December 31, 1969
(Mother gives presents for the New Year and a few copies of
"The Adventure of Consciousness" in Italian.)
This is Italian …. I have several of them, do you want any?
Oh, you know, Mother, I don’t know many Italians …. You used to know Italian a little in the past, didn’t you?
Oh, I knew Italian very well in the past. I learned so much of it ….
(Mother gives other presents … a
musical pen, which she plays!)
Of course, it has a strange sound …. Do you want to play?
In Italy, the book [The Adventure] is having a lot of success, a lot: Italians are coming in large numbers ….
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You know Paolo, have you seen him? He’s nice.
He is nice. As a matter of fact, I have something in this connection.
Yesterday I had the visit of Paolo and N., both of them, and Paolo
explained to me a sort of inspiration he had about Auroville. I
found it very beautiful, very good, and important. So I told him,
"You must absolutely tell Mother about it directly." So when
could you see Paolo?
Will I hear him? Because the difficulty is that people don’t know how to speak; they speak too fast, and I can’t follow.
Tell me what he wants to tell me!
I’ll take the bloom off the subject.
Doesn’t matter!
He says that for a few years, energies in Auroville have been scat
tered: they are egoistic, everyone wants to build his own little
hut, his own little story, or, at best, hopes to build a supercity,
which will only be an improvement on all the existing cities
the world. In this Auroville, an axis, a center is missing. What’s
missing is … a unification of the consciousnesses around a cen
ter, an axis. So he said that in the past, they built pyramids, they
built cathedrals, and around those symbolic constructions, consciousnesses
could unify …
(Mother nods approvingly)
… and rise and purify themselves. Well, what should be built in
Auroville is an axis, a center, a symbolic temple of the new world
we want to create, and all the consciousnesses should unite in
the construction of this pyramid of the new world, or this temple
of the new world-which will at the same time help to bring
down what must express itself there.
It’s very good, that was the first idea: there was the center, and the city was organized around it. Now they’re doing the opposite! They want to build the city and put the center afterwards ….
And that’s why it doesn’t work, he says: we should begin with
the center; if we don’t we’ll achieve nothing.
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That was my first impression. But how to have R. [Auroville's architect] understand that? I don’t know. Because it was R. who changed it; it’s he who wanted to begin with "Auromodèle," that is to say, with trials and attempts.
So the result is that everyone is concerned with his own little
story and his own little hut, and there’s no "cement," there isn’t
the Thing that would bind them together and would lift them
above themselves and their little stories.
Theoretically, he’s perfectly right.
Oh, yes. And curiously, when he spoke to me about that, I almost
saw it, I saw. He’s a boy who could "pull" it down.
Yes, he has the power.
But why doesn’t he meet R.?
He asked me, ‘Should I speak to R. about it?" Because he says
it’s a problem: "If I’m the one who speaks, R. will withdraw or
will …" So I told him, "No, don’t speak to R., speak to Mother,
and she will say what has to be done."
I’ll see R. tomorrow, I can tell him. Paolo is an architect, isn’t he?
You alone have authority over R.
Yes … no, if I tell him, "Do it," he won’t say no, but he won’t do it! … He has to be convinced …. All that I can do is to tell him that I am aware of the idea, that I fully approve of it and ask him to see Paolo and work it out with him. But I think Paolo has a power of conviction in him.
Yes, when he spoke to me, at any rate, I felt the inspiration and the "thing" which was really to come.
It Is ready to come! As for me, I’ve known it for a long time. It’s there (gesture above), waiting.
Well, he has a contact with that.
Yes, yes.
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When he spoke, you felt he had touched the true thing. While the
others’ only thought is to attract millions and do propaganda
they do things completely upside down.
I think Paolo and R. have never met so far, have they?
Yes, they have. But you understand, R.’s viewpoint is a very
materialistic viewpoint.
Oh, yes.
I’m afraid he may say straight away, "Oh, why is he meddling?"
Ah, no! If I tell him, he won’t say that ….
You’re the only one who can …
No, I must be the one who speaks to him.
