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THE MOTHER

Questions and Answers

Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Pondicherry

November, 1961

Questions and Answers

In continuation of what The Mother said in answer to the following question which appeared in Bulletin August 1961

What are the -very first things that the supramental Force is going to dislodge or trying to dislodge, so that everything may be in its place,¹ individually and cosmically ?

DISLODGE ? Will it "dislodge" anything ? If we accept the idea of Sri Aurobindo, it will put everything in its place, that is all.

     There is one thing that must necessarily cease; it is the deformation, that is to say, the veil of falsehood upon Truth, because it is this that is responsible for all that we see here. If you remove that, things will be altogether different, altogether; they will be as we feel them when we ourselves are out of that consciousness. When we come out of that consciousness, when we enter into the Consciousness of the Truth, it becomes even a matter of surprise for us that there can be anything like suffering and misery and death and all that; there is a kind of surprise in the sense that one does not understand how it can happen—when you have truly turned over to the other side….But this experience is usually associated with the unreality of the world as we know it, whereas, Sri Aurobindo says that this perception of the unreality of the world is not necessary in order to live in the supramental consciousness—it is only the unreality of the Falsehood, not the unreality of the world. That is to say, the world has a reality in itself, independent of the Falsehood. 

    I suppose that is the first effect of the. Supramental; the first

     ¹ Note that a little earlier Mother had commented on the aphorism (66) of Sri Aurobindo where he says that there is no sin, only things are not in their place.

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effect on the individual, for it begins first of all with the individual.

     This state of new consciousness, it is probable, must become a constant state, but then a problem arises : how can one remain in contact with the world as it is in its deformation ? because I become aware of one thing : when this state is very strong in me, very strong, so strong that it is able to resist any thing that may come to bombard it from outside, then if I say anything people do not understand at all, not at all; therefore it necessarily does away with all useful contact.

    How would it be like, if a little supramental creation, a nucleus of action and supramental radiation upon earth, for example, were to take up only the earth ? Is it possible ?.. .One can conceive very well of a nucleus of superhuman creation and of supermen, that is to say, men who were men and who, through evolution and transformation (in the true sense of the word), have succeeded in manifesting the supramental forces; but their origin is human and as their origin is human there is necessarily a contact; even if everything is transformed, even if the organs are transformed into centres of force, there remains nonetheless something human, like a colouring. It is these beings, according to the traditions, who will discover the secret of the direct supramental creation, without passing through the process of ordinary Nature and it is through them that the truly supramental beings will take birth, who must necessarily live in a supramental world. But then how would the contact be made between these beings and the ordinary world ? How to conceive of the transformation of Nature, a transformation sufficient to bring about the supramental creation upon earth ? I do not know.

    Naturally, for such a thing to happen a considerably long time is neded, as we know it; and there will probably be stages, steps, things which will appear (which for the moment we do not know or which we do not conceive) and will change the conditions of the earth—that means seeing some thousands of years ahead.

   There remains the problem, whether it is possible to make use of this notion of space, I mean the space on the terrestrial globe ? Is it this notion of space, I mean the space on the terrestrial globe¹ ?

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Is it possible to find a spot where one could create the embryo or seed of the future supramental world ? The plan came in all the details, but it is a plan which in its spirit and consciousness, does not at all conform to what is possible terrestrially now; yet in its most material manifestation, it was based on terrestrial conditions . It is the concept of an ideal town which would be the nucleus of an ideal country and which would have contacts, purely superficial and extremely limited in their effects, with the outside world. One must then already conceive—that however is possible—of a power sufficiently strong to be at the same time a protection against aggression or bad will (it would not be a most difficult protection to have) and against infiltration and admixture. But that one can conceive, if absolutely necessary. From the social point of view, from the point of view of organisation, from the point of view of the inner life, those are not problems. The problem is the relation with what is not supramentalised, to prevent the infiltration, the admixture, that is to say, to prevent the nucleus from falling back into a lower creation—the question is about a period of transition.

