The Mother: I could say: “It is no longer one being among others, it is,” I could say, “it is the Divine in all  things.” But it is not like this that I sense it... It is “that which moves things or which is conscious in things”.  Evidently it is a question of consciousness, but not a consciousness as human beings have ordinarily. It is the quality of consciousness that has changed.


The Mother: I heard something written by Sri Aurobindo, saying that for the Supramental to manifest upon earth the physical mind must receive it and manifest it — and it is just the physical mind, that is to say, the body-mind, the only thing that remains in me now. And then, the reason why only this part has remained became quite clear to me. It is on the way to being converted in a very rapid and interesting manner. This physical mind is being developed under the supramental Inﬂuence. And it is just what Sri Aurobindo has written, that this is indispensable so that the Supramental can manifest itself permanently upon earth.


The Mother: So, it is going on well... but it is not easy ().  Yes.   Yes, yes.


The Mother: It is possible in this way.  But it is radical, my child! You can’t imagine, it is like... I could say truly that I have become another person. There is only this  () which remains as it was....


The Mother: To what extent will it be able to change? Sri Aurobindo has said that if the physical mind were transformed, the transformation of the body would follow We shall see.   Ah! I do not know, because for me everything has simply been taken away from me — the mind has left completely.


The Mother: If you like, in appearance I became stupid, I knew nothing. And it is the physical mind that developed little by little, through successive revelations. For me, I do not know, the work has been done for me — I did nothing. It has been done in a quite radical way.  It could be done because I was conscious of my psychic (the psychic being which has been formed through all the lives), I was very conscious and it has remained; it has remained and it, precisely, has allowed me to have dealings with men without this making any difference, due to this psychic presence.


The Mother: That is why there has been so little apparent change. So I can say only what I know, and I say this: the psychic must remain there dominating the whole being — the whole bodily being — and guiding the life; then the mental has time to transform itself. My own mind proper has simply been sent away.  Well, the transformation of the body-mind was indispensable because I had only that, nothing more, do you understand?... Very few people would accept that ().


The Mother: As for me, it has been done without asking my opinion. The work was very easy.  That is exactly what has happened.  ( )


The Mother: But would you accept what has happened to  me, that is to say, the individual, the person, feeling absolutely imbecile?  Would that not make you despair?  Well, it is a thing that settles itself, so to say, in a permanent way: the nothingness of the person, its absolute nothingness, incapacity. And then you are... you are at ease, you are quite naturally like a child; you say to the Divine: “Do everything for me” (there is nothing else to do, there is nothing else one can do!), then everything becomes all right immediately — immediately.


The Mother: Well, the body has given itself entirely, it had even said to the Divine: “I pray to you to make me will for my dissolution if I am to die”, so that I do not resist if it is necessary for the body to die — even to will for my dissolution. That is its attitude, it was like that (). And instead of that there came a sort of... (I could translate it by words, but they were not words): “If you accept suffering and ailments, transformation is better than dissolution.” And so when there is ailment, it accepts.


The Mother: It is not that, what I say is... it is not really that, but it is something difﬁcult to explain. It is really a new attitude and a new sensation. I am not able to say it.  And evidently, for each one it must be different....


The Mother: For me it has been very radical — I had no choice, you understand: it was like that, it is like that. There you are.  But one must really... What has made the thing easy is that the psychic consciousness was wholly in front and governed the life. So it continued quietly without being disturbed.


The Mother: Likewise for seeing and hearing, I came to know that it was not a physical decline, it was simply this: I understand and hear  people only when they think clearly what they say. And I see only that which is... which expresses the inner life, otherwise it is... hazy or veiled; and it is not that the eyes do not see, it is “something”, it is some other thing — everything is new.  ( ) It is true, the body must have goodwill — mine happens to have goodwill. And it is not a mental goodwill, it is truly a bodily goodwill.


The Mother: It accepts all inconveniences.... But it is the attitude that is important, not the consequences (I am sure that the inconveniences are not indispensable); it is the attitude that is important. Well, it must be like this ().  In fact I have found that in the majority of cases surrender to the Divine does not necessarily mean trust in the Divine — because you surrender to the Divine, you say, “Even if you make me suffer, I surrender myself”, but it is an absolute lack of trust! Yes, it is really amusing, surrender trust; trust is something else, it is... a kind of knowledge — an “unshakable” knowledge which nothing can disturb — that it is who change into difﬁculties, sufferings and miseries what, in the Divine Consciousness, is... perfect Peace.


The Mother: It is we who bring about this little transformation.  And extraordinary examples have come... hours would be needed to explain.  Indeed it is the consciousness that must change, even the consciousness of the cells, you understand? ...


The Mother: That is a radical change.  And we have no words to express that, because that does not exist upon earth — it was latent but it was not manifested.  All words are... beside the mark; it is not quite that.  ( )


The Mother: If you like, one could say that at every minute one has the feeling  that one may live or one may die ( ) or one may live eternally. At every minute it is like that. And the difference (between the two sides) is so imperceptible that one cannot say: do this and you will be on this side, do that and you will be on the other side. This is not possible. It is a that is almost indescribable.


The Mother: A letter of Sri Aurobindo was read to me in which he said that for the Supramental to be ﬁxed here (he had seen that the Supramental came into him and then it withdrew, and then it came back again and again withdrew — it was not stable); for it to become stable it must enter and settle itself in the physical mind. It is this work which is being done in me for months now: the mind has been withdrawn and the physical mind has taken its place, and precisely, for some time, I have noticed that it was... (I was telling you that it was seeing everything in a different way, that its relation with things was different), I have noticed that this physical mind, the mind that is in the body, became wide, it had a global view of things, and its entire way of seeing was absolutely different. I have seen, it is this: the Supramental is at work there. I am passing through extraordinary hours.


The Mother: What is happening is that it is only things that resist —  one feels (I have already told you) that it is as though at every moment (and it is becoming stronger and stronger), at every moment: Do you want life, do you want death; do you want life, do you want death?... And it is like that. And then, life, it is union with the Supreme, and the consciousness, an new consciousness comes. And it is this way, it is that way  ().


The Mother: But yesterday or the day before, I do not know, all of a sudden the body said: No! It is ﬁnished — I want life, I want nothing else. And since then, things are getting better.   Oh!


The Mother: Volumes would be needed to narrate what is happening.... It is... extraordinarily interesting and new. New altogether.  (.)  Because of physical death, the subconscient is a defeatist.


The Mother: Well, the subconscient has the feeling that whatever be the progress, whatever the effort, it will always end by that, because till today it has always ended that way. So the work that is being done is to try to introduce faith, the certitude of transformation, into the subconscient. And that... it is a struggle of every moment.   It is the festival of the Light — No¨el is the festival of the returning Light....


The Mother: It is very much older than Christianity.  And next Saturday is the ﬁrst of January.  ( ) I am more and more convinced that we receive things and react in a way that difﬁculties — I am more and more convinced of it.


The Mother: Because I have experiences hardly agreeable, physically, materially, and then everything changes according to whether one pays attention to it or not, according to an attitude like this () in which one looks at oneself living, or else an attitude in which one is () in all things, in movement, in life, and an attitude in which one gives importance only to the Divine; if one is able to be like this all the time, there is no difﬁculty — and things remain the same. This is the experience: the thing in itself is of a certain kind, and it is our reaction with respect to the thing which differs. The experience is more and more conclusive. There are three categories: our attitude towards things, the things in themselves (these two always bring difﬁculties), and there is a third category in which everything, everything exists in relation to the Divine, in the Consciousness of the Divine — everything goes on wonderfully! Easy!


The Mother: And I speak of material things, of the material physical life (morally speaking it has long been known to be like that), but things material, that is to say, the small inconveniences of the body, its reactions, having pain or not, circumstances going bad, not being able to swallow — things most trivial to which no attention is paid when one is young and strong and healthy; no attention is paid and for everybody it is so; but when one lives in the consciousness of  his body and of what happens to it, the way it receives, what comes and all that — oh! it is misery. When one lives in the consciousness of others, of what they want, what they need, their relation with you — it is misery! But if you live in the Divine Presence and if the Divine does all, sees all, is all... it is Peace — it is Peace — time has no more duration, everything is easy and... it is not that one feels a joy nor that one feels...


The Mother: it is not that, it is the Divine who is there. And that is the solution.   And it is towards that that the world is moving: towards the Consciousness of the Divine — the Divine who does, the Divine who is, the Divine... And then identically the same circumstances (I do not speak of different circumstances), identically the same circumstances (this is my experience of these days, so concrete!)


The Mother: — the day before yesterday I was quite unwell, and yesterday the circumstances were the same, my body was in the same state, everything the same and... all was peaceful.  Of this I am absolutely convinced.  This explains everything. This explains everything, everything, everything.  The world is the same — it is seen and felt in an absolutely opposite way.


The Mother: Everything is a phenomenon of consciousness — everything.  Only, not this consciousness, neither this one nor that one; it is not that. It is our way, the human way of being conscious, or the divine way of being conscious. There you are. The whole matter is there.


The Mother: And I am absolutely convinced.  ( )  Yes.   It is like death.


The Mother: Well, it is a transitional phenomenon and it appears to us that it has been always so — for us it has been always so because our consciousness is like that ( ) — but when you have this Divine Consciousness, oh!... things become almost instantaneous, you understand. I cannot explain.  There a movement, there a progression, there what is translated for us by time; that exists, it something... it is something in the consciousness.... It is difﬁcult to say...


