Chapter 72Messages for Sri Aurobindo’s Arrival in
Book 1. Part One: Letters, Messages and Other Short Written Statements
Truth alone can give to the world the power of receiving and manifesting the Divine Love.
* It is only when the Supramental manifests in the body-mind that its presence can be permanent.
*
MESSAGES FOR THE MOTHER’S FIRST ARRIVAL
IN PONDICHERRY4
29 MARCH 1914
I need not appear to be good if my sincerity is perfect. It is better to be than to seem.
* Never forget that you are not alone. The Divine is with you helping and guiding you. He is the companion who never fails, the friend whose love comforts and strengthens. Have faith and He will do everything for you.
* 4 The messages for the Mother’s final arrival in Pondicherry (24 April 1920) are published in this section under “Darshan Messages”.
29 February — 29 March Lord, Thou hast willed, and I execute: A new light breaks upon the earth, A new world is born. The things that were promised are fulfilled.
* When you are in need of an external change, it means that you do not progress internally. For he who progresses internally can live always under the same external conditions; these constantly reveal to him new truths.
*
Our Path To walk on the path you must have a dauntless intrepidity, you must never turn back upon yourself with this mean, petty, weak, ugly movement that fear is.
An indomitable courage, a perfect sincerity, a total self-giving to the extent that you do not calculate or bargain, you do not give with the idea of receiving, you do not offer yourself with the intention of being protected, you do not have a faith that needs proofs, — this is indispensable for advancing on the path, — this alone can shelter you against all dangers.
*
MESSAGES FOR SRI AUROBINDO’S ARRIVAL
IN PONDICHERRY
4 APRIL 1910 Be sincere, always sincere, more and more sincere.
Sincerity exacts from each one that in his thoughts, his feel-ings, his sensations and his actions he should express nothing but the central truth of his being.
* A new Light shall break upon the earth, a new world shall be born: the things that were promised shall be fulfilled.
*
[facsimile (Sri Aurobindo’s symbol)]
The descending triangle represents Sat-Chit-Ananda.
The ascending triangle represents the aspiring answer from matter under the form of life, light and love.
The junction of both — the central square — is the perfect manifestation having at its centre the Avatar of the Supreme — the lotus.
The water — inside the square — represents the multiplicity, the creation.
* Physically, materially, upon earth, it is in gratitude that one finds the source of the purest delight.
*
PUJA MESSAGES
LAKSHMI PUJA 1955 Mother divine, thou art with us, each day thou givest me the assurance, and closely united in an identification which grows more and more integral, more and more constant, we turn to the Lord of the universe and to That which is beyond in a great aspiration towards the new Light.
31 October 1955
*
KALI PUJA 1955
An Old Chaldean Legend Long, long ago, in the dry land which is now Arabia, a divine being incarnated upon earth to awaken in it the supreme love. As expected it was persecuted by men, misunderstood, suspected, pursued. Mortally wounded by its assailants, it wanted to die quietly in solitude in order to be able to accomplish its work, and being pursued, it ran away. Suddenly, in the vast desert land there appeared a small pomegranate bush. The saviour crept in under the low branches, to leave its body in peace; and immediately the bush spread out miraculously, it grew higher, larger, became deep and thick, so that when the pursuers passed by, they did not even suspect that the One whom they were chasing was hidden there, and they went their way.
While drop by drop the sacred blood fell, fertilising the soil, the bush was covered with marvellous flowers, scarlet, large, crowded with petals... innumerable drops of blood.
These are the flowers which express and contain for us the Divine’s Love.
14 November 1955
*
DURGA PUJA 1957
MAHASHTAMI To express our gratitude to Sri Aurobindo we can do nothing better than to be a living demonstration of his teaching.
30 September 1957
*
DURGA PUJA 1957
VIJAYA DASHAMI: VICTORY DAY For those who use their physical eyes alone, the victory will be apparent only when it is total, that is to say, physical.
2 October 1957
*
COMMENTS ON PUJA DAYS
(Durga Puja 1953, Victory Day)
Today was truly a day of victory, victory over all that yet remained human in the physical consciousness.
O Nature, I bring to thee force and light, truth and power; it is for thee to receive and utilise them. It is thou who wilt be receptive in the fruit of thy creation, man, and open the doors of his understanding; it is thou who wilt give him the energy of progress and the will of transformation; and, above all, it is thou who wilt make him accept the Presence and aspire for Realisation.
18 October 1953
*
(Durga Puja l954, Victory Day)
It is victory day; let it be a true victory of the Spirit over ignorance and falsehood.
6 October 1954
*
(Durga Puja 1955, Victory Day)
A verbal notation of the experience I transmitted during meditation.
The annual battle and victory of Durga symbolise the rhythmic intervention of the Supreme Divine Consciousness that periodically gives a new impetus to the universal progress.
26 October 1955
*
(About the “victory” referred to in the message for
Durga Puja 1957, Victory Day)
But this does not mean that it is not already won in principle.
2 October 1957
*
(Kali Puja 1959)
We who have a common uplifting ideal, shall unite; and in this union and by this union we will face and overcome the attacks of all opposing forces of darkness and devastation. In union is the strength, in union is the power, in union the certitude of Victory.
Mother Kali will be with you on this day.
31 October 1959
*
CHRISTMAS MESSAGES5
No¨el.
Blessings.
*
Bon No¨el.
Blessings.
*
Bon No¨el to all. With the blessings of the Grace for all.
* May the New Light illumine your thoughts and your lives, govern your hearts and guide your action.
Blessings.
* 5 Christmas was designated by the Mother as the festival of the return of the Light.
Joyeux No¨el. Let us celebrate the Light by letting it enter into us.
* If you want peace upon earth, first establish peace in your heart. If you want union in the world, first unify the different parts of your being.
Blessings.
*
Bon No¨el to all.
*
Bon No¨el to all, in Peace and Joy.
May this new Christmas be for you the advent of a new light, higher and purer.
* Union and goodwill upon earth.
Behind the rigidity of the outward celebrations there is a living symbol; it is this that we must remember.
Peace and goodwill to all.
Unless a break is made with the habits and the beliefs of the past, there is little hope of advancing rapidly towards the future.
*
Love the Truth.
Let the light dawn in your consciousness. Blessings to all.
*
Hail the new light. That it may grow in all hearts. Blessings.
*
Bon No¨el.
*
The time has come for the rule of falsehood to end. In the Truth alone is salvation.
* We want to show to the world that man can become a true servitor of the Divine.
Who will collaborate in all sincerity?
*
* * Father Christmas,
I evoke you today! Answer our call. Come bearing all your marvellous gifts. You are the great dispenser of worldly possessions; you are the untiring friend who hears every request and grants it generously. Give each one the material object he desires, and as for me, give me enough, give me much so that I may give largely to all.
*
(Significances of the gifts offered by the three Magi to Jesus at the time of his birth)
Gold: wealth of the world and supramental knowledge. Frankincense: purification of the vital. Myrrh: immortalisation of the body.
*
BIRTHDAY MESSAGES6 My dear child, my love and blessings are and will be with you throughout the year. Let them help you to make one more progress on the way towards the divine goal.
* 6 These are a few examples of the numerous short messages which the Mother wrote to people on their birthdays. She called this occasion “Bonne Fˆete”.
Let this year be a year of progress and transformation — one more step on the way leading to the Divine Realisa-tion.
2 February 1930
* Let this year be for you the year of a complete opening and of the breaking of all limitations.
2 February 1943
* Let this year bring you the true faith — a faith that no darkness can obscure.
2 February 1944
* Let this day of your birth be for you an occasion to give yourself a little more, a little better to the Divine. Let your consecration be more total, your devotion more ardent, your aspiration more intense.
Open yourself to the New Light and walk with a joyful step on the path.
Resolve on this day that it may be thus and the day will not have passed in vain.
* A grain of practice is worth a mountain of theories.
“Lord, on this anniversary day of my birth, grant that the power to know changes in me into a power to transform myself integrally.”
* A bonne fˆete!
A new birth also, the birth into a new consciousness in which you will be above all little personal reactions because you will constantly feel in your heart the presence of the Divine; may it give you the force to surmount all obstacles, all pettiness and all difficulties.
With my love and my blessings.
8 January 1963
* On this day, we take the decision to make a decisive step towards the victory of truth.
Each year that passes should be — and necessarily is — a new conquest.
Let a decisive step be taken this year towards His Victory.
13 January 1963
* With this new year that starts for you, you must start a new life, with a renewed resolution to drive away from your consciousness and action all that deforms, diminishes, obscures and finally stops your progress and impairs your health.
In your effort for inner growth and purification, you can be sure of being sustained and helped by my force and my blessings.
27 January 1963
* Bonne Fˆete!
May this new year be for you a year of progress in the perfection of work and of consecration, in sincerity, energy and peace.
With my blessings.
16 January 1964
* Bonne Fˆete!
With my blessings for a year of perfect consecration and integral progress in love and peace.
16 January 1965
* Bonne Fˆete
In silent endurance, one step forward towards the victory, with the help of eternal love.
13 January 1966
* Bonne Fˆete
To mark one more step on the luminous road leading to the Divine Realisation in Peace, Love and Joy.
13 January 1967
* Bonne Fˆete
With my love for a life of collaboration and my blessings for the prolonged continuation of this happy collaboration in peace and love.
13 January 1971
* Bonne Fˆete
With my love, my trust and my blessings for transformation. Forward to the Realisation.
13 January 1973
*
MESSAGES FOR CENTRES AND ORGANISATIONS
(Suggested programme for a study group)
1. Prayer (Sri Aurobindo, Mother — grant us your help in our en-deavour to understand your teaching.)
2. Reading of Sri Aurobindo’s book. 3. A moment of silence. 4. One question can be put by whoever wants to put a question on what has been read.
5. Answer to the question. 6. No general discussion. This is not the meeting of a group but simply a class for studying Sri Aurobindo’s books.
31 October 1942
* I have read X’s letters and would like you to tell him that:
1) I think it would be better to begin the circle without a too expensive basis to start with, so that the question of money will not be at the forefront and troublesome. Later on when the circle will have proved a success it can move to more expensive quarters.
