Nama Japa, repetition of Mother's name, calling The Mother into our being are well known practices of Yoga. All these are understood to be the same and there is a great truth in it. Still, each practice has its own individuality and special potentialities. Occasionally during periods of intense aspiration, one tends to continue these blissful practices for long. What aspiration urges him to take up will lead him incidentally to several other goals not thought of by the devotee. Dissolution of problems, generation of fresh capacities, sometimes fresh faculties, constant remembrance, constant Presence making Identification for short periods possible are likely to issue out of this benevolent practice resorted to in a moment of inspiration and maintained by the momentum of the aspiration.
Suppose a whole family of five or seven comes forward to take up this practice consciously and maintain it at its peak of perfection for an unbroken seven days, what would be the inner feeling in their beings and what external results they may encounter outside, is a question I have raised and wish to answer in the following pages.
Sri Aurobindo said about Purna Yoga that calling is the best part of it. If that is so, this practice must be powerful for some reason or other. Calling is aspiration articulated. Aspiration collects as a force and each calling becomes an invocation bringing Mother's Force into the being. As the intensity of aspiration rises, it becomes difficult to articulate. At its maximum intensity, aspiration becomes a silent column of Agni rising from below trying to evoke a response from the Supreme Grace. Should one succeed in finding an inner articulation of Mother's name while at this peak of silent magnetism, calling rises to a higher intensity and issues from all nooks and corners of the personality, giving the call a wider amplitude to match the greater depths from which it now springs.
Man who stays at this level does not find the heavens very high because his inner conditions soon begin to resemble the native endowments of high heavens. Sooner or later, it strikes him that this great intense successful calling spread unbroken over the day, for which anyone can congratulate himself as a high realisation, is there because he is different form the Godhead -- The Mother -- he is calling into himself. Knowledge of his being different from Mother stings his soul and pain issues at the thought that he is outside Her aura and that is why he continues calling. The stage next to intense calling is to meet moments of identification where the necessity of calling falls away.
There is a sacred secret behind the principle of calling and we aim at the result this secret can give us. The human being is in its entirety, even in its perversity, Divine in its origin, development and present existence. When Sri Aurobindo speaks of spiritual oneness, he says that at bottom all men, materials, etc. are one at the spiritual level, like the Central Government office and the State Government office are essentially part of the same government, though two such offices can be intensely at war with each other over any small issue. Likewise, the human being and the Divine are one and the same at the level of the Spirit. The Divine is the whole and the human being is the part. Hence, calling means the part trying to reach the whole, the child crying to go back to the mother.
The individual human being who has forgotten his divine origin remembers now in his inmost spirit, and the part which is awake is "calling' the Origin for reunion. If the spiritual part is not essentially or effectively connected with the rest of the being and the calling of the inner spirit becomes strong enough, the spirit detaches itself from the body and the rest of the being and reaches its Origin to attain Moksha. If the spirit is involved in the other parts of the being and the calling becomes stronger, instead of Moksha coming to it, calling spreads to all parts of the being with which the spirit is essentially and effectively connected. Calling results in the continuous awakening of all other parts of the being which join the call. At a stage when the whole being calls, calls from all its micro-units, the very cells, calling results in identification with the origin. Identification is the essential, desirable first stage to final transformation.
The power of calling and the magnitude of final transformation depend upon the depth and the width from which the call issues, the channels used and the amplitude of the receiving end.
Repetition of Mother's name orally is a very elementary form of calling and it can have the minimum response of quieting a disturbed mind or solving a problem on hand, like recovering a lost article. The above described calling from the entire being is the most powerful. As the calling soul has several levels from which the invocation issues, so it can be addressed to the Divine, the Mother, one aspect of Mother, the highest power of the Supramental Mahashakti, or the least little divinity that can readily respond to relieve one in distress. Calling addressed to the Mahasaraswati aspect of Mother will result not in identification or transformation, but in a powerful skill descending perfectly like the skill of painting. There are Powers of Mother like Sincerity, Generosity, etc., which when called will come into you.
People do not generally call from a conscious depth or address their call to a conscious power of Mother. One certainly does so in a specific occasion. Generally, devotees are in a certain state, open at a certain depth. For instance, around a man's birthday, he may be in intense adoration of Mother and be open in his emotions. He may not be fully conscious of his state. Calling Mother for him in this condition will bring Her power into his vital and will be found as adoration of Divine Mother. He may be writing a book or learning to use a computer or aspiring for a political post. Calling Mother in such states will reach the Maheshwari aspect, pouring into him the ability to write or Mahasaraswati aspect, giving him power to perfectly learn the computer or Mahakali power descending into him, enabling him to win political laurels.
