Chapter 18February 14, 1973

And peaceful... a true peace, which is not inertia or immobility.

Mother, can we give this as an objective to all children?

All... no! They are not all the same age, even when they are the same physical age. Some children are primitive. One should.... You see, if you yourself were fully conscious of your psychic being, you would know which children are psychically developed. Some children have only an embryonic psychic – the age of the psychic varies enormously. Normally, it takes several lives for the psychic to become completely formed, and it’s the psychic that passes from one body to another; that’s why we aren’t conscious of our past lives – because we aren’t conscious of our psychic being. But sometimes, at some MOMENT the psychic being participated in a particular event, it became conscious; and that creates a memory. Sometimes you may find you have a partial recollection of something, the fleeting memory of a circumstance or event or thought, or even of an action.... It’s because the psychic was conscious of it.

(silence)

What would you, I am nearing my hundredth year – it’s only five years away – and I started my effort to become conscious when I was five. It’s a fact. That’s telling you.... And I am going on, and it is going on. Now, of course, I have come to doing the work in the cells of the body, but the work started long ago.

I don’t mean to discourage you, but only to tell you it isn’t done in a wink! The body... the body is made of a substance that is still very heavy. It is the substance itself that must change for the Supermind to manifest.

That’s all I can say.

(Regarding the poor translation of Sri Aurobindo’s texts in the “Auroville Gazette.” Mother had asked Satprem to check a few issues and try to rectify the situation with the collaboration of his friend Luc in

Auroville. This triggered off reactions which were unmistakably... sharp.)

...But, Mother, I’ve seen it: all the translators, whether French, English, German or whatever, have a translator’s COLOSSAL ego; the minute you touch their translation, it’s as if you were ripping their little selves apart. Whether it’s Y, T., CS. or any of the people I have dealt with, translators are simply not-to-be-touched This is the truth. Well, let’s leave them alone. A veritable grace is needed to make them understand.

It’s very difficult, Mother! I am well aware of it. But the minute you touch a translator, it’s like touching dynamite!

(Mother laughs) Let’s just leave it, then.

Yes, Mother, it’s hopeless. I’ll inform Auropress that your note is cancelled.119 Amen. She [the translator] will have to change from within – you have to change us all from within, that’s the crux of the matter.

I think (that’s what she told me) that when she finds something difficult, she’ll ask me. She said, “If I have doubts, I’ll ask you.”

But the trouble is, most often they have no doubts!

(Mother laughs)

No, no, Mother, I say this in all humility, because I’ve been doing this work for... eighteen years now; and I see how many years it took me, how many blunders, and how much help Sri Aurobindo gave me until I really started getting into the proper spirit. So I have compassion for these people, I quite understand why they make mistakes. What annoys me is how they can be so sure of themselves. It’s a pity.

Sometimes people understand a poor translation better than a good one.

Yes, Mother, possibly!... But still, sometimes it plainly doesn’t make any sense.

I can’t personally read through everything, it takes too much time.

Manage with them the best you can.

Bah, bah, listen! Nothing short of a grace could do something!... For me, it means more responsibility, more complications, it means an extra load – I’m by no means looking forward to it, you know.

Well, once in a while, if it really makes no sense at all....

I think we have to be a little....

Yes, Mother, I also feel we should forget about it – people must understand from within, and that will be that.

I am hearing (through Nirod120 ) certain things that Sri Aurobindo said, and he says that even he 119Mother had sent a note to the Gazette to the effect that all translations of Sri Aurobindo’s texts had to receive the Copyright Bureau’s approval before publication.