Chapter 3December 10, 1969

(Mother first writes at one go a message for the start of the new school year.)

One

must

have

lived what one wants to teach.

To

speak

of

the

new

consciousness, let

it

penetrate

you

and

reveal its

secrets

to

you.

For

only

then will you be able to speak of it with competence.

* To

leap

into

the

new

consciousness, the

first

condition is

a

mental

modesty sufficient

to

be

convinced

that all

one

thinks

one

knows

is

nothing in comparison with what remains to be learned.

All

that

one

has

learned

externally must

be

only

a

foothold enabling one to rise towards higher knowledge.

* * *

(silence)

The training of the physical consciousness is continuing at an accelerated pace, very accelerated. The body has some slight difficulty in keeping its equilibrium. It’s as if it were getting blows from every side! (Mother laughs)

Inwardly, it’s quite fine. Outwardly, for these last three days things have been very difficult, so it’s been a bit tired – formerly, it no longer knew fatigue, it no longer knew what it was. But that didn’t last: as soon as it had a moment when it could concentrate and get back into the true attitude, that went away And the progress (gesture like a leap), oh, it’s quite out of proportion with the effort. The effort is some, like Z for instance, it’s very conscious, she’s very conscious. Long ago, she had an accident to her leg, and that leg is slightly weaker than the other, there’s a possibility of trouble. She’s noticed that as long as she is in the right attitude, she no longer feels ANYTHING; there’s nothing anymore, it seems completely gone. As soon as she falls back into the ordinary consciousness, the pain comes back.... She’s had innumerable experiences. I found that very interesting. Others too.

It’s really interesting. Really interesting because it’s clear in a perfectly limpid and obvious way that its NOTHING BUT A STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS. When you are in the consciousness (that is, the consciousness which grows truer and truer: not something at a stop but a consciousness in ascent), when you are in that, all goes well; as soon as you go out of it and fall back into the old unprogressive consciousness, or progressive in a very slow and invisible manner, then the disorder comes back. And that’s like a lesson given in a perfectly clear and evident way.

It’s really interesting.

The body is learning – it learns very fast.

(silence)

(Laughing) It always says to itself, “We’re really poor devils!” That’s its actual impression I We who are so proud of being human and conscious and capable of being something else than a thinking animal... we’re still all the way down in comparison with... with what has to be conquered – not even the first step of the ascent.

We think we’re doing well, we give ourselves a little pat of encouragement!... That’s really the impression: we’re poor devils! (Mother laughs)

(silence)

Certainly, a great step will be taken when it becomes natural for man to seek to perfect himself instead of expecting perfection in others.... That reversal is at the basis of all true progress. The first human instinct is, “It’s the fault of circumstances, it’s people’s fault, it’s... See how this fellow is, how that fellow is, how...” And it goes on indefinitely. The FIRST STEP, the very first step is to say, “If I were as I should be, or if the body were as it should be, all would be perfectly all right for it.” If, to make progress, you wait for others to do so, you can wait indefinitely.

That’s the first thing that should be spread everywhere. Never lay the blame on others or on circumstances because whatever the circumstances may be, even apparently the worst, if you are in the true attitude and have the true consciousness, it doesn’t matter in the least for your inner progress, not in the least – and I’ll say, including death.

That really seems to be the first lesson to be learned.

(silence)

Do you remember where Sri Aurobindo wrote (I am translating freely) that to facilitate progress, the notion of sin was introduced, but man immediately (laughing) saw sin in all others – he never saw it for