Man is in a hundred levels. Mother's Power exists in a hundred levels. Each level in Man as well as Mother has infinite horizontal dimensions. In a given case, the call may rise from the tenth level in Man and be addressed to the twentieth level in Mother. Response and result depend upon the strength of aspiration that meets the demand of this dimension.
Though calling can be from any level in Man to any level in Mother, for one who wishes to take it up for seven full days along with all members of his family, it is best he calls from the entire part of his being that is awake and addresses it to the highest level of Mother's Divinity that he is aware of.
One who constantly thinks of Mother in relation to anything he thinks about or one who desires to understand any phenomenon from Mother's point of view is one whose entire mind is awakened to Mother's Consciousness. For one to know whether he is awake in the vital to Mother, it is enough he catches himself the next time he starts speaking or eating. If Mother comes to his mind before the speech issues or he begins to eat, he is one whose vital is awake to Mother. He who involuntarily thinks of Mother before commencing any act, like opening a pen, is one who is awake in the physical to Her. There are people who think of Mother as a giver of boons. Others know Her for certain as one who gives clarity, brings silence, and is a source of Power, etc. Each knows the highest moment in his life with Mother and the height at which She has revealed. Clarity is from Maheshwari, Silence is from Mother Herself, Power is from Mahakali, and boons are from Her external aura.
Having decided the depth and width from which he wants to call and the height to which the call is to rise, one has to see whether the call rises smoothly and fully reaches the end. Before commencing the seven day period, one has to travel in this area or rather let his call travel in this area and ascertain that the issuance, journey and final merging with Mother are smooth, full, continuous, enjoyable and result in expansive consciousness of an energising nature. If it is smooth, it is alright. If it is not, the alternatives before him are to abridge the zone to a manageable level or remove the intruders of thoughts and distractions of sights and sounds.
The most important destabilizer is the lack of concentration. If thoughts intrude, an attempt to replace each though by a thought of Mother will lead to neutralising the intrusion. It is easy to convince the mind that a thought of Mother is always better than any other thought, however original it is. Distractions of sight, sound, smell, etc., are often annoying. Bringing Mother's Light into the vital will help remove these sensations. Lack of concentration is a bother to many. The intensity of concentration determines the intensity of the result. Hence, concentration is of great significance. One way to reach the maximum concentration is to imagine Mother's Light or Figure in the calling zone. Where the Light descends, there will be natural concentration. An endeavour to expand the Light will be successful to some extent. The maximum extent to which the Light is spread is the maximum concentration available to begin with. One has to be content with that and try one of the following alternatives.
Resort to calling, not as part of the seven day period, but as a period of prior preparation. During this calling, one can endeavour gently to fill in the entire awakened zone with the Light, however tenuous it is. On the other hand, he can endeavour to call within the available light, so that the call will take shape, form, direction, and intensity and begin to rise. Either way, as soon as one is decided on the minimum available energy for calling, he is ready to start the seven-day period.
One would like to know whether his calling is in the right direction. When you start calling, if all the energies are focussed on the calling and all possible interferences fall away, the beginning is in the right spirit and direction. After a single call, if we are not in a great hurry to repeat the call, the peace or joy or quiet that is the result of the call will be found to spread all over the being. It is best to wait until it peters out and start the next call after the first subsides. Initially, each call will bring a descent that spreads all over. Later the descent and the call will slowly become simultaneous and overlap each other. Sometimes there will be descent without the call being there. Sometimes the call will be repeated without being accompanied by the descent. To continue the call at this level as long as possible is good and to see how long it continues. That period must slowly be extended to cover one full day. This one day can be extended to seven days if the exercise is started at this stage.
As the early preparation for the seven-day period is on, you will see life around you gently coming under your greater control. Your superiors are now approving of arguments from you that your subordinates will resist. People who would normally not obey you will now readily obey. Works that you have known for long to be inconclusive, if undertaken by you, will for the first time be completed. In other words, the effectivity of the mind, the vital and the physical will have increased.
Another expression of it will be spiritual. Mind will tend to Silence involuntarily for a minute or two, joy will invade the heart, even if it for seconds, and the body will be at quiet peace for a while, forgetting its earlier tendency to fidget. In the family or office atmosphere, you can find disharmony will never rise and if it does, it quickly dissolves.
