1. January 1972 – New Year Message

Without the Divine, we are limited, incompetent and helpless beings; with the Divine, if we give ourselves entirely to Him, all is possible and our progress is limitless.

A special help has come onto the earth for Sri Aurobindo’s centenary year; let us take advantage of it to overcome the ego and emerge into the light.

2. January 1972 – Message

When Sri Aurobindo left his body he said that he would not abandon us. And in truth, during these twenty-one years, he has always been with us, guiding and helping all those who are receptive and open to his influence.

In this year of his centenary, his help will be stronger still. It is up to us to be more open and to know how to take advantage of it. The future is for those who have the soul of a hero. The stronger and more sincere our faith, the more powerful and effective will be the help received.

5. January 1972 – Sri Aurobindo‘s Centenary

“Sri Aurobindo does not belong to any one country but to the entire earth. His teaching leads us towards a better future.”

Sri Aurobindo’s Force will exert a pressure this year. I felt it immediately, on the very first of January. A strong pressure from his force, his consciousness, like this (Mother lowers both arms).

But the experience continues; it is getting increasingly stronger and more precise…. But expressing myself is difficult.

The Consciousness is VERY active, but in silence. As soon as I speak….

8. January 1972 – People’s Falsehood

Now that I am here like this, in seclusion, the lowest nature of everyone comes out. They do things, thinking “Oh, Mother won’t know.” That’s how it is. So this “Mother won’t know” means there’s no more restraint. I would say it’s rather disgusting.

People to whom I have said, “You can’t stay in the Ashram“ move in anyway. And nobody stops them. Not only that, but they go to the Auroville offices and try to direct things. I tell you… it has become really, really disgusting.

Simply because I am here, because I don’t see so clearly anymore and my hearing isn’t as good—so they take advantage of it.

People say that I am no longer in control of the Ashram, that those around me direct and do exactly as they please.

In terms of consciousness, the consciousness is FAR SUPERIOR to what it was—that I know—but my expression is…. I no longer have any power of expression. And then, I never go out of this room, so they are all convinced that I won’t know what’s going on.

I prefer to…. You see, I would like to abolish this personality as much as possible, leaving only an external form. All the time, I would be… only a transmitting channel, like this (gesture of something flowing through Mother). And I don’t even ask to be conscious of it.

I feel the Divine Presence all the time—all the time—very strongly, but….

And naturally people tell me, “You have cured me, you have saved so-and-so, you…” I almost perform miracles, but… They think it’s me, but there’s no “me”! There’s nothing, there’s no “me” here; it’s only… (gesture of something flowing through Mother) the Force flowing. I try, I only try not to block, not to check or diminish anything, that’s my sole effort: let it go through me as impersonally as possible.

In my consciousness it is like a transitional condition (not a final condition, a transitional one) required to attain immortality. That’s what it is. There is something—something to be found. But what, I don’t know.

Well, the old way of seeing things (I don’t mean the ordinary way), the old way of seeing things has sort of dissolved leaving the place for… everything to be learned anew (Mother opens her hands, attentive to what comes from above).

It’s in the consciousness of the physical body, you know. A sort of… not even an alternation of states, it’s as if both were constantly together: the sense that you know nothing and are completely impotent in terms of, well, the “present” way of doing and knowing things; and at the same time—at the very same time (not even one behind the other, or one in the other or beside the other; I just don’t know how to put it in words)—at the same time, the sense of an absolute knowledge, an absolute power. And the two states are not in one another, not behind one another, or beside one another, they’re… I don’t know…. Both are there (simultaneous gesture).

I could almost say that it depends on whether I am according to others (by “I,” I mean this body), according to other human beings, or according to the Divine. That’s it. And both states are … (same simultaneous gesture).

It’s very concrete. Take food, for example… the best example is food. The body needs food to live, yet everything in the body is a stranger to food. So meals are becoming an almost unsolvable problem…. To put it in a simplistic way, it’s as if I no longer knew how to eat, although another way of eating comes spontaneously when I don’t observe myself eating. Do you understand what I mean?

And the same applies to seeing, to hearing. I feet all my faculties diminishing. In that respect, it is true, I don’t know what people are doing, saying or anything, but at the same time—at the same time—I have a MUCH TRUER perception of what they are, of what they think and do: of the world. A truer perception, but so new that I don’t know how to describe it.

So… I am no longer this, but I am not yet the other. It’s like this (gesture in between). Not easy.

And people’s reactions (Mother holds her head between her hands) are so utterly false!…

12. January 1972 – Mother’s Symbol

The Mother’s Symbol

The central circle represents the Divine Consciousness.

The four petals represent the four powers of the Mother.

The twelve petals represent the twelve powers of the Mother manifested for Her Work.

The result of creation is a detailed multiplication of consciousness. When the vision of the whole and the vision of all the details join together within an active consciousness, the creation will have attained its progressive perfection.

“Progressive” means… (expanding gesture). No word, no image can convey the experience. It was a real comprehension, a real vision of the thing. This (Mother points to her note) seems hollow in comparison. To use a very childlike metaphor, it’s as if the creation unfolded on a screen, were projected on a screen. Or rather, the Supreme Consciousness is projecting itself on a sort of infinite screen.

The experience was… it was obviousness itself! That was IT. But it lasted only a moment. Then, I tried to put it in words. And these words had meaning, a special meaning.

To a child, you could say that the Supreme unfolds himself before his own consciousness, like someone unreeling an endless film. He projects what is here (gesture pointing within, at heart level), in front of him, like that. And since the supramental being would have the capacity to be consciously one with the Divine, he would at once be the seer and the seen.

Did you read in the Cosmic Review about the “cosmic square”: 1, 2, 3, 4, and one in the center? The cosmic square was conceived by Théon, and I know he put Love in the center. But the four sides… what are the four sides? I don’t remember anymore. I used to know all that so well; it’s all gone. I know there was Light, Life, and Utility—the fourth was Utility, but the first? Utility was the last. What was the first?… It’s all gone.

That would have given me a clue.

I remember writing down the twelve. Yesterday I even recalled three of them, but now I don’t remember. The first one was Sincerity….

I don’t know anything anymore.

The dot at the center represents unity, the Supreme.

The inner circle represents the creation, the conception of the city [Auroville].

The petals represent the power of expression, the realization.

I wrote something, or rather I told Sri Aurobindo, who wrote down what the twelve petals were (the four petals are the four main aspects of the Mother, and the twelve are the twelve qualities or “virtues” of the Mother, her powers). I said it one day, and Sri Aurobindo wrote it down; that’s when we were living in the other house. I put it in a drawer among other papers of mine, but the drawer disappeared when we moved here, someone took it. Who, why, how, I have no idea. But the drawer disappeared. Then, I remember writing the twelve names again on a piece of paper which I kept with me, but now I can’t find that one either….

It’s like that paper I gave you [“The result of creation”]. When I was in the experience, it was evident, the total key to understanding how everything works—why and where it is all going and how. It was clear, thoroughly clear. But you see the paper, it looks like nothing. Yet when the experience was there, it was so evident! It was wonderful. The key to understanding everything—the key to ACTION. The secret uncovered. As if it gave you the power. And then it left.

I remember when I wrote the note, the words had a special meaning for me, a depth they don’t usually have. Well….

The first is Sincerity; the second, Humility. Yes, that’s how it came back to me the other day—Sincerity, Humility.

Perseverance came first, then Courage followed. Sincerity, Humility, Perseverance and Courage. That I remember. But there were twelve.

I am as though bathed in it and start seeing… I don’t know. It isn’t something I “see” (something foreign to me that I see), it’s… suddenly I AM it. There’s no longer any person, any…. I can’t find words to describe these experiences.

Everything I say or write gives me the feeling of something cast into an inert substance—like a photograph, if you will.

I remember, the experience is still very vivid. As I told you, T.J. has a very childish consciousness, so I said to her: you see, it’s as if the Whole (not the Divine separate from the creation: the Whole) projected itself on a screen in order to see itself. Therefore it’s infinite, it’s “forever”—it’s never the same and it never ends. It’s like a projection to visualize the details and be conscious of oneself in another way.

The metaphor is quite childlike, of course, but very evocative—that’s how I saw it then. Exactly the impression of an infinite Whole projecting itself endlessly.

Things always come as a new revelation—and not in the same manner.

That’s it—you BECOME the thing, you become it. You don’t “see” it; it’s not something you see or understand or know, it’s… something you ARE.

When I had that experience of the world, it was the experience itself, conscious of itself. It wasn’t something I “knew,” it was something that WAS.

But language, words are inadequate.

Mother later ordered the list of the twelve powers or “qualities” in the following sequence: Sincerity, Humility, Gratitude, Perseverance, Aspiration, Receptivity, Progress, Courage, Goodness, Generosity, Equanimity, Peace.

15. January 1972 – Message

Sincerity, humility, perseverance and an insatiable thirst for progress are essential for a happy and fruitful life, and above all, to be convinced that the possibility of progress is limitless. Progress is youth; one can be young at a hundred years.

19. January 1972 – The Twelve Attributes

Last time I told you I was looking for the twelve attributes (Mother takes out a sheet of paper). Here they are, someone found this.

1) Sincerity

2) Humility

3) Gratitude

4) Perseverance

5) Aspiration

6) Receptivity

7) Progress

8) Courage

9) Goodness

10) Generosity

11) Equanimity

12) Peace

The first eight concern the attitude towards the Divine, and the last four towards humanity.

According to Sri Aurobindo, these colours generally have the following significances, though the exact meaning may vary “with the field, the combinations, the character and shades of the colour, the play of forces”:

red = physical;

orange = supramental in the physical;

yellow = thinking mind;

green = life;

blue = higher mind;

violet = divine compassion or grace;

gold = divine Truth;

white = the light of the Mother, or the Divine Consciousness.

19. January 1972 – Letter to Nirod

Nirod is reading me his correspondence with Sri Aurobindo. Strangely enough, there are all sorts of things that I said much, much later, I had no idea he had written them! Exactly the same things. I found that very interesting.

In the correspondence, he tells Nirod in one of his letters (he repeated it several times), “I may take a fancy to leave my body before the supramental realization...” He said that a few years before he died. He had sensed it.

22. January 1972 – A Harmony unknown to this World

The work is going on with increasing clarity. But it’s difficult…. On its own, the physical is terribly pessimistic. It is steeped in atavistic habits of helplessness, contradiction, and also catastrophe—it is terribly pessimistic. What a work it is…. Only gradually, by constantly turning to the Divine, can it start to hope things will improve a little.

Can’t eat, you know, not a morsel…. This physical world is terrible, terrible, terrible.

It’s the mind and vital that make it bearable and permit us to go on, but once they’re gone—awful!

There’s a great need to file, to put things in order…. Perhaps it’s simply the Force pressing down, that wants everything to be in order (I think that’s what it is)… or else it may be that the body knows it is going to leave.

It does feel a process of transformation taking place. But sometimes it feels it’s impossible—it’s impossible, you simply can’t go on existing like this—but then, just at the last minute, something comes, and then it’s… it’s a Harmony totally unknown to this physical world. A Harmony—the physical world seems appalling in comparison. But that doesn’t last.

(Mother touches her chest, she is always short of breath when she speaks)

I am finding it more and more difficult to speak.

But my perceptions are clearer and clearer (Mother draws a sort of picture in front of her), clear, luminous. My perceptions are getting clearer and clearer, more and more luminous—vaster and vaster.

It’s really like a new world that wants to manifest itself.

In silence, I am comfortable.

30. January 1972 – Message

Sri Aurobindo came upon earth to announce the manifestation of the supramental world. Not only did he announce this manifestation, but he also partially incarnated the supramental force and gave us the example of what we must do to prepare ourselves for this manifestation. The best way for us is to study everything he told us, strive to follow his example and prepare ourselves for the new manifestation. This gives life its true meaning and will help us to overcome all obstacles.

Let us live for the new creation and we will become stronger and stronger, while remaining young and progressive.

1. February 1972 – Difficulties

The first thing the physical consciousness must realize is that all the difficulties we encounter in life arise from the fact that we do not rely exclusively on the Divine to find the help we need.

The Divine alone can liberate us from the mechanism of universal Nature. And this liberation is indispensable for the birth and development of the new race.

Only if we give ourselves entirely to the Divine with total trust and gratitude will the difficulties be surmounted.

2. February 1972 – Physical Mind is gone!

“…Everything was simply taken away from me—the mind is completely gone. If you like, in appearance, I had become an idiot. I didn’t know anything. And it’s the physical mind that developed little by little, little by little…”

One shouldn’t repeat “little by little.” It is not little by little. It was rapid because it took place suddenly. It came like this—one night I understood…. It came… truly it was miraculous (but I didn’t want to say anything); suddenly the vision of the world and then the vision I had… were removed and this [new] knowledge was simply put like that (Mother gestures as if she had been suddenly crowned by or immersed into that knowledge). But that I did not want to say.

One shouldn’t repeat “little by little.” The correct phrase is: little by little, through successive revelations. That’s how it was.

“This [radical change] could be accomplished because I was very conscious of my psychic… it remained and enabled me to deal with people, with no difference—thanks to that psychic presence….”

It is the psychic that deals with people. It was ALWAYS the psychic that dealt with people, and it continues. This [radical change] didn’t make any difference.

“I understand and hear people only when they think clearly what they say. And I see only what expresses the inner life.”

Well, some people come to see me, they come in: I see only a silhouette. Then suddenly it becomes clear-cut. Then off it goes again—DEPENDING ON THEIR THOUGHT. It’s extremely interesting!

“Surrender does not imply trust; trust is something else, it is a kind of knowledge—an unshakable knowledge, which nothing can disturb—that WE change into difficulties, suffering, misery what is… perfect peace in the divine Consciousness.”

This is extremely important. An extremely important discovery. It was fundamental. It is WE, the distortion within OUR consciousness that changes into pain what in the divine Consciousness is perfect peace, and even joy—an immutable joy, you know. It’s fantastic. And I’ve experienced this CONCRETELY. But it’s difficult to put into words.

5. February 1972 – Message

To want what the Divine wants in all sincerity is the essential condition for peace and joy in life. Almost all human miseries come from the fact that human beings are almost always persuaded they know better than the Divine what they need and what life is supposed to bring them. The majority of human beings want other human beings to behave according to their own expectations and life circumstances to follow their own desires, hence they suffer and are unhappy.

Only by giving oneself in all sincerity to the Divine Will does one gain the peace and calm joy that arises from the abolition of desires.

The psychic being knows this definitely. Thus, by uniting with our psychic being, we can know it, too. But the first condition is not to be the slave of personal desires and mistake them for the truth of one’s being.

7. February 1972 – Message

In the depths of our being, in the silence of contemplation, a luminous force permeates our consciousness with a vast and luminous peace which prevails over all petty reactions and prepares us for union with the Divine, the meaning of individual existence.

Thus, the purpose and goal of life is not suffering and struggle but an all-powerful and happy realization.

All the rest is but a painful illusion.

8. February 1972 – Message

From a spiritual point of view, India is the foremost country in the world. Its mission is to give the example of spirituality. Sri Aurobindo came on earth to teach this to the world.

This fact is so obvious, that even a simple, ignorant farmer here is in his heart closer to the Divine than all the intellectuals of Europe.

All those who want to become Aurovilians must know that and behave accordingly, otherwise they are unworthy of being Aurovilians.

In the beginnings of humanity, the ego was the unifying element. It is around the ego that the various states of being were formed. But now that a superhumanity is about to be born, the ego must disappear and leave place for the psychic being which has slowly developed through divine agency to manifest the Divine in man.

The Divine manifests in man under the psychic influence, and that is how the coming of superhumanity is prepared.

The psychic being is immortal, so through it immortality can manifest on earth.

Hence, the important thing now is to find one’s psychic being, unite with it, and allow it to replace the ego, which will be forced either to convert itself or disappear.

9. February 1972 – True Sincerity

The first thing one learns on the way is that giving brings much greater joy than taking.

Then, gradually, one learns that selflessness is the source of an immutable peace. Later, in this selflessness one finds the Divine, and that is the source of an unending bliss….

One day Sri Aurobindo told me that if people knew that and were convinced of it they would all want to do yoga.

The complete unification of the whole being around the psychic center is the essential condition to realize a perfect sincerity.

I have noticed that people are insincere simply because one part of their being says one thing and another part says something else. That’s what causes insincerity. It came very clearly: a vision, you know, an inner vision. So I tried to put it down on paper; I don’t know if it’s clear.

But that’s when you’re not unified, mon petit. It’s been a-l-w-a-y-s like this for me (Mother draws a straight line in front of her) for years and years. It comes from here, the psychic consciousness, and it’s CONSTANT.

Recently, for a few moments, I had the experience [of the nonunified consciousness]; I hadn’t known that in years-many years, at least thirty years. From the moment the psychic being became the master and ruler of the being, it was OVER—it is over—and now it’s like this (same straight gesture). That is the sure sign. Constantly like that, constantly the same. And all the time: “What You will, what You will.” Not a “You” up there, at the back of beyond, whom one doesn’t know; He is everywhere, He is in everything, He is constantly there, He is in the very being—and one clings to that. It’s the only solution.

Because it’s something I discovered recently. I saw why people are insincere (even when they make an effort): because now it’s one part, now the other, now yet another part of them that asserts itself; each part is quite sincere in its own assertion, but is in disaccord with the others.

The psychic consciousness has always been there, controlling and guiding the being. All the impressions, everything was referred to it, like this (gesture of placing something before a spotlight), so it would give the true direction. And the physical, for its part, is sort of constantly attentive to the Divine Command.

And that was constant, constant—even BEFORE coming here. It was so when I arrived here (long, long ago). And it has remained unchanged. Only recently did I have the experience [of the non-unified consciousness], for a few hours one night, two or three hours—it was horrible, really, it seemed like hell. It was to make me touch, to make me grasp the condition people live in. Imagine when the psychic is no longer there….

But it’s in the BODY—in the body: the body is listening, listening, constantly listening (gesture above or within)—listening. But [the Divine Command] is not expressed in words, it comes as a will asserting itself (a straight and imperturbable descending gesture).

It is only when the supramental manifests in the physical mind that its presence can be permanent.

