A JEWELLED BRIDGE TO REACH THE MOTHER

[Guest guest]

A JEWELLED BRIDGE TO

REACH THE MOTHER

 

There is a magnificent prayer to the Divine Mother in Sri

Aurobindo's Savitri.

" She is the golden bridge, the wonderful fire.

The luminous heart of the Unknown is she,

A power of silence in the depths of God;

She is the Force, the inevitable Word,

The magnet of our difficult ascent,

The Sun from which we kindle all our suns,

The Light that leans from the unrealised Vasts,

The joy that beckons from the impossible,

The Might of all that never yet came down.

Can we attain her proximity as Aswapati did through yoga? What is

yoga? Is it a discipline by itself which is quite independent of the

place of your posting? What was Aswapati's yoga? What was Savitri's

yoga? Outwardly were they not as one of us? Look at Savitri, the

dhyana yoga paraayana, as the daughter-in-law in the hermitage:

A worshipped empress all once vied to serve,

She made herself the diligent serf of all.

Nor spared the labour of broom and jar and well,

Or close gentle tending or to heap the fire

Of altar and kitchen, no slight task allowed

To others that her woman's strength might do.

In all her acts a strange divinity shone.

 

Call this yoga? But then, it is the inner light that

transforms the outer action and that is yoga. Conserve this light

within, sustain it, help it glow brighter! Sri Suprasannacharya's

place of posting has been the poet's armchair. The reowned Tamil

poet, Subramania Bharati who earned his living by journalism, used to

exclaim proudly: My career is writing poetry! That was tapasya.

Was it not tapasya when Kavya Kantha Ganapati Muni remained in

meditative absorption to creat the glorious Uma Sahasram?

Ah, yes, ever since the moment Uma Haimavati walked into the

Kena Upanishad long, long ago, the Mother of Radiances has been the

sustenance the yogic mentor for the great poets of India. It is most

appropriate that Dr. Suprasannacharya who has been the Mother's child

and whose spiritual career is poetry, has now built a jewelled bridge

to the Golden Bridge, a guiding glow to reach out to the Wonderful

Fire.

Three hundred meditative verses of the Mother prefaced by

thirty-three-verses which offer obeisance to the Guru, to the

personal deity, to the poet's personal vision of the Eternal Woman

who forms the life-force for mankind, Manisetuvu is the latest of a

series of poems by Dr. Suprasannacharya that have a romantic-

spiritual glow, and all of them touched by the wand of Aurobindonian

inspiration. . . These include Srinirukti, Samparayam and Sephalika.

'Rasadhuni' leads the fifteen sections. We are immediately

reminded of the translation of Tiruppavai by Lakshmana Yateendra as

Rasadhuni. Well, this too is a matin song to draw aside the curtain

and tell u s of womanhood which has always been an inspirational

presence as auspiciousness, ethereal music, as life, as silence, the

very essence of blissful experience of Beauty, rasadhuni sobha

parishkarama. Presently the search begins. What does the Mother of

all beings have in store for the future of the world? The poet is

anxious because earth is overburdened by engines of mass destruction

created by purblind man and in Pranesani a cry breaks out from the

poet: Won't you come on your lion and destroy these evil doers with

your hands and burn them up with your glance?

There is also the tempting beauty of Mother Nature around

that gives a respite from fear. And the presence of One which drives

away doubts and tribulations in a trice. How limn this gracious

image of divinity, verily a sublime poem? The poet proceeds to do it

in Saukumaryanuvakamu; for Sri Mata all are children, so different

each one of them, yet all of them moving towards the same goal. This

togetherness gives a certain freedom from fear. Through the

following sections, the theme of surrender peeps through

unaggressively while the poet assures the Mother that his life and

writings are all for her and a gift of her grace.

Samarasya Parama speaks out that there is no other refuge

than the Mother to show the path to the aspirant amid all the

wasteful, meaningless work one performs in a mechanical way and at

the same time is a pray to millions of desires. The Universal Mother

who is seen as the cosmic goddesses like Lakshmi, Parvati and

Saraswati has now taken an individual incarnation as the Mother.

Taking us to the several planes of experiencing the Mother's

presence, Dr. Suprasannacharya indicates the importance of Tantra in

the Aurobindonian yoga in Manana Gandhamu by referring to the Dasa

Mahavidya. The Two-in-One is posited by saying that one should utter

the Name of the Lord and guard the image of the Mother in the heart.

Inspired the Mother, Manisethuvu draws primarily from the

image of flowers and the language of Srividya literature. A variety

of flowers are mentioned in the course of the telling, and there is

even a section, Poochina Parijathamu. The Mother is the

Saundaryalahari whose flowing grace is life-sustaining in the world

which is otherwise laden with sorrow. She is the guardian of all

creation. Sarvaraksha. And the poet sees her every where as the

flower, the tarn, the stream, the very breath drawn by him. Very

aptly so, for that is how Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni envisioned the

Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram when he meditated with her. He found

her to be the very image of Mother Sakhambari.

Dr. Suprasannacharya once referred to the Book of the Divine

Mother in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri as the Lalitha Skandha. The very

name Lalitha invokes beauty, soothing care, love, illumination.

Manisethuvu is also beautiful to read to ourselves and to read aloud,

the verses flow onwards with a soothing care (laalayanteeti lalita!),

teaches us love divine, and comes up with sparks of illumination.

One phrase would do: Talapuna nee vunna chaalu. dhyaanamemitiki naa

thalli. Ah yes, remembering Mother constantly is meditation, and

Manisethuvu brings the Mother to our heart and enshrines her there as

the Empress. Sri Mata Sri Maharajni!

My immense gratitude to Dr. Suprasannacharya for inviting me

to this adventure of using the Jewelled Bridge to reach the Mother, a

bridge built by the divine language, Telugu, proving once again

Emperor Krishna Deva Raya's statement. Desa bhashalandhu Telugu lessa.

 

" Mudhal Tirumaligai "

91, Srirangam - 620 006.

Premanandakumar