دار بيبليون
Interview with Geneviève Koevoets (Mahâjyoti)
By Lwiis Saliba
Wednesday 26 January 2022
(On the theme: portraits and mystical poems)
17:43 – Evocation of Mahâjyoti’s (M) first meeting with Swami Vijayânanda.
Portrait of Vijayânanda by ‘M’:
Lwiis: This portrait is so alive!
Mahâjyoti recalls Jacques Vigne’s opinion when she sent him this portrait, freshly created from a photo, rolled up in a cylinder, by post from Nice to Paris. After asking Jacques if the drawing looked like Vijayânanda, Jacques replied: “He looks more than like him, you can see his soul!”
M: I was very touched by this. Generally speaking, I start by drawing the eyes to get the ‘inner look’ and I organize the rest of the face around them. I like to use the ‘sanguine‘ technique. When I was a teenager in Paris, they wanted me to go to the Beaux-Arts School. I have always drawn since I was 4 years old. I crumble the sanguine pencil which is a red/orange charcoal, I pass a cotton wool pad to carefully spread the powder and the whole page turns orange. Then I draw the lines and shadows with pencil and eraser.
Lwiis: Vijayânanda is my teacher, and I thought to myself, without knowing you, “This woman who has drawn Vijayânanda so well must be very spiritual. Your poem about him gives the impression that you have ‘drawn him a second time’. Your poem is so successful that it made me relive the ‘satsang’ with Vijayânanda, he is really present, so present!
M : These inspirations for the portraits, as well as for the poems, are a gift from heaven, a state of grace. When I did the portrait of Vijayânanda, I had the impression of giving him a second birth…
Lwiis: Let’s move on to your poem on Vijayananda’s satsang, which is the second part of the poem ‘O India, O My Love’, from your book ‘Voyage Intérieur’ (Inner Journey):
ô Inde, ô mon amour !
Le vieux Maître est assis
Nous lui disons merci
Il est vêtu d’orange
Au loin coule le Gange !
C’est le ‘satsang’ du soir
Qui redonne l’espoir
Et qui nous restructure
Pourvu que cela dure !
La visite des temples
Tout ce que l’on contemple
Les guirlandes de fleurs
Nous ouvrent grand le cœur !
C’est du miel et c’est doux
L’EGO est prêt à tout
La spiritualité
Chasse la méchanceté !
Mâ est l’Enseignement
C’est le jaillissement
La lumière qui pénètre
Et la foi qui va naître !
Inde, l’imprégnation
De TOUT a eu raison
Tu es comme une fleur
Lotus du bonheur !
Tu habites chez moi
Où tu vibres de joie
Ton image en mon cœur
Est mon ‘Inde Intérieure’ !
Ton âme reste en moi
Je penserai à toi
Je t’aimerai toujours
O Inde, ô mon Amour !
(Free translation)
The old master is sitting
We say thank you to him
He is dressed in orange
In the distance flows the Ganges.
It is the evening ‘satsang’
That gives us hope
And restores us
Let’s hope that it will last!
The visit of the temples
All that we contemplate
The garlands of flowers
Open our hearts wide!
It is honey and it is sweet
The ego is ready for anything
Spirituality drives away
Naughtiness and Malice!
Mâ is the ‘Teaching’
The gush of emotions
The light that penetrates
And the faith that will be born!
India, your impregnation
Of all has taken its toll
You are like a flower
Lotus of happiness!
You live into my house
Where you vibrate with joy
Your image in my heart
Is my Inner India!
Your soul remains in me
I’ll ever think of you,
I will always love you
O India, O my love!
M: I often wrote these poems around 3 am, the ‘hour of grace’. I did the portrait first, then the poem. I was still a teenager when I started by painting in watercolors. My godmother was a painter, and she was very spiritual, she put the brush in my hand. Then I preferred portraits. Jacques Vigne took photos of them all. I also made sketches, caricatures of actors who worked with my husband in the theatre. One of them kept it and no longer dedicated his own photos to people, but this caricature.
Lwiis: Which is easier, the portrait or the poem?
M: Both are difficult, I don’t know which to choose, but I work on all three levels: simple writing, poetry and drawing.
Lwiis: And Mâ Anandamayî?
M: The ‘Mother par excellence’, who goes deep within us. I had spirituality within me, but it is thanks to Mâ and her teachings that it opened up. I went to India five times, each time I met Swami Vijayânanda. When I had bronchitis he gave me Swiss cough drops and he himself, for example, took the telephone from the small office in the ashram where he stayed for one or two hours every evening, and wrapped the receiver in his scarf to protect himself from germs. He was a true mystic, but a practical man. He often said: “You have to have your head in the sky and your feet on the ground”.
Lwiis: And the portrait of Ma?
M: (Showing the portrait) – It’s a martyr’s portrait: when I took it to the shop to have it scanned in order to reproduce it, the scanner was dirty and bars came and disfigured the portrait. I cried about it, and spent a night redrawing the center of her beautiful face. When I told this to Jacques Vigne, he said to me: “Mâ doesn’t give herself away so easily…!
