Chapter 2April 6, 1968

something going like this (same gesture) and...

We should note the date – maybe in ten or twenty years we’ll understand! Yesterday was April 2, yes, the 2nd. It was a curious date: 2-4-6-8 [April 2, 1968]. Two, four, six, eight. And the impression was of something going like this, like a page that’s been turned, and then... the beginning. Or if you like (it’s not a geometrical sensation, but...), the sense of a curve that has come to its end, and another one starting. But that’s not as good as the image of an immense page falling back, and something beginning. It’s blank, it’s... just the beginning.

And no perception of a personal thing: individualities [e.g., P.L.] are just like pawns that have been used for starting, that’s all. The movement, the origin of the movement is infinitely higher and vaster than any physical personality.

Truly the perception that everyone and everything are nothing but pawns, like that (gesture as on a chessboard), which are set in motion, but...

We’ll see. We should note that.

Still, does it have something to do with the Pope?

Yes. With Christendom.

(Mother again goes into

a long contemplation)

Since yesterday (it didn’t seem related to the first experience), but the whole day, my way of reacting (inwardly, not outwardly), my way of reacting to things, my way of MATERIALLY looking at all things – it was completely changed. There was, as it were, a new person... even expressing surprise at the old reactions, wondering, "What! Did I use to react like that?" ("I," meaning the body, of course.) "Now it’s not that any longer."

And it’s still very strong now, as though... not a new personality, but a new way of being, were there. And not a personal way of being: it’s like a great stream.

It’s very, very strange.

I had three very difficult days, really very difficult, even dangerous; then by a stiffening of the will, and with a sort of very active work of surrender of all the cells, yesterday that was the outcome.

Very odd, very odd.

We’ll see! (Mother laughs)

What I wanted to say came; it’s very simple (Mother takes a written note), simply like this (it’s about very small things):

"One must choose between getting drunk and living in Auroville, the two are

incompatible."

It’s not an innocent drunkenness, I mean it results in acts of violence, it verges on madness.

So of course, if we start along this road, we may also say this (Mother takes another note):

"One must choose between living in falsehood and living in Auroville, the two are

incompatible."

We could say that those who get drunk do it to forget; but one doesn’t come to Auroville to forget:

one comes to Auroville, on the contrary, to remember.

Yes, we might rather put it in that form.

But the idea was mostly to insist on the CHOICE. Living in Auroville is a CHOICE. It’s a choice, an attitude you adopt, a decision you make. Living in Auroville is a choice, you choose a certain life. But once you choose one thing, some others become incompatible.... At any rate, living in Auroville is an ACTION, a decision you make, an action.

But this (Mother points to her note) is a concession to the present state of mankind, because, to tell the truth, in Auroville there should only be individual cases. What I mean is this: there may be people who get drunk and are nonetheless fit to live in Auroville. So we can’t make a general rule. But if we don’t make a general rule, on what ground can we say to someone (who’s been accepted, that’s the difficulty), "No, you must change – either you stop this, or else you can’t stay in Auroville..."?

What is said of alcohol can be said of drugs; and it can be said of many other things.

Many, yes, lots. It’s only a beginning. You understand, I have seen that we’re going to be faced with the need... It’s the need to impose a choice – to say, "You must choose between this and that."

It’s the same with drugs, in some people the effects aren’t dangerous, or not harmful. Ultimately, everyone’s freedom is limited by the fact that it mustn’t go against others’ freedom. That’s the limit.

Obviously it’s hard to make general rules.

It’s impossible.

In my case, I remember having taken opium for several years, and it did me good, it would soothe

me, quiet me. Taking opium now would be absurd, but at the time it did me no harm.

FOR YOU – you must choose between overcoming your weakness or habit and living in Auroville, the two can’t go together." But then, it becomes a purely individual question; to another you may well not need to say it.

That’s why the most general formula is to say that any self-forgetfulness is contrary to life in

Auroville. One doesn’t go to Auroville to forget, or to forget oneself – any self-forgetfulness, in any form.

Ah, but "self-forgetfulness," if you take it from a moral standpoint...! (Mother laughs)

Forgetting one’s true self.

(Mother laughs) The minute one formulates...

It would be more correct to say:

"Any pursuit of unconsciousness is contrary to life in Auroville."

That’s more general. And if we want to be still more general, we could say,

"Any movement backward or downward is in contradiction to life in Auroville, which is a

life of ascent towards the future."

But words...

Some articles have appeared in newspapers about Auroville’s foundation, for instance with the theme, "A utopia on the way to realization." So then, there are those who tell you, "You’ll never succeed!" Their argument is, "They are human beings and they will remain human" – that’s where they’re wrong. "Human nature cannot be changed," that’s the basis on which they tell you, "You won’t succeed." Therefore the only thing needed is not only to accept and to want the future, but to adhere to the will for transformation and progress. As a general formula, that’s quite fine.

But you see, with drugs, for instance – take chloroform used for operations: well, on every individual chloroform has different effects (they don’t accept that in theory, but it’s a fact). We have S. here, who was an anesthetist, and the upshot of his experience is that it has a different effect on everyone. Some it hurls into unconsciousness (the large majority, I think), but in certain cases, on the contrary, people are thrown into another consciousness.

And it’s the same with everything.

So my note won’t do, it can only do individually: "That’s how it is in your case"; but in another case, it may not be incompatible at all.

So we’ll have to deal with it little by little.... It’ll be interesting!