Inspirations from Mother’s Voice

It is a wonderful thing that we have recordings of Mother’s voice spanning many years on a wide variety of topics such as messages, conversations, readings, and instructions. Of these what I listen to regularly are The Agenda and the Playground talks. It is part of my morning routine to listen to each of them for a few minutes. And as both The Agenda and Playground talks are only in French, it requires me to follow along reading the French editions of these. Although my French is good, to get the full benefit and completely understand what Mother is saying, I have the book alongside.

I find the time spent listening to Mother to be quite uplifting. Because it is in French, I have to listen more closely or I miss the words. As a result, my mind becomes attentive, focused and still. And as I listen to Mother, the words in the book become alive with the added quality of her presence and personality. It is like listening to a person tell me something rather than just reading a text message they sent me.

I can feel the power of her character behind the words. Sometimes she speaks softly and sometimes she speaks very emphatically. Her voice is very clear and expressive. Putting it poetically her words are like waves of a magical ocean with their fascinating undulations and all the grandeur that is Mother’s being. Then there are other things like her humour and laughter which bring a very different quality to the words. For e.g., when she starts laughing about something, you get a touch of her lighter side. You get to feel how, though talking about something very profound or something serious, she can bring a playfulness and detachment into the conversation.

Thus, only reading Mother’s words in a book is inspiring, but reading and listening to her speak the same words is even more inspiring. For those interested in listening to Mother’s voice, you can find the recordings here:

• The Agenda: https://sri-aurobindo.co.in/workings/ma/agenda_sound/
• Playground talks: https://sriaurobindo.co.in/workings/ma/playground_audio/index.htm

Besides the more outward things I described above when hearing Mother speak, there is more importantly the inner force and divine aspect of her voice. This is best described in the following recollection from Mona Sarkar.

Mona da: Mother, I had always the impression that your voice is exceptional. It is extraordinary. We have never heard a similar voice. It carries us up, shakes the whole being and gives an impetus to our aspiration. It inspires us to be sincere and conscious. It is marvellous, Mother. It kindles the psychic flame. It is sweet and at the same time powerful.

“You are right, my child, it is exactly that….

“You know, now my voice does not resound as powerfully as before because I have difficulty in retaining the breath. Still… if you heard my voice, it is exceptional. I cannot speak very loudly but still it carries far.

“It is unique because it… vibrates with the power to manifest.

“My voice is not ordinary. This voice, clear, pure, tranquil, is filled with love and light and above all, an infinite compassion which extends towards all those who hear it. This voice is so convincing that it evokes an ardent aspiration in all the hearts. It has a supreme healing power and its vibrations remove the difficulties, and the obstacles vanish as by an enchantment. People feel relieved of a great burden. My voice tears the veil of ignorance and imperceptibly penetrates the heart to awaken the consciousness. This voice liberates the head of all mental influences and the anxieties which weigh upon us and torment us, and liberates in us the ardent power and the individual faculties lying dormant in inertia. It shakes up the physical tamas, drives away fear from our inconscience, removes the barriers that oppose us, strengthens the base and gives the energy for launching ourselves towards the goal.

“My voice awakes the calm certitude in all hearts. This voice is consciousness itself, it awakens the consciousness in the inconscience. My voice comes from the Supreme and He expresses himself through me. This voice which has expressed only the Lord’s Will, which has pronounced nothing but the Supreme Truth, is charged with an extraordinary force to manifest the Divine Powers. It vibrates and gives an impetus to our aspiration, an assurance to our conviction and above all, dispels the clouds of ill-will.

“This voice — tender, clear, pure, powerful, vigorous and energetic, — gives an amplitude and a calm lucidity which directs and transmits the powers of the divine will. It is like a gentle peace, a vivifying breath, a love that consoles the aggrieved hearts. The vibration that my voice transmits awakens in the heart the aspiration for the Divine. It creates a resonance which sounds and resounds like a note of music which penetrates and repeats itself and awakens the cells to this vibration to open the consciousness to the light in the beatitude of the divine communion. This voice comes from the infinite and merges into the infinite. You know, each element of the universe has its own voice. For some it is audible and for others it is silent. But still, each element expresses its own aspiration, and those who are open in these planes can hear it.

“This voice which is so familiar to you, which is at the same time clear and very simple but extraordinarily convincing, — it gives an assurance, a will for launching towards the unknown. In the hearts of the cowards my voice instils an invincible courage. In ardent aspirants it awakens a sentiment of goodwill and mercy; in the thirsting souls it kindles the flame of aspiration or the purifying flame. There is in this voice an authority that commands. It is at the same time sweet and comforting.

“Even for the ordinary people, my voice sends a thrill; it awakens a hope, a love and a feeling that all is not lost. For others, it brings out the splendours that lie hidden within, and for yet others, the key to solve the mysteries of the world.\

“It is a voice which is calm, serene and peaceful, but sovereignly strong and luminous; it expresses itself with a clarity and a precision, expressing the profound sentiments that are hidden behind the words. It widens and opens the horizons in a universal comprehension. This voice penetrates, floods, overflows, animates, regenerates and transfigures everything with a sweetness, a radiance, a force and a power that triumphs with a peaceful and a smiling benevolence. My voice is enveloped with an atmosphere which awakes in us an intense aspiration which strengthens the will to strive till the goal, and the sentiment of devotion and divine love. It penetrates into the hearts and awakes the central being, removes the screen which covers the psychic flame to lead the consciousness towards the Lord of our existence. My voice has an extraordinary power, it spreads a harmony, a peace, a light and an amplitude that resounds and shines brightly in each cell with a joy that exults to know Him. It gives an amplitude and travels in waves which ring through the atmosphere in the occult worlds. This voice can be heard in the spheres that constitute the universe, and even more in the immutable silence of eternity, beyond all manifestation — in the immobile beatitude of His power and His resplendent light. My voice recovers the divine presence which creates the Word which is the expression of His plenitude and His Illumination.

“I can describe it indefinitely and as long as one has not attained a certain level of consciousness, one can understand nothing of what my voice is — the depth and the value of what it contains, …”

- Paul Sawh (Canada)

The Mother’s words sourced from: Mona Sarkar – The Supreme (2000), pp. 27-30, abridged