September 29, 1965
It’s going well, isn’t it?
I think so….
You’re surprised that I tell you “it’s going well”? (Mother laughs) It’s going well: they are displaying their hypocrisy, everyone is forced to see it.[[Mother is probably alluding (in addition to the cease-fire violations by Pakistan) to a declaration from Delhi that India considered as obsolete the treaty signed in 1954 by Nehru recognizing China's sovereignty over Tibet. (That "declaration" did not hold for long.) ]] I am receiving good indications. They keep on fighting over there. Look, another new paper (Mother holds out an extract from a letter of Sri Aurobindo). It’s very interesting:
“For instance, India is free and her freedom was necessary if the divine work was to be done. The difficulties that surround her now and may increase for a time, especially with regard to the Pakistan imbroglio, were also things that had to come and to be cleared out…. Here too there is sure to be a full clearance, though unfortunately, a considerable amount of human suffering in the process is inevitable. Afterwards the work for the Divine will become more possible and it may well be that the dream, if it is a dream, of leading the world towards the spiritual light, may even become a reality. So I am not disposed even now, in these dark conditions to consider my will to help the world as condemned to failure.”
Sri Aurobindo
April 4, 1950
It’s good, isn’t it?
Yes, one has the feeling that this Pakistan problem is symbolic, and that until it is sorted out, India will not play her role in the world.
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That’s right.
And it’s through this symbol that the hypocrisy of Gandhi’s India and all her errors must at the same time be swept away.
Absolutely.
You said you had received indications?
Material ones: letters, people, things … I can’t talk about that. A political movement.
The message ["India is ONE"] has gone about everywhere, and has been accepted.
It’s better not to talk about that.
Well be really glad when it’s sorted out … because it’s a lovable country, this!
It’s predestined.
There aren’t two like this one; it is true that there aren’t two countries alike, but the others are all sorts of different things on the same plane, while this is found only here.
It’s something you breathe in with the country’s atmosphere.
I had this experience very, very strongly. When I left here [in 1915], as I got farther away, I felt as if emptied of something, and once in the Mediterranean, I wasn’t able to bear it any longer: I fell ill. And even in Japan, which outwardly is a marvelous country – marvelously beautiful and harmonious (it WAS, I don’t know what it is nowadays), and outwardly it was a joy every minute, a breathtaking joy, so strong was the expression of beauty – yet I felt empty, empty, empty, I absolutely lacked … (Mother opens her mouth as though suffocating) … I lacked the important Thing. And I found it again only when I came back here.
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October