The book and the film actually agree that Mrs. Moore decided to leave on her own. She was already looking at her ticket to see that it was refundable so that her return date could be moved up. Her son Ronny's contribution, after that, was only to decide that since she refused to be involved in the trial, she should leave before the trial. But Mrs. Moore had already definitely refused to testify. "I have nothing to do with your ludicrous law courts...."
The explanation for this decision is the experience she had in the cave. E. M. Forster, the book's author, has been criticized by some for the fact that mystic spiritual states play such a role in the plot, and this is true. Professor Godbole recognized that Mrs. Moore was "a very old soul" and, as she is portrayed both in the book and in the movie, her spiritual understanding is based on love. This is why seeing the superior attitude of the British at the "Bridge Party" was so distressing to her. In the book, she says to her son Ronny, "God has put us on this earth in order to be pleasant to each other. God...is...love." Her statement in the movie is very similar.
What seems to happen in the cave is that this spiritually advanced state of mind changes. In the context of Hinduism, there are stages of spiritual attainment, and based on how she looks and behaves, the experience in the cave apparently caused Mrs. Moore to move on to what has been considered the final stage, which is known as nirvikalpa-samadhi. Basically, before the cave, Mrs. Moore experienced what would be called a 'unitive state', in which she felt herself to be related to all others by love. (It was this aspect of her that made such a powerful impression on Azziz.) But despite its name, this state is actually based on a subtle perception of duality. In order to have love, you have to have two participants, the one who loves and the 'other' who is loved, even if that 'other' is God and the totality of the Creation.
In the state of nirvikalpa-samadhi, the spiritual perception is that there is only One, and so the previous experience of 'love' and 'God' are not present in the way they were before. For one whose experience of God has been the experience of love, this can be a devastating transition. But in Mrs. Moore's case, she is about to die, and it is an appropriate transition for her to make in preparation for that. The state of nirvikalpa-samadhi has been described in the West as the state of "no-self". The experiencer realizes that all the 'separate other selves' with whom she has been relating are ultimately just expressions of One Essence and her identity is now focused in the One.
This transition would be like the one you make from a state of being so absorbed in a film that you forget for a moment that it's not real -- you invest emotionally in the story -- to the moment when you 'wake up' and realize again that it's just a movie. Once you 'wake up', compared to your 'real life', the people and the story in the movie have relatively no significance, even if you love the people in the movie and love the movie itself. This is why Mrs. Moore isn't really as callous as she seems when she says to Ronny "...all this rubbish about love, love in a church, love in a cave, as if there is the least difference, and I held up from my business over such trifles!"
At this point, she is still traumatized by the loss of her previous sense of self and probably also by the realization that it's impossible to explain this to anyone else. As the book puts it, "Her Christian tenderness had gone." And later: "her mind seemed to move towards them from a great distance and out of darkness. 'Oh, why is everything still my duty? when shall I be free from your fuss? Was he in the cave and were you in the cave and on and on...and Unto us a Son is born, unto us a Child is given...and am I good and is he bad and are we saved...and ending everything, the echo'."
Professor Godbole reflects this state of consciousness also, but in a more stable way, since he has had more time to become accustomed to it. After the incident at the cave, he says to Fielding "I hope the expedition was a successful one." Fielding says "The news has not reached you yet, I can see." Godbole says "Oh yes." Fielding says "No; there has been a terrible catastrophe about Aziz." "Oh yes. That is all round the College." "Well, the expedition where that occurs can scarcely be called a successful one," says Fielding, with an amazed stare. And Godbole replies "I cannot say. I was not present." The book describes Fielding's thoughts about this "He stared again— a most useless operation, for no eye could see what lay at the bottom of the Brahman's mind, and yet he had a mind and a heart too, and all his friends trusted him." Nirvikalpa-Samadhi is not heartlessness, it is simply a higher understanding of what is ultimately most positive and necessary, an understanding that ordinary ego consciousness doesn't have. For Mrs. Moore, karma has ended.
As Mrs. Moore's train is leaving the station, Professor Godbole steps out of the shadows and raises his arms up over his head, palms together. This is a variation of the Anjali mudra. Usually made at the level of the heart and accompanied by the word "Namaste", it is a recognition of respect from one soul to another. When made at the level of the Crown chakra above the head, the gesture is a sign of highest acknowledgement of one's Divine nature; the Professor is acknowledging Mrs. Moore's spiritual attainment. Seeing him and meeting his eyes, Mrs. Moore would now be aware that, unlike everyone else she has been interacting with since the cave, the Professor's consciousness is focused at the same level as her own. "Deep calls to deep" is the saying.
Forster describes this state as well as anyone can: "In Europe, life retreats out of the cold, and exquisite fireside myths have resulted—Balder, Persephone—but here (in India) the retreat is from the source of life, the treacherous sun, and no poetry adorns it because disillusionment cannot be beautiful. Men yearn for poetry though they may not confess it; they desire that joy shall be graceful and sorrow august and infinity have a form, and India fails to accommodate them." Released from the illusion of form, Nirvikalpa-samadhi is 'the formless'.
"When I see I am nothing, that is wisdom. When I see I am everything, that is love. My life is a movement between these two." [Nisargadatta Maharaj]
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wandering with the Woozle along the wu wei
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