The Mother: it is like a picture and its projection. It is something like that. All things , and for us it is as though we see them projected on the screen, they come one after another. It is somewhat like that.  Yes, it is so.


The Mother: It is so. But for me, it is an experience. It is not a thing that I “think” (I do not think), it is an experience. And it is difﬁcult to explain.  And the effect the thing produces in us, the sensation it brings to us depends exclusively on the attitude of our consciousness.


The Mother: And then, the consciousness of being in oneself or in everything: to be in everything is already a little better than to be oneself egoistically, but it has advantages, it has inconveniences, and it is not the Truth; the Truth is... the Divine as the totality — the totality in time and in space. And that is a consciousness which the body have, for this body had it (momentarily, for  moments), and so long as it has it, everything is so much... well, it is not delight, it is not pleasure, it is not happiness, it is nothing of the kind... a kind of blissful peace... and luminous... and creative.... It is magniﬁcent. Only, it comes, it goes, it comes, it goes....


The Mother: And when you come out of it, you have the feeling of dropping into a horrible hole — our ordinary consciousness (I mean the ordinary human consciousness) is a horrible hole.  But you know also why it was momentarily so; that is to say, it is necessary in order to pass from the one to the other — all that happens is necessary for the full unfoldment of the goal of the creation. One might say: the goal of the creation is that the creature must become conscious like the Creator. There! It is a phrase, but it is in that direction.


The Mother: The goal of this creation is this Consciousness of the Inﬁnite, the Eternal who is Omnipotent — Inﬁnite, Eternal, Omnipotent (called God by our religions: for us, in relation to life, it is the Divine) — Inﬁnite and Eternal, Omnipotent... beyond time; each individual particle possessing this Consciousness, each individual particle containing this same Consciousness.   It is division that has created the world and it is in division that the Eternal manifests itself.   Our language is... (or our consciousness) inadequate.


The Mother: Later on I shall be able to say.  Something happening — there you are ().  Bon No¨el, my child — the festival of the Light.   I have observed that people were insincere simply because one part of the being says one thing and another part says another thing. It is that which constitutes insincerity.


The Mother: But that is true so long as one is not uniﬁed, my child. As for me it has been the same thing ( ) for years and years. It comes from there, it is the psychic consciousness, and it is.  I have had recently for some moments the experience of un-uniﬁed consciousness, but it has not been like that for years and years, at least for thirty years. Directly the psychic being became the master, began ruling the being, it was — ﬁnished, and it has been like that ( ).


The Mother: This indeed is a sure sign, always like that, always the same. And it is always the same thing: “What Thou willest, what Thou willest.” And this “Thou” is not something that is up there in some far-off region and whom one does not know: He is everywhere, He is in everything, He is there constantly, He  is within the being — and you cling to Him in that way; this the only solution.   This is a recent discovery of mine.


The Mother: It is the discovery why people are insincere (even when they try to be sincere) — because it is now one part, now another part and now a third part that is so; that part is then quite sincere in its demands, but it is not in consonance with the rest.   Yes.  Yes...  Yes.


The Mother: But, my child, that happened to me, as I told you, at least thirty years ago.  The psychic consciousness was always there ruling the being and guiding it. And all impressions, everything was placed before it in this way () so that it might give the right direction. And the physical also was all the time as though listening always to the command from the Divine. But the thing was constant, constant — I came here.


The Mother: I came here in that state — it was long ago. And the thing has not ﬂickered. It is only recently that I had this experience  one night for some hours, two to three hours — well, it was horrible, it appeared to me hellish. It was to make me know, to make me understand the condition of others. And then, when the psychic is no longer there...


The Mother: The body is like this, always listening, listening, always listening () — listening. But the thing is not expressed in words, — the Divine’s command, — it expresses itself just like a will asserting itself ( ).  Need I add anything to make it precise?  That means the physical also.   This message is a saying of Sri Aurobindo’s — they have made out as though it was my saying.


The Mother: It was Sri Aurobindo who wrote it, I simply said: Sri Aurobindo has said “permanently”.   (Mother laughs)  ( )  But it would be wiser to speak of it when it has been done!


The Mother: When it has been installed, then... For the moment... ( ).  Very difﬁcult. It is very difﬁcult.


The Mother: You must begin by obtaining the silence at will. To obtain the silence at any moment. I believe that is the starting-point.   (Mother laughs)  The mind now has lost the habit of running about.


The Mother: That habit it must lose.  I do not know, because for me it was spontaneous. Only when someone speaks to me or when something comes to shake me out of it ... otherwise, left to itself, quite naturally it is like that ().... Perhaps that is the way (): contemplating the Divine in this manner.


The Mother: ()  It is that, the natural state (). Strangely enough it is even translated by... a sensation in the body, the sensation of being wholly enveloped, just as if a baby were swathed.  Yes, truly it is like that, being enveloped by the Divine ( ).  (


The Mother: ) It is now two or three days, I do not remember exactly, there was a great difﬁculty and then immediately I felt myself enveloped () like a baby being carried in the arms of the Divine.  You understand, it was like that. It was as though I was a baby being carried in the arms of the Divine. And then... after a time (but it was rather long) when it had been solely in the Divine Presence like that, the pain disappeared. It did not even ask for the pain to go, it left.


The Mother: It took a little time, it left.   I had completely, completely the feeling of being a baby enveloped () in the arms of the Divine. Extraordinary.  ( )


The Mother: Well, for a time it is like that: “What Thou willest, what Thou willest” and then that too falls silent... ( ).  ()  Yes.  Ah!


The Mother: Indeed, it is the feeling of a baby’s powerlessness, you understand? But it is not a thing “thought out”, “willed”, it is absolutely spontaneous, and then from there you pass into a state... ().  So long as there is this feeling of someone who wills, who does a thing and all that, it is useless... ( ).   ()


The Mother: () I believe, yes! ( ) Do you not feel Him?  Ah!...   It is like that. It is like an imperative command: Go straight, else all will go wrong.


The Mother: It is becoming terrible, terrible. It is like a Pressure — a frightful Pressure — to bring about the desired progress. I feel it in myself for my body. But my body is not afraid, it says ( ): “Very well, if I am to end, it is the end.” Every minute it is like that: the true thing ( ) or the end.


The Mother: That is what seems to have come down — you know I said that something had come down (it is written somewhere) and we shall know one day, we shall know very soon what it is. You have read it, haven’t you?  But it is that, it is a kind of... no half-measure, no compromise, no approximation, no... not that. It is this ( ).  And it is so for the body, at every minute there is an imperative: it is life or it is death.


The Mother: It is not the approximation which has lasted indeﬁnitely. For centuries it was neither altogether bad, nor altogether good — it is no longer so.  The body knows that this is the way for the supramental body to be formed: it must be under the inﬂuence of the  Divine — no compromise, no approximation, no “it will come”, not so: it is like this (), a formidable Will.  But... it is the only way for things to go fast.  ()


The Mother: Yes, yes.  It is not incapacity.  Bad will. Egoism — what we call egoism — the egoism of Matter...


The Mother: ... that does not want to submit.  That I know. I am catching my body all the while, here, there, here, there. It wants to go about it in its very ordinary dawdling way.  Yes, it is that.


The Mother: Yes. But it can never be stable unless it is linked to the Divine. If you are like this ( ), then automatically when the moment becomes quite critical, it goes over to the right side, yes, it goes over to the right side. It is as though all the while you had the feeling that you were hovering between life and death, and the moment you take the right attitude — when the takes the right attitude — it goes all right.


The Mother: Quite naturally and easily it goes all right. It is wonderful. But it is a tremendous thing, because there is a perpetual danger. Well, perhaps, I do not know, a hundred times during the day there is a feeling: life or (for the cells, I mean), life or disintegration; and then if they do not contract, as they usually have the habit to do, everything goes all right. But they are learning to...


The Mother: ( ), then it is all right.  It is as though by a kind of compulsion the body was being taught eternity. It is truly interesting. And then I see that the external circumstances are becoming frightful (from the ordinary point of view).


The Mother: ( )  Have you anything to say?  Yes.   for you


The Mother: Yes, it is that. But then, there are experiences, hundreds of them, that the very minute you take the right attitude, the thing is It is who prevent the thing from being done... as though our own control prevented the Force from acting; it is something like that. One must... ().   (


The Mother: )  I believe, I believe that it is the subconscient which has been convinced that if it does not maintain its control all will go wrong. That is my impression. It is that thing, it is that which says, “Ah, be on your guard, take care.”...  ()


The Mother: For the ﬁrst time, early in the morning, I saw myself, my body — I do not know whether it is the supramental body or... (how to say it?) a body in transition, but I had a body altogether new, in the sense that it was sexless — it was not a woman nor was it a man.  It was very white. But it is because my skin is white, I believe, I do not know.  It was very slim () — it was pretty. Truly a harmonious form.


The Mother: So it was the ﬁrst time. I did not know at all, I had no idea of what it would be like, none at all, and I saw — I like that, I had become like that.   Yes, but I like that. It was myself. I did not see myself in a mirror: I saw myself like that ( ).


The Mother: I was... I was like that.  It was for the ﬁrst time. It was at four o’clock in the morning, I believe. It was quite natural — I did not look in a mirror, I was quite natural.


The Mother: I remember only what I saw ( ). I had only a veil on me, so I saw only... it was the trunk that was quite different from the chest down to the waist: neither man nor woman.  And it was pretty. I had a form very very slim, very slender — very slender but not thin.