Yes, Mother, because they’re putting the cart before the horses,
they’re doing things upside down.
(after a silence)
I am afraid they may not even have the land. That’s the difficulty Because the center of the city has been fixed, but there’s still a large part of the center which, I think, belongs to the government, so they’re trying to negotiate so as to have it.
(silence)
R.’s idea is an island at the center, with water around, running water which will be used for the whole water supply of the city; and when it has flowed through the city, it will be sent to a plant, and from there to irrigate all the cultivated lands around. So this center is like an islet, and at this center, there is what we first called the "Matrimandir" – which I always see as a very large hall, absolutely bare, you understand, and getting a light from above: it should be so arranged that the light from above gets concentrated on a spot where there would be … what we want to put as the center of the city We first thought of Sri Aurobindo’s symbol, but we can put anything we like. Like that, with a ray of light constantly striking from above – revolving and revolving … to follow the sun, you understand. If it’s done well, it would be very good. And then,
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below, people would be able to sit and meditate, or just rest, but there would be NOTHING-nothing except something comfortable below so they can sit without getting tired, probably with pillars acting at the same time as backrests. Something like that. That’s what I always SEE. A hall with a ceiling high enough to allow sunlight to come in as a RAY, depending on the time of the day, and fall on that center which will be there.
If that is done, it will be very good.
So then, for the rest, it’s the same to me, they will do as they like. They first thought of building a dwelling for me, but I’ll never go, so it’s no use, it’s quite unnecessary. And to watch over the islet, it was agreed there would be a small house for H. who wanted to be there simply as a guard …. Then R. had arranged a whole system of bridges to link that to the other bank. The other bank would be entirely made of gardens all around. Those gardens … we thought of twelve gardens (dividing the distance into twelve), twelve gardens with each of them concentrated on one thing: a state of consciousness with the flowers representing it. And the twelfth garden would be in the islet, around (not around but beside) the "Mandir" with the tree, the banyan which is there. That’s what is at the center of the city. And there, there would be a repetition of the twelve gardens around, with the flowers arranged in the same way … There are now two Americans here, husband and wife, and the husband studied there for more than a year the art of gardening, and he came here with that knowledge. So I asked him to start straight away preparing the plan for the inner garden: they’re working on it.
But then, the answer is always the same: "We have no money!"
But Mother, what I think, and what Paolo too has put his finger
on, is that if these … say, twenty or fifty Aurovilians sincerely
unite their hearts in the construction of this pyramid or temple
of the new world, it will ATTRACT money, the millions.
It should.
It will come. What’s needed isn’t to "look for millions," it’s first
to unite the consciousnesses around something.
Yes.
That’s the key to the millions.
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You’ll explain to Paolo all that I have said …. That way we would have something really very fine.
But of course, what’s needed … There are material difficulties: for this islet, we need water – naturally, otherwise it’s not an islet! To have the water, we must transform it – there isn’t enough underground water.
Not enough water?
There is water, but it’s enough for one or two houses, anyway not enough to create a permanent flow. We would need transformed sea water. In Israel they have found a way to do it economically (we even have brochures on this), but you understand, economical for a city, not economical for an individual! So then, we’d need to have water to make this islet, that’s the difficulty.
But before building the islet, we can begin building the "temple"
itself … Begin by lifting a pebble.
Yes, we could do that.
That’s the important point, it’s for people to take a first pebble
in their hands, put it there, and unite in that-because they’ll
never unite through their huts and little stories.
Yes, that would be much better.
Oh, yes, certainly!
Naturally, logically, or psychologically rather, it’s an error to build around first, and the center afterwards.
Of course!
How to make him understand that? …
Since we want to create "something else," the least we can do is
to trust something else.
Yes. I’ll speak to R. about it tomorrow and I’ll ask him to see Paolo. I think that to a certain extent, Paolo can help bring in money, if he is interested.
Good.
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So then, build even before it’s an islet.
(silence)
For the outside of this sort of temple, R. had thought of a big lotus. But then, the inside, this play of light, I don’t know whether it will be possible with a lotus shape?
