Chapter 6February 19, 1969

substance lacking life – TRUE life. Artificial and false. It’s strange.

It’s not so much in others, that’s not it: it’s the inner training. And this true Consciousness, this true Attitude is something so tre-mendous-ly strong, powerful, in such smiling PEACE! So smiling, incapable of getting angry – that’s absolutely impossible – so smiling, so smiling... and watching.

(silence)

The special character of this new consciousness is: no halfmeasures, no approximations. That’s its character. It doesn’t accept the idea, “Oh, yes, we’ll do that, and little by little we’ll...” No, no, not like that: it’s yes or no, you can or cannot.

You know, there’s a considerable increase in the people who want to see me, and in the influences when they see me, the effects when they see me (which don’t at all correspond to a will or a consciousness or anything – that no longer exists: it works or doesn’t work), and seen like that, it’s: either you hold out and can do the work, or else, too bad.

That’s how it is, you understand. I first wondered whether this profusion of people was the result of reading the Bulletin (what we published in November), but many of them have never touched the Bulletin, never seen it. So... it must be the action of this Consciousness.

(silence)

It’s really like a GRACE, you know, as if: don’t waste time – don’t waste time, you must do the work, or else...

But this tremendous Power is especially this, a mercy, a clemency!... No, there are no words, we have no words to describe that, it’s something... Just paying attention and... it’s bliss. Just turning one’s attention to that side, immediately it’s bliss. And I understand (it made me understand certain things), the stories of people who, in the midst of torture, felt bliss – that’s how it is. A bliss.

Here, this is it:

(Mother holds out to Satprem

a white hibiscus, “Divine Grace”)

(The conversation begins an hour late.)

(silence)

I had things to say, but... I’ve just seen at least thirty people.

(silence)

I am entirely convinced that things are as they must be, and that it’s simply the body that lacks suppleness, tranquillity, trust.... So I can’t even say that things grate (they don’t grate at all), but... You understand, the work consists in changing the conscious base of all the cells – but not all at once! Because that would be impossible; even little by little is very difficult: the moment when the conscious base is changed is... There is almost a sort of panic in the cells, and the impression, “Ooh! What’s going to happen?” And since there are still lots and lots of them... So now and then, it’s difficult. It’s by group, almost by faculty or part of faculty, and some of them are a little difficult. I don’t know (since it’s quite new), I don’t know if it would be easier if I weren’t doing anything? Probably not, because it’s not so much the work [to be done], it’s not that: it’s people’s general attitude. It makes for a kind of collective support at the moment of the transition. At the moment when the consciousness that ordinarily supports the cells fades away for the new one to take the place, the cells need (“the cells,” I don’t know if it’s them), but there has to be the support of... (how can I put it?)... in people it gets expressed as the need of the Presence, but that’s not what is necessary: it’s a sort of collaboration of the collective forces. It’s not much, it’s not indispensable, but it helps a little, in some measure. There is a moment when there’s almost an anguish, you know, you’re suspended like that; it may be a few seconds, but those few seconds are terrible. This morning again there was a moment like that.... I remember that at the time of the “darshans,” for two days Sri Aurobindo didn’t want me to do any work for others (to see them, read letters, reply, all that), but he was here, so it was he who acted as support. Because I see that the work began long ago (in a subordinate and very little conscious way), but now it’s in full swing. So the cells feel some slight panic.... Generally, a few minutes’ concentration is enough, but it causes a sort of weariness – weariness in the cells, a need not to do anything (Mother points at the clock, which reads 11).

If I hadn’t known, if the body hadn’t known what it was, well, ordinarily I would have lain down without seeing anyone. But the consciousness was there to say that the unpleasantness of it [the second of transition], the unpleasant consequence of it would have been worse than the fact of being tired.

There were a few very difficult days when Amrita left,23 because a whole collectivity of people thought, “Ooh, so one can die.” There. So that’s how it is.

But more and more – more and more – the body has been learning that what happens (what happens every second) is the best thing that can happen given the general condition. It’s entirely convinced of that. And it’s content to do like this (gesture of self-abandon) and say, “Let Your Will be done.” That’s all. If it can do that in a very continuous and peaceful way, then things are fine. It’s only when it tries to find out why and how and... then things go wrong. It has to be like this (same gesture of self-abandon): “Let Your Will be done.” Then it’s all right. It doesn’t ask to know, only there’s the old habit.

At the critical moment (there are critical moments), at the critical moment, this surrender (it’s even more than surrender, it’s a complete abdication of everything, of its existence and everything) is filled 23On January 31, 1969. Amrita was the person in charge of the Ashram’s finances. Bharatidi’s departure (on November 7, 1968) appears to have acted as a trigger, for it was followed by Amrita’s, then Pavitra’s (on May 16), then Satyakarma’s (Mother’s cashier).... This calls to mind Satprem’s vision of Sri Aurobindo, several of whose toes had been cut off, that is to

(silence)

Do you have any news?

(Satprem presents to Mother the manuscript of By the Body of the Earth or the Sannyasin, which he is

about to send to Paris. Mother’s remarks have not been kept.)

(silence)

The body is very conscious of its infirmity – and of the Grace. For instance, there are painful, difficult moments, but it’s per-fect-ly aware that it’s because of its incapacity to open, to give itself, to change. And a profound joy, VERY CALM, but very vast – vast, you know, the cells feel a broadening. That goes on increasing little by little. It’s only when there’s a physical pain or something a little acute that the body is obliged to hang on, otherwise... And even that comes from this idiotic spirit of self-preservation (Mother laughs) in the depths of any cellular consciousness – it knows that. It knows it. It’s an old habit. But all that, little by little (little by little, but in reality very fast – very fast), is changing.

All the groups of cells, all the cellular organizations have to do their... not “surrender,” a complete self-abandon, in complete trust. That’s indispensable. For some, it’s the spontaneous, inevitable, constant movement; with others, it comes as soon as there’s a difficulty; yet others need to be churned a little in order to learn.

So then, the various functions are taken up in turn, in a marvelously logical order, following the body’s functioning. It’s something marvelous, only... the body is a poor thing, very poor thing – that’s very true.

Some even (as I have said) spontaneously repeat the mantra. Spontaneously, the mantra goes on and on being repeated, sometimes with a very great intensity; sometimes there is a sort of... (do you know the English word shyness?), a shyness to invoke the Divine, so strongly That is felt. But it melts – it melts in an awareness, a conscious perception of such a Clemency! Unbelievable, unbelievable, unthinkable, it’s so wonderful.... (In its very small human manifestation, that’s what has become goodness, but that’s a distortion.) A marvel! The cells are in ecstasy before this vibration.... But then, you see and hear this CLAMOR of protest, misery, suffering – it’s a clamor all over the earth, and that makes the cells feel a little ashamed.

(silence)

Its way of working (I think I’ve already told you once or twice) is a sort of storytelling based on experiences, memories, very small dormant things that seemed to be gone, and which awaken for the experience to become concrete. So then, all that unfolds, with the human sensation, human vision, human understanding (even the most spiritual understanding, I might say), and at the same time... this Presence. And then the Presence brings the TRUE understanding.... Something wonderful.

(silence)

The body is aware that That, this Consciousness, knows full well whether it will continue or not. It has never been told anything, and it knows (it has felt the two things equally, as equal certitudes, and with