Guiding Light of The Month

O Lord, how ardently do I call and implore Thy love! Grant that my aspiration may be intense enough to awaken the same aspiration everywhere: oh, may good- ness, justice and peace reign as supreme masters, may ignorant egoism be overcome, darkness be suddenly illu- minated by Thy pure Light; may the blind see, the deaf hear, may Thy law be proclaimed in every place and, in a constantly progressive union, in an ever more perfect harmony, may all, like one single being, stretch out their arms towards Thee to identify themselves with Thee and manifest Thee upon earth. - The Mother

The Mother: Some Insights- Mahasaraswati

The fourth aspect of Mahasaraswati is not just one of work but one of a detailed perfection in work, which the Mother insisted should be practised by all the sadhaks. She appreciated most the work in which a conscious and detailed effort was put, in which perfection was attained or at least attempted. There were many sadhaks and sadhikas at that time who worked with that attitude. In the Embroidery Department for example some of the sadhikas would stitch minute detailed patterns which Mother appreciated so much. Today we are told by those who are in the field that such a detailed work is not to be found so easily elsewhere in the modern world.

But there were also those who did not practise this part of perfection in work. And the Mother would subtly bring to their attention their lacunas. When the Cottage Industries was started, the person in charge had arranged everything very neatly because the Mother was coming for the opening. But when the Mother entered the building, instead of going to the place meant for her, she walked up to a shed in a corner and opened it. All unwanted things that were to be kept out of sight were just heaped up inside. This was indication enough that the standard of neatness that she expected was not just a superficial arrangement. 

There was another incident which comes to mind which occurred during the printing of the Centenary Edition of Sri Aurobindo’s books. The first copy of each volume was taken to the Mother by the person supervising the printing. He recalls how on one occasion when he took a new volume to her, she took the book in her hands, opened on a particular page and without searching put her finger on a misspelled word. Then she said. “I want it to be perfect”. It was a very deep experience for him that changed his whole style of working. With just a few gestures, with a few indications, she would convey not just the lesson but the capacity to overcome one’s limitation. 

These are a sampling of incidents that revealed the four aspects of the Mother working at a personal level in daily life. But the aspects exist at the Universal as well as the Transcendent level where the whole organisation of the cosmos is involved.
 
(The Mother: Some Insights, Sraddalu Ranade, Service Letter Februrary 1996)

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