The body is no longer quite on this side, you see, and not yet on the other, so it lives in a kind of precarious balance, and the slightest thing upsets it—I can’t swallow anymore or even breathe anymore…. The feeling of a life which is about to depend on different conditions than the usual ones. But those other conditions aren’t there yet, nor is the body familiar with them, and so the transition from one state to the other is a perpetual source of problems. When I am very quiet—very quiet—everything is fine, but if there’s the slightest effort, everything goes awry.

I think… I have the feeling that if all goes well, in a few years I’ll be able to do many things… but not yet. If all goes well, at one hundred—I feel at one hundred years I Will be strong. The body itself has a conviction that if it lasts till one hundred, then at one hundred it will have a new strength and a new life. But… these are just the difficult years.

The years of transition… (Mother puts her head in her hands).

It’s interesting. When I am quiet, I hear a kind of great chant—almost a collective chant, I could say: OM Namo Bhagavateh …. As if all of Nature went (rising gesture): OM Namo Bhagavateh…

10. February 1972 – Message

Human consciousness is so corrupt that people prefer the misery and ignorance of the ego to the luminous joy that comes from sincere surrender to the Divine. Their blindness is so great that they refuse even to attempt the experience and prefer to be subjected to the misery of their ego rather than make the necessary effort to free themselves from it.

Their blindness is so total that they would not hesitate to make the Divine a slave to their ego, if such a thing were possible, just to avoid giving themselves to the Divine.

11. February 1972 – Message

Supreme Lord, teach us to be silent, that in this silence we may receive Your force and understand Your will.

16. February 1972 – Living in the Future

It’s very interesting, you know, the greater part live in the past; a good number (they are more interesting) live in the present; and just a few, an infinitesimal number, live in the future. That’s true.

Whenever I look at people and things I always get the feeling of going backwards! (gesture of turning around and looking behind) I know (it’s not even “I know,” or “I feel,” it’s none of that), I AM—I am ahead. In consciousness, I am in the year 2000. So I know how things will be, and… (Mother laughs) it’s very interesting!

Three quarters of humanity are obsolete.

22. February 1972 – Message

All day long on the 21st I had a strong feeling that it was everybody’s birthday, and I felt an urge to say “happy birthday” to everyone.

A very strong impression that something new was manifesting in the world, and that all those who were ready and receptive could incarnate it.

In a few days, probably, we will know what it was.

23. February 1972 – Message

Life on earth is essentially a field for progress; how short life is for all the progress we have to make!

To waste time seeking the gratification of one’s petty desires is sheer folly. True happiness can be attained only by finding the Divine.

…Almost all human miseries come from the fact that human beings are almost always persuaded they know better than the Divine what they need and what life is supposed to bring them….

Supreme Lord, Perfection we must become, Perfection we must manifest.

This body lives only by You and says to You over and over again:

“What You will“

“What You will”

until the day it knows it automatically because its consciousness will be completely united with Yours.

26. February 1972 – Enwrapped in the Divine

It is only when the Supramental manifests in the body-mind that its presence can be permanent.

Mother

Well, mine has now lost the habit of running about. This habit must be got rid of.

I don’t know, for it’s spontaneous. Except when someone talks to me or something comes and breaks that state, but otherwise, left to itself, the body is quite naturally like this (immutable gesture, turned to the above). Perhaps this is the means (same gesture upwards): a contemplation of the Divine.

This is its natural state (same gesture). The actual feeling is even curious, you know… the body feels as if it were completely enwrapped like a baby, exactly like this (gesture), enfolded in the Divine.

Two or three days ago (I don’t remember when), something was pressing on my heart—and it hurt. It hurt, (it was the 24th). I really had the feeling that… the body had the feeling it was the end. But then immediately, it felt as if enfolded… like a baby carried in the arms of the Divine. The exact sensation, you know, as if I were a baby being carried in the arms of the Divine. And after some time (a long time), when the body was exclusively in the Presence, it went away. The body didn’t even ask for the pain to go; it just left. It took a little while, but it left.

I haven’t told anyone. I thought… I thought the end had come. It was just after lunch….

Absolutely, but absolutely the sensation of being a baby nestling (gesture) in the Divine’s arms. Extraordinary!

I think it’s really the sensation of the helplessness of a baby, you understand? And it’s not something you “think” or “want”: it’s totally spontaneous. And from there, you go into a state of… (Mother opens her hands, a blissful smile on her face).

As long as there’s the sense of a person who wants, a person who does, it’s useless… (same gesture, smiling with hands open).

That’s exactly what my body feels all the time. You see, it is like… like a baby nestling. Exactly that sensation.

I think… I think my body has become excessively sensitive and needs to be protected from all those things coming in. As if it had to work inside, you know… as in an egg. Yes, that’s it. Exactly.

Yes, that’s it. Exactly so. I think a whole work is being done within.

Oh, in terms of the old way, it’s becoming more and more stupid, but the new way is beginning to emerge.

One would like, so much, to remain like this (same enveloping gesture), to remain like this for a long, long, long time.

8. March 1972 – Frightening Pressure

It’s become terrible. Another Auroville child died (a one-and-a-half-year-old baby) because his parents didn’t have the right attitude. He has just died. That’s how it works. It’s getting terrible. Terrible. A kind of Pressure—a frightening Pressure—which compels the necessary progress. I feel it in myself, on my body. But my body isn’t afraid; it says (Mother opens her hands), “Well, if I must be finished, I’ll be finished.”

Well, this is it. Something like: “No half measures, no compromises, no halfways, no…” None—it’s like this (Mother brings down her fist).

And that’s how it is for the body. Every instant is imperative: life or death. No halfways. You know, we have spent centuries being neither too uncomfortable nor too comfortable. Well, that time is over.

The body knows this is necessary for the supramental body to be formed: it must be ENTIRELY under the Influence of the Divine. No compromises, no half measures, no “It will come later.” Just like this (Mother brings down her fist): a dreadful Will.

And that’s the only way for things to go fast.

Because it can’t be stable unless it is POSITIVELY anchored to the Divine. When you are like this (gesture, fists clenched in the air as if clinging to a rope), then, automatically, all the critical moments take the right turn. The right turn. It’s like a constant feeling of hovering between life and death, and the minute you take the right attitude—the minute the PART CONCERNED takes the right attitude—all is well. All is well, quite naturally and easily. Really extraordinary. But it’s also terrible because it means perpetual danger. I don’t know, perhaps a hundred times a day, a sensation like: life or… dissolution (I mean a sensation in the cells). And if they become tense as is their wont, it gets awful. But they’re learning to… (Mother opens her hands in a gesture of surrender). Then things are fine.

It’s as if the body were being practically obliged to learn eternity. It’s truly interesting. And then I see external circumstances becoming DREADFUL (from an ordinary standpoint).

But I have had experiences—hundreds of experiences—showing that the minute you take the true attitude, it is DONE.

It is WE who prevent it from getting done. As though our personal control over things prevented the action of the Force (something of the sort). We must… (Mother opens her hands).

I think it’s the subconscient which is convinced that if it doesn’t keep control, everything will go wrong. That’s the impression I have, it’s the subconscient which says, “Oh, I must watch over this, I must be careful about that….”

10. March 1972 – Unity

You have hit the point: lack of unity is the cause of all the difficulties.

Now even the Ashram has been contaminated by the disease: each department considers itself a separate entity. And since there’s no more cohesion, nothing works! That’s the situation.

In the end it always boils down to the same thing: a SUBSTANTIAL individual progress is required—a serious and sincere progress—then everything works perfectly.

The atmosphere is dislocated; it has lost the cohesive power it had.

But if you want to collaborate, it would be wonderful, you know! I need someone, you see, someone who could get around, talk to people, see, take notes: re-establish unity on a higher level. oh, that would be a wonderful work! Wonderful.

Once that is done, things would ease up. It’s not that money is lacking, it’s just being wasted, scattered.

Success is certain, but on one condition—ONE condition—that we become united. Supposedly, we are preaching unity to the world—it would be only decent to do it ourselves!

Instead, we are the example of exactly the opposite.

To visitors we say, “Here we seek human unity.” But WE constantly quarrel among ourselves, and we preach human unity! That’s absurd. Totally absurd! We can’t even be ONE in our own work.

I keep telling them, but they don’t understand.

I could put it this way: it’s either progress, or death. Each and everyone must, must absolutely progress, make the required progress, or else… (gesture of dissolution).

You see, we preach Unity, we say that humanity must be one, that all efforts must join together for the general progress, for the advent of the Supramental… but everyone pulls as hard as he can in his own direction. That’s the situation.

So I wanted to tell all of you, “Practice what you say, or you will cease to exist.”

One has no right to preach unity to the world when one gives such an example of utter division…. That’s all. It’s quite simple, so simple that a child could understand—but THEY don’t understand.

As for me, the power of consciousness goes on increasing; for the time being—I repeat, for the time being—the physical power is reduced to almost nought. I am forced to stay here, minding nothing, and make shift with seeing people. So I need some persons to do the practical work I used to do before and can no longer do… (Mother is short of breath). I can’t speak with the same strength as before—the physical is undergoing a transformation, you know. Sri Aurobindo himself had said—and rightly so—he said (because one of us had to go, and I offered to go), “No, your body is capable of enduring it, it has the strength to undergo transformation.” It’s not easy. I can assure you, it’s not easy. Yet my body is good-willed, it is really good-willed. But for the moment it is in the process of… well, it is no longer quite on this side but not yet on the other. The transition isn’t easy. So I am stuck here, like an old woman, incapable of doing any work.

If I can hold on—if only I can hold on—at one hundred things will be better. That I know. I am absolutely convinced there will be a renewal of energy. But I have to hold on…. That’s all.

Then if the work must be done, if Auroville must be built, not only do I have to remain in my body but the body must become strong.

I know. I know that. All depends on what the Divine Will is—He doesn’t tell me! When I ask Him, I have the impression… (once or twice, in moments of difficulty, I have put the question regarding this body), and then (laughing) I seem to see a smile, you know, a smile as big as the world, but no answer.

I can still see that smile: “Don’t try to know, it is not yet time.”

If we knew how to remain always in the true consciousness, there would be… a smile. But we have a tendency to become tragic. It’s our weakness.

It is our limitations that make a drama. We are too small—too small and too shortsighted. But… the Consciousness knows—it knows.

17. March 1972 – Message

To prepare for immortality, the consciousness of the body must first become one with the Eternal Consciousness.

19. March 1972 – Message

The truth, which man has vainly sought to know, will be the privilege of the new race, the race of tomorrow, the superman.

To live according to the Truth will be his privilege.

Let us do our best to help prepare the advent of the New Being. The mind must fall silent and be replaced by the Truth-Consciousness—the consciousness of details integrated with the consciousness of the whole.

22. March 1972 – Widespread Incomprehension in People

At night, I don’t sleep, you know, but I go into a deep rest, and there remains only the body consciousness. Twice, last night, the body saw all sorts of images and activities showing a widespread incomprehension in people.

The body was in certain situations…. One was taking place here and the other was in Japan. I realized that the body holds certain impressions, impressions of being in a…. It wasn’t in the Ashram, but the one in Japan, exactly as I was in Japan (but these are not memories, they were entirely new activities, something entirely new), showing that I was surrounded by people who don’t understand. And here, too (it wasn’t the Ashram, the situations were symbolic and involved people who are no longer in their bodies), I was surrounded by people and things that didn’t understand. And I saw that these impressions are in the body and make things even more difficult.

They weren’t actually physical things: they were the transcription of people’s attitude and their way of thinking.

I don’t say anything (for it sounds ridiculous), but my feeling is that some people have been using black magic against me. Naturally, my only recourse is to envelop and surround myself with the Divine. But… that causes a lot of difficulties.

24. March 1972 – Complete New Body

For the first time, early this morning, I saw myself: my body. I don’t know whether it’s the supramental body or… (what shall I say?) a transitional body, but I had a completely new body, in the sense that it was sexless: it was neither woman nor man.

It was very white. But that could be because I have white skin, I don’t know.

It was very slender (gesture). Really lovely, a truly harmonious form.

That’s the first time.

I hadn’t the least idea, the faintest notion what it would look like, nothing, and I saw—I WAS like that, I had become like that. I thought Satprem should know, so he can note it down.

Especially for food: it will be very different. I am BEGINNING to understand how it will work, but I don’t know enough yet to describe it—I haven’t had the experience, so I don’t know…. Most probably, we will absorb things that don’t need to be digested—there are some. But not food as such. For example, one idea these days is glucose (things of that sort). But I am not sure because I am just undergoing the experience. Once I have the vision of what to do, I’ll do it.

2. April 1972 – Supramental Clarity

I think it’s “Supramental Clarity” or Vibration.

I will tell you that we are preaching unity—unity of humanity—and we are all quarreling—horrible quarrels, resentments and all sorts of urgings that we condemn in the others. We are giving a nice example, and people laugh! Voilà.

It has come to me from many quarters.

Begin with yourself, they say, and they are right.

Each one, all of you have good reasons, everybody seems to lie. Everybody has “good reasons.” You know, the ego is the most clever rogue I have ever met. He takes such nice, nice appearances, and each one says: “I would, but I can’t.” Voilà. And I tell you, from some places far away and from near, from far and from near, from India and from other countries: Begin with yourself. That is, we are ridiculous—ridiculous. And such good reasons we have!—all the people have good reasons. It is above reason, it has nothing to do with reason, nothing to do with that, we want… a new creation.

If the Divine had only for one hour the same feelings as men have, there would be no more world. That I can tell you. I have seen clearly—you believe me if you want—I have seen the world with the eye of the Divine. It is something so terrible, you know, so contrary to what it must be, that if the Divine said “only He,” brrt! everything would go, there would be no world, there would be no men, there would be only That. Des ego pulverises [smashed egos].

It is difficult, it is the most difficult thing—we are here to do difficult things. We are in the period of transition. I can’t tell you: be like this or be like that, because there is no example as yet. It is being done, and we are just at the time of the transition. It is very, very difficult—but very interesting.

For centuries and centuries, humanity has waited for this time. It has come. But it is difficult.

I don’t simply tell you we are here upon earth to rest and enjoy ourselves, now it is not the time for that. We are here… to prepare the way for the new creation.

The body has some difficulty, so I can’t be active, alas. It is not because I am old—I am not old. I am not old, I am younger than most of you. If I am here inactive, it is because the body has given itself definitely to prepare the transformation. But the consciousness is clear and we are here to work—rest and enjoyment will come afterwards. Let us do our work here.

So I have called you to tell you that. Take what you can, do what you can, my help will be with you. All sincere efforts will be helped to the maximum.

Heroism is not what people say, it is to be completely united—and the divine help will always be with those who have, in all sincerity, resolved to be heroic. Voilà.

You are here now, I mean on earth, because you once chose to be—you don’t remember it, but I know; that’s why you are here. Well, you must stand up to the task. You must make an effort, you must conquer pettiness and limitations, and above all tell the ego: your time is over. We want a race without ego, with the divine consciousness in place of the ego. That’s what we want: the divine consciousness, which will enable the race to develop and the superman to be born.

If you think I am here because I am bound, you are wrong. I am not bound. I am here because my body has given itself for the first attempt at transformation. Sri Aurobindo told me so, he told me, “I know of no one who can do it, except you.” I said, “All right, I will do it.” It’s not… I don’t wish anyone to do it in my place, because… because it’s not very pleasant, but I am doing it gladly, because everybody will benefit from the results. I ask only one thing: don’t listen to the ego. That’s all. The time of the ego is over. We want to go beyond humanity and its ego, to leave it behind, we want a race without ego, with a divine consciousness in place of the ego. There, that’s all.

If there is a sincere “yes” in your hearts, you will have satisfied me fully. I don’t need words: I need your hearts’ sincere adherence. That’s all.

I can assure you that all sincere effort will be pleinement, fully helped by the Divine. Of that I am sure. And I can assure you of that.

3. April 1972 – Mother’s Final Instructions

Things are going fast.

The body must learn not to think of itself. That’s the only way. As soon as it thinks of itself, its condition gets horrible.

But honestly, sincerely, it doesn’t think anymore. It is here for a certain work; the work must be done, and that’s all. What will be will be—it’s true, after all, what will be will be, what does it matter to it!… It says, “Everything is for the best.” It can’t stay forever in its present precarious condition; so it must either be transformed, or else lose its form and come undone. Well… it needn’t worry about it, just leave it to the Lord to decide—truly and sincerely.

If it can abdicate to the point of really becoming a transparent instrument, so much to the good.

It’s none of its business—it is incapable of knowing what has to be done. And it is becoming increasingly incapable PURPOSELY, I know it. So… let Your will be done, Lord, that alone matters. Nothing else.

I want to tell you something…. I had already explained to Satprem that if the time for transformation comes, if my body grows cold, they should not rush to put it in a hole in the ground. Because it could be… it could be only temporary. You understand? It could be momentary. They should arrange to keep it here until it shows signs of complete… of the beginning of decomposition. I am telling you this because I want to make sure it’s understood; it would be stupid to put it in a hole and have all the work stop because of that.

You see, make absolutely sure that I have left my body.

I don’t know…. I know an attempt is being made to transform it—it knows it and is very willing—but I don’t know if it will be able to do it…. Do you follow? So for some time it may give the impression that it’s over, although it would be only temporary. It would start again—it might start again. But then I would be… I may be incapable of speaking at that time, of saying this.

So I am saying it to you—Satprem knows. One other person should also know.

It doesn’t really preoccupy me, but…. This body is truly very willing, it wants to do its best…. Will it be capable?… Ultimately, if the Lord has decided this one will be transformed, it will be transformed, that’s all!

(Laughing) For the time being, it feels very much alive! That much it can say.

4. April 1972 – Only the Divine sees the Truth

Some people say that they are spies and are kept by the American Government, some others (some Americans) tell me that the Americans would never take such incapable spies! So myself I don’t see the…. To tell the truth, I don’t appreciate them very much, but I have nothing very positive against them. That’s all. It’s all like that.

I tried my best to push them out, that is to say, that they would WANT to go. But they… it didn’t happen, they really willed to remain. If we could have evident proof that they are spies, then it would be very easy. I would tell them to go. But for so many years they have been here. It must be proved, it can’t be a feeling or an idea or something like that, there must be a concrete proof. Voilà.

