You see, Mahalakshmi is the Divine Mother’s aspect

of love, the perfection of manifested love, which must come

before this supreme Love (which is beyond the Manifestation
and the Non-manifestation) can be expressed - the supreme
Love referred to in Savitri when the Supreme sends Savitri to
the earth:

For ever love, O beautiful slave of God!(XI.1.702)

It is to prepare the earth to receive the Supreme’s

manifestation, the manifestation of his Victory.
- The Mother

"Awakened to the meaning of my heart

That to feel love and oneness is to live
And this the magic of our golden change,
Is all the truth I know or seek, O sage."
Wake up to your true mission in the world,
-Savitri
Book 12, The return to Earth
O India,
land of light and spiritual knowledge!
show the way to union and harmony.
O our Mother, O Soul of India…
Guide us so that we may be
always on the side of great ideals
and show to men thy true visage,
as a leader in the ways of the spirit
and a friend and helper of all the people.
-The Mother
 महालक्ष्मी
O sweet harmony that dwellest in all things,
sweet harmony that fillest my heart,
manifest thyself in the most external forms of life, माता, हे! आनन्द की जननी
in every feeling, every thought, every action. प्रेम-शिक्त से सूरज-तारे गित-बध्द कर घूमा रही हैं
वे ही तो उल्लास-हषर् जो ह्रद-् ग्रिन्थ को खोल रही हैं।
All is to me beautiful, harmonious, silent, despite the outer वे ही तो सौन्दयर् – बोध का गुह्रा आत्मा
turmoil. And in this silence it is Thou, O Lord, whom I see; and इिन्द्रय जगत को हिर्षत करती रस से भरती ं
I see Thee in so unique a way that I can express this perception उनमें ही सम्पूणर् सत्य का सार-अथर् है।
only as that of an unvarying smile. In truth, the real nature of the आईं है वे उतर िनकट आनन्द िरिक्त मानवता में
feeling experienced in the presence of the sweetest, most calm, most आकषर्ण के पाश बाँधकर खीच रही ं वे हमारी दबु ल र् ता में।
compassionate smile has a poor resemblance to what I feel when I दखु -पीड़ा से भरे मनु ज के जग को
see Thee in this way. आनन्द– धाम में बदल रही ं
दीप्तीमय उनकी मुस्कान।
ज्ञात नही ं हम कर पाते िक कब और कै से
May Thy Peace be with all. लांघ गए उनके प्रभाव से
-The Mother दबु ल
र् ता के सारे बं धन।
(August 8, 1913- Prayers and Meditations) लावण्यमय उनके स्वरूप का ध्यान करो
हे आतुर मन,
उनके अद्भदु चरण-कमल के चुम्बन को
जो खीचं ला रहा उषा को,
हे ह्रदय चलो अब स्वागत करने,

Collective Harmony : Collective शीघ्र, कही ं वे मुड़ ना जाएँ ।

harmony is the work undertaken by नही ं बलात् प्रवेश करेंगी
the Divine Consciousness; it alone
has the power to realise it. सं कोच भरी आराध्या हमारी प्यारी माँ।
The Mother

A harmonious collective aspiration

can change the course of
circumstances.
The Mother
 Mahalakshmi

Mother of Delight
Of Love that moves the sun and stars! E PROG
URAG RESS
She is the Rapture that quickens our inmost heart, CO

She is Beauty's self that enthrals our earthly senses;

In her is the whole meaning of existence.
She has come down close and intimate to a humanity avid of joy;
She casts her noose of charm and
captures us even by our weakness;

AS P
Her radiant smile transfigures a whole world of gloom and pain

IRATI
Into an Abode of Bliss-

N O
And we know not when have we transcended our human frailities
In our eagerness to contemplate her gracious form,
To kiss those glorious feet of hers That trail the Dawn!
Hasten to welcome her, O heart, hasten!
Lest she turn away-
For she will not force herself

Our adorable and shy Mother!

