Chapter 82May 11, 1958

As for me, I saw the thing only at the time of this experience,58 and as a result of this experience. But it is impossible to formulate even the experience itself, and as soon as I endeavored to formulate it and the more I was able to formulate it, the more the thing faded, escaped.

Consequently, if you do not remember having had the experience, you are left in the same condition as before, but with the difference that now you know, you can know, that these material laws do not correspond to the truth – that’s all. They do not at all correspond to the truth, so consequently, if you want to be faithful to your aspiration, you must in no way legitimize all that. Rather, you must say that it is an infirmity from which we are suffering for the moment, for an intermediate period – it is an infirmity and an ignorance – for it really is an ignorance (this is not just a word): it is ignorance, it is not the thing as it is, even in regard to our present material bodies. Therefore, we will not legitimize anything. What we say is this – it is an infirmity which has to be endured for the time being, until we get out of it, but we do NOT ACKNOWLEDGE all this as a concrete reality. It does NOT have a concrete reality, it has a false reality – what we call concrete reality is a false reality.

And the proof – I have the proof because I experienced it myself – is that from the minute you are in the other consciousness, the true consciousness, all these things which appear so real, so concrete, change INSTANTLY. There are a number of things, certain material conditions of my body – material – that changed instantly. It did not last long enough for everything to change, but some things changed and never returned, they remained changed. In other words, if that consciousness were kept constantly, it would be a perpetual miracle (what we would call a miracle from our ordinary point of view), a fantastic and perpetual miracle! But from the supramental point of view, it would not be a miracle at all, it would be the most normal of things.

Therefore, if we do not want to oppose the supramental action by an obscure, inert and obstinate resistance, we have to admit once and for all that none of these things should be legitimized.

One of the things that most gives me the feeling of the miraculous is when these obscure throngs59 – really tamasic60 beings, in fact, with children crying, people coughing – when all that is gathered there, and then suddenly ... silence.

58May 1, 1958.

59Mother is referring to her “Darshan,” when four times a year She appeared on her balcony high above the assembled mass of disciples and visitors on the street below. The “darshan days” were February 21, April 24, August 15 and November 24.

* * * Something quite curious took place during a recent meditation. I no longer recall when exactly, but it was at a time when there were many visitors, for the courtyard was full. After perhaps no more than a few minutes, I suddenly heard a distinct voice, coming from my right, say ‘OM,’ like that. And then a second time, ‘OM.’ What an impact it had upon me! I felt an emotion here (gesture towards the heart) as I have not felt for years and years and years. And all, all, all was filled with light, with force – it was absolutely marvelous. It was an invocation, and during the whole meditation the Presence was resplendent.

The reply was, ‘But it was the ship leaving!’ There was actually a ship which had left during the night61 – that is in support of those who said it was a ship. But for me, it was SOMEONE because I felt someone there and I thought, Oh! If someone, in the ardor of his soul, said that in this ... what I could call an atheistic silence. Because people here are so afraid of following tradition, of being the slaves of the old things, that they cast out anything closely or remotely resembling religion.

It was very strange, because my first reaction was one of bewilderment: how is it that someone ... I was really bewildered for a fraction, not even the fraction of a second. And then...

In any event, if it wasn’t a man, if it was a ship, then the ship said it! Because it was THAT – it was that, it was nothing other than an invocation. And the result was fantastic!

People immediately thought, ‘Oh, it’s the ship!’ Well, even if it was a ship, it was the ship that said OM!

And then I wondered, ‘If we were to repeat the mantra we heard the other day62 (Om Namo Bhagavateh ... ) during the half-hour meditation, what would happen?’

What would happen? And these things act upon my body. It is strange, but it coagulates something: all the cellular life becomes one solid, compact mass, in a tremendous concentration – with a single vibration. Instead of all the usual vibrations of the body, there is now only one single vibration. It becomes as hard as a diamond, a single massive concentration, as if all the cells of the body had ...

(gesture): one single mass.

61The waters off Pondicherry occasionally serve as a port.

62During an Indian film on Dhruva in which this manna was chanted for a long time. This film was shown at the Ashram Playground on April 29, 1958.