     All those who have given thought to the problem have always imagined something unknown to the rest of humanity, like a gorge in the Himalayas, for example, a place unknown to the rest of the world. But this is not a solution; it is no solution at all.

No, the only solution is the occult power, but that already implies, before anything can be done that a certain number of individuals must have reached a great perfection of realisation. But it can be conceived that if this can be done, one can have a spot isolated in the midst of the outside world (there are no contacts, it is understood), a spot where everything would be exactly in its place, as an example. Each thing is exacdy in its place, each person exactly in his place, each movement exacdy in its place—and in its place in an ascending progressive movement without a relapse (that is to say, quite contrary to what happens in ordinary

¹ Asked subsequently on the meaning of this phrase, the Mother laughed and said : "I said that of the other side, the side where the notion of space is not so concrete.

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life). Naturally, that presupposes a kind of perfection, that presupposes a kind of unity, that presupposes that the different aspects of the Supreme can be manifested; and necessarily, an exceptional beauty, a total harmony and a power strong enough to hold the forces of Nature under submission. For example, even if this spot were surrounded by the forces of destruction, they would not have the power to act, the protection would be sufficient. All that requires utmost perfection in the individuals who would be the organisers of such a thing.

(silence)

     Indeed, nohody knows how the first men were formed, the first mental realisation. One does not know whether it was isolated individuals or groups, whether it happened in the midst of others or in isolation. I do not know. But there may exist an analogy with the future case of supramental creation. It is not difficult to conceive that an individual, in the solitude of the Himalayas or in the solitude of the virgin forest begins to create around him his little supramental world. It is easy to conceive. But the same thing would be necessary, he must reach such a perfection that his power would act automatically to prevent intrusion and automatically it would be protected, that is to say, any element contrary or foreign would be prevented from approaching.

     Stories of the kind have been told, of people who lived in an ideal solitude. It is not impossible at all to conceive that. When one is in contact with the Power, at the moment when it is in you, you see quite well that it is a child’s play; it is even possible to change certain things, exert a contagion on the surrounding vibrations and forms which automatically begin to be supramentalised. All that is possible, but it is on the individual scale. Whereas, take the example of what is happening here, the individual dwelling even at the centre of all this chaos, there lies the difficulty ! Does it not follow from this very fact that it is an impossibility to reach a kind of perfection in the realisation ? But the other case also, that of the solitary in the forest is an example that does not prove that

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the rest of mankind will be able to follow; whereas what is happening here is already a much more radiating action. That is what must happen at a given moment, that must happen necessarily; but the problem remains : can that happen at the same time or before the other thing is realised—the individual, the one single individual supramentalised ?

     Evidently the realisation under the conditions of the community or the group is much more complete, integral, total and, probably, perfect than any individual realisation which is always necessarily on the external, material plane, absolutely limited, because it is only a mode of being, a mode of manifestation, a microscopic set of vibrations that is touched.

     But from the point of view of the easiness of the work, I believe there is no comparison.

(silence)

     The problem remains. All people, like Buddha and others, had realised first and then entered in contact with the world; it is very simple. But in regard to what I have in view, is it not the indispensable condition for the realisation to be total that one remains in the world ?

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Education

       We are not here to do {only a little better) what the others do.

      We are here to do what the others cannot do because they do not have even the idea that it can be done.

      We are here to open the way of the Future to children who belong to the Future.

      Anything else is not worth the trouble and not worthy of Sri Aurobindo’s help. 6-9-1 

     Truth is supreme harmony and supreme delight.

     All disorder, all suffering is falsehood.

     Thus it can be said that illnesses are the falsehoods of the body, and consequently doctors are soldiers of the great and noble army fighting in the world for the conquest of Truth.

     The best remedy is to stop thinking of yourself and your defects and difficulties.

     Let us think only of the big work to be done, the ideal that Sri Aurobindo has given us to realise, the work and not how we do it.

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Reprinted from The Bulletin of S. A. I. C. of Education November, 1961

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