2) The yearly subscription for the members can be fixed at Rs.10, but I propose that all those who wish to come to read and study Sri Aurobindo’s books can do so without being members of the circle and on a small subscription of Rs. 2 for instance.
3) It is better not to lend books and let them go out of the circle premises.
4) I wish that apart from the yearly subscription, no money should be asked from those who send money here regularly because it would be so much taken from their contribution here.
5) He must not form a committee except with people with whom he can fully agree and also who are accepted by Sri Aurobindo and myself here.
6) He must not do anything without our written consent and to save time it is better if he writes directly to me in English, stating in a short and precise way the steps he intends to take.
Finally you can send him my blessings and my recommendation to avoid all quarrels, bad feelings and misunderstandings.
A word to finish: It is only egoism that is shocked to find egoism in others.
5 October 1943
*
(Message for the inauguration of the Sri Aurobindo Philosophical Circle, Hong Kong)
Let the eternal Light dawn on the eastern horizon.
26 June 1954
*
(Message for the inauguration of the Delhi Branch of Sri Aurobindo Ashram)
Let this place be worthy of its name and manifest the true spirit of Sri Aurobindo’s teaching and message to the world.
With my blessings.
12 February 1956
* In Delhi at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram branch they need very badly somebody qualified who could give lectures on Sri Auro-bindo’s teaching and organise the higher studies in the Ashram School.
I am quite convinced that you are the best man to do that work. You have a very clear and deep understanding of Sri Aurobindo’s writings and at the same time your explanations are very attractive and comprehensible.
Kindly let me know if you agree to this proposal, so that the necessary arrangements can be made.
I feel quite sure that you have fully benefited by this time of rest you had with your family and that you are quite fit now.
Blessings to all and for you with my love.
13 June 1958
* To all those who work and learn in the Delhi Branch of the Ashram, I send my blessings.
Let each one do his very best and, peacefully, leave to the Supreme the care of the results.
21 August 1960
*
(Message for the inauguration of Sri Aurobindo Nilaya, Santiniketan)
To open a centre is not sufficient in itself. It must be the pure hearth of a perfect sincerity in a total consecration to the Divine.
Let the flame of this sincerity rise high above the falsities and deceptions of the world.
With blessings.
21 December 1962
*
Sri Aurobindo’s Action
and
Sri Aurobindo Society are equally working for the manifestation of the truth in the immediate future; and to help both equally is to work for this realisation.
And my blessings are with all help and good will.
2 May 1971
*
MESSAGES FOR DEPARTMENTS AND BUSINESSES (Message for Sri Aurobindo Ashram Atelier)
Obligeance, rectitude, r´egularit´e.
Obliging, correct, regular. Blessings.
*
(Message for Harpagon Workshop)
Let peace and good will always prevail here.
With my blessings.
17 September 1952
*
(Message for New Horizon Sugar Mills)
A happy beginning
A good continuation and no end — an endless progression.
14 May 1957
*
(Message inscribed on the foundation-stone of New Horizon Sugar Mills)
Faithfulness is the sure basis of success.
12 April 1959
*
MISCELLANEOUS MESSAGES
(Message for the installation of Sri Aurobindo’s relics at Jeypore, Orissa, on 8 December 1970)
In each and every one, the highest consciousness must be the ruler of the life.
Blessings.
*
(Message for the inauguration of a youth camp organised by Sri Aurobindo’s Action)
Our life ought to be governed by the Love for Truth and the thirst for Light.
Blessings.
26 September 1971
*
(Message for the inauguration of a house)
Let this new house be filled with an ardent aspiration for the Divine Realisation and, in answer to the call, the Divine Presence will be there.
7 October 1951 Prayers
PRAYER AND CALLING THE DIVINE The whole of our life should be a prayer offered to the Divine.
* Integral prayer: the whole being is concentrated in a single prayer to the Divine.
* When coming out of sleep you must keep quiet for a few mo-ments and consecrate the coming day to the Divine, praying to remember Him always and in all circumstances.
Before going to sleep you must concentrate for a few min-utes, look into the day that has passed, remember when and where you have forgotten the Divine, and pray that such forget-tings should not happen again.
31 August 1953
* When waking up every morning, let us pray for a day of complete consecration.
19 June 1954
* Let us pray with all our heart that the divine work may be accomplished.
* All sincere prayers are granted, but it may take some time to realise materially.
28 June 1954
* All sincere prayers are granted, every call is answered.
21 July 1954
* Sincere calls surely are heard and receive an answer.
* We ought to be in a constant state of aspiration, but when we cannot aspire let us pray with the simplicity of a child.
25 July 1954
* We pray that the Divine should teach us ever more, enlighten us more and more, dispel our ignorance, illumine our minds.
2 November 1954
* It is never in vain that an ardent and sincere prayer is addressed to the Divine’s Grace.
19 December 1954
* The Supreme is divine knowledge and perfect unity; at each moment of the day let us call to Him so that we may be nothing else than Himself.
20 December 1954
* When, in our despair, we cry to the Divine, always He answers to our call.
21 December 1954
* We pray to the Divine to accept the ardent flame of our gratitude and of our joyous and fully confident adherence.
27 December 1954
*
Sri Aurobindo says in one letter:
“All prayer rightly offered brings us closer to the
Divine and establishes right relation with him.”
What is meant by “rightly offered” in this letter?
Will You please elucidate?
With humility and sincerity.
It goes without saying that all bargaining spirit is an insincerity that takes away all value from the prayer.
8 May 1968
* Nothing is difficult for those who call sincerely the Divine.
28 January 1973
*
PRAYERS To complete what I told you yesterday about Radha’s dance I have noted this down as an indication of the thought and feeling Radha must have within her when she stands at the end in front of Krishna:
“Every thought of my mind, every emotion of my heart, every movement of my being, every feeling and every sensation, each cell of my body, each drop of my blood, all, all is yours, yours absolutely, yours without reserve. You can decide my life or my death, my happiness or my sorrow, my pleasure or my pain; whatever you do with me, whatever comes to me from you will lead me to the Divine Rapture.”
12 January 1932
*
RADHA’S PRAYER O Thou whom at first sight I knew for the Lord of my being and my God, receive my offering.
Thine are all my thoughts, all my emotions, all the senti-ments of my heart, all my sensations, all the movements of my life, each cell of my body, each drop of my blood. I am absolutely and altogether Thine, Thine without reserve. What Thou wilt of me, that I shall be. Whether Thou choosest for me life or death, happiness or sorrow, pleasure or suffering, all that comes to me from Thee will be welcome. Each one of Thy gifts will be always for me a gift divine bringing with it the supreme Felicity.
13 January 1932
*
My Lord, make me entirely Thine.
*
My Lord, let me be entirely and sincerely yours.
*
O Lord, give me a perfect sincerity. O Lord, let me be perfectly yours for ever.
*
Aspiration addressed to the Supreme: Let all in me be always at Your service.
*
O Lord, awaken in me an ardent desire to know Thee. I aspire that my life may be consecrated to Thy service.
* Let me always follow Thy divine Guidance. Let me be aware of my true destiny.
1 January 1934
* O Lord, Thy sweetness has entered into my soul, and Thou hast filled all my being with joy.
14 April 1935
* My heart is at peace, my mind is free from impatience, and in all things I rely on Thy will with the smiling confidence of a child.
* My Lord, every day, in all circumstances, let me repeat with the full sincerity of my heart, “May Thy Will be done and not mine.”
5 November 1941
* Lord, with all my soul I want to accomplish what Thou directest me to do.
5 November 1943
* My Lord, deliver me from all vanity; make me humble and sincere.
5 November 1944
* O Lord, most humbly I pray that I may be at the height of my endeavour, that nothing in me, conscious or unconscious, may betray Thee by failing to serve in Thy sacred mission.
With a solemn devotion I salute Thee.
*
A daily prayer O Lord, let me be free from fear and worry so that I can always serve you to the best of my ability.
December 1948
* Lord, give me the strength of a total and perfect sincerity that I may be worthy of Thy Realisation.
15 August 1950
* O my heart, be great enough for the Victory.
* My heart aspires to be vast enough for Thy Victory.
* I aspire to be delivered from all egoistic weakness and all unconscious insincerity.
31 December 1950
* Lord, grant that my vision of things may be direct and objective and my acts be completely transformed by it.
* Lord, grant that a stupidity once committed and recognised may never be repeated.
* My Lord, grant me this quiet trust in Thee which overcomes all the difficulties.
* Grant me a quiet trust, a peaceful strength, an ardent faith and devotion.
* Lord, grant that I may be entirely and eternally faithful to Thee.
* Lord, grant me this Grace, that I may never forget Thee.
December 1958
* My Lord, make the consciousness clear and precise, the speech thoroughly true, the surrender complete, the calm absolute and transform the whole being into an ocean of light and love.
* Make me entirely transparent so that my consciousness may unite with Thine.
I aspire to place at Thy feet all the riches of this world.
* O Lord, I pray to Thee, guide my footsteps, enlighten my mind, that at every moment and in all things I may do exactly what Thou wantest me to do.
16 January 1962
* Lord, give me perfect sincerity, that sincerity which will lead me straight to Thee.
August 1962
* Lord, give me Thy blessings that I may become more and more sincere.
18 July 1967
* Lord, give me the real happiness, that which depends only upon Thee.
*
Prayer for 1971 O Lord, let me be what you want me to be.
5 March 1971
* I belong to Thee. And I wish to know Thee so that all that I do may be only what Thou wantest me to do.
24 June 1972
* Lord of Mercy, make me worthy of Thy Grace.
27 October 1972
*
Morning and Evening Prayer Lord, I want to be Yours and worthy of You; make me Your ideal child.
*
Morning O my Lord, my Sweet Mother,
Let me be Yours, absolutely Yours, perfectly Yours. Your force, Your light and Your love will protect me against all evils.
Midday O my Lord, Sweet Mother,
I am Yours and pray to be more and more perfectly Yours.
