October 26, 1963
(Pondicherry has just been hit by a cyclone
and Satprem by a strange fever.)
Did you feel anything during the cyclone? No, nothing particular?
You always have a sense of something in a fury – and not too nice!
(Laughing) Obviously!
First it came from one direction, then a dead calm – it’s always that way. You know how cyclones work? It’s something that rotates, and at the center there’s a dead calm; all around is a whirlwind, and it rotates as it advances. So the first part (what might be called the front of the cyclone) arrives from one direction,
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then it goes on rotating, and the second part comes from the opposite direction. We have an American rear admiral here who knows those things very well – all seafaring people know them – he had seen the cyclone from a distance on the sea and warned us. But it’s always that way, I had noticed it. The first wave arrived from the north, but as we were forewarned, everything had been closed. Then the wind died down completely, but the southern windows had been left open. And the second wave came from the other direction (it came around evening, a little before 7, I don’t remember; anyway, I was sitting at the table here). And I saw … I saw that whirlwind coming, and inside it there were formations: like heaped masses, some gray-black, others reddish-brown. And I watched it all; I saw them from a distance, there were lots of them: big formations, about as big as houses. They came in heaped masses, with kinds of formations WITHIN the whirlwind. So I was here, just beginning to have my dinner, when a reddish-brown formation went over, like this, right from here towards your house (Mother sweeps across the room from south to north), and it struck me. Mon petit, howling pains! And then a horrible discomfort. So naturally, my usual remedy: I stayed still and offered it all to the Lord. The formation went past, didn’t stop (it went past, struck and went away), and left behind it (afterwards the pains were dull, they could be controlled) a kind of very peculiar sense of discomfort … a sort of wickedness, like big sharp claws raking one’s stomach. So I was expecting something for you – others too fell sick who were in the path of the formation. But there must have been quite a number of cases, because I saw many formations – that one did strike, you see. I saw it arrive as swiftly as the cyclone, strike, and then go on. So when I was told that you had a fever, instantly I thought, “That’s it.”
Was it painful?
Oh, terrible, as if I were burning within.
That’s it, like red-hot iron claws. And others too had the same thing, the very same thing.
My body and muscles are aching all over, as if I had been battered.
Yes, that’s it, mon petit. The doctors would say it was a mass of germs or microbes or viruses (or God knows what), but it was vital
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ill will – vital malice – but with a coating material enough to act directly (Mother strikes): it was instantaneous, you know, no need of incubation! Instantaneous, like a fiery sword ripping open your stomach – charming.
It will go away.
But I stopped the immediate effect (the immediate effect was … almost catastrophic), I stopped it with my great method: that sort of inner immobility, and leaving everything in the Lord’s hands. Nevertheless, the next day, I was unwell (I’m not quite well yet), as though the body had been terribly shaken.
Then I saw all kinds of things – oh, bah! bah!… An adverse organization in the most material vital to mislead unenlightened spiritual aspirations: I encountered that last night. There was a kind of preacher teaching how to do things, and for each thing I had to contradict and explain – because he had quite an audience: he has that audience at night, and when people wake up, they aren’t conscious of it, and it influences them. It results in a kind of possession. It was (oh, I see that gentleman often), it’s a tall, black being – he is black, jet black – but he passes himself off as a great Initiate! People don’t see him as he is (they must see him in a very attractive guise), and he preaches the very things that foster disintegration. He teaches you in detail how to do – a very good teacher of mischief. But I argued with him about everything, explained everything in detail, very carefully, very conscientiously, and when it was over, I offered it all to the Lord – so I don’t know what happened to him!
“They” are quite unhappy at what’s going on here! (Mother laughs)
So that must be a good sign, mustn’t it?
Yes, but … It shakes people a little.
The strange thing is that L., who was in the path of this formation (gesture from south to north), was sick, like you, he had a fever: the same thing, the same pains – very particular pains. And U. too was nearly caught; but the day before, I had explained to him how to defend himself, and he told me he had used my method and it worked quite well. I had explained to him how to “pass the thing” on to the Lord (that is, to learn to offer it). He tried it and told me, “It worked quite well, the thing didn’t take root: a moment of discomfort, and it was over.”
One should learn to do that. If one does it with one’s head, it’s
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useless; what’s effective is when you are able to summon that sort of eternal immobility … then, the effect is immediate. But generally, people know how to do it for others but not for themselves, because for themselves, they go on vibrating – when it hurts a lot, it’s difficult to stop that vibrating. But it CAN be done; even when the pain is absolutely acute, almost unbearable (normally one would start screaming), one CAN, one can do it and summon that silent immobility to the painful spot – immobility of eternity. Very, very quickly, within a few seconds, the intensity disappears; there remains only a memory, which one should take care not to reawaken by thinking about it, but which lingers as a memory in the body, as when you’ve given yourself a good knock, a sound blow, and the acute pain has gone, but the mark stays. It stays a more or less long time. If one made the effort to stay very, very quiet, immobile, without doing anything, thinking anything, wanting anything, for a long enough time, I think there would be very little effect.
So much so that, for example, one KNOWS one has a violent fever (the thing comes with a violent fever, a violent reaction), yet there is no sign of fever! I had the experience three or four times; I had those things that bring on bouts of violent fever, and when the doctor came, I asked him, “Doctor, do I have a fever?” (I knew very well I had a fever, I didn’t need to ask him! One of those fevers that make you run a very high temperature; but then there was that immobility I had summoned.) The doctor feels my pulse: “No, you’re fine!”
Of course, one can imitate this mentally, but it’s only an imitation. What I mean is something else, which has nothing to do with mental will – (laughing) maybe it’s a gift from the Lord, I don’t know!
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