Blessed are those

"From Divine Mother to Richard"

- Narad

I would like to begin with a few lines from Savitri.

Always we bear in us a magic key

Concealed in life's hermetic envelope.

A burning Witness in the sanctuary

Regards through Time and the blind walls of Form;

A timeless Light is in his hidden eyes;

He sees the secret things no words can speak

And knows the goal of the unconscious world

And the heart of the mystery of the journeying years.

(Savitri, Pg.49)

Alive in a dead rotating universe

We whirl not here upon a casual globe

Abandoned to a task beyond our force;

Even through the tangled anarchy called Fate

And through the bitterness of death and fall

An outstretched Hand is felt upon our lives.

It is near us in unnumbered bodies and births;

In its unslackening grasp it keeps for us safe

The one inevitable supreme result

No will can take away and no doom change,

The crown of conscious Immortality,...

(... Pg. 59)

I have so many things to tell you that I had to write them out, so that I wouldn't forget some of these very special moments with Mother. This is a talk similar to the one I gave on Feb. 14^th last year in the Hall of Harmony. Mother had written to me, through

Page 37

Pavitra, not to try to reconstruct my inner experiences as it would bring about a deformation that would render them quite useless. So I can only say that 12 years after Sri Aurobindo left His body, in a very short period of time I had His Darshan twice - Mother confirmed it - and again on 9.9.99. I had my first experience of the mystical at a very young age - perhaps when I was five or six years old. My mother was dying and the doctors were unable to cure her of an extremely high fever. As there was nothing more they could do, and they had given up on her, her brothers decided to bring a monk who had lived on Mount Athos in Greece to our home in a small town in New Jersey in the U.S. His name was Father Afanasi. He was a healer. I remember bis black robes, none too clean, and his tall yet humble presence. He entered the room where all of us were standing around my mother's bed. He said nothing, but held a dish of holy water in his left hand. With his right hand, he threw the water three times on my mother's face. Almost instantly she got out of bed, said she was fine, and went to the kitchen to prepare food for the family.

My father was a Roman Catholic, who converted to my mother's religion, the Russian Orthodox faith, when my little brother was dying and the local priest demanded money to pray for him. Although the music of the Russian church was to me more beautiful than any other choral music I had ever heard, I revolted against religion at an early age, feeling there must be something more. So I studied the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, including his bio-dynamic practices, and shortly thereafter met a Pandit and began the study of Raja Yoga. At the same time I was preparing for an operatic career for the Metropolitan Opera, on a scholarship from one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of the day, Regina Resznick, and I began taking voice lessons from her teacher, Rosalie Miller. At Hunter College I met the writer and philosopher Rene Fulop - Miller, who befriended me and through him, I met Dmitri van Mohrenschildt who was to become a lifelong friend. To quickly conclude this introduction: I was offered a scholarship to Shantiniketan by the Pandit I had been studying with since my

Page 38

late teens. I worked two jobs at the same time to earn enough to come to India, and I followed him to California. I waited week after week and he kept delaying, and finally, as my funds were dwindling - after working 16 and 18 hours a day! - he said, "Everything has fallen through. If you truly want to do yoga, go home to your family and practice samata - equality." I looked him in the eye and said, 'No! I am going to India.' And almost as if by miracle, within a day or two I met Jyotipriya, whose name was given to her by Sri Aurobindo, when at a very young age she travelled alone to India to find the secret of the Veda. She told me of this extraordinary journey. She had been a theosophist - her whole family was in the Theosophical Society in California - and she went to Benares to find the secret of the Veda. But the pandits said there was no secret. Then, in a few days a man came to her and gave her a typewritten manuscript - it was a copy of Sri Aurobindo's Secret of the Veda long before it was printed. The man was Arabinda Basu. And she said, "I have nowhere else to go, I need not seek anything else." She came immediately to the Ashram, and Sri Aurobindo gave her her name Jyotipriya. Her name was Dr. Judith Tyberg. She was a professor of Sanskrit. When I met her, at the East-West Cultural Center - one of the focal points of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo 's work in America - I saw the photos of Mother and Sri Aurobindo for the first time. When I was nineteen perhaps, I heard in that Pandit's group, a man who said, "Oh yes, I know Aurobindo -_he's that man who can say things in 20 words when he could have used one." I was twenty-two years old, and Jyotipriya said, " you must contact Mother." In those days one had to send a photograph and a sample of one's handwriting - not just a photo. Mother's reply came back very quickly by telegram: "Tell him he may come and stay as long as he likes." Oh, can you imagine that for a young man?! So I boarded a Japanese freighter bound for Japan, with a Blessing Packet from the Mother and we ran into a typhoon. The deck was loaded with redwood logs, 200-300 feet long, and I watched them break off like toothpicks in the sea. Nothing was left on the deck. The captain