Night O my Lord, Sweet Mother,
Your force is with me, Your light and Your love, and You will save me from all difficulties.
* My sweet Lord, my little Mother,
Give me the true love, the love that forgets itself.
* My Lord, my Mother,
You are always with me with your blessings and your grace. Your Presence is the supreme protection.
* Remember that the Mother is always with you.
Address Her as follows and She will pull you out of all difficulties:
“O Mother, Thou art the light of my intelligence, the purity of my soul, the quiet strength of my vital, the endurance of my body. I rely on Thee alone and want to be entirely Thine. Make me surmount all obstacles on the way.”
*
I have a sweet little Mother Who lives in my heart; We are so happy together, We shall never part.
*
* * My Lord, Thou hast given me tonight this supreme knowledge.
We are living only because such is Thy will. We shall die only if it be Thy will.
2 March 1934
* To will what Thou willest always in all circumstances, is the only way of enjoying an unshakable peace.
* Lord, give us true happiness, the happiness that depends on Thee alone.
* Lord, give us the indomitable courage that comes from a perfect trust in Thee.
4 April 1942
* Lord, give us the strength to live integrally the ideal we proclaim.
* Give us faith in a glorious future and the capacity to realise it.
* Lord, let consciousness and peace increase in us so that more and more we may be the faithful intermediaries of Thy one divine law.
31 December 1951
* Lord, let nothing in us obstruct Thy work.
February 1952
* Lord, deliver us from falsehood, make us emerge in Thy truth pure and worthy of Thy victory.
* O Marvellous Grace, let our aspiration be always more intense, our faith always more vibrant, our trust always more absolute.
Thou art the All-Victorious!
* Supreme Lord, teach us to be silent so that in silence we may receive Thy force and understand Thy will.
11 February 1972
* Teach us to be really sincere in our effort towards the Truth.
* Lord, Supreme Truth,
We aspire to know Thee and to serve Thee. Help us to become children worthy of Thee. And for this, make us conscious of Thy constant gifts so that gratitude may fill our hearts and govern our lives.
* Lord, Thy Love is so great, so noble and so pure that it is beyond our comprehension. It is immeasurable and infinite: on bended knees we must receive it, and yet Thou hast made it so sweet that even the weakest among us, even a child, can approach Thee.
* With a calm and pure devotion we salute Thee and recognise Thee as the only reality of our being.
* Lord, God of Beauty and Harmony,
Grant that we may become instruments worthy of manifest-ing Thy supreme beauty in the world.
This is our prayer and our aspiration.
* O Supreme Reality, grant that we may live integrally the mar-vellous secret that is now revealed to us.
* Sweet Mother, grant that we may simply be, now and for ever, Thy little children.
*
* * Here, each one represents an impossibility to be solved; but since for Thy Divine Grace, O Lord, all is possible, will not Thy work be, in the detail as in the whole, the accomplishment of all these impossibilities transformed into divine Realisations?
* O my sweet Master, Thou art the conqueror and the conquest, the victor and the victory!
27 November 1951
* Thy heart is the supreme haven where every care is soothed. Oh, let this heart be wide open, so that all who are in torment may find there a sovereign refuge.
4 December 1951
* Quiet all violence, let Thy love reign.
13 April 1954
* O Lord, let Thy will be done. Thou art the supreme and perfect protection.
* O my Lord, with your help and grace what is there to fear!
You are the supreme protection that defeats all the enemies.
* O my Lord, Thy protection is all powerful. It defeats every enemy.
* To see Thy Victory in all circumstances is certainly the best way of helping It to come.
*
Addressed to the One Supreme Lord There is no other sin, no other vice than to be far from Thee.
* Lord, without Thee life is a monstrosity. Without Thy Light, Thy Consciousness, Thy Beauty and Thy Force, all existence is a sinister and grotesque comedy.
* O Lord, in the depths of all that is, of all that shall be, is Thy divine and unvarying smile.
*
* *
Prayer for Rain
Rain, Rain, Rain, we want the Rain. Rain, Rain, Rain, we ask for Rain. Rain, Rain, Rain, we need the Rain. Rain, Rain, Rain, we pray for Rain.
*
Prayer to the Sun
O Sun! our friend, Disperse the clouds, Absorb the rain. We want your rays, We want your light, O Sun! our friend.
*
In the name of my Lord, for the sake of my Lord, with the will of my Lord, by the power of my Lord, stop immediately harassing us.
*
(About the Mother’s prayer of 8 April 19141)
Recueillie — collecting from all sides and concentrating in a religious way. In this prayer, at first the thought is in full peace and the heart is collected and concentrated in adoration, and the next time it is the head that is full of adoration and the heart is silent and full of peace.
*
(About the Mother’s prayer of 3 September 19192)
In this prayer it is the Universal Mother in the form of material, terrestrial Nature who is speaking. The meal is the world that she has brought out of the Inconscient by the process of evolution. She wanted to make man the summit of this evolution, the ruler of this world. Throughout the ages she has waited, hoping that man would become fit to fulfil his role and give the divine reali-sation to the world. But man was so unfit that he was not even willing to submit to the conditions needed to prepare himself for the task, and material Nature, finally convinced that she was on the wrong track, turned directly to the Divine and asked Him to take possession of this world that had been prepared for the divine realisation.
With this key, the rest is self-explanatory.
*
(About the Mother’s prayer of 23 October 19373)
In short I might say that “R´ealisation Suprˆeme” for the individual means identification with the Divine and for the collectivity upon earth the advent of the Supramental, the new creation.
Do not treat this as a dogma, but only as an explanation and “R´ealisateur” is the Supreme Power of realisation, the doer and the act.
3 Ibid., p. 382.
Sadhana and Life
YOUR LIFE...
I am asking only for the sacrifice of ignorance, unconsciousness and the limits of the ego — but for what a marvellous and incomparable gain!
7 May 1937
* Let your life be useful.
* Let your life be a constant search for the Truth and it will be worth living.
* Let all your life be entirely and exclusively governed by the Supreme.
* Let your highest aspiration organise your life.
* Keep your aspiration ardent and sincere and never forget that you are the child of the Divine; it will prevent you from doing anything unworthy of the Divine children.
* All depends on the attitude of each one and on the sincerity of his approach.
* All depends on an inner attitude.
17 April 1947
*
CHANGE To rectify and to efface: both are possible, but in both cases, though in varying degrees, a transformation of the nature, of the character, is needed. What is wrongly done must be changed in oneself first, before one can hope to change the consequence of one’s action.
11 January 1951
* It is only when people truly want their consciousness to be changed that their actions also can be changed.
* A change of consciousness and when our consciousness will change we will know what the change is.
* Change...
1. Hatred into harmony 2. Jealousy into generosity 3. Ignorance into knowledge 4. Darkness into light 5. Falsehood into truth 6. Wickedness into goodness 7. War into peace 8. Fear into fearlessness 9. Uncertainty into certainty
10. Doubt into faith 11. Confusion into order 12. Defeat into victory
9 October 1951
*
Liberty and order Fraternity and independence Equality and hierarchy Unity and diversity Abundance and scarcity Effort and repose Power and compassion Discernment and benevolence Generosity and economy Wastage and avarice
* Conversion: the starting-point of realisation.
* Conversion: the turning of all the movements of the being towards the Divine.
* Resurrection: the falling off of the old consciousness, followed by the awakening of the true being out of it.
* New birth: birth of the true consciousness, that of the Divine Presence in us.
* Realisation: the goal of our efforts.
* Realisation — that is what we aspire for and for which we shall strive unceasingly however long it may take.
* Power of realisation: with the realisation all obstacles will be overcome.
*
DO THE RIGHT THING If you want to be respected, always be respectable.
*
Do you wish for kindness? Be kind. Do you ask for Truth? Be true.
* Try to do the good and never forget that God sees you everywhere.
* A good deed is sweeter to the heart than a sweet in the mouth.
A day spent without doing a good deed is a day without a soul.
16 October 1951
* Do good for the love of good and not in hope of a reward. Be good for the joy of being good and not for the gratefulness of others.
* In nice there is pleasantness, but good is good and can be without pleasantness.
*
* * There is only one way of being right, but there are many ways of being wrong.
* All will be all right when you are all right.
17 November 1952
* Let the consciousness work in you and through you and everything will become all right.
10 April 1954
* Pray to the Divine Grace to make you do always the right thing in the right way.
* Always do what you know to be the best even if it is the most difficult thing to do.
2 May 1954
* Which is the easiest way to forget oneself? Always do the right thing in the right way and at the right moment.
* Every day, at each moment, we shall aspire to do the right thing in the right way, always.
22 June 1954
* It is only when we are not disturbed that we can always do the right thing at the right time and in the right way.
* It is always the right thing when it is done in the right spirit.
24 August 1957
* Whatever comes to you, if you take it in the right spirit, will turn for the best.
* Correct movement: all movements under the right inspiration.
* Turning of wrong movements into right: an extreme goodwill always ready to be transformed.
* There is a moment when the right attitude comes spontaneously and without effort.
* Aspiration for the right attitude: energetic, willing, determined.
* Right attitude: simple and open, it is without any complications.
*
SOAR HIGH Our consciousness is like a young bird, it must learn to use its wings.
* Take your flight towards the heights.
* Soar very high and you will discover the great depths.
9 June 1954
* The day comes when all barriers have fallen, within and around us and we can feel like the bird that opens its wings for an unopposed soar.
6 December 1954
* A being free from all bondages, flying from height to height in a happy seeking for divine transformation.
* A resplendent sun rises above the horizon. It is your Lord that comes to you.
The whole world awakes and stretches in delight at the contact of His glory.
As the earth that heaves and opens, as the tree that grows, as the flower that blossoms, as the bird that sings, as the man that loves, let His light permeate you and radiate in an ever-increasing and widening happiness, a happiness steadily moving onward as the stars move in heaven.
* Spiritual atmosphere: light, fluid, clear and transparent and so clean!
*
THE DIVINE’S HELP TO MAN
Our thoughts are still ignorant, they must be enlightened. Our aspiration is still imperfect, it must be purified. Our action is still powerless, it must become effective.
