832. Mahalaxmi of the House

Vivekananda saw a light between his eyebrows when he closed his eyes. To one who has a spiritual vision of his domestic life, his closed eyes will reveal a flame of preservative energy in his wife. Man earns and the woman organises is our motto. Mother adds a further dimension to it. The woman has a better capacity in what man excels in. A French writer said the European woman cultivates a home as the American woman organises a house. The American life puts a lot more things at home, especially in the kitchen, which engage the American woman to organise the house. Deprived of them, the European woman spends her attention on her children and husband to build a home. Essentially, the woman is creative, creative of stability, cheerfulness, if man is productive.

Living in a poor country, we do not know the poverty of affluence. When affluence enters the home, that which enables us to enjoy that affluence -- psychological well being -- leaves. This is not necessary, but it is usual. One can attribute many personalities to a woman apart from what we know as the feminine personality. Her social personality secures respectability to the house. Her productive personality makes a small income go a long way, banishing want. Apart from the economic value here, her attention to things - utensils, provisions, consumables, etc. - generates a psychological atmosphere which attracts more of them. In this, she is the bringer of luck. This can be called the spiritual dimension of her material personality. It is the lady of the house who upholds the members of the house in her psychological personality which pours out the balm of solicitude. It makes the house a home, sweet home. The Jews have been constantly uprooted and transplanted. In those homes, the creative constructive role of the woman is far more powerful. She rules, rules absolutely.

Usually it is the mother who plays this role in homes. Occasionally, it is an aunt or a grandmother or any other woman. One of the reasons for the popularity of the joint family in the previous decades is this role of woman which makes the family a fortress of affection and emotion.  We know Mahalaxmi as the goddess of wealth. Sri Aurobindo explains her as the deity of perfection. His writing on the four aspects of Mother is the very best prose pages He has written, unrivalled in English prose. His language is enriched by the loftiness of thought which explains divine perfection in human life through the vibration of sweetness. Reading that passage in imaginative minds the very figure appears for us to adore. The divine sweetness arises when Love fuses with knowledge. As modern technology, especially the computer, enables us to enjoy several inconceivable facilities now, the Presence of Mother's Force enables aspiring souls to experience many things unheard of till now. Of these, the creation of a sweet home is one. At a higher level, mothers with hearts of rich emotions can aspire to acquire the personality of Mahalaxmi