March 12, 1969
(Regarding the Italian and the German translations of
Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness.)
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I have nothing to say But what about you? Anything?
Just two things: N. (you know, the Italian) asks me to bring this
to you-the Italian translation of my book on Sri Aurobindo.
Very well …. What’s this? (Mother looks at the cover) What does it represent?
It’s from a painting, an Italian painting …. I even wonder if it’s
not Christ? … Wait, I’ll tell you, there’s a note here: "God created
man.
Ah! (Laughing) And which one is God?
I don’t know!
Have they put photos?
Yes, Mother, they’re here.
(Mother looks at the photos,
including one of herself)
Me, I have nothing to do in here.
Still, a little! They’ve also put Auroville …
Ah, but that has also nothing to do in here!
No, it has nothing to do with the book, I agree.
(A photo of the Samadhi, then another
that "has nothing to do in here.")
Anyway, it’s for you.
Me, I don’t keep any books. Have they put "translated from the French" or "translated from the English"?
Translated from the French.
Then it’s all right. Because otherwise, what if someone took it
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into his head to translate it back into French! (Laughing) It would be very funny to do that once – to go round three or four nations, and from the last one to translate back to the first!
I suppose it goes to the Library, I don’t know. Or give it back to him?
He said it was for you. I don’t know … You have enough clutter around you as it is!
Put it on the bed (!)
Then there is also the German translation ….
Oh!
For years C.S. has been battling to translate this book ….
Oh, yes, yes.
It’s given him a lot of difficulty.
Has he finished?
Well, he’s writing to you. It’s been a great battle. He doesn’t trust
himself enough, he keeps saying, "This miserable translation …
I’ve done an awful thing …" But apart from that, full of good
will. In a letter he asked me, "Will Mother accept this miserable
translation?"
(Laughter) As for me, I don’t know German, so …
At any rate, his translation is honest, and that’s a lot. Other translators take such liberties …. For instance, they don’t want to use the word "supramental," and what they propose to me is enough to make your hair stand on end! But I don’t know German – it’s the one language I refused to learn! (Laughter) I don’t know why, when I was small I said, "No, no, NO!" I learned Italian, learned … I learned many languages, but German I refused! (Mother laughs) I don’t know why A child’s idea.
Maybe not!
Have you written him that it’s agreed for the publication?
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Yes, but I hadn’t yet told you about it …
Certainly, you should send him a line saying, "It’s all right, Mother approves!" (Mother laughs)
This poor C.
Poor C ….
***
… Since Amrita left, Nolini has had much more work. Because we’ve had to divide the work ….
Me too, I have a good deal of it!
Ah, it’s quite difficult ….
***
Soon afterwards
But this Consciousness which has manifested since the beginning of the year, it’s VERY active; it has spread about and is very active. You remember, I always used to say (the body used to say, that is) that it was very difficult without someone capable of helping it, and this Consciousness has fulfilled that function, it serves as a mentor – it teaches the body loads of things. Really interesting. Things that the mind didn’t know, it teaches the body That way, the body is becoming a little clever!
(silence)
The body consciousness has become individualized and at the same time independent, which means it can enter other bodies and feel quite at ease there. I made the experiment one day ("I made," it wasn’t the body that made it, it was "made" to make it, precisely by this Consciousness) of entering three or four people like that, one after another, and of feeling in each one the BODY’s way of being: it wasn’t at all a vital or mental entry, it was a bodily entry. And that was really interesting. There were three or four people here … perhaps I’ve already told you?
Just an allusion.
And out of the four of them, there was one in whom the body felt
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at ease. The habits weren’t the same, but … nothing contradictory.
That completely changes the body’s attitude with regard to solutions: there’s no more attachment or sense of extinction, you understand, since the consciousness … it’s the body consciousness that has become independent. And that’s very interesting. In other words, in any physical substance sufficiently developed to receive it, it can manifest.
That’s interesting.
These last few days, there were elections here [[Local elections, which ended in rout for the Congress and victory for the DMK (a Tamil party which was at the time seeking autonomy for the state of Tamil Nadu). ]] (an awful mess), and I was put in contact with all that. (I should say that the Lieutenant Governor here has very great trust in me, and before it started he came here to get the force – things aren’t going too well, anyway they’re rather chaotic, but he said, "Oh, Mother is here," which means he feels he is being supported.) So, through him, I was put in contact with all that. And there was a whole series of very interesting experiences …. There was a very acute sense of all the conventional in political parties, because under a single political flag there are the most opposite opinions, each one in the name of the same principle! So it became so clear, so clear! … Generally I wasn’t interested, because I always felt histrionics there, but I was put in contact because of the Governor (wordlessly: he didn’t tell me anything, but because of him I wordlessly made contact with the atmosphere), and then I saw to what extent it’s really an illusion – a complete illusion; politics is something … in the name of the same principle, people do absolutely opposite things! In the name of the same political principle. Everyone is anxious that HIS party should have the upper hand … and it appeared to me that it didn’t matter in the least! It was only people’s quality of receptivity that mattered, and also their level of consciousness. As far as the party was concerned – anything.
