MAHASARASWATI

Mahasaraswati is the [supreme] Mother's Power of Work and her spirit of perfection and order. . . . Of all the Mother's powers she is the most long-suffering with men and his thousand imperfections. Kind, smiling, close and helpful, not easily turned away or discouraged, insistent even after repeated failure, her hand sustains our every step on condition that we are single in our will and straightforward and sincere; for a double mind she will not tolerate and her revealing irony is merciless to drama and histrionics and self- deceit and pretense. A mother to our wants, a friend in our difficulties, a persistent and tranquil counsellor and mentor, chasing away with her radiant smile the clouds of gloom and fretfulness and depression, reminding always of the ever- present help, pointing to the eternal sunshine, she is firm, quiet and persevering in the deep and continuous urge that drives us towards the integrality of the higher nature.

SRI AUROBINDO

For [Mahasaraswati] everything must be done down to the last detail, and done in an absolutely perfect way. And she wants, she insists that it should be done physically, totally, materially, that it should not remain in the air, you see, like a mental or vital action, but that it should be a physical realisation in all its details, and all the details should be perfect, that nothing should be neglected.

THE MOTHER

Mahasaraswati [is] the goddess of divine skill and of the works of the Spirit, and hers is the Yoga that is skill in works, yogah karmasu kaushalam, and the utilities of divine knowledge and the self-application of the spirit to life and the happiness of its harmonies.

SRI AUROBINDO

Mahasaraswati’s Perfection in Works
It is not satisfied with makeshift.

Rondeletia odorata
Small bright orange or deep pink salverform flowers with a limb divided into six rounded lobes and a conspicuous yellow central ring; borne in cymes. A small loosely branched shrub.