Chapter 9November 30, 1962

saw another such need: a need for the Certitude which is security. I don't know how to explain it.... Because I had the experience of it, I saw it was one of the human needs; and I understood it very intensely, for when I met Sri Aurobindo, this Certitude is what made me feel I had found the Truth I needed. And I didn't realize how DEEP this need was until he left his body – just then, at the moment of the transition. Then the entire physical consciousness felt its certitude and security collapse. At that moment I saw (we spoke about it with Nolini a year later and he had had exactly the same impression), I saw this was similar to Buddha's experience when he realized that everything was impermanent and so all of life collapsed... in other words, Something Else HAD to be found. Well, at that moment.... I'd already had all my experiences, but with Sri Aurobindo, for the thirty years I lived with him (a little more than thirty years), I lived in an absolute, an absolute of security – a sense of total security, even physical, even the most material security. A sense of absolute security, because Sri Aurobindo was there. And it held me up, you know, like this (gesture of being carried): not for ONE MINUTE in those thirty years did it leave me. That was why I could do my work with a Base, really, a Base of absoluteness – of eternity and absoluteness. I realized it when he left: THAT suddenly collapsed.

And then I understood that it is one of life's needs (there are several); and it's what spurs the human being to get out of his present state and find another one. These needs are (what's the word?)... the seeds, the germs of evolution. They compel us to progress. The whole time Sri Aurobindo was here, as I said, individual progress was automatic: all the progress Sri Aurobindo made, I made. But I was in a state of eternity, of absoluteness, with a feeling of such security, in every circumstance. Nothing, nothing unfortunate could happen, for he was there. So when he left, all at once – a fall into a pit. And that's what projected me wholly... (Mother gestures forward).

That is, I understood why he left. The whole terrestrial evolution had come to a halt. One progressed – one can always progress, that's nothing – but the entire TERRESTRIAL evolution was at a standstill. If there were permanence in life, nothing would budge. And these needs are the seeds of evolution. So that's what I saw: in the past, in the future, universally. It was very interesting.

And with no effort, no tension, no... as if they were the most natural things in the world. Things like this happen all the time.

As soon as I saw that I understood. "Well," I told myself, "if I were a philosopher I could write a thick book about this! " It made me laugh. Because it's not just ONE thing: there are heaps of them, all the time, all the time. Things like this are happening all the time.

The Lord is enjoying himself!

Another prophet! (Mother hands Satprem a typed sheet.) India is full of prophets. But this one is rather interesting because he's the first who seems to have seen this [Sing-Indian] war from the standpoint of the inner action.

(Satprem reads:230 )

A. has a neighbor who is an educational officer (retired). He does serious Puja daily and has certain powers of foretelling, mind-reading etc. He is under instructions from his Guru never to send back people without answering their questions of whatever kind; never to get angry under any conditions; never to accept money; and never to tell things of his own accord. He is in great demand among ministers and officials of the Madras Government, and Nehru too had an

interesting

experience

at

his

hands.

This gentleman told A. on October 20 that the Chinese hostilities will be under Cease-Fire by the end of November. It actually came to be on November 20. Here are a few other things he has

said

in

reply

to

A.

on

his

return

from

here:

1) The human element will increasingly cooperate and people would get stronger in every sense. 2) The struggle will go on for one and a half years. There will be victory for India. 3) Struggle is more in the spiritual (subtle) than on the physical and the struggle need not be a shooting

war. 4)

Himalayan

states

will

enjoy

independence. 5) More and more persons of importance (Indian and foreign) will go to Pondicherry. 6) All nations will shower help on India and the struggle's cost will not affect Indian economy. 7) When asked how the Chinese will be defeated without a shooting war, he said "They may just go back." He could not say that there would be no resumption of hostilities. He said "There need not be." He obviously knows that some work is being done here. It's perfectly obvious that this cease-fire231 results from what I've done – all the countries are astounded that it could happen. And my impression was like this: an invisible action working on people WITHOUT THEIR NOTICING IT – not through the mind.

Ostensibly it's because Kennedy told them to cease firing or he would send in troops.

It seems more likely that this cease-fire is a Chinese trick, that they've got something up their sleeve.

It's quite possible.

It may be like that in their outer consciousness.

(silence)

Had I been asked the last question put to that man in Madras, I would have answered something like this: "I don't know if there will be fighting or not, but it can happen without fighting."

230Note in original English.

231Ten days ago (on November 20), the Chinese quite unexpectedly declared a unilateral cease-fire, just when a march on What you read here has passed through two minds: first A.'s, then M.'s, who wrote down what A. told him – so there must already be a double distortion.... But the man evidently seems to have felt a Force at work behind the appearances.

And the Force is like that: from the start I was bringing down eternal Peace [on the battlefront]... to see how it would turn out! There was almost a curiosity to see what was going to happen.

* * * A little later:

1963 will be a difficult year here.

But I expect it to lift – start to lift – in February '64... I mean this kind of pressure, or rather of general depression!

* * * Later:

The other day you were speaking of Sri Aurobindo's departure, and you said, "So when he left, all at once – a fall into a pit. And that's what projected me wholly.... " Did you mean it projected you into the evolution?

I had never left it. But....

You made a gesture forward.

Towards the future, then.

Yet I was there too, that's not it. It's....

(silence)

The real truth is that it projected me DIRECTLY towards the Supreme, with no intermediary.

I'd had the contact with the inner Divine, I'd had the realization of Eternity, I'd had all those realizations, but... as long as I was living with Sri Aurobindo I felt the absolute through him, and (what shall I say?).... All those imperative "needs" I called the seeds of evolution are the levers or springboards to make man realize that the ONE AND ONLY, the one and only absolute is the Supreme; the one and only permanence is the Supreme; the one and only security is the Supreme; the one and only immortality is the Supreme. That the only purpose of manifestation is to lead YOU THERE.

That's essentially it: from my experience of the Supreme through the manifestation of Sri Aurobindo, I was projected into a direct experience, with no intermediary.

It's poorly expressed, that's not really it, but... (Mother closes her eyes).

(silence)

For the sake of the Work, that's obviously what had to be understood.

(silence)

It's difficult to explain, but it was.... You see, in the eternal Play, everything is unstable and everything fails you. And that's how it was: "All will fail you, except the Supreme."

And it becomes such an absorbing and absolute experience (Mother seems to be enveloped in white light)... the uncertainty, the instability, the fleeting, inconstant and impermanent nature of all things – everything collapses, there is nothing to lean on, except THE SUPREME, for He is all.

One thing alone is unfailing: the absolute All.

(silence)

Words are stupid – it's an experience.

Once you have the experience, that's that: all the rest simply follows from it – details.

And I had it then [on December 5, 1950].