August 16, 1969
(Mother had advised Satprem to go for a walk on Auroville’s
beach so as to get some rest, but as it happened, someone
absolutely insisted on accompanying him.)
Nothing interesting … How are you? You went for a walk with F?
Yes, the other day we went for a stroll on the beach.
Yes. Were you absorbed or something?
Why?
I don’t know, she told me she felt you weren’t there. So I wondered if …
Yes, it’s true, I wasn’t there. I felt somewhat like … sweeping everything away.
(Mother remains silent)
Is it a mistake?
No, not at all! Not at all, she was only afraid that … She asked me, "Is Satprem in good health?…" I think you are!
Yes!
No, that’s not how she took it, she was afraid you might be unwell.
No, I mean, is it a mistake to sweep away everything, to make a
blank, or what?
Oh, no! … Oh, no ….
I have often wondered if I was wrong in my way of going about
it: spontaneously, it’s to sweep away everything, make a complete
blank, then to turn towards something above, and be absolutely
silent and still.
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Yes, that’s the BEST of all methods, there’s none better than that. That’s what I do all the time.
And if one didn’t do that …! From every side it comes like that (gesture of waves of onslaught). Now they want to force me into politics … and it’s an unspeakable mud pit! I’ve never seen it as I now do, because now I SEE: I see people, things, reactions, what goes on …. It’s so disgusting! … Sri Aurobindo had always told me, "We must keep out of politics," and I kept out of it.
From every side they’re asking me for blessings … and I give blessings to everyone! [[Mother is referring to the candidates in the ongoing presidential elections. The strange and amusing part is that Mother gave her blessings to two candidates: V.V. Giri and Sanjiva Reddy; by some quirk of communications, Sanjiva Reddy was to receive them only ... eight years later on 13 July 1977, the very day on which he was elected president, after V. V. Giri's successor. (See The Hindu of July 14, 1977.) ]] (Mother laughs) But I warn them, I tell them, blessings TO DO THE WORK. Each of them is asking for himself to be victorious, but "that" doesn’t budge. All that I’ve done (because I have been dragged into it) is to ask for what happens to be the best for the country’s future – it has already had enough difficulties! I mean, there were two centuries of servitude under the British: that has left them com-plete-ly rotten. So it’s enough. They would need to pull through. Oh … unimaginable, it’s unimaginable. The chief of the police here says, "I can’t intervene anymore, because now I’ll be told that ‘democratic rights’ allow you to do anything …. If people enter your house" (he says this personally), "if rebellious servants enter your house and I intervene, I’ll be reprimanded, I’ll be told, ‘You have interfered in their democratic rights." [[Because since the 1965 attack on the Ashram, the Ashram boys have a reputation for being "solid." ]] – They have a democratic right to invade a house! That’s what they’ve turned ideas into! … Which means we’re in complete madness.
It was C. who was told that, and C. replied, "All right, but if you no longer have a right to protect people, they have the right to defend themselves; as long as you have the power and the right to protect them, they don’t have the right to defend themselves, but if you no longer have the right to protect people, they have the right to defend themselves." Then (laughing) the police chief said, "In that case it would be better if it’s not the Ashram boys who defend, because … And he said, "All right, all right, I’ll see to it"! (Mother laughs)
In complete insanity!
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In Delhi too, it’s complete insanity.
Oh! … Oh … they’re voting just now, and from every side everyone has asked me for help …. They’re now voting … and what candidates!
One candidate is a respectable man, a fine man, [[C. D. Deshmukh, who will withdraw. ]] but he has been put there just to cut into the others’ power! … Openly. There’s no intention to nominate him at all.
No, it’s unbelievable … unbelievably rotten.
But what’s really at stake isn’t the presidency, it’s a contest to
know whether Indira will be overthrown or not.
Yes, that’s right.
And they’re powerful, those who want to overthrow her.
Between the two candidates, it’s the better one who has taken the stand of wanting to overthrow Indira. [[Sanjiva Reddy, who will be elected president in 1977. ]] He’s a man of integrity and goodwill, but he doesn’t understand, he doesn’t know – they don’t understand, they don’t know, none of them! But I had him told that I was behind Indira (because he asked me for my help), that I was behind Indira, and he should beware – behind Indira AND WHAT SHE IS DOING. Because what she’s doing, she does after asking me if she should do it, and I said yes.
