The Mother

On the Path = En route

The Mother’s Correspondence with Shyam Sundar

1.1.67

May I make the choice, constantly, sincerely and integrally, as the Divine Mother may wish.

Pranam.

A good year of great progress towards the Light and total consecration.

With my blessings.

2.1.67

In 1958 the Mother said, “If things go on advancing at this speed, it seems more than possible, almost evident, that what Sri Aurobindo wrote in a letter is a prophetic announcement: The supramental consciousness will enter a phase of realising power in 1967.”¹

Have things advanced at the required speed?

Yes.

18.1.67

May I try to make my nights conscious? I pray for guidance.

1) A short concentration before going to sleep, with an aspiration to remember your activities of the night when you wake up.

2) When you wake up, do not make any sudden movement of the head, but keep still for a few minutes, with a concentration to remember what happened during the sleep.

3) Repeat these exercises every day until you begin to perceive a result.

28.1.67

Something within me rushes towards You and wishes to remain at Your feet. This occurs repeatedly, almost spontaneously, without emotion.

Is there a significance?

(Mother underlined the word “Something” and answered:)

It is your psychic being, the individualisation of your soul that wants to realise the divine life during its human life.

1.2.67

In the human being, is the psychic being the entire soul or do both the psychic being and the soul (in its essence, as a divine spark in all creatures) exist together?

The soul is the eternal essence at the centre of the psychic being. The soul is in fact like a divine spark which puts on many states of being of increasing density, down to the most material, and is inside the body, in the interior, so to say, of the solar plexus. These states of being take form and develop, progress, become individualised and perfected in the course of a great number of earthly lives and form the psychic being. When the psychic being is fully formed it is aware of the consciousness of the soul and manifests it perfectly.

6.2.67

The spiritual goal that You have shown me for my present life is very high and very far. On the other hand, I have wasted much time and energy leading the ordinary life and my aspiration is not yet constant. But I feel that if the Mother is with me, I will attain the goal.

I pray that You be with me.

I am with you and I will take you to the goal. Have an unshakable faith and all will go well.

Blessings.

9.2.67

When I concentrate on You in my heart, sometimes Your image disappears and I see only a Light. This transition takes place instantly but very smoothly. I have begun to love this Light. Its colour is white but sometimes it has a blue tinge. What do the two colours signify?

The white is integrality, totality. It is Mahashakti’s light. When tinged with blue, it indicates Sri Aurobindo’s presence.

13.2.67

The “Savitri” exhibition is full of pictures depicting Savitri, the ascent of the being, the descent of divinity, and the divine play. The pictures radiate a light which is as beautiful as strong, similar to that which I feel near you.

Is this my imagination or true?

(Letter written after seeing the exhibition on “Savitri” at the Ashram)

It is quite true and I am glad that you saw it.

18.2.67

As soon as I meet or see certain people, certain lower and wrong vibrations arise in me. This is an invariable habit, in spite of the fact that I want to get rid of these reactions. What should I do?

The radical method is to cut off all mental and vital connection with these people; but until you know how to do this, you must persistently eliminate from your consciousness the effect that is produced by their influence.

25.2.67

You have said: “The Divine is with you according to your aspirations. Naturally, this does not mean that he gives way to the fancies of your outer nature – I am speaking here of the truth of your being. Moreover, he sometimes models himself on your outer aspirations, and if you live like the devotees who alternate between periods of estrangement and embrace, of ecstasy and despair, the Divine too will be more distant or closer to you, depending on what you believe. The attitude is therefore very important, even the outer attitude.”

What is the meaning of “outer aspiration” and “outer attitude”? What is the best outer attitude?

Unless one practises Yoga in the physical being (outer being), it remains ignorant and even its aspiration is ignorant and so also is its goodwill; all its movements are ignorant and so they distort and disfigure the Divine Presence.

That is why the Yoga of the body-cells is indispensable.

1.3.67

When I see Your symbol, be it by the physical eyes or by its appearance during meditation, mostly I see it in movement like a disc. Mother, why the movement?

The movement is the symbol of progressive evolution of the creation.

6.3.67

“The Dawn that never ends”²: what spiritual state does this marvellous dawn represent?

Perpetual renewal.

10.3.67

This is how I understand the Purusha:

The Lord is the Supreme Purusha, the Purushottama.

The Atman is the universal Purusha.

The Jivatman is the individual Purusha and the physical Purusha, the vital Purusha, the mental Purusha and the secret Purusha in the heart are projections of it.

The soul is the Purusha that enters into the evolution.

Is my understanding correct?

This is one way of putting it. Mental definitions are never more than approximations, ways of speaking.

18.3.67

My body is very weak and full of unconsciousness and tamas. How can this body become Your good instrument?

At the centre of each cell lies the Divine Consciousness. By aspiration and repeated self-giving the cells must be made transparent.

25.3.67

“To be aware of the consciousness of the soul”: is this the same thing as uniting with the Divine?

To become aware of the consciousness of the soul is the surest and easiest way of uniting with the Divine.

1.4.67

The region below my heart harbours very dark and recalcitrant parts of my being. I feel that for more than three months You have been acting specially on this region and, in spite of the lack of collaboration on my side, You have awakened a flame there. It has to be guarded and strengthened.

