that is wanting.

30-5-1933

Q: In the evening when I am late and miss the Mother, do I receive Her Light as I would if I were present?

A: You can receive the Light at all times—even if less concretely than in the physical presence.

1-9-1933

Q: You wrote: "Without the inner touch the inner being cannot work." I do not understand how this explained my question. The Mother's inner or subtle touch felt before had not the same effect as her physical touch during the Pranam. The former came and disappeared within a few seconds, leaving practically no effect, whilst the latter left its impress for a long time even in spite of depression and resistance.

A: It is because you lived in your outer and not in your inner being that it is like that. But unless you open to the inner touch, the inner being cannot develop.

3-2-1937

The inner touch is the Mother's influence felt in the inner being.

6-2-1936

Q: When I had experiences and realisations why did I not feel the inner touch, since it is said that none can

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have experiences (which are the fruits of the inner being's development) without it?

A: You did not feel it because the inner being was not awake to it―it felt only the results―and these results were not experiences in the inner being itself but the self above.

6-2-1937