It’s this whole business with banks [[The nationalization of the banks decreed by Indira has caused the Congress to split into two opposing camps (the "old Congress" and the "new Congress"), each one fielding its own presidential candidate. ]] and the swindlers who’re there.
I don’t know …
I think democracy … Already at the age of ten, I found democracy to be idiotic (there, in France), but anyway … It’s idiotic there, in France (but that doesn’t matter), but at any rate I don’t think democracy is AT ALL, at all an organization in accord with India’s spirit – not in the least. And the proof is that it’s not at all the collectivity of people that controls things, it’s a few scoundrels who push themselves forward, saying, "I represent this, I represent that …" [[In an undated note, Mother once wrote, "Democracy was necessary and useful a hundred years ago, but now we must go beyond it if we want to take a step forward towards a new creation." ]]
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(silence)
Unfortunately, the new invader would be China, and that … that would be frightful.
(silence)
Anyway …
But you know that in "The Ideal of Human Unity," Sri Aurobindo
says in black and white that the next battlefield would be India?
Yes, yes.
That the conflict would take place in Asia, with India as the first
battlefield. [["It would be fairly safe to predict the next great human collision with Asia as either its first field or its origin .... The possibility of a stupendous world-conflict would arise dwarfing anything previously experienced." (15.367 & 567) ]]
Yes, I know very well, we spoke about it together before he wrote it. I know very well.
(long silence)
There’s a Chinese in Shantiniketan (I forget his name [[Tan Yun-shan. ]] ) who once came to see Sri Aurobindo; I know him, he spoke to me. He is a philosopher. He had properties in China (he lives in India) and gave everything to the Communists, saying, I give it to you so you don’t have to take it"! … He told me personally (I was downstairs, long ago, Sri Aurobindo was there [[He came for the darshan of November 24, 1939. ]] ), he said to me, "China is a very intelligent country; they would be able to understand Sri Aurobindo’s writings, and I see NOTHING ELSE that could save the world from confusion …." Only, naturally, it would have to be in Chinese – that’s what S.H. [[A Chinese disciple, a painter. ]] did, he put it into Chinese, but now it’s not even printed and can’t enter China.
And they’re cutting off the heads of all the intellectuals there [[The "cultural revolution." ]] they’re demolishing a whole generation – stupefying a whole generation.
Yes.
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(Mother goes into
a long concentration)
In the end, I am absolutely convinced that confusion is to teach us to live from day to day, that is to say, without being preoccupied with what may happen or what will happen, just concerning ourselves from day to day with what we have to do. All thinking and foreseeing and devising and all that furthers disorder a lot.
To live almost from minute to minute, to be like this (gesture turned upward), attentive only to the "thing" one has to do every moment-and to let the All-Consciousness decide … We never know things, even with the most general vision; we never know things except VERY partially – very partially. So our attention is drawn to this, drawn to that, but such and such other thing exists, too. And to give a lot of importance to dangerous or harmful things is to give them strength.
(Mother goes into
a contemplation)
When one is assailed by the vision of this disorder and this confusion, there is only one thing to do, it’s to go into the consciousness in which one knows that there is only ONE Being, ONE Consciousness, ONE Power – there is only ONE Oneness-and all those things take place within this Oneness. And that all our petty vision, our petty knowledge, our petty judgments, our petty … all of it is nothing, it’s microscopic in comparison with the Consciousness that rules over the Whole. And then, if one has in the least the sense of why separate individualities exist, maybe it’s only to enable aspiration – the existence of aspiration, of this movement, this movement of self-giving and surrender, of trust and FAITH. The faith that there lies the raison d’être of the makeup of individuals, and the aspiration to become THAT in all one’s intensity and all one’s sincerity … That’s the only thing needed.
That’s the only thing needed, the ONLY thing; the only thing that subsists. All the rest … phantasmagoria.
It’s the only thing effective in every case: when you want to do something, when you cannot do something, when you act, when the body can no longer act … In EACH and EVERY case, that alone – that alone: make conscious contact with the Supreme Consciousness, unite with it, and … wait. There.