The Mother: And the skin was very white; the skin was like my skin. A very pretty form. But no sex, you could not say — neither man nor woman; sex had disappeared.   Also there (), all that: nothing.


The Mother: I do not know how to say it. It was like a semblance, but had no form at all (), not even as much as men have. A very white skin, all very even. No belly, so to say. The stomach — no stomach.


The Mother: All that was slim.  Well, I did not pay any special attention because I was like that and I found it quite natural. It was the ﬁrst time and it was in the night, the day before yesterday. And last night I saw nothing — that was the ﬁrst and only time till now.  It must have been so in the subtle physical.


The Mother: There! I do not know... I do not know. I do not know.


The Mother: Also, it was clear that there should not be any complicated process of digestion nor of elimination as now. It was not like that.  But how?... Evidently the food is already very different and becoming more and more different (as for example glucose, things that do not need a complicated digestion). But how is the body itself going to change?


The Mother: I do not know. I do not know.  I did not look to see how it was, because it was quite natural, so I cannot give a detailed description. Simply, it was neither the body of a woman nor the body of a man — that is clear. And the “outline”, the silhouette, was almost the same as that of a very very young person.


The Mother: There was a sort of semblance to human forms (), there was a shoulder and a ﬁgure. As though the semblance of a form.  I see it, but... I saw it as one sees oneself. And there was a kind of veil that I had put on just to cover myself.


The Mother: It was a mode of being, not surprising to me, it was a natural mode of being.  It must be like that in the subtle physical.   Yes, how?  But it is the same mystery as the passage from the chimpanzee to a man.


The Mother: But there was not much difference in appearance here ( ): there were the shoulders, the arms, a body, a ﬁgure like that, legs. All that was the same, only it was...   They are similar.  No, there must have been respiration — on the contrary, the shoulders were broad (). That is important.


The Mother: Only the chest was neither feminine nor masculine, but just a semblance.  And then all that — stomach, belly, etc. — they were just an outline, a very slim and harmonious form, but it certainly had not the use to which we put our body.   The two things very very different: ﬁrst, procreation, of which there was no possibility there; secondly, the food. But it is quite clear that the food now is not that of chimpanzees nor that of the ﬁrst men.


The Mother: It is very different. And now the question is to ﬁnd a food which needs no complicated digestion.... Here it seems to me that the food should not be positively liquid, but not solid either. And then there is the question of the mouth — I do not know.


The Mother: The teeth? Evidently there is no more need of chewing and so the teeth have no more... But there must be something in their place.... That I do not know at all, at all, how the face was, but it did not seem to have a very different look from what it is now.  Evidently, what will change very much, which had become very important, was breathing.


The Mother: It is upon this that this being greatly depended.   Yes. But probably there will be intermediary beings that will not last very long, like the intermediary beings that were between the chimpanzee and man.  But I do not know, something must happen that has not happened till now.


The Mother: ( )   Yes, but how?


The Mother: Is that (), is that going to change?  It must change or it has to follow the old ordinary process of undoing itself and remaking itself.... I do not know.... Evidently life can be much prolonged, there are examples but... I do not know.


The Mother: I do not know.   Ah!... But how?


The Mother: Yes, but how?   ( ) Yes, the person that I was the night before yesterday, evidently if it materialised itself...


The Mother: But how?   (.)  One knows nothing!  Strange how one knows nothing.  (


The Mother: )  The breath, yes, that, that is important.   For centuries and centuries humanity has waited for this time.  It is come. But it is difﬁcult.


The Mother: I don’t simply tell you we are here upon earth to rest and enjoy ourselves, now 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.


The Mother: 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.


The Mother: All sincere effort will be helped to the maximum.  It is the hour to be heroic.  Heroism is not what it is said to be: it is to become wholly uniﬁed — and the Divine help will always be with those who have resolved to be heroic in full sincerity. There!  You are here at this moment, that is to say upon earth, because you chose it at one time — you do not remember it any more, but I know it — that is why you are here.


The Mother: Well, you must rise to the height of the task. You must strive, you must conquer all weaknesses and limitations; above all you must tell your ego: “Your hour is gone.” We want a race that has no ego, that has in place of the ego the Divine Consciousness. It is that which we want: the Divine Consciousness which will allow the race to develop itself and the supramental being to take birth.  If you believe that I am here because I am bound — it is not  true.


The Mother: I am not bound, I am here because my body has been given for the ﬁrst attempt at transformation. Sri Aurobindo told me so. Well, I am doing it. I do not wish anyone to do it for me because... because it is not very pleasant, but I do it willingly because of the results; everybody will be able to beneﬁt from it.


The Mother: I ask only one thing: do not listen to the ego.  If there is in your hearts a sincere Yes, you will satisfy me completely. I do not need words, I need the sincere adhesion of your hearts. That’s all.   It is strange how human nature resists that.


The Mother: Ordinary human nature is such that it prefers defeat through its own will to victory gained otherwise. I am discovering things... incredible — incredible.  The depth of human stupidity is incredible. Incredible.  It is as though this Force of which I have spoken was going down like that (), deeper and deeper, towards the subconscient.


The Mother: In the subconscient, there are things... incredible — incredible. I am passing night after night seeing that. And the Force goes down and down,.  And then the human subconscient cries out, “Oh! Not yet, not yet — not so soon!”


The Mother: And it is against that that one must struggle. It is the general subconscient.  And naturally, the resistance brings about catastrophes, but then one says, “Just see, see how beneﬁcial is your action! It brings catastrophes.” Incredible, incredible stupidity.


The Mother: One must remain... remain clinging to the Divine.   Don’t you see? Has it not good reasons for itself? It says, “Just see, just see where it leads, you see.”...


The Mother: Oh! It is... it is not merely resistance, it is perverse.   It is a perversity.


The Mother: It is a perversity.  No, there is only to... If one were able not to listen, it would be better; but if you listen, you have only to answer, “I don’t care, I don’t care” — all the while. “You will become a fool” — “I don’t care.” “You will spoil all your work” — “I don’t care.”...


The Mother: To all these perverse arguments you answer: “I don’t care.”  If you can have the experience that it is the Divine who is doing everything, then with an unshakable faith you say, “All your arguments have no value; the delight of being with the Divine, conscious of the Divine, surpasses everything — surpasses the creation, surpasses life, surpasses happiness, surpasses success, surpasses everything.” ( ) That!


The Mother: Then everything is all right, there is an end of the thing.  It is as though That was pushing into the light, was forcing into the light, into contact with this Force all the worst that there is in the nature... so that it may be ended.  And then That clings to what in us was of goodwill.  A moment does come when it is absolutely wonderful, but you pass through hours that are not pleasant.


The Mother: ( ) That is absurd, absurd! It is the resistance that will be wholly swept away.


The Mother: But...  ( )  I have more and more the feeling that there is only one way.... () It makes an amusing picture: sit upon the mind.


The Mother: Sit upon the mind: “Keep quiet.” That is the only way.  You sit upon the mind (): “Keep quiet.”  ( )


The Mother: In the subconscient there is the memory of bygone, so it is this memory that always gives the feeling that everything will be dissolved, everything will collapse.  But if one looks with the true light, it can only be one manifestation that will dissolve and there will be a more beautiful manifestation. Th´eon had told me that this was the seventh and the last. I told Sri Aurobindo what Th´eon had said and Sri Aurobindo agreed, because he said: This one will see the transformation towards the Supramental. But for that, for the Supramental, the mind must: and that gives me always the feeling () that a child is sitting on the head of the mind and playing () on the head of the mind!...


The Mother: If I could still draw a picture, it would be truly amusing. The mind — this fat earthly mind ( ) which considers itself so important and indispensable, and then the child sitting on its head and playing!  It is very amusing.   Ah, my child, we have no faith. As soon as one has faith...


The Mother: We say, “We want the divine life” — yet we are afraid of it! But as soon as fear goes away and we are sincere... everything changes truly.  We say, “We do not want any more this life”, and ( ) something is there that clings to it!   It is so ridiculous.


The Mother: We cling to our old ideas, our old... to this old world which must disappear — and we are afraid!  And the Divine child seated on the head of the mind and playing!... I wish I could draw this picture, it is wonderful.  We are so stupid that we even come to say ( ): “The Divine is wrong, he should not do like that.”


The Mother: It is comical, my child.  ( )  For me, the best remedy (that is to say, the easiest) is: “What Thou willest. What Thou willest”, in all sincerity.


The Mother: And then — then comes understanding. Then you understand. But you do not understand mentally, it is not there ( ).   “What Thou willest.”


The Mother: ()  I believe I already told you that there is as though a golden Force which is pressing down () that has no material consistence and yet seems to be tremendously heavy... ... and which is pressing upon Matter, thus, to compel it to turn towards the Divine not an outward escape ( ), but inwardly to turn to the Divine. And so the apparent result is as though catastrophes were inevitable. And yet along with this perception of inevitable catastrophe, there are at the same time solutions to the situation, events which come about that are by themselves altogether miraculous. It is as though the two extremes were becoming more extreme, as though what is good was becoming better and what is bad becoming worse.


The Mother: It is like that. With the formidable Power that is upon the world — that was my impression.  Yes, it is felt like that (). And then in the circumstances, many things that happen generally in an indifferent way become acute; situations, differences become acute; bad wills become acute;, at the same time, extraordinary miracles — extraordinary! People are saved who were about to die, things that were inextricable all of a sudden get sorted out.


