The Mother: Now that you have reported the dream, do not think of it any more and its effect will vanish.   Love and blessings.   It looks like a working of the Force and the only thing needed is a collaborating consent from you.  Blessings.


The Mother: ( )  It is for mercy and grace that one must ask, not for power and justice, because if Kali manifested what and who would remain standing!...  Love and blessings.    My dear child, I am truly sorry for the state of confusion of the place.


The Mother: It appears to me like a chaos.  I know very well your efforts and attempts to create a harmony. I am behind them to help — you know that. I am quite aware also of where things get twisted and crooked. But there is only one way to conquer — it is to in the right attitude , in spite of everything, ignoring all the contradictions and oppositions.


The Mother: In full consciousness of the Truth, we do what has to be done, always the right thing in the right way, without caring for the effect on others, the answers of others and the consequences.  The eyes ﬁxed on the Truth, we will advance and.   With love and blessings.


The Mother: It is a general attack all round.  Try to keep as quiet and calm as possible and... let it pass away!   With love and blessings.


The Mother: It might be the symbol of old attachments. It is good that they go.  Blessings.  Greed for fame.  The force is there to help you.


The Mother: Do not think of yourselves, but only of the Divine.  Blessings.    Each case is different. It is often a blow from outside, more often a failure in the material body.


The Mother: Sometimes both together and then it is fatal.  It can be anything and in fact is in cases very different things, from simply a wrong mental formation to the action of an adverse force, entity or being, through all the scale of human bad will.   It looks as if it were only a question of words. What is meant exactly by broken? broken to pieces?


The Mother: Not likely. They (the centres) may to let the force pass upward — this is more probable.  But for each one the experience is different, and to try to make a rule by which all experience has to proceed, is childish mental nonsense.  The Spirit is and will always be free in its workings.  Those who still believe in gods can certainly continue to worship them if they feel like it — but they must know that this creed and this worship have nothing to do with the teaching of Sri  Aurobindo and with the Supramental Realisation.


The Mother: ( )  I am quite against borrowing money even at a reasonable rate of interest — this one is quite exorbitant and illegal, — this is completely out of the question.  Those who believe in the yoga of Sri Aurobindo must understand that money is not meant to bring money but to help the earth to prepare for the advent of the new creation.


The Mother: With blessings.   ( )  The plan is good but for Sri Aurobindo’s work upon earth.  Blessings.


The Mother: ( )  This is a very well mentally planned project. But I must remind you that Sri Aurobindo has warned us that his writings were not for the public at large and must not be treated like such.   So it is wiser to drop the idea.


The Mother: Blessings.  All that is hard or obscure is bound to dissolve in the Eternal Love...  ( )   The psychological difﬁculties may be taken as an excellent opportunity for practising equanimity.


The Mother: With love and blessings.   Here is Sri Aurobindo’s answer to your query: ... where she presses her feet course miraculous streams of an entrancing Ananda.    All Nature dumbly calls to her alone To heal with her feet the aching throb of life


The Mother: Blessings.  L O   I do not believe in a change. It is for him a question of nature and temperament and wherever he goes that will necessarily go with him.


The Mother: It is only a change of character obtained by sadhana that can cure him.  You can show him this, with my blessings.   As you believe it will work well, you can try.  But those who have a grumbling nature generally keep it and are never satisﬁed... So long as circumstances and others are accused of being the cause of discomfort, one is deep in falsehood.


The Mother: The wise man knows that he is responsible for what happens to him and tries to correct his nature.   Blessings.   All right, provided it is.


The Mother: I never encourage the children’s going during the vacations because it has generally bad results. But when the children  ask I say yes provided they are back the reopening of the school.  Blessings.   Let her marry now and take to spiritual life later on; she is not yet ready.  When the call really comes, there is no possible hesitation.


The Mother: Blessings.  If he wants to keep in contact, he must be very careful. Generally, it is not helpful to mix the inﬂuences.


The Mother: Blessings.  I have always known him like that — and that is why I was constantly refusing to let him come because he constantly wants to be where he is not.   But now that he is here, the only possibility for him to progress and cure is to here with all his possible will and in spite of all suggestions to go away. Of course I shall help him if he lets me do it; but he must know that it is for him the  of salvation.


The Mother: With my blessings.  It is because by the quietness of the meditation he increases the receptivity of the body to the Force. This capacity to receive and absorb may translate, although not necessarily, by a capacity to eat — but it does not mean that food is just then needed.   ( )


The Mother: I saw their photos. None of them was ready as yet. But the Force will work and something may come out of it later on.   Do not be sad — things happen because they have to happen and ﬁnally everything leads to the ultimate victory of the Supreme.


The Mother: With blessings.  What is upon earth? X is here since 1921 (42 years) and has never asked to be.   Let him choose his doctor, because it is the in the doctor that is.


The Mother: Blessings.   He must ﬁrst exhaust all physical possibilities, as, for instance, some unhygienic corner in the compound.  And even if it is one of the two occult reasons, why remain subject to them? It is easily dismissed by sincerely calling for help and protection and by discarding.


The Mother: With blessings.  No advice can be given, except to be sincere and follow the inner guidance.  I see no legitimation of sexual intercourse (from the point of view of sadhana) unless it is in view to have children.   ( )


The Mother: To do properly this work one must be strong and and know how to utilise the which is backing you all.   I have nothing more to say. But I expect everybody here to rise to the height of the needs. If we are not able even to do that much, how can we hope to be ready for the descent of the Light of Truth when it will come to manifest upon earth!  Blessings.


The Mother: Z offered him a job somewhere but he refused. It is the nature that must change, not the surroundings and the occupation.  This is a kind of attitude in his vital, the depression attitude, which he somewhat cherishes. Unless he allows the Light and the Force to come down in him to clear that, I do not see what can be done.


The Mother: Blessings.  You can tell him that the only way of getting out of trouble is to have, a true, sincere,, and a faith that makes All the rest is sheer.   Blessings.   This is quite true; but the state of grumbling was truly too much in Y’s case, and it is really that which brought him where he is now.


The Mother: He must still learn to be quiet and to accept things as they come.   I am joining a letter for him that you can give him personally with a word of encouragement.   With love and blessings.


The Mother: Difﬁculties are always blessings if we know how to face them.  Blessings.    Let her think of the Divine and not of herself.


The Mother: So many petty things! With goodwill and disinterestedness all these things ought to be settled easily.  I know too well the true reason of all these complications and this suffering to give him any advice, because it is only an inner  and radical change of his character that can put an end to the ordeal. He has had with him and still has a conscious and steady concentration of force which ought to have cured him long ago.


The Mother: But his inner pessimism and dissatisfaction constantly spoil the working.   Let him have a true faith and then everything will be all right.  Blessings.  We do not need lecturers!


The Mother: but you can send him to X and see what he says.   One answer to both: busy yourself with something more interesting — otherwise there are hundreds of ways from the most material to the most spiritual.  Blessings.   What has he done for the Divine’s Work that he asks for help?


The Mother: Generally when children go outside for holidays they come back quite spoilt — but if the girl wants really to go, she can go.  I have nothing to do with that kind of thing.  Let her purify the outer being, and abolish the ego, by a complete and perfect consecration to the Supreme Divine, and the obstacle will be removed.   The adverse forces are allowed to act only in order to compel us to make ourselves pure and receptive enough for the descent and the union.


The Mother: With love and blessings.  Whatever happens is the effect of the Grace and the best that could happen spiritually.   Love and blessings.   Modern medicines are not ﬁt for children.


The Mother: Blessings.  ( )  If Nature is given a chance she may repair the damage.  She has written to me and from her letter I understand that she needs one room for herself and one for her luggage, plus place in a refrigerator for some provisions, and she is very particular about her food. If some promises have been made they must be kept.


The Mother: It is a conciliating and understanding spirit that is needed.  Any other attitude than that one is, in the Ashram, disgraceful and unworthy of Sri Aurobindo.  Blessings.   It is through the (solar plexus) that one enter the body — the other two (feet and head) are considered as impossible. The entering through the head seems miraculous and no wonder that it was painful.


The Mother: But the worst of all is to Even if all conditions are normal, fear attracts difﬁculties.  The only true solution is an unfailing faith in the Divine’s  Grace. With that faith, sincere and complete, one is always safe.  Blessings.  The child looks quite happy.


The Mother: They must let her be as she is and not contradict her. When the time has come for her to be as the ordinary human beings, she will be so. All interference would be a spiritual offence.  ( )  This boy is ultra-sensitive and has good possibilities in him.


The Mother: But he needs to be treated with much patience and especially a perfect and The slightest impatience, roughness or irritation will upset him completely, any brusque movement can give him an attack. I insist on this because if the parents sincerely want him to cure they must be very gentle with him.  Blessings.   If he keeps his mind quiet and his heart peaceful he will cope with the situation.


The Mother: Blessings.  He must face the difﬁculty with faith and conﬁdence; and everything will end well.   Blessings.


The Mother: Let them burn incense on the same pillar — invoking Sri Aurobindo’s name.    Bulletin  Because her consciousness went elsewhere and she was no more concentrated on her body.  If the parents could stop being anxious and somewhat nervous in their relation with the boy, it would very much help towards his recovery.


The Mother: Blessings.  Each one must be free to decide about his or her own life.   ( )  For him who trusts the Divine there is no fear.  Blessings.