25 August 1954
* Listen silently to the order which comes from the Supreme Lord and you will have the capacity to carry it out.
* Know what the Divine wants and you will have mastery.
* The inner command is more sure than the mental conception.
* The reign of reason should not end until the coming of the psychic law which manifests the Divine Will.
* Power to reject adverse suggestions: the power which comes from the conscious union with the Divine.
* Wisdom cannot be acquired except through union with the Divine Consciousness.
* Integral wisdom: that obtained by union with the Divine.
* Like everything that belongs to creation, wisdom is progressive.
* A bit of wisdom is welcome.
*
* * In the depths of the Inconscient, there also shines the Divine Consciousness resplendent and eternal.
* The Divine Will acting in the inconscient is all-powerful even when we do not know it.
* Indeed, I am convinced that when the Inconscient is conquered no more conditions will be required; all will be a free decision of the divine Grace.
*
* * The Greeks had a keen and exceptional sense of beauty, of eurythmy, of harmony in forms and things. But at the same time they had an equally keen sense of men’s impotence in face of an implacable Fate which none could escape. They were haunted by the inflexibility of this Fate, and even their gods seem to have been subject to it. In their mythology and in their legends, one finds little trace of the divine compassion and grace.
This notion of compassion and grace made its appearance in Europe later with the Christian religion — whereas in Asia and especially in India it had long before been the very essence of Buddha’s teaching.
So in all the Greek stories, legends and tragedies we find this inexorable cruelty of the decrees of a Fate that nothing can deflect.
* The faith that goes to the Cosmic Divine is limited in the power of its action by the necessities of the play.
To get entirely free from these limitations one must reach the Transcendent Divine.
* The only hope is in the capacity of the invisible Power!
* Only the supreme consciousness can have an effect on your Karma and this consciousness is independent, above all human consciousness.
* The Supreme Power is taking up all the movements. It will turn them into the Truth. No effort is needed, no aid from the mind or any of the instruments, even the individual consent is no longer needed.
* Those who are predestined receive the help of an Inner Guide.
*
* * Divine solicitude: always active, even when we do not perceive it.
* Let us understand and receive with gratitude this Divine Solicitude, so often not understood.
* Integral solace: that which one can receive only from the Divine.
* Solace: the blessings the Divine grants us.
*
BEAUTY Artistic taste is pleased with beautiful things and is itself beautiful.
* Artistic sensibility: a powerful aid to fight ugliness.
* Artistic works: all work at the service of beauty.
*
Mother,
May we ask X [an artist] to work on activities which
are non-artistic?
All and everything can be artistic if it is done in an artistic spirit.
27 April 1966
* Beauty is a great power.
* Spiritual beauty has a contagious power.
* Beauty does not get its full power except when it is surrendered to the Divine.
* The beauty of tomorrow: beauty which will express the Divine Power.
* The beauty of tomorrow manifesting the Divine: a beauty that exists only by the Divine and for the Divine.
* Beauty is not sufficient in itself, it wants to become divine.
* Pure sense of beauty can be acquired only through a great purification.
* The ideal of Beauty moves towards its infinite goal.
* Among the most precious things in life are those you do not see with physical eyes.
10 November 1969
*
GENERAL Optimism: more helpful than its opposite.
* Curiosity: if we want to be exceptional, may it be our attributes that make us so.
* Mental curiosity must be seriously controlled for it not to be dangerous.
* Physical curiosity takes its value from its purpose.
* Chastity: a little austere and proud, it is very reserved.
* An attempt is a small thing but it can be a promise for the future.
* Inventions have no use except when they are controlled by the Divine.
* Gold should not be used except in the service of the Divine.
* Charity: simple and sweet, attentive to the needs of all.
* Unselfishness: deeply open so as not to refuse anything.
Personal Advice
SHORT REPLIES
My mind is so entirely clouded by doubts and other lower influences that I feel if my body passed away just now, it would be so much for the better! In spite of all that, as a Purusha I am indifferent to any such absurd movements.
Yes, they are absurd — shake it off.
With my blessings.
*
I don’t know why for some time I have not been feeling well. My mind is troubled, my vital is sad and my body is sick.
Do not worry, remain quiet, keep your faith intact. It will pass.
1 February 1933
*
I don’t know how thoughts that are harmful to my consecration slip into my mind and upset me. I try my best to drive them away and to remain absorbed in contemplation of You, but very often they return. Why are they repeated, and where do they come from? Do they belong to the universal nature which is not yet purified, and will they keep on returning until my entire human nature is transformed?
Yes, they belong to the unregenerate universal Nature. But to the extent that we ourselves are transformed, we can keep them at a distance and they no longer trouble us.
* Always to prefer what belongs to others is a vital movement. Do not pay any attention to it.
2 June 1934
* Do you mean that only your mind is open to my action? That would not be correct, because I act on you through the heart much more than through the mind.
4 June 1934
*
We are always unconscious of the real inner cause of our actions and movements.
Yes, the movements of the being are always very complex.
5 June 1934
*
My physical being thirsts for Your love; do not delay, Mother. You know that the child will not listen to reason, he only wants to remain on his Mother’s breast.
You know very well that I am always with you and in you, in the physical consciousness as in the others.
10 July 1934
* Yes, the outer nature must become calm and quiet and turn towards the Divine.
21 December 1936
*
We are at least mentally convinced about our misunderstanding and error and we are determined to give a vital push for their rectification and we believe by Your Gracious Power it will be materialised rapidly. Of course, it may not be within a very short time, but surely it will come.
Why should it not be at once? With good will and faith nothing is impossible.
6 July 1939
*
Mother, when someone asks me what I have done during all the years I have been here, I say that I have served with devotion, and that is my sadhana. I do not understand anything else. It is true that it has taken me a long time to understand this, and that I have sometimes been anxious. By Mother’s Grace I understand a little about Her service, and in it I feel Her Force and Her Love, and I find that it is quite sufficient for me. Isn’t it so, Mother?
Certainly you understand and you act better and better, with a consciousness that is progressing towards a total light.
*
It is rather difficult to refuse when anyone asks me for something. I think it is a failing in my nature. Isn’t it so, Mother?
It all depends on how you look at it and the spirit in which it is done.
*
Mother, today I made a fan out of these shavings. I offer it at Your feet, but I don’t know if You will accept it for its artistic merits, because it does not have any — I must admit it in all sincerity. Mother, I believe You will accept it as a symbol of my physical offering. For my part, I consider that more important than the other qualities of any work we do. Of course, I do not mean that artistic beauty should be neglected. Mother, am I right?
Yes, you are right, and besides the fan is not unattractive, it has a charm of its own.
*
I feel very sorry that I have created an impression that I am pulling at money and diverting it from where it should go — to the Mother. My endeavour is that all wealth belongs to the Mother and we must use it as directed by Her. Wherever I have a say I do this, and feel sorry that I have created an opposite impression. I write this to take a certain burden off my mind.
I do not know who has spread this rumour, but I can assure you that I know it is not true. So, do not worry and let peace settle in your heart with my blessings.
* What you seek is always there ready for you. Let the psychic turn grow complete and it will of itself bring you to that for which you aspire.
My love and blessings.
15 February 1939
*
At times I seriously think about but do not understand what my being wants. How is it that I do not feel a sense of a real being which is and which has the delight of being and becoming? Why do I not feel any real interest in any creative activity? My mind is active, it wants to understand and become luminous and see and know the truth of things, and I feel my mind is growing in this direction. At times I feel an urge of the heart to seize something which can really satisfy my self, but the urge does not last long. It disappears into some flat state of existence. What do you think my real being wants?
THE DIVINE.
I also felt that you were not quite satisfied with me.
Nothing of the kind. Each one has his difficulties and I am here to help him out of them.
My love and blessings.
25 February 1942
*
A thought came to me that even when I do not get any direct suggestion or direction from you, I should, in the interest of your work, do whatever I myself can, to serve you in my own way1 and to the best of my ability. Graciously enlighten me and correct me if I am wrong.
This is always dangerous. One must learn to serve the Divine not in one’s own way but in the Divine’s way.
Blessings.
10 April 1947
*
For taking decisions I have found a trick. I postpone the matter and put it to you inwardly. Automatically a solution comes.
1 Mother underlined these four words.
This is indeed the true way and ought to be used in all cases.
*
Let me be able to do what you want me to do, knowingly or unknowingly.
This is the right thing and the very best.
* My dear child, you have indeed passed from one life to another; but it is in your body that this new birth took place, and now the road is wide open before you for a new progress.
With my love and blessings.
19 April 1960
*
“I know the path, but what can I do if the robbers rob me on the way?” — Maulana Azad.
Call the Lord to catch the robbers.
26 October 1963
*
I seek the Mother’s light on the following question. The world being what it is, we have to work under the existing conditions. Why not use the available condi-tions, gather strength and then endeavour to manifest the Divine Will in its purity?
But the very fact of living upon earth means that we are “using the available conditions”, otherwise it would be impossible to live.
Blessings.
18 March 1965
*
Divine Mother,
If I should have an attack of any kind in the future,
could I send you a note immediately, instead of people just taking me off to the hospital?
Surely, let me know at once, so that I can help.
Love.
30 September 1966
*
Divine Mother,
I am having some difficulty in my vital. Would you
please help me.
If you were to do some work?...
Blessings.
25 May 1967
*
Divine Mother,
What I want is to move all of my being into the
future. Will you help me with those parts that need a push?
This is quite a good resolution. The push is and will be given.
Now, do not resist. Love and blessings.
20 May 1968
Divine Mother,
I am ready.
Start.
Blessings.
1 July 1969
*
Since yesterday’s darshan I feel something revolting in me against a spiritual life. I am afraid of this revolt. What shall I do?
What revolted in you when you were in front of me is exactly what prevents you from leading a spiritual life. Now that you are conscious of the enemy you can throw him out of you if so you decide.
21 November 1969
*
I had collected some money for books. One day I passed it on to you. Immediately afterwards somebody pre-sented me with all those books that I wanted and more!
