Reflections on Prayers and Meditations: Recent Episodes
Dr. Alok Pandey
The double identification. This prayer written as a contemplation during twilight reveals to us the secret of aspiration and giving with beautiful images for meditation.
The transmutation of Love.
“May 29, 1914
O MY sweet Lord, those who are in Thy head, that is, to speak more intellectually, those who have identified their consciousness with the absolute Consciousness, those who have become Thy supreme Knowledge, can no longer have any love for Thee, since they are Thyself. They enjoy that infinite bliss characteristic of all awareness of Thy supreme Essence, but the devotion of the adorer who turns with ecstasy to that which is higher and above him can no longer exist. So, to him whose mission upon earth is to manifest Thy love, Thou teachest to have this pure and infinite love for all the manifested universe; the love which at first was made of adoration and admiration is transformed into a love all made of compassion and devotedness.
Oh, the divine splendour of Thy eternal Unity!
Oh, the infinite sweetness of Thy Beatitude!
Oh, the sovereign majesty of Thy Knowledge!
Thou art the Inconceivable, the Marvellous One!”
A prayer for the Earth.
“May 25, 1914
O DIVINE Master of love and purity, grant that in its least stages, its smallest activities, this instrument which wants to serve Thee worthily may be purified of all egoism, all error, all obscurity, so that nothing in it may impair, deform or stop Thy action. How many little recesses lie yet in shadow, far from the full light of Thy illumination: for these I ask the supreme happiness of this illumination.
Oh, to be the pure flawless crystal which lets Thy divine ray pass without obscuring, colouring or distorting it! — not from a desire for perfection but so that Thy work may be done as perfectly as possible.
And when I ask Thee this, the “I” which speaks to Thee is the entire Earth, aspiring to be this pure diamond, a perfect reflector of Thy supreme light. All the hearts of men beat within my heart, all their thoughts vibrate in my thought, the slightest aspiration of a docile animal or a modest plant unites with my formidable aspiration, and all this rises towards Thee, for the conquest of Thy love and light, scaling the summits of Being to attain Thee, ravish Thee from Thy motionless beatitude and make Thee penetrate the darkness of suffering to transform it into divine Joy, into sovereign Peace. And this violence is made of an infinite love which gives itself and a trustful serenity which smiles with the certitude of Thy perfect Unity.
O my sweet Master, Thou art the Triumpher and the Triumph, the Victor and the Victory!”
The triple identification.
“May 21, 1914
OUTSIDE all manifestation, in the immutable silence of Eternity, I am in Thee, O Lord, an unmoving beatitude. In that which, out of Thy puissance and marvellous light, forms the centre and reality of the atoms of matter I find Thee; thus without going out of Thy Presence I can disappear in Thy supreme consciousness or see Thee in the radiant particles of my being. And for the moment that is the plenitude of Thy life and Thy illumination.
I see Thee, I am Thyself, and between these two poles my intense love aspires towards Thee.”
The supreme love.
“May 23, 1914
O LORD, Thou of whom I would be constantly conscious and whom I would realise in the smallest cells of my being, Thou whom I would know as myself and see manifested in all things, Thou who art the sole reality, the sole cause and aim of existence, grant that my love for Thee may grow ever greater so that I may be all love, Thy love itself, and that, being Thy love, I may unite integrally with Thee. May this love grow more and more intense, complete, luminous, powerful; may this love become an irresistible urge towards Thee, the invincible means of manifesting Thee. May everything in this being become pure, profound, disinterested, divine love — from the unfathomable depths to the outermost substance. May the God with form who manifests in this aggregate be entirely moulded from Thy complete and sublime love, the love which is at once the source and the realisation of all knowledge; may thought be clarified, organised, enlightened, transformed by Thy love; may all the life-forces, solely impregnated by Thy love and moulded from it, draw from it irresistible purity and constant energy, power and rectitude. May this weakened intermediary being, take advantage of its weakness to reconstitute itself with elements entirely moulded from Thy love, and may this body, now a burning brazier, radiate Thy divine, impersonal, sublime and calm love from every pore. . . . May the brain be reconstituted by Thy love. Lastly, may Thy love overflow, flood, penetrate, transfigure, regenerate, animate all things, with the power, the splendour, the sweetness and force which are its very own. In Thy love is peace, in Thy love is joy, in Thy love is Thy servitor’s sovereign lever of work.
Thy love is vaster than the universe and more lasting than all the ages; it is infinite, eternal, it is Thyself. And it is Thyself I want to be and that I am, for such is Thy law, such is Thy will.”
We see here the essence of the yoga of Self Perfection.
‘May 18, 1914
THOU art the sole Reality, O Lord, Thou art Omnipotence and Eternity. And he who is united with Thee in the depths of his being becomes Thy Reality in its eternal and immutable omnipotence. But for others the command is, even while remaining in contact with Thee, to turn their eyes and activity towards the earth; such is the mission Thou hast given them. Here begins the difficulty, for everything depends upon the perfection of the various states of their being and, even after attaining the sublime identification, they must still work at perfecting the instrument which will manifest Thy divine Will. This is where the task becomes arduous. Everything seems to me mediocre, insufficient, neutral, almost inert in the present instrument which Thou makest me call “myself”; and the more I am united with Thee, the more do I realise the mediocrity of its faculties and its manifestation. Everything in it seems to me an incorrigible approximation. And if that cannot disturb me in any way, it is because the true self is lying at Thy feet or nestling in Thy heart or conscious with Thy eternal and immutable Consciousness, and looks at the whole manifestation with a smile of patient and understanding benevolence.’