The Mother: And then, for individuals also, it is the same thing.  They who know how to turn towards... (how to say it?) who sincerely call the Divine, who feel that it is the only salvation, the only way out, and who sincerely give themselves, then ( ) in a few minutes it becomes wonderful. For the smallest things — there is nothing small or big, important or unimportant — it is all the same.  The values change.  It is as though the vision of the world changes.


The Mother: ( )  It is, as it were, to give an idea of the change in the world by the descent of the Supramental. Truly things that were neutral become absolute: a little error becomes categorical in its consequences, and a little sincerity, a little true aspiration becomes miraculous in its result. The values have intensiﬁed in people, and even from the material point of view the smallest fault, the very smallest, has big consequences, and the least sincerity in the aspiration has wonderful results.


The Mother: The values have intensiﬁed, become precise.   Yes, yes, perfectly so.  The perception of the whole is that everything is... everything is willed with a view to the conscious ascent of the world.


The Mother: The consciousness is preparing to become divine. And it is perfectly true: what we consider as faults are altogether part of the ordinary human conception, altogether, altogether.   But it is not a fault, it is an imbecility!  Well, it is very simple. The whole creation must want nothing but the Divine, nothing but to manifest the Divine.


The Mother: And all that it does, even all its so-called errors, are only means towards making it inevitable for the whole creation to manifest the Divine — but not the “Divine” as man conceives him to be, “this and not that”, with all kinds of restrictions: a of tremendous power and light. It is truly the Power in the world, a new and tremendous Power that has come into the world and must manifest itself and must make “manifestable” (if one may so put it) this Divine All-Power.  I have come to this conclusion. I have looked, I have observed and I have seen that what we call “supramental”, lacking a better word, this Supramental makes the creation more sensitive to the higher Power; we call that “divine” because we... It is divine in relation to what we are, but...


The Mother: It is something ( ) which must make Matter more sensitive and more... “responsive” to the Force. How to say it? At present whatever is invisible or insensible is unreal for us (I mean to say for the human being in general). We say that there are “concrete” things and things that are not so; yet this Puissance, this Power that is, becomes more concretely powerful upon earth than earthly material things. Yes, it is that.


The Mother: This is the protection and the means of defence for supramental beings. It will be a thing which is not material in appearance but which has a greater power than material things. This is becoming more and more true from day to day, from hour to hour — the feeling that this Force, when it is directed by what we call “the Divine”, it, truly it can — you understand — it has the power to move Matter, it can produce a accident; and it can efface the consequences of an absolutely material thing — it is stronger than... Matter. This  is what is altogether new and incomprehensible; and therefore it produces a kind of panic in the ordinary consciousness of people.


The Mother: Yes, it is that. It seems... it is what it was. And truly there is something new — it is as it was.  All our common sense, all our logic, all our practical sense is dashed to the ground!


The Mother: Useless! It has no force any more, no reality any more; it no longer corresponds to what is. It is truly a new world.  ( )


The Mother: It is this in the body which ﬁnds it difﬁcult to adapt itself to this new Power and creates the disorder and difﬁculties, the illnesses. But all of a sudden one feels that if one were wholly receptive, one would become formidable. That is the impression — the impression I am having more and more, that if the whole consciousness (the whole of the most material consciousness — the most material) were receptive to this new Power... one would become for-mi-da-ble.  ( )


The Mother: But one essential condition: the reign of the ego must be ended.  The ego is now the obstacle. The ego must be replaced by the divine consciousness — Sri Aurobindo himself called it “supramental”; we can call it supramental so that there might not be any misunderstanding, because when one speaks of “the Divine”, immediately people think of a “God”, and that spoils everything. It is not that. No, it is not that.


The Mother: ( ) It is the descent of the supramental world, which is not a purely imaginative thing (), it is an material Power. But () it has no need of material means.  A world which wants to take a body in the world.    ()


The Mother: Several times there have been moments when my body felt a kind of new unease and anxiety; and there was as though something which was not a voice, but which translated itself in words in my consciousness: “Why are you afraid? It is the new consciousness.” It came several times. And then I understood.


The Mother: ( )  You understand; it is this which in the human common sense says: “It is impossible, that has never been”; it is this which has come to an end. It is ﬁnished, it is foolish. It has become a stupidity.


The Mother: One might say: it is possible it has never been. It is the new world and it is the new consciousness and it is the new Power, it is possible, and this is and will be more and more manifested it is the new world, because it has never been.  It will be because it has never been.   (


The Mother: )  It is beautiful: it will be because it has never been — it has never been.   ( )


The Mother: It is not material and it is more concrete than Matter!  Crushing, yes, it is that.... Oh! It is...  All that is not receptive feels the crushing, but whatever is receptive feels on the contrary something like a... powerful widening.


The Mother: Both at the same time.   Yes, but that which is crushed is the thing that resists, that is not receptive. It has only to open itself. And then the thing becomes as though... a formidable thing....


The Mother: It is extraordinary.  It is our habit of centuries, is it not, which resists and gives this impression; but whatever opens out... one feels as though one became large, large, large.... It is magniﬁcent. Oh!


The Mother: It is...   I see clearly: it is the consciousness which is directing and not the thought. So, if the consciousness is quietly open to the Divine, everything is all right. All the while things are happening in the consciousness as if all that was coming from the whole world (): all that denies or contradicts the divine Action — that is coming thus all the time ( ). And so, if I know how to be quiet ( ), in an attitude of... () of nonexistence, a kind of...


The Mother: I do not know if it is transparency... I do not know if it should be called transparency or immobility; in any case it is something in the consciousness that is like this ( ); when the consciousness is like that everything goes well, but as soon as it starts moving, that is to say, the person shows itself in any way, it becomes detestable. But it is very strong.  You know, there are a thousand experiences of the physical body which say: “Ooh! This beatiﬁc state is an impossibility” — it is this stupidity which delays everything.


The Mother: It is as though it were the cells — the cells of the body — that are accustomed to ﬁght and suffer and are unable to accept that things could be like that (). But when it is like that... it is wonderful.  Only, it does not last. It does not last all the time — all the time, all the time things are happening ( ). But now I see very well, very clearly — very clearly: consciousness is replacing thought.


The Mother: And... (how to say it?) the difference: thought is something which goes this way (), it moves, it moves... consciousness is something that is like this ( ). I cannot explain.   ()


The Mother: Do you have anything to say or ask?  If one could remain without being troubled, that would make a great difference.  A great difference.  You understand? My body is beginning — just beginning — to know that the divine side means a life ( ), a life progressive and luminous; but the accumulation of past experiences says: “Oh!


The Mother: It is not possible!” There you are, and so it is this idiotic “not possible” which delays and spoils things.  This is based upon the fact that as soon as the body gives up the true attitude, it becomes painful, everything hurts, everything is suffering — the impression is there as of death, of dissolution everywhere. Therefore it is that which strengthens... the imbecility of Matter.  So, to tell the truth, I would rather not speak unless it is to answer a precise question.


The Mother: ( ) Do you feel that you have passed beyond thought?   Yes, then it is all right, you are on the right path.


The Mother: Well, for me, all the things on which I used to rely for action have as though crumbled down purposely so that I may say (for everything, even the most triﬂing things): “What Thou willest.”  It has become... it has become my only refuge.   To an ordinary observer who does not know, one has to agree to pass for a blockhead.


The Mother: Possibly. () So much the better for them.


The Mother: ( )  Very often, very often, I ask the Lord, “How can I help, now that I can no more see clearly nor speak clearly?” It is a state.... And the body does not feel the decline!


The Mother: It is convinced that if tomorrow the Lord wanted it to take up again its activities, it would be able to do so. The strength is there ( ), at times a mighty strength! ... Why!... The condition is willed so that...


The Mother: I might be left quiet.   Yes, that I know. That I know. Tremendous. Yes, a Force....


The Mother: ( )  In the subconscient all the contradictions are accumulated.  And it rises thus (), all the time, all the time. And then...


The Mother: you have the feeling that you are absolutely imbecile, inconscient, of bad will. And all this ( ).  And the consciousness is there (), peaceful, extraordinarily peaceful... ( ) “May Thy Will be done, O Lord.” And then that puts a pressure upon what is coming from below.


The Mother: It is as though the battle of the world was being fought within my consciousness.  It has come to such a point that to forget, to forget the Divine even for a minute spells a catastrophe.  And with you, how is it?   Yes.


The Mother: It is not merely that of one person, it is the subconscient of the earth. It is interminable. And yet one must...  So, to stop that means to stop the work. To continue that means it would take time....


The Mother: I do not know... it is interminable.   Clearly, yes, clearly, to stop that means to stop the work. It is as though in the consciousness there ( ) lay the centre of junction and action.  So I have but one means, to keep quiet, quiet, quiet ( )... to have the feeling that individuality is nothing, nothing, nothing — it allows the divine rays to pass.


The Mother: This is the only solution. It is the Divine who... who must do the battling.  ()  Perhaps not.


The Mother: Yes.... You know, I have the feeling that the person is like an image for ﬁxing one’s attention. Men have need of something — they have always had the need of something of their dimension so that they can ﬁx their attention. And so the body does all it can in order not to be an obstruction to the Divine Force which passes through, it seeks to annul its interception, and at the same time it sees that it is... as though an image that men need to ﬁx their attention.  The whole subconscient... ( .) ()  It is not a sensation, it is not knowledge, it is a kind of...