This kind of thing has happened hundreds of times and is happening more and more — but to me it seems quite “natural”, although I am unwilling to explain.
*
X is very pleased to have the photographs of You and Sri Aurobindo. He told me that he felt a distinct change in the atmosphere of his room after he had opened them. Mother, when I kept in my room that photograph of Sri Aurobindo, which I received from Your hands, I too felt that it was vibrating with life. Isn’t this because of Your touch?
Sri Aurobindo and I always put a force into the photographs we sign. In the present case Sri Aurobindo had also looked at the frame and admired it.
*
(About difficulty in writing)
Be receptive and it will be all right.
* Go on writing. How do you know if the inspiration is not ready, waiting to come to you?
* Inspiration brings its manifold gifts to the one who knows how to receive them.
*
Sweet Mother,
A young man who has finished the Higher Course
came to see me a few days ago and said he wanted to book except in bits and pieces, I told him that I could not help him. But he was very insistent and I had eventually to agree to his request.
He asks me questions, some of them quite difficult,
from the book. And though I do not know the answers, I give them as they come to me. Both of us have found out the answers are correct, and quite often the language of my answers is very nearly the same as Sri Aurobindo’s own in the book.
I wish to know: (1) Is this intuition? (2) Is there a
plane where all knowledge exists, and if one can open to that plane, he can get whatever knowledge he needs? (3) If teaching is my vocation, what should I do to develop the receptivity?
You are in conscious connection with Sri Aurobindo’s teaching, which is universal and immortal, in the higher mental world.
The more you are silently attentive, the more clearly you will receive it.
Blessings.
13 June 1968
*
(The Sri Aurobindo Research Academy was established on 24 April 1970 to provide guidance to research schol-ars intending to study the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother at an advanced level. When the Academy was first proposed, Mother wrote to its founder:)
Anything that is done can contribute to the progress of humanity, but all depends on the way of doing it.
My blessings are with you and your project.
March 1970
*
LONGER LETTERS Your letter has been communicated to me and the questions you ask in it were for me, at a certain state of my development, of such intense interest that I shall take great pleasure in replying to them. Nevertheless, a reply which is formulated mentally, however complete it may be, can never be the reply, the one which silences every doubt and quietens the mind. Certitude can only come with spiritual experience, and the most beautiful philosophical works can never equal or replace a few minutes of Knowledge that is lived.
You say: “Should a man of average development, who is no longer tormented by earthly desires and who is linked to the world only by his affections, renounce the hope of not reincar-nating? Is there not, beyond the human state, a less material state where one goes when one is no longer recalled by desire into the human state? This seems strictly logical to me. Man cannot be at the summit of the scale. The animals are very near to him; is he not very near to the following state?”
First of all, what maintains the relation with the earth is not only vital desire but any specifically human movement, and af-fections certainly form part of this. One is bound to the necessity of reincarnation as much by one’s affections, by one’s feelings, as by one’s desires. However, in the matter of reincarnation as in all things, each case has its own solution, and it is certain that a constant aspiration for liberation from rebirth, together with a sustained effort towards the elevation and sublimation of the consciousness, should have the result of severing the chain of earthly existences, although it does not for all that put an end to individual existence, which is prolonged in another world. But why think that his existence in another, more ethereal world should be the “following state” which, relative to man, would be what man is to the animal? It seems to me more logical to think (and a deeper knowledge confirms this certitude) that the following state too will be a physical one, although we may conceive of this physical as magnified, transfigured by the descent, the infusion of Light and Truth. All the ages and millennia of human life that have elapsed so far have prepared the advent of this new state, and now the time has come for its concrete and tangible realisation. That is the very essence of Sri Aurobindo’s teaching, the aim of the group he has allowed to form around him, the purpose of his Ashram.
For your second question,2 I intended to send you the translation of a few extracts from Sri Aurobindo’s works. But when I told him that I wanted to translate some passages from The Life Divine to send to you, he told me that I would have to translate no less than two chapters if I wanted to convey a fairly complete reply to you. Seeing my perplexity, he of himself decided to write some new pages on this subject;3 he gave them to me very recently and I immediately began the translation.
2 “The divine spirit, having embodied itself in form, has therefore foreseen and willed everything. But then why does it seem to pursue a goal, a consciousness, since it could have realised this at the very outset? Why has it allowed pain and evil which exist in its essence? If human evil can be attributed to men, the injustice that smites animals and plants can only be attributed to the divine order. Why has the divine order not organised everything in delight? Pain does not always lead us to perfection; more often, it casts us into incurable despair.”
I do not wish to spoil the freshness of the beautiful pages that I shall have the privilege of translating, but in the meanwhile, until I am able to send them to you, I shall give you, if I may, my too simple and succinct view of the problem.
It seems beyond question to me that the universe in which we live is not one of the most successful, particularly in its outermost expression; but it is also beyond question that we are part of it and that consequently, the only logical and wise thing for us to do is to set to work to perfect it, to extract the best from the worst and to make it into the most marvellous possible universe. For, I would add, not only is this transfiguration possible, but it is certain. May the peace and joy of Knowledge be with you.
14 June 1933
* Friend, sister of former days and always,
In your letter of the 9th June which has just arrived, you write that the Buddha “is smiling with gentle irony”, but the Buddha’s smile can only be a smile of perfect understanding before a luminous accomplishment.
And in this state in which physical life has already lost for you so much of its concrete reality, whether you are in the solitude of the Himalayas or in the solitude of a house on the road to N, it should be equally easy to live in the deep peace of the immense Buddhist compassion.
* Well, I suppose I shall be the first person to tell you that I do not find you so different from the others; of course I mean in a special way — for each one is different in a way from all the others, but it is certainly not of that difference that you are speaking.
I suppose also that the impression of being “different” which you gave to your people and generally to those with whom you lived comes from the fact that you are unconventional. This is generally considered as the sign of a great “difference” in the nature and temperament. It is only the sign that one has reached a certain inner freedom which liberates you — at least partially — from the collective suggestion and the social rules — and that inner freedom is one of the signs of a grown-up psychic being. But to have a grown-up psychic being is not, after all, something so very exceptional among the people who are upon earth now.
It seems to me that you received from us your share of en-couragements like the others, but you have perhaps overlooked it as it might have been not exactly what you expected or wished for.
There was certainly an egocentric pride that had to be broken before any good spiritual progress could be made. But now the thing has been mostly done there is no need of being anxious for the future.
This is all I can say for the moment. My help, love and blessings are always with you.
23 October 1939
* Dear Madam,
Your letter has just reached me and I hasten to answer. Here are the replies to your questions.
The acute stage of your sister’s illness was very brief and she did not suffer very much. For the last days she was saying that all the time she was feeling a great light and force upon her and the end was very tranquil. She did not know that she was going to die, we ourselves were fighting to the last to keep her and nothing was told to her of the greatness of the danger. Only once she had the impression that she was going to pass away, and then she wanted to write to you telling her will about her material affairs, money, property, etc. She informed me of what she wanted to write, but when it came to the actual writing she felt too weak and gave it up. At that moment she worried very much about you and wondered what you would do without her — several times before she expressed the wish that you should come and live with her here — more than once she asked that my force and protection should be with you and I promised her that whenever you wished for them they would be there.
We would have been very pleased to erect the grave-stone at our own expense, but I understand your feeling about it and it shall be as you wish. For the plan I had been relying on our architect; he and your sister had been close friends and she loved his work very much. But he has received a commission in the army in India and is now far away and too busy to make the plan. To save time I thought that you might yourself arrange for the design and send it to me for execution; only it must be very simple, otherwise it would be difficult to have it made here. I may say that she would not have liked to have a cross on her tombstone. I propose to put an inscription (in French, as it is a French graveyard):
Ci-gˆit la depouille mortelle de X
(Here lie the mortal remains of X)
(Date of birth — Date of death) We intend to erect the memorial stone as close as possible to the anniversary of her passing away, so I need the design as soon as possible. You will find enclosed a note giving the measurement of the ground — the monument must be smaller than the ground.
Faithfully yours.
*
(About letters written to two high-ranking government officials)
I have read your letter to X and I am sorry I had not the opportunity of reading the one you wrote to Y.
The very fact that you wanted to despatch these letters without showing them to me ought to have put you on your guard concerning the origin of the impulse which you were obeying, as obviously it could not be a divine origin.
This said, I must add that there is nothing essentially wrong in the letter itself. What you say is correct, but surely it is not meant for the person to whom you wanted to send it, nor to any similar person, that is to say, someone in a prominent political position. Statesmen believe only in their own knowledge and power and, moreover, they receive hundreds of letters from people who think they have found a solution to the world situation, and, as in general these political leaders have no power of discernment, they cannot distinguish between what is true and what is false — and they believe that such letters are the product of the heated brain of religious fanatics. We cannot allow ourselves to be mixed up with them and for that it is better to keep a dignified silence.
In any case there is more than a ninety-nine per cent chance that your letter would never reach its destination and might fall into undesirable hands.
11 June 1954
* Certainly to do the right thing is not cruel or selfish. What is cruel and selfish is to follow blindly one’s weakness and thus to drag another with oneself into a pit from which it is always difficult to come out and never without losing much of one’s time and energy, if not much more and much worse. So do not worry; try now seriously to find out the meaning and the aim of your life and prepare yourself to carry it out thoroughly and sincerely.
* Do not worry. It will pass.
It is the vital’s amour-propre that has received a fine knock on the face; it is vexed and has gone on strike. When it starts understanding that this is foolishness and that it leads to nothing, it will become reasonable again and listen once again to the wise advice of the psychic which tells it to be quiet and do its work well, that nothing of true value is lost, that true love is always there, immutable, and that only those movements which were not in conformity with the Divine Work have been destroyed.
For it is to the Divine Work that one must exclusively belong because it alone can, in our life, give us true happiness.
* What has happened was more or less expected. Each one in life acts according to his own nature, and those who are not steady in their faith cannot be steady in their love either.