I would like that the Divine’s will should manifest very clearly, in a very positive way. Because human appreciation is worth nothing. He alone knows the Truth, and it is He who has to decide. Like that. I don’t know if you understand and follow; what I say may not be clear. But I—you see, to tell the truth, I have no respect for human appreciation and outlook, and I am absolutely convinced that only the Divine can see the truth. What I do is to tell, to show clearly His way so that we will do only what He says, what He sees. We are not capable of seeing. We will go by the Divine.

“Que Ta volonté soit faite” [let Your will be done]—WHATEVER it is. Voilà. That’s my position.

In a general and absolute way, difficulties are ALWAYS graces. And due to… (how can I put it?) human weakness they fail to be helpful. Difficulties are ALWAYS graces. I have been on earth for quite a while this time and always—always, always, always, without a single exception—I have seen in the end that difficulties are nothing but graces. I can neither feel nor see things otherwise because it has been my experience all my life. I might be upset at first and say, “How come, I am full of goodwill, yet difficulties keep piling up….” But afterwards, I could have simply given myself a slap: “Silly you! It’s just to bring more perfection to your character and the work!” There.

Some persons have been driven out of the Ashram into Auroville. Those, I admit, are difficult elements who make things difficult. I wish they would be naturally driven out of Auroville to… somewhere else. This wouldn’t be very nice for the rest of the world—but never mind! Although in a free environment, they may be tolerable. Practically, one would have to speak to each one individually.

If in all sincerity we are on the side of the Divine, we ARE all we should be.

That’s what Sri Aurobindo always said. If men only knew this: if in all sincerity—in all sincerity—they give themselves to the Divine and side with the Divine, they become all they should be.

It may take time, there may be turmoil and difficulty—you must be… inflexible: “I am for the Divine and the divine manifestation, in spite of everything and anything.” Voilà.

Then it is omnipotence—EVEN OVER DEATH.

I am not saying tomorrow, I am not saying immediately, but… it’s a certainty.

5. April 1972 – Mister Ego

It’s the ego demanding that things be done without forgetting its due respect—(laughing) Mister Ego wants to continue enjoying all due respect!… It complains shrilly before departing.

Oh, I have seen such fascinating things, mon petit! For hours I was a spectator—the consciousness witnessed an encounter between the Ego and the superman’s consciousness… (laughing) it was like a duel! The ego was arguing so glibly! It seemed to be saying, “See, if you send me off, the world will become hellish!” And it was showing the most frightful scenes: “If I withdraw from this one,” it said, “this is what he will do; if I withdraw from that, this is what will happen…” (Mother laughs) Horrible things, you know, the most staggering catastrophes!… It went on for hours.

At night I don’t sleep, you know; I remain very still, and I am then a spectator of all those scenes.

Told in detail, they would be very interesting…. Later, perhaps?

5. April 1972 – Mother’s Body

The body has been weakened by the transformation, the doctor says it is showing signs of weakness.

What is true is that it feels a kind of tension whenever it has to exert too great an effort. But I think that will pass. I am convinced—as I have already told you—that if I reach one hundred, at one hundred I will be strong.

At any rate, I would like someone to prevent such a stupid thing (to put Mother’s body in a hole), because then all the work would be lost.

Possible, but not certain it will happen [the deep trance]. Sometimes, when I see all these things, I am…. My difficulty of speech is caused by that weakness, you see; I have trouble expressing myself; all of a sudden, I feel… I feel a sort of… I don’t know, I can’t say fatigue or exhaustion but… as though life were literally drained out of me—and yet the consciousness is more ALIVE, stronger than ever!

Suddenly, the body doesn’t know if it will be able to hold on—that’s what happens.

So, for this reason, appearances may be very deceptive.

12. April 1972 – Human Nature

No human will can finally prevail against the Divine’s will.

Let us put ourselves deliberately and exclusively on the side of the Divine and the victory is ultimately certain.

The Mother

Strange how human nature resists that. Ordinary human nature is such that it prefers defeat on its own terms to victory in another way. I am making amazing discoveries these days—just amazing.

Human stupidity is abysmal. Abysmal.

It’s as if the Force I mentioned before1 wanted to go like this (gesture like a power drill), deeper and deeper into the subconscient.

There are incredible things in the subconscient—incredible. I spend entire nights watching them. And it goes down and down and down… IMPERATIVELY.

So the human subconscient cries out, “Oh, not yet, please, not yet—not so fast!” And that’s what you are up against. A general subconscient.

Naturally, the resistance brings about catastrophes, and then people say, “See! See your beneficient action, it is only causing catastrophes.” Unbelievable, they are unbelievably stupid.

To all those perverse arguments the same reply: I don’t care.

If you can experience that it’s the Divine that does everything, then with an unshakable faith, you say, “All your arguments are worthless; the joy of being with the Divine, conscious of the Divine, surpasses everything”—it surpasses the creation, surpasses life, surpasses happiness and success, it surpasses everything (Mother raises one finger): THAT.

That’s all. Then all is well. And it’s over.

It’s as if That drove all the worst things in nature out into bright daylight, out into the open, into contact with that Force…

Besides, it seems to attack what was good-willed in us.

After some time it becomes absolutely wonderful, but one goes through some difficult moments.

What’s going to be swept away is the resistance.

You sit on the mind (Mother gives a little slap): shut up.

The subconscient contains the memory of all the previous “pralayas,” and this memory is what always gives us the impression that everything is going to dissolve, to collapse.

But if you look at things in the true light, there can only be a more beautiful manifestation! Théon had told me this was the seventh and last one. Sri Aurobindo (I had told him what Théon said), Sri Aurobindo concurred, for he said, “This one will see the transformation towards the Supermind.” But to reach the Supermind, the mind must SHUT up! And I always get the impression (laughing) of a child sitting on the mind’s head (gesture like a child kicking its feet), playing on the mind’s head! If I could still draw, it would make something really funny. The mind—that huge terrestrial mind (Mother puffs out her cheeks)—which thinks itself so important and indispensable, and then a child sitting on its head and playing! It’s so funny.

We say, “We want a divine life”—but we’re afraid of it! The second the fear disappears and we are sincere… really, everything changes.

We say, “We want nothing more of this life,” but… (laughing) something in us clings to it!

We cling to our old ideas, our old… to this old world bound for extinction—we’re afraid!

While the divine child sitting on the mind’s head plays!… I wish I could draw that picture, it’s so wonderful.

We are so silly we even say (Mother puts on an air of offended dignity): the Divine is wrong, “You shouldn’t handle things that way!” It’s comical, mon petit.

The best remedy (I mean the easiest) for me, is: what You will—what You will, in all sincerity. In all sincerity. And then—then understanding comes. Then you understand. But you don’t understand mentally, not here (Mother touches her head).

So I can see the resistance in people, I see (they don’t say anything, but they think it; I see it in the mental atmosphere like this—gesture all around): the twaddle of an old woman!

That’s the situation.

13. April 1972 – Ego is the Obstruction

My help is there for all those who need it—it’s the ego that prevents people from receiving it. Does V. understand the difference between the ego and the psychic being?… Ego is the obstruction. Ego was necessary to shape humanity, but we are now preparing the way for a superhumanity, a supra-humanity. The job of the ego is over—it did its job well, now it must disappear. And it is the psychic being, the Divine’s representative in man, that will stay on and pass into the next species. So we must learn to gather all our being around the psychic. Those who wish to pass to the supra-humanity must get rid of the ego and concentrate themselves around the psychic being.

But does he know the difference between the ego and the psychic? Because the ego is very artful—a rogue!…

15. April 1972 – Overmind, the Realm of the Gods

What Sri Aurobindo called overmind is the realm of the gods.

Oh, no, the realm of the gods… stands apart. I don’t think it has much to do with the earth’s problems. Only sometimes those gods enjoy meddling in earthly affairs. But they don’t have much in common with the great Movement of transformation.

They are immortal, aren’t they, they are free (to a large extent, they are free and immortal). They have taken part in the earth’s development only out of curiosity, as a sort of pastime!

They may have helped humanity to understand that there is something beyond earth-life.

That was their usefulness.

At one time (laughing), I was very close to all these beings, they used to manifest in me, they would—well, they enjoyed it! And I enjoyed it, too! I was interested; but I never considered it as something essential.

15. April 1972 – Théon and the Mother

The first time I went to Tlemcen (I don’t remember when exactly), the first day I arrived at Tlemcen, Théon came to meet me and said… (I didn’t understand then, but now I do!), he said, “You are now alone with me, aren’t you afraid?” And I replied (I was absolutely conscious and calm)…. I remember we were walking in his huge estate, we were walking up towards the house, and I told him (Mother raises her index finger), “My psychic being governs me—I am afraid of nothing.” Well… (Théon started as if he had been burned).

I acquired that psychic consciousness just before leaving for Tlemcen. And it grew stronger there.

I don’t know if this has been noted down somewhere….

It struck me, I never forgot it. All at once, my psychic being was there: “I am conscious of my psychic being, it protects me, I fear nothing….” Those may not have been the exact words, I don’t know, but that was the general reply.

15. April 1972 – The Supramental Child

The other day, when I saw that little child playing (I still see it), on top of a HUGE mental head, giving it blows—it’s the supramental. But what are we going to call that being?… We mustn’t call it “superman,” it isn’t the superman: it’s the supramental. Because, you see, the transition from animal to man is clear to us; the transition from man to supramental being is accomplished (or isn’t) through the superman—there may be a few supermen (there are) who will actually make that transition, but that’s not actually how it works. First, that supramental being has to be born. Now it’s becoming plainer and plainer. The other day, I saw that little being (symbolically a child) sitting on a big mental head: it was the supramental being sitting, to symbolize its “independence,” I could say, over the mind.

Things are becoming clearer. But we are just in the transitional period, the most difficult time.

Will some reach a similar state—at least similar or at any rate precursor to the supramental?… Such seems to be the present attempt, what is taking place now. And so you are no longer on this side, not yet on the other—you are… (suspended gesture). Rather a precarious condition.

Obviously, for all those who are born now and are here now have asked to participate in this, they have prepared for it in previous lives. From the standpoint of global knowledge, it would be interesting to know what’s happening and how it’s happening. But from the individual standpoint, it’s not exactly pleasant(!), the period is difficult: you are no longer on this side, not yet on the other—just in between. There we stand.

But I think this “baby” is a baby only symbolically…. I don’t know if he will come as a child and then grow up—I have no idea. There are still some things that I don’t know—plenty!

This is exactly the meaning of my vision: the transition won’t take place according to mind’s ways, it’s a baby sitting on the mind and playing. I can still see it.

I know—I say “will,” but it’s neither a vision nor the will of the Divine, it’s… His way of being. A particular way of being—successive ways of being. We always think of a “conscious will,” but it isn’t like that: it’s His way of being. The way of being of His consciousness. He has projected His consciousness into a creation: it’s His way of being. And it’s His way of being that changes.

Then, one understands that the mind isn’t necessary—it’s the way of being that changes...

19. April 1972 – The Process of Consciousness

The conscious will seems to want to assume a larger role. It makes life… much more efficient, obviously, but also more difficult.

More difficult in what way?

Well, usually we passively leave it up to Nature to set things right when something goes wrong—that’s totally disappearing. Now it is a process of consciousness, and no longer…. You see, the mind (laughing: it’s going on—the supramental is still sitting on it!), the mind has been worked upon for years, so that it doesn’t meddle when it’s none of its business and lets Nature take care of all the damage; but now Nature is being told, “Keep quiet, a higher Consciousness will settle things.” But that means the consciousness must be CONSTANTLY alert.

Constantly alert.

The consciousness’ own attitude towards the Divine is to be as if nestling in the Divine—I could even say engulfed in the Divine: what You will, what You will, what You will, what You will…. As a “basic” attitude it’s very good, I could say. But when suddenly, something in the body goes wrong, and you don’t know why (oh, most of the time it’s due to an outside cause, like a disorder coming from outside), so then you don’t know what to do—there is no longer a mind to decide what to do; while the consciousness remains like this (hands open upwards). But then you don’t know what to do, so you do nothing.

26. April 1972 – Total Indifference

Since childhood, I have always endeavored, as it were, to attain total indifference—nothing is annoying, nothing is pleasant. Since childhood, I recall a consciousness striving for… (that’s what Sri Aurobindo meant) for indifference. Interesting! It makes me understand why he said that it was I who could attempt the transition between human consciousness and supramental consciousness. He said that. He said it to me and he says it here (it’s written among Nirod’s things). Now I understand why….

26. April 1972 – Still Old Habits

Physically it is still difficult, but the body has understood, I think (Mother opens her hands). The body has understood, but there are still some old habits, some semiconscious reactions. That’s what pulls. To me, you see, if the body had truly understood, it should become younger—not “younger” but conscious. Instead of founding its base in the subconscient as everybody else, it should found it in the consciousness—it is beginning to do it. It wants to; it wants, it strives. But there are still some… sort of habits. All in all, it’s the subconscient that should be transformed.

Almost no spontaneous reactions remain of the kind that come from the subconscient—almost none, but still a few… still far too many.

The body is more conscious—the consciousness is penetrating. But….

I have a strong feeling (I mean the body), the body has a strong feeling that if I can last until one hundred it will become younger. Not younger, but… more capable of manifesting the Force. I don’t feel weak, but some things still drag.

The subconscient is full of stupid fears, of lack of trust and ill suggestions (although I am not so sure it’s the body’s fault, I have the feeling that some people—at least one person, I don’t know who—are sending catastrophic suggestions). The body fights all it can to accept only the suggestions from the Divine, but there’s still a pull.

Whenever I protest or complain, I am “told” (that’s how it comes), I am told that things come to me from here or there… (gesture to every side) for me to act upon them, for That to act upon the world—it has nothing to do with thought, it isn’t a thought, this (the head) is very silent; it’s here (gesture above), and then like this (gesture rising from the bottom to be offered), from the subconscient. And all the work that is being done is not just for this body; the body is doing it for all those who are receptive. In which case I have nothing to say, everything is perfectly all right. If such is the case…. Because (Mother turns her head toward the bathroom door) the body lives in particularly good conditions. It is very well taken care of.

What’s more, it feels awful and ridiculous. Ridiculous and awful. It’s the first effect of the consciousness of what has to be, it exerts a pressure. Even higher humanity is an awful and ridiculous thing for the overmind (Mother corrects herself), for the supramental (“supramental” is a word I don’t like too much; I understand why Sri Aurobindo used it, he didn’t want “superman”—it’s not superman at all). There is a far greater difference between a supramental being and a human being than between a human being and a chimpanzee.

But the difference is not so much external: it’s a difference of consciousness. I can sense it, I sense it so vividly, and so close! When I am very still, it comes, from over there, and even the highest and most intellectual human consciousness is ridiculous in comparison.

26. April 1972 – My Inner Being „That is me!“

One must be thoroughly convinced of it before one can expect to receive that Consciousness. You know what I would say? It’s a good sign—it’s not pleasant, but it’s a good sign.

But, of course, at best—at the very best—we are transitional beings. And well, transitional beings…. But the consciousness of the inner being ultimately gets stronger, you follow? Stronger even than the consciousness of the material being. So the material being can be dissolved, but the inner consciousness remains stronger. It is of that consciousness that we can say, “This is me.”

26. April 1972 – The Command and Will of the Lord

As for me, the purpose of this body is now simply: the Command and the Will of the Lord, so I can do as much groundwork as possible. But it isn’t the Goal at all. You see, we don’t know, we don’t have the slightest knowledge of what the supramental life is. Therefore we don’t know if this (Mother pinches the skin of her hand) can change enough to adapt or not—and to tell the truth, I am not worried about it, it’s not a problem that preoccupies me too much; the problem I am preoccupied with is building that supramental consciousness So IT becomes the being. It’s that consciousness which must become the being. That’s what’s important. As for the rest, we’ll see (it’s the same as worrying over a change of clothing). But it must truly be IT, you see. And in order to do that, all the consciousness contained in these cells must aggregate, form and organize itself into an independent conscious entity—the consciousness in the cells must aggregate and form into a conscious entity capable of being conscious of Matter as well as conscious of the Supramental. That’s the thing. That’s what is being done. How far will we be able to go? I don’t know.

How far we’ll go, I don’t know. I feel that if I last up to my hundredth birthday, that is, another six years, much will be accomplished—much. Something significant and decisive will be accomplished. I am not saying that the body will be able to get transformed… I have no such signs, but the consciousness—the physical, material consciousness becoming… “supramentalized.” That’s it, that’s the work now in progress. And that’s what’s important. You too, you must be able, you must be destined to do that also, hence your disgust. But instead of dwelling on the disgust, you should dwell on the identification with the consciousness you are in when you are sitting still. You follow? That’s the important part.

26. April 1972 – It’s a Woman that can build a Bridge

I am beginning to understand why Sri Aurobindo always said it was woman (Mother caresses Sujata’s cheek with her finger) that could build a bridge between the two. I am beginning to understand. One day, I’ll explain. I am beginning to understand. Sri Aurobindo used to say: it is woman that can build a bridge between the old world and the supramental world. Now I understand.

4. May 1972 – The Golden Force

Since last night, a strange impression that the Divine has become… (how to formulate it?) like a golden Force pressing down like this (gesture of pressure on the earth). They alone, who by their aspiration are able to pass through to the Divine Origin, will escape catastrophes.

6. May 1972 – The Golden Force

I think I already told you, there’s a kind of golden Force pressing down (gesture); it has no material substantiality, and yet it feels terribly heavy….

…it presses down on Matter, to force it, to compel it to turn INWARDLY to the Divine—not an external flight (pointing above) but inwardly turning to the Divine. And the apparent outcome seems to be inevitable catastrophes. But along with this sense of inevitable catastrophe, there come solutions to situations or events that look simply miraculous.

As if both extremes were becoming more extreme: the good getting better and the bad worse. Like that. And a stupendous Power PRESSING down on the world. Such is my impression.

Yes, it’s as tangible as this (Mother feels the air between her fingers). And even in life circumstances, many things otherwise indifferent are becoming suddenly acute—acute situations, acute differences, acute ill wills—and at the same time, singular miracles. Singular. People on the verge of death are saved, inextricable situations are suddenly untangled.