The Mother:


The Mother: Things have clearly taken a turn for the better, not from the ordinary point of view but from the higher. Yet the material consequences are still there — all the difﬁculties are as though aggravated. Only, the power of the consciousness is greater — clearer, more precise, and also the action upon those who are of good will; they make quite considerable progress. But the material difﬁculties are as though aggravated, that is to say, it is... to see if we can stand the test!  It is like that.


The Mother: It isn’t long (since yesterday), something has cleared in the atmosphere. But the way is still long — long, long. I feel it is very long. One must last — hold on, above all, that is the impression — one must have endurance. These are the two absolutely indispensable things: endurance, and a faith that nothing can shake, even an apparently complete negation, even if you suffer, even if you are miserable (I mean to say, in the body), even if you are tired — to last.


The Mother: To hold on and to last — to endure. That is it.  But according to what I have been told, I mean by people who listen to the radio, read newspapers (all the things that I do not do), the whole world seems to be undergoing an action... which for the moment is upsetting. It seems that the number of the “apparently mad” is increasing considerably. In America, for example, the entire youth seems to have taken up with a sort of curious brain-wave which would be disquieting for reasonable people, but which is certainly an indication that an unusual force is at work.


The Mother: It is the breaking up of all habits and all rules — it is good. For the moment, it is rather “strange”, but it is necessary.    Transparent, receptive to the new force.  Above all, to be conﬁdent.


The Mother: The big difﬁculty in Matter is that the material consciousness (that is to say, the mind in Matter) has been formed under the pressure of difﬁculties — difﬁculties, obstacles, sufferings, struggles. It has been, so to say, “worked out” by these things and that has left upon it a stamp, almost of pessimism, defeatism, which is certainly the greatest obstacle.  It is of this that I am conscious in my own work. The most material consciousness, the most material mind is accustomed to act, to make an effort, to advance through whippings; otherwise, it is And then, so far as it imagines, it imagines always difﬁculty, always the obstacle or always the opposition, and that slows down the movement terribly. Very concrete, very tangible and experiences are needed to convince it that behind all its difﬁculties there is a Grace, behind all its failures there is the Victory, behind all its pains, its sufferings, its contradictions, there is Ananda.


The Mother: Of all efforts it is this one which has to be repeated most often; all the while you are obliged to stop or to remove, to convert a pessimism, a doubt or an imagination altogether defeatist.  I am speaking exclusively of the material consciousness.  Naturally, when something comes down from above, that makes, well... a crash, like that ( ), then all is silent, all stops and waits. But... I understand well why the Truth, the Truth-Consciousness does not express itself more constantly, because the difference between its Power and the power of Matter is so great that the power of Matter  is, as it were, annulled — but then that does not mean transformation, that means crushing.


The Mother: That is what they used to do in ancient times — they crushed all this material consciousness under the weight of a Power against which nothing can struggle, which nothing can oppose. And then one had the impression: “There you are! It has been done.” But it has not been done, not at all!—for the rest, down below, remained as before, without changing.  Now it is being given the full possibility to change; well, for that you must allow it full play and not interpose a Power that crushes it — this I understand very well.


The Mother: But this consciousness has the obstinacy of the imbecile. How many times during a suffering, for example, when a suffering is there, acute, and one has the impression that it is going to become unbearable, there is the little inner movement (within the cells) of Call — the cells send their S.O.S. — everything stops, the suffering disappears, and often (now more and more) it is replaced by a feeling of blissful well-being; but the very ﬁrst reaction of this imbecile material consciousness is: “Ah! We shall see how long that is going to last”, and naturally, by this movement it demolishes everything — one must begin all over again.  I believe that for the effect to be lasting — not a miraculous effect that comes, dazzles and goes away — it must really be the effect of a One must be very, very patient — we have to deal with a consciousness very slow, very heavy, very obstinate, which is not able to advance rapidly, which clings to what it has, to what has appeared to it as truth; even if it is quite a tiny truth, it clings to that and does not want to move.  Then to cure that, one must have very much patience — much patience.  The whole thing is to hold on, to endure, to endure.


The Mother: Sri Aurobindo has said this many times in many forms: Endure and you’ll conquer... bear — bear and you’ll vanquish.  Triumph comes to the most enduring.  So then, that seems to be the lesson for these conglomerates    here () — bodies appear to me simply as conglomerates and so long as there is a will behind to keep them together for some reason or other, they remain together....


The Mother: In the last few days, yesterday or the day before, there was this experience: a kind of consciousness wholly decentralised (I am speaking of the physical consciousness, not of the higher consciousness at all), a decentralised consciousness which happened to be here, there, there, in this body, in that body (in what people call “this person” and “that person”, but this notion does not exist very much any more), then there was a kind of intervention of a universal consciousness with regard to the cells, as though it asked those cells for what reason they wanted to keep this combination, if one can call it so, or that conglomerate. Indeed, they were made to understand or feel the difﬁculties coming from the number of years, the wear and tear, the external difﬁculties, in sum, all the deterioration caused by friction and usage — but that seemed to them quite unimportant.  The answer was rather interesting in the sense that they did not seem to attach importance to anything other than   It was like an aspiration (not formulated in words, naturally), what is called in English “a yearning”, “a longing” for this contact with the divine Force, the Force of Harmony, the Force of Truth, the Force of Love. And it is because of that that they appreciate the present combination.


The Mother: It is altogether another point of view.  I express it with the words of the mind, for there is no other way, but it was in the domain of sensation rather than any other thing. And it was very clear — it was very clear and very continuous, there were no ﬂuctuations. At that moment, this universal consciousness intervened, saying, “There! — the obstacles”, and these obstacles were clearly seen (this kind of pessimism of the mind — a formless mind which is about to be born and organise itself in the cells), but the cells themselves cared nothing for it; it appeared to them as a kind of  disease (the word deforms, but they had the impression as of an accident or an inevitable disease or something which did  form a normal part of their development and which was imposed upon them). Then,, there was born a kind of power to act upon these things (this physical mind); that has given a power to separate itself from that and reject it.


The Mother: And it is after that that there was this turning of which I spoke just now, the turning in the circumstances as a whole, as if truly something decisive had happened. There was as though a conﬁdent joy: “Ah! We are free from this nightmare.”  And at the same time, a relief — a physical relief, as though the air was easier to breathe — yes, a little as though one was closed in a shell — a suffocating shell — and that... in any case an opening has been made within. And you breathe. I do not know if it is more than that, but it is as though a ﬁssure was made, an opening, and you breathe.


The Mother: And it was an altogether material, cellular action.  But as you descend into that domain, the domain of the cells, even of the very constitution of the cells, how it seems less heavy! This sort of heaviness of Matter disappears — it begins again to be ﬂuid, vibrant. This would tend to prove that the heaviness, thickness, inertia, immobility, is something it is not a quality essential to... it is the false Matter, that which we think and feel, but not Matter itself, as it is.


The Mother: This was clearly felt.  ( )  The best one can do is not to take sides, not to have preconceived ideas or principles. Oh!


The Mother: The moral principles, the set rules of conduct, what one must do and what one must not and the preconceived ideas from the moral point of view, from the point of view of progress, and all the social and mental conventions... no worse obstacle than that. There are people, I know people who have lost decades in surmounting such  mental construction!... If one can be like that, open — truly open in a simplicity, well, the simplicity that knows that it is ignorant — like that (), ready to receive whatever comes. Then something can happen.


The Mother: And naturally, the thirst for progress, the thirst for knowledge, the thirst for transformation and, above all, the thirst for Love and Truth — if one keeps that, one goes quicker. Truly a thirst, a need, a need.  All the rest has no importance; it is one has need of.  To cling to something one believes that one knows, to cling to something that one feels, to cling to something that one loves, to cling to one’s habits, to cling to one’s so-called needs, to cling to the world as it is, it is that which binds you.


The Mother: You must undo all that, one thing after another. Undo all the ties. And it has been said thousands of times and people continue to do the same thing.... Even they who are most eloquent and preach that to others, do c-l-i-n-g — they cling to their way of seeing, their way of feeling, their habit of progress, which seems for them the only one.  No more bonds — free, free.


The Mother: Always ready to change everything, except one thing: to aspire, this thirst.  I understand well, there are people who do not like the idea of a “Divine”, because immediately it gets mixed up with all those European or Occidental conceptions (which are horrible) and then that complicates their life somewhat — but you are not in need of that! — the “Something” one is in need of, the Love one is in need of, the Truth one is in need of, the supreme Perfection one is in need of — and that is all. The formulas... the fewer formulas there are the better.


The Mother: But that: a need, which Thing alone can satisfy — nothing else, no half-measure, only that. And then, you go!... Your way will be your way, that has no importance — whatever the way, it does not matter, it does not matter; even the extravagances of the modern American youth can be a way; that has no importance.  As Sri Aurobindo says: “If you cannot make God love you,  make Him ﬁght you. If He will not give you the embrace of the lover, compel Him to give you the embrace of the wrestler.”


The Mother: For He is sure to conquer you.   The whole thing is to hold on. And to hold on, I have found only one way; it is this Calm, the inner calm — a calm that has to become all the more... (how to say it?) complete, as the struggle is more material.  There has been for some time past (particularly since the ﬁrst of January) a kind of bombardment of adverse forces — a fury, you know. Then you must remain like this ( ), that is all.


The Mother: And when physically you have been shaken, you must not ask too much of the body, you must give it a good deal of tranquillity, a good deal of rest.  Yes, I know it very well. But that is always the difﬁculty, the difﬁculty of everyone. That is why in the past they used to tell you, “Get away! Leave it alone to ﬂounder about — you get away.”