Surely I am not angry with you and my help is always there whenever you want it. As for doing anything wrong, all human beings do wrong things so long as they live in this world of ignorance, because even if they wish to do right, they do not know what is the right thing to do until their consciousness is transformed, and for transformation the first thing needed is complete sincerity; not only to speak the truth (this, it goes without saying, is an indispensable elementary condition) but to be always true to oneself and the Divine.
* The whole thing is so powerfully symbolical and expresses so clearly how dangerous it is to be under the leading of an arrogant and ignorant human mind which relies on its own power alone and refuses the help of the Divine’s Grace.
I do not need to enter into any detailed explanations; for with this clue you can easily understand the whole affair. Do you remember that I was asking you with some insistence who was driving the car and when you told me it was your driver, I felt relieved. But it was not your driver who held the steering wheel and the poor fellow suffered for the change.
What makes the whole thing much more striking is just the conversation I had with X. I asked him if he was interested in yoga. He said it interested him as philosophical speculation, but not as a thing to be lived. On my remark that it might come to him later on, he said, “Oh no! I am an atheist, you see, I do not believe in God.” I asked smilingly, “Then how do you arrange your universe?” He felt the irony and replied: “I have taken a scientific attitude: I deny nothing but I believe in nothing.” I felt the danger for Y and said with some force: “But, I suppose, you do not interfere with the beliefs of others and you will leave Y free to think and feel as she likes.” “Certainly,” was his answer, but I did not believe him.
Tell Y to keep her faith intact, whatever pressure may be put upon her to change her mind and attitude. She may have to meet some difficulties, but she must never forget to call on the Divine’s Grace with confidence and the protection and help will surely be with her.
As for yourself, do not worry or apprehend dangers for Y. Her difficulties — and life is never without them — are not likely to be of the more external kind, and the others she can, by keeping her faith, meet and overcome.
* Tell your mother to go deep inside her heart and she will feel that the Divine Grace is with her. I am sending her a card with my blessings. You can translate for her what is written upon it. You can tell her also that the consciousness of your father had left his body at the time of the accident. That is why he did not move or speak, there is nothing astonishing in that and no reason to be especially sorry about it.
* I did not reply because her mind was in such a confusion as a result of her desires, that she would not have been able to understand what I would have written. Since then, I have tried to work on her mental and vital being to make it a little more open and receptive, so that she may understand that love for children and the growing hope for the future that they represent in the creation, does not mean that each and everybody must have children. To each one I disclose what is the best for him or her according to their nature and their spiritual need. But surely it is not always in keeping with the desires.
October 1960
* X is a very refined girl, and she is extremely sensitive, easily hurt. Never scold her or speak harshly to her or force her to do anything. I find her very nice. But she looked so frightened — I don’t know who could have told her about me that she should feel like that. Tell her that I found her very nice. She is very refined but somehow she has been living all tightened up. Let her feel quite free, don’t try to put any ring around her. Let her feel completely relaxed and free here, and tell her that she should relax and just feel as if she were all the time in sunshine.
16 September 1968 Admonitions It is always the same old story of “selling the birthright for a mess of pottage” (I understand the “birthright” as the possibility or capacity to be the first to reach the Divine Realisation).
4 May 1932
* An evil that the Divine has forgotten ought to be forgotten by everybody.
18 December 1933
* By what right do you want your will to influence others? Each one should be free. It is only the guru who has the right to impose his will on the will of the disciple who has chosen him.
21 March 1934
* It is with the actual need that comes the true solution.
2 July 1936
* Let us be always very careful to avoid all that might encourage in us the spirit of display.
* The more unimportant people are, the more seriously they take themselves.
15 December 1944
* Titles give no value to a man unless he has acquired them in the service of the Divine.
* An utterance must be judged on its own value, not on the value of the signature over which it stands.
* A saying is good only if it is good without a signature.
* One does not become wise by talking much; one is called wise if one is forbearing, without fear or foe.
* Nothing is easier than to speak holy words to those who expect them from you. But it is more difficult to find people who want to hear holy words.
* I did not feel the necessity of informing Sri Aurobindo’s disciples that the Ashram is not a place to follow the silly habit of fooling people on the first of April.
But now I see that some of the inmates have taken advantage of my silence to indulge in such stupidities, and I am sorry for it.
1 April 1945
* Do not try to hide things; whatever you want to conceal becomes all the more visible.
19 April 1952
* Only those who are capable of transmitting, along with a written word, the Divine force and consciousness, ought to give their autograph.
10 April 1954
* Let us hope that the inner realisation will prove equal to the outer one.
26 April 1954
* Better not count upon man.
July 1959
* It is not in man’s nature to be faithful.
*
Mother, why has God created so many human beings?
In the hope of having one good one.
* And yet the Divine is everywhere, in the ignorant man as well as in the sage.
* With man’s appearance on earth first came the power of con-trolling fire. Among earthly creatures man was the first to kindle a warming flame in the hearth, to set an illumining light shining in the darkness. Mastery over fire is the clear indication of man’s superiority over the animal.
* One thing alone, the privilege of man if he is truly a man: moral and physical cleanliness.
* How can you hope to make any spiritual progress so long as you remain shut up in such a bargaining and calculating spirit?
17 December 1959
* There is only one apology that I can accept; it is this: “I will never do it again”, and keep your promise. All the rest is pretence.
7 April 1963
* It is very easy not to do a thing. You must never again go to the cinema in town, never, and the fault will be wiped away.
The heart belongs to the terrestrial human world; the soul belongs to the universal spiritual world.
Blessings.
7 March 1965
* It is clumsy and unbecoming enough to kiss a girl when she likes it; but to kiss a girl when she does not want it, is a coarse and imbecile act.
*
At least one lakh Americans have had experiences with LSD and mescaline — experiences called “psychedelic”, which means “consciousness-expanding”. These drugs may become legalised in America, and a nation-wide campaign is afoot. Here is a copy of the Psychedelic Review (1966, No. 7 ) with an article claiming a high Yogic state achieved with mescaline.
I have read the passage marked in the magazine. One thing is sure — these experiences are not spiritual and to give them that name is a proof of complete ignorance of what is really a spiritual experience.
The effect of the drug must be either an erratic wandering in the vital or the waking up of some subconscient notation gone asleep in the subconscient part of the being.
No time to say any more on such a futile subject.
* To seek for pleasure is to ask for pain, for they are the obverse and reverse of the same thing.
* All that is conducive to the keeping of one’s consciousness in the most material planes of the being would be criminal.
* Prizes belong to a rather low standard of life — but if we are still there...
*
(On the choice of a motor-car)
Do you want to go from one place to another without getting tired and without spending much time on the way, or do you want to be smart and look like an important man?
* Shrinking is as bad as desire — so have the fan and let the Divine’s will be done, for — after all — it is always His will that prevails!
* One must be without preferences and without desire to know the Divine’s will.
* Superficial reactions are not desirable.
* A company that has no name, no business and no money, is not a company; it is a fraud.
* Honest business is getting more and more risky.
* The will not to cheat but also that of not being cheated.
*
(About a woman who claimed to be Sri Aurobindo’s successor)
All this must stop at once and for all. It is sheer forgery and the people who do forgery ought to go to prison1 or, at least, not be allowed to go about spreading their falsehood and duping credulous people. Her first predictions all failed. These will fail in the same way, and those who believe are simply fooled.
*
(About a sadhak who had been a Sannyasi before joining the Ashram. During a meditation, he saw snakes all around him.)
He must have a fear (perhaps subconscious) of the consequences of having rejected the Sannyasi’s robe and this fear translates by the attacks of snakes, etc. You can tell him not to fear, that I am informed and nobody will hurt him.
1 Mother wrote the word “joke” in the margin to point out that she did not want the Ashram to go to court.
Let him try again to meditate with the confidence that he is protected — but he must not try in public first. If his meditation becomes quiet he can once more meditate with the others.
* He pushed on the table before me a scrap of paper which seemed to have been torn from an exercise-book, without any letterhead or anything official, on which he had written for me in a clumsy hand that I was promising to pay for the extra stamps if they were necessary.
I felt like a poor traveller accosted in the corner of a wood by a band of brigands, pistols in hand, asking you to empty your pockets before letting you pass. I hesitated for a moment, but I am a sport and I signed, thinking, “We shall see how far they dare to go.”
In this world one pays dearly for wanting to be unselfish!
*
(An extremely wealthy man visited the Ashram. Upon departure he made only a token contribution, apologis-ing that he did not have enough money in hand. While journeying home, hoodlums held him up and threatened his life; he at once gave Rs. 5000 to be released. When informed of the episode, the Mother wrote:)
The same story, with small differences in the setting, could be told so many, many times!
And what about the stories of the efficiency of the Divine Grace?
They are less in number perhaps, but so much more comforting!
* When you speak of sacrificing everything for the Divine, it means that you are very greatly attached to those things, you have a great value for them and still you are ready to leave them for the sake of the Divine.
Actually you should not be attached to anything or anybody except the Divine, and apart from Him nothing should have any value for you. And in that case you cannot speak of your sacrificing for the Divine.§
* Everything is contagious. Every good thing and every bad thing has its vibrations. If you catch those vibrations, you get that thing. The true Yogi knows these vibrations and can handle them; that is how he can give you peace, etc. Even so-called accidents are contagious. You catch others’ sorrow and then feel sorrowful in the same way.§
* From the aesthetic point of view I can say that the brown colour is better than the white, but it is quite absurd and foolish to think that anybody is better or worse simply because of his colour. The African negro thinks that his colour is the most beautiful of all. The Japanese thinks that his colour is superior to any other. Colour prejudice is a very low thing. It indicates a very low state of consciousness — a consciousness just emerging from the inconscient. It is not an idea, it is not a feeling, it is something still lower than that. When you think in terms of colour prejudice, your own psychic laughs at your foolishness; it knows that it has lived in white, brown, yellow, red, black and all sorts of bodies. When you get this sort of prejudice, bring it before your consciousness and it will disappear.§
* There are people who can stand on their own legs. They do a thing because they find that it is good to do it. They offer themselves freely to the guru and take his guidance. But all the time it is a free movement. There are others who are slaves. They always want to have a social or official recognition for what they do. They can have self-confidence only if some authority recognises them. This is the slave mentality.§ Practical Affairs
GENERAL Under no pretext should the cycles be left outside in the sun.