If the two of them could collaborate … If they came together and one of them were always here – one of them, now one, now another, so there would always be one of the two here – with a single plan made by them, things would go much faster, a hundred times faster.
And it would seize people’s hearts.
Yes.
This idea of a ray of sunlight … whenever I look, that’s what I immediately see. A ray of sunlight that could come at any time of the day – it would be so arranged that it would come all the time (gesture following the sun’s movement). And there would be something there, a symbol, which would be at the same time upright, so as to be seen all around, and lying flat, so as to receive the full light – what would it be? … And let it not become a religion, for heaven’s sake!
Yes.
(silence)
You know that I am in contact with a few Ethiopians (I think it’s the country that has remained the most Christian all over the earth). There’s a boy who’s a secretary in the embassy in Delhi (Ethiopia’s embassy), and he’s quite taken, quite, and then … (laughing) it was his birthday two days ago, and he came with a gift …. Something in wood (in ebony), big like this, with my photo on one side, Sri Aurobindo’s photo on the other side, and in between … a silver cross. And on the cross, at the junction of the two branches, there was on one side my symbol, and on the other side, Sri Aurobindo’s symbol …. What’s in his head?! …
Horrible!
And naturally, as soon as I saw him, he put that on my knees …. It was big like this.
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As soon as I saw him, it instantly came (gesture of massive descent), like that, like an answer to the will to transform Christianity And it was so powerful, there was such a powerful vibration that I felt it was BEING done ….
The cross is the symbol of transformation, you know: Matter (transversal gesture) penetrated by the Spirit; and the junction is the transformation. A tremendous Force came, like that, for this cross to become truly … the flower of transformation.
But I didn’t tell him anything! And he himself doesn’t know, I mean, he never thought about it, it’s instinctively that he did that.
He wrote to the Emperor about Auroville, and there was a reply Did I show it to you? (Mother looks for a piece of paper) It’s all the way at the bottom ….
"I have written to my Emperor Haile Selassie I, about Auro
ville International Township aim, and Ethiopia to be the
second country to support this idea. He has written me a
good letter. In his letter he has appreciated and admired your
work very much. I wish you to bless him for peace of mind,
good health to live long-peace for his people."
They don’t commit themselves too much! Anyway, there’s a goodwill.
(Mother puts the letter near her,
under a pile of files)
I keep all that near me because it keeps the contact.
(silence)
That the Force is now at work is without a shadow of doubt. And there is such a great … (how can I put it?) a very active will: NO RELIGION, no religion, no religious forms. Quite naturally, people immediately … So that’s why I have left them very free. That was why I didn’t insist on building the center first, because that’s in fact the cathedral of old, the temple of old, the whole thing of old (Mother makes a gesture of taking firm root), and then everything gets organized around that: a religion – we want NO religion. [[Thus after Mother's departure, Auroville's "proprietors" soon declared they were a "religious" institution, adding spiritual imposture to financial fraud. Not a single voice rose from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram when those people dared to declare in India's courts that Sri Aurobindo's teaching was "religious." (In 1982, a bench of judges of India's Supreme Court finally rejected this, basing themselves on Sri Aurobindo's own writings and several conversations from Mother's Agenda, such as this one.) ]]
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Yes, but we can "pull down" something other than religion.
But we don’t pull it! It’s the people who have it. They’re very small, they need a religion, or at least they think they do.
They need … – I see that, I’ve received letters again, to which I reply … (Mother vainly looks for other papers near her) It comes every day … And Sri Aurobindo wrote wonderful things on the question …. Very recently (yesterday or the day before), I answered a question about an aphorism of Sri Aurobindo’s in which he said that atheism was NECESSARY because of religions and all their misdeeds. [[240 - "Atheism is a necessary protest against the wickedness of the Churches and the narrowness of creeds. God uses it as a stone to smash these soiled card-houses." 241 - "How much hatred and stupidity men succeed in packing up decorously and labelling 'Religion'!" Mother recently commented on these two aphorisms thus: "As long as there are religions, atheism will be necessary to counterbalance them. Both must disappear to give way to a sincere and disinterested search for Truth and a total consecration to the object of this search." ]] I was asked a question and I answered that also.