Surely, calling is not repeating Mother's name. Repetition is physical-verbal. Calling is from the Being and hence, most powerful. If repetition is verbal, silent mental repetition is mental articulation. If the entire mind is able to call, one will find Mother's name articulated by the mind, but silently. When emotions are ready to call and pass the stage of articulation, one is in a state of aspiration. Aspiration too can become silent if the entire heart calls. This is a stage of self-forgetful bliss. The cells too can call if the calling goes down to the physical. The voice of the cells can be clearly heard calling. If calling spreads all over the physical being, the cells fall silent and the call remains, giving the body an exultation. The calling can be taken up by the Being or the Spirit. There are several levels of intensity in these calls.
Nama Japa, calling "Rama" or "Krishna" are known practices. Calling any God brings in the force of that God. Rama brings down the sattwa guna and Krishna the overmental force. Calling Mother brings down the supramental Force, where knowledge and will are fused. The wider the part or deeper the part from which one calls, the wider or deeper the possible transformation. If the whole Being calls, the possibility of the Being transforming into Mother arises.
Note, the Being being transformed into the Psychic Being is different from the Being transformed into Mother. The stages of transformation Sri Aurobindo has given are--
1) Psychic transformation
2) Spiritual transformation
3) Supramental transformation.
Transformation into Mother, though it is on the same lines, will be different from all these in that it will be The Mother Force at its own level. The creative Force of The Mother can exist at a low level of physical or vital or at a high level of overmental or supramental. Mother speaks of Mother Nature meeting Her in Her visions. I only underline the fact that if the whole Being calls, the chance of the Being being transformed into The Mother at that stage emerges.
Suppose we manage to reach great depths of being and to call from there, but the effort is a failure to sustain the call, the result will be to envelop the whole being with Mother's Force for the duration of the call. In practical terms, all problems at that level will vanish and all opportunities at that level will arise as a possibility.
A problem at the level of mind is confusion and an opportunity at the mental level is a new idea. If one brings down Mother's Force by calling, all confusion in the mind will vanish and new ideas will emerge. At the vital level, irritations will disappear and VIPs will cooperate with you. Physically, one can witness the disappearance of disease, and the prolongation of life will make itself a possibility. Going to the very fullness, the Being will lose its incapacities and one will get the capacity to rise above the level of his life.
There are nine levels of Being -- three in the mind, three in the vital and three in the physical. Below in the first column I give certain indication for each level. In the second column I write down how at each level of reception of descending Mother's Force, a condition changes into its Positive aspect. This tabular column is to explain what happens at the nine levels of Being when Mother's Force is received by the being's ordinary status. The first column explains the ordinary status and the second the altered status.
| Level | Ordinary Status | Changed Status |
| I | I disliked the idea & didn't understand it | I like the idea because now I understood it. |
| II | Unpleasantly startled. | Pleasant surprise |
| III | I was stung. | I felt uplifted. |
| IV | I was disturbed. | I was beside myself with joy. |
| V | I felt I lost my all. | There was a deep satisfaction. |
| VI | I was sucked dry. | Inconceivable fulfilment was there. |
| VII | I shook in fear. | I was thrilled. |
| VIII | I felt mad. | I felt like running in joy. |
| IX | I fainted in distress. | I was mad with joy and became incoherent. |
To make the above presentation clearer, below I try to write what happens when the Spirit touches these nine levels in another fashion, though it looks repetitive. Negatively something disappears and positively something arises. I have mentioned both.
| I | Doubts and worries disappear. | Clarity and confidence arise |
| II | Pleasant surprises come. | Feel a mental widening and expansiveness. |
| III | Was dazed in thought. | Feel catapulted to heights. |
| IV | I was beside myself in joy. | Expansive joy invaded. |
| V | There was deep fulfillment. | Unmixed delight of sensations. |
| VI | Nothing mattered to me anymore. | Felt light inside and was floating. |
| VII | Body shook with joy of delight. | Sense of new power pervaded. |
| VIII | Delightfully made in disregard of society | Felt nothing was impossible. |
| IX | I was lost to the world at large | Lost even the sense of shame and would do anything for Mother. |
Divine's Gift to Matter
Mother says that the Divine has given a special gift to Earth, i.e. matter. Matter is given the chance to reunite with the Origin, which is a special gift to Earth and Matter. Man has lost that gift also, as he has lost several other gifts. Mother restores that gift too for the unconscious Man, but she does not insistently do it. She does it perhaps once. Calling is a device through which this materialises. During our calls, they sometimes become more intense than we intended and have a deeper penetration. One such may open the last door before the Origin. Such moments occur in a flash. If man is alert at that moment to remember Mother, Her name or Form or something of Hers, it becomes a seminal moment and settles down there as a seed which can sprout with nurturing. It is worthwhile to note that Mother is different from the Origin. It is also good not to confuse our general call which opens the Origin to us with the special call I mention after the opening of the Origin or at the moment of opening. It would lead to lack of clarity if we ask what is the difference between the call that opens us to the Origin and the one at the moment of opening.