-(NoliniKantaGupta,
To The Heights, Vers Les Hauteurs' ,
Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Pondicherry)

The Mother's Symbol

To know more about the four aspects of the Mother (Maheshwari,

Mahakali, Mahalakshmi & Mahasaraswati), refer to 'The Mother' by
Sri Aurobindo.
 True art means the expression of
beauty in the material world. In
a world wholly converted, that is
to say, expressing integrally the
divine reality, art must serve as the
revealer and teacher of this divine
beauty in life.
-The Mother
(Cwm, vol-12, p-235)
Artistic Thoroughness : A beauty
that displays itself and allows
itself to be contemplated.

MAHALAXMI
Wisdom and Force are not the only manifestations of the
supreme Mother; there is a subtler mystery of her nature and
without it Wisdom and Force would be incompetable things and
without it perfection would not be perfect.

Above them is the miracle of eternal beauty, an unseizable

secret of divine harmonies, the compelling magic of an irresistible
universal charm and attraction that draws and holds things and
forces and beings together and obliges them to meet and unite that
a hidden Ananda may play from behind the veil and make of them
 its rhythms and its figures. This is the power of Mahalakshmi and
there is no aspect of the Divine Shakti more attractive to the heart of
the embodied beings.

Maheshwari can appear too calm and great and distant for
the littleness of earthly nature to approach or contain her, Mahakali
too swift and formidable for its weakness to bear; but all turn with
joy and longing to Mahalakshmi.

For she throws the spell of the intoxicating sweetness of the

Artistic Sensibility : A powerful
aid in fighting ugliness.
Supramental Artistic Genius :
It blossoms in the Light and
knows how to manifest it.
Divine: to be close to her is a profound happiness and to feel her
within the heart is to make the existence a rapture and a marvel;
grace and charm and tenderness flow from her like the light from
the sun and wherever she fixes her wonderful gaze or lets fall of
the loveliness of her smile, the soul is seized and made captive and
plunged into the depths of an unfathomable bliss.

Can those who have a sense of beauty also become cruel?
Thats a psychological problem. It depends on where
their sense of beauty is located. One may have a physical sense
of beauty, a vital sense of beauty, a mental sense of beauty. If
one has a moral sense of beauty a sense of moral beauty and
nobility one will never be cruel. One will always be generous
and magnanimous in all circumstances. But as men are made
of many different pieces for instance, I was thinking about
all the artists I knew I knew all the greatest artists of the last
century or the beginning of this century, and they truly had a
sense of beauty, but morally, some of them were very cruel.
When the artist was seen at his work, he lived in a magnificent
beauty but when you saw the gentleman at home, he had only
a very limited contact with the artist in himself and usually he
became someone very vulgar, very ordinary. Many of them
did, I am sure of it. But those who were unified, in the sense
that they truly lived their art those, no; they were generous
and good.
-The Mother
Magnetic is the touch of her hands and their occult and
delicate influence refines the mind and life and body and where she
presses her feet course miraculous streams of an entrancing Ananda.
And yet it is not easy to meet the demand of this enchanting Power
or to keep her presence.
Harmony and beauty of the mind and soul, harmony and
beauty of the thoughts and feelings, harmony and beauty in every
outward act and movement, harmony and beauty of the life and
surroundings, this is the demand of Mahalakshmi.
Where there is affinity to the rhythms of the secret world-
bliss and response to the call of the All-Beautiful and concord and
unity and the glad flow of many lives turned towards the Divine, in
that atmosphere she consents to abide. But all that is ugly and mean
and base, all that is poor and sordid and squalid, all that is brutal
and coarse repels her advent.
Where love and beauty are not or are reluctant to be born,
she does not come; where they are mixed and disfigured with baser
things, she turns soon to depart or cares little to pour her riches.
 ......Life is turned in her supreme creations into a rich work
If she finds herself in men's hearts surrounded with selfishness of celestial art and all existence into a poem of sacred delight; the
and hatred and jealousy and malignance and envy and strife, if world's riches are brought together and concerted for a supreme order
treachery and greed and ingratitude are mixed in the sacred chalice, and even the simplest and commonest things are made wonderful
if grossness of passion and unrefined desire degrade devotion, in by her intuition of unity and the breath of her spirit.
such hearts the gracious and beautiful Goddess will not linger. A
divine disgust seizes upon her and she withdraws, for she is not one
who insists or strives; or, veiling her face, she waits for this bitter
and poisonous devil's stuff to be rejected and disappear before she
will found anew her happy influence.