Page 39

said, "If we go one more degree we will capsize." Knowing nothing, I still knew that Mother would not allow this ship to go down. And I said, "We won't capsize, I have to go and see Mother." Then the seas calmed, they all prayed on their knees, and we made h through to Japan. Then, because it is not easy to get to Mother, we had two weeks in Tokyo and then Kyoto, where while waiting for another ship to come, I visited the gardens that Mother had seen. I went to one garden that was so magnificent, and there I met a monk who took us around to each building, and speaking in the most perfect English I have ever heard he told us the entire story of how each building had been prepared. So I asked him if I could come back the next morning, and just ask him a couple of questions. I had seen a tree, just outside, a huge pine tree, maybe 90 feet tall, and it was wrapped in straw to about half of its height, and I wanted to know about this. He said, "Yes, come." So I returned at 8 o'clock sharp, I knocked on the door and as I knocked it opened, and he was there. "Come in, come in." I said "Sir, I'm so very happy to ..." "Slow, ...no English." No English? He had memorized, from an Englishman, each plaque that was on each building, and since that fellow had perfect diction, he also had perfect diction. So I had to go very slowly. I said, "Tell, me about that tree." He said, "Tree sick - give medicine. Two hundred years more, OK."

So I got on the ship. It was delayed one hour, then another hour.... I was wondering, "When am I going to get to Mother?" Suddenly my name was called. I was down in the hold, hot and smelly. I had not filled out the proper exit permit and they were going to put me off the ship. There were some French sailors who said, "We can stow you away." They got ready to stow me away, and then I had this feeling from Mother, "No, you must stay in Japan." And I stayed for another few weeks, and I had an experience that was so beautiful. As I was singing for people, they asked me to come to a Children's Orchestra and to sing for them. You see, this was all the Grace, all the Divine Grace. I went there: every child was blind. They had formed an orchestra of blind children. They played for me, and I sang for them. Then I got a flight, I was

Page 40

helped, and I made my way from Madras to Pondicherry - after many, many adventures in the South China sea - and the bus from Madras to Pondicherry cost me three rupees, and I had about ten rupees left. Dayabhai took me in at Park Guest House. I arrived on November 23^rd 1961, I had turned 23. On the morning of November 24^th I had my first Darshan of Mother. The old balcony or what we now call Balcony road - was so close, and I have seen in the exhibition where people felt that Mother looked at each one individually... there is no question about it. Each of us knew the moment She looked on us. In fact, one time, She looked at me and Her eyes turned into diamonds and the diamonds hit me right here in the heart and I fell back, three feet. I told my friend Marilyn about these spinning diamonds that bored through my heart and she said, "Oh, that's not such an interesting experience - Janina has made a painting of it, it's in the Ashram Library, go and have a look at it." So I went to the Library and had the experience again, because there it was, in the painting. Mother's eyes were absolutely spinning in that painting. So I guess many people had that experience, but for me it was very special. When Mother saw that I was having difficult time with the food She sent me a large brick of Cheddar cheese. The cheese was wonderful, but what She put into it, and the fact that She thought of me,....

Each time I went to see Mother I had the same experience, of entering a room without walls. Another friend of mine, Bob Zwicker in the Archives, also has had this experience. I recall that it was a very large room, and one had to walk some distance to reach Mother's feet. But now I see that it's a tiny little room, and not even a step and a half, you could be there. My first meeting with the Mother lasted about an hour. When you go to Sri Aurobindo's room, and you are coming out and you see where They sat together to give Darshan, and when you turn to go out, there is a chair there and that is where we had our interviews with Mother. Today no one stops me when I put my head on Her footstool. Mother, spoke to me for some time about music, and She asked me, "Is the music with you now? " I said, "Yes Mother,

Page 41

it is always with me." It was recurring music that came all the time. Mother looked at me and smiled and said, "Not always. " And then She took it away, for many years, to work on other aspects. And so for a long time, the music went into the background, although I kept listening. Mother spoke to me further about Chopin, which-was very interesting. She said that Chopin's music is that most often heard on the subtle planes, but, She said, "I don't know why. " Then She said, "You must bring down a new music!" At the time, I was studying opera and more than opera, concert lieder and art song. So poetry and music were very much intertwined. I said, "Mother, I don't know anything about combining words and music." Mother said, "No, no, you must go far above words and bring down the pure music. " After more than 40 years of listening to thousands and thousands of works of music, seeking the new music, singing - not often, having given up all thought of a concert career, some years ago I had an experience that the New Music was to descend in a collective body - one body, in aspiration. So I began, by Her Grace, the OM Choirs in the Ashram and Auroville. There is so much I could say about the OM Choirs, but Sergey and Fabrice have recorded me last week, so eventually you will hear about that, because I have much more to tell you about experiences with Mother.