The Mother: ( )... it cannot be called a conviction: it is a certitude — a certitude in the perception — that there is a Beatitude which... which is there, ready for us, and that there is a whole world of contradictions suppressed in the subconscient which comes up in this way to prevent us from feeling it. So... one might say it is a battleﬁeld, but in a perfect calm. It is impossible to describe.  Impossible to describe.


The Mother: So, if I do not move and if I enter into this Consciousness, time passes with a tremendous speed and in a kind of... luminous calm. And then, the slightest thing that pulls me out of it, it is as though I was dragged into a hell. That is it.   The unease is so great that you feel you cannot live one minute or a few minutes in that way.


The Mother: And then... and then you call the Divine... then you feel you nestle within the Divine.  Then it is all right.   I have had for a moment — just a few seconds — the supramental consciousness.


The Mother: It was so wonderful, my child!... I have understood that if we were made to taste of that now, we would not wish to live otherwise. And we are in the course of ( ) changing laboriously. And the change, the process of the change, seems... One can have it through a sort of indifference (I do not know how to say it).


The Mother: But it does not last for long. And generally it is laborious.  But that consciousness, it is so wonderful, you know!  And it is a very interesting thing, for it is, as it were, an  activity in a complete peace. But that lasted only a few seconds.


The Mother: ()  And you?  It is extraordinary. It is like the harmonisation of contraries. An activity, yes, total, tremendous, and a perfect peace.


The Mother: But all these are words.  ( ) The action is a material action — but not in the same manner.  ( )


The Mother: I do not know, because for me the consciousness, including that of the body, is always () turned constantly towards the... what it feels as the Divine.  And that without “trying”, you understand?   You have nothing to ask?  He had gathered in his body a great amount of supramental force and as soon as he left...


The Mother: You see, he was lying on his bed, I stood by his side, and in a way altogether concrete — concrete with such a strong sensation as to make one think that it could be seen — all this supramental force which was in him passed from his body into mine. And I felt the friction of the passage. It was extraordinary — extraordinary. It was an extraordinary experience. For a long time, a long time like that ().


The Mother: I was standing beside his bed, and that continued.   Almost a sensation — it was a material sensation.   For a long time.


The Mother: That is all I know.   Oh! Yes, that, surely. Surely.


The Mother: Well, this is the mental way of looking at things — I do not have it any more.   ( )  There is a difference in the for action. He himself possesses more action, more power for action, now than when in his body.


The Mother: Besides, it is for that that he left, because it was necessary to act in that way.  It is very concrete. His action has become very concrete.  Evidently it is something which is not at all mental. It is from another region.


The Mother: But it is not ethereal nor... it is concrete. One could almost say that it is material.  Both must be there.   Yes.


The Mother: (.)   So it is going to be the new year....  ( ) Things have taken an extreme form.


The Mother: So there is, as it were, an uplift of the atmosphere towards a splendour... almost inconceivable, and at the same time the feeling that at any moment one may... one may die — not “die”, but the body may be dissolved. And so the two at the same time form a consciousness ()... all the old things seem puerile, childish, unconscious — within there... it is tremendous and wonderful.  So, the body, the body has one prayer — and it is always the same: Make me worthy of knowing Thee, Make me worthy of serving Thee, Make me worthy of being Thee.


The Mother: I feel in myself a growing force... but it is of a new quality... in silence and in contemplation.  Nothing is impossible ().   ( )


The Mother: So, if you have no questions... if you want silence... conscious silence...   ( ) But when you want to enter into relation with the Divine, what movement do you make?


The Mother: (.)   Yes, I insist on that; it is very true, very true. It may not be easy to understand, but it is a truth.  All that veils and deforms and prevents the manifestation of the Divine in us: it is, the falsehood.  This is what I have been doing all the while — every day and the whole day long, even while I see people.


The Mother: It is the only thing worth living for.   Yes.  It is so. This is my feeling.  I think, I think that it is the only thing.


The Mother: I am repeating always: “What Thou willest, what Thou willest, what Thou willest... let it be what Thou willest, may I do what Thou willest, may I be conscious of what Thou willest.”  And also: “Without Thee it is death; with Thee it is life.”  By “death” I do not mean physical death — it may be so; it may be that now if I lost the contact, that would be the end, but it is impossible! I have the feeling that it is... that I — with all the obstructions that the present consciousness may still have, that’s all.


The Mother: And then, when I see someone ( ), whoever he may be: like that (). () All the while (it is amusing), all the while I have the feeling that I am a little baby who nestles — nestles within... (what to call it?) a Divine Consciousness....


The Mother: AN AIMLESS life is always a miserable life.  Every one of you should have an aim. But do not forget that on the quality of your aim will depend the quality of your life.  Your aim should be high and wide, generous and disinterested; this will make your life precious to yourself and to others.  But whatever your ideal, it cannot be perfectly realised unless you have realised perfection in yourself.


The Mother: To work for your perfection, the ﬁrst step is to become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the movements that occur in you, the many impulses, reactions and conﬂicting wills that drive you to action.  It is an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity. For man’s nature, especially his mental nature, has a spontaneous tendency to give a favourable explanation for everything he thinks, feels, says and does. It is only by observing these movements with great care, by bringing them, as it were, before the tribunal of our highest ideal, with a sincere will to submit to its judgment, that we can hope to form in ourselves a discernment that never errs.


The Mother: For if we truly want to progress and acquire the capacity of knowing the truth of our being, that is to say, what we are truly created for, what we can call our mission upon earth, then we must, in a very regular and constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in us whatever contradicts the truth of our existence, whatever is opposed to it. In this way, little by little, all the parts, all the elements of our being can be  organised into a homogeneous whole around our psychic centre.  This work of uniﬁcation requires much time to be brought to some degree of perfection. Therefore, in order to accomplish it, we must arm ourselves with patience and endurance, with a determination to prolong our life as long as necessary for the success of our endeavour.  As you pursue this labour of puriﬁcation and uniﬁcation, you must at the same time take great care to perfect the external and instrumental part of your being.


The Mother: When the higher truth manifests , it must ﬁnd in you a mind that is supple and rich enough to be able to give the idea that seeks to express itself a form of thought which preserves its force and clarity. This thought, again, when it seeks to clothe itself in words, must ﬁnd in you a sufﬁcient power of expression so that the words reveal the thought and do not deform it. And the formula in which you embody the truth should be manifested in all your feelings, all your acts of will, all your actions, in all the movements of your being. Finally, these movements themselves should, by constant effort, attain their highest perfection.


The Mother: All this can be realised by means of a fourfold discipline, the general outline of which is given here. The four aspects of the discipline do not exclude each other, and can be followed at the same time; indeed, this is preferable. The starting-point is what can be called the psychic discipline. We give the name “psychic” to the psychological centre of our being, the seat within us of the highest truth of our existence, that which can know this truth and set it in movement. It is therefore of capital importance to become conscious of its presence in us, to concentrate on this presence until it becomes a living fact for us and we can identify ourselves with it.


The Mother: In various times and places many methods have been prescribed for attaining this perception and ultimately achieving this identiﬁcation. Some methods are psychological, some religious, some even mechanical. In reality, everyone has to ﬁnd the one which suits him best, and if one has an ardent and steadfast  aspiration, a persistent and dynamic will, one is sure to meet, in one way or another — outwardly through reading and study, inwardly through concentration, meditation, revelation and experience — the help one needs to reach the goal. Only one thing is absolutely indispensable: the will to discover and to realise.


The Mother: This discovery and realisation should be the primary preoccupation of our being, the pearl of great price which we must acquire at any cost. Whatever you do, whatever your occupations and activities, the will to ﬁnd the truth of your being and to unite with it must be always living and present behind all that you do, all that you feel, all that you think.  To complement this movement of inner discovery, it would be good not to neglect the development of the mind. For the mental instrument can equally be a great help or a great hindrance.  In its natural state the human mind is always limited in its vision, narrow in its understanding, rigid in its conceptions, and a constant effort is therefore needed to widen it, to make it more supple and profound.


The Mother: So it is very necessary to consider everything from as many points of view as possible. Towards this end, there is an exercise which gives great suppleness and elevation to the thought. It is as follows: a clearly formulated thesis is set; against it is opposed its antithesis, formulated with the same precision. Then by careful reﬂection the problem must be widened or transcended until a synthesis is found which unites the two contraries in a larger, higher and more comprehensive idea.  Many other exercises of the same kind can be undertaken; some have a beneﬁcial effect on the character and so possess a double advantage: that of educating the mind and that of establishing control over the feelings and their consequences.


The Mother: For example, you must never allow your mind to judge things and people, for the mind is not an instrument of knowledge; it is incapable of ﬁnding knowledge, but it must be moved by knowledge. Knowledge belongs to a much higher domain than that of the human mind, far above the region of pure ideas. The mind has to be silent and attentive to receive knowledge from  above and manifest it. For it is an instrument of formation, of organisation and action, and it is in these functions that it attains its full value and real usefulness.  There is another practice which can be very helpful to the progress of the consciousness.


The Mother: Whenever there is a disagreement on any matter, such as a decision to be taken, or an action to be carried out, one must never remain closed up in one’s own conception or point of view. On the contrary, one must make an effort to understand the other’s point of view, to put oneself in his place and, instead of quarrelling or even ﬁghting, ﬁnd the solution which can reasonably satisfy both parties; there always is one for men of goodwill.  Here we must mention the discipline of the vital. The vital being in us is the seat of impulses and desires, of enthusiasm and violence, of dynamic energy and desperate depressions, of passions and revolts. It can set everything in motion, build and realise; but it can also destroy and mar everything.