And the same for individuals too.

Those who know how to turn to… (how shall I put it?) who SINCERELY call upon the Divine, who feel it’s the only salvation, the only way out, and who sincerely offer themselves, then… (gesture of bursting open) within a few minutes, it becomes a wonder—for the least little thing: there’s no big or small, important or unimportant, it’s all the same.

The whole scale of values changes.

The vision of the world is as though changed.

This gives an idea of the change brought about in the world by the supramental Descent. Things that were insignificant are becoming quite categorical: a small mistake becomes categorical in its consequences while a little sincerity, a true little aspiration becomes miraculous in its results. The values are intensified in people. Even materially, the least little error has huge consequences, while the slightest sincerity of aspiration has extraordinary results.

The values are intensified, they stand out more.

The overall perception is that everything is… everything is meant to lead to the conscious ascent of the world. It is consciousness evolving towards divinity. And perfectly true at that: what we perceive as mistakes stems entirely from an ordinary human conception—wholly and entirely.

Really, it’s very simple: the whole creation must want nothing but the Divine, want nothing but to manifest the Divine; all its actions (including its so-called mistakes) are a means to make it inevitable for the whole creation to manifest the Divine—but not a “Divine” as man usually conceives of, with all kinds of limitations and restrictions: a TOTALITY of tremendous power and light.

Truly the Power is IN the world, a new and stupendous Power which has come into the world to manifest the divine Almightiness and make it “manifestable,” so to say.

Through careful observation and attention, I have come to this conclusion: I have seen that what we call the “Supramental,” for lack of a better word, is actually making the creation more susceptible to the higher Power, which we call “divine” because we… (it is divine compared to what we are, but…). It’s something (gesture of descent and pressure) that will make Matter more receptive and more … responsive to the Force. How can I explain it?… At present, whatever is invisible or imperceptible is unreal to us (I mean to human beings in general); we say that some things are “concrete” and others are not. But this Power, this Might, which is NOT MATERIAL, is becoming more concretely effective on earth than earthly material things. That’s it.

And that is how the supramental beings will protect and defend themselves. In its appearance it won’t be material but its power OVER MATTER will be greater than material things. Day by day, hour by hour this is getting truer and truer. The feeling that when this Force is guided by what we call the “Divine,” it CAN DO, it really can do things, it has the power to move Matter, you understand; it can cause a MATERIAL accident, or avoid a wholly wholly material accident, it can cancel the consequences of an absolutely material event—it is stronger than Matter. This is the totally new and incomprehensible fact. But it… (fluttering gesture in the atmosphere), it creates a sort of panic in the ordinary human consciousness.

That’s it. It seems that… things are no longer what they were. There’s really something new—things are NO LONGER what they were.

All our common sense, our human logic, our practical sense—collapsed, finished! No longer effective. No longer realistic. They are no longer relevant.

A new world, really.

And in the body, whatever has trouble adjusting to this new Power creates difficulties, disorders and illnesses. Yet in a flash you sense that if you were totally receptive, you would become formidable. That’s the sensation. That’s more and more my sensation: that if the entire consciousness, the entire most material consciousness—the most material—was receptive to this new Power… one would become for-mi-dable.

But there is one essential condition: the ego’s reign must come to an end. The ego is now the obstacle. The ego must be replaced by the divine consciousness—what personally I call divine consciousness. Sri Aurobindo called it “supramental,” so we can call it supramental to avoid confusion, because as soon as you say “Divine,” people start thinking of a “God,” and that spoils everything. It isn’t like that. Not like that, it is the descent of the supramental world (Mother slowly lowers her fists), which is not mere imagination (pointing above): it is an ABSOLUTELY material Power. But (smilingly) with no need for any material means.

A world is trying to be born into this world.

On several occasions, my body felt a sort of new discomfort, an anxiety; and something, not exactly a voice but it became words in my consciousness, said, “Why are you afraid? This is the new consciousness.” It happened several times. Then I understood.

You see, what in terms of human common sense says, “This is impossible, it’s never been before,” that’s what is finished. This idiocy is over. It’s become a stupidity. Now we could say: it’s possible BECAUSE it has never been before. This is the new world and this is the new consciousness and this is the new Power; it is possible, and it is, and will be more and more manifest BECAUSE it is the new world, because it has never been before.

It will be because it has never been before.

It’s lovely: it will be because it has never been before—BECAUSE it has never been.

Whatever isn’t receptive feels crushed, but all that is receptive on the contrary feels a sort of… extraordinary expansion.

Yes. But that’s what’s so odd, there’s both!

Yes, but what feels crushed is what resists, what is unreceptive. One has only to open oneself. Then it becomes like a… a for-mi-dable thing. Fabulous! It’s our centuries-old habits that resist and give us that feeling, you know, but whatever can open up…. You feel as if you were becoming larger and larger and larger…. Magnificent. Oh, that’s it!…

13. May 1972 – Feeling of Nothingness

But how to put it into words?… There are also things that were miraculous in the past and will no longer be so—both possibilities. Both are there together.

I don’t know if it’s just because of this transition period, or if the Supramental will in fact bring about very categorical results….

The same for the body: the least thing seems to produce consequences completely out of proportion—in either good or bad. The customary “neutrality” of life is disappearing.

For the individual being [Mother], it’s peculiar how both extremes coexist: the individual feels like a complete cipher… a thing with no strength, no force, no power of decision of any kind, but at the same time (Mother slowly lowers her fist), through that individuality such a tremendous Action is taking place! And totally unexpected, you know. Both collective and individual actions, which seem absolutely miraculous because they are like this (same gesture)—all-powerful. And the two extremes are there AT THE SAME TIME.

I’ve never had such a feeling of… nothingness—nothingness. Nothing. I am nothing anymore. But at the same time, there’s the vision, the perception of an absolutely irresistible Force (Mother lowers her fist). It’s as if the individual had to be nonexistent first in order to become a real instrument.

Yes, void. Complete void. But then, at the same time (almost the same time, sometimes even exactly at the same time), you perceive a Power acting so formidably through that void! And on a collective scale, you know: winning victories, destroying certain things—fabulous! Fabulous.

And the same for the body. It’s as if every minute the body could die, and every minute it’s miraculously saved. It is… incredible. Incredible.

And with a constant perception of world events, as if everything, but everything were (Mother intertwines the fingers of her hands)… as if interlinked—a link…. One could say: one single Will manifesting in innumerable actions.

17. May 1972 – Transition isn‘t pleasant

It’s strange, luckily—luckily—one thing happens after another, one after another, but every single bodily function is changing… (what’s the right word?), I have it, “changing government.” Functions that worked naturally—that is, in accord with the laws of Nature—all of a sudden, brrm, finished! They stop. Then… something… which I call the Divine—perhaps Sri Aurobindo called it the Supramental, I don’t know; it’s something like that, something that is plainly concerned with Matter, with this Manifestation, and which is tomorrow’s realization (I don’t know how to name it); so when everything is thoroughly upset and I feel really awful, then “That” consents to intervene.

The transition isn’t pleasant. That’s all.

Along with sharp pains, and… impossible to take any food, etc. etc.

Evidently someone had to do it. When Sri Aurobindo left, he told me that I alone could do it. I said all right…. So, I don’t do it out of ambition—I just accepted, that’s all.

Probably it’s due to the stupidity of my body that I suffer the way I do. If it were more receptive and more … (Mother opens her hands), yes, more receptive, there would be less friction. I can see, I see clearly that pain, conflict, incapacity are all a product of our own stupidity. There’s no doubt about it. We have only ourselves to blame. At any moment—ANY moment and in whatever circumstances—whenever we take the right attitude, that is, when we are like this (Mother opens her hands): let Your Will be done—honestly, sincerely, integrally—everything is fine.

Therefore it’s entirely our fault, we can only blame ourselves. We can only blame ourselves. We complain out of stupidity—oh, personally I don’t complain but… all of a sudden, I can’t do anything anymore.

It means that instead of receiving directly, you see, without thinking, thoughts come in and unsettle—they limit the receptivity and disturb. That’s the point. I see it in myself, you know; I’ve had to struggle so hard with this, in order to…. The need to understand things, the need to find explanations is simply a return to the old habitual movements. We must consent to be imbecile—for as long as necessary. Personally, as soon as I consent to be imbecile… beatitude. But the old habits return.

For man, the foremost realization for man is understanding—understanding things. For the Supermind, realization means Power (Mother stretches out her arms in a sovereign gesture), the creative willpower.

But naturally, it would be quite disastrous if human intellectual capacities, mental capacities, were to gain control of that power—it would be terrifying! It would cause terrible havoc. Hence the need to consent in all humility to become imbecile before being able to acquire it.

But I must tell you that you (Satprem) were all the time in my consciousness—and there are only very few (Mother counts on her fingers), perhaps two or three. Otherwise, ohh, they are far, far away…. You were continually present, that’s why I was hoping you would feel a change. You were all the time in my consciousness.

When you become simple, you know, like a child… all goes well.

But you mustn’t be afraid. Neither afraid of falling ill, nor of becoming imbecile, nor even… of dying—you must be like this (vast and quiet gesture, like the sea).

If we could only have (I have it from time to time, it comes: it’s on its way) a feeling of smiling trust. But to get that the consciousness must be as vast as the creation itself. You are as vast as the creation, and totally trusting…. Ultimately, it always boils down to this (which can be put in a very childlike manner): He knows better than we what has to be done.

He knows better than we what has to be done.

That’s my own method. I find it the easiest; there may be other methods (I am sure there are), but for me it’s the easiest. Whenever something is apprehensive or balks: “He knows better than you what’s necessary.” That’s all.

As much as possible, as much as it can, the body tries to be nonexistent: just letting That pass through, That pass through all the time, like this (gesture with her hands). Let the body be only a point of concentration and diffusion, like this (gesture of something flowing through Mother). As supple, as impersonal, as… (how to term it?) without any personal will. Without any personal will, just like that, like a transmitter: let That pass through—untainted.

19. May 1972 – A New Ashram

The Ashram no longer belongs to me.

Oh, mon petit, that ceased being true a long time ago. Ever since I stopped going out, people have been thinking that Mother is no longer looking after things, she doesn’t know what’s going on…. We ought to start a new Ashram with perhaps a nucleus of ten people—and even then.

24. May 1972 – Clinging to the Mother is clinging to the Divine

You are… (Mother holds Satprem’s hands). I don’t know if you are aware of it, but you are associated in all this work of transformation, like this (gesture of being carried along in the wake)… as if you were fastened to it.

But the work is taking place in a region beyond words.

Ahh!… As for me, I always feel you’re there, as though you were clinging to me, so each time something is accomplished, it is naturally passed on to you.

(Laughing) Clinging like a child.

All depends ABSOLUTELY—absolutely and uniquely—on the divine Will. If He has decided we will be transformed, we will be transformed. I can do nothing—there is no “I,” it doesn’t exist as this! (indicating her body) For those who cling to me, it’s the same as clinging to the Divine, because… (Mother smiles exquisitely). Ultimately, what happens is His will.

26. May 1972 – Message

“Each cellular nucleus holds in its chromosomes the plan of the entire organism…. The chromosomic apparatus of any one cell represents both the ‘totality’ of the individual and the ‘local’ organ it belongs to. This organization could best be compared to that of an ideal human community in which each member would be conscious of the whole community and at the same time of his own intelligent personal function within the community.”

(Werner Schupbach)

27. May 1972 – Physical World is changing

There’s a concrete proof (not always convenient) that supramental time is not the same as physical time…. Sometimes, a few seconds seem, oh, endless, while at other times several hours go by in an instant. And concretely so. The result: I am late, I am always late.

The consciousness is really changing—not the deeper consciousness (which is becoming clearer and clearer), but the consciousness we might call “practical” is in the process of changing in quite a striking way.

I’ll be eating, and suddenly everything present vanishes, and long afterwards, I realize I am like this (gesture, one hand suspended in midair), with a spoon in my hand!… Not very practical! (Laughter)

Oh, it’s quite interesting! But I don’t “go off,” you see…. I am not at all in a trance, not at all: I am wide awake and FULLY active. I see things, I do things, I hear people, I… the whole time. But I forget—I simply forget about material life. Then someone comes and abruptly calls me back.

I don’t go out of material life, but… it appears different.

I really think the physical world is changing. People will probably notice it only in a few hundred years, because it takes a long time for it to become visible to the ordinary consciousness. But the touch (Mother feels the air between her fingers), feels… as if a different texture.

From time to time, something tells me, “Don’t talk, don’t talk!” I have to keep quiet otherwise people around me would think I am becoming deranged.

You see, I have at the same time (to speak in the old way), at the same time the CONCRETE experience of a tre-men-dous Power and of total impotence.

The old methods, the methods that even yesterday were effective and powerful, all seem nonexistent. Yet, side by side, when that Force comes, I concretely feel (and I have proof, a factual proof) that a simple expression of will, or even a simple vision of something is … (Mother lowers her hands) all-powerful. Materially so. Some people on their deathbeds are returned to life; some healthy people, brrt, suddenly pass away—to that extent, you know. Circumstances that seemed inextricable find marvelous solutions—people themselves say it’s miraculous. It’s not miraculous to me, it’s very simple: just like this (Mother lowers a finger). But it’s INDISPUTABLE. Indisputable and new in the world. No longer the old method, no longer a mental concentration or a mental vision, none of that (Mother lowers a finger): a fact.

I am myself still too much tied to… [people’s thoughts]. Thank God (Mother sweeps her hand across her forehead), the mind is gone! Ah, you know, I am… what an extraordinary blessing it is! But from the ordinary external standpoint, I seem to have become an utter imbecile.

It’s good that I have someone like you (Satprem) near me who knows there’s something else [than what they think].

And I feel such a force, you know…. When I rest, I don’t sleep, I consciously enter that supramental activity, and…. Oh, mon petit!… I see myself doing things with such a fabulous power! And there’s no longer any… you see, when I speak, I am forced to use “I,” but it corresponds to nothing, it’s… it’s the Consciousness, it’s a consciousness. A consciousness that knows and has power. Yes, a CONSCIOUSNESS; not a person but a consciousness—a consciousness that knows and acts. And which uses this (Mother points to her body) to keep a contact with people.

Yes, that’s it, it’s not a person anymore—sometimes, you know (laughing), I feel like a puppet (gesture of dangling at the end of a string) whose purpose is to enable contact with people. But the physical strength is like this (wobbly gesture)…. I feel very strong—very strong, and almost nonexistent. Both extremes together, you understand…. I must really look stupid.

But there (Mother stretches her arms upwards, then slowly extends them as if to embrace the universe), it’s luminous, it’s clear, it’s strong, it’s wide…. Physically, too. It is PHYSICAL, that’s what is amazing! Before, I used to withdraw into an inner state of being (I know them all, I’ve experienced them, I’ve had a conscious life), but all that, all that is… finished. Completely finished…. (Smiling) As if the physical world were becoming double.1

Naturally, to the ordinary eye, I am still an old woman sitting in a chair and unable to move freely. Although at times, I suddenly feel that if I stood up, I could walk perfectly well…. But something tells me, “Patience, patience, patience…” So I wait.

And there’s a persistent idea (hammering gesture) that if I can reach, if my body can reach one hundred, it will become young again. It’s very persistent, but doesn’t come from me, it’s like this (hammering gesture from above), so that I remain patient (although I am not impatient). Patience.

From now to one hundred is six years?

But the body’s capacities will change BEFORE its appearance changes—the appearance changes LAST; and I don’t know, that never enters the picture. What really matters is how the Consciousness can use this. It’s not that I will become young again, it’s not “young,” it’s another type of capacity that will emerge and use this body. Will it transform it? Or will it use it for another purpose? That I don’t know…. I don’t know. Strangely enough, only when you are here do I speak or think about these things, as if it were necessary for someone to know—otherwise, I never think about these things (gesture of hands open).

Sometimes I spend hours in contemplation doing a very, very active work. Sometimes there are a few minutes… a few minutes of silence and contemplation… that last hours. And they seem like a few minutes. That’s how it is.

31. May 1972 – All Appearances are Illusions

But the body’s capacities will change BEFORE its appearance changes—the appearance changes LAST; and I don’t know, that never enters the picture. What really matters is how the Consciousness can use this. It’s not that I will become young again, it’s not “young,” it’s another type of capacity that will emerge and use this body. Will it transform it? Or will it use it for another purpose? That I don’t know…. I don’t know. Strangely enough, only when you are here do I speak or think about these things, as if it were necessary for someone to know—otherwise, I never think about these things (gesture of hands open).

Sometimes I spend hours in contemplation doing a very, very active work. Sometimes there are a few minutes… a few minutes of silence and contemplation… that last hours. And they seem like a few minutes. That’s how it is.

Oh, listen, it sounds utterly absurd, but I’ll tell you. This consciousness here is as though conscious of the divine decisions; as though there isn’t a single trifle that can’t be an occasion to leave the body if the Divine decides that the body has to go, nor is there a single moment when one can’t have the feeling of immortality if the Divine decides that one should have the feeling of immortality. The SAME thing. Do you understand what I am saying? The SAME thing.

ALL appearances are illusions—there’s something… something which for me is becoming increasingly concrete and tremendously powerful: the Lord’s Will. This conscious will is not like ours, it’s something like this (Mother lowers her outstretched arms). Inexpressible. It’s unlike anything we know. And it is a formidable will—formidable, you understand, in the sense that all appearances, all contradictions, all human wills are zero: THAT alone (same, powerful gesture of lowering both arms). That’s it, THAT is what I feel going through me, as if I bathed in it. Exactly like that.

There isn’t any… there’s nothing here (Mother touches her forehead), it’s empty, empty, completely empty—hollow. Hollow. I don’t think. There isn’t any “I,” or any …. It’s almost like an empty shell, yet with that formidable Force… (vast, powerful gesture, arms outstretched).

The supramental consciousness must be trying to take possession of it …. This [the body] is just like a shell.

A shell …. Will it be able to change? I don’t know.

As if a superhuman Power were trying to manifest through millenniums of impotence…. That’s it. This [the body] is made of millenniums of impotence.

And a superhuman Power is trying to… is exerting a pressure to manifest.

That’s what it is. What will be the outcome? I don’t know.