I go back to the Ashram, my first days. I became an Ashramite-Mother put me on Prosperity. I was a pretty wild fellow. Mother knew this of course. So one day, at 6 in the morning, a young man comes to me and says, "Nolini would like to see you." I went to Nolini, and he said the most extraordinary thing to me. He said, "Mother wants you to know that She gives you complete freedom in the Ashram... but with that comes total responsibility." At the time, because my vital was little too active, I went back to the U.S. in 1962. From there I wrote some notes and questions to Mother, and She wrote underneath Her answers. So I would write, "To Divine Mother from Richard" and She would cross out 'To' and 'From' and write "From Divine Mother to Richard." My parents were devastated. I was virtually disowned, because leaving

Page 42

the Church was a terrible thing to do. Mother wrote, "Will they not understand if you tell them simply that you have a way of your own?" The next question was about my future work - because Mother had totally up ended me. I didn't know where to go, what to do: this force that She had put in me... I couldn't go back to... I don't know, that world. So I asked her, "What should I do?" Should I carry on with training my voice, or should I form a Choir ...?" Mother wrote, "One or the other, because the most important thing is not so much what you choose, but the spirit in which you will do it. Keep living in you the spirit of consecration, and all will be all right."

Mother told me to marry: "You must marry. No doubts and no hesitation. " Then there was this wonderful young man, an extremely handsome young man, who invited me to go all through Europe with him, and of course, to meet many beautiful young ladies. His name was Ivan. Mother wrote simply, "Better not. " And you know, when I next met Her again She went through each question again in detail, without referring to anything - and She had seen thousands and thousands of people prior to that time, - in just the order I had written in my letters. The interesting thing was, at the end. She told me about this man, this wonderful fellow. She said, "It is better not to be with people who live outside of themselves, as it were. " And before I returned to the United States Mother wrote me this beautiful letter: "Go on boldly, following your way with joy and confidence, taking great care of one thing only - never to forget the Divine. "

When I returned to the U.S. I worked at various jobs to put food on the table. I married Anie, and did whatever I could for Mother's work. I took up the work of the handmade water-colour paper, which I asked Mother to name, and She gave it the name, Arvind. I made contact with the most well-known water-colour artists in the U.S, and sent them samples of the paper, and they were all ecstatic about it and wrote glowing endorsements. But although the samples were fine, the quality-control was lacking. The first ream of paper that arrived was ruined by sea-water

Page 43

because it wasn't properly packed. And the interesting thing at this point was that the handmade papers from England, the Watman Papers, had just gone out of business because of labour costs, and there was only one Italian paper, and the Ashram had a chance to make millions of dollars, so I apologized profusely to this company and said, "We'll send another ream and it will be fine." But the second ream arrived full of black spots in the paper. The rag hadn't been properly cleaned. This was 100% rag, handmade water-colour paper. So I met a man from Long Island who was an expert in making handmade rag paper. He told me that if I would get a ticket for him to go to the Ashram he would go to share his expertise and teach the people how to make handmade paper properly. I wrote to Mother and then on this beautiful card She sent me, She wrote, "This is all a dream in the air and cannot be realised. " So I had to leave it. And then She said, "If they cannot do it properly, then it has to be left. " And so it was left.

She would send me birthday cards every year, write on them with Her love and blessings, but one year She wrote - She put Sri Aurobindo's quote on there and She wrote, and it has been the source of so much of my aspiration: "It is by a constant inner growth that one can find a constant newness and unfailing interest in life. " In the mid -1960's I was working at various jobs and at one point I got a position in a record store. In those days it was long-playing vinyl records. So I thought I would write Mother, and I wrote Her a two page letter to ask Her what composers She had heard, and I put together a chronological list of composers since the time of Debussy and Ravel. Mother wrote me a beautiful letter, which has unfortunately been lost, possibly destroyed at my parent's home, in which She said She would be very happy to listen to all of the records I would send Her. She underlined the last composers She had heard, Debussy and Ravel, and wrote, "I probably have heard almost everything they have written. " But from that time onward She had not heard any of the composers I had listed. So with the help of a musicologist, who was the manager of the record store, I put together a box of fifty

Page 44

long-playing records with all the great composers from that point on. I included electronic music, and even the Doors, the rock and roll group, and Mother listened every afternoon for 1 hour until She had heard everything.