Why is another call necessary at all? The general call helps penetrate the Being and leads us to the Origin. If we want that boon not to be a mere flash lost forever but be renewable at will, if we want to convert that entry into the Origin to a permanent passport into that region, another call just at that moment is necessary. We pay a tuition fee into college and complete the course. For us to take the university examination, we again pay a special examination fee to qualify us to sit for the examination. We do not argue, "Why pay another fee?" To be able to enter the Origin, to be able to call Mother just when it opens, to be able to renew the call so as to enter the Origin as and when we want to enter are no mere simple yogic boons. Calling has that power too in its extreme effectivity.
Now, the aspirant can decide to launch himself on a seven-day voyage into the delightful realms of the Spirit, riding on the boat of calling. He must clearly know that this is not the ultimate method of yoga, nor is he aiming at the highest spiritual gift. This is a method which anyone can follow, however humble he is, making a start from where he is. That being the reality, this method does not aim at the final transformation. What it aims at is the highest that the given person can aim at for his build, for his aspiration, and in the given circumstances for him. The one condition is he should be set on aiming for the highest possible for him. Still, if taken along the right lines, this method can lead one into the Origin and make that entry available to him at will.
Knowing that limitation full well, he should take care to see that the intensity of calling should always be kept at the maximum. That is a sine qua non. That alone ensures its continuation. It is up to him to widen the base of calling, heighten the maximum reach by an increased effort.
As mentioned earlier, such a call taken to by all members of the family and maintained for seven continuous days has several beneficial inner results and finds the corresponding outer expressions in life. Inwardly he soon rises above being worried and its outer life expression is that all the problems of life will vanish. Spiritual aspects of Silence, Peace, Joy, Delight, Power emerge inside in varying measures. They accordingly find outer expressions as original thoughts, greater health, life rewards, success at a higher level of life and total mastery over limited areas of outer activity.
We can still try to explain these beatific inner conditions as beneficial family situations. That would savour of being mercenary but will not distract us from the inner truth. Let me endeavour to list them out.
1) Family income would rise to the level as if every member of the family is earning as much as the head of the family.
2) Effectivity of the family will rise to that level, as if each member has suddenly grown in his sense of responsibility to the height of the head of the family.
3) Fulfilments are fleeting and come once in a way. Everyday will become a day of Life fulfilments.
4) Life would suck you into its next higher level periodically--once every three years or every year.
5) Every meal will be a feast.
6) Every dress will become the best dress you have.
7) Every moment will become a moment of Supreme Felicity.
8) Every day at home will be a festival day.
9) Everyone we meet will be a VIP.
10) Everyone will treat you as a VIP.
11) Coins will be currency notes.
12) Everyone at home will be intimately affectionate.
13) The house will turn into the abode of the Gods.
14) Everyone you meet will be pleasant to see and pleasant to deal with.
15) Wishes will be order; orders will be ordinances.
16) All facial movements will be smiles; smiles will become divine sparks.
17) Thoughts will be inspirations; inspirations will fulfil themselves.
18) Relationships will be friendships; friendships will yield felicity.
19) Water will taste like milk; milk will be amritam.
20) Food will become Prasad.
21) Your mother will be Divine because the Divine Herself will come as your mother.
22) Stones will become precious stones; and precious stones will become commonplace.
23) Heart will become Mother's sanctuary; body will become the Temple for the Divine.
24) Even cruelty does not hurt; rather you are able to see the Divine Love behind it. Body will express the compassion of the heart through its hairs standing on end.
25) Nobility of great men will express through your behaviour; everyone except you will notice it.
26) The worthless, meaningless Me will be seen by others as a Divine Expression. (The moment we believe others' opinions, our worthlessness and meaninglessness will fully re-establish themselves.)
27) As grievance and falsehood have vanished from our heart, an illusion that they are non-existent in this world will arise.
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