The Mother: Thus it may be the most difﬁcult part to discipline in the human being. It is a long and exacting labour requiring great patience and perfect sincerity, for without sincerity you will deceive yourself from the very outset, and all endeavour for progress will be in vain. With the collaboration of the vital no realisation seems impossible, no transformation impracticable. But the difﬁculty lies in securing this constant collaboration. The vital is a good worker, but most often it seeks its own satisfaction.


The Mother: If that is refused, totally or even partially, the vital gets vexed, sulks and goes on strike.  Its energy disappears more or less completely and in its place leaves disgust for people and things, discouragement or revolt, depression and dissatisfaction. At such moments it is good to remain quiet and refuse to act; for these are the times when one does stupid things and in a few moments one can destroy or spoil the progress that has been made during months of regular effort. These crises are shorter and less dangerous for those who have established a contact with their psychic being which is sufﬁcient to keep alive in them the ﬂame of aspiration and the  consciousness of the ideal to be realised. They can, with the help of this consciousness, deal with their vital as one deals with a rebellious child, with patience and perseverance, showing it the truth and light, endeavouring to convince it and awaken in it the goodwill which has been veiled for a time.


The Mother: By means of such patient intervention each crisis can be turned into a new progress, into one more step towards the goal. Progress may be slow, relapses may be frequent, but if a courageous will is maintained, one is sure to triumph one day and see all difﬁculties melt and vanish before the radiance of the truth-consciousness.  Lastly, by means of a rational and discerning physical education, we must make our body strong and supple enough to become a ﬁt instrument in the material world for the truth-force which wants to manifest through us.  In fact, the body must not rule, it must obey. By its very nature it is a docile and faithful servant.


The Mother: Unfortunately, it rarely has the capacity of discernment it ought to have with regard to its masters, the mind and the vital. It obeys them blindly, at the cost of its own well-being. The mind with its dogmas, its rigid and arbitrary principles, the vital with its passions, its excesses and dissipations soon destroy the natural balance of the body and create in it fatigue, exhaustion and disease. It must be freed from this tyranny and this can be done only through a constant union with the psychic centre of the being. The body has a wonderful capacity of adaptation and endurance.


The Mother: It is able to do so many more things than one usually imagines. If, instead of the ignorant and despotic masters that now govern it, it is ruled by the central truth of the being, you will be amazed at what it is capable of doing. Calm and quiet, strong and poised, at every minute it will be able to put forth the effort that is demanded of it, for it will have learnt to ﬁnd rest in action and to recuperate, through contact with the universal forces, the energies it expends consciously and usefully. In this sound and balanced life a new harmony will manifest in the body, reﬂecting the harmony of the higher regions, which will give it  perfect proportions and ideal beauty of form. And this harmony will be progressive, for the truth of the being is never static; it is a perpetual unfolding of a growing perfection that is more and more total and comprehensive.


The Mother: As soon as the body has learnt to follow this movement of progressive harmony, it will be possible for it to escape, through a continuous process of transformation, from the necessity of disintegration and destruction. Thus the irrevocable law of death will no longer have any reason to exist.  When we reach this degree of perfection which is our goal, we shall perceive that the truth we seek is made up of four major aspects: Love, Knowledge, Power and Beauty. These four attributes of the Truth will express themselves spontaneously in our being. The psychic will be the vehicle of true and pure love, the mind will be the vehicle of infallible knowledge, the vital will manifest an invincible power and strength and the body will be the expression of a perfect beauty and harmony.


The Mother: HE EDUCATION of a human being should begin at birth and continue throughout his life.  Indeed, if we want this education to have its maximum result, it should begin even before birth; in this case it is the mother herself who proceeds with this education by means of a twofold action: ﬁrst, upon herself for her own improvement, and secondly, upon the child whom she is forming physically.  For it is certain that the nature of the child to be born depends very much upon the mother who forms it, upon her aspiration and will as well as upon the material surroundings in which she lives. To see that her thoughts are always beautiful and pure, her feelings always noble and ﬁne, her material surroundings as harmonious as possible and full of a great simplicity — this is the part of education which should apply to the mother herself.  And if she has in addition a conscious and deﬁnite will to form the child according to the highest ideal she can conceive, then the very best conditions will be realised so that the child can come into the world with his utmost potentialities.


The Mother: How many difﬁcult efforts and useless complications would be avoided in this way!  Education to be complete must have ﬁve principal aspects corresponding to the ﬁve principal activities of the human being: the physical, the vital, the mental, the psychic and the spiritual.  Usually, these phases of education follow chronologically the growth of the individual; this, however, does not mean that one of them should replace another, but that all must continue, completing one another until the end of his life.  We propose to study these ﬁve aspects of education one by one and also their interrelationships. But before we enter into the details of the subject, I wish to make a recommendation to parents.


The Mother: Most parents, for various reasons, give very little  thought to the true education which should be imparted to children. When they have brought a child into the world, provided him with food, satisﬁed his various material needs and looked after his health more or less carefully, they think they have fully discharged their duty. Later on, they will send him to school and hand over to the teachers the responsibility for his education.  There are other parents who know that their children must be educated and who try to do what they can. But very few, even among those who are most serious and sincere, know that the ﬁrst thing to do, in order to be able to educate a child, is to educate oneself, to become conscious and master of oneself so that one never sets a bad example to one’s child.


The Mother: For it is above all through example that education becomes effective. To speak good words and to give wise advice to a child has very little effect if one does not oneself give him an example of what one teaches. Sincerity, honesty, straightforwardness, courage, disinterestedness, unselﬁshness, patience, endurance, perseverance, peace, calm, self-control are all things that are taught inﬁnitely better by example than by beautiful speeches. Parents, have a high ideal and always act in accordance with it and you will see that little by little your child will reﬂect this ideal in himself and spontaneously manifest the qualities you would like to see expressed in his nature. Quite naturally a child has respect and admiration for his parents; unless they are quite unworthy, they will always appear to their child as demigods whom he will try to imitate as best he can.


The Mother: With very few exceptions, parents are not aware of the disastrous inﬂuence that their own defects, impulses, weaknesses and lack of self-control have on their children. If you wish to be respected by a child, have respect for yourself and be worthy of respect at every moment. Never be authoritarian, despotic, impatient or ill-tempered. When your child asks you a question, do not give him a stupid or silly answer under the pretext that he cannot understand you.


The Mother: You can always make yourself understood if you take enough trouble; and in spite of the popular  saying that it is not always good to tell the truth, I afﬁrm that it is always good to tell the truth, but that the art consists in telling it in such a way as to make it accessible to the mind of the hearer. In early life, until he is twelve or fourteen, the child’s mind is hardly open to abstract notions and general ideas. And yet you can train it to understand these things by using concrete images, symbols or parables. Up to quite an advanced age and for some who mentally always remain children, a narrative, a story, a tale well told teach much more than any number of theoretical explanations.  Another pitfall to avoid: do not scold your child without good reason and only when it is quite indispensable.


The Mother: A child who is too often scolded gets hardened to rebuke and no longer attaches much importance to words or severity of tone. And above all, take good care never to scold him for a fault which you yourself commit. Children are very keen and clear-sighted observers; they soon ﬁnd out your weaknesses and note them without pity.  When a child has done something wrong, see that he confesses it to you spontaneously and frankly; and when he has confessed, with kindness and affection make him understand what was wrong in his movement so that he will not repeat it, but never scold him; a fault confessed must always be forgiven.  You should not allow any fear to come between you and your child; fear is a pernicious means of education: it invariably gives birth to deceit and lying.


The Mother: Only a discerning affection that is ﬁrm yet gentle and an adequate practical knowledge will create the bonds of trust that are indispensable for you to be able to educate your child effectively. And do not forget that you have to control yourself constantly in order to be equal to your task and truly fulﬁl the duty which you owe your child by the mere fact of having brought him into the world.   F ALL the domains of human consciousness, the physical is the one most completely governed by method, order, discipline, process. The lack of plasticity and receptivity in matter has to be replaced by a detailed organisation that is both precise and comprehensive. In this organisation, one must not forget the interdependence and interpenetration of all the domains of the being.


The Mother: However, even a mental or vital impulse, to express itself physically, must submit to an exact process. That is why all education of the body, if it is to be effective, must be rigorous and detailed, far-sighted and methodical. This will be translated into habits; the body is a being of habits. But these habits should be controlled and disciplined, while remaining ﬂexible enough to adapt themselves to circumstances and to the needs of the growth and development of the being.  All education of the body should begin at birth and continue throughout life.


The Mother: It is never too soon to begin nor too late to continue.  Physical education has three principal aspects: (1) control and discipline of the functioning of the body, (2) an integral, methodical and harmonious development of all the parts and movements of the body and (3) correction of any defects and deformities.  It may be said that from the very ﬁrst days, even the ﬁrst hours of his life, the child should undergo the ﬁrst part of this programme as far as food, sleep, evacuation, etc. are concerned.  If the child, from the very beginning of his existence, learns good habits, it will save him a good deal of trouble and inconvenience for the rest of his life; and besides, those who have the responsibility of caring for him during his ﬁrst years will ﬁnd their task very much easier.   Naturally, this education, if it is to be rational, enlightened and effective, must be based upon a minimum knowledge of the human body, of its structure and its functioning.