And the same goes for everything—everything, absolutely everything.

There are MOMENTS when things are decided.

Time does not exist anymore….

(Mother nods her head)

As if another time had entered this one.

3. June 1972 – Between Imbecility and Genius

Constantly, but constantly, I have things I would like you to know, but I don’t have a chance to tell them. The ordinary memory is all gone, do you know, so if it comes, it comes; if it doesn’t come… it’s just lost.

Really… fantastic things.

As if I were walking on a very thin and narrow line: on one side, imbecility, and on the other genius! That’s how I progress (gesture of standing on a ridge).

What does it depend on? I have no idea.

All the old methods are obsolete, but the new ones aren’t yet established. Although sometimes, they come all of a sudden: for a few minutes, there’s a dazzling flood of light… something marvelous, the feeling of a power over the entire world. And the next minute, all gone.

Night and day, like that.

Sometimes, for no apparent reason, I am in such a horrible discomfort, I feel it must lead to death, but then… something says, “Don’t mind,” as though Sri Aurobindo were watching over me — don’t mind, don’t mind…. So I… (Mother opens her hands). And after a little while: gone, it’s inexplicably gone.

I can’t eat anymore—oh, it’s so difficult! So difficult. Eating is really the most difficult of all…. I am not really disgusted by food, nothing of the sort, but I just can’t put it in my mouth. I can still drink… for the moment.

There’s nothing there, nothing (pointing to her forehead), it’s empty, empty, thoroughly empty…. And when I remain like this….

7. June 1972 – The Lord Presence

It’s the Lord’s presence passing through me—through what people call “me.” An aggregate of cells which… (laughing) took this form pretty long ago!

This form is…. It’s most peculiar, you know: that [cellular] consciousness gives an impression of something trying to become fluid. Something is obviously trying to make it manifest a… an otherness.

Be an otherness. But how?…

The body is comfortable only when it is conscious of the divine Force acting (gesture of descent through the body), but otherwise it’s….

Any concentration on the body itself causes a kind of strange discomfort, a discomfort which stops only when it is conscious of the Force—of the Force working (same gesture of descent through Mother), the Force working, when “That” comes and flows through it. Then the… I can’t say “the old method” is gone, it’s not at all that, it’s… something.

(Smiling) There’s a phrase that comes to me in English: “the joy of nothingness.”

It’s a supramental person. Something the cells don’t quite understand yet, but they know, they sense. They feel as if they were thrust forcibly into a new world.

That’s what is now pressing all the time like this (gesture of pressure and descent). In spite of an apparent weakness (which is purely illusory), there’s a… tremendous Force here.

Mind you, it’s a Force seemingly too strong for the body; but when the body stays VERY quiet, like this… (gesture, hands open), and as nonexistent as possible, then all goes well.

10. June 1972 – No Point in Complaining

But it doesn’t matter. Since we have agreed to do it, let’s do it. There’s no point in complaining. But the Power—the Power is stu-pen-dous, only… (Mother points to her body), this is like a mockery: the slightest thing gets inordinately magnified! Even physically. Physically, it’s so strange, I’ve got insect bites on a spot that’s completely covered (Mother touches her leg); for a mosquito to reach it is impossible. And, I don’t know… I am told there are no fleas or bugs here!

One must be, one absolutely must be… passively receptive. The slightest activity brings back the old way, I don’t know. For me, now, it’s (gesture, hands open).

When I am like that, time flies by. Time doesn’t exist anymore. When the old way comes back, a few minutes seem in-ter-mi-na-ble.

Something is really happening… a new way of time.

I remember (I don’t know when it was, whether at night or… but it was at a moment when I was quiet, when I was alone), I remember telling you, “You see, THIS is the Supramental.” “This is IT, I know, THIS is the Supramental.” I said that to you.

But when I tried to recall it so as to keep it in the ordinary consciousness (not the “ordinary” consciousness: the intermediary consciousness, like this—gesture of a bridge—the one I have all the time), it… it sort of evaporated. When I am not active, when I am like now, it’s crystal clear: that’s IT.

17. June 1972 – Message

Sri Aurobindo is an emanation of the Supreme who came on earth to announce the manifestation of a new race and the new world, the Supramental. Let us prepare for it in all sincerity and eagerness.

18. June 1972 – Trust the Divine and the Divine looks after you

What has to be done for each one is done.

Our consciousness is limited (microscopic gesture), it sees only a little part. The divine Consciousness is… (gesture): it sees.

What has to be done for each one is done.

If someone has given himself to the Divine and trusts the Divine, the Divine looks after him. And… (how to explain?) for instance, all that has to be done for you is being done every minute; and if you in turn ask the Divine to look after someone, that too is done. And done for the best. But this best is as the Divine sees it.

You must be in peace. The peace of absolute trust.

Peace has the power to annul the obstacles.

23. June 1972 – Message

Jesus is one of the many forms the Divine has assumed to come in contact with the earth. But there are and will be many others. Auroville’s children must replace the exclusivism of one religion by the vast faith of Knowledge.”

24. June 1972 – Our Old Believes

What is unreceptive in that person distorts the Action.

Take for example someone who is ill and BELIEVES in the reality of his illness; the effect of the Action is lessened in proportion to his wrong belief.

It’s hard to explain.

But what did you want to ask?

Yesterday afternoon, for instance, I vomited—I wasn’t sick. I don’t know how to explain it…. The way to take food had to change. I mean, this happened to make me understand the attitude I had to have in taking food. But I wasn’t sick: it was AS IF I were sick. It was just meant to make me understand the attitude with which to eat. It was like an object lesson—I understood. If I hadn’t vomited, I wouldn’t have paid any attention.

So the people around me should have a certain bearing towards me, take certain precautions; and in order to do so they must think and believe certain things, otherwise they won’t do it. And that’s how things happen quite naturally.

Everything is organized down to the minutest detail, but it’s not preplanned as we do with our ordinary consciousness: the Force Simply PRESSES down and produces the required result. I could almost say: by any means whatsoever—any necessary means. It’s a Force that is PRESSING down upon the earth and making people do the most improbable things, those who seem the worst as well as the best, just to… to obtain the necessary result.

All our notions of good and evil are….

We have to keep reacting to things, precisely the reactions based on “good” and “evil,” the human conception of good and evil (it isn’t exactly a human “conception,” but an approximation of the Harmony)….

Vibrations… vibrations transmitting the Divine without distortion. That’s it. That’s what is needed. And depending on circumstances or people, it takes one form or another—you understand?

The Action is evident…. And it is the ego’s authority which is disappearing—increasingly disappearing. With total acceptance, you know, one that doesn’t even need to understand. We always want to understand in the old mental way—there’s NO NEED to understand. An acceptance like this (gesture, hands open).

Under that Pressure, the old remnants of authority, the remnants of the ego’s authority should disappear and be replaced by this (same gesture, hands open): a receptivity and obedience (not “obedience,” because there is no need to understand): to be impelled exclusively by the Divine. This in place of the ego. The last traces of the ego getting erased, and … (gesture, hands open) being replaced by… (same gesture).

I continually have the feeling (fifty times a day, perhaps) of being a little baby (gesture, kicking hands and legs), completely wrapped in and tossed about by the divine forces! (laughter) Exactly like that.

There are still…. It isn’t completely transparent, naturally, there still remain some old things, the ego’s old rule over the body, which causes grating and friction, but otherwise… otherwise just like a baby!

Like a baby.

28. June 1972 – Like Two Ways of Relationship with the Divine

Strange, it comes in gusts. A sudden gust comes in which everything is clear—the supermind is evident. And the body sees, it even sees what it is expected to do. The next minute, poof! (gesture of curtaining) it’s veiled again.

These are like two different ways of being in relationship with the Divine—both are relationships with the Divine: one is the old way and the other the new way. Formerly, you see, whenever I had a difficulty, I would immediately curl up in my relationship with the Divine, and it would go away. But now it’s no longer the same. The relationship with the Divine is itself on a different footing.

So really… (Mother gestures to indicate that she does not know).

My shelter, my lifelong shelter, which helped me get through everything, seems to be gone. Now… it’s no longer the same. Now, that, too, has to be surpassed. (Mother shakes her head and raises her arms as if to say: but how?)

1. July 1972 – Clinging to the Divine

All, absolutely all the reactions are new. But I don’t find the…. My only impression is that of CLINGING to the Divine every minute of the day. It’s the only way out.

That’s how the body functions.

The body’s experience is that without the Divine, it would… crumble.

That’s all.

It has in fact a growing sense of nonexistence—of the absence of a separate individuality (Mother touches the skin of her hands).

But it is well aware that this is only a transitional consciousness—what will be the ultimate consciousness? I don’t know.

For example, the body asks the Divine, “Give me consciousness.” And there’s a kind of answer (a wordless answer): “Not yet, you would no longer want to live separated.” Like that. If the body enjoyed the complete consciousness of the divine Presence, it would no longer want, no longer want the separate consciousness.

Obviously, there’s still a lot of progress to be made.

What’s left of the personal consciousness feels so stupid!… But when I am like this (gesture, immobile in the Lord)… then, it’s nice.

8. July 1972 – Under the Divine‘s Influence

The body tries to be entirely under the Divine’s Influence.

That’s its all-consuming preoccupation.

The most external form is the mantra: the body spontaneously repeats the mantra, but that’s only the most external form.

It tries. It tries to… (gesture, hands open).

It aspires and tries to receive nothing but the divine Force.

Food is still the big stumbling block. The body knows it must still eat, but it isn’t hungry; food just seems…. It eats out of habit and necessity.

It takes very little, though.

12. July 1972 – Entering Another World

I am entering ANOTHER world, another way of being… which might be called a dangerous way of being (in terms of the ordinary consciousness). As if….

Dangerous, but wonderful—how to express it?

First, the [body’s] subconscient is in the process of changing, and that is long, arduous and painful… but marvelous as well. The feeling of… (gesture as if standing on a ridge).

More and more, the body’s sensation is that faith alone can save—knowledge is not yet possible, so only faith can save.

But “faith can save” still sounds like an old manner of speaking…. How to phrase it?… The feeling that the relation between what we call “life” and what we call “death” is becoming more and more different—yes, different (Mother nods her head), completely different.

Not that death disappears, mind you (death as we see it, as we know it and in relation to life as we know it): that’s not it, not it at all. BOTH are changing… into something we don’t yet know, which seems at once extremely dangerous and absolutely marvelous. Dangerous: the least mistake has catastrophic consequences. And marvelous.

It is the consciousness, the true consciousness of immortality—not “immortality” as we understand it, something else. Something else.

Our natural tendency is to want certain things to be true (those we deem favorable) and other things to disappear—but that’s not it! It isn’t like that. EVERYTHING is different.

From time to time, for a moment (a brief moment): a marvel. But the very next minute: the feeling of… a dangerous unknown. There you are. That’s how I spend my time.

The subconscient is full of, oh, full of fears, of anxieties, of…. That place is disgusting (gesture rising from below).

The body doesn’t even have faith in its own faith! That’s right: it feels its faith isn’t the real thing, it doesn’t have faith in its own faith.

Life… life used to be simpler with that faith that predominated over all else, but now… (gesture of a complete collapse).

15. July 1972 – Message

“One must not confuse a religious teaching and a spiritual teaching. Religious teaching belongs to the past and stops all progress, spiritual teaching is the teaching of the future. It enlightens the consciousness and prepares it for the future realization.

“A spiritual teaching is above religions and strives towards a total truth. It teaches us to come into direct contact with the Divine.”

“Sri Aurobindo’s message is an immortal sunlight radiating over the future.”

19. July 1972 – The Subconscient is a Mire!

In the subconscient there is an accumulation of defeatism. That’s what keeps rising to the surface. As we ABSOLUTELY need to change that, the subconscient must be clarified so that the new race can come. We must clarify the subconscient. It’s a mire. It’s full of defeatism—defeatism, the first reaction is always defeatist. It’s absolutely disgusting, mon petit, I’ve seen it, I am working there… a disgusting place. We absolutely must… we must be categorical and vigorous—fearless, you know. Change it MUST.

We must…. (To Satprem) You have the capacity to… (Mother drives her fist down into Matter). Defeatism belongs to the subconscient—it MUST change, it must. Defeatism is anti-divine.

There’s but one way: to want what the Supreme Consciousness wants—whatever the consequences in terms of our silly little conception.

Personally, I call it the “Supreme Consciousness” because I don’t want to say “God”….

It’s full of… the very word is full of deception. It’s not that way, it’s…. WE ARE—We are the Divine who has forgotten Himself. And our task, the task is to reestablish the connection—call it by any name you like, it doesn’t matter. It’s the Perfection we must become, that’s all.

The Perfection, the Power, the Knowledge we must become, that’s all. Call it what you like, it doesn’t matter to me. That’s the aspiration we must have. We must get out of this mire, this stupidity, this unconsciousness, this disgusting defeatism that crushes us because we allow ourselves to be crushed.

And we fear. We fear for its life (Mother touches the skin of her hands), for this thing, as if it were precious, because we want to stay conscious. But let’s unite with the Supreme Consciousness, and we’ll stay conscious forever! That’s IT, that’s exactly it.

I could put it this way: we unite our consciousness with what is perishable and we’re afraid to perish! I Well, I say: let’s unite our consciousness with the eternal Consciousness and we will enjoy eternal consciousness.

How stupid can one be!

We must… we must put this at the service of the Divine—always. Always. With faith, an absolute faith: whatever happens is what the Divine wants to see happen. The Divine—I say “Divine” because I know what I mean by that word, I mean supreme Knowledge, supreme Beauty, supreme Goodness, supreme Will—all… all that must be manifested in order to express… what must be expressed.

We are disgusted with the world as it is—and we have the POWER to change it. But we are such fools that we can’t bring ourselves to abdicate our silly little personality to… to let the Marvel unfold.

And that’s all accumulated in the subconscient: everything we have rejected is there, and now it must be brought in contact with the transforming Force… so that this unconsciousness may come to an end.

22. July 1972 – Message

Man is the creation of yesterday.

Sri Aurobindo has come to announce the creation of tomorrow.

“The creation of tomorrow, the advent of the supramental being.” Because they are likely to call it “superman” if I don’t put “supramental being.” The advent of the supramental being.

…That all the preoccupations stemming from the other consciousness, the old human consciousness, however enlightened it is, are to be left aside for the moment to allow the full emergence into that Consciousness.

26. July 1972 – No need for Material Energy

Yes, I know—because they just see this appearance, which is quite…. I tell you: I do things, and I don’t know how I do them. There’s a kind of…. Oh, but the most fascinating field of experience is food 11 am not hungry, I don’t feel like eating, food doesn’t interest me by any means, yet they bring me my meal, and I “have” to eat—sometimes I eat (always in small quantity), but since I don’t move and don’t work, I don’t need material energy, so I don’t need to eat much, and I don’t think I am losing weight (Mother touches her arms).

29. July 1972 – To Conquer Death through Death

As if to demonstrate that you have to go through death in order to conquer death. Exactly. And just as you are about to cross the threshold, suddenly it’s all righted.

I thought I was the only one experiencing that, and I was happy to do it for everybody, but evidently some people feel it also—you feel it.

And it shows there’s a sort of… difference—a mere difference of attitude; a difference of attitude: the body can either fall apart or be transformed. And it’s… almost the same procedure; only the attitude is different. If you have absolute trust in the Divine and feel to what point the Divine is everywhere and in everything, if you want to depend only on the Divine, belong only to the Divine, then it’s perfect. But the least conflict… and it’s like the gates of death suddenly yawning.

But all you have to do is… feel that divine Presence within you, you know, stronger than everything. One feels It could revive all the dead if It wanted—just like that, you know. To that Presence… it doesn’t make any difference.

My body is learning to repeat unceasingly: what You will, what You will… (Mother opens her hands).

I have no preference: it’s REALLY what You will. For a time, I had hoped to be conscious of “what You will”—but now there’s only: what You will (hands open).

To be conscious of You.

To be conscious of You.

2. August 1972 – Two Formations

There are two formations like this (gesture confronting each other), like two wrestlers: one formation is that I will die on Sri Aurobindo’s birthday; the other formation is that I am undergoing the necessary transformation to span humanity to the Supramental. Both formations are as… they’re like this (same gesture facing each other) and….

When this formation [of death] makes itself felt, an awareness comes that there’s hardly any difference between life and physical death, in that anything, at any time, can send you over to the other side. Then, with the other formation, there’s a feeling that… (how can I put it?) the body’s frailty is due to a need for the consciousness to change so it can manifest the Supramental.

And I am like this (gesture between the two).

But the body has learned to remain quiet in either case.

Why, but why am I not told what will happen? I don’t know….

I think it’s to insure a kind of very passive state.

5. August 1972 – Obeying only THAT

But I now feel just the opposite! The body and matter (the part of matter under my control) seem to REFUSE to obey anything but That.

Let me give you an example: I see almost… (it’s an “almost” which sometimes is beyond almost, you understand: the extreme limit of “almost”) almost as well with my eyes closed as with my eyes open. See, really SEE (Mother touches her physical eyes). When I have difficulty writing, for example, instead of peering and straining, I shut my eyes. And then… I see.

And the same for everything, for all the senses. To swallow food, if I try to swallow in the usual way, I literally choke, but when I am in a certain state… I find I’ve swallowed everything, and I didn’t even notice it! And everything is like that.

So… I seem completely impotent, yet I feel a tremendous power in me.

9. August 1972 – About Théon and Sri Aurobindo

Théon used to say that up to now there had been… that this was the seventh creation; there had been six creations before which were “reabsorbed”—just as you said. And this one was the seventh, but it wouldn’t be reabsorbed, it would transform itself. There we are. Instead of that destruction by the sun which so far has ultimately led to the disappearance of the creation, this time the creation would go on transforming itself, to manifest and become again the Supreme.

Théon and Sri Aurobindo didn’t know each other, you see, they never met each other, they didn’t even know of each other’s existence. Yet Théon proclaimed… (I don’t remember what he called the new world) what Sri Aurobindo calls the “Supramental.” What’s remarkable—interesting, you know, strikingly interesting—is that without knowing each other, with totally different approaches, they reached the same conclusion.

And we are precisely at the time when… the other creations had come to an end; but instead of coming to an end, this one will be transformed. How? I don’t know.

