At the Feet of The Mother (28 March 2008, Gnostic Centre, Delhi) - Track 103

The way in which in Indian tradition, the worship of “Guru” is extolled, I did not harmonise so easily.  I was gratified when Sri Aurobindo wrote, that the guru of integral yoga does not arrogate Himself guru hood, it’s a tremendous statement that “the guru of integral yoga does not arrogate himself guru hood. That he is a brother calling a brother; he is a child, leading children.”  If that is the meaning of guru, I prostrate, there is no question of submission, pranam or a prostration. This is the guru at whose feet I can be always lying blissfully forever, – and that is the Mother. That is the guru, who is a friend and who walks with you and who takes care of you so thoroughly and doesn’t allow you to relax. This is one aspect of the Mother, in my own personal relation with the Mother; I have found that she doesn’t allow you to relax. As Mother herself says “this yoga is not for those people who having finished the work, they want to sit at the back”. This is the spirit I love very much; Mother has spoken of vigilance and constant vigilance. As you all know Sri Aurobindo has spoken of personal effort and in our yoga, so much importance is laid on the personal effort.

There are two statements, which I hear from many of my friends in the ashram, around here and many places. “We are all doing Mother’s work”, this one statement, I hear very often. Second is “Mother will do everything? And I tell you with both the statements fully disagree. There was one disciple who wrote a letter to the Mother, I had taken it to the Mother, it said “Mother, I’m traveling all over India to do Mother’s work”.  So Mother told me “you cannot do mothers work, you tell him. You first of all aspire to offer, secondly, you begin to offer your work to the Mother; don’t say I am doing Mothers work”.  It is at a very high level, when you reach a kind of union with the Divine’s will and the Divine’s will manifest through your consciousness.  When you receive the rays of Mothers work straight coming from up, transmitted to you and when you are simply moved then you can say perhaps, if you at all want to say that you are, if you still remain you, – you are doing Mother’s work.  Similarly the statement, “Mother will do everything”, it is also a great statement. I don’t want to discourage anybody when people say “Mother will do everything”. But Sri Aurobindo himself has written very clearly, that is very connected with to be “at the feet of the Mother”. If you should think Divine will do everything, you remain what you are, do not be deceived. This is a big illusion; inert passivity is the one thing which has to be exiled if you really want to be “at the feet of the Mother”. Sri Aurobindo while speaking of threefold labor or personal effort, – the aspiration, rejection and surrender, even the word surrender is used for personal effort, it requires personal effort to surrender. It is only when personal effort comes at a very high level, high intensity that a real submission begins to take place. Sri Aurobindo has put down three great conditions to arrive at that condition, it is a condition of glad and strong submission an obedience of the illumined discipline of truth, secondly an inner warrior who fights against obscurity and falsehood and thirdly a faithful servant of the Divine. When these three things are combined together then we can say we are now approaching what is called “the submission and the surrender to the Divine”. It is when that surrender becomes perfect, and that you can truthfully say “Mother will do everything”. This is how I see, I may be wrong in my understanding  but this how it is to be  “at the feet of the Mother” according to me is a long process of sadhana, which requires a tremendous effort,– Educating, illumination of the mind and the illumination speaks all the time of truth and truth and truth and nothing but the truth and to be a courageous hero or warrior who fights against obscurity and falsehood, it is a tremendously difficult task to be the servant and a faithful servant and that also of the Divine. These three conditions put together, when they can be combined, then I can say, – now one is fit to be “at the feet of the Divine Mother”.