November 19, 1966
(Mother holds out a small rose to Satprem:)
I have a lovely rose for you. Do you know what it is?
No, Mother.
I thought as much!
What is it?
It’s true tenderness: that of the Divine. People don’t know, they always think of something very human. But it’s not human … (Mother closes her eyes and remains standing in concentration) It’s extremely luminous, rose-colored, slightly golden … always smiling…. It’s a very particular sensation. (After a long silence) Everything is like a beautiful pink rose – a beautiful rose. It’s better than that, much better … (how can I put it?). No difficulties can exist – they don’t exist [when one is in that Tenderness]. It’s the side of life (“of life,” I mean of the manifestation) which is all beauty, smile, peace and light – spontaneously, effortlessly, with an impossibility for anything else to exist. It’s very particular. And it’s very high up, very high up…. Yet, now and then I see a drop of it here. The first time I saw it … (Mother wobbles on her feet). I must sit down because I’m going away!
(Mother sits down and resumes) It can only be realized in a
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world devoid of egoism. Which means that when the whole action of individualization is over and there is no more need for the element of egoism, then it will be possible for "that" to be fully manifested.
We could call it the “sweetness of Love,” but the word “sweet” is a little wishy-washy. It’s much better than sweet. It’s something without difficulties: no difficulties happen, it doesn’t know difficulties, it ignores them entirely – there are no difficulties, they don’t exist. So, when it manifests, there are no difficulties. Then, naturally, it can’t stay here because … because there are still difficulties!
Anyway …
***
Soon afterwards
Has one of the new pieces of Ashram gossip reached you two?… I am supposed to have said that Maheshwari [[Maheshwari: the supreme Mother. ]] has manifested in a golden light, that Sri Aurobindo has come (where from, I don’t know!) and said that the world wasn’t ready and that was why there are catastrophes and cyclones – haven’t you heard the story? Anyway, I denied it. First, I said, “Where could Sri Aurobindo come from? He is always here, so he doesn’t need to come!”
The story is unimportant, except that some people were distraught: they were expecting the end of the world! Sri Aurobindo saying “the world isn’t ready” means it’s coming to an end!
Anyway, yesterday (I think it’s in answer to this story of Maheshwari and Sri Aurobindo saying the world isn’t ready), I wrote something in French, but it was under the pressure of Sri Aurobindo’s consciousness. He said (Mother takes a note and reads):
"According to the law of men, the guilty must be
punished. But there is a more imperative law than
the human law: it is the law of the Divine, the law
of compassion and mercy. It is thanks to this law
that the world can last and progress …
The vision was so clear. It was such a clear vision…. If you
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follow this law of the guilty who must be punished, then little by little, with the unfolding of things, everything should be punished! (Mother laughs) Nothing would remain! So Sri Aurobindo said:
“It is thanks to this law that the world can last and progress towards Truth and Love.”
The guilty must be punished! … It’s always the same idea; men always have that idea: the guilty must be punished – but where does that lead to??
(silence)
I also wrote another thing. I told you that on the day of Kali puja she came and was displeased. So I wrote (Mother takes another note and reads):
“They know what should not be done They know what should be done They know how to do it They know everything! … Yet, of all factors, mental arrogance is the most unfavorable to the action of the divine Grace.”
This notation, you know, was purely and simply a question of vibration; it was the vibration of mental arrogance (which is perceptible, clear, absolutely clear). It came and took up the whole space … (Mother makes a gesture of puffing up), it took up a lot of space! … It took up the whole space, and then, this very tranquil, very calm Action, so … noiseless, without ado, unassuming; it goes like this (gesture of imperturbable descent), with perfect simplicity – and it was absolutely blocked, it couldn’t get through! So I wrote this note.
“They know what should not be done
They know what should be done
They know everything! …”
It was the result of Kali. And it was a very strong experience (a material one, here; not far away: here). Something has been clarified since it was said. There was a sort of absolute need to say
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it. And something has been clarified. [[Let us recall that Mother's written notations often act as occult instruments: she keeps them near her and "recharges" them from time to time. ]]
I should also say that ever since financial affairs started being none too bright, all manner of things have been reaching my ears…. There are big difficulties. I am obliged to tell people that I can’t pay and they shouldn’t spend needlessly, and on the other hand, I am looking, trying to find where the obstacle is…. Because the power to attract money remains as it has always been (and it’s considerable), so there should be no difficulties. So I wrote this note because I see clearly in people’s thought, they all keep saying, “Oh, we should do this, oh, we shouldn’t do that, oh, if Mother did this, oh, if Mother didn’t do that….” Some are bold enough to say it, others aren’t but think that way – there are very few who don’t think that way. And still fewer say to themselves, “I’d better not be concerned with it because I don’t understand the first thing about it.” So I was as if compelled to take the pen and write that down: “They know what should be done, they know …” (Mother makes a gesture of hammering the disciples’ heads). And it has done a lot of good.
Did I tell you last time that in Bihar, the rain started that very evening?… I found out how it occurred. It’s P. who flew over Bihar, and he saw a desert, devastation: dry, dry, dry, nothing growing, cracked earth. Then he remembered certain experiences here. [[Of "unexpected" rainfalls or "unexpected" endings of rain. ]] When he reached the airport, he was received officially and said, “I would like to see the Chief Minister in private, without anyone else.” He saw him and told him an experience he had had and had witnessed here [at Pondicherry]. And he said, "Why don’t you ask Mother?" The other answered quite spontaneously, "It would be better if you asked for us!" Then he sent his telegram. The same evening it started raining. He wrote, saying, "This first rain has been like divine nectar to me." He said that people there were entirely trusting and as well-disposed as could be. And he saw a relation between those droughts, those natural catastrophes, and the forces that stop money from coming; he saw they were affected by that experience of unexpected rain. For example, at the same time (a day or two later), he met some people who aren’t rich (the husband has a good position, but they aren’t rich: they have a family, children). For some reason or other the husband had been given a compensation of 10,000 rupees by the government, and quite
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spontaneously and naturally they went and saw P. and said to him, "You must give this to Mother." He asked the lady, "But why do you give all this?" She spontaneously answered, "But what would I do with this money? I don’t need it." In other words, the true attitude. So it immediately made P. think that something is on the move.