The interesting thing in man is that materially speaking, he is… a mere nothing, a second lost in eternity—a tangled web of weaknesses—but in terms of consciousness, he has the capacity to understand. His consciousness is capable of contacting the supreme Consciousness. So naturally there are all those who wanted to merge back into that Consciousness, but Sri Aurobindo said: the point is not to merge back into it but to make the world capable of manifesting that supreme Consciousness.

Basically, it’s that.

How did they know?… There must have been a reason for them to know the same thing at the same time, in totally different countries and without ever knowing about each other.

And I met one and the other.

Greatly interesting, obviously.

Greatly interesting, because this physical being [Mother’s] was not born in an important position, quite the contrary (gesture indicating an ordinary background)…. The only thing I remember well is when I was a little girl (five or six years old, I can’t say exactly), a very little girl, seated in a little armchair made especially for me, and I would feel a GREAT Force (Mother raises a finger above her head) above my head. And already at that age Oust the way a child can think, you know) I knew “that” was sure to accomplish great things…. I didn’t understand anything, I didn’t know anything.

9. August 1972 – Solar Eruptions

Of the SUBSTANCE. The consciousness came long ago, but the thing is…. Because, for example, this body has the same needs it used to have; that’s the way it is built: it needs to eat, but it can’t eat. So when I was told these eruptions would affect even the human body, I thought: could it be the substance that will create the supramental body?

If the Supramental is to manifest on earth, something of it has to relate to the physical.

Imperative. Yes, it’s becoming terribly powerful, in a body which is… (gesture of being miserable). But the body does not feel weak, yet it isn’t hungry. It isn’t “hungry,” that went long ago; but now, recently, it’s become almost impossible to eat. How is one supposed to live, then?

So when I was told that this solar explosion was heading for the earth and would affect people, I thought: well, maybe that’s what is coming to replace food?

It’s wishful thinking, I can’t say it’s a knowledge. It just came to me like that.

Because, according to what Sri Aurobindo said, the supramental body will be immortal and sexless—that is, no procreation. So for those who live, if the earth is still there and they are to go on living, they will have to transform themselves constantly, otherwise they won’t be able to last. Hence something has to replace food.

Food carries in itself a seed of death, of decay. So obviously, it must be replaced by something else.

Sri Aurobindo and all the Vedic Rishis have always likened the Supermind to the sun….

30. August 1972 – Consciousness replaces Thoughts

I can clearly see that instead of thought governing life, it’s consciousness. And when the consciousness remains quietly open to the Divine, all goes well. A lot of things constantly come into the consciousness, from the whole world, it would seem (gesture of being assailed from all sides): all the things that negate or oppose the divine Action. They keep coming all the time like this (same gesture). But if I can remain quiet (gesture of offering, hands open), in an attitude of… (smiling) nonexistence, a sort of… I don’t know if it’s transparency—I don’t know if one should say “transparency” or “immobility”—but it’s something in the consciousness that’s like this (same gesture of offering, hands open). When it stays that way, all is well; but as soon as it starts stirring, that is, as soon as the individuality comes to the forefront in any way, everything becomes detestable. It’s really too much.

You see, the physical body has a millennium of past experiences that says, “Why, that blissful state is impossible!”—this stupidity is what delays everything. It’s as if the cells themselves, the cells of the body which are used to struggling and suffering, couldn’t accept that things can be like this (same gesture of surrender, hands open). But when it is… then it’s wonderful.

Only it doesn’t last. It’s not daylong. Constantly, constantly things keep coming (same gesture of being assailed from all sides).

But now I see quite well, quite clearly—it’s very clear: consciousness replaces thought.

And… (how can I put it?) the difference between the two: thought is something that goes like this (whirling, restless gesture), ever in motion… whereas consciousness is like this (gesture hands open, offered upward). I can’t explain it.

You see, my body is beginning—just beginning—to know that the divine side means a life that’s… (Mother stretches out both arms in the vastness) progressive and luminous; but there’s an accumulation of past experiences which says, “Oh, that’s impossible!”—just like that. Well, that stupid “impossible” is what delays and spoils everything.

The basis of the fact is that as soon as the body steps out of the right attitude things get painful: everything aches and is laborious—you feel death and dissolution everywhere. And that’s what reinforces… Matter’s stupidity.

So, really speaking, I’d rather not talk, unless it’s to answer a specific question.

As for me, you know, all the things I used to rely on for action seem to be PURPOSELY collapsing (everything, even the smallest things) so I can say: what You will. It’s become… it’s become my sole refuge.

I don’t remember anything, you know! For instance, somebody says to me, “You’ll say this to that person,” I sincerely answer yes, but the next minute or so I no longer remember what it was!… I remember nothing—zero.

And then, sometimes I can stay for hours in a sort of peaceful and luminous contemplation, and think it’s been only a few minutes.

To the ordinary and undiscerning eye, you must accept to look like a …. I am sure that ninety-nine people out of a hundred think I am… (smiling) cracked.

Often, very often I ask the Lord: how can I help now that I can’t see so well, can’t hear so well, can’t speak clearly and need help to get around? This state is…. Yet the body doesn’t sense any decline! It is convinced that if tomorrow the Lord wanted it to resume its regular activity, it could do so. The Force is there (Mother touches her arms, her muscles), a terrible force sometimes!… So why?…

This state is intentional so that… (smiling) so that people will leave me alone!

Their problems are all futile! (Mother laughs) And how impudent: infidelity in marriage, lack of honesty at work! Things of that sort. Unbelievable—it’s unbelievable. People ask me such questions… (laughing) such improbable questions!

All the rules, you know—oh, all the moral rules seem to have been thrown to the winds. So the appearances are…. I’ll give you an example: somebody [from the Ashram] opens a “Travel Agency,” and when people give him money to buy tickets, he pockets the money and doesn’t buy the tickets—what do you think of that? (laughter) What next!

Often, you know, I look… (how can I put it?)…. You are in the consciousness—you see, you are IN the consciousness—and so I look to see what place you occupy in the consciousness. Well… (Mother keeps her eyes closed, smiling).

Mon petit, I don’t want you to feel… (Mother makes a gesture of strutting), I don’t mean to compliment you, that’s not my intention. But you’re always… you’re like a luminous garden… with a distinct form (Mother draws a kind of rectangle in the air), it’s luminous and ranges from vivid pink to golden light. Exactly. And that’s you—that’s how I see you. Always.

There is a vast atmosphere—a vast atmosphere…. A vast atmosphere enveloped in Sri Aurobindo’s aura: the blue, the luminous light blue which is his color. I see you in that… you’re like a distinct garden (same gesture) with colors… it goes from vivid pink to… a luminous, golden atmosphere. A lovely garden. That’s what I see—I see it eyes open (Mother touches her open eyes). And that’s very good.

There remain a few spots of rigidity, I mean … (what can I say?) fixities of a personal nature, but… gradually, gradually, they are disappearing, they are being transformed. There. That’s what I see.

6. September 1972 – About fanatic Arabs

They are very violent.

Very violent.

You see, they firmly believe there’s life after the body’s death—the body’s death to them is in no way the end of life.

They only believe in some sort of “heaven”, that’s all.

Yes, murderers’ heaven!

6. September 1972 – Perpetual Discomfort

Eating is becoming almost—almost impossible. Nor do I have the faintest idea of what will replace food (Mother sweeps her hand across her forehead): I don’t see anything.

Everything is becoming… I can’t say a suffering, but a discomfort: a discomfort, there’s perpetual discomfort, as if my body were made to live through every single thing that must disappear. Nonstop. From time to time, for a few seconds there’s… (Mother opens eyes filled with wonder), but not even long enough to be able to define it. And it’s very rare. Whereas the other condition is almost constant. Everything—external things, internal things, things in so-called others, things concerning this body—all, all is terrible, terrible, terrible….

That’s certainly how Buddha saw things, and why he said that life was a falsehood and had to disappear—but I know better! I KNOW it isn’t a falsehood. But it must change… must change…. But in the meantime….

Only when I am (gesture, hands open) absolutely silent within and everywhere… does it becomes tolerable.

I feel a fantastic Power (Mother touches her fingertips), but… also sense a little person full of… (how can I put this?) containing all the things that must disappear. As if all the negations had accumulated here so that I do the work, and I don’t know who that “I” is anymore.

The body, this poor body, is not happy—it isn’t unhappy either. It has a sensation of nonexistence. Everything it encounters, the entire organization of things, its entire life is the negation of what it sees as the… Beauty to be realized.

13. September 1972 – Message

When you are conscious of the whole world at the same time, then you can become conscious of the Divine.”

Quand vous devenez conscient du monde tout entier en même temps, alors vous êtes capable d’être conscient du Divin.

My idea is not that being conscious of the world automatically makes you conscious of the Divine, but when your consciousness is vast enough to see and be conscious of the whole world, then you become capable of….

How can I say it?… I don’t want to be too specific. I mean I want each one to understand according to his capacity...

A person with a superficial consciousness will understand in that way, but one with a deeper consciousness will understand the real meaning.

…in order to be capable of becoming conscious of the Divine. That’s the idea. But I don’t want to put it in those terms, you see. I want each one to…

…to understand in his own way, from his own particular level.

Yes, because as the Work progresses, true consciousness develops—but I don’t want to say that.

But it’s an incredible situation, you know: either true consciousness or the sensation of an impending and general danger. Everything—eating, taking a bath—is a danger, you see. The only thing that’s… (Mother opens her arms and hands in a gesture of contemplative abandon).

Except resting, at least up to now—resting is nice: it’s relaxation in the Divine. Both are nice: resting and silence-immobility (in a position where my my body’s position doesn’t hurt too much), then I think I could stay like that for centuries. Just being employed in… (What should I say? No work is involved): just letting the Divine go through me, through this body. More and more, when someone is here, in silence, it’s… (gesture indicating the Force flowing through Mother) to reach the point where there’s nothing but the Divine.

Those two things are very good. The most difficult thing of all is eating. There’s… no, neither disgust, nor dislike, nor anything of the kind (no sensations are involved): a physical impossibility.

A real problem. Something to be found—but what?

Me, I don’t sleep at all anymore, but it’s… it’s marvelous! The only marvelous moment (immobile gesture, arms and hands open in total surrender). It’s absolutely like bathing in the Lord, you know: like this (same gesture). There’s no active sensation, no… nothing. Nothing. Nothing but… a luminous peace.

This is certainly what will eventually replace sleep. Sleep, the fall into unconsciousness we call sleep, will disappear and be replaced by (same gesture, arms open, smiling).

For the body, it’s… we could say, bathing in the Lord.

There’s not even a trace, not the faintest sensation of an individual person—utterly gone. It’s a STATE of consciousness.

20. September 1972 – Mother about Satprem‘s eye problem

If you could stop everything for ten days… don’t use your eyes to read or write—not look at anything, just use your eyes to see what’s indispensable, to eat or move about. I don’t know, there’s a kind of automatic vision that isn’t tiring. It’s when you “look” at something that it tires you. I wish you had ten whole days of that automatic vision.

You are now my eyes for the work, you understand, so you must keep them in good condition. Myself, I see everything… through a sort of veil. But I’ve gained a new perception for it. I don’t see in quite the same way; it’s as if I saw more inside, I don’t know how to explain it. That’s increasing. Growing. But it takes long, so long….

You must rest until you are cured—completely cured.

30. September 1972 – New Vital and Mental Activity

In my case, you see, it was a radical action: the mind and vital were simply gone. Therefore the body had to re-create little by little a new mental and vital activity. And it’s very interesting, because it happened only when it was needed. So naturally, it’s not perfect—speech mainly. That’s the most bothersome, for I have trouble expressing myself; but the rest, oh!… (pointing to the silent forehead, then arms outstretched and motionless, as if everything were suspended in the immutable Eternal). As soon as it’s like that, it becomes VAST, luminous, tranquil….

7. October 1972 – The Divine takes Care of my Body

The sensation is one of being as… as transparent and impersonal as possible so the Divine can pass through and act. And here (pointing to the forehead), it’s completely silent… just this (gesture, hands open and immobile). That’s all. My whole life is that way.

The more the body is able to do this (same gesture), the better its conditions of life. Truly. I mean …”solicitude” isn’t the word, we would need a special word …. In English, I could say: The care the Divine takes of my body… (you understand?) is… beyond all description. And above all beyond all the body’s physical shortcomings.

There you are.

But all words belittle—they belittle ridiculously.

I’d like to stop talking.

11. October 1972 – Our Unconsciousness

Listen, it’s the Divine who made us the way we are….

…Our unconsciousness is what prevents us from knowing it, otherwise we would always be in a kind of luminous peace, and simply: what You want, Lord, what You want… (Mother opens her hands in a gesture of total surrender). Like that.

For me—I mean, for this sort of… for this (Mother pinches the skin of her arms), which has lived so many years but doesn’t know anything anymore, and can’t do anything anymore, there’s only… (same gesture of surrender, hands offered to the Lord).

Whatever conscious will is left is used to remain attentive—attentive, absolutely still and peaceful (gesture of listening to the above). To try not to obstruct or distort what the Lord… (Mother corrects herself) what the Divine wants. That’s all. And not a personal Divine: the Divine Consciousness at work in the world.

We know nothing, we know absolutely nothing, we are totally stupid really, but if we can be like this (gesture, hands open): receptive—receptive in a silence… a silence that worships… Light, Light… a perfect Knowledge and unerring Will….

18. October 1972 – Victory of Truth

The Victory… we can call it what we like: the Victory of Truth over Falsehood, the Victory of the Lord over his creation.

Well, that Victory is still only for a few.

The creation consciously going towards its divine Origin and ready to manifest that Origin is still only for a few. I think it will take centuries until it becomes general—oh, centuries, maybe millenniums!

But what matters is for us to be the few who are conscious, who consciously… (silence, Mother opens her hands)… manifest the Divine. That is our victory, for a few of us, which we can and must win and embody—to “win,” I mean overcome the material resistance in the body (Mother pinches the skin of her arm). That we can and it is our duty to overcome—I mean all the stupid unconscious resistance. That must come to an end. This is our work, and it must be done here (pointing to the body).

21. October 1972 – Attitude of absolute Surrender

You see, I would either have to describe every single thing that keeps happening, or say nothing at all.

When I say nothing and just stay like this (gesture, open hands) … in an attitude of absolute surrender, things go on well. But if the SLIGHTEST thing pulls me out of it, I feel… as if I were about to die.

Extraordinary.

When I am in that position, I get the feeling that… life is eternal.

25. October 1972 – The Earth’s Subconscient

Yes, because it isn’t one person’s subconscient: it is THE EARTH’S subconscient. It’s endless. Yet we must….

Stopping that would mean stopping the work. Going on with it means it will take ages…. I don’t know… it’s endless.

Although clearly, quite clearly, stopping it would mean stopping the work. As if this consciousness (gesture around Mother) were the meeting point and the center of action.

So my sole means is to remain quiet—very, very quiet… (Mother opens her hands upwards). To feel that the individuality is nothing, absolutely nothing—so the divine rays can pass, pass through it. It’s the only solution. It must be the Divine who… who fights the battle.

You know, my impression is that the individuality is like an image to focus the attention (humans need something—they have always needed something on their scale to focus their attention), so the body tries its best not to obstruct the divine Force from passing through, it tries to suppress all its own interferences, but at the same time it sees itself… as an image humans need to focus their attention.

28. October 1972 – Mantra on the Subconscient

OM Namo Bhagavateh…

Did you notice how strong the mantra is on the subconscient?

It has a great, great power over the subconscient.

I told you what a nuisance the subconscient is, didn’t I?…

But, repeating that mantra has a great, great effect on it.

One mustn’t… one mustn’t… [get impatient]. You say another consciousness….

I’ve found but one solution: What You want, Lord, what You want….

And what comes up from the subconscient is constantly met by:

OM namo Bhagavateh, OM….

2. November 1972 – All is willed by the Lord

Mother goes where the Lord wants her to go.

Do you understand my condition? One minute the body feels it is going to die; the next minute it feels immortal. So after that, one can’t… one can’t possibly say “how it’s going.”

Things always work out. I am convinced that whatever happens is willed by the Lord. It’s only our impression that gets more or less warped by our ignorance.

My feeling is that all words, even when they sound very wise, are just stupidities. That’s all. It would be far better never to say anything (Mother puts her hand over her mouth). It belittles things so much, so, so much….

4. November 1972 – Contradictions from the Subconscient

And then… how can I put this?… It isn’t sensation or knowledge, it’s a kind of… (Mother feels the air between her fingers), you can’t even say conviction: it’s a certitude—a certitude in the perception—that Bliss is there… right there, WAITING FOR us, but a whole world of contradictions that have been repressed in the subconscient keeps rising up from the subconscient to prevent us from feeling it. So… you could say it’s a battlefield, but in a perfect calm.

It’s impossible to describe.

Impossible to describe.

When I remain still and enter that Consciousness, time flies with fantastic speed, in a kind of… luminous calm. But the slightest thing that pulls me out of it seems to pull me into hell. Exactly.

The discomfort is so great one feels one couldn’t last a minute or a few minutes like that. So one… one calls the Divine…. You feel like curling up in the Divine.

And then it goes well.

8. November 1972 – Few Seconds of Supramental Consciousness

For a moment—just a few seconds—I had the supramental consciousness. It was so marvelous, mon petit!… I understood that if we were to taste that now, we would no longer want to exist differently. We are in the process of… (gesture of kneading dough) of changing laboriously. And the change, the process of change seems…. Yet you can grasp it in a kind of indifference (I don’t know how to express it).

But it doesn’t last long. As a rule it’s… laborious.

But that consciousness is so marvelous, you know!

It’s most interesting because there’s a sort of EXTREME activity within complete peace.

But it lasted only a few seconds.

It’s fabulous! Like a harmonization of all opposites. Yes, a total, fantastic activity together with… perfect peace.

But these are mere words.

The action is a material one—but not done in the same way, of course.

I don’t know because I am constantly—my WHOLE consciousness, including that of the body, is always turned to the… (gesture of offering) to what it feels as the Divine.

And without “trying,” you follow?

11. November 1972 – Message

Beyond all preferences and limitations, there is a ground of mutual understanding where all can meet and find their harmony: it is the aspiration for a divine consciousness.

