WRITINGS BY THE MOTHER
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

Sweet Mother,

Why does meditation in front of different photos of you give different experiences?

It is because each photo represents a different aspect, sometimes even a different personality of my being; and by concentrating on the photo, one enters into relation with that special aspect or different personality which the photo has captured and whose image it conveys.

The photo is a real and concrete presence, but fragmentary and limited.

4 November 1959

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Sweet Mother,

Why is the photo a fragmentary and limited presence?

Because the photo catches only the image of a moment, an instant of a person's appearance and of what that appearance can reveal of a passing psychological condition and fragmentary soul-state. Even if the photograph is taken under the best possible conditions at an exceptional and particularly expressive moment, it cannot in any way reproduce the whole personality.

5 November 1959

Collected Works of The Mother, First Edition, Volume 16, pp. 233-234