Then one receives the exact indication of what one has to do every minute – to do or not to do, to act or to remain still. That’s
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all. Even to be or not to be. And it’s the only solution. More and more, more and more this certitude is there: it’s the ONLY solution. All the rest is childishness.
And all activities, all possibilities can be naturally made use of it does away with the arbitrariness of personal choice, that’s all. All possibilities are there, all, but all things are there, all perceptions are there, all knowledge is there-only, personal arbitrariness is done away with. And this personal arbitrariness seems so childish! So childish … foolishness – foolishness, ignorant stupidity.
I feel, I feel that agitation, like this (Mother feels the air), phew! It whirls about in the atmosphere!
Poor humanity.
(long silence)
There you are.
Here (Mother gives roses).
All that to teach the world to go back towards the Lord, into his Consciousness … Why? Is that why there has been a creation? …
(silence)
But I have a practical problem: every time I make this blank, to
tune in above as a matter of fact, towards … that something, I
feel I never get a precise response: there’s a MASS of Power, solid,
and that’s all.
Oh, you never get a response?
It’s always the same thing: that Power there, impassive.
Well, well!
Yesterday, for instance, during the meditation, [[Of August 15, on Sri Aurobindo's birthday. ]] it was the same
thing – it’s always the same thing: this massive Thing there
, mighty, but which won’t say anything.
But don’t you have the sense of … I don’t know how to explain because it’s neither well-being nor … I don’t know how to explain. It’s something that … there are no words to express it, but it leaves you absolutely contented.
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You feel at ease.
Ah!
Yes, you feel at ease, that’s for sure.
Ah, then it’s all right, it’s all right. All, all the rest is useless.
Yes, but you understand, how to have the true, correct impulse?
But that’s BELOW this state.
Below?
It’s below.
This state … From experience I know it’s the state in which ONE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD. One becomes a sort of instrument (which is even unaware of being an instrument, you understand), which is used for … (gesture showing the flow of forces through the instrument) projecting forces (gesture in every direction from the central instrument). You know, the brain is far, far too small-even when it’s very large, it’s too small to understand; that’s why there is this blank in the mind. And the "thing" takes place.
So then, you realize that for the purposes of the very small life you represent, it takes place automatically, and it simply makes you do every minute what you have to do, without … without calculation, without speculation, without decision, without anything, like this (same gesture of flowing through the instrument).
I’ve had the experience, but then a personal one, that if something in the body is upset (a pain or an unease, or something not working as it should), when you’ve gone through that state, the pain goes – it goes, it vanishes. Sharp pains, you know: completely vanished, you don’t even know how! "Ah, it’s gone," like that.
And in the contact with people and the contact with the things of life, the simplicity of a child. That is, you do things without … above all, without speculation.
With those workers, for instance … You know that the workers (not the workers, the servants) sent me a threatening letter three days ago (have you heard about that?); a threatening letter (in English) telling me I had to receive them and discuss with them their working conditions, or else they would wreak havoc on August 15, yesterday The letter was read out to me. I was like this (gesture
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turned upward), and there simply came … (ah, I forgot: they also wrote that if I didn’t reply, they would conclude the letter hadn’t been given to me, that I hadn’t seen it, and they would start their agitation). So it came like that-no thought, you understand, completely blank, like that – it came, I took a piece of paper, and I wrote (in English), I have received your letter and read it …" and then, "If you have the slightest fear of God, keep quiet." The letter was sent – they didn’t do anything, not a move.
It’s like that, you see, I always try to be in the state you describe, like that, WHATEVER HAPPENS, and always – always, without exception – if something needs to be done, I am made to do it.
I can’t say anything else, that’s how it is.
And I’ve noticed that at different moments, with different people, I am made to act very differently, and the experience is itself very different – again, all of it like this (same gesture turned upward, immobile).
Only, one must have reached a state in which, naturally, there are no more preferences or desires or disgusts or attractions or anything – all that is gone.
And above all, above all, no fear – above anything else. Of all things that’s the most needed.
I generally don’t talk about it because … because I think it’s given to everyone only when he is ready.
It has to be spontaneous, natural.
Voilà, mon petit.
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