Ascetic bareness and harshness are nor to her not the

suppression of the heart's deeper emotions and the rigid repression
of the soul's and the life's parts of beauty. For it is through love and
beauty that she lays on men the yoke of the Divine.

Life is turned in her supreme creations into a rich work of

celestial art and all existence into a poem of sacred delight; the
world's riches are brought together and concerted for a supreme
order and even the simplest and commonest things are made Art : Living only to express Beauty in Art : A beauty that
wonderful by her intuition of unity and the breath of her spirit. beauty. displays itself and allows itself to
be contemplated.
Admitted to the heart she lifts wisdom to pinnacles of wonder
and reveals to it the mystic secrets of the ecstasy that surpassed all
knowledge, meets devotion with the passionate attraction of the
Divine, teaches to strength and force the rhythm that keeps the might Art is nothing less in its fundamental truth than the
of their acts harmonious and in measure and casts on perfection the aspect of beauty of the Divine manifestation.
charm that makes it endure for ever. Sri Aurobindo

In a sense spirituality is the highest art, the art of life;

for it aims at creating a life of beauty pure in line, faultless
in rhythm, replete with strength, illumined with light and
vibrant with delight.
Sri Aurobindo
 Wisdom and Force are not the only manifestations of the
supreme Mother; there is a subtler mystery of her nature and without
it Wisdom and Force would be incompetable things and without it
perfection would not be perfect.
Above them is the miracle of eternal beauty, an unseizable
secret of divine harmonies, the compelling magic of an irresistible
universal charm and attraction that draws and holds things and
forces and beings together and obliges them to meet and unite that
a hidden Ananda may play from behind the veil and make of them
its rhythms and its figures.

Riches : Riches that are at the Supramentalised Riches : Riches

disposal of the supramental being that are at the disposal of the
and still unknown to man. supramental being and still
unknown to man.

How is it that ordinarily the richer one is (materially), the more

dishonest one is?

It is because material wealth is controlled by the adverse forces

and because they have not yet been converted to the Divine
Influence, though the work has begun. Harmony: Let us work for the Harmony in the Material Vital
-The Mother day when this will become : No disputes, no quarrels-the
both the means and the end. sweetness of a life without

There must be order and harmony in work. Even what is

apparently the most insignificant thing must be done with perfect
perfection, with a sense of cleanliness, beauty, harmony and order.
The Mother
23 August 1955

Prosperity : Remains only with

him who offers it to the Divine.
 .......Ascetic bareness and harshness are nor to her not the
suppression of the heart's deeper emotions and the rigid repression
of the soul's and the life's parts of beauty. For it is through love and
beauty that she lays on men the yoke of the Divine.

Doesn’t ascetic discipline help us to overcome attachment?

No, it inflates and strengthens your pride.

Harmony in the Vital : To Integral Harmony : Harmony
harmonise the vital is a between things, harmony between
psychological masterpiece; persons, harmony of circumstances
happy is the one who and, above all, harmony of
aspirations — all leading towards
the Supreme Truth.
Look for the inner causes of disharmony much more
than the outer ones. It is the inside which governs the outside.
The Mother, 4 July 1966
But doesn’t some outer discipline help?
If you impose a discipline upon yourself and if it isn’t
too stupid, it may help you. A discipline, I tell you—disciplines,
tapasyas, all ascetic disciplines are, as ordinarily practised, the
best means of making you proud, of building up in you such a
terrific pride that never, never will you be converted. It will have
to be broken down with hammer-strokes.
The first condition is a healthy humility which makes
you realise that unless you are sustained, nourished, helped,
enlightened, guided by the Divine, you are nothing at all. There
now. When you have felt that, not only understood it with your
mind, but felt it down to your very body, then you will begin to
be wise, but not before.

