(Dream-white
Lotus – Painting by Sudha)
The Force in her drew
earth's sub human 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 a simple heart
What seemed herself was an
image of the Whole,
She was a subconscient life
of tree and flower,
The outbreak of the honied
buds of spring;
She burned in the passion
and splendour of the rose,
She was the red heart of
the passion-flower,
The dream-white of the
lotus in its pool
-
Sri Aurobindo, Savitri
(Book
seven, Canto seven)
When she was about twelve, Mirra used to go for
solitary walks in the woods at Fontainebleau, and she would often sit for hours
at the foot of a tree losing herself in communion with Nature. It was a
singular concatenation, the ardent young girl self-absorbed in the infinitudes,
and the silent ageless tree with the imperious woods around: quite an equation
of the mathematics of the Spirit! The very birds and squirrels made friends
with her, and would often perch on her, or crawl lovingly over her. And, indeed,
Mirra felt perfectly at peace there in the bosom of Nature, and experienced a
sense of identity.
Some of the trees at Fontainebleau were supposed to be
quite ancient - perhaps two thousand years old or more and it was as though
Mirra had captivated the heart of primordial Nature. The trees almost seemed to
understand her, and whisper in a familiar language to her. The spirit of a tree
had once become aware of the talk of cutting it down, and when Mirra went to
sit under it began soliciting her to somehow save it from the threatened
destruction. In later life she
intervened in several cases and succeeded in staying
the murderous axe. Her
companionship with Nature was thus no pose, no mere figure of speech, but a
deep commitment flowing from a sense of spiritual oneness with all life, all
Nature.
(‘On The Mother’, Chapter 1 –
“Childhood and Girlhood”, K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar, Sri Aurobindo Society,
Pondicherry)
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