August 6, 1969
(After studying various matters of printing, Mother
abruptly asks:)
I’d like to ask you a material detail: have you enough cheese for one week?!
Yes, yes, Mother.
Are you sure? … Because cheese is good for you. If you want more, there’s nothing easier …
(Mother peers at Satprem’s face)
Ah, it’s yes! (To Sujata) Go and ask for a box.
You think of everything!
You know, I don’t "think," but things come like this (gesture as if on a screen). All of a sudden I see, so it must be true, it’s not my imagination.
Yet it’s not in my consciousness!
Ah, mon petit, I see much more than what you’re aware of! (Mother laughs) It’s in your subconscient.
Have you some news of P.L.?
No, he is supposed to arrive any day now.
(Sujata comes back with the box) Here! Eat it, cheese is good for you.
If one could be more conscious …
Yes!
But I don’t know how to do it! <
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(Mother laughs) … Last night, I spent the whole night with Sri Aurobindo somewhere, I don’t know where, but there were lots of people. The two of us were alone, but we saw a multitude of people pass by But the peculiar thing is that when I wake up, it doesn’t go away! And when I lie down again, it’s there, just where I had left it: it goes on. There’s no longer a … You know, in dreams, you have a dream, and then (gesture of breaking off to another level), the consciousness you’re in suddenly changes, and it’s over, you have to make an effort to recapture your dream or the state-but this doesn’t budge! It doesn’t budge, it’s there like this (Mother slips the fingers of one hand between those of the other), all the time: it goes on, whether I concern myself with it or not.
It’s rather new.
I no longer feel I am dreaming, you understand: it’s an activity I grow conscious of.
But Sri Aurobindo was … it’s odd, he looked as if younger. He was happy, and very amused, passing all kinds of remarks – remarks full of humor, you know! – about things and people. I noticed he was … as if brighter, I don’t know how to put it.
Last night it was very particular. I no longer have the impression of dreaming, no longer at all. It no longer has anything to do with a dream: it’s an activity that goes on and on. If I remain very tranquil, like that, it goes on.
(long silence)
In the end, it’s all a question of consciousness.
The body is growing INTENSELY conscious of what responds to the true Influence, and what’s still the residue of habit and the universal, terrestrial development (general, terrestrial), very conscious. Sometimes, it’s … almost painful, you know, that old way of being.
And at certain times, the vision is almost veiled, as though I were seeing through a veil; at other times it’s ABSOLUTELY precise. I can’t believe it depends on the eyes.
With some people, when they come I see them absolutely precise; with others, I hardly see, hardly perceive where their eyes are, or their mouth …. It must depend on something else.
(Mother goes into a long contemplation
lasting till the time when Satprem
normally leaves)
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What did you feel just now?
Nothing special?
I always feel the Power, there, present.
It was that world I was telling you about … as if it wanted to ENTER into this world (and there is indeed a great power in it), and, I don’t know how to explain … as if it wanted to force its way into this world. And it came … (you know, it comes without the least personal will, I am like this [still, silent gesture]), it comes and IMPOSES itself, it settles with such power. And the relationship with things and people and the consciousness works differently It came very strongly, and you were IN it: you weren’t outside, you were in it. So I was hoping you had felt something.
It’s always the Power that I feel.
It’s like that, yes.
But instead of a transformation as we imagine it, won’t it be a
sort of invasion by this subtle world, which will pierce the veil,
the barrier, and will enter, will manifest in the physical world?
It may well be …. It may well be!
Because a few days ago, I read again a text of Sri Aurobindo with
quite a different understanding ….
Ah, what text?
It was a very "Ordinary" text (I’ve brought it with me), in "The
Riddle of this World."
Ah!
And at the end, he says this, which he said many times but
which I understand differently: "His [mental man 's] full libera
tion and enlightenment will come when he crosses the line into
the light of a new superconscient existence …." And then he says:
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"But in itself this would change nothing in the creation here, the
evasion of a liberated soul from the world makes to that world
no difference. But this crossing of the line if turned not only to
an ascending but to a descending purpose would mean the trans
formation of the line from what it now is, a lid, a barrier, into a
passage for the higher powers of consciousness of the Being now
above it …."
Ooh! … It seems to be that.
Yes! I understood it differently, but one may understand that …
this subtle world will break the screen, or the barrier, and will
be able to manifest physically!
Yes, that’s what seems to want to happen …. Because just now, it was so imperative.
(silence)
The only thing is to know whether the phenomenon will be perceptible only to certain consciousnesses, or perceptible to all? … Just now, for example, I … it wasn’t just felt: it’s a sort of vision, a sort of … as if the atmosphere had changed; and I asked you precisely because I wanted to know whether I alone had noticed it, or if you were …
But I only feel the Power, always.
It’s curious, it’s as if … the nature of images were changing, I don’t know how to explain.
(silence)
And at the end, he says that if this line, this barrier could be
turned into a passage for the higher powers, " … It would mean
a new creation on earth, a bringing in of the ultimate powers
which would reverse the conditions here." [["The Riddle of this World" (July 1933) in Letters on Yoga, 22.31. ]]
Yes, it’s obviously that. It’s obviously that.
But until now, all that was understood as vague phenomena of
consciousness up above, but if it’s a manifestation of the …
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Ah, no, its HERE.
Yes.
But that’s it: it’s something that PRESSES to be manifested. I told you, at night I felt that. And then you wake up and its THERE, it hasn’t budged; you don’t MOVE from one world into the other: the two consciousnesses are together (Mother slips the fingers of her right hand between those of her left hand). The ordinary consciousness seems artificial, and it’s "dominating" – but it’s NOT truer, it’s less true. Last night, it was very, very clear.
It makes for wonderful nights, mon petit! You don’t sleep, yet you are much more rested than if you slept.
But the ordinary consciousness is becoming a bit cumbersome, a bit painful, physically so.
Oh, it’s interesting, I think we’ve caught the tail of something!
Yes, yes, it feels like that!
We’ll see! (Mother laughs)
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