Human beings are in the habit of basing their

relationships with others on physical, vital and mental contacts;
that is why there is almost always discord and suffering. If, on
the contrary, they based their relationships on psychic contacts
(between soul and soul), they would find that behind the
troubled appearances there is a profound and lasting harmony
which can express itself in all the activities of life and cause
disorder and suffering to be replaced by peace and bliss.
The Mother
..... If she finds herself in men's hearts surrounded with selfishness
and hatred and jealousy and malignance and envy and strife, if
treachery and greed and ingratitude are mixed in the sacred chalice, 21-02-1935
if grossness of passion and unrefined desire degrade devotion, in A Prayer :
such hearts the gracious and beautiful Goddess will not linger. A
divine disgust seizes upon her and she withdraws, for she is not one "O Lord, our heart is light,
who insists or strives; or, veiling her face, she waits for this bitter our thought at rest.
and poisonous devil's stuff to be rejected and disappear before she We turn to Thee
will found anew her happy influence. with full trust and
say peacefully:

May Thy will be done,

Sweet Mother, what is a “divine disgust”?
in it is realised
Ah, my child! [Silence] It is a disgust that is full of a total true harmony.
compassion.

It is something that takes upon itself the bad vibration in order

to cure others of it. The consequences… [silence] of a wrong
and low movement—instead of throwing it back with cold
justice upon the one who has committed the mistake, it absorbs
it, in order to transform it within itself, and diminishes as far
as possible the material consequences of the fault committed.
I believe that the old story about Shiva who had a black stain
on his neck because he had swallowed all that was bad in the
world, is an imaginative way of expressing this divine disgust.
It made a black stain on his neck.
Towards her our knowledge climbs, our passion gropes;
All Nature dumbly calls to her alone
To heal with her feet the aching throb of life
And break the seals on the dim soul of man
And kindle her fire in the closed heart of things.
All here shall be one day her sweetness’ home,
All contraries prepare her harmony;
In her miraculous rapture we shall dwell,
Her clasp shall turn to ecstasy our pain.
Our self shall be one self with all through her.
– Savitri
Book Three, Canto II
....This is the power of Mahalakshmi and there is no aspect of the
Divine Shakti more attractive to the heart of the embodied beings.
Sweet Mother, I didn’t understand this: “This is the power of
Mahalakshmi and there is no aspect of the Divine Shakti more
attractive to the heart of embodied beings.”
That means men. It is another way of saying human beings upon
the earth, beings upon earth. There are also… it means animals
also. She is very, very loving towards animals and animals love
her very much; even the most ferocious ones become very gentle
with her, and that is why instead of using the words “human
beings”, he has used “embodied beings”, beings with a body
upon earth.
Wealth is a force I have already told you this once a force
of Nature; and it should be a means of circulation, a power
in movement, as flowing water is a power in movement. It is
something which can serve to produce, to organise. It is a
convenient means, because in fact it is only a means of making
things circulate fully and freely. This force should be inv the
hands of those who know how to make the best possible use of
it, that is, as I said at the beginning, people who have abolished
in themselves or in some way or other got rid of every personal
desire and every attachment. To this should be added a vision
vast enough to understand the needs of the earth, a knowledge
complete enough to know how to organise all these needs and
use this force by these means. That victory will form part of the
triumph of Truth. If, besides this, these beings have a higher
spiritual knowledge then they can utilise this force to construct
gradually upon the earth what will be capable of manifesting
the divine Power, Force and Grace. And then this power of
money, wealth, this financial force, of which I just said that it
was like a curse, would become a supreme blessing for the good
of all.
The Mother-
(cwm vol-7, p-55)
Supramentalised Wealth : Wealth Generous Wealth : Likes to be
placed at the service of the given and spread far and wide.
Divine.
 For she throws the spell of the intoxicating sweetness of the
Divine: to be close to her is a profound happiness and to feel her
within the heart is to make the existence a rapture and a marvel;
grace and charm and tenderness flow from her like the light from
the sun and wherever she fixes her wonderful gaze or lets fall of
the loveliness of her smile, the soul is seized and made captive and
plunged into the depths of an unfathomable bliss.