The Mother: But we have no right to do that, it is contrary to our work. And you know, you can arrive very well at an almost absolute freedom with regard to your body, so much so that you can feel nothing, nothing at all. But I no longer have even the right to exteriorise myself, just imagine! Even when I am quite unwell or things are quite difﬁcult or even when I am left a little quiet, that is to say, at night, and I say to myself, “Oh, to go into my blissfulness” — it is not permitted. I am bound there ( ).


The Mother: It is there, there that it is to be realised.  It is for that.  Only from time to time, for a precise action (sometimes it comes like a ﬂash of lightning, sometimes for a few minutes  only), the great Power that was there before, that used to be constantly felt, comes rushing, does its work, then goes away.  But never on this body. It never does anything for this body — it is not a higher intervention that will change it, it is... from within.


The Mother: The same thing is happening to you, it happens to everybody who does the work, and that is the difﬁculty. That is why I tell you: “It does not matter, do not worry if you are occupied with your body; only try to by that — proﬁt by this preoccupation — to bring into it the Peace, the Peace.” Always it is as though I was enveloping you within a cocoon of Peace. And then, if you could put, precisely into this mind that vibrates, stirs all the while, truly like a monkey, if you could put there... it is a Peace which acts in this material vibration — a Peace in which everything relaxes.


The Mother: Do not think, do not think of trying to transform this physical mind or to silence it or abolish it; all that is still activity.  Simply let it go on, but... put the Peace, feel the Peace, live the Peace, know the Peace — the Peace, the Peace.  That is the only thing.   It is perhaps simply an image of what happened on February 11.


The Mother: The foot means something physical.  I believe it is that, it is only a symbolic image of what happened.  Premonitory? No.


The Mother: The foot means his physical action through some people or through the Ashram or through me.  I do not think it is serious. It is the image of what happened and it was recorded somewhere.  ( )


The Mother: It is quite a curious development. For some time past, but in a more and more precise manner, when I hear something or something is read to me, or when I hear music or someone narrates a fact, I feel immediately: the origin of the activity or the plane on which it is happening or the origin of the inspiration is rendered  automatically by a vibration in one of the centres. And then, according to the quality of the vibration, it is either constructive or negative, and when that touches, however little it may be, at a given moment, a domain of Truth, there is... (how to say it?) a spark, as it were, of a vibration of Ananda.


The Mother: And the thought is absolutely silent, immobile, nothing — nothing ( ). But this perception is becoming more and more precise. And I know in this way — I know where the inspiration comes from or where the action is situated and the quality of the thing.  And it has a precision! oh! inﬁnitesimal in detail. The ﬁrst time I felt it clearly was when I heard the music composed for “The Hour of God”; it was the ﬁrst occasion and at that time I did not know that it was a well-organised thing, a kind of organisation of experience.


The Mother: But now, after all these months, that has been regularised and for me it is an absolutely sure indication, which does not correspond to any active thought, any active will — I am simply an inﬁnitely delicate machine for receiving vibrations. That is how I know where things come from. There is no thought. That is how the vibration of this dream came to me ( ); it was in the domain of the subconscient. So I knew that it was a matter of recording.


The Mother: The other day when Z read to me his article, it was neutral (), all the while neutral, then all of a sudden, a spark of Ananda; it was this which made me appreciate it. And just now, when you read this text of Y, there was a small ray of light (), then I knew. A pleasant ray of light — not of Ananda, but a pleasant light, so I knew that there was something in it.  And there are degrees, to be sure, almost an inﬁnity of qualities.  That is the way given to me for ﬁnding out the position of things.


The Mother: And it is quite, quite outside the thought. Only,  when you asked me, for example, about the dream, I said, “Logically, since the vibration is there (), it must be a memory.” And with a kind of certitude, because... because the perception is altogether impersonal.  It is an extraordinarily delicate mechanism and its ﬁeld of receptivity () almost inﬁnite.  My way of knowing people is also like that now.


The Mother: But since a long time past, when I see a photograph, for example, it does not at all pass through the thought; these are not deductions or intuitions — that creates a vibration somewhere. And then amusing things also happen. The other day I was given the photograph of someone, then I clearly felt it; by the place which was touched, by the answering vibration, I knew that this man had the habit of handling ideas and possessed the assurance of someone who teaches. I ask, in order to see, “What does this man do?” I am told, “He does business.”


The Mother: Then I say, “But he is not made for business, he understands nothing of it.” And three minutes after I am told, “Ah, excuse me, please; he is a professor!” () It is like that.  And it is so constantly, constantly: the evaluation of the world, the vibrations of the world.


The Mother: That is why I asked you to give me your hands just now.   Why? It was just to have the vibration. Well, I felt what is called in English “a sort of dullness”.


The Mother: I said to myself: “He is not all right.”  And no thinking, nothing, simply like this ( ).  Then what is it that is not all right? ( )


The Mother: Yes, it is that, it is a kind of dullness.  It is that.   No, but can’t you get out of it?  Ah, no, the body never helps; now I am convinced of it. You can to a certain extent help your body — not very much, but still to an extent you can help your body.


The Mother: But the body does not help you. Always its vibration is on the ground.   Without exception. Without exception it is a lowering and, above all that, it is something that makes you dull, dull — it does not vibrate.


The Mother: But with this sadhana that I am following, there are some leading strings which one can pursue. I have some phrases of Sri Aurobindo.... For the other sadhanas I had the method: whatever he said was clear; that showed the way, one had not to search.  But here he has not done it; only he has said or made some remarks from time to time and these remarks are useful to me (also there is the night when I meet him, but I do not want to count too much upon that, for... you become too anxious to have this contact and that spoils everything). There are a few remarks that have been so retained by me and they are, yes, like leading strings; for example, “Endure... endure.”


The Mother: Suppose you have a pain somewhere; the instinct (the instinct of the body, the instinct of the cells) is to shrink and to seek to reject — that is the worst thing, that increases it invariably. Therefore, the ﬁrst thing to teach the body is to remain immobile, to have no reaction; above all, no shrinking, not even  a movement of rejection — a perfect immobility. That is bodily equality.  A perfect immobility.  After the perfect immobility comes the movement of inner aspiration (I always speak of the aspiration of the cells — I use words for what has no word, but there is no other way of expressing it), the surrender, that is to say, the  acceptance of the supreme Will (which one does not know).


The Mother: Does the All-Will want things to go this way or that way, that is to say, towards the disintegration of some elements or towards...? And there also, there are inﬁnite shades: there is the passage between two heights (I speak of cellular realisations, do not forget that); I mean one has a certain inner poise, a poise of movement, of life, and it is understood that while passing from one movement to a higher movement, almost always there occurs a descent and then an ascent — it is a transition. Then, does the shock you receive push you downward to make you rise again or does it push you downward to abandon the old movements? — for there are cellular ways of being that should disappear in order to give place to other ways. There are others that tend to rise upward again with a higher harmony and organisation.


The Mother: This is the second point. And one must wait and see,  what should be. Above all, there is the desire — the desire to be at ease, the desire to be in peace, all that — which must absolutely cease, disappear. One must be absolutely without reaction, like this ( ). And then, when one is like that (“one” means the cells), after a time comes the perception of the category to which the movement belongs, and one has only to follow in order to see whether it is something that has to disappear and be replaced by another thing (which is not known for the moment) or it is something that has to be transformed.


The Mother: And so on. All the while it is like that.  All this is to tell you that the thought is absolutely immobile; everything happens directly: a matter of vibration. Well, it is only  in this way that one can know what one should do. If the thing passes through the mind, especially this physical thinking which is absolutely imbecile, absolutely, you cannot know; so long as it is working you are always led to do what you should not do, to have particularly the bad reaction — the reaction that helps the forces of disorder and obscurity instead of counteracting them.


The Mother: And I am not speaking of anxiety, because for a very long time now there has been no anxiety in my body — a long time, many years — but anxiety is like swallowing a cup of poison.   This is what is called physical yoga.  One must overcome all that. And the only way to do it: at every second all the cells must be ( ) in an adoration, in an aspiration — an adoration, an aspiration, an adoration... and nothing else.


The Mother: Then after a time there is also delight, then that ends in blissful trust. When this trust is established all will be well. But... it is easy to say, it is much more difﬁcult to do. Only, for the moment I am convinced that this is the only means, there is no other.   Since the 15th there has been a whole work of preparation for the transformation.


The Mother: What could one call it? ... a transfer of power.  The cells, the whole material consciousness obeyed the inner individual consciousness — most often the psychic or the mental (but the mind has been silent since long). But now this material mind is busy organising itself like the other or rather like all the others, like the mind in all the states of being.  It is, as it were, a displacement of the directing will.


The Mother: And there, materially, physically, it is something like a surprise; and a need for identiﬁcation with the new direction — that is a little difﬁcult. It is difﬁcult also to explain.... It is no more the same thing which makes you act — “to act” means everything, to move, to walk, anything. It is no more the same centre.  And then, if through habit you try to cling to the old centre, oh!


The Mother: it makes a great disorder and you must be very careful not to let the habit, the old habit, express itself, manifest itself.  It is difﬁcult to say. It is still too much only an action.  Thought here, in this brain, ﬁnds it difﬁcult to adapt itself.  Because for two days (two days continuously, I mean) there was all the while an aspiration: “How will this new world be when it becomes material here?


The Mother: How will this new world be?”  And then that put me so much “within” that I was... I was not distant, but there was a kind of a thick blanket of haze between me and the world as it is. It was there even today.


