I have been thrice blessed—a recipient of extraordinary grace by the universal Divine Mother coming to me in human form. The first came as my physical mother who suffered through my birth into this world. As I was breeched when still in the womb, she had tears that needed sutures afterwards and then bed rest. After that she gave me a lifetime of unconditional love made manifest through loving, caring acts; anything in her capacity to give, she gave to me. She always held out the best in me even when I did not do so for myself.
I took a class while pursuing my degree in psychology—interpreting freehand family drawings. As students we presented sketches we made of our family of origin and the professor helped to bring out the deeper meaning from the drawings. I had pictured my mother sitting in a blue chair with a high back. The professor asked me questions about elements regarding the picture, then he came to my mother and the chair. He said, “the blue back of the chair surrounds your mother’s head suggests a halo. Do you think of your mother as a saint?” Knowing he had a Freudian point of view I knew I was skating on thin ice. My courage rose to the occasion, I said, “Yes, I do.” Surprisingly, he said, “That’s good, I think of my mother in the same way.” Whew!
For the ultimate spiritual journey I was destined for, my mother could not help me. To give me a spiritual birth required someone with unique qualifications. Mother Hamilton had those qualifications and more. The Divine Mother had descended to earth directly in her form to help devotees ascend to God-realization, and to help the world at large through a difficult transition toward higher spiritual consciousness. She lovingly called me to herself as I entered my twentieth year that I might take a second birth—a spiritual birth.
Mother also saw the best in me, when I did not always hold it for myself. She awakened divinity in me, taught me the truth and was a perfect embodiment for being perfectly human and Divine. She also brought to me a remarkable guru-lineage and the spiritually perfected Swami (Papa) Ramdas. Each one of these supremely realized souls manifested pure divinity with a rich variety of expressions in their humanity. It helped me to know I need not be a carbon copy of any personality. Rather, I came to know that God delights in expressing Himself as unique divine personalities.
Mother left the body before I had completed my full God-realization, so she guided me to the feet of Swami Satchidananda—Papa’s spiritual child. Interestingly I came to think of Swamiji as my second spiritual mother. It was through the power of God in Mother and in Swamiji that I was lifted into the spiritual union that, for so many years, I had yearned. Through Swamiji’s quiet ways I was given yet another example of how God is uniquely expressed through a human personality. When Swamiji smiled, it was the Divine Mother who smiled through him.
From the beginning, I did not think of God as a personality. It has often been the case that devotees have had to transcend limiting conceptions they have of God in order to enter the transcendent, formless Consciousness. In my case I learned to appreciate that the Infinite takes joy in His individual expressions; I perceived the One wearing different masks and came to appreciate those unique manifestations as being Divine. It is the Divine Mother, who has manifested as this entire universe—a loving, compassionate, exacting Mother who seeks to awaken us to the fact that it is She behind the mask of humanity—nay behind all creation, if we only have the wit to lift the veil and know Her in truth and reality.
Mother’s Day is a day of recognition of how Divine Mother manifests as our own mothers and has taken direct human incarnation through our own Mother Hamilton. So happy Mother’ Day to all mothers—both human and Divine.