August 9, 1972
(A news item originating from Boulder, Colorado, and dated
August 8, reports a solar flare covering over 2.8 billion square
miles of the sun’s surface. Within an hour of the eruption, the
effect was felt on earth, causing a magnetic storm that seriously
disrupted communications in many parts of the world In terms
of magnitude, the current sunspots are the greatest ever recorded
since at least 1964 [Indian Express, August 91.)
Did you hear about the explosions on the sun?
Yes.
They say it’s falling to the earth …
Ah?
… and it’s going to affect humans. Did you hear that?
I didn’t hear it was falling to the earth.
They say it will come to the earth and affect humans.
I think it affects the earth atmosphere, the weather, but that’s all.
I don’t know.
It affects the atmosphere; for example, radio transmissions are
scrambled. The atmosphere is affected, but that’s about all.
Is this today’s news?
I don’t know, Mother.
Because mine is today’s latest news. They’re rather pessimistic.
But what do you say?
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I say that it must be the supramental consciousness – not "consciousness": the supramental SUBSTANCE. And those who are ready will thus have their new body.
That’s my most … optimistic explanation.
Did you actually discern something outside of the official
news?
Not quite.
For me, eating is getting more and more difficult – almost impossible. Clearly, something has to replace food. [[In simple terms, we could say that all living matter on earth is "assembled" by the sun's energy (including and especially what we use for food); that same matter is then "disassembled" to release and provide us with that SAME energy. The question is, could one directly absorb those SAME energy particles without going through the intermediary process? ]]
Almost, almost impossible to eat.
Feeling has nothing to do with it, there’s no disgust or anything of the sort: I just can’t swallow. It’s like this (gesture of choking). Result: I take nearly an hour to absorb what would normally take five minutes.
(silence)
So you think these solar eruptions are some kind of precipita
tion of the supramental consciousness on earth?
Of the SUBSTANCE. The consciousness came long ago, but the thing is…. Because, for example, this body has the same needs it used to have; that’s the way it is built: it needs to eat, but it can’t eat. So when I was told these eruptions would affect even the human body, I thought: could it be the substance that will create the supramental body?
If the Supramental is to manifest on earth, something of it has to relate to the physical.
Quite!
(silence)
The body is in a curious condition (Mother touches her fingertips): it feels a terrible Force – it is full of strength – and it can’t do a thing!
It is in a bizarre kind of state.
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I can write, but the way I see what I write is different from before.
There you are.
And what’s your feeling?
Well, I feel the Force is more and more … imperative.
Imperative. Yes, it’s becoming terribly powerful, in a body which is … (gesture of being miserable). But the body does not feel weak, yet it isn’t hungry. It isn’t "hungry," that went long ago; but now, recently, it’s become almost impossible to eat. How is one supposed to live, then?
So when I was told that this solar explosion was heading for the earth and would affect people, I thought: well, maybe that’s what is coming to replace food?
It’s wishful thinking, I can’t say it’s a knowledge. It just came to me like that.
Because, according to what Sri Aurobindo said, the supramental body will be immortal and sexless – that is, no procreation. So for those who live, if the earth is still there and they are to go on living, they will have to transform themselves constantly, otherwise they won’t be able to last. Hence something has to replace food.
Food carries in itself a seed of death, of decay. So obviously, it must be replaced by something else.
(silence)
Do we know how much time it takes for the rays of the sun to travel to earth?
Oh, it’s very fast, [[Eight minutes. ]] Mother. It’s already
done, it has already entered the earth’s atmosphere.
Really?
Yes, it takes a few minutes.
Ohh!
(long silence)
So the effect of the explosion is already….
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Already here, yes. Radio transmissions, for example, have
already been disrupted. Those solar eruptions occur in cycles.
The phenomenon recurs at fixed intervals – I can’t tell you
exactly, I don’t know if it’s every ten or twenty years [[Eleven years. ]] ….
Oh! …
But this one is particularly strong, it seems.
Oh, it’s a recurring phenomenon….
Yes, cyclic. But I think its magnitude was quite extraordinary
this time…. Very unusual.