The Mother: As the child develops, he must gradually be taught to observe the functioning of his internal organs so that he may control them more and more, and see that this functioning remains normal and harmonious. As for positions, postures and movements, bad habits are formed very early and very rapidly, and these may have disastrous consequences for his whole life. Those who take the question of physical education seriously and wish to give their children the best conditions for normal development will easily ﬁnd the necessary indications and instructions. The subject is being more and more thoroughly studied, and many books have appeared and are still appearing which give all the information and guidance needed.  It is not possible for me here to go into the details of the application, for each problem is different from every other and the solution should suit the individual case.


The Mother: The question of food has been studied at length and in detail; the diet that helps children in their growth is generally known and it may be very useful to follow it. But it is very important to remember that the instinct of the body, so long as it remains intact, is more reliable than any theory. Accordingly, those who want their child to develop normally should not force him to eat food which he ﬁnds distasteful, for most often the body possesses a sure instinct as to what is harmful to it, unless the child is particularly capricious.  The body in its normal state, that is to say, when there is no intervention of mental notions or vital impulses, also knows very well what is good and necessary for it; but for this to be effective in practice, one must educate the child with care and teach him to distinguish his desires from his needs. He should be helped to develop a taste for food that is simple and healthy, substantial and appetising, but free from any useless complications.


The Mother: In his daily food, all that merely stuffs and causes heaviness should be avoided; and above all, he must be taught  to eat according to his hunger, neither more nor less, and not to make his meals an occasion to satisfy his greed or gluttony.  From one’s very childhood, one should know that one eats in order to give strength and health to the body and not to enjoy the pleasures of the palate. Children should be given food that suits their temperament, prepared in a way that ensures hygiene and cleanliness, that is pleasant to the taste and yet very simple.  This food should be chosen and apportioned according to the age of the child and his regular activities. It should contain all the chemical and dynamic elements that are necessary for his development and the balanced growth of every part of his body.


The Mother: Since the child will be given only the food that helps to keep him healthy and provide him with the energy he needs, one must be very careful not to use food as a means of coercion and punishment. The practice of telling a child, “You have not been a good boy, you won’t get any dessert,” etc., is most harmful. In this way you create in his little consciousness the impression that food is given to him chieﬂy to satisfy his greed and not because it is indispensable for the proper functioning of his body.  Another thing should be taught to a child from his early years: to enjoy cleanliness and observe hygienic habits. But, in obtaining this cleanliness and respect for the rules of hygiene from the child, one must take great care not to instil into him the fear of illness.


The Mother: Fear is the worst instrument of education and the surest way of attracting what is feared. Yet, while there should be no fear of illness, there should be no inclination for it either. There is a prevalent belief that brilliant minds are found in weak bodies. This is a delusion and has no basis. There was perhaps a time when a romantic and morbid taste for physical unbalance prevailed; but, fortunately, that tendency has disappeared.


The Mother: Nowadays a well-built, robust, muscular, strong and well-balanced body is appreciated at its true value. In any case, children should be taught to respect health and admire the healthy man whose vigorous body knows how to repel attacks of illness. Often a child feigns illness to avoid some troublesome  obligation, a work that does not interest him, or simply to soften his parents’ hearts and get them to satisfy some caprice. The child must be taught as early as possible that this does not work and that he does not become more interesting by being ill, but rather the contrary. The weak have a tendency to believe that their weakness makes them particularly interesting and to use this weakness and if necessary even illness as a means of attracting the attention and sympathy of the people around them.


The Mother: On no account should this pernicious tendency be encouraged.  Children should therefore be taught that to be ill is a sign of weakness and inferiority, not of some virtue or sacriﬁce.  That is why, as soon as the child is able to make use of his limbs, some time should be devoted every day to the methodical and regular development of all the parts of his body. Every day some twenty or thirty minutes, preferably on waking, if possible, will be enough to ensure the proper functioning and balanced growth of his muscles while preventing any stiffening of the joints and of the spine, which occurs much sooner than one thinks.


The Mother: In the general programme of the child’s education, sports and outdoor games should be given a prominent place; that, more than all the medicines in the world, will assure the child good health. An hour’s moving about in the sun does more to cure weakness or even anaemia than a whole arsenal of tonics. My advice is that medicines should not be used unless it is absolutely impossible to avoid them; and this “absolutely impossible” should be very strict. In this programme of physical culture, although there are well-known general lines to be followed for the best development of the human body, still, if the method is to be fully effective in each case, it should be considered individually, if possible with the help of a competent person, or if not, by consulting the numerous manuals that have already been and are still being published on the subject.  But in any case a child, whatever his activities, should have a sufﬁcient number of hours of sleep.


The Mother: The number will vary according to his age. In the cradle, the baby should sleep longer  than he remains awake. The number of hours of sleep will diminish as the child grows. But until maturity it should not be less than eight hours, in a quiet, well-ventilated place. The child should never be made to stay up late for no reason.


The Mother: The hours before midnight are the best for resting the nerves. Even during the waking hours, relaxation is indispensable for all who want to maintain their nervous balance. To know how to relax the muscles and the nerves is an art which should be taught to children when they are very young. There are many parents who, on the contrary, push their child to constant activity. When the child remains quiet, they imagine that he is ill.


The Mother: There are even parents who have the bad habit of making their child do household work at the expense of his rest and relaxation. Nothing is worse for a developing nervous system, which cannot stand the strain of too continuous an effort or of an activity that is imposed upon it and not freely chosen. At the risk of going against many current ideas and rufﬂing many prejudices, I hold that it is not fair to demand service from a child, as if it were his duty to serve his parents. The contrary would be more true, and certainly it is natural that parents should serve their child or at least take great care of him. It is only if a child chooses freely to work for his family and does this work as play that the thing is admissible.


The Mother: And even then, one must be careful that it in no way diminishes the hours of rest that are absolutely indispensable for his body to function properly.  I have said that from a young age children should be taught to respect good health, physical strength and balance. The great importance of beauty must also be emphasised. A young child should aspire for beauty, not for the sake of pleasing others or winning their admiration, but for the love of beauty itself; for beauty is the ideal which all physical life must realise. Every human being has the possibility of establishing harmony among the different parts of his body and in the various movements of the body in action.


The Mother: Every human body that undergoes a rational method of culture from the very beginning of its existence can  realise its own harmony and thus become ﬁt to manifest beauty.  When we speak of the other aspects of an integral education, we shall see what inner conditions are to be fulﬁlled so that this beauty can one day be manifested.  So far I have referred only to the education to be given to children; for a good many bodily defects can be rectiﬁed and many malformations avoided by an enlightened physical education given at the proper time. But if for any reason this physical education has not been given during childhood or even in youth, it can begin at any age and be pursued throughout life.  But the later one begins, the more one must be prepared to meet bad habits that have to be corrected, rigidities to be made supple, malformations to be rectiﬁed.


The Mother: And this preparatory work will require much patience and perseverance before one can start on a constructive programme for the harmonisation of the form and its movements. But if you keep alive within you the ideal of beauty that is to be realised, sooner or later you are sure to reach the goal you have set yourself.   F ALL education, vital education is perhaps the most important, the most indispensable. Yet it is rarely taken up and pursued with discernment and method. There are several reasons for this: ﬁrst, the human mind is in a state of great confusion about this particular subject; secondly, the undertaking is very difﬁcult and to be successful in it one must have endless endurance and persistence and a will that no failure can weaken.


The Mother: Indeed, the vital in man’s nature is a despotic and exacting tyrant. Moreover, since it is the vital which holds power, energy, enthusiasm, effective dynamism, many have a feeling of timorous respect for it and always try to please it. But it is a master that nothing can satisfy and its demands are without limit. Two ideas which are very wide-spread, especially in the West, contribute towards making its domination more sovereign. One is that the chief aim of life is to be happy; the other that one is born with a certain character and that it is impossible to change it.


The Mother: The ﬁrst idea is a childish deformation of a very profound truth: that all existence is based upon delight of being and without delight of being there would be no life. But this delight of being, which is a quality of the Divine and therefore unconditioned, must not be confused with the pursuit of pleasure in life, which depends largely upon circumstances. The conviction that one has the right to be happy leads, as a matter of course, to the will to “live one’s own life” at any cost. This attitude, by its obscure and aggressive egoism, leads to every kind of conﬂict and misery, disappointment and discouragement, and very often ends in catastrophe.  In the world as it is now the goal of life is not to secure personal happiness, but to awaken the individual progressively to the Truth-consciousness.


The Mother: The second idea arises from the fact that a fundamental change of character demands an almost complete mastery over the subconscient and a very rigorous disciplining of whatever comes up from the inconscient, which, in ordinary natures, expresses itself as the effects of atavism and of the environment in which one was born. Only an almost abnormal growth of consciousness and the constant help of Grace can achieve this Herculean task. That is why this task has rarely been attempted and many famous teachers have declared it to be unrealisable and chimerical. Yet it is not unrealisable. The transformation of character has in fact been realised by means of a clear-sighted discipline and a perseverance so obstinate that nothing, not even the most persistent failures, can discourage it.