The Mother: ( )  This morning, for example, several times, for some time (I do not know how long, but not very short, a quarter of an hour, half an hour, I do not know), the cells of the body, that is to  say, the form of the body, had the experience that to remain together or to be dissolved depends on a certain attitude — an attitude or a will, something of both will and attitude. And with the perception (sometimes almost double at the same time, one being rather a memory and the other a thing lived) of what makes you move, act, know: the old way as a memory, and the new in which evidently there is no reason to be dissolved unless one chooses it — that has no meaning, it is a meaningless thing: why be dissolved?  And


The Mother: if, at the time when one falls back — it is not exactly that — when the old consciousness comes back to the surface, if one is not very careful, that produces naturally a swoon.  During — oh! it was long — the whole time between ﬁve o’clock and quarter to six, it was like that.  That gives,, the feeling of the unreality of life and of a reality which one might call eternal: the feeling of death does not exist, it means nothing, it is merely a choice. And the dislocation, which has no meaning, which has no reason to be there, is a fantasy.  And then all the old way of seeing, feeling, perceiving, is there behind, like a kind of blanket — a blanket of haze, which renders the contact woolly, imprecise.


The Mother: Now that I have regained the ordinary consciousness, I can express the thing; otherwise it would be difﬁcult to express.  And the contrast or the opposition is painful, a suffering; both complain: the old has the feeling that it swoons, and the new that it is not left quiet. When you are in one or the other, it is all right, but when the two are together, it is not very pleasant.  And there is a kind of feeling of uncertainty; you do not know very well where you are, whether you are here or you are there; you do not know exactly.  But this change of initiating power, if one may say, this transfer of power, has had upon me the effect of a unique experience, of something that had never taken place before.


The Mother: Unhappily, that did not last long. But the experience has left a kind of certitude  in the body — it is less uncertain of the future. It came to it, as if to tell it: “It will be like that.”  If that remains, it is evident immortality.  It is not the physical mind.


The Mother: It is long since the physical mind has changed.... It is the material mind — not even the material mind: it is the mind. It is the mental substance which belongs to Matter itself, to the cells. That is what was once called the “spirit of the form”, when it was said that mummies kept their body intact as long as the spirit of the form persisted. It is that


The Mother: mind, this wholly material mind. The other, the physical mind, was organised long ago.  The physical mind is the mind of the physical personality formed by the body. It grows with the body, but it is not the mind of Matter: it is the mind of the physical being. For example, it is this physical mind which gives the character — the bodily character, the physical character — and which is in a large measure formed by atavism and by education.


The Mother: All this is called the “physical mind”. Yes, it is the result of atavism, of education and of the formation of the body; it is what forms the physical character.  For example, there are people who are patient, people who are strong, etc. — physically I mean, not for vital or mental reasons,  but purely physically; you have a character. It is the physical mind. And this is part of all integral yoga; you go through the discipline of this physical mind.


The Mother: More than sixty years ago I did it.  That is the most unconscious part of the physical mind and that is the link joining the physical mind and this material substance.  But it is already an organised mind, you must understand. It is the most material part touching the mind.... How can one call this “mind”?


The Mother: You cannot even call it the bodily mind — it is the mind of the cells, it is a cellular mind.   This cellular mind exists in animals, and even a little (very little, as a promise) beginning in the plants — they respond to a mental action. They do respond. As soon as Life manifests, there is already a promise of mind, of mental movement.


The Mother: And in animals it is clear. Whereas this physical mind truly begins to exist only in man. It is this which very little children already have; they already have a physical mind; that is to say, two babies are not the same, their reactions are not the same, there is already a difference. And it is this, above all, which is given to you with the special of your body, by atavism, and then fully developed by education.  No, the physical mind, as soon as you take up an integral yoga, must be dealt with; but this material mind, the cellular one, I assure you, is altogether new, yes, altogether new.


The Mother: It is the mind which was like an unco-ordinated substance, which was constantly active, but not organised ( ). It is this which is now being organised. It is that which is important — for Sri Aurobindo had said that it was unorganisable and it had only to be thrown  out of existence. And I too had the same impression. But when the action for transformation upon the cells is constant, this material mind begins to be organised.


The Mother: It is this that is wonderful — it begins to be organised. And as it is being organised, it learns to that is most remarkable! It learns to keep quiet, keep silent and allow the supreme Force to act without interfering.  The greatest difﬁculty is in the nerves, because they are so accustomed to the ordinary conscious will that when it stops and the direct Action from the highest is asked for, they go mad, as it were. The other day I had this experience, which lasted more than an hour, and it was difﬁcult; but this taught me many things — many.


The Mother: And all this is what can be called the “transfer of power”; the former power withdraws; and then before the body adapts itself to the new power, there is a period which is critical. As all the cells are in a state of constant aspiration, it goes relatively quickly, but all the same... the minutes are long.  But more and more there is a kind of certitude in the cells that whatever happens is in view of this transformation and this transfer of directing power. And even at the time when it is materially painful (not even physically: materially painful), the cells keep this certitude.


The Mother: And then they resist, they bear the suffering without depression, without being affected in any way, with this certitude that it is to prepare for the transformation, the process of transformation and of the transfer of directing power. As I said, it is in the nerves that the experience is the most painful — naturally, because they are the most sensitive cells, those that have the most acute sensation. But they have a very considerable, very spontaneous, spontaneously strong receptivity — without any effort — to the harmonious physical vibration (which is very rare, but still it exists in some individuals). And this physical vibration, what might be called a physical, a harmonious physical vibration (spontaneously harmonious, without the necessity of a mental vibration, like the vibrations of a ﬂower, for example; there are physical vibrations like that,  which carry in themselves a harmonious force) — the nerves are extremely sensitive and receptive to this vibration, which puts them right immediately.


The Mother: It is very interesting, it explains much, explains many things.  A day will come when all this will be explained and put in its place. It is not yet the time to reveal, but it is very interesting.  I have truly the impression that it is being organised, the work has begun to be organised.  Naturally, one must carefully avoid allowing a mental organisation to intervene; that is why I do not try to explain too much; the mind would come in and then it is no more that.


The Mother: It is good for reasonable people. They will say, “There, he does not promise miracles.”  People are in a hurry, they want to see the results immediately.  And then, they believe they are pulling down the Supramental — they pull down some small vital individuality who mocks at them and in the end makes them play the shabby fool. This is what happens most often — ninety-nine times out of a hundred.


The Mother: A small individuality, a vital entity who plays the big play and makes a great show, plays of light. Then the poor fellow who has “pulled” is bedazzled; he says, “There, it is the Supramental”, and he falls into a pit.  It is only when you have touched, seen in some way and had a contact with the true Light, that you can distinguish the vital, and you perceive that it is altogether like the plays of light on a stage, an artiﬁcial light. But otherwise, others are dazzled — it is dazzling, it is “wonderful”, and then they are deceived.


The Mother: It is only when you have and when you have had the contact with the Truth, ah! then you smile.   It is quackery, but you must know the truth in order to recognise quackery.  At bottom, it is the same for everything. The vital is like a superstage that gives shows — very attractive, dazzling, deceptive; it is only when you know the True Thing that you recognise immediately, instinctively, without reasoning, and you say, “No, I do not want that.”


The Mother: And for everything it is so. Where it has taken a capital importance in human life is with regard to love. Vital passions, vital attractions have almost everywhere taken the place of true feeling, which is quiet, whereas the other puts you in ferment, gives you the feeling of something “living”. It is very deceptive. And you do not know it, you do not feel it, you do not perceive it clearly unless you know the True Thing.


The Mother: If you have touched true love through the psychic and the divine union, then the other thing appears hollow, thin, empty — an appearance and a comedy, more often tragic than comic.  Whatever one may say about it, however one may explain it, is of no use at all, because he or she who is caught says immediately, “Oh, this is not what it is for others” — what happens to yourself is never like what happens to others! One must have the true experience, then the whole vital appears like a masquerade — not attractive.  And when you “pull”, well, it is much more than ninetynine times out of one hundred... out of a million there is found only one case where one happens to pull the True Thing — this proves one was ready.


The Mother: Otherwise it is always the vital which you pull, the appearance, the theatrical show of the Thing, not the Thing itself.  To pull is always an egoistic movement. It is a deformation of aspiration. True aspiration consists in a giving, a self-giving, whereas to pull means to want for oneself. Even if in the mind you have a vaster ambition — the earth, the universe — that means nothing, these are mental activities.


The Mother: ()  You felt nothing special on the Darshan day?  Sri Aurobindo was there from the morning till the evening.  For, yes, for more than an hour he made me live, as in a concrete and living vision of the condition of humanity and of the different strata of humanity in relation to the new or supramental creation. And it was wonderfully clear and concrete and living....


The Mother: There was all the humanity which is no longer altogether animal, which has beneﬁted by mental development and created a kind of harmony in its life — a harmony vital and artistic, literary — in which the large majority are content to live.  They have caught a kind of harmony, and within it they live life as it exists in a civilised surrounding, that is to say, somewhat cultured, with reﬁned tastes and reﬁned habits. And all this life has a certain beauty where they are at ease, and unless something catastrophic happens to them, they live happy and contented, satisﬁed with life. These people can be drawn (because they have a taste, they are intellectually developed), they can be attracted by the new forces, the new things, the future life; for example, they can become disciples of Sri Aurobindo mentally, intellectually. But they do not feel at all the need to change materially; and if they were compelled to do so, it would be ﬁrst of all premature, unjust, and would simply create a great disorder and disturb their life altogether uselessly.