Lwiis: Why did you take it at an advanced age and not young?
M: I don’t know, it was the photos I had available at the time. The inspiration! …
Poem : Comment étais-tu Mâ?
La 1ère ride vient d’un cri
La 2ème d’un pleur
La 3ème quand tu ris
La dernière quand tu meurs.
Comment étais-tu Mâ ?
Comment étais-tu, Mâ, quand tu avais 20 ans ?
Un être de blancheur, pureté et candeur
Qui savait soigner l’âme aussi bien que le cœur
Et dont l’Enseignement doublé de l’exigence
Distribuait tout l’AMOUR dont elle était l’essence !
Savoir fleurir
Savoir sourire
Comment étais-tu, Mâ, à la fin de ton temps ?
Les rides avaient creusé un sillon de bonheur
Faisant se refléter la ‘Lumière Intérieure’
Et point ne se voyait le fait d’avoir vieilli
Puisqu’en Elle le ‘SOI’, à TOUT, s’était UNI.
Savoir souffrir
Savoir vieillir
La 1ère ride : un cri
La 2ème ride : un pleur
La 3ème quand on rit
La dernière quand on meurt !
Poems from the book of Geneviève KOEVOETS (Mahâjyoti) : ‘VOYAGE INTERIEUR – aux sources de la joie (Souvenirs de l’Inde)’ – Editions du Petit Véhicule – 150 Boulevard des Poilus – 44300 NANTES – (France) editions.petit.vehicule@gmail.com – Tel : 02 40 52 14 94
(Free translation)
Poem: How were you, Ma?
The first wrinkle comes from a cry
The second from a tear
The third when you laugh
The last when you die.
What were you like, Ma?
What were you like, Ma, when you were 20?
A being of whiteness, purity and candour?
Who knew how to heal the soul as well as the heart?
And whose teaching, coupled with the requirement,
Distributed all the love of which she was the essence!
Knowing how to bloom
Knowing how to smile
How were you, Ma, at the end of your time?
The wrinkles had dug a furrow of happiness
Reflecting all your ‘inner light’
And the fact of having grown old was not seen
Because in her, the Self, was united with All.
Knowing how to suffer
Knowing how to grow old
The first wrinkle: a cry
The second one: a tear
The third one when you laugh,
The last one when you die!
Lwiis: Why do you talk about death in relation to Mâ?
M: I don’t know, I’m very joyful but I know how to talk about serious and demanding subjects.
Lwiis: Why are you talking about the demands, requirements ?
M: Mâ is very demanding when you know how to understand and follow her. I found in her teaching deep links with ‘Spectacle, Sport and Spirituality’, these ‘3 S’s’ which represented the three important axes of my itinerary.
Lwiis: Now let’s come to the portrait you made of Jacques?
M: That was the first one. I sent it to his mother, who was very touched and sent me a letter of thanks that I reproduced in the book whose manuscript I have just finished: ‘Jacques Vigne – A life of a ferryman… between East and West’.
Lwiis: Let’s move on to my poem, which you put into verse in French, about Nani Ma. Jacques knows her, he talks about her in one of his books. I met her in her ashram on the banks of the upper Ganges. I was so moved by her. She spent seven years in her master’s ashram, she was just a servant. One day her master said to her, “Go to the cave and meditate”. How could she do that? He just told her, “Yoga teaches yoga”! This made me think of the Desert Fathers: “Prayer teaches prayer”.
Poem: In the Cave of Nani Ma
A poem written from the inspiration of Lwiis Saliba in English and Arabic, after meditating in the same cave, and put into French versification by Mahâjyoti. Lwiis then sent it to Nani Ma herself.
Mahâjyoti began to read for the public:
Dans la grotte de Nani Ma
Une grotte sur les rives de Mère Ganga/Poème de Lwiis Saliba
Dans la grotte de Nani Ma et de son Maître
C’est beau de méditer, de prier, de renaître !
Dans cette mini grotte en roche naturelle
Qui ne peut accueillir qu’un pèlerin sous son aile !
Où quiconque, debout, ne peut tenir en sorte.
Il faut entrer courbé par sa petite porte…
Peut-être la porte étroite que Jésus a voulue ?
Puis venir s’agenouiller en présence de l’Être…
***************************************
De Celui, vénéré, depuis la nuit des temps
Dans cette ‘cave’ nature, offerte aux méditants
Dans cette grotte voisine de la rive du Gange.
Où vous regardez l’eau…silencieuse et étrange
Dans son flux éternel, écoulement précieux,
Pour en venir enfin à refermer vos yeux…
**************************************
Le rythme des pensées touche le Grand Silence.
Empreint du souvenir et de la bienveillance
De celle qui dans la grotte, assise : Nani Ma,
Que je considère comme une mère pour moi.
Nombreuses furent ses heures à méditer sur l’Etre.
Alors que simplement, lui avait dit son Maître :
Va à la grotte, apprend à méditer à fond
Il n’a ajouté aucune autre instruction:
Point n’était besoin d’autres explications.
***********************************
Elle y a donc passé de nombreuses années
Seule avec le Seul, unis par la pensée,
Amis ni camarades n’étaient autorisés.