In the mid -1960's I had an accident, in a blizzard, on an icy hill. Two elderly ladies had stalled their car, perpendicular to traffic, and there was no way to stop the car, I crashed into them. Anie went into the windshield and had to have numerous stitches, but Mother said there would be no scars, and there were no scars. Finally - you know in those days one recovered very little; today it's millions and millions of dollars if you burn your tongue on a cup of coffee at MacDonald's - but we recovered 3000 dollars for medical expenses. I immediately wrote to Mother and offered to send Her the money, and She wrote back, " Why don't you use the money to come for the inauguration of Auroville? " It was 1500 dollars a ticket exactly, so there was the 3000 dollars. And Mother gave me permission to photograph the entire ceremony of the inauguration, of all the young people putting the soil in the Urn, and these have become part of Auroville's Archives.

I went to Mother many times during that period. The first meeting with a man from Los Angeles, Anie, and myself. This gentleman, Isidore, was not for this life, and Mother looked at him and smiled, then turned to Anie, and She said, "This is not the first time we have met. You have been with me many times before, many, many times. " Imagine that! Then She turned to me and said, "You don't want to come to Auroville in a few years? I feel you can do something there. " I said, "Yes, Mother - whatever is your will." We returned to America in March 1968, when I began a period of - I was in fact already working as a manager of a restaurant, and I became a partner in another restaurant, very successful, making a lot of money and then a day came when I began to hear this voice. The voice was saying constantly, "Go to California and help Jyotipriya." So I wrote to Mother. No answer. One month goes by and no answer. I said, "Surely Mother, there has to be something ..." - because the voice wasn't stopping.

Page 45

So I wrote to Mother and again, and Mother sends me a telegram: "My answer to you was so positive that I thought I had written it!" So I left immediately for California, to work with Jyotipriya. But it was not to be a few years, because Udar wrote just after that, saying, "Mother has asked me to write and tell you that She wants you to prepare to come and build the gardens of the Matrimandir." I wrote back asking Mother whether She wanted me to pursue formal studies, or practical work in the field. And Mother said, "A combination of both would be best. " So I worked during the day and went to college at night. I studied plant combination theory and other aspects of horticulture, while working with Jyotipriya as well. Now I should tell you that almost all of my life has been working with plants and flowers - since the age of eleven I was cutting grass, at a Fire House, or at a petrol station; and not knowing much about plants, my father, who was in electronics, decided that he would become a landscaper and work with another person, and so, you see I can now look back some 50 years later, and see that this was all worked out by the Divine Grace. So I began to collect seeds, and with all the young people in the East-West Cultural Center, we would go out and on weekends to all to parks and public gardens and collect seeds to plant at the Matrimandir. Now my experience with plants had been with temperate-climate plants. But the move to California to work with Jyotipriya gave me the opportunity to know sub-tropical species, preparing me for the tropical species. So again Mother had worked everything out. I thought I had three years to prepare. And in 9 months Mother writes me, "A Bientot" - See you soon. So then I had to go right away, and came in December, 1969.

We went up to Mother, on Anie's birthday, December 18^th. And it was at this time that Mother spoke to me of the Gardens -and Her voice was so strong and so clear! She said, "It must be a thing of great beauty - of such a beauty that when men enter they will say, "Ah, this is it!" and they will experience physically and concretely the significance of each garden. In the Garden

Page 46

of Youth they will know Youth. In the Garden of Bliss they will know Bliss. " Then She raised Her hand, and she said, "One must know how to move from Consciousness to Consciousness. "And then She said, "It must manifest something of that which we are trying to bring down. " Mother said, "You will make some sketches and show them to me, and we will see together. " And then She said, "I would like you to begin with the Garden of Unity. "Now when it comes to Art, I have two left thumbs. I have absolutely no capacity as an artist or an architect - I'm virtually hopeless. I worked with Pierre LeGrand on certain sketches, but nothing came, and for years nothing came.

