Mother: On the very day I reached Puri, I quickly finished the worship of the Master in the morning by placing his picture on a tin containing ghee. Then I went to visit the temple of Sri Jagannath after locking the room. When I returned, I saw the picture of the Master at the foot of the tin. The others too came and observed it. All felt that some thief might have entered the house in our absence. But all the things in the room remained undisturbed. At last I noticed that big red ants had gathered on the tin-it was a ghee tin, you see. Since they had approached the picture of the Master also, he had comedown and settled himself below !
Disciple: Does the Master really live in the picture?
Mother: Of course, he does. The body and the shadow are the same.
1And what is his picture but a shadow ?
Disciple: Does he live in all the pictures?
Mother: Yes. If you pray to him constantly before his picture then he manifests himself through that picture. The place where the picture is kept becomes a shrine. Suppose a man worships the Master there
(pointing to a plot of land north of the Udbodhan), then the place is associated with his presence.
Disciple: Well, good and bad memories are associated with all places.
Mother: It is not exactly like that. The Master will pay special attention to such a place.
Disciple: Does the Master really partake of the food that you offer him?
Mother: Yes, he does.
Disciple: But we do not see any sign of it.
Mother: A light comes out of his eyes and licks all the articles of food. His ambrosial touch replenishes them again, so there is no decrease.
The Lord comes down from Vaikuntha (the heavenly abode of Sri Vishnu) to where the devotee calls him. On the night of the Kojagari Purnima, Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth) comes down to the earth from Vaikuntha. She visits and accepts the worship
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1 It is for this reason that one does not walk over the shadow of an elder. One day, while living at Jayrambati, I was retuning home after my bath. The Mother was also coming back from the tank. I was walking by her side, and now and then I stepped over her shadow. The Mother asked me to walk on her other side. At first I did not know that I had been walking over her shadow.