At the Feet of The Mother (28 March 2008, Gnostic Centre, Delhi) - Track 104

That’s why I introduce myself as an apprentice and I cannot say I’ve moved very far in this apprenticeship. It’s a very long apprenticeship but that is itself a joyous process of self development. Let me come to the last part, what I want to say today, — I spoke of, sense of submission, sense of surrender, obedience to the teacher, to the guru but what is most unique as far as the feet of the Mother are concerned, — It is that the Divine Mother is the incarnation of the Divine Mother and Sri Aurobindo is the avatar. Once again to the present climate of intellectual arrogance, the concept of worship is an anathema, concept of surrender is anathema. Now if you say or speak of surrender to the avatar, and to conceive and to regard the Mother and Sri Aurobindo as avatar and try to understand what this means. This has been my subject for last fifty years, “What is avatar?” Even in the Indian tradition there are many who do not believe in avatar. Arya Samaj for example, rejects the theory of avatar hood there are many other trends in Indian thought, which don’t accept avatar hood. The Veda doesn’t speak of avatar hood, ‘Upanishads’ don’t speak of avatar hood but the Gita speaks eloquently of the avatar hood, the ‘Puranas’ speak about avatar hood. ‘Shivaism’ and ‘Vaishnavism’ speaks of it and even there the concept of avatar remains so inadequate, one doesn’t know what this avatar hood is. An in that inadequacy, if you look up on the Mother as an avatar and Sri Aurobindo as an avatar, it is even more complex, more difficult. This has been my subject of study for many many years. “What is an avatar?”

One day a student had written to the Mother a letter, “Mother, we have heard that Sri Aurobindo was Leonardo da Vinci in one of his births, is it true?”  Mother answered that letter. It was a great lesson for me and I want to share with you, what Mother wrote in answer to that letter. Mother said “it can’t be said that Sri Aurobindo was Leonardo da Vinci, but it is true that the soul that was Leonardo da Vinci was borrowed by the Supreme Lord when he came down as an avatar, as Sri Aurobindo”. It is a very illuminating statement. Even in the Gita it is said that “He who understands avatar hood, understands everything”, and it is very true. This complex statement, if you can understand the mystery of it, then the secret of avatar hood is understood. In fact as many of you might have seen Sri Aurobindo wrote three important chapters in the “Essays on Gita” on the avatar hood. And these three chapters put a seal on the truth of avatar hood. The role of avatar hood and the process of avatar hood and how does the avatar come on the earth. As Sri Aurobindo says, avatar doesn’t come on the earth to display miracles; it can do miracles without coming as an avatar. The avatar hood in this world is a part of the machinery of the movement of the earth itself. To speak briefly about it, it can be said that “the ultimate goal of this world movement is to help the full manifestation of the Divine on the earth. And if you ask a question “what is the meaning of the full manifestation of the Divine?” —The Divine himself must be descended fully, permanently for ever and ever. In other word you might say, the ultimate aim is the permanent avatar manifestation, constant manifestation of avatar hood of the Divine on the earth. It is because the present world manifestation is incomplete, gradual; whenever there is a possibility of that to that extent to which the Divine manifestation becomes possible that particular manifestation, we call avatar.  It happens as Sri Aurobindo uses the word; he says “kind of reflex action from the Divine”,  create a condition on the earth such that there is a reflex, immediate striking from above and the Supreme  is manifested out.  At one time Mother had said to the teachers in our school, that “today all of you think with words, I ask you to think with ideas, in future I will ask you to think with experiences.”  So these are the three steps of our development, a programme,– today you think with words, I ask you now to think with ideas and a time will come when I will ask you to think with experiences.