Generousity : Gives and gives Psychic Generousity : Gives for

itself without bargaining. the joy of giving.

Divine Smile : We can Eternal smile: A gift that only

contemplate the smiles of the Divine can give.
the Divine when we have
conquered our ego.

Her look, her smile awoke celestial sense

Even in earth-stuff, and their intense delight

Integral Wealth of Mahalaxmi : Wealth in Poured a supernal beauty on men’s lives.

all domains and all activities, intellectual, -Savitri
.psychological, material, in feeling and action
The Mother
 ......Where there is affinity to the rhythms of the secret world-
bliss and response to the call of the All-Beautiful and concord and
unity and the glad flow of many lives turned towards the Divine,
in that atmosphere she consents to abide. But all that is ugly and
mean and base, all that is poor and sordid and squalid, all that is
brutal and coarse repels hezvr advent.

Sri Aurobindo says here about Mahalakshmi: “All that is poor...

Sweetness:
Adds its smiling touch to life
without making a fuss.
repels her advent”?
Sweetness of Power
Surrendered to the Divine : Yes, poor, without generosity, without ardour, without
Sweetness itself becomes powerful amplitude, without inner richness; all that is dry, cold, coiled
when it is at the service of the up, prevents the coming of Mahalakshmi. It is not a question of
big money, you know! An extremely rich man may be terribly
poor from Mahalakshmi’s point of view. And a very poor man
may be very rich if his heart is generous.

When we say “a poor man — un pauvre homme”, what is the

An
n incense floated in the quivering air,
A mystic happiness trembled in the breast
As if the invisible Beloved had come
Assuming the sudden loveliness of a face
And close glad hands could seize his fugitive feet
And the world cha
change with the beauty of a smile.
exact meaning of “poor man”?
A poor man is a man having no qualities, no force, no strength,
no generosity. He is also a miserable, unhappy man. Moreover,
one is unhappy only when one is not generous — if one has a
generous nature which gives of itself witho ut reckoning, one
is never unhappy. It is those who are coiled up on themselves
and who always want to draw things towards themselves, who
see things and the world only through themselves — it is these
who are unhappy. But when one gives oneself generously,
without reckoning, one is never unhappy, never. It is he who
wants to take who is unhappy; he who gives himself is never so.

-Savitri-Book 2, Canto 14
 ...Magnetic is the touch of her hands and their occult and
delicate influence refines the mind and life and body and where she
presses her feet course miraculous streams of an entrancing Ananda.
And yet it is not easy to meet the demand of this enchanting Power
or to keep her presence.

Victorious Beauty : When it has Power of Spiritual Beauty :

removed the ugliness of life. Spiritual beauty has a contagious
power.

