Chapter 10April 28, 1971

I saw the boy who went to see you twice... (Mother expresses thinness with her fingers). Very thin. I don’t think he has much strength, but... I was supposed to decide if he should return to France or go to the Himalayas.... The Himalayas are a little beyond his strength, but if he goes back to France, he’ll go down the drain.

Certainly.

So I think he should be given a chance, let him try. If he doesn’t hold up, he’ll be crushed.

Better be crushed while seeking something than be crushed while going downhill!

That’s OUR opinion. But among ordinary people... there are not two in a hundred who would make that choice. You have no idea, oh!... Anyway, he has shown some goodwill, so let’s give him a chance.

I wanted to speak to you, I said I would answer him this evening. Of the two possibilities, let him go to the Himalayas.

I’ll tell him.

Tell him his highest possibility is being given to him.... He’ll have done his utmost in his life if he goes there.

(long silence)

I am such a different person that I don’t remember my past life anymore! I was asked a question this morning: I was blank! I was asked whether the first time I came to Pondicherry I came by train or by boat.38 The second time I still remember [by boat]. Logically it’s by train; but it’s like giving an answer concerning someone else.

An impression of something that belongs to someone else – it’s quite curious. Usually it’s the body that retains the continuity of the being, but that continuity belongs to such a material and superficial realm that... (Mother shakes her head) unbelievable. All that seems... it’s as if I were speaking of someone else. It’s curious. No sense – no sense at all of the personality. Someone whose history I know well, that’s all. It’s quite curious. I didn’t know it had gone so far.

I saw your letter (I saw it in English), the letter you wrote to R. for the “Matrimandir”.... It’s interesting, it’s good.... They have a bulletin, a “Gazette,” it will be published there.39

I get a lot of requests from all sorts of people, either to say something or do something or

comment on something or.... I feel it’s not so good.

What do they ask you?

One thing or another, a commentary, an explanation, “what do I think of....”

But does it come from Auroville?

Most of it, yes.

Listen, there’s quite a lazy group in Auroville!

Oh, that, yes!

People who don’t want to work. Now they say that according to your book, to get the true consciousness, one doesn’t have to work!

Yes, that’s it. I heard that also. They say, “Work belongs to the old world”...!

Yes, that’s how they understand it. So, what can you do?... What did you reply to them?

I spoke to R. I told him what I thought. I said that work is the foundation.

Yes.

It’s by being and working in matter that one can bring a little consciousness into oneself.

Yes, that’s it.

And if there isn’t any work, there isn’t any transformation.

Yes, that’s exactly what I wrote to them.40 He told me, “They couldn’t care less.”

39Satprem’s letter was misunderstood and published abridged to suit the comprehension of the editors.

40Here is Mother’s text:

“Consciousness develops best through work done as offering to the Divine. Indolence and inaction lead to tamas: That is a fall into unconsciousness, it is contrary to all progress and light.

To overcome one’s ego, to live only in the service of the Divine – that is the ideal and the shortest way towards acquiring Maybe they would listen to you if you told them that.

If you like, I can write.

Yes, you can write. Maybe they would listen to you, because they’re saying that in the name of your book, you see!

Oh, you know, in the name of my book they also say that Sri Aurobindo and Mother are now

obsolete, and that in a way my book supersedes all that!

Yes, oh, exactly! (general laughter)

I’ve heard just about everything.

Yes, that’s it! (laughter)

So, what can I say in the face of such things!?

(Mother laughs)

One even wrote me, “So, Sri Aurobindo didn’t have the key to the superman.”

Oh, really?

Yes, I’m the one who’s given it, you see.

Good heavens!

It’s bewildering!

(Mother laughs) I think there are no limits to human stupidity.

Oh, yes!

(silence)

One doesn’t know what to do or say because it’s....

No, they have to be told: you’re talking nonsense.

Oh, I told them, you know, but still.... I told them they had a lot of nerve. And I asked them, “But

where do you think I learned what I’ve written!?”

Exactly! (Mother laughs)

That’s old hat, you see.

But, Mother, I told R. that the basic mistake is that when those people came here, everything was

handed to them: he gave them ready-made houses, they were given all they needed to eat – they got everything on a silver platter. While these people should have been made to build their own houses and to plant their own potatoes if they wanted to eat; they should have done everything by themselves.

Yes, exactly.

And I told them, “How can you possibly build a New World with coolies? One does not make a

new world with hired labor!”

I think a whole group of those people should go.

Yes, that’s my feeling.

(silence)

To one of them I said, “If I went over there, I’d go with a whip!”

(Mother laughs) There’s really a subhuman group over there.

Yes, certainly.... But how can you eliminate that?

(silence)

Another example: they even have a hired cook to do their cooking, those people!

Oh!...

There’s a fundamental flaw in all that, you know.

But how can that be?

That’s the way it is, you see. They have a hired cook.

Heavens!

(long silence)

What do you propose then?

Nothing, I don’t know, Mother.

I feel R. should organize things in such a way that people are compelled to work.

Yes.... Yes, we’ll have to do something.

That way, the sorting out would be done right away.

Yes.... But I need to know the number of people in the group, both those who work and those who do nothing. And then....

(silence)

Of course, we could take very “drastic” steps.

Yes.

For instance, so many hours of work per day are required in order to be fed, or else you eat only if you pay for it.

Yes, Mother, it should be done. Because, you see, they are so crafty that they all say they work:

they putter around here and there, they go to work on the Matrimandir for half an hour or so.... So, to them, they’ve “worked.” You see, they just putter around.

(after a silence)

I suddenly felt I had lost my influence over those people. I tell them things – they couldn’t careless.

You could speak to R. and see.

Yes, Mother.... But R. says, “Mother doesn’t want to interfere. Mother doesn’t want to make any

decisions.” But I think perhaps it’s up to him to make a decision.

But no one will listen to him. You see, I can’t make decisions anymore because they don’t listen to me. As long as they listened to me, it was easy – it was easy, there was an influence. Now, something has happened, I don’t have any authority at all anymore, so what can we do?41

Well, if you tell R., he will see that it’s done.

(Mother goes within for a long time)

We’ll have to find some way....

41Nor do we know what kind of report Mother was getting from the trio of intriguers who were already quarreling over the direction and funds of Auroville. Certainly there was a lazy group in Auroville, but that group quickly disappeared on its own. Is it a “lack of authority” over the Aurovillians or over the trio, whose rivalries were beginning to arouse the mistrust