We see here a complete identification of the Divine Mother with the infinity of Divine Love.
We see here the description of the state of Nothingness which prepares us for helping the Divine Manifestation.
The heart of the Divine.
“May 17, 1914
O LORD, deliver me from the mental influences which weigh upon me, so that, completely free, I may soar towards Thee.
O Thou, Universal Being, Supreme Unity in perceptible form, through an irresistible aspiration I nestled within Thy heart, then I was Thy heart itself, and I knew then that Thy heart is no other than the Child who plays and creates the worlds. Thou didst tell me, “One day thou wilt be my head but for the moment turn thy gaze towards the earth.” And on the earth now I am the joyful child who plays.
These were the two sentences I wrote yesterday by a kind of absolute necessity. The first, as though the power of the prayer would not be complete unless it were traced on paper. The second, as though the stability of the experience could not be had unless I unburdened my mind of it by noting it down in writing.”
In this prayer of the Mother we see how to rise above circumstances and look always towards the light and truth that must manifest.
This prayer reveals to us the two movements of sadhana in terms of concentration and expansion.
This prayer reveals to us a new stage of progress that begins after we have found the Master and the Path.
This prayer noted just before the Mother’s first arrival to Pondicherry reveals to us how much she was already identified with the Divine.
In this prayer the Mother reveals to us the basis of action and the way to make choices.
Inner Attitude and Outer Circumstances. This prayer reveals to us how outer circumstances change in the life of someone consecrated to the Divine.
This prayer reveals to us the double effort of individualisation and subsequent surrender.
In this prayer, we see the experience of deepening Peace leading to the Divine Presence.
This prayer reveals to us the Omnipresence of the Divine in essence and the manifestation.
This prayer reveals to us the deep truth about the ladder of consciousness and its implications on our evolution.
In this prayer, the Mother shares the essence of an experience in which a serious accident was averted – a Divine Intervention.
This prayer of the Mother reveals to us how to leave behind the past and move towards the future.
This prayer reveals the secret of serving the Divine, the joy that follows it and the law of it.
The Mother reveals to us what we should ask and how we should be in terms of our attitude towards the Divine.
In this prayer, the Mother reveals to us the secret of making life Simple, Beautiful, Grand and Calm.
This prayer teaches us about the subconscient parts and the surrender needed for the yoga.
This prayer is about the way sadhana proceeds sometimes through the inner day and at other times through the night of separation.
This prayer gives us a beautiful glimpse into the Mother’s life as a child and her realisations before coming to Pondicherry.
This prayer is a rare and beautiful treasure recorded by the Mother on her 36th Birthday before meeting Sri Aurobindo. It gives us a glimpse into how we should look upon life and with what poise we must meet its various challenges.
This prayer is about a certain state of consciousness through which one passes through in the course of yoga. It shows us the way as to how to turn everything into a conscious yoga.
This prayer teaches us true humility which is the first condition for knowing the Divine.
This prayer is about the vigilance needed to keep the tide of material thoughts away from us.
This prayer reveals to us the subtle and profound truth about hearing the voice of God.
This prayer reveals to us what is truly needed to be the divine servitors in this world.
This prayer is about the true spiritual life rather than one that seeks to escape from earth.
These are meditations upon the path through which we can arrive at a state of serenity and freedom.
This prayer reveals to us the feeling of need for the Divine that leads one straight to the goal without any complexities and perplexities.
This prayer teaches us how to wait with trust in the tearing of the veils that come between us and the Lord.
Today we share two prayers of the Mother which ignite in us the fire of aspiration that must burn higher and brighter.
This prayer reveals to us the division between the inner and outer consciousness that takes place at a certain stage and how we can use it to station our consciousness at a vantage point within and help the transformation of outer nature.
This prayer is about the renunciation of inner identification with the Divine for the sake of the Work.
This Prayer once again teaches us the right state to be in with regard to our routine of life and the ease and peace that comes with surrender.
This prayer reveals the right attitude during difficult periods that come in the course of sadhana.
This prayer symbolises perfect surrender leading to a vision of the Divine in everything.
This prayer is the one which the Mother wrote after meeting Sri Aurobindo for the first time on the 29th March 1914.
This prayer reveals to us the conception of the Divine we must have and the Divine Mother’s role as the great mediatrix between the Earth and the Supreme. This is the second reflection on this prayer by Dr Alok Pandey.
This prayer is about the attitude we should take towards outer circumstances and the true direction of our efforts.
This prayer reveals to us what should be our aspiration and true attitude with regard to circumstances.
This prayer reveals to us the rules of living and their relation to the spiritual life.
This prayer reveals to us the truth about determinism, destiny and the highest attitude.
This prayer is like a daily prayer and shows us the right attitude and aspiration for praying.
This prayer reveals to us what our true priorities should be and also shows us the way to liberation from all that holds us back from our true progress…
This prayer of the Mother reveals to us the real cause of suffering and its radical remedy. Reflections by Dr Alok Pandey.
This is a prayer recorded by the Mother the very next day after She had met Sri Aurobindo. This prayer is unique in this sense and gives us immense hope and certitude of the future.
Contemplating the Divine Everywhere and in All Things. The Prayers and Meditations of the Mother show us the way.
This is the first talk of a series centered around the Mother’s Prayers and Meditations. Here we take up the first meditation in the aforementioned book along with a general background and introduction to the book itself.