Ananda : Calm, tranquil, equal, Ananda in the Physical : May it

In the physical world, of all things
it is beauty that expresses best the
Divine. The physical world is the
world of form and the perfection of
form is beauty. Beauty interprets,
expresses, manifests the Eternal.
Its role is to put all manifested
nature in contact with the Eternal
through the perfection of form,
through harmony and a sense of
Beauty of Tomorrow the ideal which uplifts and leads
manifesting the Divine : A towards something higher.
beauty that exists only by and The Mother
for the Divine.
smiling and very sweet in its be welcome, even if it manifests
truly simple austerity. itself rarely.
A mute Delight regards Time’s countless works:
To house God’s joy in things Space gave wide room,
To house God’s joy in self our souls were born.
This universe an old enchantment guards;
Its objects are carved cups of World-Delight
Whose charmed wine is some deep soul’s rapture-drink:
The All-Wonderful has packed heaven with his dreams,
...He is beauty carolling in the fields of sound;
He chants the stanzas of the odes of Wind;
He is silence watching in the stars at night;
He wakes at dawn and calls from every bough,
Lies stunned in the stone and dreams in flower and tree.
-Savitri-Book 10, Canto 3
Divine Ananda : Abundant, Krishna's Ananda : Sweetness Beauty of Supramental Youth: Beauty of The New Creation:
succulent, nourishing, full of itself becomes powerful when it Exquisite in its freshness, The new creation strives to better
vigour. is at the service of the Divine. powerful in its undeniable manifest the Divine.
beauty.

Delight is the soul of existence, beauty the intense

impression, the concentrated form of Delight;Delight is
existence, Delight is the secret of creation, Delight is the root
of birth, Delight is the cause of remaining in existence, Delight
is the end of birth and that into which creation ceases.
Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo came to tell the world of the beauty of the
future that must be realised. He came to give not a hope but a
certitude of the splendour towards which the world moves.
The world is not an unfortunate accident, it is a marvel
which moves towards its expression.

The world needs the certitude of the beauty of the future.

And Sri Aurobindo has given that assurance.
The Mother
 ...Harmony and beauty of the mind and soul, harmony and
beauty of the thoughts and feelings, harmony and beauty in every
outward act and movement, harmony and beauty of the life and
surroundings, this is the demand of Mahalakshmi.

Let Beauty be your constant ideal:

beauty of soul
beauty of sentiment
beauty of thought
beauty of action
Supramental Beauty in the Beauty of Supramental Love : It beauty in work
Physical : Its promise is charming. invites us to learn to live at its so that nothing comes out of your hands which is not
height. an expression of pure and harmonious beauty. And the
Divine help will always be with you.
The Mother
All these things—all the arts, the beautiful work we do for the
Divine—are they expressions of supramental beauty in the
physical?

No, all that is only the manifestation of a universal harmony

which lies, as it were, at the very heart of creation.

But the supramental beauty is something much higher and more

perfect; it is a beauty untainted by any ugliness and it does not
need the proximity of ugliness in order to look beautiful.

When the supramental forces descend into Matter in order to

manifest, this perfect beauty will express itself quite naturally and
spontaneously in all forms.
The Mother Aristocracy of Beauty: So
perfectly formed that it compels
admiration.
Beauty Arising from consecration
: Be sincere and absolute in your
consecration to the divine and
your life will become harmonious
and beautiful.
 Static Beauty: Transfixed in an Abundance of Beauty : A beauty Nature makes an offering of Spontaneous Beauty : Delicate
immutable beauty. that blossoms freely and her beauty : It is a spontaneous and magnificent, it has an
abundantly. and effortless offering. incomparable charm.

Beauty is Ananda taking form — but the form need not be

a physical shape. One speaks of a beautiful thought, a beautiful
act, a beautiful soul. What we speak of as beauty is Ananda in
manifestation; beyond manifestation beauty loses itself in Ananda
or, you may say, beauty and Ananda become indistinguishably
If you want to have the sense of beauty in itself you
must have a universal consciousness to know true beauty
independent of all form, one must rise above all form.
And once you have known it beyond every form, you
can recognise it in any form whatsoever It is certain that in the
present state of the physical world, appearances are still very
deceptive; physical beauty is not always a sign of a beautiful
soul, and an ugly or grotesque body may conceal a genius or a
resplendent soul.
The Mother

Power of Beauty : Transfixed in Smile of Beauty : Nature is

an immutable beauty. happy to be beautiful.