A Guided Tour of Blake’s Paintings by Shri Mataji in Person

There were about seven of us sitting down on the floor in silence and we were waiting for Shri Mataji to address us.  Then a French Sahaja Yogi entered the room and on noticing a book about William Blake on the coffee table, exclaimed, “Ah, that’s a book about William Blake, Mother can I have a look? 

Shri Mataji said, “Yes, you can, but I better show it to you, so that everybody can see.” 

Then Mother concentrated her attention on the book and Her face changed.  Mother’s attention focused on the book, at times putting Her eyes very close to the book, other times closing Her eyes, but all along making exclamations of wonder and delight. 

Vibrations started to rise in all of us and we felt transported into a deep state of joy and thoughtlessness just by looking at Shri Mataji’s sheer enjoyment of Blake’s paintings, and hearing Her constant sounds of approval and delight.

She kept saying, “What tremendous vibrations!” 

After a while Mother proceeded to show us those paintings of William Blake page by page. Before showing us a painting Shri Mataji looked at it Herself alone and we just observed Her face and that was a show in itself together with a joyful expectation of what was to come. 

We were expecting something great just from seeing Her face and the moment She turned the page of the book to us we all went, Wow, Wow, Wow, all at the same time, feeling the waves of joy and bliss coming from the painting.  No explanations were needed, all we had to do was look at the painting and feel a state of joy and thoughtlessness.

 Once we had enjoyed looking at the painting in thoughtless awareness, just before moving onto the next painting Mother would point out in passing by, a detail or two in the painting with a very obvious sahaj meaning such as:

Large auras around Christ or other figures, the importance of the theme of the Madonna and child in Art, Vibrations around the Sahasrara, Hands above the Sahasrara, Spirals of the Kundalini, and in almost all paintings there was an overall structure with Sahaj meaning: big spirals, the shape of the bandhan like a horseshoe, an overall shape of a triangle going up towards the Sahasrara, and in some paintings the structure of the three Channels of the subtle system. 

Each painting had at least one detail of obvious Sahaj meaning.  Shri Mataji demonstrated to us that Blake’s paintings are very much about Sahaja Yoga.  But we don’t need to analyse them in order to enjoy the vibrations, we can just feel the vibrations and go into thoughtless awareness.

By the end of this generous tour of Blake’s paintings by Shri Mataji in Person, we were all starting to notice some of these obvious Sahaja details even before Shri Mataji brought them to our attention, so as a class we were all doing very well and enjoying a lot. 

I have never met someone who is more enthusiastic about William Blake’s art than Shri Mataji and She has the power to make us all enter into the visionary world of William Blake and feel that joy again like innocent children who spend hours drawing and colouring whatever comes into their imagination.

I don’t remember which paintings Mother showed us on that occasion but what I remember is Mother’s enthusiasm and deep enjoyment of the paintings and the overall Sahaj details that she taught us on that occasion such as noticing the big auras, the kundalinis, the hands on the Sahasrara, the hands feeling the vibrations, the bandhan shape and the three channel structure, etc.

I also remember how we all enjoyed so much whilst seated at Mother’s feet in Her beautiful holy home.  Mother is amazing in everything She does and She has the power to transport us into heaven for an hour or even for eternity. Thank you Shri Mataji and thank you Mr William Blake for those precious moments that still today we are able to re-visit in our memory and imagination.

There were other events, with Shri Mataji in person, that also inspired us write about William Blake:

In 1985 Shri Mataji gave a public talk at the Hammersmith Town Hall about William Blake and Sahaja Yoga. This included an exhibition about William Blake and Sahaja Yoga.  After this successful event Shri Mataji asked for more slideshows and exhibitions about Sahaja Yoga.

Shri Mataji kept mentioning that William Blake and other prophets had prophesied about Sahaja Yoga.

Shri Mataji lectured extensively on the subject of William Blake as an incarnation of Shri Bhairava.

At the Albert Hall Shri Mataji asked for a slideshow of her miraculous photographs and she explained that her miraculous photographs are a blessing of Lord Shiva. 

Another day, we went to the Tate Gallery with Shri Mataji to see Blake’s paintings there.  Shri Mataji studied each and every painting attentively.  She kept commenting on how they had such strong vibrations, and encouraged us to check the vibrations of every painting, like she did, with her hands.

The inspiration for putting together a slideshow of paintings of William Blake about the life of Jesus Christ is a result of noticing that Shri Mataji enjoyed very much the paintings of Christ by William Blake. 

Shri Mataji also explained that the paintings of the Madonna and child are one of the highest expression of art in the western culture.  She encouraged Sahaja Yogis to admire the Madonna and child by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michael Angelo, William Blake and many other great painters of the past.  She visited many museums worldwide accompanied by Sahaja Yogis. 

Shri Mataji enjoyed all forms of art and crafts and was a great artist herself and admired all the many art forms and crafts still found in Indian villages today. In the West she visited many ancient stately homes all over Europe and enjoyed all the rich elaborate forms of art on display including landscape architecture.