The Mother: The indispensable starting-point is a detailed and discerning observation of the character to be transformed. In most cases, that itself is a difﬁcult and often a very bafﬂing task. But there is one fact which the old traditions knew and which can serve as the clue in the labyrinth of inner discovery. It is that everyone possesses in a large measure, and the exceptional individual in an increasing degree of precision, two opposite tendencies of character, in almost equal proportions, which are like the light and the shadow of the same thing. Thus someone who has the capacity of being exceptionally generous will suddenly ﬁnd an obstinate avarice rising up in his nature, the courageous man will be a coward in some part of his being and the good man will suddenly have wicked impulses.


The Mother: In this way life seems to endow everyone not only with the possibility of expressing an ideal, but also with contrary elements representing in a concrete manner the battle he has to wage and the victory he has to win for the realisation to become possible. Consequently, all life is an education pursued more or less consciously, more or less willingly. In certain cases this education will encourage the movements that express the light, in others, on the contrary, those that express the shadow. If the circumstances and the environment are favourable, the light will grow at the expense of  the shadow; otherwise the opposite will happen. And in this way the individual’s character will crystallise according to the whims of Nature and the determinisms of material and vital life, unless a higher element comes in in time, a conscious will which, refusing to allow Nature to follow her whimsical ways, will replace them by a logical and clear-sighted discipline.


The Mother: This conscious will is what we mean by a rational method of education.  That is why it is of prime importance that the vital education of the child should begin as early as possible, indeed, as soon as he is able to use his senses. In this way many bad habits will be avoided and many harmful inﬂuences eliminated.   This vital education has two principal aspects, very different in their aims and methods, but both equally important.


The Mother: The ﬁrst concerns the development and use of the sense organs. The second the progressing awareness and control of the character, culminating in its transformation.  The education of the senses, again, has several aspects, which are added to one another as the being grows; indeed it should never cease. The sense organs, if properly cultivated, can attain a precision and power of functioning far exceeding what is normally expected of them.  In some ancient initiations it was stated that the number of senses that man can develop is not ﬁve but seven and in certain special cases even twelve.


The Mother: Certain races at certain times have, out of necessity, developed more or less perfectly one or the other of these supplementary senses. With a proper discipline persistently followed, they are within the reach of all who are sincerely interested in this development and its results. Among the faculties that are often mentioned, there is, for example, the ability to widen the physical consciousness, project it out of oneself so as to concentrate it on a given point and thus obtain sight, hearing, smell, taste and even touch at a distance.  To this general education of the senses and their functioning there will be added, as early as possible, the cultivation of discrimination and of the aesthetic sense, the capacity to choose  and adopt what is beautiful and harmonious, simple, healthy and pure. For there is a psychological health just as there is a physical health, a beauty and harmony of the sensations as of the body and its movements.


The Mother: As the capacity of understanding grows in the child, he should be taught, in the course of his education, to add artistic taste and reﬁnement to power and precision. He should be shown, led to appreciate, taught to love beautiful, lofty, healthy and noble things, whether in Nature or in human creation. This should be a true aesthetic culture, which will protect him from degrading inﬂuences. For, in the wake of the last wars and the terrible nervous tension which they provoked, as a sign, perhaps, of the decline of civilisation and social decay, a growing vulgarity seems to have taken possession of human life, individual as well as collective, particularly in what concerns aesthetic life and the life of the senses. A methodical and enlightened cultivation of the senses can, little by little, eliminate from the child whatever is by contagion vulgar, commonplace and crude.


The Mother: This education will have very happy effects even on his character. For one who has developed a truly reﬁned taste will, because of this very reﬁnement, feel incapable of acting in a crude, brutal or vulgar manner. This reﬁnement, if it is sincere, brings to the being a nobility and generosity which will spontaneously ﬁnd expression in his behaviour and will protect him from many base and perverse movements.  And this brings us quite naturally to the second aspect of vital education which concerns the character and its transformation.  Generally, all disciplines dealing with the vital being, its puriﬁcation and its control, proceed by coercion, suppression, abstinence and asceticism.


The Mother: This procedure is certainly easier and quicker, although less deeply enduring and effective, than a rigorous and detailed education. Besides, it eliminates all possibility of the intervention, help and collaboration of the vital. And yet this help is of the utmost importance if one wants the individual’s growth and action to be complete.   To become conscious of the various movements in oneself and be aware of what one does and why one does it, is the indispensable starting-point. The child must be taught to observe, to note his reactions and impulses and their causes, to become a discerning witness of his desires, his movements of violence and passion, his instincts of possession and appropriation and domination and the background of vanity which supports them, together with their counterparts of weakness, discouragement, depression and despair.


The Mother: Evidently, for this process to be useful, along with the growth of the power of observation the will for progress and perfection must also grow. This will should be instilled into the child as soon as he is capable of having a will, that is to say, at a much earlier age than is usually believed.  In order to awaken this will to surmount and conquer, different methods are appropriate in different cases; with certain individuals rational arguments are effective, for others their feelings and goodwill should be brought into play, with yet others the sense of dignity and self-respect. For all, the most powerful method is example constantly and sincerely shown.  Once the resolution has been ﬁrmly established, one has only


The Mother: to proceed rigorously and persistently and never to accept any defeat as ﬁnal. To avoid all weakening and backsliding, there is one important point you must know and never forget: the will can be cultivated and developed just as the muscles can by methodical and progressive exercise. You must not shrink from demanding the maximum effort of your will even for a thing that seems of no importance, for it is through effort that its capacity grows, gradually acquiring the power to apply itself even to the most difﬁcult things. What you have decided to do, you must do, whatever the cost, even if you have to renew your effort over and over again any number of times in order to do it. Your will will be strengthened by the effort and you will have only to choose with discernment the goal to which you will apply it.


The Mother: To sum up: one must gain a full knowledge of one’s character and then acquire control over one’s movements in order to achieve perfect mastery and the transformation of all the elements that have to be transformed.  Now all will depend upon the ideal which the effort for mastery and transformation seeks to achieve. The value of the effort and its result will depend upon the value of the ideal. This is the subject we shall deal with next, in connection with mental education.   F ALL lines of education, mental education is the most widely known and practised, yet except in a few rare cases there are gaps which make it something very incomplete and in the end quite insufﬁcient.


The Mother: Generally speaking, schooling is considered to be all the mental education that is necessary. And when a child has been made to undergo, for a number of years, a methodical training which is more like cramming than true schooling, it is considered that whatever is necessary for his mental development has been done. Nothing of the kind. Even conceding that the training is given with due measure and discrimination and does not permanently damage the brain, it cannot impart to the human mind the faculties it needs to become a good and useful instrument. The schooling that is usually given can, at the most, serve as a system of gymnastics to increase the suppleness of the brain.


The Mother: From this standpoint, each branch of human learning represents a special kind of mental gymnastics, and the verbal formulations given to these various branches each constitute a special and well-deﬁned language.  A true mental education, which will prepare man for a higher life, has ﬁve principal phases. Normally these phases follow one after another, but in exceptional individuals they may  alternate or even proceed simultaneously. These ﬁve phases, in brief, are: (1) Development of the power of concentration, the capacity of attention.


The Mother: (2) Development of the capacities of expansion, widening, complexity and richness.  (3) Organisation of one’s ideas around a central idea, a higher ideal or a supremely luminous idea that will serve as a guide in life.   (4) Thought-control, rejection of undesirable thoughts, to become able to think only what one wants and when one wants.  (5) Development of mental silence, perfect calm and a more and more total receptivity to inspirations coming from the higher regions of the being.  It is not possible to give here all the details concerning the methods to be employed in the application of these ﬁve phases of education to different individuals.


The Mother: Still, a few explanations on points of detail can be given.  Undeniably, what most impedes mental progress in children is the constant dispersion of their thoughts. Their thoughts ﬂutter hither and thither like butterﬂies and they have to make a great effort to ﬁx them. Yet this capacity is latent in them, for when you succeed in arousing their interest, they are capable of a good deal of attention. By his ingenuity, therefore, the educator will gradually help the child to become capable of a sustained effort of attention and a faculty of more and more complete absorption in the work in hand.


The Mother: All methods that can develop this faculty of attention from games to rewards are good and can all be utilised according to the need and the circumstances.  But it is the psychological action that is most important and the sovereign method is to arouse in the child an interest in what you want to teach him, a liking for work, a will to progress. To love to learn is the most precious gift that one can give to a child: to love to learn always and everywhere, so that all circumstances, all happenings in life may be constantly renewed opportunities for learning more and always more.  For that, to attention and concentration should be added observation, precise recording and faithfulness of memory. This faculty of observation can be developed by varied and spontaneous exercises, making use of every opportunity that presents itself to keep the child’s thought wakeful, alert and prompt.


The Mother: The growth of the understanding should be stressed much more than that of memory. One knows well only what one has understood.  Things learnt by heart, mechanically, fade away little by little  and ﬁnally disappear; what is understood is never forgotten.  Moreover, you must never refuse to explain to a child the how and the why of things. If you cannot do it yourself, you must direct the child to those who are qualiﬁed to answer or point out to him some books that deal with the question.


The Mother: In this way you will progressively awaken in the child the taste for true study and the habit of making a persistent effort to know.  This will bring us quite naturally to the second phase of development in which the mind should be widened and enriched.  You will gradually show the child that everything can become an interesting subject for study if it is approached in the right way. The life of every day, of every moment, is the best school of all, varied, complex, full of unexpected experiences, problems to be solved, clear and striking examples and obvious consequences. It is so easy to arouse healthy curiosity in children, if you answer with intelligence and clarity the numerous questions they ask.