It was a rather interesting study, which was made under the auspices of this new consciousness, and so in quite a general way, and very clearly, very clearly And with the sense of a GREAT power. This Consciousness contains a GREAT power. Especially a psychological power, that is, an immunity to any reaction from outside. That’s interesting …. All anxiety, fear, desire, covetousness, all that was a whole world which I had always deliberately kept at arm’s length because it didn’t interest me, but from this new angle some work can be done.
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(long silence)
Did I tell you the miracle that took place? You haven’t heard about it? … In Auroville we’re going to build a big factory to mill wheat, but something huge (it’s to mill wheat for the whole of India!), huge. Machines are coming I don’t know from where, huge too. And they chose to land them at Pondicherry because going from Pondicherry to Auroville is easier than from Madras to Auroville. Only, when the ship came and they saw the number and the size of crates, they got terribly scared – it wasn’t possible. Here it’s a woman, P., who owns the landing barges, and she refused. I had her told that I needed her help and she had to do it (because she had claimed she wanted to serve me, so I took advantage of it!). I told her, "I need your help, do it." She was obliged to do it. For two days, everything went well, but they had kept the biggest crate for the end – a six-ton crate, huge – and no one knew how to do it. They would have needed enormous cranes like the ones they have in Madras, but they don’t have them here: they only had two puny cranes, which together didn’t even WEIGH six tons! (Mother laughs) And those cranes were supposed to lift the crate from the ship and put it on the barge. There was no other way, only that way. So they tied the crate to the two cranes and started lifting … and the two cranes went like this (gesture of tipping over). There were people below-people looking after the trans shipment – and everyone, including the ship’s captain, everyone stood there, terrified. "That’s it," they thought, "we’re done for, it’s catastrophe." The two cranes went like this (same gesture) … and all of a sudden, they straightened up. No one ever knew how. They straightened up, carried the crate, and it was over.
It was so obviously a miracle – the captain stood almost terrorstricken, everyone. And then, those crates were intended for someone here, M. (of "Aurofood"), to whom I had given a blessings packet the day before the landing, and he had it on him. So he went to see the captain and told him (showing the small packet), "See this, it’s what straightened up the cranes."
A very simple man.
It was just stating a FACT, you understand: there was a crowd, so there was no arguing; the two cranes were like this, tilting, and everyone was expecting them to … and they straightened up! (Mother laughs)
The captain met L. and told him, "Couldn’t I have one of those … (Mother laughs) little packets!" So L. came to see me. I gave
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packets – four packets – for him and his men.
It’s the first time …. L. told me, "I have seen hundreds of miracles, but this one was so obvious, and of such considerable dimensions (Mother laughs) that no one could deny it!"
It’s interesting. I must say there really was a concentration of force, because we were faced with an impossibility (considered practically, it was an impossibility). So there was a concentration.
It’s amusing.
And the accuracy of the transmission (that increases the power a lot), the accuracy I credit this Consciousness with. It’s this Consciousness that made the power far more PRECISE in its action …. The superman consciousness.
It’s interesting.
But we mustn’t tell the story, that would instantly look like boasting, it’s disgusting! It can go to the Agenda, but …
If only people had trust …
Oh!
It’s tremendous what could be done ….
Yes, exactly You see, A. wrote to me (she’s a secretary to the government here), she wrote to tell me the results of the elections [the defeat of the Congress], and they were all desperate. So I saw, I said, "It’s absurd, THEY are the ones who attract the catastrophe!" I answered her to keep "an unshakable and tranquil trust …."
That’s why in the past it was taught that "all that happens is the effect of the Divine’s Will." The way it was put was limited (it’s always the same thing: the way things are put causes a restriction or a coloration, or it’s shown from a particular angle-the thing loses its essential truth), but I am sure it was said for its psychological effect …. The danger of this teaching is that people slump down and don’t budge anymore, they stop doing anything – no more effort of progress, no more effort to do some good work, they remain like that: I don’t have to do anything anymore, it’s God who does everything!" That’s why it can’t be put in that way. But it does have an advantage, that of leaving you absolutely peaceful. And I insist a lot on people having this peace, this tranquil peace – it’s COMPLETELY indispensable. I saw (with the help of this Consciousness, in fact), I saw the force of power acting; and when the instrument (that is, the individual or the group) is wholly peaceful
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and trusting, like that, vitally and mentally still, the force goes through without being distorted – nothing distorts it – and acts with its full power. As soon as there is a human consciousness (either a mental or a vital one, or both) which is agitated, or questions, or has preferences, or thinks it knows very well, or … it makes a sort of whirl-and the Force loses three-fourths of its power!
So we have to use one means or another (people don’t understand, they always half understand); as for me, I spend my time telling them, "Be in peace, be in peace …." But of course, they might also become inert, like that …. There’s no knowing what to do.
