July 18, 1970
(Mother begins with the translation of two letters of
Sri Aurobindo for the next issue of the Bulletin.)
"It is much easier for the Sadhak [disciple] by
faith in the Mother to get free from illness than
for the Mother to keep free – because the Mother
by the very nature of her work had to identify
herself with the Sadhaks, to support all their
difficulties, to receive into herself all the poison
in their nature …
Very kind of them! (Mother laughs)
"… to take up besides all the difficulties of the
universal earth-Nature, including the possibility
of death and disease in order to fight them out.
If she had not done that, not a single Sadhak
would have been able to practise this Yoga….
(Mother nods her head)
"… The Divine has to put on humanity …
"Put on humanity…." This is fine!
"… in order that the human being may rise to the
Divine. It is a simple truth …
(Mother laughs)
"… but nobody in the Ashram seems able to
understand that the Divine can do that and yet
remain different from them – can still remain the
Divine."
8 May 1933 The Mother, 25.317
There’s another text, which starts with a question:
"People in the Ashram believe that their difficulties
and illnesses are taken by the Mother on herself
and therefore she has sometimes to suffer. But at
that rate there would be too much onrush of these
things on her from many Sadhaks. An idea comes
to me of taking upon myself some of these difficul
ties and illnesses so that I can also suffer with her
pleasantly?"
(Mother laughs a lot) Pleasantly!… With a question mark.
Sri Aurobindo answers:
"Pleasantly? It would be anything but pleasant
either for you or for us.
"It is rather a crude statement of a fact. The
Mother in order to do her work had to take all
the Sadhaks inside her personal being and con
sciousness; thus personally (not merely imper
sonally) taken inside, all the disturbances and
difficulties in them including illnesses could
throw themselves upon her in a way that could
not have happened if she had not renounced the
self-protection of separateness. Not only illnesses
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of others could translate themselves into attacks
on her body – these she could generally throw off
as soon as she knew from what quarter and why
it came – but their inner difficulties, revolts,
outbursts of anger and hatred against her could
have the same and a worse effect….
That’s still true…. With some people, as soon as they come, I’ll suddenly feel a disorder, or I’ll start coughing, or … Then when I look, I see why. When I see why, I can keep the thing at a distance. It’s curious.
"… That was the only danger for her (because
inner difficulties are easily surmountable) …
That’s so true! For that, a smile is enough.
"… but matter and the body are the weak point or
crucial point of our Yoga, since this province has
never been conquered by the spiritual Power, the
old Yogas having either left it alone or used on
it only a detail mental and vital force, not the
general spiritual force. It was the reason why
after a serious illness caused by a terribly bad
state of the Ashram atmosphere …
(Mother laughs)
"… I had to insist on her partial retirement so as
to minimise the most concrete part of the pres
sure upon her. Naturally, the full conquest of the
physical would revolutionise matters, but as yet
it is the struggle."
31 March 1934
The Mother, 25.317
How what he says remains true – that’s first rate!
Is the "revolution" still far away, or close?
Alas! (Mother laughs)
***
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Soon afterwards
They told me you’re seeing … (Mother tries to recall a name) Someone who sees you often, whom I don’t know.
I see lots of them!
So it seems!… How come?
I wonder what I should do, in fact.
When do you see them?
They’ve found the way: I’ll go out and …
(Mother laughs a lot) That’s right! So you go out of your home …
I go out in the evening around 5:30 for a bit of fresh air. First I
go to the Samadhi – they catch me at the Samadhi and go
around with me; then they come up to the beach and stay with
me until I come home…. So I see all kinds. I see lots of them.
Are some interesting?
Yes. I let them, because I feel it’s useful. [[Satprem will abundantly carry on with this until 1971. Then he will abruptly close his door when people will start referring to him as a guru. ]]
Oh, useful, certainly, but you shouldn’t tire yourself. Because, you know, they will … (Mother makes a gesture of swallowing).
Yes, it’s tiring, that’s true.
They find it quite natural to absorb you completely.
Oh, its tiring.
It’s the same thing for me with people who come and see me…. I had to start putting up a fight because otherwise I used to say yes, yes, yes…. [[Mother has begun examining the list of visitors, instead of accepting everything and everyone. ]] They stay on till 1:00 P.M., and then … That can’t be.
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Be careful.
I don’t know what I should do.
If it’s only while you’re outside, it’s all right.
At home, I’m rather fierce and I close my door.
That’s what I meant: don’t let them in.
Oh, a few still manage to slip in.
No, no, don’t let them in. Because then you can’t live anymore – you’re only food for them.
Yes, it’s tiring.
No, outside it’s all right, it doesn’t stop you from breathing the air, but inside, no.
You wanted to know about someone I see? What "someone" did
they tell you about?
I don’t remember.
Recently I saw someone I found very interesting. A young man.
His name is L.
So then?
He quite strikes me as a young man with a past behind him,
who’s suddenly had rather surprising experiences. He seems to
understand from within, to go very fast.
Yes, that must be him.
I’ll give you one example: he was with Z and asked Z how the
syllable OM should be pronounced (he didn’t know). Z told him.
Then he repeated just that word, and he says that it suddenly
became absolutely awesome, as if there were hundreds of ampli
fiers and all of Matter everywhere said OM.
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Oh, he’s sensitive. Yes, that’s fine.
Yes, he is interesting…. So he asks me lots of questions because
suddenly he’s just discovering all this.
That’s interesting.
Yes, its useful and interesting. …It will be good when you see
him. He first had experiences in Paris with drugs.
Oh!
Then, he told me, "But when I saw I could have experiences like
that, without drugs, I said to myself it was much better!"… But
he’s fine, not distorted.
(silence)
(Mother holds out a flower) What is it?
It’s "Power of Truth in the Subconscient"…. Not easy!
(Mother laughs) The flowers are quite bold!
(Mother takes another flower) This is a "Psychological Perfection"…. It’s to find that [the power of truth in the subconscient].
We’re preparing a book about flowers. There will be color photos of flowers, their significance, and a comment by me! They make me write a comment on every flower…. So I’m having fun! It will be interesting.
But in the subconscient, some things have a power of recur
rence. …
Oh!…
Not only that, you feel it’s a power IN ITSELF, quite independent
of anything, like a self-existent entity.
Yes.
So what can one do about it?
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It will only change when everything changes.
Yes, it’s a daily battle.
Yes.
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