People are still very small.
But an interesting sign: from Northern Europe, from Sweden and Norway and Denmark, some priests have written to me; one of them is the head of a church, another is the head of a convent. They write to ask and say that they want to collaborate so as to get out of … It’s very strong up there. One or two of them have sent me their photos, asking me to help them. And they do some work, they do work for Auroville there. It means that …
But even our children have such stupid reactions! One girl here wrote to me because I had mentioned to her that the Consciousness had descended on the earth, concentrated on the earth in order to help men prepare for the transformation. She asked me, "How come men have been left unhelped for so long? …" It’s enough to make you howl in despair! They’ve had their education here and they still ask questions of that sort! … I had to control myself so as not to tell her, "My poor girl, (laughing) what a half-wit you are!"
(silence)
Who would be able to find the way of realizing that? … Because there’s no lack of sunshine there (of course, on some days the sun
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is hidden, but still, there are many days when it shines) …. It should be so arranged that from any side, any angle, the ray should fall [on the symbol]. It’s a question of geometry.
You can speak with Paolo, because if he had an idea …
When he spoke, I felt he could pull that down.
Yes. And that’s what is needed: something, a symbol – we’ll find what’s needed, we’ll see – like an altar, obviously, but … what? A symbol which would directly receive the light from above, and laterally at the same time.
And no other windows, you understand. All the rest in a sort of half-light, and then this light like … That would be fine, it can be very fine. I’d like someone who could feel that. I don’t know at all whether R. is capable of feeling that, but Paolo is.
If it were well realized, it would be very interesting for people. It would be a concretization of something …. They’ll start saying it’s a religion of the sun! (laughing) Oh, you know, I’m used to hearing all, ALL possible nonsense!
(silence)
R.’s idea and the idea of the people around him is to have industries capable of collecting money for Auroville, so …
They’re wrong, they’re wrong!
It means that instead of allowing the thing to be done fast, it will take centuries.
And it means the starting point is the old idea and the old principle.
Yes.
The starting point should be something else.
It’s out of a fear of religions.
It could very well be done not as a religion but as the symbol of
the new world.
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Yes … We need someone who understands that – maybe Paolo will understand.
Yes, certainly! And he would have the capacity to convince people, I think.
(silence)
Yes, I’ll see Paolo. It would be better if he comes on a day when you’re here, because I am afraid of not hearing him …. It disconcerts them a lot when they have to speak loudly. So next Saturday, for instance? And tomorrow I’ll speak to R. about it, that is to say, I’ll tell him to see Paolo who has excellent ideas, and anyway to work it out with him.
It’s very simple, after all: we’ll try to have R. understand and create a collaboration. R. won’t say no to me – but he won’t do anything (!) That’s how it is, you understand. But anyway, if he can do it, if they can work it out and agree, then it will be very good, there won’t be any difficulties. But if he can’t, then Paolo will have to be here while R. is away, and we’ll just have to do it! … You understand, that’s how it is for me! (Mother laughs) Because R. has enough work (he has a tremendous amount of work). It’s not that we are taking work away from him, it’s that if he refuses to do it, we’ll do it, that’s all.
I’ll see if they can agree.
Now for me, things are no longer exclusive, not at all. I very clearly see the possibility of using the most opposite tendencies AT THE SAME TIME … with some slight deftness, that’s all. It’s not exclusive, I don’t say, "Ah, no, not this!" No, no, no: everything, all of it together. That’s what I want, to succeed in creating a place where all contraries can be united.
That …
Unless we can do that … (gesture in a circle), it just goes on and on, we go on and on.
It’s good. Yes, I understand: the thing is to build the center, even if we can’t make it into an islet.
Maybe Paolo will be able to convince R. I’ll speak to him tomorrow, to start the New Year.
There.
So I wish you a happy New Year.
(Satprem lays his forehead
on Mother’s knees)
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This time, we’re moving to a new decade. We must shake off all that (Mother makes a gesture over her shoulder)
Wholly new and very small … so as to be able to grow.
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