15. November 1972 – Mother’s Work

“My” work….

Poetically, I could say: a few seconds in heaven and… hours in hell.

It’s better not to speak about it.

22. November 1972 – Every Minute a Discovery

Either I say everything or nothing at all. And saying everything is…. You know, there’s both a constant effort and… (Mother opens her hands) every minute a discovery. So describing it would be endless, and also uninteresting.

The body consciousness is beginning to be wise, it too is saying with a great, great… more than sincerity, “Let Your Will be done.” People and their opinions and their way of seeing things seem so very ridiculous to it!

Let Your Will be done.

…whom you thought were wise, or people who have known you for so many years—their reactions seem so absurd!

So … (Mother opens her hands) let Your Will be done.

Naturally the body understands very well (it never doubts that His Will will be done: it is ALWAYS done), but let us be… let us not be an obstacle to that Will or a complication: let us allow things to be done luminously and peacefully—consciously, luminously, peacefully… all-encompassingly.

Let us not be part of the obstacles. Let us be… (Mother opens her hands) let the supreme Wisdom pass, pass through… something that is not an extra obstacle. That’s all.

25. November 1972 – Without the Divine No Existence

A growing sensation that without the Divine there’s no existence.

Forgetting the Divine even for a minute is becoming catastrophic, you see.

Now and then, for a few seconds, the true beatific consciousness comes—but only now and then and for a few seconds. That’s all. Otherwise, I am like this (gesture, fists clenched to stand firm in the struggle).

That’s it, exactly that! One quite feels the inability of the outer consciousness to participate in the experience… to be up to the mark.

Well, that’s my continuous condition.

How to…?

And then once a day—once, twice, for a few seconds (tone of amazed wonder): “Oh!…” And it’s gone.

Is this… this body to be left and another one built?

I don’t know…. It doesn’t fit with…. I have not been told that it has to be that way.

Although I haven’t been told either that this body is capable of transformation.

So I don’t know.

But it has no desire to leave.

It doesn’t know, Yet… I can’t exactly say I suffer but there’s constant discomfort.

That is the conviction the body needs to have: that INDEED it serves some purpose.

26. November 1972 – Message

Before dying falsehood rises in full swing.

Still people understand only the lesson of catastrophe.

Will it have to come before they open their eyes to the truth?

I ask an effort from all so that it has not to be.

It is only the Truth that can save us: truth in words, truth in action, truth in will, truth in feelings.

It is a choice between serving the Truth or being destroyed.

2. December 1972 – The Standard of Time changes

Then I’ll give you only ten minutes. Something strange is happening which I don’t understand—and it’s getting stronger and stronger: it took me more than an hour to eat my breakfast, yet when I started I told myself: I must finish this in twenty minutes. And I really thought I had finished in twenty minutes!

Time… I have completely lost the sense of time.

I was convinced I had finished in twenty minutes and it took me more than an hour—to eat nothing!

I take a bite or a sip, and then ten minutes, twenty minutes go by (gesture showing the glass or spoon in midair while Mother goes off) … I don’t know where, I don’t know what.

But what’s extraordinary is the disparity: usually I don’t think about the time, but since it was your day and it was already late, I told myself: I must finish in twenty minutes—and it took me more than an hour!

There’s something there I must understand. Clearly, the standard of time changes. But it’s very impractical.

The same at night: I don’t sleep; at first, as I lie in bed, I have a pain here, a pain there…. Then I enter the consciousness where pain disappears, and suddenly I wake up (I am not “asleep,” I am in… a light, a formless light), with the impression I’ve been in bed an hour, while in actuality it was five or six.

I just go into… (Mother closes her eyes) oh, I tell you it can last… I have but to do this (Mother closes her eyes) … I could keep you here for an hour and not know it!

It’s completely, completely new…. Something completely new, which I don’t understand.

We’ll see. I would be interested to do it with you and see your sensation. But we must wait a little.

6. December 1972 – The Consciousness must have sunk

The tree that gave me all my “Transformation” flowers [from Satprem’s garden] is broken.

The “Service” tree also: some of its branches have been torn off.

Usually it didn’t come this way….

The consciousness must have sunk a lot… quite a lot.

Some curious things are happening: the consciousness is clearer and vaster than it has ever been—a vast, vast vision… and very precise: I know things happening at a distance (without thinking: they just come).

But my memory is ab-so-lu-te-ly gone. I don’t know—half an hour later, I’ve already forgotten what I did.

Absolutely forgotten.

The consciousness of the Presence—the Presence everywhere, in everything….

9. December 1972 – A Cyclone within

There WAS a cyclone within.

Obviously, everything is designed so that the only… (I can’t find the word in French) reliance, the only support is in the Divine. But I am not told what the “Divine” is—how do you like that!… Everything else is collapsing, except the… the… the what? The Divine… something—what?…

One feels it. It can’t be described or defined in any way—absolutely not.

10. December 1972 – Life is Torture

For me life is a torture if I am not exclusively turned to the Divine.

That’s the only remedy; otherwise, it’s true, life is a torture. Existing becomes intolerable.

The only remedy is to be like this… (gesture, hands turned upward in contemplative silence)… when time ceases to exist.

20. December 1972 – The Force passing into Mother’s Body

He had accumulated a great deal of supramental force in his body, and as soon as he left he…. He was on his bed, you see, and I was standing beside him, and all the supramental force that was in him passed quite concretely from his body into mine—so concretely that I thought it was visible. I could feel the friction of the passage. It was extraordinary—extraordinary! It was an extraordinary experience. It went on for a long, long time like this (gesture of the Force passing into Mother’s body). I was standing beside his bed, and it passed into me.

Almost physical—it was a physical sensation.

It lasted a long time.

There is a difference in the POWER of the action.

He himself—he himself has a greater action, a greater power or action now than when he was in his body. Besides, that’s why he left—because it had to be done that way.

It’s very tangible, you know. His action has become very tangible. Of course, it isn’t something mental at all. It is from another region. But it isn’t neither ethereal nor—is it tangible. I could almost say material.

23. December 1972 – Time sense is topsy-turvy

Time sense is completely topsy-turvy—when I think five minutes have passed, it’s an hour, and when I think an hour has passed, it’s five minutes! It’s completely, completely…. And I am puzzled, I am truly puzzled as to what causes it. Another standard of time. And it doesn’t follow my conscious will: I’ll start eating, thinking, “I want to be finished in twenty minutes”—and it takes me an hour! On another occasion, I don’t think of time: I finish in twenty-five minutes. I don’t understand.

From an outward point of view, I am starting to look crazy!

At night (I have long nights, but I don’t sleep), I feel it’s over in one minute!… I go to bed saying to myself: ah, this will last a while—and it’s over in five minutes, it seems to me.

Another time, I want to go fast, and it takes… almost an hour. I don’t understand.

Yes, but they are not “dreams,” you see. I mean… it’s not that kind of thing at all.

Sometimes I am identified with some people, and I thoroughly feel—I don’t feel it’s “another” person: I feel it’s myself. And sometimes it’s people I don’t know. There are all kinds of things.

The consciousness is VERY vast. It isn’t limited to one person or even a few persons: it is very vast.

But I am perplexed by what’s happening with clock time…. I thought it was not quite nine o’clock, and I was told it was already ten. I have no idea how that happened.

I start my breakfast telling myself: Ah, I’ll eat fast, I am late—it takes me an hour!

But I don’t say anything because people are so stupid they would say I am going crazy. That’s not it… I simply live in another consciousness.

So my one external resource—EXTERNALLY—is to say the mantra: OM Namo Bhagavateh (it’s an external part of myself that says it); but inside, I am like this (Mother opens her hands upward in total stillness). And now if I remain like that, hours may go by, and I won’t know it.

27. December 1972 – Message

We want to show to the world that man can become a true servitor of the Divine.

Who will collaborate in all sincerity?

30. December 1972 – Prayer of the Body

Things have taken an extreme form. There’s a sort of lifting of the whole atmosphere towards an almost… inconceivable splendor, but at the same time, there’s a feeling that one can… die any moment—not “die,” but the body could dissolve. Both things together make up a consciousness in which… (Mother shakes her head) all past experiences seem puerile, childish, unconscious. And this… is stupendous and wonderful.

But the body, the body has a single prayer—always the same:

Make me worthy of knowing You

Make me worthy of serving You

Make me worthy of being You

I can barely eat anymore, and I am not hungry. I feel a growing strength in me… but new in quality… in silence and contemplation.

Nothing is impossible (Mother opens her hands upward).

So if you don’t have any questions to ask…. If you want silence… conscious silence…?

1. January 1973 – New Year Message

When you are conscious of the whole world at the same time, then you can become conscious of the Divine.

3. January 1973 – Abolition of all personal Existence

I have but one solution—always the same for anything: this (gesture, hands open). To abolish all personal existence, to be like this (same gesture), something that lets everything pass through and is… set in motion by the Divine. That’s all. Then everything is fine.

10. January 1973 – The Horror of Death

And there’s a new kind of malaise. Something new. As I was telling you, there’s a new and wonderful joy that comes! But it comes the way you disclose something, you know… (Mother dangles an imaginary lure between her fingers): “See, this is what you could have.” Exactly like that. “It could be like this,” and brrrt, it’s gone!

So really, I’d rather not talk about it.

I live in a constant contradiction—constant, constant… With all sorts of suggestions: “This way, you could die; that way, you could die….” So I simply reply, “I don’t care!” Then it calms down.

My consolation was that I thought I was doing this for everybody; that once I had done it, it would be done—but evidently a lot of people are in the same difficulty.

To comfort me, there is a kind of assurance from above, that if I reach my centenary, I will start going uphill again. But it’s still far off. How many years left? Five Years.

You (Satprem) will go to the end.

But you know, at the same time, I am aware of the divine forces going through like this (gesture through the body). I try to obstruct as little as I can. And it gives some extraordinary results: constantly, there are… what people call “miracles.”

But to me, it’s not quiet as it could be—as they SHOULD be.

The possibility of suffering, for example—suffering from pain, suffering… a purely physical fact (all the nonphysical things are: Mother makes an immutable and peaceful gesture to indicate the inner states), but something purely physical: really, the capacity for suffering must disappear. Not that I don’t want to suffer, but… it isn’t a nice gift to give people!

The years are long, long, long, long….

It’s like this: two or three hours can go by in a second, and half an hour can last for hours. Everything, but everything is upside down.

(Mother gestures: what to do? silence)

And then—oh, I haven’t told you: yesterday or the day before, I don’t remember, all of a sudden, for two or three minutes, my body was seized by the horror of death—the idea of being put like this (gesture of being tossed into a hole) in a tomb was so horrifying! Horrifying…. I couldn’t have stood that more than a few minutes. It was HORRIFYING. Not because I was buried alive, but because my body was conscious. It was considered “dead” by everybody for the heart had stopped beating—yet the body was conscious.

That… that… that was a horrible experience…. I was displaying all the signs of “death,” you know, the heart wasn’t working, nothing was working—but I was conscious. The body was conscious.

We must… we must warn people at least not to rush to… (gesture into a hole).

17. January 1973 – Message

Plus on avance, plus le besoin d’une présence divine devient impérieux et… inévitable.

The more we advance on the way, the more the need of a divine Presence becomes indispensable—imperative and indispensable.

20. January 1973 – Meeting with Dalai Lama

A truly benevolent man. Buddhist benevolence, you know, and he practices it marvelously.

He seems to have no… no selfishness in him (there’s no word for it in French).

I mean, a constant concern to do the right thing.

Very active [mentally]—there wasn’t much of a deeper contact.

That’s all.

He was happy with his visit, I was told.

I was told something (I don’t know if it’s true), he is reported to have said, “Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are the most important personalities in the world today”—I don’t know if it’s true.

He seems to have been pleased with his visit. He was very happy to see the school and the children.

But on the plane where I live… he doesn’t seem to be very conscious THERE…. I don’t know. I don’t know, but in any case he has a very light presence, very light—he doesn’t impose himself at all.

I sensed a very strong man—very strong. And harmoniously strong; his right arm was bare, you know, it gave the feeling of a strong and quiet force. But… I didn’t have much of a deeper contact…. I can’t say.

I told him Tibet would become independent again. He asked me when. I said, “I don’t know.”

Sri Aurobindo’s idea was an independent Tibet within a sort of great federation with India. But when will that happen? I don’t know.

He gave me this (Mother shows a Tibetan Buddha in brass). It’s a Buddha. Is there something written there [under the statue]?

ADDENDUM

(Account of the Dalai Lama’s visit. The Dalai Lama’s questions were put to Mother by Kireet, the Registrar of the Centre of Education, who in turn conveyed Mother’s answers back to the Dalai Lama.)

(original English)

(Dalai Lama:) It is my dream to have the perfect economic development of Tibet, the perfect organization, the efficiency that we find in Communism, but all this based upon, founded upon the Buddhistic qualities of Compassion and Love, so that the people in power do not degenerate into corruption. What is Mother’s view of this dream, and whether such a thing will be realized in Tibet?

It is not a dream. It will naturally be. But the time it will take, I do not know. This is something like what Sri Aurobindo has said about the Supramental.

Truth, Love, Compassion will give a basis to the new creation. It is not birth but the value of men that should give the right to authority.

If the teaching of Sri Aurobindo can spread over the world, and if there is the full manifestation of the Supramental, then the Supramental will be the power of the liberation of Tibet.

It is bound to come, it will come; but if it goes as it is going now, it will take hundreds of years. But if the Supramental is manifested, it may come quick. Quick does not mean ten or twenty years—that would be almost miraculous.

(Kireet:) But the Supramental is now working very powerfully.

It is, it is working. It will be manifested with enough power when the right people have the authority.

For the moment, it seems that the opposition, the falsehood attacks with full power before dying. Never, never have men lied as much as they are doing now. It seems the old habit comes spontaneously. But it must be broken.

We are at a very… what we could call an unpleasant moment of the history of the earth. It is interesting because the action is very powerful, but I can’t call it pleasant.

But I have told you that already; I wrote it.

(Kireet:) Yes, Mother. The Mother has given the message.

(Dalai Lama:) As for myself, I have no desire to continue in power in the Government. For I feel that the Government involves so much of conflicts of parties, and the necessity of taking sides with one party against the other….

One can govern without taking sides. That is the mistake of all the governments; they reduce their capacity tremendously.

But beyond the mind, there is a higher and deeper consciousness—they would find a Consciousness in which one can make use of all the capacities. It is a question of the consciousness being broad enough, so that each capacity can be put in its place in order to make a general harmony.

(Dalai Lama:) There is good will, there is sincerity among people all over the world, but the number of such people is not large. Will they be able to have an effect to change the conditions of the world?

It is bound to change; it is bound to change. Only, if the people are sincere it will shorten the time; it will go faster if the people are sincere.

The first and indispensable step is to stop all falsehood. Falsehood is all that contradicts in us the Presence of the Divine.

24. January 1973 – Our Values are worthless

No, not impossibilities—it probably means you have to go deeper or higher to their meeting ground. That’s how it works: the opposites get increasingly vehement until we find the point where they… where unity is established.

One must go deeper and deeper, or higher and higher—it’s one and the same thing. It’s the same thing.

All our old ways of understanding things are WORTHLESS—worthless.

All, all our values are WORTHLESS.

We are on the threshold of something truly marvelous, but… we don’t know how to keep it—it comes like this (gesture imitating a passing bird)…. We just don’t know.

Never, never before have I had such a sense of ignorance, of impotence, of… of being a jumble of frightful contradictions, and I know, I KNOW—deep down, beyond speech—that it’s because I don’t know how to find the place where they… they harmonize and unite.

I can do absolutely nothing, I know absolutely nothing—in fact, I am nothing but a… false appearance, that’s all.

I don’t remember anything, I even forget what I have said before…. Everything is… (gesture of crumbling).

And strangely, almost at the same time, there’s torture and bliss—almost at the same time. There you are.

Only, what’s odd is that human nature as it is constituted seems to understand torture more readily than bliss.

There’s a curious phenomenon: because books [by Mother] are published, I am put in contact with things I said before, and of course when I said them I was very convinced, but now… I tell myself: how could you say that!

There is only one, one will left: may the Divine express Himself without deformation through this body. This is constant, constant, constant, constant….

31. January 1973 – A wonderful Presence

The same identical circumstances, occurring at the same time, can cause a marvelous bliss—marvelous, as I have never felt before—or sheer hell. The very same circumstances, and at the same time.

For hours on end it’s enough to drive you mad, and for a few… (maybe hours, maybe minutes—the sense of time isn’t the same, but anyway…) a wonder. A wonderful Presence.

It doesn’t really depend on circumstances: the circumstances are always the same, and yet….

And in this new consciousness, time has a completely different value: I feel I have spent a few minutes, and I am told it’s been almost an hour. That’s how it is.

07. February 1973 – Message

There is only one solution for falsehood: It is to cure in ourselves all that contradicts in our consciousness the presence of the Divine.

I am very keen on this! It’s very true—very true. It may not be easy to understand, but it’s VERY PROFOUNDLY true.

All in us that veils or distorts or prevents the manifestation of the Divine is the falsehood.

It’s quiet a programme!

That’s what I am doing all the time—every day and all day long, whenever I don’t… even when I see people. It is the only thing worth living for.

08. February 1973 – Preparing for the Psychic Being

To broaden and enlighten your consciousness, naturally. But how to do that?… How do you broaden and enlighten your consciousness? If each one of you could find his psychic being and unite with it, all problems would be solved.

The psychic being is the Divine’s representative in the human being. It’s true, you know: the Divine isn’t something far-off and out of reach; the Divine is within you, but you aren’t fully conscious of it. You have rather… so far it is acting more as an influence than a Presence. It must become a conscious Presence, so at each moment you can ask yourselves how… how the Divine sees.

That’s how it is: first, how the Divine sees; then, how the Divine Wills… then, how the Divine does. It has nothing to do with going off to inaccessible regions: it’s RIGHT HERE. Although, for the moment, all the old habits and the general unconsciousness have put a sort of lid on it, which prevents us from seeing and feeling. We must… we must lift that, lift it off.

Basically, we must become conscious instruments… conscious… conscious of the Divine.