The Mother: This was very clear.  Then there were some — rare individuals — who were ready to make the necessary effort to prepare for the transformation and to draw the new forces, to try to adapt Matter, to seek means of expression, etc. These are ready for the yoga of Sri Aurobindo.  They are very few in number. There are even those who have the sense of sacriﬁce and are ready for a hard, painful life, if  that would lead or help towards this future transformation.


The Mother: But they should not, they should not in any way try to inﬂuence the others and make them share in their own effort; it would be altogether unfair — not only unfair, but extremely maladroit, for it would change the universal rhythm and movement, or at least the terrestrial movement, and instead of helping, it would create conﬂicts and end in a chaos.  But it was so living, so real that my whole attitude (how to say it? — a passive attitude which is not the result of an active will), the whole position taken in the work has changed.  And that has brought a peace — a peace and a calmness and a conﬁdence altogether decisive. A decisive change. And even what seemed in the earlier position to be obstinacy, clumsiness, inconscience, all kinds of deplorable things, all that has disappeared.


The Mother: It was like the vision of a great universal Rhythm in which each thing takes its place and... everything is all right. And the effort for transformation, reduced to a small number, becomes a thing more precious and much more powerful for the realisation. It is as though a choice has been made for those who will be the pioneers of the new creation. And all these ideas of “spreading”, of “preparing”, or of “churning Matter”... are a childishness. It is human restlessness.


The Mother: The vision was of a beauty so majestic, so calm, so smiling.   Oh! It was full, truly full of the divine Love. And not a divine Love that “pardons” — it is not at all that, not at all!


The Mother: Each thing in its place, realising its inner rhythm as perfectly as it can.  It was a very beautiful gift.  Well, all these things people know in some part, intellectually, like that, in idea; they know all that, but it is quite useless.  In everyday practice you live in another way, with a truer understanding. And there, it is as though you touched the things — you saw them, you touched them — in their higher disposition.


The Mother: It came after a vision of plants and the spontaneous beauty of plants (it is something so wonderful), then of the animal with so harmonious a life (so long as men do not intervene), and all  that was in its right place; then of the true humanity as humanity, that is to say, the maximum of what a mental poise could create of beauty, harmony, charm, elegance of life, taste of living — a taste of living in beauty, and, naturally, suppressing all that is ugly and low and vulgar. It was a ﬁne humanity — humanity at its maximum, but nice. And perfectly satisﬁed with its being humanity, because it lives harmoniously. And it is perhaps also like a promise of what almost the whole of humanity will become under the inﬂuence of the new creation. It appeared to me that it was what the supramental consciousness could make of humanity.


The Mother: There was even a comparison with what humanity has made of the animal species. It is extremely mixed, naturally, but things have been perfected, bettered, utilised more completely.  Animality, under the mind’s inﬂuence, has become another thing, which is, naturally, something mixed because the mind was incomplete. In the same way there are examples of a harmonious humanity among well-balanced people, and this seemed to be what humanity could become under the supramental inﬂuence.  Only, it is very far ahead.


The Mother: You must not expect that it will be immediately — it is very far ahead.  It is clearly, even now, a period of transition which may last quite long and which is rather painful. Only, the effort, sometimes painful (often painful) is compensated by a clear vision of the goal to attain, of the goal that be attained: an assurance, yes, a certainty. But it would be something that would have the power to eliminate all error, all deformation, all the ugliness of the mental life — and then a humanity very happy, very satisﬁed with being human, not at all feeling the need of being anything other than human, but with a human beauty, a human harmony.  It was very charming, it was as though I lived in it.


The Mother: The contradictions had disappeared. It was as though I lived in this perfection. And it was almost like the ideal conceived by the supramental consciousness, of a humanity become as perfect as it can be. And it was very good.


The Mother: And this brings a great repose. The tension, the friction, all  that disappeared, and the impatience. All that had completely disappeared.  No, it may be diffused materially, because the individuals are not necessarily collected together. But they are few in number.


The Mother: This idea of a pressing need to “prepare” humanity for the new creation, this impatience has disappeared.  Quite so.  I was seeing, I saw that in such a concrete way. Apart from those who are ﬁt to prepare the transformation and the supramental realisation, and whose number is necessarily very restricted, there must develop more and more, in the midst of the ordinary human mass, a superior humanity which has towards the supramental being of the future or in the making the same attitude as animality, for example, has towards man.  There must be, besides those who work for the transformation and who are ready for it, a superior humanity, intermediary, which has found in itself or in life this harmony with Life — this harmony — and which has the same feeling of adoration, devotion, faithful consecration to “something” which seems to it so high that it does not even try to realise it, but worships it and feels the need of its inﬂuence, its protection, and the need to live under this inﬂuence, to have the delight of being under this protection.


The Mother: It was so clear. But not this anguish, these torments of wanting something that escapes you because — because it is not your destiny yet to have it, and because the amount of transformation needed is premature for your life and it is that then which creates a disorder and suffering.  For example, one of the very concrete things that brings out  the problem well: humanity has the sexual impulse in a way altogether natural, spontaneous and, I would say, legitimate.  This impulse will naturally and spontaneously disappear with animality. Many other things will disappear, as for example the need to eat and perhaps also the need to sleep in the way we sleep now.


The Mother: But the most conscious impulse in a superior humanity, which has continued as a source of... bliss is a big word, but joy, delight — is certainly the sexual activity, and that will have absolutely no reason for existence in the functions of Nature when the need to create in that way will no longer exist. Therefore, the capacity of entering into relation with the joy of life will rise by one step or will be oriented differently.  But what the ancient spiritual aspirants had sought on principle — sexual negation — is an absurd thing, because this must be only for those who have gone beyond this stage and no longer have animality in them. And it must drop off naturally, without effort and without struggle. To make of it a centre of conﬂict and struggle is ridiculous.


The Mother: It is only when the consciousness ceases to be human that it drops off quite naturally. Here also there is a transition which may be somewhat difﬁcult, because the beings of transition are always in an unstable equilibrium; but within oneself there is a kind of ﬂame and a need which makes it not painful — it is not painful effort, it is something that one can do with a smile. But to seek to impose it upon those who are not ready for this transition is absurd.  It is common sense. They are human, but they must not pretend that they are not.


The Mother: It is only when spontaneously the impulse becomes impossible for you, when you feel that it is something painful and contrary to your deeper need that it becomes easy; then, well, externally you cut these bonds and it is ﬁnished.   It is one of the most convincing examples.  It is the same with regard to food. It will be the same thing.


The Mother: When animality will drop off, the absolute necessity of food also will drop off. And there will probably be a transition where one  will have less and less purely material food. For example, when you smell ﬂowers it is nourishing. I have seen it, you nourish yourself in a more subtle way.  Only, the body is not ready.


The Mother: The body is not ready and it deteriorates, that is to say, it eats itself. This proves that the time has not come, that it is only an experience — an experience that teaches you something, teaches you that it will not be a brutal refusal to come into contact with the corresponding Matter and an isolation (one cannot isolate oneself, it is impossible), but a communion on a higher or deeper plane.   ( )


The Mother: Those who have reached the higher regions of intelligence, but have not dominated the mental faculties in them, have an innocent need that everybody should think like them and be able to understand as they understand. And when they see that others do not, cannot understand, their ﬁrst reﬂex is to be horribly shocked; they exclaim, “What an idiot!” But they are not at all idiots — they are different, they are in another domain. You do not go and say to an animal, “You are an idiot”; you say, “It is an animal.” Well, you say, “It is a man.”


The Mother: It is a man; only, there are those who are no longer men and are not yet gods, and they are in a situation... rather awkward.  But it was so soothing, so sweet, so wonderful, this vision — each thing expressing its kind quite naturally.  And it is quite evident that with the amplitude and totality of the vision, there comes something which is a compassion that understands — not that pity of the superior for the inferior: the true divine Compassion, which is the total comprehension that each one is what he must be.   I experienced this morning, for two hours, a kind of blissful state in which there was such a clear consciousness that all the forms of life, in all the worlds and at all moments, are the expression of a choice — one chooses to be like that.  It is very difﬁcult to say with words....


The Mother: The kind of obligation in which one believes oneself to be living, to which one believes oneself to be submitted, had completely disappeared, and it was quite a spontaneous and natural perception that the life upon earth, and the life in other worlds, and all kinds of life upon earth and all kinds of life in other worlds are simply a question of choice: you have chosen to be like that and you choose constantly to be like this or to be like that, or whether it happens like this or it happens like that; and you choose also to believe that you are submitted to a fatality or to a necessity or to a law which compels you — everything is a question of choice. And there was a feeling of lightness, of freedom, and then a smile for everything. At the same time it gives you a tremendous power.  All feeling of compulsion, of necessity — of fatality still more — had disappeared completely. All the illnesses, all the happenings, all the dramas, all that: disappeared.


The Mother: And this concrete and so brutal reality of the physical life: gone completely.  I lived this state for more than an hour and a half this morning. Afterwards, I was obliged to return... to a state which appears to me artiﬁcial, but which is compulsory because of others, by contact with others and with things, and the innumerable quantity of things to be done. But all the same, in the  background the experience remains.


The Mother: And there remains a kind of amused smile for all the complications of life — the state in which one ﬁnds oneself has been the fact of a choice, and for the individual the freedom of choice is there, and people have forgotten it. It is this that is so interesting.   I saw at the same time the whole tableau of human knowledge (because when those states are there, all human realisations, all human knowledge, come like a panorama before the new state and are put each in its place — always, always when an experience comes, it is as though retrospective) and I saw all the theories, the beliefs, the philosophies, the way they link themselves with the new state ; it was amusing.  And that does not call for a rest.