One morning, with this Consciousness I had that experience of power (the true power): how, when it goes through a perfectly static, still, peaceful consciousness, there’s no distortion; and how, going through it, it awakens in the individual a sense of power and the collaboration of the individual will. If it is (I saw the two things at the same time), if it’s a yogic consciousness with the calm and IMPERSONALITY (that is, without any desire and any preference), then it’s STILL MORE POWERFUL, because it’s directed towards a precise spot instead of working in a general way – it’s directed towards a precise spot, and the action is multiplied. But if, in the consciousness through which the force is to act, there is the LEAST desire, the LEAST preference, or the least recoil … everything is spoilt. Everything is spoilt: it goes like this (gesture of trepidation), and it’s over. I saw that, with examples to back it up; not narrated examples, there’s nothing mental: everything shown – shown with vibrations. And that’s really interesting. It means that in the superman consciousness, with the full impersonalization (that is, no preference, no desire, no refusal, nothing – you are like this [gesture of an immobile Witness]), there will be the capacity to direct the Power for it to act on a PRECISE POINT, and then it will be multiplied in Matter. A multiplication of power, that is, an intensification of power in Matter.
That explains (it’s the body which is learning all that, it’s really very happy), that very clearly explains to the body why there have been individuals and their purpose in the whole – but those individuals must lose all that was necessary to form them; they must go beyond that and become divine again. Then – then the result will be extraordinary.
It’s very interesting.
It also explained the use – the raison d’être and the use, the utilization
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– of emotions: how all those things which in their "incomplete" state are … seem to be obstacles and things to be got rid of, how, as soon as the consciousness is clarified, union is established, separation has disappeared, how all those things take their place and their full usefulness …. Now I don’t remember, but a few days ago I had such an interesting example! I don’t remember (that’s deliberate, I don’t remember anything), but out of a movement of consciousness here (and now the body is very conscious of this presence of the superman consciousness, it’s very open and grateful, and very conscious), well, it saw a movement … something resembling compassion, a keen compassion, but with the emotion the vital feels when it has compassion (what the vital adds, that is); it saw that, and immediately saw the resulting effect and the response. It was someone (I forget who, the memory is deliberately taken away), it had to do with something that had happened to someone; this body consciousness reacted with a sort of moved pity, and that multiplied the power TENFOLD – the effect of the power on the cure – because it was completely impersonal. It was the Power using that [emotion] as a means of action.
Constantly, constantly, it’s: learn and learn and learn …. Interesting! (Mother laughs)
There is also quite a clear perception of the individual reaction; for instance, the way faith manifests in people, in different individuals, the coloration it takes, the amount of (what should I say?) ignorance or falsehood added to it, and the amount that remains pure. There’s constantly, constantly a work of that kind, all the time. I find it very interesting.
And it is beginning to understand why this is like this, why that is like that ….
This Consciousness has a great attracting power. Now people are coming from everywhere, just everywhere. The other day (yesterday or the day before, I don’t know), I saw some Americans who have founded a "group," I think, or a society for the union … (I found it touching), the "spiritual union of religions"! I found it touching. It’s an acknowledgment (laughing) that religions aren’t spiritual! And that they need a spiritual union. It was very interesting. Good people, oh, very good, and quite a … not an elementary but a simplistic mentality, so it has taken that form. They came to India (because they’re also in touch with "World Union"), and they came because they wanted to meet me. First I said, "Oh, there’s no need at all." Then I was told they had come all the way to see me, so I said all right. Good people, you know, thoroughly
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American – good people. They’ve found a very profound truth, but without knowing it! They speak of a "SPIRITUAL union of religions," which is a declaration that religions have no spiritual life! They aren’t aware of that.
It’s very, very active; this Consciousness is very active.
Yes, I get a sense of solidity.
Yes, that’s right! Something very solid.
That’s because it has come to materialize – it hasn’t come to … (gesture up in the clouds): it’s looking for instruments.
I have great hope in little children.
Some are delightful …. A.F. is delightful. There’s another one here, A.P., who wasn’t born here but in Germany; he will be one year old in a few days, I am going to see him. But I already saw him before: remarkable. They’re so receptive! These are children who, at the age of one, are like ordinary children of at least three or four years in terms of consciousness. So there is hope.
But they’re more sensitive than their parents! So the parents have a certain relationship with me, while the children observe, wondering what it’s all about – the parents are a bit timid towards me, so I am obliged to put a veil, to keep back. With people, they take something, leave something (they take very little), it doesn’t matter, but with them [the children] I have to be careful because the body is too weak. They are far more receptive than the parents, so it’s a little too much for the body. But they’re quite interesting.
A few days ago, A.F was here; he came with F., and his father was waiting outside. E told me, "I’ll go and fetch him." So the little one was there with her, and she left him to go out, took a few steps towards the door; he felt all alone and was about to rush towards her, when I looked at him – he relaxed, and then stopped. It was remarkable: not a word, I didn’t say a word, simply looked at him – he relaxed. He was already rushing out, then I looked at him – everything seemed to relax.
To that point! … Not a word, nothing. <92>
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