Chapter 61Meeting the Mother · Right Way to Make Pranam

on its own lines and cannot be conscious of or receptive to the Mother’s movement.

18 July 1937 No one should look upon the Pranam either as a formal routine or an obligatory ceremony or think himself under any compulsion to come there. The object of the Pranam is not that sadhaks should offer a formal or ritual daily homage to the Mother, but that the sadhaks may receive along with the Mother’s blessings whatever spiritual help or influence they are in a condition to receive or assimilate. It is important to maintain a quiet and collected atmosphere for that purpose.

* or any other contrary feeling in making Pranam, he must remember that there is no obligation to come — for him or anyone else. He must feel himself perfectly free not to come, if he does not want.

27 November 1931

* psychic, through the hand to the material.

29 September 1932

* This morning I was late for Pranam. On my way there, I met X, who told me, “Why hurry? One can have pranam everywhere.” I said, “Yes, but Mother is there.” He said, “Mother is everywhere.” I could not answer him, but what I feel is that there is a special Power in the hall where Mother is. When I am conscious, I feel something special and different near Mother. Also by her blessing I often feel an action of Power working on my head. So I don’t think there is no difference if Mother is there or not.

You are quite right in that. Otherwise the Mother would not be here in a body.

X has a developed and advanced soul and he knows things which are impossible for me to understand. I often think I have no soul, or perhaps I have a soul but it is quite immature.

You have a soul and a beautiful one. Only it was covered up and not looking out through the instruments — now it is coming to the surface and all that will change.

18 September 1933

* Does the Mother work from the overmind at the Pranam?

Not from the ordinary overmind, but from the Power above it. Naturally the overmind has to be used as a channel.

22 November 1933

* Shall we ever be able to understand the Mother’s working at the Pranam? We feel only that something has been received. We do not know what she gave or how we received it or what is the inner meaning of her putting her hand on our head. We are not conscious of what she is giving us while gazing into our eyes. Are these mysteries to remain uninterpreted forever?

You have to develop the inner intuitive response first — i.e. to think and perceive less with the mind and more with the inner consciousness. Most people do everything with the mind and how can the mind know? The mind depends on the senses for its knowledge.

10 July 1936 Today I was meditating in the Pranam Hall. As soon as the Mother took her seat, I saw in vision a range of mountains from which white light was coming out. What is the meaning? From what plane does it come?

Mental. The mountain is the symbol of the ascent from the lower to the higher. The white light is the Mother’s light, the light of the Divine Consciousness descending from the heights.

7 August 1933

* Today, looking at the Mother at the Pranam, there was a good receptivity. She stood before me a while longer than usual, and I experienced her working. The whole of my head was filled with nothing but her light. Is this true? Did she really do that?

She does so every time, only today you not only received but were consciously receptive.

8 May 1934

* After today’s Pranam I experienced an unimaginable depth in the heart and a great fire bursting out of it.

That is of course the psychic depth and the psychic fire.

5 May 1936

* Today when I was making pranam, I felt that this body must be crushed to pieces and laid at the Mother’s feet. I also felt an emotion in my heart. What is the meaning of this emotion?

It was some feeling of aspiration in the vital. But the form is exaggerated. The body has not to be crushed to pieces but purified and made into a body in which the Divine can dwell.

If you wept this time and not on the other occasions, it was because you were more open — more ready for the psychic being great progress in you and what you felt today was the sign of this opening.

* Whatever connection I have with the Mother lasts only half a minute during the Pranam; whatever I have to give or take