https://incarnateword.in/agenda/01/june-6-1958
This has been answered by Sri Aurobindo in a most beautiful way.
’17 August 1938
There are many who hold the view that she was human but now embodies the Divine Mother and her “Prayers”, they say, explain this view. But, to my mental conception, to my psychic being, she is the Divine Mother who has consented to put on her the cloak of obscurity and suffering and ignorance so that she can effectively lead us—human beings—to Knowledge and Bliss and Ananda and to the Supreme Lord.
The Divine puts on an appearance of humanity, assumes the outward human nature in order to tread the path and show it to human beings, but does not cease to be the Divine. It is a manifestation that takes place, a manifestation of a growing divine consciousness, not human turning into divine. The Mother was inwardly above the human even in childhood, so the view held by “many” is erroneous.
I also conceive that the Mother’s “Prayers” are meant to show us—the aspiring psychic—how to pray to the Divine.
Yes.’
(Ref. https://incarnateword.in/cwm/01/17-august-1938)
‘I have said that the Divine does the Sadhana first for the world and then gives what is brought down to others. There can be no Sadhana without realisations and experiences. The Prayers are a record of Mother’s experiences.
4 January 1935′
(Ref. https://incarnateword.in/cwm/01/4-january-1935)
(Follow-up Question:)
In some of the Mother’s Prayers which are addressed to “divin Maître” I find the words: “avec notre divine Mère”. How can the Mother and “divin Maître” have a “divine Mère”? It is as if the Mother was not the “divine Mère” and there was some other Mother and the “divin Maître” was not the Transcendent and had also a “divine Mère”! Or is it that all these are addressed to something impersonal?
The Prayers are mostly written in an identification with the earth-consciousness. It is Mother in the lower nature addressing the Mother in the higher nature, the Mother herself carrying on the Sadhana of the earth-consciousness for the transformation, praying to herself above from whom the forces of transformation come. This continues till the identification of the earth-consciousness and the higher consciousness is effected. The word “notre” is general, I believe, referring to all born into the earth-consciousness—it does not mean the Mother of the “Divin Maître” and myself. It is the Divine who is always referred to as Divin Maître and Seigneur. There is the Mother who is carrying on the Sadhana and the Divine Mother, both being one but in different poises, and both turn to the Seigneur or Divine Master. This kind of prayer from the Divine to the Divine you will find also in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.’
Though these letters are written in the context of the Mother’s Prayers, the context is the same, that is to say why should the Divine, the Avatar need to do Sadhana? Sri Krishna, for example, took initiation from Ghora Rishi. The reason is threefold
First, the Divine who is evidently free takes birth in the limited field of human nature. It is somewhat like a king entering a dense forest in his kingdom and is attacked by the robbers. He has to conquer them, not so much for himself but to secure the field for his people. So too, the Divine, though free in His eternal being enters the dark fields of human nature to conquer them to secure it for others and, importantly also to show the way to us, bound creatures, to discover our freedom. The Mother’s Sadhana was not to find Her freedom but to help others find the way and show them to others that this can be done and the way to do it.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
