Book Review
Seeing through a lens that sees things as it is, in its truest form, looking at a broken feather as a feather, not denying its reality, not giving it a quality, experiencing the moment quietly the Mother wrote about Japan. She wrote about its perfection/ beauty-loving people, the value given to nurturing kids, the dedicated women, the Japanese restrained-balanced-subtle art and the transient life.
The people, she observed, not via reactions, but by silent selfless actions showed how much they cared for someone; happy to persevere they worked to fulfil the task at hand, devoted harmoniously and absolutely in the present moment, aware about nothing else.
*
Taking long walks to a garden in spring or autumns and spending time there or climbing the steep stairs to reach the monastery at the top of the hilltop, the people (of every and any class), she noticed, believed in beauty and peace.
*
“…very simple people, men of working class or even peasants go for rest or enjoyment to a place where they can see a beautiful landscape. This gives them a much greater joy than going to play cards or indulging in all sorts of distractions as they do in the countries of Europe. They are seen in groups at times, going on the roads or sometimes taking a train or a tram up to a certain point, then walking to a place from where one gets a beautiful view.”
“For instance, in autumn leaves become red; they have large numbers of maple-trees (the leaves of the maple turn into all the shades of the most vivid red in autumn, it is absolutely marvellous), so they arrange a place near temple, for instance, on the top of a hill, and the entire hill is covered with maples.”
“Well, an artist who goes there will experience an emotion of absolutely exceptional, marvellous beauty. But one sees very small children, families even, with a baby on the shoulder, going there in groups. In autumn they will go there. In springtime they will go elsewhere.”
The Mother (Questions and Answers, The Mother on Japan 12 April 1951)




(The Mother, Paintings and Drawings, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, 1992) [Photo by – Jagriti Rumi]
While reading about the 1919 flu and how the Mother fought back the negative, dark energy, one thinks about the present pandemic and hopes to win like the Mother in the end.
The glorious cherry-blossom trees in bloom – pink, white, vivid joyous pink – and the narrow paths that take one to wonderful places, with old Japanese houses on both sides, presented the Mother with a paradise puzzle…
*
“Then you go wandering around – always one wanders at random in that country – you go wandering and all of a sudden you turn the corner of a street and come to a kind of paradise: there are magnificent trees, a temple as beautiful as everything else, you see nothing of the city (Tokyo) any longer, no more traffic, no tramways; a corner, a corner of trees with magnificent colours, and it is beautiful, beautiful like everything else. You do not know how you have reached there, you seem to have come by luck. And then you turn, you seek your way, you wander off again and go elsewhere. And some days later you want to come back to this very place, but it is impossible, it is as though it had disappeared. And this is so frequent, this is so true that such stories are often told in Japan. Their literature is full of fairy-lore. They tell you a story in which the hero comes suddenly to an enchanted place: he sees fairies, he sees marvellous beings, he spends exquisite hours among flowers, music; all is splendid. The next day he is obliged to leave; it is the law of the place, he goes away. He tries to come back, but never does. He can no longer find the place: it was there, it has disappeared!… And everything in this city, in this country, from beginning to end, gives you the impression of impermanence, of the unexpected, the exceptional. You always come to things you did not expect; you want to find them again and they are lost – they have made something else which is equally charming. From the artistic point of view, the point of view of beauty, I don’t think there is a country as beautiful as that.”
The Mother (Questions and Answers, The Mother on Japan 12 April 1951)
*
Complement this short spiritual post with similar posts – The Journey and Sri Aurobindo.
*
Weekly Newsletter
Recent Posts
- The Source
- In The Sundarbans
- The Knight’s Missing But The Horse’s Here
- Temple Food
- Walking and, Without Looking for it, Finding Narnia
I have always been intrigued by this ancient traditional land, and this post further nudges the curiosity, what brilliant cognitive insights. 🙂
Same for me, am fascinated by the stories that come out of Japan, all magical and yet close to reality (specially anime), it has that evanescent quality that makes it more special.
Loved this book, full of passionate and meditative thoughts.
Thanks! Ya-hoy!
Reminds me of Chihiro from Spirited Away. Losing her way, finding her nature-spirited world. True, the other modern cultures had hardly been able to see it like that.
Thank you for a peep into an early 20th CE Japanese mother’s mind.
I know… and also Shizuku from Whisper of the Heart and Haru from The Cat Returns.
Miyazaki knows only too well how to enter such magical places.
She is not Japenese, she is French. But got your point. 🙂
Thanks dearest reader!
Wonderful blog post, beautifully written. 👍
Thank you so much! 🙂
Reminds me of Chihiro from Spirited Away. Losing her way, discovering back her nature-spirited world.
I admire Mother’s unique reflections on the other and beauty, but I cannot adore her outlooking other cultures (her own perhaps) only as mere indulgences. But I restrain from complaining there. It was 1919 after all.
Thank you for an introduction and peep into a mind.
Splendid Khayal and write-up as usual 🙂
‘Splendid khayal’ sounds superb! Ya-hoy!
I think, as much as I know from my readings of her work, The Mother, a spiritual Guru, in order to make a clear-cut comparison stated this point and maybe it is the comparison that makes one feel that she is overlooking the other culture/s. That is what I felt.
Thanks my friend for taking out time, reading and commenting, it encourages me to work harder. 🙂
XOXO
i don’t know where my comments are going. but if you have them, please issue the final draft 😛
also i wish, something about the comments. if i by mistakenly leave the page, the write-up disappears. it would help, if the write-up stays unposted in the box.
So I think I received all your comments (3 in total), and I know how frustrating it is when the messages disappear…
Will discuss this issue with the WordPress CEO as soon as I meet him and request him to solve this matter. Too much!
😛