The Mother: These experiences are so concrete, so spontaneous and real (they are not the result of a will, still less of an effort) that they do not call for a rest.  But those who managed to have this experience for whatever reason, and who had not a thorough philosophical and mental preparation (the saints or in fact all those who led a spiritual life) had then a very acute impression of the unreality of life and the illusion of life. But it is only a narrow view. It is not that, it is not that. is a choice!


The Mother: Everything, everything. The Lord’s choice, but in us, not there (): here. And we do not know it, it is quite within the heart of ourselves. And when we know it, we can choose — we can choose our choice, it is wonderful.  And this sort of fatality and bondage and hardness of existence, all have disappeared.


The Mother: All disappeared. It was light blue, light rose, all luminous and limpid and light.  I conceive very well that this is not an absolute thing; it was only a way of being, but a very charming way of being.... Usually those who have not a sufﬁcient intellectual preparation, when they have an experience of this kind, they believe they have caught the sole truth. And then with that, they dogmatise.


The Mother: But I saw quite well that it is not that, it is way of being, although it is a ﬁne way of being, well, inﬁnitely superior to what we have here. And we can have it here: I have had it. I have had it in an altogether concrete way. And there is always something that is not all right, wrong here or wrong there, or this or that, and then circumstances also that are not all right; always there are difﬁculties — all that... that changes colour.   And it becomes light, light — light, supple.


The Mother: All the hardness and stiffness: gone.  And the feeling also that if you choose to be like that, you can continue to be like that. And it is true. It is all the wrong habits — evidently millennial habits upon earth — all the wrong habits that prevent you. But there is no reason why this should not be a permanent state.


The Mother: Because this changes everything! Everything changes!... It is evident that if one becomes master of that state, one can change all the circumstances around oneself.  In recent times (for a rather long time), there was this same difﬁculty with the body, which is not limited and shut up in a shell as is generally the case, and which receives spontaneously, not even with the feeling of “receiving”, which the vibrations of all that surrounds it. And then, when all that surrounds it is, from the mental and moral point of view, closed, uncomprehending, it is a little difﬁcult; that is to say, they are elements that come and must be transformed.


The Mother: It is a kind of totality, a very multiple and very unstable totality, representing your ﬁeld of consciousness and action, and upon which you must work all the time to re-establish a harmony, a minimum of harmony.  And when around you something goes “wrong” according to the ordinary idea, it makes the work a little difﬁcult. It is at the same time tenuous and persistent and obstinate. I remember, just before the experience, there was in the body an aspiration for harmony, for light, for a kind of smiling peace. The body aspired above all for a harmony, because of all these things that grind and scrape.


The Mother: And probably the experience has been the result of this aspiration.  Only, I have noted that in the life of this body I have never had the same experience twice — I may have the same kind of experience in a higher degree or in a much vaster degree, but never identically the same. And I do not retain the experience; I am all the while, all the while (), all the while on the march. Yes, the work of transformation of the consciousness  is so rapid, must be done so quickly that there is no time to enjoy or dwell upon an experience or get some satisfaction in it for any length of time — it is impossible. It comes forcefully, very forcefully; that is to say, it changes everything.


The Mother: And then something else comes. It is the same with regard to the transformation of the cells. All kinds of small disorders come, but they are visibly, for the consciousness, disorders of transformation; and then one is busy with that point, one wants to re-establish the order. And at the same time there is something that knows pertinently that the disorder has come to make the transition from ordinary automatic functioning to conscious functioning under the direct guidance and the direct inﬂuence of the Supreme. And the body itself knows it; all the same it is not amusing to have pain here or pain there, or to have this or that get out of order, but it


The Mother: And when that point has arrived at a certain degree of transformation, one passes on to another point, then another, then yet another; so nothing is done, no work is done deﬁnitively until... everything is ready. Then the same work has to be begun again on a higher or vaster level or with greater intensity or more in detail (that depends upon the case), until the is brought to a point homogeneous and ready in a similar way.  As I see it, it is moving as fast as it can, but it takes a long time. And everything is a question of changing the habit.  The entire automatic habit of thousands of years has to be changed into a conscious action directly guided by the supreme Consciousness.


The Mother: One is inclined to say that it is much longer and much more difﬁcult because one is surrounded by people and one acts in the world, but if one were not in such conditions, many things would be forgotten, many. Many things would not be done. There are all kinds of vibrations that have no afﬁnity with this aggregate and which would never have the occasion  to touch the transforming Force if I were not in contact with everyone.  It is very evident — it is very evident — that one is placed in the best of conditions and has the maximum possibilities for action... when one wants it sincerely.   You have heard about those drugs?


The Mother: Have you seen any pictures?... I have. People are thrust without the least defence into the lowest vital, and according to their nature they ﬁnd it either frightful or marvellous. For example, the cloth covering a cushion or a chair suddenly takes on a wondrous beauty. This lasts for about two or three hours.


The Mother: Naturally, they are completely out of their senses the whole time. And the pity of it is that people call these “spiritual experiences”, and there is nobody to tell them that this has nothing to do with spiritual experience.  Some time ago I received a letter from someone who told me he had taken these drugs, and he said he had had terrible visions, that the walls of his room were alive with thousands of evil and desperate faces which persecuted him till nightfall.  There you are!  And so this gave me yet another proof....


The Mother: I saw pictures in  there were some photographs — it was as though you had entered a madhouse. For these are images registered in the subconscient — images of thoughts, images of sensations, images of feelings, registered in the subconscient — which become objective, which come up to the surface and become objective.  Thus they give the exact picture of what is within.  For instance, if you have the feeling or thought that someone is wicked or ridiculous or does not like you, in short, ideas of this kind — generally all this comes up in dream, but here you are not asleep and you have the dream! — they come to play the game you have thought of; what you have thought of them comes back upon you in their form. So this is an indication: for those who see happy, amiable, beautiful images, this means that within, everything is going on quite well (vitally), but for those  who see terrifying or evil things, or things of that sort, it means that the vital is not pretty.


The Mother: Yes, there is, but it hasn’t the same character.  One cannot know it unless one goes into the vital conscious — conscious of his own vital and conscious in the vital world as one is conscious in the physical world. One goes there consciously. It is not a dream, it hasn’t the nature of a dream; it is like an activity, an experience, and it is quite different.  Ninety per cent subjective.


The Mother: Ninety per cent subjective. For more than a year, regularly, every night, at the same hour and in the same way, I used to enter the vital to do some special work there. This was not due to my own will: I was destined to do it. It was something I had to do. Now, for instance, this entry into the vital has been often described: there is a passage where beings are posted to keep you from entering (much has been said about these things in books of occultism).


The Mother: Well, I know by an experience, not casual, but repeated and understood, that this opposition or this malevolence is ninety per cent psychological, in the sense that if you do not anticipate it or fear it, or that there isn’t something in you that fears the unknown nor has all these movements of apprehension and so forth, then it is like a shadow across a picture or the projection of an image: it has no concrete reality.   I have had, it is true, one or two real vital battles in going to the rescue of someone who had gone astray. And twice I have received blows, and the next morning when I woke up there was the mark (). Well, in these two cases, I know it was something in me — not any fear, I have never been afraid there, but because I anticipated it. The idea that “this could very well happen” and the fact that I was expecting it, made the blow come.


The Mother: I knew it for certain. And if I had been in what may be called my “normal state”, of inner certitude, this could not have touched me, it could not. And I had had this apprehension because an occultist whom I knew, had lost an eye in a vital ﬁght and she had told me about it; and so (), that gave me the idea that this was possible, because it had happened to her! But when I am in my own state — I cannot even say that, it is not “personal”, it is a way of being — when one is in the true state, when one is a conscious being and has the true way of being, this touch one.  It is like the experience of meeting an enemy and wanting to strike him, and then the blows do not go home and all that you do has no effect — it is always subjective.


The Mother: I have had every proof, every proof.  There are worlds, there are beings, there are powers, they have their own existence; but what I mean is that their relation with the human consciousness depends upon this human consciousness for the form they take.  It is as with the gods, my child, it is the same thing. All these beings of the Overmind, all these gods, the relation with them, the form of these relations, depend upon the human consciousness. You may be...


The Mother: It has been said, “Men are cattle for the gods”, but if men to be cattle. There is in the essence of human nature a sovereignty over all things which is spontaneous  and natural, when it is not falsiﬁed by a certain number of ideas and so-called knowledge.  One could say that man is the all-powerful master of all the states of being of his nature, but that he has forgotten to be this.  His natural state is to be all-powerful — he has forgotten to be this.  In this state of forgetfulness, everything becomes concrete, yes, in the sense that one may have a mark left on the eye; it may translate itself like this, but it is because... because one has allowed it to happen.


The Mother: It is the same thing with the gods. They can govern your life and torment you a lot (they can help you a lot also), but their power,, to the human being, is the power you give them.  This is something I learnt gradually over several years. But now I am sure of it.  Naturally, in the evolutionary curve, it was necessary for man to forget his omnipotence, because it had simply puffed him up with pride and vanity, and so had become completely distorted; and he had to be made to feel that many things were stronger and more powerful than he.


The Mother: But essentially this is not true. It is a necessity of the curve of progress, that’s all.  Man is potentially a god. He believed himself an actual god. He needed to learn that he was nothing better than a poor little worm crawling on the earth, and so life scraped, scraped, scraped him in every way until he had... not understood, but at least felt a bit.