And I saw this note of yesterday as indicative of the key (I mean “inwardly,” in the universal attitudes). It was all clearly seen: men always believe that the guilty must be punished, that it’s the way out of the difficulty, but the true way is compassion and mercy. It’s not that you are ignorant of the true movement and the false one, but you have SPONTANEOUS mercy, effortlessly – and at all times. The vision was very clear that this is how progress is possible – if the fault were always punished, there wouldn’t be anyone left to progress!
That’s the conclusion.
Do you know that I am going to be given some money!
Oh, you’re a rich man!
But how come? You’ve already told me this…. When did you get the news?
Five or six days ago.
You “told” me before you came last time.
I didn’t tell you because I was waiting for it to come.
No, but you don’t need to tell me! (Mother laughs) That’s how it is now. It’s very interesting. I saw it: everything comes in that way. How can I explain?… It’s not words, not thoughts, it’s something absolutely concrete which comes as if on a screen. And it’s a screen inside my consciousness: it’s not outside, the screen is inside my consciousness and things come like that. It’s not words, not thoughts, not feelings, it’s … “something.” And I know. And it doesn’t at all come in an objective way, I mean, it’s not as if someone were telling me, “Satprem is going to receive his pension,” not at all: it’s a “movement of life” in which Satprem, pension, government, all mingle (Mother turns one hand inside the other in a sort of fluid intermingling). It lives, it takes shape, and afterwards I say to myself, “Oh, that’s what it was!”
If I were in a superficial consciousness I would ask myself,
”Why am I thinking of this?” But I don’t “think” of it and it’s not
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a thought … (same fluid gesture) … it’s a life being organized.
It’s very interesting. I must learn to receive things accurately. I don’t objectify them, of course (meaning that I don’t put them on another screen where they would become objective knowledge), I don’t do that at all, so I can’t play the prophet – otherwise, what a prophet I’d be!… From the smallest things to the biggest: cyclones, earthquakes, revolutions, all that, and then very small things, very small, even much smaller than a “pension,” a tiny little circumstance of life, or something that’s going to come, like a gift someone has sent me or … very small things, very small, totally unimportant in appearance – everything is shown with the same value! There is no “big,” no “small,” no “important,” no “unimportant.” And it’s constantly like that!
Yesterday, lots and lots of things kept coming in that way while I was walking in the afternoon. Then I stayed quiet, still, for five or ten minutes after the walk as usual, and more kept coming and coming. So I said to the Lord, “Can’t I have five minutes of peace and quiet with You!” (Mother laughs) If you knew this atmosphere, this light of laughter, and such a wonderful laughter – so wonderfully … merciful, in fact, and understanding and tender, oh! … So I said to myself, “Really, what an imbecile I am!”
It’s becoming a really interesting life.
And the habit of constantly complaining about difficulties, oh, how futile, useless all that seemed – a waste of time. We waste our time protesting against what mustn’t be – we just shouldn’t think about it! We shouldn’t be conscious of it, that’s all! It should be outside the consciousness; when we are able to have a purely luminous consciousness, this perfectly harmonious, luminous, benevolent consciousness … free, ultimately, from all that we drag along from a difficult past.
That’s it: the power to free oneself from the past, not to drag that behind forever – to surge into the light … and stay there.
***
(Soon afterwards, Mother again looks at her notes before filing them, and reads aloud a passage from one of them:)
"… The most unfavorable to the action of the divine Grace."
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[["... Of all factors, mental arrogance is the most unfavorable to the action of the divine Grace." ]]
Some words express a vibration perfectly. That’s yet another experience: there is the word translating the vibration perfectly, and the others giving a hazy and uncertain effect. Some words fit perfectly together: “Unfavorable to the action of the divine Grace …”
***
(Then Mother takes up the translation of a passage from “Savitri.” Curiously enough, this very morning, before going to see Mother, Satprem looked at this passage and thought of two possible ways to translate a particular word.)
When darkness deepens strangling the earth’s breast
And man’s corporeal mind is the only lamp,
As a thief’s in the night shall be the covert tread
Of one who steps unseen into his house.
(I.IV.55)
Yet another example: Quelqu’un entrera INAPERÇU dans sa maison ["One who steps UNSEEN into his house"]. It came on the “screen” this morning (so much comes that it’s impossible to remember, but it’s so interesting), and when inaperçu [unseen] came, I told you, “Yes, that’s better.”[[Satprem thought of en cachette for “unseen” (literally, “on the sly” or “stealthily”). ]]
It’s strange. It’s almost … (if there were time to remember precisely), it’s almost like a memory in advance.
Strange.
***
A few lines below,
Mother hesitates between
two translations:
And earth [shall] grow unexpectedly divine.
It’s again the quality of the vibration: sans s’y attendre ["without expecting it"] is fuller – it’s fuller, more golden. The other, d’une
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façon inattendue ["in an unexpected way"] is a bit cold and dry.
“Et sans s’y attendre, la Terre deviendra divine …”
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