Chapter 8On Entretiens avec la M`ere · Comments on Specific Entretiens

The knowledge about the bad effect of depression is meant for the sadhak to learn to avoid these things. He cannot expect people to flatter his failures or mistakes or indulge his foibles merely because he has the silly habit of indulging in depression and hurting his nervous envelope if that is done. To keep himself free from depression is his business, not that of others. For instance some people have the habit of getting into depression if the Mother does not comply with their desires — it does not follow that the Mother must comply with their desires in order to keep them jolly — they must learn to get rid of this habit of mind. So with people’s want of encouragement or praise for all they do. One can be silent or non-intervening, but if even that depresses them, it is their own fault and nobody else’s.

Would the bad effects of depression and discouragement indi-cated by the Mother happen in ordinary life also?

Of course, it is the same in ordinary life — depression is always hurtful. But in sadhana it is more serious because it becomes a strong obstacle to the smooth and rapid progress towards the goal.

18 July 1936

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In Conversations the Mother writes: “Surrender will not diminish, but increase; it will not lessen or weaken or destroy your personality, it will fortify and aggrandise it” [p. 114]. Is this meant in an external sense or in an internal sense only?

It is meant in the inner sense only — no outer greatness is meant. All submission is regarded by the ego as lowering and lessening itself, but really submission to the Divine increases and greatens the being, that is what is meant.

25 August 1937

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It seems difficult to understand when the Mother says that spiritual sacrifice is joyful [p. 114].

She was speaking of the true spiritual sacrifice of self-giving, not the bringing of an unwilling heart to the altar.

17 October 1935 About the Gujarati translation of the Conversations the Mother had told you she did not want it published or sent outside. In the original or in translation, the book is not one meant to be given or shown to everybody. If X wants to make copies for himself and Y he can do so; but, as it comes from the Asram, it might be taken for an authoritative issue from the Asram. It should be understood that it is your translation, only made for your personal use; we have not seen it and cannot therefore guarantee its correctness.

29 March 1932

I have a friend in Dacca to whom I want to send the Mother’s Conversations and her Pri`eres. This lady knows French, though she knows nothing about the Yoga or about you. If you think I may send the books — after seeing her photo — I shall send them.

The Prayers ought not to be given to anyone who is not practis-ing Yoga. The “Conversations” are for those who are interested in Yoga.

8 December 1933

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When I read the Mother’s Conversations or her Pri`eres, I often feel as if I come in contact with her consciousness. If one read these two books constantly and thought about them alone, could one not make one’s consciousness more and more intense till it becomes like Mother’s? Of course, it might be only the mental that would be intensified and elevated, but perhaps by that intensity the vital and other parts of the being could pass beyond their usual condition.

It is possible to intensely identify oneself with the Mother’s consciousness through what you read — in that case the result you speak of could come. It could also have an effect on the vital up to a certain point.

21 August 1935

Comments on Specific Entretiens1

In Entretiens the Mother says: “Mˆeme ceux qui ont la volont´e de s’enfuir [du monde], quand ils arrivent de l’autre cˆot´e, peuvent trouver que la fuite ne sert pas `a grand-chose apr`es tout” [p. 28]. What does “arrivent de l’autre cˆot´e” mean? Does it mean “when they come into this world” or “when they go into the world of silence which they realised”?

No — “arrivent de l’autre cˆot´e” simply means “when they die”. What Mother intended was that when they actually arrive at their Nirvana they find it is not the ultimate solution or largest realisation of the Supreme and they must eventually come back and have their share of the world action to reach that largest realisation.

2 May 1935

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tach´ee `a toute vie sur terre” [p. 41]. The words “En fait” and “attach´ee” tend to give the impression that after all death is inevitable. But the preceding sentence (“Si cette croyance pouvait ˆetre rejet´ee, d’abord de la mentalit´e consciente, . . . la mort ne serait plus in´evitable”) brings in an ambiguity because it does not make death so inevitable; it introduces a condition, an “if” by which death could be avoided. But the categori-cality of the sentence with “En fait” rather decreases one’s expectation of a material immortality. Moreover, the “if” in the other sentence is too formidable to be satisfied.

There is no ambiguity that I can see. “En fait” and “attach´ee” do not convey any sense of inevitability. “En fait” means simply 1 Entretiens avec la M`ere is the Mother’s translation of her conversations of 1929, which were spoken in English. This translation is now published as the first part of Entretiens 1929– 1931 (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1994). The page numbers given after the quoted passages in this subsection refer to the 1994 edition. — Ed.

that in fact, actually, as things are at present all life (on earth) has death attached to it as its end; but it does not in the least convey the idea that it can never be otherwise or that this is the unalterable law of all existence. It is at present a fact for certain reasons which are stated, — due to certain mental and physical circumstances — if these are changed, death is not inevitable any longer. Obviously the alteration can only come “if” certain conditions are satisfied — all progress and change by evolution depends upon an “if” which gets satisfied. If the animal mind had not been pushed to develop speech and reason, mental man would never have come into existence, — but the “if”, a stupendous and formidable one, was satisfied. So with the ifs that condition a farther progress.

31 July 1936

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There are some lines in Entretiens which I do not find in the English Conversations. For example, in the conversation about hostile forces, the Mother speaks about some “ˆetres pervers et hostiles de plus grande envergure et d’une plus haute origine que tous ceux dont j’ai parl´e jusqu’`a pr´esent” [p. 69]. These new hostiles are not of the lower cosmic plane. If they are of a “plus haute origine”, they must belong to the higher worlds. Does this mean that the hostiles exist in the higher worlds up to the Supramental?

I believe the Mother was referring to the mental Asuras as opposed to the vital hostiles. There are no hostiles above the mind and cannot be, for it is with the mind that the opposition begins.

When the Conversations were translated, Mother made certain corrections so as to express the thought better than in the original report.

19 October 1935

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In Entretiens the Mother speaks of “la marche interne de l’univers” [p. 100]. Is there really an internal progress in the universe? Except in a few individuals there is hardly any change or progress in countries. It seems to me that, internally and externally, the universe is moving in a circle and always crosses the same points on the circle, but essentially the quality of the points is the same.

“Univers” in French usually means not the whole universe but the “world” — the earth. There must be a progress in the earth-consciousness, otherwise there could have been no evolution. The evolution of mankind may go by circles or spirals, but there is all the same an opening of more and more complete possibilities till the possibility of the evolution of a higher race becomes valid.

1 September 1936

Prayers of the Mother