For with a greater nature, she was one

An invisible Sunlight ran within her veins And flooded her brain with heavenly brilliances That woke a wider sight than earth could know All objects were to her shapes of living selves Each was a symbol power, a vivid flash In the circuit of infinities half known; Nothing was alien or inanimate, Nothing without its meaning or its call For with a greater Nature she was one. The Mother had a deep love for Nature and a oneness with the entire creation, as described above by the luminous lines of Savitri. She saw the Divine’s Energy and power pulsating in Nature and saw behind the trees intense aspiration towards the light, behind the flowers spontaneous expression of its beauty and behind the love of the animal for its young ones was the Presence, beauty and love of the Divine manifested radiantly. The Force in her and her “spirit’s large and free delight” were like a magnet attracting the animal, tree, flower to commune and connect with her in a very intimate way. Oftener in dumb Nature’s stir and peace A nearness she could feel serenely one; The Force in her drew earth’s subhuman broods; And to her spirit’s large and free delight She joined the ardent-hued magnificent lives Of animal and bird and flower and tree. They answered to her with the simple heart. From a young age, The Mother had the special gift of communing with Nature. During her solitary walks in the woods at Fontainebleau, she would sit silently under ancient trees communing with them, feeling their peace and force invade her being. As she would record later in Japan in this Prayer of April 7, 1917: “What difference is there between the human body and the body of a tree? In truth, there is none: the consciousness which animates them is identically the same.” The Mother spent four years in Japan from 1916-1920. The picturesque landscape and beauty of Japan made a deep impression on her soul. Below are the prayers written on April 1st and April 7th of 1917, in early spring when the entire landscape exploded with the beauty of cherry blossoms: “…. they range from white to… rather vivid pink… there are entire mountains covered with cherry trees, and on the little rivulets bridges have been built which too are all red: you see these bridges of red lacquer among all the pink flowers and, below, a great river flowing and a mountain which seems to scale the sky…. “ - ‘Collected Works of The Mother, Vol. 4’ The cherry blossom festival in Japan is a timeless festival, celebrated even today by the Japanese. The awesome beauty of the blossoms stirred her soul to great depths. The two prayers written in April 1917, are a precious record of the Mother’s intense feeling for Japan, and her sacred communion with the cherry trees and blossom. With her body at rest and soul blossoming in light she writes of the beauty of the “fairy landscapes; trees at festival and lonely paths that seem to scale the sky” “O Japan, it is thy festive adorning, expression of thy goodwill, it is thy purest offering, the pledge of thy fidelity; it is thy way of saying that thou dost mirror the sky.” The Following prayer of April 7, 1917, records Mothers deep identification with a single cherry blossom. She has a mystical experience wherein a deep concentration seizes on her and in that sacred moment she identifies with a single cherry-blossom, and through it with all cherry blossoms and as she descends deeper in the consciousness of the tree, she describes herself descending into a “stream of bluish force” and becomes the tree itself. “A deep concentration seized on me, and I perceived that I was identifying myself with a single-cherry-blossom, then through it with all cherry-blossoms, and, as I descended deeper in the consciousness, following a stream of bluish force, I became suddenly the cherry-tree itself, stretching towards the sky like so many arms its innumerable branches laden with the sacrifice of flowers.” Thus hast thou made thyself one with the soul of the cherry-trees and so thou canst take note that it is the Divine who makes the offering of this flower –prayer to heaven.” K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar notes in his biography, ‘On The Mother’ ….. “This readiness to identify herself with a cherry-blossom, or a cherry tree, the sharing of the pulse-beats and the mingling in its flowing sap, all this is but symptomatic of Mirra’s expansion of consiousness defying all change, exceeding all limits, careering up to the Silence, and returning at will too from it- for Consciousness is a ladder! On 28th April, Mirra has a vision of the divine Master again, and she receives gifts of Grace from the Eternal Mother: Lo! Here are flowers and benedictions! Here is the smile of the divine Love! It is without preference and without repulsions. It streams out towards all in a generous flow and never takes back its marvelous gifts! And thus, in Mirra’s vision, the Eternal Mother, “her arms outstretched in a gesture of ecstasy… pours upon the world the unceasing dew of Her purest love.” In its amazing culture, natural beauty and the hanami (flower-viewing) festival in Spring and in everything from beginning to end the Mother found “the impression of impermanence, of the unexpected, the exceptional “. The recent earthquake-tsunami when the earth shook furiously and the sea rose in fury leaving in its aftermath great destruction, gives the feeling of this impermanence and the unexpected. However, the Japanese have been exceptional in their reaction to this great disaster, as this Haiku of Masahide (a beloved disciple of the legendary poet Matsuo Basho) says My storehouse burnt down, There is nothing to obstruct The moon-view. - Sudha