Chapter 4May 22, 1966

* * * As Satprem prepares to leave:

So do I have to wait till the book is finished before I can hear it?...

(Satprem makes a face)

You know, when I listen to you, I seem to be lying down, stretched out on something that moves forward very gently and regularly, with the vision of a very luminous and harmonious atmosphere.

That’s the immediate effect it has on me. The education of the new mind. It would be fine if it became an instrument of beauty!

Yes, but inspiration is hard to pull down!

(Mother laughs)

(Satprem chances on notes of Mother’s in a pile of files.)

(Laughing) They are everywhere! Here, there, everywhere.... Once, Sri Aurobindo (I think it was in 1920) said to me one day, "Oh, they have put my room in order, I can’t find anything anymore!" For their part, they said he had his papers everywhere: on his bed, on the chairs, on the table, in the drawers, on the shelves; there were papers everywhere, notes and so on. But he knew exactly where everything was. Then they "put things in order," they "tidied up" – and he couldn’t find anything anymore! It was very funny. I asked him, "Would you like me to do your room and clean it? I won’t touch anything." – "Ah, if you don’t touch anything..." (Mother laughs) So I left the papers on the bed, on the chair, on the table, on the shelves! I cleaned a shelf, then in a book I found some money. I told him (thinking it had been forgotten), I told him, "I found... a hundred, two hundred rupees" (I don’t remember now) "in a book." (One banknote was in one place, another note was in another place.) He replied, "Yes, I am forced to hide it, otherwise they take it from me!" (Mother laughs)

But I am no good at hiding places!

You see, I instinctively go and take the book, I open it and find the money. So I asked him, "Would

* * *

(Then Satprem reads to Mother a fairly long text, and ends up completely exhausted.)

Are you tired?

It’s as if all the vital force were going away.

(long, refreshing

concentration)

You must go rest.

Now I am fine! But I don’t know why, the force goes away very quickly.

But do you get rest at night?

Oh, yes, I’m quite all right. But strangely, as soon as I exert myself in any way, I seem to...

You can’t do it.

I can’t. But why?

Because we are in a very acute phase of transformation, very acute, mon petit. So when you have one foot on the ground and another foot in midair, it’s not the time to... There are phases like that. It doesn’t last a very, very long time, but it may last a month or two, or three. Afterwards, it’s finished. Then, after that, there comes another period like that. One should remain very calm in such cases.

But I’ve noticed that when I do material things – small things – there seems to be a tremendous vital force flowing into the work, and in the end I find myself exhausted through having done nothing at all! How come all that vital energy goes away?

It’s because all the vital force is used to keep the body’s balance in the phase of transformation. That’s what I have called "the change of government," it’s the phase of transformation. And during that change, well, all the vital force is there just to keep your balance so you don’t topple over. Because it’s difficult.

One must remain very calm and do what is indispensable, nothing more. In ordinary life, when one doesn’t know, with people who don’t know, there is a tremendous wastage of vital forces, for no reason. Well, we no longer have the right to do that because all that vital force is there, as I said, concentrated to keep the body’s balance.

It’s a very, very widespread state in all those who... not who do the yoga, but for whom the yoga is done. And it’s done... (how can I put it?) almost without their knowledge – all that puts them in a fit