I was 31 years old, and one night I had a dream. This was in 1970. I saw "our house", and Mother said it was to be the first house built in Auroville at the place called Peace at the Centre. Of course, it was never done, as so many things were never done, but that's all right. I dreamt of this house - a beautiful house, it was round and people were sitting all around on a beautiful white carpet and there was one light coming from the centre into the middle of the house. Of course Matrimandir hadn't been started then, but I know that the Matrimandir is our house, and yours, and She gave me the blessings to see it.

Anie had a dream shortly after that, and she wrote to Mother: "I was going up into the sky because I saw a golden tree and I said I must bring a branch down to earth and plant it for Mother." So Anie wrote the whole dream out, and Mother wrote on the letter: "It's not quite a dream, and it is a very good indication of the work you are doing. "

Then Mother gave me the work of reading Savitri every week under the Banyan, and then at the Centre, where we all stayed, in the area called Peace, where I read Savitri for 10 years. When the excavation for the Matrimandir was to begin, I wrote to Mother asking if it would not be better if Aurovilians did the work of building the Matrimandir, and She replied that it would be better if Aurovilians did all the work.

Page 47

I found a good location for the Matrimandir Gardens Nursery, with a large canyon at the back, and a lower road on the south side, and the possibility of some protection from the herds of goat that would wipe out months of work in a few hours. Mother gave Her Blessings for the site.

The early 70s through the mid-seventies were a time of difficulty in Auroville. Very little food some times, almost no amenities, and there was an aspect of superiority I guess you would say, from some of the workers on the construction, looking down on the people who were doing 'flowers'. So Mary Helen wrote to Mother, and Mother replied that the Gardens were as important as the Matrimandir itself.

Now just briefly, I'll tell you what has come to me about the Gardens. I spoke to 50 people this morning. You see the Golden Chain people come out, they have been every Sunday for the few months that I have been here, and they come out every other Sunday normally, and we have worked so harmoniously together, and the moment we're together there is a joy that fills everyone with the beauty of the work, and the devotion that they bring to it. And now Aurovilians are beginning to join the work. So this is what I have experienced about the Gardens. You see, they begin in a counter-clockwise direction, with Existence - Existence is first, Consciousness following Existence, and Bliss - Sachidananda. Sachidananda, manifested on the earth. Now as a result of Sachidananda, there is Light. With Light, comes Life. So, Existence, Consciousness, Bliss, Light, Life. From Life naturally evolves Power. So Existence, Consciousness, Bliss, Light, Life, Power. Power brings Wealth. Wealth utilised properly, Usefulness, brings Progress - that is the ninth garden. Progress leads to the last three gardens: Youth - an eternal Youth, Harmony - an indivisible Harmony, and the last Garden, Perfection - perfect Perfection... which leads to Sachidananda.

More than 60 flower significances were named by the Mother from Matrimandir Gardens Nursery. All the hibiscus with Auroville names, with the exception of one, were grown here, and Mother

Page 48

would express great delight when they were brought to Her. From downstairs I could hear Her, saying thing like, "Magnifique ,.." These hibiscus were of course the Hawaiian hibiscus, huge flowers, which She has named interestingly at first "Charm of Auroville", "Sweetness of Auroville" and then later She said, "We have to give them a wider significance for the rest of the world. So we will call them "Charm of the New Creation". Auroville is the New Creation, so they bear a dual name: "Beauty of the New Creation", "Blossoming of the New Creation", "Concentration of the New Creation", "Firmness of the New Creation", "Ideal of the New Creation", "Manifold Power of the New Creation", "Progress of the New Creation", "Usefulness of the New Creation" etc. Among the wonderful names that the Mother gave that reverberate in my consciousness and will reverberate for ever, named from Auroville, and grown in the Matrimandir Gardens Nursery - just to name a few: "Remembrance of Sri Aurobindo", "Opening to Sri Aurobindo's Force", "To live only for the Divine", "Joy of Union with the Divine" etc.

I worked with Richard Pearson to update the botanical information for the first revision of The Flower Book. And then with Mary Helen, who did many of the line drawings; and Mary Aldridge on the plant descriptions, grammar etc. During this time we had the great blessing of asking Mother numerous questions on flowers and plants, and Her answers forms the basis of the current and previous books. For example I wrote to Mother, asking what effect the Supramental would have on flowers, and Mother replied that flowers would be among the first to respond the Supramental, as their entire life is an aspiration for Light. I also wrote and asked Her, "If our flower offering depends on our state of consciousness, does it help to learn the significance of flowers, even if it is purely mental to begin with?" Mother wrote back, "Yes, surely."