Normally it takes an entire lifetime, or even several lives in some cases. But here, in the present conditions, you can do it in… a few months. Those who have an ardent aspiration can do it in a few MONTHS.

There is no “descent”! That’s another wrong idea. There is no “descent.” It’s something that is ALWAYS here, but you just don’t feel it. There is no descent, that’s a completely wrong idea.

Do you know what the fourth dimension is?

Oh, but it’s precisely the best example modern science can offer—the fourth dimension. The Divine is the fourth dimension for us. It… belongs to the fourth dimension. It’s everywhere, you see—always everywhere. It doesn’t come and go: it’s always there… everywhere. It’s we, it’s our stupidity that keeps us from feeling it. There’s no need to go off anywhere… no need at all, none at all.

To be conscious of your psychic being, you must be able to have felt the fourth dimension, felt it once, otherwise you cannot know what it is…. Oh, Lord!

It’s been seventy years since I’ve known what the fourth dimension is—more than seventy years.

Indispensable, it’s indispensable. Life begins with that. Otherwise, you are in falsehood—in a hodgepodge of confusion and ignorance…. The mind! The mind! The mind!

Otherwise, to be conscious of your own consciousness, you must mentalize it. It’s dreadful, dreadful!

There you are.

There is—there is, but you aren’t conscious of it. You must… you must… it’s the mind that prevents you from feeling it. One Must BE, you see. All you do is mentalize everything—everything. What you call “consciousness” is thinking things out; that’s what you call consciousness. But that’s not it at all! That’s not consciousness. Consciousness… should be wholly lucid and WORDLESS.

Like that… everything becomes luminous and warm and… STRONG!

And peaceful… a true peace, which is not inertia or immobility.

All… no! They are not all the same age, even when they are the same physical age. Some children are primitive. One should…. You see, if you yourself were fully conscious of your psychic being, you would know which children are psychically developed. Some children have only an embryonic psychic—the age of the psychic varies enormously. Normally, it takes several lives for the psychic to become completely formed, and it’s the psychic that passes from one body to another; that’s why we aren’t conscious of our past lives—because we aren’t conscious of our psychic being. But sometimes, at some MOMENT the psychic being participated in a particular event, it became conscious; and that creates a memory. Sometimes you may find you have a partial recollection of something, the fleeting memory of a circumstance or event or thought, or even of an action…. It’s because the psychic was conscious of it.

What would you, I am nearing my hundredth year—it’s only five years away—and I started my effort to become conscious when I was five. It’s a fact. That’s telling you…. And I am going on, and it is going on. Now, of course, I have come to doing the work in the cells of the body, but the work started long ago.

I don’t mean to discourage you, but only to tell you it isn’t done in a wink!

The body… the body is made of a substance that is still very heavy. It is the substance itself that must change for the Supermind to manifest.

That’s all I can say.

14. February 1973 – About Translator’s ego

Sometimes people understand a poor translation better than a good one.

I can’t personally read through everything, it takes too much time.

Manage with them the best you can.

I am hearing (through Nirod) certain things that Sri Aurobindo said, and he says that even he contradicted himself a great number of times…

…and that, of course, the two or three different approaches are all true. So we can afford to be as… as wide as he is!

Truly speaking, his comprehension of things was very supple—very supple. Listening to certain things he said, I felt I had understood very little of what he meant. Now that I am more and more in contact with the supramental Consciousness, I see how supple—supple and complex—it is, and how it is our narrow human consciousness that sees things… (Mother draws little boxes in the air) fixed, cut and dried.

So…. we are under the mind’s sway, and the mind is rigid like this (same little boxes in the air). But I see that as soon as you go beyond the mind, it’s… it’s like waves on the sea.

In a word, we have everything to learn. We try to understand in the mental way, so we understand nothing. We simply demarcate things (same gesture of drawing boxes), and that’s what we call understanding.

When we have thoroughly put everything in boxes (same gesture), then we say we have understood!

17. February 1973 – Our Notions of Good and Evil

I have to cope with everything that contradicts the Divine in the past and the present, and it’s…. In this body. I mean, all the past is surging up from the subconscient, and now even everything that was repressed…. It isn’t something I “feel” or “experience,” but it’s a perception. The perception… yes, of how all our notions of good and evil, right and wrong are futile for the Divine vision, absolutely futile—unreal.

All human notions are so narrow and limited, so partial and tinged with moral preferences.

As if I were being shown everything in the consciousness that opposes the… immensity—the divine immensity. Everything is so narrow, so small….

18. February 1973 – Physical and Moral Violence

Violence is necessary as long as men are ruled by their ego and its desires. But violence must be used only as a means of defense when you are attacked. The ideal towards which humanity is moving and which we want to realize is a state of luminous understanding in which each person’s needs as well as the harmony of the whole are taken into account.

The future will have no need of violence because it will be governed by the Divine Consciousness, in which all things are harmonized and complement each other.

For the moment, we are still in a stage where weapons are necessary. But it should be understood that this is a transitory stage, not a permanent one, and we must strive for the other one.

Peace… peace and harmony will be a natural outcome of the change of consciousness.

You see, in India there reigns the Gandhian concept of nonviolence which has replaced physical violence with moral violence, but it’s far worse!

But if you dare speak against Gandhi, everyone will immediately… oh!

You don’t need to mention his name, you can explain to the children that replacing physical violence with moral violence is no better. Lying down in front of a train to stop it running is a moral violence that can ultimately cause more disorder than physical violence.

There would be a lot to say…. It depends on each case. I myself very much encouraged the practice of fencing because it gives you skill, control over your movements and discipline in violence—I very much encouraged fencing at one time. I learned how to shoot; I used to shoot with a rifle, because it gives you steadiness and skill and a very good eye; and it forces you to remain calm in the midst of danger. All these things are…. I don’t see why one should be hopelessly nonviolent, it only makes a spineless character.

Turn it into an art! An art for cultivating calm, skill and self-control. There’s no need to cry out indignantly as Gandhi would. It’s useless, useless, absolutely useless—I am not at all in favor of it! One should master the means of self-defense, and one should cultivate them in order to do so.

Above all, make them understand that moral violence is just as bad as physical violence. It can even be worse, that is, at least physical violence forces you to become strong and control yourself, whereas moral violence is…. You may be like this [apparently quiet] and harbor the worst moral violence in yourself.

28. February 1973 – Supramental goes from Truth to Truth

But I know it’s on purpose. I am not worried, because I know it’s on purpose. We have a mental way of knowing, which is worthless—truly worthless. As Sri Aurobindo said, it goes from falsehood to truth—whereas the Supramental goes from truth to truth. And it has nothing to do with the mental approach. That I know. When I am completely still, with no one here and none to disturb me, then… (Mother closes her eyes) a certain condition comes… and you feel that if that developed, it… (Mother smiles silently).

You enter a luminous immensity… devoid of any questions.

10. March 1973 – I AM THAT

I think it’s the only thing to do. Personally I keep repeating, “What You will, what You will, what You will…. Let it be as You will, may I do as You will, may I be conscious of what You will.”

And also: “Without You, it’s death; with You, it’s life.” By “death,” I don’t mean physical death—it might happen, it might be that if I lost the contact now, it would be the end—but that’s impossible! I feel that… I AM THAT—With some resistances the present consciousness may still have, that’s all.

And when I see somebody… (Mother opens her hands as if she were offering that person to the Light), regardless of who it is: like this (same gesture).

It’s funny, I constantly feel like a little baby curled up—curled up in… (what term to use?) an all-embracing divine Consciousness.

And the slightest contradiction that enters the atmosphere causes me such discomfort, I feel I won’t be able to stand it.

There, that’s how it is.

Just now I had gone off like that, you see, but I suddenly felt uncomfortable and that pulled me back. It isn’t expressed mentally, it is neither an idea nor even a sensation, it’s… I don’t know what it is. It is like a negation, a painful negation. Which really makes me feel an acute pain, and I am pulled back into this physical consciousness.

14. March 1973 – Being Tranquil

I can’t make head or tail of these things…. I can no longer be of any help, you see, because all these mental combinations don’t make any sense to me anymore.

A spirit of confusion has entered the school, I find.

They all mean the same thing, but they use different words, and the words… clash. Personally, I know they have very similar aspirations, but each one speaks in his own language, and the languages are at cross-purposes, so they quarrel over nothing. That’s the situation!

I think the best would be for everybody to keep quiet for a while.

I too never had any problems with the people around me, but now we seem to speak different languages.

But the effect on me is odd: I have the impression that I am ill—there’s nothing wrong with me, I am in good health, yet I have a constant impression of being ill.

The truth is, it’s the transition from the ordinary mental consciousness to the supramental consciousness. The mental consciousness panics in the presence of the supramental consciousness. The vibration is so different I feel one could die every minute. Only when I am very tranquil….

The old consciousness (which isn’t at all a mental consciousness, but anyway…), the old consciousness keeps repeating its mantra—there is a mantra—it keeps repeating its mantra, which makes a sort of backdrop, a contacting point. It’s very peculiar. But beyond that, there’s something full of light and force, but it’s so new that… it causes almost a panic. And if it does that to me, with the long experience I have… if it has the same effect on others, I think we’ll all end up lunatics! Well.

I think we have to remain very tranquil if we don’t want to lose the thread!

(There follows a long discussion by the teachers)

But our language is… there’s like a cloche over it, a mental cloche it doesn’t want to free itself from.

It is truly a difficult time. I think we should be very, VERY TRANQUIL—very tranquil.

(Mother turns to one of the teachers and to all the teachers)

I will tell you my old mantra. It keeps the outer being very tranquil: OM, Namo, Bhagavateh…. Three words.

To me they meant:

OM: I implore the Supreme Lord.

Namo: I obey Him.

Bhagavateh: Make me divine.

This, I found, has the power to calm everything.

17. March 1973 – A Type of Consciousness

I wanted to know the difference between the trance you knew in the past and the one now?

Completely different.

So it isn’t a “trance.”

No, it’s another type of consciousness. The difference is such that I wonder… sometimes I wonder how it is possible—at times, it is so new, so unexpected it’s almost painful.

So I ask myself, “What?” And externally I see but one solution: externally—I repeat OM Namo Bhagavateh. Constantly—that’s for the outer being. And inside… (gesture, hands open in immobile contemplation)…

…an extraordinary silence. I think I’ve been in it for a few minutes, but sometimes it’s an hour…. And the opposite too: I feel time drags on and on, and it’s been only a few minutes. Which means that time is different. But then, if the value of time changes…. Our time is based on the sun, you see, but there, it is another reference.

It’s a new condition IN Matter.

And ruled by something other than the sun—I don’t know what…. Probably the Supramental consciousness.

At mealtimes, for example, sometimes I think I have eaten very fast, and it has taken me more than an hour. Other times, I feel it took a long time—it took just a few minutes. So if you look at that from an ordinary standpoint, you feel that… people will think you’re crazy. So there’s a sort of recommendation: silence, silence, silence, silence….

The answer was immediately YES, but it wasn’t I who gave the answer.

You see how it is: now, as soon as I try to know something, I feel such a suffocating heat I think I am going to die. There. Do you understand?

19. March 1973 – No Religion

Here we have no religion.

We replace religion with spiritual life, which is truer and both deeper and higher, that is to say, closer to the Divine. For the Divine is in all things, but we are not conscious of it.

This is the immense progress that men must make.

21. March 1973 – Disturbance in the Atmosphere

And to such an extent that it makes me ill.

Yes, quite annoying it is. But there must be a radical remedy, I mean something that shelters you completely. That would be….

Personally, my solution is to curl up materially in the Divine. Only it’s difficult. It’s…. It can be done, but all this (zigzagging gesture in the air) makes a constant disturbance.

24. March 1973 – Talking with Satprem about Caviar

Do you eat caviar?

Satprem: Caviar!

It is a very good food….

Satprem: I’m sure!

I used to eat it, but now I can’t…. Not so long ago I used to eat it, but it made my eyes swell. So I’ve stopped.

(Mother laughs) Try some, and see what you think.

24. March 1973 – About Falsehood

Look…. As I understand it, when Falsehood is gone (even in a single person—when not a vestige remains…), there must be Light, Peace… (Mother stretches her arms out)… Vastness… perfect understanding… the TRUE vision of our world and things, and union, a conscious union with the divine Consciousness.

26. March 1973 – Change of Organisation of the Mind

Cohesion!… But that’s because people are accustomed to using the mind to organize things, that’s all they know: organization as devised by the mind. While we here are trying to change that pattern. We seek a change of government—but the new government isn’t very well-known yet, that’s the difficulty.

Maybe I want to go too fast.

I see clearly… I tend to go too fast, possibly.

28. March 1973 – Backdrop

I turn my consciousness towards myself as little as possible, because… the sensation is VERY unpleasant.

Things are tolerable only when I am turned exclusively towards the Divine and the material consciousness repeats, OM Namo Bhagavateh… Like that. Like a backdrop to everything.

OM Namo Bhagavateh…

You know, a backdrop you can use as a physical support.

OM Namo Bhagavateh…

30. March 1973 – Outbreak of Chickenpox and Mumps

I hope you’re not bringing any of that here?

(the teachers laugh, uncomprehending)

Have you taken all the necessary precautions?… Otherwise it would be a real catastrophe.

(silence)

I hope you took every precaution not to bring me any of it here?

If you haven’t, it’s really a crime (there is almost anguish in Mother’s voice), because….

There’s nothing to explain. It’s a crime. I am not AT ALL protected.

31. March 1973 – The New Consciousness

When I am concentrated in that way, it’s not that I am inside, I am in another kind of consciousness.

And it’s vast, vast, vast, vast—vast.

But it doesn’t have any side! It’s a consciousness (gesture of pressure from above)…. It has no side, it isn’t passive or active—it’s a consciousness… (same gesture of pressure) a consciousness pressing on the world.

You see, you’re trying to translate it mentally, which is impossible—impossible. You have to enter that consciousness… then only will you know what it is. There’s no active or passive, no inside or outside—all that is replaced by something else… which I can’t describe…. There are no words for it.

07. April 1973 – The World’s Resistances

I seem to be gathering all the world’s resistances…. They come to me one after another, and if I weren’t…. If I stop calling the Divine for a single minute, intimately feeling his presence within me, the pain is unbearable, mon petit! To such a point that I now hesitate to speak of “transformation” to people, because if that’s what it is, one really has to be a hero…. You see, there’s something in the body that would almost howl nonstop.

Yet it looks to me that there is something VERY simple to be done to make it all right…. But I don’t know what.

Sometimes I wonder, “Does the Lord want me to leave?” I am quite… quite willing, you know, so that’s not the point; but does He want me to stay?… No answer. No answer except “Transformation.” And that is….

I truly, truly sense there is something to be done that would make everything go right—but I don’t know what it is.

You see, I have a solution for the transformation of the body, but… it’s never been done before, so it’s extremely… hard to believe. I cannot, I cannot believe that that’s it. Yet, it’s the only solution I see…. The body has a wish to go to sleep and awake… (“sleep” in a certain sense, of course: I remain perfectly conscious in consciousness, in the movement) and awake only after it is transformed…

You see, I have a solution for the transformation of the body, but… it’s never been done before, so it’s extremely… hard to believe. I cannot, I cannot believe that that’s it. Yet, it’s the only solution I see…. The body has a wish to go to sleep and awake… (“sleep” in a certain sense, of course: I remain perfectly conscious in consciousness, in the movement) and awake only after it is transformed…

…but people will never have the patience to stand it, to take care of me. The task is colossal, a herculean task; they’re nice (Mother points to the bathroom), but they’re already doing their utmost, and I can’t ask for more.

That’s the problem.

Yet, it’s the only solution to which the consciousness assents: “Yes, that’s it.”

For, you see… there’s a certain state—yes, a state like this (Mother closes a fist), sell-absorbed, in which you are… at peace.

But who? Who? To ask that of the people who take care of me is almost impossible.

10. April 1973 – False Statement

Pranab declares to P.B., one of the Ashram‘s trustees, “Get ready for Mother’s departure.” P.B. asks Satprem through someone, what it means.

11. April 1973 – Message

Beyond man’s consciousness

Beyond speech

O thee, Supreme Consciousness

Unique Reality

Divine Truth…

14. April 1973 – Mother’s Nervous System

My nervous system is being transferred to the Supramental. It feels like… you know, what people call “neurasthenia”—they have no idea what it is; but the entire nervous system is…. It’s worse than dying.

But I think… I think I can transmit the divine Vibration.

But I know it’s my body… this body…. Look, I have accepted—the Lord asked me if I wanted to undergo the transformation, and I said yes (I would have said yes in any event), but it’s… to the ordinary human consciousness, I am going mad.

25. April 1973 – The Body is frightened

Something… It isn’t really painful, it’s just… I think—I think it’s something so new that the body is frightened. That’s the only explanation I see. I start howling, but… it’s no use—the only thing to do is stop howling and change.

Something which…

Yes, that must be it: something so new that the body … doesn’t know how to take it.

You don’t perceive anything in particular?

That must be why! Yes, the body must be getting alarmed. Yes, that must be it.

09. May 1973 – Almost limitless Power

I feel like screaming…. But….

I am eating less and less, so I am constantly uncomfortable—and so weak! Yet, I feel so strong!…

But there’s…. That’s how it is.

When I am still, I have such a power—an almost limitless power.

But when I am in my body, I feel so uncomfortable….

And then everything takes up so much time! I haven’t seen anybody this morning.

They’re all here [waiting at the door]. What can I do, mon petit?

14. May 1973 – Short Marvelous Moments

All the time I have to keep a grip on myself not to howl….

From time to time, there’s a marvelous moment—but it’s short!

Most of the time I am like this (gesture clenched fists), to keep myself from howling.

19. May 1973 – Mother’s last Words

If one knows that and has trust…. But you see, my physical, my body is deteriorating very rapidly—what could stop it from deteriorating?

For me, you see, the question is food.

More and more I find it impossible to eat. Can this body live without food?

I was told that the beginning would take place when I am a hundred; but that’s a long way off!

I really don’t want to say (Mother shakes her head), I don’t want to insist, but… truly…

(Mother speaks with her eyes closed, all the pain of the world is in the shake of her head).

The consciousness is clearer, stronger than it has ever been, and I look like an old…