January 1972
01. 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.
02. 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.
05. 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….
08. 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 colors generally have the following significances, though the exact meaning may vary “with the field, the combinations, the character and shades of the color, 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.