(The Mother spoke the following over the
loudspeaker when the film, “The Wizard of Oz”, was screened at the Ashram
playground.)
A short
explanation will surely increase the interest of the picture to be shown to you
tonight.
This
picture is in three sections, two black and one, the most extensive, in colour.
The two black sections (first and last) show how things appear in the physical
world; the coloured one expresses a similar sequence of events and similar
characters in the vital world, the world where one can go when the body is in
deep sleep, when one gets out of the body. So long as you have a physical body,
no true harm can happen to you in the vital world, for the physical body acts
as a protection, and you can always return into it at will. This is shown in
the picture in a classical way. You will see that the little girl wears on her
feet some magic ruby-red slippers, and so long as she keeps the slippers on her
feet nothing wrong can happen to her. The ruby red slippers are the sign and
the symbol of the connection with the physical body, and as long as the
slippers are on her feet, she can, at will, return to her body and find shelter
therein.
Two other
details can be noted with interest. One is the snow shower that saves the party
from the influence of the wicked witch who by her black magic has stopped their
advance towards the emerald castle of beneficent vitality. In the vital world,
snow is the symbol of purity. It is the purity of their feelings and intentions
that saves them from the great danger. Note also that to go to the castle of
the good wizard they must follow the broad path of golden bricks, the path of
luminous confidence and joy.
The second is:
when Dorothy throws water on the straw man to save him from burning, some water
falls on the face of the wicked witch who lit the fire and at once she gets
dissolved and dies. The water is the symbol of the power of purification and no
hostile being or force can resist this power handled with goodwill and
sincerity.
Finally, when
the good fairy teaches the little girl how to go back home by knocking her red
slippers one against the other, she says that nothing is better than home; by
“home” she means the physical world which is the place of protection and
realisation.
As you see, the
subject of this picture is interesting and not altogether devoid of knowledge.
Unhappily the rendering isnot as beautiful and harmonious as it could have
been. In the setup there are some serious faults of taste and many regrettable
vulgarities.
-
14 September 1952.
(CWM Volume 12, ‘On
Education’, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1978, Published by Sri Aurobindo
Ashram, Puducherry)
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