Then we had this cyclone in 1972. A huge branch of the Service Tree was broken off, and you must have read what Mother has said about our consciousness being responsible for that. I saw the

Page 49

young men beginning to cut the branch, and the way they were doing it, it would have torn the bark down the entire tree. Since I had worked so many years with my father pruning trees, I asked if I could help. I knew Parichand very well. He was my elder brother, in the yoga - and he said, "Yes, go up." And so I showed them how to cut it and we worked the whole day, and at the end that huge stub came off perfectly, and you can see today that it has healed completely. When I completed that, Parichand came to me and he said, "Mother has sent you this Blessings Packet to care for the Service Tree for the rest of your life."

All through the 70's I had bouts of amoebic dysentery, and I was in the Nursing Home so many times and Dilip Datta would look after me. And at one point, I was so ill that I felt I should leave the body. So I wrote to Mother, saying, "What should I do? Should I take this medicine (which was a horrible medicine called Flagyl) or should I just put myself in your hands and let happen what happens, and just pray to you?" Mother wrote back, "Take the medicine and pray to me. " I recovered!

On my birthday in 1972 I went up to Her room and She greeted me with a vast smile, and a powerful and joyous "Bonne Fete" ! After She handed me my card, I placed my head on Her feet, and knowing only a little because of the "Notes on the Way", I didn't want to take too much of Her time because I knew She was working on the cells of the body, and so many people were going to Her. So I got up and She looked at me and said, "Look at your card. " I opened my card and there was the old name, Richard, and the new name, Narad. And then I broke down in tears, and I don't know how long I stayed with my head on Her feet.

I shall close these remembrances with a few anecdotes.

One time, on Darshan day, one of the Darshan Days, the rain was pouring down on all of us, absolutely drenching people. And so naturally they put umbrellas up all over. Mother came out. And She went back in. Udar told me the story. She said, "You see, Udar, I send down the Grace and they put their umbrellas up to

Page 50

stop it!" Udar said, "I will never have an umbrella again." Gauri, his daughter told me, "Yes, so then he trudged into Mother's rooms, over Her carpets and over the floors, pouring water! So we said to him one day, "Maybe you could wear a raincoat and just keep your head bare?" And so he did from then on."

Now, in 1980, on my birthday, I went to Nolini, who had been my guide for a long time. He would come to me in the night, and teach me - I don't know what, because with this sieve for a head I couldn't understand those things with the mind, even if I tried. When I approached him once after two weeks of intense teaching, I said, "You know, you are coming every night." "What of it? Maybe its your own soul!" - He just made light of it and wouldn't say anything. And just smiled and laughed. So on that day we presented him with 100 different flowers of Psychological Perfection - colours, sizes, fragrances, a huge platter. He took them and gave them to Anima and said "Be sure to give back the platter."

Oh, I have to tell you this funny story: it was about 1978 and I was exhausted, and I went to Nolini and I said, "Nolini, I need my batteries recharged." He stood like that, and he put his hands on my head for 2 minutes, and then he said, "They are recharged." And I could have floated out of that room. Of course Anima was there, remembering my old name, "She said, Richard, recharged, Richard, recharged."

So back to my birthday 1980. I had written him a long letter about the difficulties in Auroville, and asked why did we have to go through those difficulties. Very quietly and very deeply he said, "It need not be that way. You see. She is trying a thousand ways." Then he turned to Mary Helen and he said, "Your body..." then he turned to me and said, "and your body..." and then he pointed to himself and said, "and my body, we think they are different bodies, but they are not. They are all Her body. She has put a part of Herself into each of us." Truly. (talk on 18.2.2007)

Page 51

She is the Force, the inevitable Word

The magnet of our difficult ascent, ...

All Nature dumbly calls to her alone

To heal with her feet the aching throb of life

And break the seals on the dim soul of man

And kindle her fire in the closed heart of things.

(Savitri Pg. 314)

This is the knot that ties together the stars:

The Two who are one are the secret of all power,

The Two who are one are the might and right in things.

His soul, silent, supports the world and her,

His acts are her commandment's registers.

Happy, inert, he lies beneath her feet:

His breast he offers for her cosmic dance

Of which our lives are the quivering theatre,

And none could bear but for his strength within,

Yet none would leave because of his delight.

(...Pg. 63)

(Richard, aged 23, came to Ashram first in November, 1961. The Mother gave him the name Narad and, deeply interested in music, he is working to create a new and higher kind of music through his 'OM Choir'.)

***

Sweet Little Mother

I have a sweet little Mother

Who lives in my heart;

We are so happy together,

We shall never part. - The Mother

Page 52