March 4, 1967
(Regarding Sri Aurobindo’s aphorism 126: "The most binding
law of Nature is only a fixed process which the Lord of Nature
has framed and uses constantly; the Spirit made it and the
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Spirit can exceed it, but we must first open the doors of
our prison-house and learn to live less in Nature
than in the Spirit.")
That has been precisely the subject of … (can we call it meditation?), of this morning’s work. It came so clearly. But the experiences aren’t literary, they can’t be expressed. [[Mother will henceforth stop her "Comments on the Aphorisms," preferring to let her experience flow freely outside the artificial framework of a "commentary." In 1969, at a disciple's instance, she will briefly resume these comments and answer questions in a few written lines. ]]
(Mother goes into a contemplation)
Someone has just brought, from two sides at the same time (gesture to the right and to the left), a plate with grapes and a second plate with grapes, like that. One was for you and one for me.
For two or three days some beings from the vital have been eager to manifest their goodwill, and this was like the expression of their goodwill. In the vital, food is very often grapes, very frequently. Grapes of incomparable beauty, besides. And grapes are the fruit of life. So I suppose that’s why. There were two bunches: one was bigger, the other not so big; I don’t know whom the bigger was for and whom the other for: they came from both sides, they were presented like this (gesture to the right and to the left of Mother). One was on a plate, the other on a square of white paper. I presumed the one on the square of white paper was for me!
Lovely, beautiful bunches! Grapes turning golden, you know – transparent and golden as when they’re ripe. Each grape was this big (gesture: about two inches).
(silence)
I tried to express what happened this morning, and what kept coming to me was: “But the experiences aren’t literary, they can’t be expressed.”
(silence)
Some beings of the vital said to me, “There was a time when you used us and we were very happy. Why aren’t you using us anymore now?” So I replied to them, “If you want to do work, I’m certainly not going to stop you!”
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That was yesterday evening. I was asked questions on levitation (questions a proper modern child might ask), I was asked, “How is it that one who escapes from this law doesn’t just go up into the atmosphere?” I answered from my experience that that’s not the way levitation works, it’s not because one escapes from the law of gravity: it’s because physical bodies are supported by materialized vital forces (slightly materialized). So then, it put me back in contact with those forces and beings, and last night they said that to me; they told me, “Why aren’t you using us any longer? We were quite happy!” I said, “Come along and do some work!” And there we are [= the grapes].
When you sleep (that is, when the body is in a state of trance), you can eat. You sense the taste when you have gone outside the body. And it’s very nourishing, it gives strength. I have eaten I don’t know how many times like that, mostly grapes – and what grapes! …
***
Soon afterwards
Yes, this problem of the transformation, I see more and more clearly that there are three approaches, three ways to go about it, and that in order to be more complete one should combine the three.
One – the most important, naturally – is the way we could call “spiritual,” the way of the contact with the Consciousness – Love-Consciousness-Power, that is. These three aspects: supreme Love-Consciousness-Power. And the contact, the identification: making all the material cells capable of receiving Him and expressing Him – of BEING That.
Of all the ways, that is the most powerful and most indispensable.
There is the occult way, which brings all the intermediary worlds into play. There is a very detailed knowledge of all the powers and personalities, all the intermediary regions, and it makes use of all that. That’s where one makes use of the Overmind godheads: it’s in this second way. Shiva, Krishna, all the aspects of the Mother are part of this second way.
Then there is the higher intellectual approach, which is the projection of a surpassing scientific mind and takes up the problem from below. It has its own importance too. From the standpoint of
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the detail of the procedure, it reduces approximation, it gives a more direct and precise action.
If one can combine all three, then obviously the thing will go faster.
Without the first, nothing is possible (and even, the other two are an illusion without the first: they lead nowhere, you go round in circles endlessly). But if you clothe the first in the other two, then I think the action is more precise, direct, rapid.
It’s the result of these last few days’ “study.”
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