(silence)
Do we know what the sun is made of, its substance?
Yes, Mother. It’s a substance in a state of nuclear fusion; like a
gigantic and incessant atomic explosion.
Oh!
It’s in a gaseous state. With constant atomic reactions. It’s a
million times more powerful than the atomic bombs they have
exploded on earth, and nonstop.
(long silence
Mother laughs)
So of course, if those explosions increase or decrease, the effects must be fantastic!
Certainly…. The sun is not really solid matter, you see, it’s energy.
Yes, it isn’t matter.
It isn’t matter, it’s energy.
(In an amused tone:) And that’s what keeps us alive!
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Yes! [Laughter]
(silence)
Sri Aurobindo and all the Vedic Rishis have always likened
the Supermind to the sun….
Yes.
So there must be some relationship, a correspondence.
Yes…. I personally find it very … (what’s the word?) significant that this should have happened this year [of Sri Aurobindo's centenary].
Yes.
(silence)
But do we know how long the earth has existed?
Yes Mother, it’s been calculated.
Ah?
Yes, it was calculated: I don’t know exactly how many billions
of years – but it’s billions of years. [[Four and a half billion years, according to the current estimate. ]] And they have also calculat
ed the end!
Ah! And?
I think it’s still quite far ahead But it appears the end of the
earth is scientifically inevitable – because of progressive cooling
and changes in the gravitational field. [[It is said that in five billion years the sun will become a "red giant" and burn its planets. The cooling period would come much later. ]]
Theon used to say that up to now there had been … that this was the seventh creation; there had been six creations before which were "reabsorbed" – just as you said. And this one was the seventh, but it wouldn’t be reabsorbed, it would transform itself. There we are. Instead of that destruction by the sun which so far has ultimately led to the disappearance of the creation, this time the creation would go on transforming itself, to become again the Supreme and manifest Him.
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Theon and Sri Aurobindo didn’t know each other, you see, they never met each other, they didn’t even know of each other’s existence. Yet Theon proclaimed… (I don’t remember what he called the new world) what Sri Aurobindo calls the "Supramental." What’s remarkable – interesting, you know, strikingly interesting – is that without knowing each other, with totally different approaches, they reached the same conclusion.
And we are precisely at the time when … the other creations had come to an end; but instead of coming to an end, this one will be transformed. How? I have no idea.
The interesting thing in man is that materially speaking, he is … a mere nothing, a second lost in eternity – a tangled web of weaknesses – but in terms of consciousness, he has the capacity to understand. His consciousness is capable of contacting the supreme Consciousness. So naturally there are all those who wanted to merge back into that Consciousness, but Sri Aurobindo said: the point is not to merge back into it but to make the world capable of manifesting that supreme Consciousness.
That’s ultimately the whole point.
How did they arrive at the same conclusion? … There must have been a reason for them to know the same thing at the same time, in totally different countries and without ever knowing about each other.
And I met one and the other.
Greatly interesting, obviously.
Greatly interesting, because this physical being [Mother's] was not born in an important position, quite the contrary (gesture indicating an ordinary background)…. The only thing I remember well is when I was a little girl (five or six years old, I can’t say exactly), a very little girl, seated in a little armchair made especially for me, and I would feel a GREAT Force (Mother raises a finger above her head) above my head. And already at that age Oust the way a child can think, you know) I knew "that" was sure to accomplish great things…. I didn’t understand anything, I didn’t know anything.
(silence)
And now it’s transformation instead of pralaya. [[The destruction or end of a world (apocalypse). ]]
(long silence)
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According to what was reported, it seems those explosions have liberated particles…. And I thought they said they were on their way to the earth; but from what you say, they’re already here?
I didn’t see this morning’s papers. I’m sure there were atomic
particles.
Yes.
Generally they’re stopped by the density of the earth’s atmos
phere, so they affect only the atmosphere, not the earth
itself…. The most immediate consequences are climatic.
Yes, it’s terrifically hot here! …
(Mother plunges in.
Pranab comes in and says from the
far end of the room, "It’s late."
Mother instantly comes back)
Is it time?
Yes, Mother.
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