Chapter 3May 8, 1968

It’s not yet over, but... I intended to talk about it only once it was fully over, but because of this [the question of the Pope’s abdication], I see it has hastened things – hastened and concentrated.

We’ll see. We are going to see.

Did you see P.L.? How did you find him?

He’s nervously quite shaken, quite exhausted.

Don’t you think they did some magic on him?

That’s quite my impression.

Ah, you too.... As for me, I very much feel they did magic so he wouldn’t be able to speak to the Pope.

For the moment, he’s very exhausted.

Yes, they’ve drained him.

It started with a mental attack – every possible doubt: Sri Aurobindo is "like Saint Augustine"; Mother is "like Virgin Mary," it’s "the same thing." A mental attack, anyway. After that, he became unable to eat: every time he ate, he would vomit. Then he had fits of hysteria: convulsions, foaming at the mouth, and a kind of half madness.

Bah, bah!

Because he wrote to the Pope... Here’s what happened: he wrote to the Pope asking him for an audience, but that letter never reached the Pope.

Oh!

It fell into the hands of the "Chief of Correspondence," who probably sent it to the "Indian department" of the Vatican to find out what that Ashram was.... And he was never allowed to see the Pope. Eight days later, those attacks started coming. And after another eight days, they told him, "Oh, you’re too ill, you can’t meet the Pope. You’re ‘out of it.’"

Now they’re on their guard over there.

dies, Ill need his enemies to be elected in his place." They all keep thinking about his succession. So no one wants to be the other’s enemy and each watches the other. It’s a frightful atmosphere.

Since he gave that letter for the Pope, I’ve been seeing constant attacks here, constant. These people are dangerous.

And there’s a serious fact I learned from P.L. You know that the Pope was operated on a year ago....

What for?

For the prostate. And in fact, it’s cancer.

Oh!... So they’re expecting him to die....

And they don’t like him. P.L. told me, "At the Vatican, they don’t like him." They say he is "the son of a journalist, a chap who wants to cause a sensation." That’s how they judge him at the Vatican.

(Mother remains concentrated

for a long time)

Was the Pope operated on before or after he came to India?

After, I think.

* * * Then Mother remains in contemplation till the end:

I have no inclination to speak.... But it’s a continuous work, day and night, day and night.... "One" seems to have set off something rather formidable.40 Nothing to say?

One wonders how all this Vatican business is going to turn out?

All that they want is to keep things as they are. Their whole will is to prevent things from moving.... Unfortunately, it’s easier to prevent things from moving than to make them move.