Question: Will you speak about the Divine Mother?

Sri Chinmoy: The Mother Divine is the Divine in its feminine aspect. As in the physical world, so also in the spiritual world: just as it is usually easier to please the mother than the father in the physical world, so also in the spiritual world, it is easier to please the Mother Divine. This is because She, the executive Force of the Supreme, the Divine Shakti, has Herself created the earth and therefore she identifies Herself with the earth-consciousness. All our imperfections and struggles rest upon Her infinite Heart of Compassion. Yet the Mother Divine does everything in consultation with the Lord, with the Supreme. And He consults the Divine Mother in all His Supreme Movements.

There are four major aspects of this Mother Divine, the transcendental Mother. The first aspect is that of immensity, power, vastness and majesty. That aspect we call Maheshwari, the Great Mother. In another aspect, we call her Mahakali, the Great Mother who is all the time fighting against the undivine forces, yet who is full of compassion. Of course, all the Mother-aspects of the Divine are full of compassion, but this Mother, it seems, has more compassion than the others. Now this Mother, Mahakali, does everything very, very quickly towards the final achievement. She cares only for those who sincerely aspire. She does not care so much for perfecting the seeker, but she cares for the highest height. If she is satisfied with the aspiration and sincerity of her disciples, of her devotees, then what she does is to give them, in a day, the progress which otherwise would have taken those particular aspirants fifty or sixty years. She works so fast; this is the Mother Mahakali, Great Kali. She is my favourite, my most favourite of all the goddesses; but we cannot separate one goddess from another, since these are only aspects of the one Divine Mother. I cannot separate my right arm from my left arm. In the same way, all the different aspects of the Divine Mother function in their own unique way, but they work together.

And I must say that the Maheshwari aspect of infinite wideness has another emanation, another personality, whom we call Durga. Durga is one of Maheshwari’s aspects. Durga and Vijaya are the same goddess. Vijaya is also an emanation of the Goddess Maheshwari. She fights for the Divine. She fights for the victory of Truth and Light. One of our great Avatars – an Avatar is a direct descendant of God – whose name was Ramachandra, the first Avatar, while he was fighting against the demons, prayed to this particular Goddess, Durga. Durga was pleased with his prayer and Ramachandra was able to conquer the hostile forces and win the victory. He brought back his wife, Sita, who had been captured by the demon chief.

The third goddess is Lakshmi, Mahalakshmi. She is the Mother of beauty, charm, sweetness and fragrance. She is the Mother who creates in every aspect of life, a divine harmony. Most Indian women are inwardly connected and influenced by Mahalakshmi. She has infinite patience, whereas Mother Kali does not want to wait; she does not have patience. In our human sense, we can say that Kali won’t wait. Immediately she will know whether I am sincere or not. If I am insincere, she will simply throw me away. But Mahalakshmi will wait and wait, no matter how insincere I am, no matter what my imperfections are. She is for each and every soul on earth. She wants a peaceful harmony in this earthly life; beauty, softness, sweetness, splendour, all of these heart qualities. So those who pray to her will naturally get all these divine qualities, but they do not go as fast as the devotees of Kali do. These want only liberation, the disciples of Kali; they go right to the Goal. Then after reaching the Highest, if the Supreme wants perfection in their nature, then they have to perfect themselves; and become perfect perfection. I want to say one more thing about Kali: she is the Mother of aspiration also. She kindles the flame of aspiration in the sincere seekers. She does this immediately on seeing real sincerity.

Now there is a fourth goddess. Her name is Saraswati, Mahasaraswati. She is the Mother of Divine Learning, Knowledge and Wisdom. In India, when a child begins to learn to read, he is taught to invoke the Goddess Saraswati and at the same time, to learn a particular mantra [an incantation] and shloka [a verse] which he will repeat so that the Goddess Saraswati will be pleased with him and bless his endeavour. Even when an adult person sits down to read in India, he will often invoke the name of Mahasaraswati to bless him with divine understanding and ultimate knowledge. I still remember the shloka which I had to learn at the age of four and a half or five. We had to say it repeatedly, so we learned it. It was in Sanskrit. “I bow to Thee, O Saraswati, who gives knowledge and wisdom, and whose eyes are very wide and who plays the vina.” This goddess plays the vina, the Indian stringed instrument. She wants perfect perfection in her disciples. As I said, she is the Goddess of Learning and Wisdom, Knowledge and divine Understanding. She wants perfection in every minute detail. She is the Mother of Perfection. In everything, she wants divine perfection. Mahasaraswati is most gracious, most beautiful in this unillumined, ignorant world. She is the youngest and most recent of the four aspects of the Divine Mother.

So these are the four divine emanations of the Mother Divine on the transcendental plane. Through these four aspects, She manifests Herself here on earth. And at the same time, one disciple, one aspirant, can be the follower of all these four aspects, because ultimately one is praying to the one Mother Divine, only One. But in Her manifestation, she has taken four forms. Suppose, in my case, although Mahakali is my dearest, I have satisfied, pleased, all the aspects of the Mother. I do a little bit of writing. This writing, music, poetry and all this, I get from this Mother, Saraswati. Secondly, I am ugly now, but I think I have retained just a little beauty. In my childhood, I was not as ugly as I am now, I must tell you. I lived in South India, where it is very hot, so my skin is dark like this. But Mahalakshmi did bless me as a child. Then Mahakali – she has given me everything, so-called liberation and all that. The other Divine Mother who is immensity, vastness and who is unfathomable in Her highest aspect, Maheshwari – she has also blessed me. So I must say that any aspirant can be blessed and helped by these four aspects of the Divine Mother.