Ce grand maître avait totalement raison :
La grotte par son silence et son inspiration.
Enseigne promptement toute méditation.
Et vous n’aurez besoin d’aucune autre leçon.
**************************************
L’un des pères du désert n’a-t-il pas dit un jour
A qui voulait apprendre à méditer toujours :
**************************************
“Va t’asseoir dans la grotte…Méditer t’apprendra”
Cellule pour dévots et chercheurs spirituels
Voilà ce qu’est la grotte, et tel est son appel.
***************************************
Entre elle et l’eau du Gange est une histoire d’amour
Que les gouttes d’eau sacrées dans leur histoire toujours
Racontent silencieusement dans leur écoulement.
Tout comme le font les grains dans les sables dormants
Dont l’éclat nous reflète le soleil couchant.
*****************************************
Ô grotte sacrée
J’aime la paix dans l’âme tu m’as apportée
Le calme dans l’esprit, l’ouverture dans le cœur
Le soulagement du souffle et réconfort ailleurs
***************************************
Béni soit donc celui qui demeurait en toi,
Priait et méditait à l’intérieur de toi
Au cours de ces dizaines d’années, dans le Soi !
Tes petits murs bénis et ton rocher sculpté
Ont capté ton calme… et ta félicité
***************************************
Bénie sois-tu alors, ô Grotte bien-aimée :
Tu as su préserver pour des générations
Beaucoup de sentiments, louanges et dévotion
Les murs résonnent encore des belles vibrations
Que tu offres à chacun, dévot ou visiteur
Sincèrement devenus pieusement des chercheurs
De la paix, de la vie, de son acceptation
De la Paix dans leur âme, par Ta bénédiction !
****************************************
Dr Lwiis Saliba
(Rishikesh/India 29/04/2011)
(Free translation)
In Nani Ma’s cave
A cave on the banks of Mother Ganga
In the cave of Nani Ma and her Master
It is beautiful to meditate,
To pray, to be reborn!
In this mini cave of natural rock
Which can only take one pilgrim at a time.
Where no one standing can stand.
One must enter bent over by its little door…
Perhaps the narrow door that Jesus wanted?
Then come and kneel in the presence of the ‘Being’…
*************************************
Of the ‘One, venerated since the dawn of time,
In this natural ‘cave’, offered to meditators
In this cave near the bank of the Ganges
Where you look at the water…
Silent and strange water
In its eternal flow, precious flow,
To come at last to close your eyes…
*************************************
The rhythm of thoughts touches the Great Silence.
Imbued with the memory and benevolence
Of her who sits in the cave: Nani Ma,
Whom I consider as a mother to me.
Many were her hours of meditation on ‘being’.
When simply, his Master had said to her:
Go to the cave, learn to meditate thoroughly
He added no further instruction:
We needed no further explanation.
***********************************
So she spent many years there
Alone with the Alone, united in thought,
Friends and comrades were not allowed.
This great master was absolutely right:
The cave by its silence and inspiration
Promptly teaches all meditation.
And you will need no further lessons.
*************************************
Did not one of the desert fathers once say
To those who would learn to meditate always:
*************************************
“Go and sit in the cave…Meditate will teach you”.
A cell for devotees and spiritual seekers:
This is what the cave was, and this was its call.
Between her and the water of the Ganges
Is a love story
That the sacred drops of water
In their story always
Tell silently in their flow.
Just as the grains in the sleeping sands do
Whose glow reflects the setting sun to us.
*************************************
O sacred cave
I love the peace in the soul you have brought me
Calmness in the mind, openness in the heart
Relief of breath and comfort everywhere.
*************************************
Blessed be he who dwelt in you,
Prayed and meditated within you,
Over the decades, in the Self!
Your blessed little walls
And your carved little rock
Captured your calm… and your bliss
****************************
Blessed are you then, O beloved cave:
You have preserved for generations
Many feelings, praises and devotion
The walls still resound
With the beautiful vibrations
That you offer to each one,
Devotee or visitor
Sincerely become devout seekers
Of peace, of life, of its acceptance
Peace in their souls, by Your blessing!
*************************************
Lwiis: It was truly an exceptional cave, not more than a meter high, just like the narrow door Christ speaks of. There was only the picture of Mastaram Baba, and the memory of so many practitioners who had meditated there before.
Lwiis: We talked about two masters, two women, Mâ Anandamayî and Nani Mâ, it is the female spirit that reigns. Mahâjyoti, do you have any last words?
M: Thank you! Thank you for having had this idea, it is a bit special, mystical poetry. I had the pleasure of writing many more in my first book ‘Voyage Intérieur’ (Inner Journey).
Lwiis: Some very inspiring and inspiring poems from you…What struck you?
M: The beauty of the heart, the simplicity, and at the same time the feet on the ground!
Régine: Was Vijayânanda completely westernised?
Lwiis and M : Yes, he remained very French, he followed French politics, and he replied to a friend who wanted to bring him something when he returned to India, to give him an album of well-known French cartoon character: ‘Tintin