Darshan

8

The Mother—My First Visit

A Remembrance from Childhood

Madhavi

There is a plan in the Mother's deep world-whim,

A purpose in her vast and random game.

This ever she meant since the first dawn of life,

This constant will she covered with her sport,

To evoke a Person in the impersonal Void,

With the Truth-Light strike earth's massive roots of trance,

Wake a dumb self in the inconscient depths

And raise a lost Power from its python sleep

That the eyes of the Timeless might look out from Time

And the world manifest the unveiled Divine.

Book I, 4

Pondicherry was a name that had magical impact in my young mind because of my elder brother and mother's visit to Pondicherry and their first Darshan of the Mother. The vast Bay of Bengal near the Sri Aurobindo Ashram also had a strong impact and my brother lavished in his description of it to the extreme, I guess. The train accident that they had encountered on their way back was stating a fact as if they should not have returned but rather remained forever in Pondicherry. The most amazing part was that both my mother and brother had no major injuries other than a small scar on my mother's forehead, a mark that made the rest of the family grateful ever since. Before the visit, it was my father who had first visited the Ashram on his birthday and he was deeply impressed by the Ashram atmosphere. He wanted our mother to experience that too. It was only after that they decided

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In 1970 the whole family moved to Pondicherry after having sent our family photos to the Mother and in return received the blessing from Her. The scrutinizing was done on those days by the Mother herself if anyone decided to join the Ashram or Auroville. Our parents wanted to have a special family Darshan of Her after our arrival and even this was fulfilled. This was my first visit and this time I would visit Her on my sixth birthday.

I went alone! Felt timid all the way. Everything was so faultless and flawlessly silent that made me more conscious of my excitement deep inside. In certain way a strange confidence and boldness came over me and my mind started to swim with interesting questions like: What would I say If She asked me something? Would I be able to answer Her properly? In many ways I felt at home even in that stillness.

I climbed all those steps and passed through Sri Aurobindo's room where many were meditating. A room that looked too serious but the tiger skins were as if wide awake. I had seen real tigers before that in the zoo or circus but these heads of tigers looked more ferocious than all the living ones. It nearly hypnotised me but I continued my journey up to the Mother's room. This was a room that was full of daylight and few people that were by Her were friendly and all were smiling when I entered this room. I had no words to say but could make a pranam by touching my forehead on Her knees. I do not remember how long this was until I decided to look up at Her to find a warmer smile waiting to receive me. If silence speaks more than words then this was that moment, I guess. I received my birthday card from Her which was signed by Her wishing me with a big bouquet of fresh flowers. My bouquet had many pink and white lotuses which I later learnt symbolized their presence surrounded by different shades of immortality.

It was on this birthday that I made the mistake of giving my date of birth one day before the real date. Ever since I have been celebrating my birthday on the previous day of my real birth-date. In other words this can be a symbolic meaning that by arriving in Pondicherry, I got a 'new birth'!

All can be done if the god-touch is there.

Book I,1

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