December 4, 1971
(On December 2, eight months after the bloody repression
in Bangladesh, India launched a general offensive
against the Pakistani troops.)
So they’ve declared war.
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Yes, it’s done.
It began, yes, yesterday.
The ministers in Delhi have made a brochure on Sri Aurobindo, and they asked me for a message. I sent it in English. This (Mother hands a text) is the French.
“Sri Aurobindo est venu annoncer au
monde un glorieux avenir et a ouvert la porte
sur son accomplissement.”[["Sri Aurobindo came to announce to the world a glorious future and opened the door to its realization." ]]
(silence)
Will they go to the end this time, without stopping halfway?
Don’t know…. It seems serious.
We get news from the front (from a general who is at the front [[The Commander-in-chief of the eastern sector, who asked for Mother's blessings. ]]), but this morning, I think, the news was broadcast on the radio. They could tell you exactly.
Well, I know that. What I’m hoping is that for August 15, ’72, Pakistan will disintegrate.
Oh, that would be nice!… It’s quite soon.
Do you have anything?
No, Mother…. The trouble is that the people in power in India have not yet acknowledged in their consciousness that India is ONE; they have not yet acknowledged the nonexistence of Pakistan, that’s the trouble.
(Mother nods,
then goes within for 20 minutes)
* * *
(A little later, Mother listens to Satprem read various letters of
Sri Aurobindo, then a letter she herself wrote in English
during World War II about the attitude of the disciples
toward Hitler and the Allies.)
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May 25, 1941
“The world situation is critical today. India’s fate too is hanging in the balance. There was a time when India was a absolutely secure, there was no danger whatever of her being victim to Asuric aggression. But things have changed. People and forces in India have acted in such a way as to invite Asuric influences upon her: these have worked insidiously and undermined the security that was there.
If India is in danger, Pondicherry cannot be expected to remain outside the danger zone. It will share the fate of the rest of the country. The protection I can give is not unconditional. It is idle to hope that in spite of anything and everything, the protection will be there over all. My protection is there if conditions are fulfilled. It goes without saying that any sympathy or support for the Nazis (or for any ally of theirs) automatically cuts across the circle of protection. Apart from this obvious and external factor, there are more fundamental psychological conditions which demand fulfillment. The Divine can give protection only to those who are whole-heartedly faithful to the Divine, who live truly in the spirit of sadhana and keep their consciousness and preoccupation fixed upon the Divine and the service of the Divine. Desire, for example, insistence on one’s likes and conveniences, all movements of hypocrisy and insincerity and falsehood, are great obstacles standing in the way of the Divine’s protection. If you seek to impose your will upon the Divine, it is as if you were calling for a bomb to fall upon you. I do not say that things are bound to happen in this way; but they are very likely to happen, if people do not become conscious and strictly vigilant and act in the true spirit of a spiritual seeker. If the psychological atmosphere remains the same as that of the outside world, there can be no wall of security against the dark Forces that are working out in it the ordeal of danger, suffering and destruction entering here.”
The Mother
I would say it is terribly to the point!
Exactly what I was seeing now…. If it were from Sri Aurobindo, I would say publish it.
It seems to me that, given the present circumstances, your
letter ought to be published.
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I could have written it now.
Shall we publish it now, in the next "Bulletin," with your com
ment "It is terribly to the point"?
In the Bulletin? But we’ve never spoken of politics in the Bulletin.
But this isn’t politics. It’s the world situation!
(Mother laughs) You’d say it was written now. In February then, all right.
(silence)
Mother, is the present upheaval going to affect your work of
personal transformation?
That, I don’t know.
I remember Sri Aurobindo said that the Second World War
had in fact interrupted the work of transformation.
Yes, it’s true.
Is this …?
(silence)
We’ll see. I don’t know.
Someone (someone who knew nothing about the news announced on the radio) had a dream last night, and in the dream she saw armies going off to war (she didn’t know war was coming, she’s totally out of things), Indian armies going off to war — and when she looked at them, she saw that each soldier had my face.
Interesting.
She sent word to me this morning and she didn’t even know war had been declared.
For the moment it’s not disturbing. But we’ll see.
Sujata says that her impression is that the transformation is
now so stable, the basis is so well established, that no matter
what happens, it can no longer be disrupted.
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I have somewhat that impression too, but….
And perhaps that’s why the war was so delayed….
Yes.
… To wait for everything to be really very stable.
Possible.
Possible. Oh, more and more I live in a … it’s more than a conviction — it’s a positive certitude that things are the result of the Divine Wisdom.
Even when you fall flat on your face?
Even when you fall flat on your face — it’s the best thing that could have happened to you.
Always?
Always.
Even when you make a mistake?
Even when you make a mistake…. You see, there are several types of mistake. I don’t know how to explain it…. I’ve also seen that this very impression of making a mistake, or being the victim of an accident, or any of that is necessary — the impression is necessary in you so that everything turns out exactly as it should. Except those who have (what’s the word?) the destiny or role of seeing the Truth and living the Truth, which they do in any case…. I don’t know how to explain it.
(silence)
I could say that my physical capacity has been greatly diminished by age, but I see why that’s so, why it had to wait for this advanced age.
Yes, that I too understand, because had it happened to you at
thirty, say, no one would have understood the physical ordeal
you are going through — because it’s as if the body had to die in
order to get to the other side….
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Oh, yes. Yes indeed. Oh, how well my body knows that!
So had that happened to you when you were young, no one
would have understood….
Yes.
While now, they’re putting the blame on age.
Yes, they’re putting the blame on age.
So it seems reasonable that way!
(Mother laughs
silence)
My body is like this (Mother opens her hands): “What You want….” — but not even, not even with words.
(long silence)
Yes, everything is part of the divine plan.
Yes, yes.
It’s only due to our need to struggle that we say, “This is bad, it is wrong …”
Yes, yes.
“… this is an ‘error,’ I’ve made a ‘mistake’” — it’s due to our need to fight.
Yes, exactly, because we MUST fight. And if we did not have that illusion, we would become passive — passive and languid. You know, there’s something in the consciousness now that smiles at everything — I am well aware of it — although I see that physically it is not supposed to be like that yet.
Yes.
We’re still in the period of struggle.
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Now, the body has the conviction that only death can stop its transformation. So it’s impossible. Only some kind of violent death, an “accident” (well…) could stop the transformation, otherwise the work is being done regularly, regularly (gesture of irresistible advance). It’s like that, the body is convinced of it now, that only violence could stop it — but then if that happens, it’s certainly because it had to happen, you see, for some reason … which it has no desire to know, it doesn’t care a button. But otherwise, as long as it’s here, it knows that the work will go on and on and on … in spite of everything. That’s it.
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