27 February 1933
* Do not worry about the French; you will learn it little by little.
*
Hydrogen Peroxide is costly. I should like to know if I can prescribe it.
You might prescribe it for the moment and later, when X is better, replace the Peroxide by Potassium Chlorate.
31 March 1935
* The trees planted in the Subbu house do not belong to us but to the house owner and they cannot be cut without the house owner’s permission.
Any other action than the above one could lead us to great trouble.
* As you are ordering the tweezers, it might be better to order at the same time the few things you require. The need for them can come suddenly and then there is no time to order. By buying like that little by little, we will one day be properly equipped.
Blessings.
6 July 1938
* I do not see much necessity of your learning sitar — but if it amuses you, you can continue.
With my blessings.
28 March 1940
*
Mother,
The house I have taken for my people belonged to
a patient with tuberculosis. I came to know this only after I had already paid for the house. But then we got the whole house washed and burnt sulphur in some rooms. The thought that a T.B. patient lived here did not trouble me because he had gone away nearly six months back.
However, a suggestion about the danger of infection
has been thrown into the atmosphere, so I pray to you for the protection of those who will stay there.
As the house has been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, there is no danger at all. People need not fear.
My blessings.
19 February 1940
* If the pains do not disappear tonight, it would be better to take rest tomorrow.
My love and blessings.
27 July 1939
*
Who are the angels? What is their function in the cosmos? How can one come in contact with them? Are there books which can give a starting-point? Please tell me something about these things.
Your questions are impossible to answer in brief.
I know no books that say anything of value on the subject. My love and blessings.
2 June 1940
*
(About the legend of the Dalai Lama’s rebirth and discovery)
At one time I knew their legend, but now I have forgotten it, so I can say nothing about it, except this general statement — that man can imagine nothing that has not happened at least once; so there is always a truth behind the statement. The mistake is to generalise and make a rule of it.
*
Mother,
My parents very often ask me to keep a few rupees
for pocket money, but I have been refusing it because I did not want them to feel that I suffer here for want of anything. Do you think it desirable for me to keep a few rupees for small expenses?
You can keep a few rupees as pocket money.
My love and blessings.
25 September 1940
* When you say “Bonjour” to someone, you are wishing him a good day. If you do it consciously, thinking about what you are saying, the word “Bonjour” takes on a great force and helps to make the day a good one.
7 October 1951
*
(Someone wrote to the Mother about an acquaintance. The letter ended:)
On my arrival in India in 1957, I dreamed vividly
that this man would give me $50,000 — the price of X House (as I now know). Do you see anything interesting here? I have tried to present a clear mental picture for you to contact.
You can always write to him about this — and wait with a quiet faith for the result which is — “bien entendu”1 — in the hands of the Lord.
With love and blessings.
14 April 1963
*
Mother,
I am informed that on the north and south walls of
the studio only plain glass will be used. It will be a pity if this is done. These two sides are completely covered with glass and as the sun goes to the north we get a strong light coming in from the north-east. The same thing happens when the sun moves south. The glasses are so high that even curtains cannot be used at that height.
It is not a big problem to convert the plain glass into
ground glass. It is only a question of one or two months more. It has taken eighteen months to secure the glass, two months more should not matter.
I am quite sure that if you have frosted glasses everywhere, the room will be so dark that it will be impossible to work in it.
That is why I did not answer to X on the subject.
1 Of course.
But now I must tell you frankly what I see. In any case, it might be wiser to have the glasses sprayed lightly, so that if it is found too dark, the spray can be removed.
Blessings.
7 August 1963
*
Beloved Mother:
The new tenants in X House have locked all the
downstairs doors so that I am now unable to use the toilet facilities. Since there are none for my room, what shall I do?
From the beginning I had said to put a commode and a zinc tub in your second room for your personal use, so that you could be quite independent of everybody. I know that the water arrangement is made. How is it that the commode and the tub are not there?
The downstairs arrangement belongs to the downstairs accommodation, and it is the full right of the people living there to keep it locked.
Blessings.
23 August 1963
* I ask you to move at once, but for a short time only, to one of the places put at your disposal.
Your refusal would put me in an awkward position as I have given my word.
Blessings.
*
Here are some of the printer’s proofs received from Cal-cutta. They are not all very good. I am asking for some corrections to be made.
These proofs are not good. Why do you want them to do some more? They are simply spoiling the work and it is a big loss of time and money. Almost all of these pictures are unusable as they are and have to be remade.
I cannot agree to your giving them any more work to do. Blessings.
12 January 1966
*
Mother,
Should we rebuild our agricultural project at Ras-
sendren Gardens, or instead move our project to Ehny House, or thirdly attempt to do both?
If you have the capacity to do both well, do both. If one alone suffices to take your energies, concentrate on Ehny House.
Blessings.
4 May 1966
*
Sweet Mother,
We would like to have — as the expression of what
You want — a message from You about the new life for Sanskrit, of which You gave us a glimpse in Your talk of 11 November 1967. We would like to translate this message and publish it in the Ashram journals, for some disciples would like to know what You have said about this matter.
I see no need for any message. Messages only convince those who are already convinced.
It would be better to learn Sanskrit and try to make it a truly living language.
Blessings.
16 August 1969
*
Mother, I want to experiment with gunpowder rockets, but X told me to ask You before doing anything with these explosive and dangerous devices. Will You allow it?
It is primitive and undeveloped natures that like noise. As for explosives, they are always dangerous; all this cannot be an object of curiosity.
2 September 1971
* You should not use paper and envelopes with a printed letterhead to write to me — it is a waste.
Inform the school.
*
There are a lot of ants in the walls of the bakery. They come onto the table and get into the baking tins.
You must find out where they are coming from, which hole they are coming out of, and put a little pile of sugar near the hole. They will keep themselves busy carrying it away and will not bother you any more.
*
Mother, today I found a honey-comb on the Patience tree. We work in the shade of this tree. The honey-comb will get bigger and the tree is not very high. What could be done?
I don’t think that the bees will sting you if you do not disturb them. But if you are afraid...
*
COOKING AND EATING When you want to add wheat flour to the vegetables, it is better to mix it first in a separate sauce-pan with a small quantity of water or, better, of vegetable soup. You give it a first boiling in this sauce-pan, stirring it all the time, very carefully, with a circular movement. After it has reached the boiling point you can safely add it to the vegetables, it will no more stick to the bottom of the pan.
8 February 1932
* Too strong a fire burns the food, spoils the vessel and wastes the fuel. A slow fire means a little longer time for the cooking but also a nicer result in cooking.
Hurried work is always bad work; time must be given if you want good result.
* To say that your cooking is bad would not be fair. At most what I can say is that it is not always equally good, but bad it is not, and some dishes are quite successful. It may be that a period of inner difficulty has passed over you, but you are bound to come out of it stronger than before. When the inner difficulty is removed, the cooking will be as regularly good as it was before.
24 December 1937
* I have heard so many contradictory reports on the effects of food, spices, etc. that logically I have come to the conclusion that it must be — like all the rest — a personal affair and consequently no general rule can be made and, still less, enforced. This is the cause of my leniency.
* Nothing was told to me about the aluminium vessels of which I do not approve because aluminium is not good for cooking. I am speaking of my own experience.
* You know that I am not enthusiastic about servants handling the food — but many people seem to like it, through laziness I suppose!!
* In the kitchen, cleanliness is the most indispensable thing.
To avoid hair falling in the cooking, it is better to cover the head while cooking.
Special care must be taken to prevent insects from falling into the pans.
* If you do not like the atmosphere created by taking food with others I do not see why you should do it.
13 September 1940
* From the physical point of view, it is obviously better to eat quietly and without hurry, and I am quite sure that most often one can manage to get time for it. It is all a question of organisation.
27 September 1943
* All quarrels in the place where food is prepared make food indigestible. The cooking must be done in silence and harmony.
March 1969
*
A childish question: Do animals and birds get the taste of food as we do?
Yes, but they do not think about it as we do.
*
BORROWING BOOKS
FROM THE ASHRAM LIBRARY
Dear Mother,
I am told I need your permission for the following:
(1) Borrow books from the library; (2) Purchase bread from the bakery. May I have your approval?
Bread you can receive freely unless you want an unusual quantity.
As for the books, we have been obliged to stop lending them because too big a number of them had disappeared — but if you keep them only for a short time and promise to be extra careful, I can give the permission.
Blessings.
11 January 1963
*
Sweet Mother,
May I borrow books from our library from time to
time for my studies? You had already given me permission some years ago.
You may borrow books if you take great care of them and follow the library rules.
Blessings.
12 March 1964
*
Mother Dear,
May I have your permission to take the book “The
Puppet Theatre”, by Jan Bussell to show to X for making hand-puppets for gifts to the children for Christmas?
Yes, on loan and with care.
26 November 1964
*
Sweet Mother,
Could I take books from the library to read at home?
I need them for my English and other studies.
If Y [the head librarian] agrees, and if you take scrupulous care of them.
23 December 1964
*
Mother,
Will you allow the students in my class to borrow
books from the Library during the 1965 vacation and the 1966 school year? These books (list attached) will be useful to them for their French classes.
Very well.
P.S. Of course they must take great care of these books and return them clean and in good condition before the new term begins.
11 October 1965
*
(To the head librarian)
Z would like to borrow some books from the library. He says he will take great care of them. Are you willing to lend them to him?
13 February 1966
*
PAINTING It seems to me that a few sketches from nature would be useful, especially from the point of view of the proportion of legs and arms and the harmony of form.
25 January 1934
*
(About a design for a crown for the Mother)
The design is very pretty indeed and will surely make a very successful crown.
7 September 1934
* This idea of fresco seems to be a very good one and the wall of A’s room on B’s terrace quite an ideal place. There is only one point: will the lime hold on that wall which is now painted? This is to be asked of C.