The Mother: But as soon as he takes the right stand, he knows that he is potentially a god. Only, he must become this, that is, overcome all that is not this.  This relationship with the gods is extremely interesting.... As long as man stands dazzled, lost in admiration of the power, beauty, accomplishments of these divine beings, he is their slave.  But when these become for him different ways of being of the Supreme and nothing more, and himself yet another way of being of the Supreme, which he must become, then the relation  changes and he is no longer their slave — he is their slave.


The Mother: There, you have said it, my child. It is this. It is exactly this.   If the word “objectivity” is taken to mean “real independent existence” — self-existence, independent and real — there is only the Supreme.


The Mother: Ah, why?  But when one has the positive experience of the one and only existence of the Supreme and that all is only the Supreme playing to Himself, instead of being something disquieting or unpleasant or troubling, it is on the contrary a sort of total security.  The one reality is the Supreme. And all this is a game He plays to Himself.


The Mother: I ﬁnd this much more comforting than the opposite view.  And after all, this is the only certitude that all this may become something marvellous; otherwise...  And this too depends altogether on the stand one takes. A complete identiﬁcation with the game as a game, as something self-existent and independent, is probably necessary in the beginning, in order to play the game properly. But there’s a moment when one reaches precisely this detachment and so complete a disgust for all the falsehood of existence, that it is no longer tolerable unless one sees it as the inner play of the Lord in Himself, for Himself.


The Mother: And then one feels this absolute and perfect freedom which makes the most marvellous possibilities become real, and all the most sublime things imaginable are realisable.  (.)  You will see, there is a moment when one cannot bear oneself or life unless one takes the attitude that it is the Lord who is everything. You see, this Lord, how many things He possesses, He plays with all this — He plays, He plays at changing the positions. And so, when one sees this, this whole, one feels the illimitable marvel, and that all our most wonderful aspirations, all these are quite possible and will even be surpassed.


The Mother: Then one is comforted. Otherwise, existence... it is inconsolable. But like this, it becomes charming. I shall tell you about this one day.


The Mother: When one feels the unreality of life, the unreality of life when compared with a reality which is certainly beyond, above, but at the same time life, then, at that moment... “Ah, yes, at last this, it is true — at last this, it is true and deserves to be true. This is the realisation of all possible splendours, all possible marvels, yes, of all possible felicities, all possible beauties, yes, this; otherwise...”  I have come to that!  And then, I feel as though I still have one foot here, one foot there, which is not a very comfortable position, because... because one would wish that there be nothing but That.


The Mother: The present way of being is a past which truly should no longer be there. While the other: “Ah! At last! At last! It is for this that there is a world.”


The Mother: And everything else remains quite as concrete and real — it does not become hazy! It is just as concrete, just as real, but... but it becomes divine, because... because it the Divine.  It is the Divine who plays.   For a long time quite recently, that is to say, for days together, there was a very acute, very intense, very clear perception that the action of the Force translated itself externally by what we call “suffering” because that is the only kind of vibration which can pull Matter out of its inertia.  The supreme Peace, the supreme Calm are deformed and disﬁgured into inertia and into, and precisely because this was the deformation of true Peace and Calm, there was no reason why it should change!


The Mother: A certain vibration of awakening — of reawakening — was necessary to come out of this that could not pass directly from to Peace; something was needed to shake the, and that is translated externally by suffering.  I am speaking here of physical suffering, because all the other sufferings — vital, mental, emotional sufferings — are due to a wrong working of the mind, and these... may simply be classed together as Falsehood, that’s all. But physical suffering gives me the impression of a child being beaten, because here, in Matter, Falsehood has become ignorance; that is to say, there is no bad will — no bad will is there in Matter, all is inertia and ignorance: complete ignorance of the Truth, ignorance of the Origin, ignorance of the Possibility and ignorance even of what is to be done in order not to suffer physically. This ignorance is everywhere in the cells, and it is only the experience, the experience of what is translated in this rudimentary consciousness as suffering, which can awaken, bring forth the need to know and to cure, and the aspiration to transform oneself.


The Mother: It has become a certainty, because in all the cells there is born the aspiration, which is becoming more and more intense and  which wonders at the resistance; but they have observed that whenever something goes wrong in the working (that is to say, instead of being supple, spontaneous, natural, the working becomes a painful effort, a struggle against something which takes the appearance of a bad will, but is only a reticence that does not understand), at that moment, the intensity of the aspiration, of the call, is tenfold, becomes constant. The difﬁculty is to remain at that state of intensity. Generally everything falls back, I cannot say into a somnolence, but a kind of relaxation: you take things easy; and it is only when the inner disorder becomes painful that the intensity grows and remains permanent. For hours — hours together — without slackening, the call, the aspiration, the will to be united with the Divine, to become the Divine, is maintained at its maximum. Why?


The Mother: Because there was externally what is called a physical disorder, a suffering. Otherwise, when there is no suffering, from time to time one soars up, then one falls back into a slackening; again another time one soars up once more... there is no end to it. That lasts eternally. If we want things to go fast (relatively fast according to the rhythm of our life), this smack of the whip is necessary.


The Mother: I am convinced of it, because as soon as you are within your inner being you look upon that with contempt (as regards oneself).   But then, all of a sudden, when there comes this true Compassion of the Divine Love, and when one sees all these things that appear so horrible, so abnormal, so absurd, this great pain which is upon all beings and even upon all things... then there takes birth in this physical being the aspiration to soothe, to cure, to remove that. There is in Love, at its Origin, something which is translated constantly as the intervention of Grace: a force, a sweetness, something like a vibration of solace spread everywhere, but which an illumined consciousness can direct, concentrate on some points.


The Mother: And it is there, there itself that I saw the true use one can make of thought: thought serves as a kind of channel to carry this vibration from place to place, wherever it is necessary. This force, this vibration of sweetness is there in a  static way upon the world, pressing in order to be received, but it is an impersonal action. And thought — illumined thought, surrendered thought, thought which is no longer anything but an instrument, which tries no longer to initiate things, which is satisﬁed with being moved by the higher Consciousness — thought serves as an intermediary to establish a contact, a relation, and to enable this impersonal Force to act wherever it is necessary, upon deﬁnite points.  It may be said in an absolute way that an evil always carries its own remedy. One might say that the cure of any suffering coexists with the suffering.


The Mother: So, instead of seeing an evil “useless” and “stupid” as it is generally thought to be, you see that the progress, the evolution which has made the suffering necessary — which is the cause of the suffering and the very reason for its existence — attains the intended result; and at the same time the suffering is cured, for those who are able to open themselves and receive. The three things — suffering as a means of progress, progress, and the cure of suffering — are coexistent, simultaneous; that is to say, they do not follow each other, they are there at the same time.  If, at the moment when the transforming action creates a suffering, there is in that which suffers the necessary aspiration and opening, the remedy also is taken in at the same time, and the effect is total, complete: transformation, with the action necessary to obtain it, and, at the same time, cure of the false sensation produced by the resistance. And the suffering is replaced by... something which is not known upon this earth, but which is akin to joy, well-being, trust and security. It is a supersensation, in a perfect peace, and which is obviously the only thing that can be eternal.


The Mother: This analysis expresses very imperfectly what one would call the “content” of Ananda.  I believe it is something that has been felt, experienced, partially and in a very ﬂeeting manner, through all the ages, but which has just begun to concentrate and almost concretise itself  upon earth. But physical Matter, in its cellular form, has, one cannot say fear or anxiety, but a kind of apprehension of new vibrations, and this apprehension naturally takes away from the cells their receptivity and assumes the appearance of uneasiness — it is not suffering, but an uneasiness. When, however, this apprehension is counterbalanced and cured by aspiration and the will for total surrender and by the act of total surrender, then this sort of apprehension, having disappeared, becomes a supreme well-being.  All this, they are as though microscopic studies of the phenomena of consciousness, free from mental intervention.


The Mother: The necessity of using words to express oneself brings this mental intervention, but in the experience it does not exist. And it is very interesting, because the pure experience has a content of truth, of reality, which disappears as soon as the mind intervenes. There is a savour of true reality which altogether escapes expression because of that. It is the same difference as between an individual and his portrait, a fact and the story told. It is like that.


The Mother: But it is much more subtle.  And then, to come back to what we were saying just now, when one is conscious of this Force — this Force, this Compassion in its essential reality — and when one sees how it can act through the conscious individual, one has the key to the problem.   (physical body)   It is strange, this was the very subject of my meditations these days — not deliberate, they are imposed from above. Because through the entire passage from the plant to the animal and from the animal to man (especially from the animal to man), essentially the differences in form are minimal; the true transformation lies in the intervention of another agent of consciousness.


The Mother: All the differences between the life of the animal and the life of man come from the intervention of the Mind; but the substance is essentially the same and it obeys the same laws of formation and construction. For example, there is not much difference between a calf that is formed in the womb of the cow and the child that is formed in the womb of the mother. There is a difference, that of the intervention of the Mind; but if we look at a being, that is to say, visible as the physical is visible now and having the same density (for example, a body having no need of circulation, or of bones — particularly these two: the skeletons and blood circulation), it is difﬁcult to conceive.  And as long as it is like that, with this circulation of the blood, this action of the heart, one could imagine — one can imagine — by a power of the Spirit, the renewal of force, of energy, through means other than food; this is conceivable; but the rigidity, the solidity of the body — how is that possible without the skeleton?... In that case, this would be a transformation inﬁnitely greater than that from the animal to man; this would be a passage from man to a being who would not be built in the same manner, who would no longer function in the same manner, who would be like the condensation and concretisation of “something”....


