The Mother was a Yogi in excelsis, and by native right and in response to human needs headed the Ashram; she was a born educator (education being a form of Yoga), and she was the head of the Centre of Education, and hers was the unfailing inspiration behind its many activities; and she could also summon from the source of All enough exact knowledge to meet any day-to-day eventuality whatsoever. Once when Surendra Nath Jauhar asked the Mother whether he might buy a particular colliery that was on sale, she said after a minute's concentration, "No!" How did she reach that decision? She explained:
"You know my technique? I have established contacts with the Supreme Power who guides the destinies of all. When you ask any question, it is directly referred to that Power.... Do you know how easy it becomes? Then you don't have to discuss the matter, call meetings of experts to advise. Otherwise I would have asked what was the name of the colliery, where it was situated, how far was the railroad...."
Such extra-rational, almost superhuman, sources of information, inspiration and effective action were equally behind her extraordinary managerial capacity which involved expertise in a hundred different fields of specialisation, as also her easy mastery of the written and spoken word, and of music and painting.
Her 'Prayers and Meditations', her letters and the conversations, all sprang up, not from the levels of activity familiar to us but from overhead levels of instantaneous apprehension and articulation. Her music, as Sunil Kumar Bhattacharya saw, came from a long way down and welled up to the highest heights of illumination and Ananda. In her paintings and sketches too, the Mother was neither of the old or the new school, neither of the West nor of the East, but was only driven to render the lines and forms and colours of the Spirit in its numberless variations of manifestation on the earth.
On the other hand, although people vaguely knew that the Mother sketched and painted, it was only when an exhibition was opened on 15 August 1965 at the new Art Gallery that the opulence and variety and distinctive spiritual dimensions of her work came to the knowledge of one and all in the Ashram and of the many visitors as well. The Mother had drawn and painted since her childhood, and in the early years of the Ashram she used to do sketches in the mornings, and once she exhibited some of them in Pavitra's room for the benefit of such of the sadhaks as were artistically inclined. On one occasion she did a portrait of Champaklal with her eyes closed; the pencil made 'free progress' as it were of its own accord, and in a few minutes the sketch was finished - and an excellent portrait it was. Likewise she did the portrait of another close to her, Kamala. On yet another occasion, she drew a portrait of Pranab when he was resting. There were two striking self-portraits too, and one of them, drawn in 1935, matched with her portrait of Sri Aurobindo of the same period. According to Champaklal, she was persuaded by him to attempt a painting of Sri Aurobindo in oil colours, but somehow the painting was never done. But we have fortunately her portrait-sketch of Sri Aurobindo alongside of her self-portrait of 1935. These two bring out the whole soul-quality of the Mother and of Sri Aurobindo - "Without him, I exist not; without me, he is unmanifest" - in a way that no photograph can do. The Mother's self-portrait has an elfin grace; infinite understanding in her eyes; the whole face is "like a parable of dawn".....
A deep of compassion, a hushed sanctuary,
Her inward help unbarred a gate in heaven;
Love in her was wider than the universe,
The whole world could take refuge in her single heart.
As for the portrait of Sri Aurobindo, it is that of the immaculate Purusha - high-arching forehead, lion-maned, and a visage that is a signature of puissance and peace.....
His soul lived as eternity's delegate,
His mind was like a fire assailing heaven,
His will a hunter in the trails of light.
It is not the language of forms, lines or colours; the Soul itself seems to whisper communicating the epiphanic realities behind the human countenances.
(K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar in ‘On The Mother’, Chapter 54, ‘Free Progress’, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry)
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