It would be very nice to have a sea view there.
7 September 1934
*
(About some cards done for people associated with the artist in his work, whose names were sent along with the cards)
The cards are all very nice, some extremely pretty. I am sending them back for distribution except one that D has chosen and kept with great pleasure.
All the names are all right.
27 October 1935
*
(About sketches for paintings on asbestos sheets to be fixed on the walls of the Town Hall)
Yes, it is all right. When the sketches are ready they will have to be shown to the Mayor and the Governor and this will take some time. That is to say between the sketches and the actual beginning of the painting there will be plenty of time for the exhibition and the Darshan.
* As I told you, it would be good to show the sketches to the Governor on the 10th of this month or about — because the “Conseil G´en´eral” is sitting just now and the final decision has to be taken by this “Conseil”. Four sketches and the elevation of the room will be sufficient.
1 November 1935
*
(About the sketches for the Town Hall painting)
They are truly very fine. I see no change to suggest.
3 November 1935
*
(About the exhibition of paintings by Ashram artists held at the end of December 1935. Some paintings were presented to the French Governor.)
I forgot to tell you that the two pictures for the Governor have to be signed before they are framed. Will you inform E of this?
The exhibition seems to have been a great success. With our blessings.
6 January 1936
*
* *
(I am sending you some art books for your opinion. I want to know your opinion about Ce´zanne and Van Gogh, because they are praised so much by modern critics.)
The pictures by C´ezanne and Van Gogh in the books you have sent are very beautiful (especially those of C´ezanne). I shall return the books in one or two days — I want to look at them carefully.
12 March 1936
* If you feel no true urge to paint, I see no necessity of your painting.
Blessings.
April 1939
* Your way of approaching art is the right one and if you continue, keeping an absolute sincerity in your attitude and your attempt, you are bound to succeed.
There is something correct in your appreciation of oriental art, but it is incomplete. However we shall leave the subject for the moment, for I have no time to explain all that just now. As for L´eonard de Vinci, Michel Ange2 and Raphael, I cannot put them on the same level. The two first are far greater than the last. They both belong to the world of creative force, L´eonard with more subtlety and quiet, deep vision and purity, Michel Ange with more force and power especially in his sculptures which are incomparably magnificent. Raphael is more mental and superficial.
30 June 1939
*
X told me that you have given permission for the decoration of the meditation hall. I had intended to decorate only the room where you used to sit for Pranam. I hear you would like the whole hall and the space up the staircase to be done. This is a very big scheme. But Y also intends to do the work and, if asked, X may also join.
What I wish to tell you is that to make the work
harmonious and quiet only one person must design the whole thing, and all must work in the same manner. I would like to know from you if you have any subject matter. I wish to know from you how the thing should be done. Please let me know your idea.
I agree that one person alone must design the whole thing, the others can join in the execution only.
I have no subject or scheme. I only wish that the decoration should be quiet from the point of view of colour and also of composition.
Do some sketches and projects, and send them to me. Blessings.
31 July 1939 Experiences of the Mother
TRANSCRIPTS OF EXPERIENCES Compassion and gratitude are essentially psychic virtues. They appear in the consciousness only when the psychic being takes part in active life.
The vital and the physical experience them as weaknesses, for they curb the free expression of their impulses, which are based on the power of strength.
As always, the mind, when insufficiently educated, is the accomplice of the vital being and the slave of the physical nature, whose laws, so overpowering in their half-conscious mechanism, it does not fully understand. When the mind awakens to the awareness of the first psychic movements, it distorts them in its ignorance and changes compassion into pity or at best into charity, and gratitude into the wish to repay, followed, little by little, by the capacity to recognise and admire.
It is only when the psychic consciousness is all-powerful in the being that compassion for all that needs help, in whatever domain, and gratitude for all that manifests the divine presence and grace, in whatever form, are expressed in all their original and luminous purity, without mixing compassion with any trace of condescension or gratitude with any sense of inferiority.
15 June 1952
* The Divine is everywhere and in all, He is all. Yes, in His essence and His supreme reality. But in the world of progressive material manifestation, one must identify not with the Divine as He is, but with the Divine as He will be.
30 June 1952
*
SOME EXPERIENCES
OF THE BODY CONSCIOUSNESS One can say with equal exactitude that all is divine and that nothing is divine. Everything depends upon the angle from which one looks at the problem.
Similarly one can say that the Divine is perpetually becoming and also that he is immutable for all eternity.
To deny and to affirm the existence of God are both equally true; but each is true only partially. It is by rising above both affirmation and negation that one can approach the truth.
One can say further that whatever happens in the world is the result of the divine will and also that this will has to be expressed and manifested in a world that contradicts or deforms it. In practice, these two attitudes lead in the one case to peaceful submission to whatever happens, and in the other, on the contrary, to a ceaseless struggle to bring about the victory of what should be. In order to live the truth, one must know how to rise above the two attitudes and combine them.
April 1954
* Keep your conviction if it helps you to build your life, but know also that it is only one conviction and that others are as good and true as yours.
April 1954
* Tolerance is full of a sense of superiority; it should be replaced by a total understanding.
April 1954
* The Truth is not linear but global; it is not successive but simultaneous. Therefore it cannot be expressed in words: it has to be lived.
April 1954
* To acquire a perfect and total consciousness of the world as it is in all its details, one must have, at the outset, no personal reaction to any of these details, no spiritual preference even as to what they ought to be. In other words, a total acceptance with a perfect indifference and neutrality is the indispensable condition for a knowledge by integral identity. If there be a single detail, however small, which escapes the neutrality, that detail escapes also the identification. Therefore, the absence of all personal reaction, for whatever end it may be, even the most exalted, is a primary necessity for a total knowledge.
One can thus say, paradoxically, that we can know a thing only when we are not interested in it, or rather, more exactly, when we are not personally concerned with it.
April 1954
* Every time a god has taken a body, it has always been with the intention of transforming the earth and creating a new world. But till today, he has always had to give up his body without completing his work. And it has always been said that the earth was not ready and that men had not fulfilled the conditions necessary for the work to be achieved.
But it is the imperfection of the incarnate god that makes the perfection of those around him indispensable. If the incarnate god embodied the perfection necessary for the required progress, then this progress would not be conditioned by the state of the surrounding material world. And yet without any doubt, interdependence is absolute in this world of extreme objectification; therefore a certain degree of perfection in the manifestation as a whole is indispensable for a higher degree of perfection to be realised in the incarnate divine being. It is the necessity of a certain perfection in the environment that compels human beings to progress; it is the inadequacy of this progress, whatever it may be, that drives the divine being to intensify his endeavour for progress in his body. Thus the two movements of progress are simultaneous and complete each other.
April 1954
*
NEW EXPERIENCES
OF THE BODY CONSCIOUSNESS When one looks back on one’s life, one almost always has the feeling that in such and such a circumstance, one could have done better, even though at every minute one was acting as dictated by the inner truth. This is because the universe is perpetually in motion and what was perfectly true before is only partially true today. Or to speak more exactly, the action that was necessary at the moment it was done would no longer be necessary now: another action would be more useful in its place.
August 1954
* When we speak of transformation, the word still has for us a vague meaning. It gives us the impression that something is going to happen and all will be well as a consequence. The notion reduces itself almost to this: if we have difficulties, the difficulties will disappear; those who are ill will be cured of their illness; if the body is infirm and incapable, the infirmities and incapacities will be removed; and so on. But as I have said, it is all very vague, it is only an impression. Now a remarkable thing about the body consciousness is that it is unable to know a thing with precision and in full detail except when it is on the point of accomplishing it. So, when the process of transformation becomes clear, when one is able to know through what sequence of movements and changes the total transformation will take place — in what order, in what way, so to speak: which things will come first, which things will follow — when everything will be known in full detail, that will be a sure indication that the hour of realisation is near. Because each time you perceive a detail with exactness, it means that you are ready to accomplish it.
For the moment, one can have a vision of the whole. For example, it is entirely certain that under the influence of the supramental light, the transformation of the body consciousness will take place first; then will follow a progress in the mastery and control of all the movements and functions of all the organs of the body; afterwards this mastery will change little by little into a sort of radical modification of the movement and then of the constitution of the organs themselves. All that is certain, although the perception of it is not precise enough. But what will finally take place — when the various organs have been replaced by centres of concentration of different forces, qualities and na-tures, each of which will act according to its own special mode — all this is still merely a conception and the body does not comprehend it very well, because it is still far from realisation and the body can truly comprehend only that which it is on the point of being able to do.
August 1954
* The supramental body will be unsexed, since the need for animal procreation will no longer exist.
The human form will retain only its symbolic beauty, and one can foresee even now the disappearance of certain ungainly protuberances, such as the genital organs of man and the mammary glands of woman.
August 1954
* It is only in its external form, its most superficial appearance — which is as illusive to the latest discoveries of the Science of today as to the experience of the spirituality of the past — that the body is not divine.
August 1954
* O Supreme Reality, O Supramental Truth, this body is totally vibrant with an intense gratitude. Thou hast given to it, one after another, all the experiences that can lead it most certainly towards Thee. It has come to the point where identification with Thee is not merely the one thing desirable, but the only thing possible and natural.
How am I to describe these experiences that are at two opposite extremes? From one end I would say:
“Lord, to be truly near Thee, to be truly worthy of Thee, one must drink to the dregs the cup of humiliation and yet not feel humiliated. The contempt of man makes one truly free and ready to belong to Thee alone.”
And from the other end I would say: “Lord, to be truly near Thee, to be truly worthy of Thee, one must be lifted to the peak of human appreciation and yet not feel glorified. It is when men call one divine that one feels one’s inadequacy and the need to be truly and totally identified with Thee.”
The two experiences are simultaneous: the one does not blot out the other; on the contrary, they seem to complete each other and thereby become more intense. In this intensity the aspiration grows formidable, and in answer to it Thy Presence becomes evident in the cells themselves, giving to the body the appearance of a multicoloured kaleidoscope in which innumerable luminous particles in constant motion are sovereignly reorganised by an invisible and all-powerful Hand.
August 1954