The Mother: Up to now, that corresponds to nothing we have yet seen physically, unless the scientists have found something I do not know about.  Yes, that is what I say, food can disappear; that one can conceive.   But the child because of that cannot remain standing! He cannot exert himself. What will replace the bone-structure, for instance?


The Mother: Yes, that is possible.... Only, what I mean to say is that perhaps the thing will be done through a large number of new creations.  For instance, the passage from man to this being will perhaps be accomplished through all kinds of other intermediaries. It is the leap, you understand, that seems to me tremendous.  I conceive very well a being who could, by spiritual power, the power of his inner being, absorb the necessary forces, renew himself and remain always young; that one conceives very well, even for giving a certain suppleness so as to be able to change the form, if need be.


The Mother: But the total disappearance of this system of construction immediately — immediately from the one to the other — that seems to be... that seems to require stages.  Evidently, unless something happens (which we are obliged to call a “miracle”, because one cannot understand how) how can a body like ours become a body wholly built and moved by a higher force and without a material support? This ( ), how can this change into this other thing? ... That appears impossible.


The Mother: Yes, in all my experiences I understand very well the possibility of no longer having the need for food, the disappearance of all  this process (for example, changing the method of absorption, that is possible), but how to change the structure?   That does not seem to you impossible?  Supple, plastic, yes, that one can conceive, it can become plastic; that is to say, the form will not be ﬁxed as now.


The Mother: All that one can conceive, but...  But visible? Which one would be able to touch?  (.) I have not had the experience, I do not know.


The Mother: I am absolutely convinced, because I have had experiences which proved it to me, that the life of this body — the life which makes it move and change — can be replaced by a force; that is to say, one can create a kind of immortality, and the wear and tear can also disappear. These two things are possible: the  power of life can come and the wear and tear can disappear. And that can come psychologically, through a total obedience to the divine Impulsion, which enables one to have at each moment the force that is needed, to do the thing that is needed — all that, all that, these are certitudes; it is not a hope, it is not an imagination: these are certitudes. Well, one must educate and slowly transform, change one’s habits. It is possible, all that is possible.


The Mother: But only, how long would it take to do away with the necessity (let us take this problem only) of the skeleton? That seems to me to be a matter still very far away. That is to say, many intermediary stages will be necessary. Sri Aurobindo said that life could be prolonged indeﬁnitely. That, yes.


The Mother: But we are not yet built with something that wholly escapes dissolution, the necessity of dissolution. The bones are very durable, they can even last a thousand years if they are in favourable conditions, it is understood; but that does not mean immortality  You understand what I mean?  I do not know if it is non-physical, but it is a physical that I do not know! And it is not the substance as we know it now, particularly not the construction that we know now.


The Mother: physical body Yes, but that, my child, that is...    But vegetable things are not immortal.  Well, yes!


The Mother: There is this question only. Perpetual change, that I conceive; I could even conceive of a ﬂower that does not fade, but it is this principle of immortality... That is to say, in essence, a life which escapes from the necessity of renewing itself: that it is the eternal Force which manifests itself directly and eternally, and yet it should be this, a physical body ( ).   I understand very well a progressive change and that one could make of this substance something which might renew itself from within to the outside and eternally — and that, that would be immortality; but only, it seems to me that between what is now, as we are, and this other mode of life, there have to be many stages.


The Mother: Well, these cells, with all the consciousness and experience they have now, if you ask them, for example, “Is there anything that you cannot do?”, they will answer in their sincerity, “No, what the Lord wills, I can do.” This is their state of consciousness. But in appearance it is otherwise. The personal experience is this: whatever I do with the Presence of the Lord, I do without effort, without difﬁculty, without fatigue, without waste, like this (); only it is still open to all the inﬂuences from outside and the body is obliged to do things that are not directly the expression of the supreme Impulsion; from there come the fatigue, the friction.... So, a supramental body suspended in a world that is not the earth — it is not that!


The Mother: Something is needed that has the power to resist the contagion.  Man cannot resist the contagion of the animal, he cannot, he  is in constant relation. Well, this being, how will he do it?... It would seem, for a long time — for a long time — he will still be subjected to the laws of contagion.


The Mother: No?  But all the world will disappear! It is that, is it not?  When That comes, when the Lord is there, there is not one in a thousand who would not be frightened. And not in the reasoning, not in the thought: like that, in the substance.


The Mother: Then supposing, supposing that it is so, that a being becomes the condensation and expression, a formula of the supreme Power, the supreme Light — what would happen!  Yes.  If everything could be transformed at the same time, that would be all right, but it is not obviously like that. If one being was transformed all alone...  Yes.


The Mother: My feeling (it is a kind of feeling-sensation) is that there should be intermediary stages.   And then, when you see how man had to ﬁght against the whole of Nature in order to exist, you have the feeling that these beings — those who will understand them, who will help them — will have with them a relation of devotion, attachment, service, as animals have for men. But those who will not love them... they will be dangerous beings. I remember, once I had a very clear vision of the precarious situation of these new beings, and I had said (it was before 1956, before the descent of the supramental power), I had said, “The Supramental will ﬁrst manifest itself in its aspect of Power, because it will be indispensable for the safety of the beings.”


The Mother: And indeed it is Power that descended ﬁrst — Power and Light: Light that gives Knowledge and Power.   It is a thing that I am feeling more and more: the necessity of intermediate periods.... It is quite evident that something is in the process of happening, but it is not the “something” that has been seen and foreseen and which will be the culmination; it is of the stages that is going to come about, it is not the culmination.  Sri Aurobindo also has said that ﬁrst of all there will come the power to prolong life at will (it is much more subtle and wonderful than that), but that is a state of consciousness which is in the process of being established; it is a kind of relation, and of constant, established contact with the supreme Lord; and that abolishes the sense of wear and tear and replaces it by an extraordinary ﬂexibility, an extraordinary plasticity.


The Mother: But the state of immortality is not possible — not possible, at least for the present. This structure must change into something other than this; and in order to change into something other than this — in the way things are happening, it will take long.  It may go faster than in the past, but even admitting that the movement rushes forward, even then it will take time (according to our notion of time). And what is, besides, quite worth noticing, is that one must change one’s sense of time if one is to be in the state of consciousness where wearing out does not  exist; one enters into a state where time no longer has the same reality. It is something else.


The Mother: It is very special, it is an uncountable present. Even this habit that one has, of thinking beforehand or of foreseeing what is going to happen, is a stumbling-block, is a clinging to the old manner of being.   So many, so many habits to change.  The integral realisation will come about only when one can be divine spontaneously.


The Mother: Oh! To be divine spontaneously, without turning to see that one is so, having passed beyond the stage where one wants to be so.   It to be like that, since it is like that.  It is perhaps a lesson (it is an indication), but it has a purpose. The lesson that I have to understand, I am trying to understand.


The Mother: I am learning to be patient, oh! such a patience.... Always there are revolts, insults, all that. For me it is absolutely zero and sometimes it is even amusing. When I am in my own condition, the true condition of compassion, it changes nothing, it does not raise even a small ripple on the surface, nothing.


The Mother: The question was put to me yesterday; I was asked if insult, the feeling of being insulted, and what is called in English “selfrespect” (something corresponding a little to in French) had any place in the sadhana. Of course, there is no place for it, it is well understood! But I have seen the movement, it was very clear, I have seen that without ego, when the ego is not there, there this sort of rufﬂe in the being.  Because I went back far into the past to a time when I still used to feel it (many years ago), but now, it is no longer something foreign even, it is something impossible. The whole being, and even (it is strange), even the physical constitution does not


The Mother: understand what that means. It is the same thing when there is materially a shock (), like that for example; it is no longer felt as one feels an injury, it is no longer felt like that. Most often there is nothing at all, it passes absolutely unperceived in the whole; but when something is felt, it is only the impression — a very, very gentle, very intimate impression of a help seeking to make itself felt,  a lesson that is to be learnt. But not as one does in the mental way in which there is always a stiffening; it is not that, it is immediately a sort of offering of the being, which gives itself in order to learn. I am speaking of the cells.


The Mother: It is very interesting.  Evidently if you mentalise, you must say that it is the feeling or consciousness of the divine Presence in all things and that the mode — the mode of contact — derives from the state in which you are.  Yes, that is the experience of the body.  And in individuals, when there is any knock or shock, always the only perception is a clear vision of the ego — the ego manifesting itself. They say, “It is the other.”


The Mother: I would not say, “Oh! That one was angry” or “Oh! This one...”, no, it is his ego; not even his ego:, the ego principle — the ego principle which still intervenes. It is very interesting, because the ego has become for me a kind of impersonal entity, while for everybody else it is the acute sense of his personality! Instead of that, it is a kind of way of being (terrestrial or human, one can say), which is in greater or lesser quantity here or there or there, giving each one the illusion of personality. It is very interesting.


The Mother: Oh! If they learnt their lesson everything would change very quickly.  Cannot!  They cannot engulf me! () I am too big!


The Mother: I have noticed that if I resist, it becomes bad. If I have the feeling of ﬂuidity, there are no more knocks. It is the same thing as for this scratch (). If you stiffen and things resist, you get a knock. It is like men who know how to fall: they fall, they break nothing; whereas men who do not know how to fall, just a little fall and they break something.


The Mother: It is the same thing. One must learn how to be... the perfect unity. To correct, to straighten, is still resistance. So what will happen if the invasion, as you say, continues? It will be amusing, let us see!