July 28, 1971

(Mother sits looking long at Satprem,

 her eyes open, then she smiles.)

Ooh!...

When you were sitting here [in front of Mother] and I looked at you, you took your body and opened it like this (gesture as if Satprem were ripping his body in half from the stomach down), all, all the way.

Were you in pain?

No, Mother, I wasn't in pain, but I'm fighting a lot with my nature.

(Mother laughs) You opened it up wide, like this.

(silence)

But it's funny, it was as if ... here [lower abdomen] there were a black spot like this (gesture), something like a black spot. It was as if you wanted to show me that black spot.... Now, the spot has gradually faded away. It's gone.

(silence
Mother looks again)

It's quite fine now.

(silence)

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Do you know, there's an interesting phenomenon. The American ambassador to India [Kenneth Keating] is for Bangladesh, while the president of the American republic [Nixon] is for Pakistan!! (Mother laughs) So, now, they say, there are two Americas! A Pakistan America and a Bangladesh America!... The American ambassador is in total agreement with what you wrote.

Did he receive the article?

Yes, I suppose. I think so, I think it was sent to him. In any case, he's in total agreement. He says, "I am here on the scene, I can see what's going on, I know how things really are." And he is absolutely against Pakistan. But the others....

You know, I found an aphorism by Sri Aurobindo yesterday

 for the next Bulletin, and while reading it, I thought: but it's

exactly right for Bangladesh! -- in fact it's rather for Indira

Gandhi.

Ah!

He says:
"He who will not slay

 when God bids him,

 works in the world

 an incalculable havoc."[[Aphorism 228. ]]

That's interesting. We must publish that! (general laughter)

(Mother plunges within,
then surfaces and hands Satprem a piece of paper)

I want to give this for August 15:

"A veil behind the heart, a lid over the mind divide us from the Divine. Love and devotion rend the veil, in the quietude of the mind the lid thins and vanishes."

September 9, 1936
Sri Aurobindo
On Himself, XXVI.215

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There's a terrible mess up there [in Delhi].

(Mother plunges again)

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