Chapter 4April 12, 1969
Book 4. April
see and feel just at the level of the mental slit. But I will tell you again, if you have the least trust in me, that Sri Aurobindo is a tremendous giant and not one word of his is without a full meaning.... Some time ago I wanted to have a music lover (a Westerner nurtured on true music like myself, formed in music) listen to a music of genius composed by an Indian; well, this poor boy could make no sense of it! He could not hear! His musical slit was open at one particular level, and he literally could not hear what was above – a true marvel, immense streams of music flowing straight from the Origin of Music.40 For him, it had no “structure,” it was “shapeless” music – whereas I saw, I could see that marvel, I knew where it was coming from, I could touch that world, and as soon as that high musical tension slackened in the least, I instantly felt that it came down to touch a center on a lower level.... It was the same thing in Egypt. For weeks I lived in an ecstatic state in Upper Egypt; I was with people who were looking at “ruins,” seeing beautiful “statues” – while for me those “statues” were living, those places talked to me, those so-called ruins were full of overflowing life....
So what to do? Sri Aurobindo often said or hinted that writing, for him, was a sort of concession to the mental world, but that he might very well have done without writing, and that his real Action, in fact, took place in silence. Sri Aurobindo was not a writer, but an evolutionary leaven, a tremendous impelling Force, like the Mother. So we may say that his books, even if poorly understood, or misunderstood, act as vehicles for this Force, and that we should just “take the plunge” and publish them anyhow, until the day that famous mental slit will open, and people will gape open-mouthed. The Work gets done in spite of mental incomprehension, even in spite of mental “comprehension”! Only, it is a pity that people do not see the beauty of the Play and do not consciously take part in it.
Before one takes a first step into the great Kingdom, I think one must have definitively felt all mental comprehension, all mental illumination, and naturally all mental explanation, to be worthless or inadequate.... For more than ten years I have not read any book, but if I am given one in my hands, I immediately know the level of its vibration, In order to see clearly, one must get out of it, obviously. The same goes for the little individual – renouncing the individual is what you call “saintliness,” but it’s merely the beginning of Humanity! Does one “renounce” an anthill? – One gets out of it! And it is wide and joyful. We are right in the middle of human infancy.
S.
In Matter shall
be
lit
the
spirit’s
glow... A few shall
see
what
none
yet
understands; God shall grow up while the wise men talk and sleep; For man shall not
know
the
coming
till
its
hour And belief shall be not till the work is done.
* This transfiguration
is
earth’s
due
to
heaven: A mutual debt
binds
man
to
the
Supreme: His nature we
must
put
on
as
he
put
ours; We are sons of
God
and
must
be
even
as
he: His human portion,
we
must
grow
divine. Our life is a paradox with God for key.
* But none learns
whither
through
the
unknown
he
sails Or what secret
mission
the
great
Mother
gave. In the hidden
strength
of
her
omnipotent
Will, Driven by her
breath
across
life’s
tossing
deep, Through the thunder’s roar and through the windless hush, Through fog and
mist
where
nothing
more
is
seen, He carries her scaled orders in his breast.
* A power is
on
him
from
her
occult
force That ties him
to
his
own
creation’s
fate, And never can
the
mighty
traveller
rest And never can
the
mystic
voyage
cease, Till the nescient
dusk
is
lifted
from
man’s
soul And the morns of God have overtaken his night.
* This constant will
she
covered
with
her
sport, To evoke a
person
in
the
impersonal
Void, With the Truth-Light strike earth’s massive roots of trance, Wake a dumb
self
in
the
inconscient
depths And raise a
lost
power
from
its
python
sleep That the eyes of the Timeless might look out from Time And the world
manifest
the
unveiled
Divine. For this he
left
his
white
infinity And laid on the
Spirit
the
burden
of
the
flesh, That Godhead’s seed might flower in mindless Space.
* * * Soon afterwards:
If you are interested, little K. [aged nine and a half], J.s son,41 has had a dream.... Would you like me to read it to you? It’s about the Pope!
Really!
It’s rather odd, because the child isn’t aware of anything. He has had a dream which his mother has noted down:
“We go and see the Pope. There are lots of people. Mama puts me second in line, and we draw near the Pope. He gives Mama a few hosts in a handkerchief then asks his servant to bring a multicolored alb similar to his, and I see on the Pope’s chest Mother’s symbol, and at the back a Greek cross (with two equal sides). The servant brings the alb, which the Pope puts on me. Everyone has left. I hear P.L.s voice, but only see a little friend of the Ashram. We go back home, and as we are about to enter, the Pope’s two servants arrive. I think, ‘Now that I am going to be the Pope in turn, I must be very careful; my entourage and everyone I meet is important. These men may have come to harm me out of jealousy.’ Mama opens the door and I see a servant of the Pope already in the room. I go in, caress my dog, and wake up.
(After a long silence) Are you sure he hasn’t heard of anything?
He isn’t aware of anything at all, this boy.
It’s strange.
Do you know if he has ever seen the Pope?
I don’t know. I don’t think so.42 You don’t think so....
It’s interesting.
This little one has a destiny, but it’s for years later... What will take place until then, I don’t know.
(long silence)
41K’s mother is a friend of P.L.’s. Both mother and son stay at the Ashram.
42Satprem later learnt that the boy had seen the Pope two or three times in audiences (when he lived in Rome, where P.L.