Is my feeling right?

Yes, it is right. It is the flame of Agni that I have kindled, the flame of psychic aspiration that opens the way leading to the Divine. Without this flame of Agni no spiritual progress is possible. Now you are beginning to advance on the way.

7.4.67

You give everything we need but my capacity to receive is very limited and it takes me a long time to assimilate even the little I am able to receive.

Untroubled, I pray: How can the situation be improved?

This difficulty usually comes from a lack of unification the being. Certain parts are recalcitrant and refuse to receive. They have to be educated little by little, just as one educates a child – and little by little too the situation will improve.

12.4.67

Looking at the present state of the world we can say that the worst has already happened. We await the day when the Lord will take the earth into His arms and “the earth will be transformed”. Is that day drawing near?

It may very well be that this is what is happening now – but it is not on the human scale.

One moment of the Lord probably means many years for us!...

17.4.67

Although there is a certain charm and poetry in the fact that there is no formal date for the creation of our Ashram, could it be said from the occult point of view that the Ashram was born with the Mother’s arrival?

The Ashram was born a few years after my return from Japan, in 1926.

22.4.67

The Lord told You: “One day thou wilt be my head but for the moment turn thy gaze towards the earth.”³ Sweet Mother, what does “thou wilt be my head” mean?

The head is the original conceiving Consciousness.

27.4.67

One morning I saw a white light tinged with blue rising from below which enveloped You gradually like the petals of a lotus. The light was solid and fluid at the same time.

What does it mean, sweet Mother?

It was undoubtedly an aspiration going up from the subconscient.

1.5.67

When I want to be closer to You, I see that I must conquer my ego. But when I think of conquering my ego, I see that I must be closer to You. How can I solve this problem?

The Grace is there to solve it.

5.5.67

How can I become Your good child?

By being yourself, quite simply, very simply....

10.5.67

When I am able to offer You money or some object it brings me much joy, and when some part of my being offers itself to You the joy I feel is greater still. But in spite of this experience my whole being is not offered to You. What stupidity! How can I change this?

We are made up of many different parts which must be unified around the psychic being, if we are conscious of it, or at least around the central aspiration. If this unification is not done we carry this division within us.

To do this, each thought, each feeling, each sensation, each impulse, each reaction, as it manifests, must be presented in the consciousness to the central being or its aspiration. What is in accord is accepted, what is not in accord is refused, rejected or transformed.

It is a long task which may take many years – but once it is done the unification is achieved and the path becomes easy and swift.

14.5.67

In silence I prayed to You to accept me, me as I am, with all my imperfections.

In silence and in Your mercifulness, You gave me Your acceptance.

This acceptance, as I have understood later, calls for my aspiration to be more and more pure and worthy of Your Grace.

I write this letter to verify my reception of Your response.

Certainly I have accepted you as you are, and this acceptance means that I will take you towards your divine goal in spite of all difficulties and all obstacles.

Blessings.

16.5.67

How can I get rid of the habitual feeling that I own the material things that belong to me?

If you belong entirely and totally to the Divine, then all that belongs to you, all that forms part of your physical being, belongs to the Divine.

19.5.67

Sometimes I think that the Agni You have kindled in me will burn everything that separates me from You. What should I do to contribute to its fulfilment?

Each time that you discover in yourself something that denies or resists, throw it into the flame of Agni which is the fire of aspiration.

29.5.67

Is it possible to make my hands conscious in such a way that they do nothing imperfect, incorrect or wrong?

What is the way to do it, Divine Mother?

It is quite possible, by concentrating on the hands when they are doing something.

The hands of painters, sculptors, musicians (especially pianists) are usually very conscious and always skilful. It is a question of training.

1.6.67

I want to overcome a difficulty: it is that when I see a fault or a weakness in myself, something tries to justify it or to prevent me from attending to it.

This “something” is the insincerity of ignorant self-esteem which has not yet understood that it is nobler and loftier to recognise one’s faults in order to correct them, than to conceal them in the hope that they will not be noticed.

As for all psychological problems, here too sincerity, a total and uncompromising sincerity, is the true remedy.

7.6.67

I want to offer You my being like a beautiful rose. But alas! as soon as I make the gesture I see many a thorn in it and I cannot accomplish the offering.

The thorns have to be pulled out, O Mother, the thorns have to be pulled out.

Perhaps the offering itself is the means for it.

Yes, gradually the thorns fall away. It is by the constant renewal of the offering that they disappear.

Blessings.

14.6.67

Please tell me how I can get rid of the past which is so heavy and sticky.

To get rid of the past is something so difficult that it seems almost impossible.

But if you give yourself entirely and without reserve to the future, if this self-giving is constantly renewed, the past will fall off by itself and will no longer encumber you.

20.6.67

Although I am very far from the state where I could always remain at Your feet, I pray to You to lead me there.

The quickest way is to unite more and more with your psychic being, because your psychic being is near to me very intimately.

24.6.67

One morning as I was reading Your book Prayers and Meditations I wished to know which movement comes first, “to live in Thee” or “to live for Thee”. Before the mind could set to work to find the answer, the reply that came to me spontaneously was this: “The two states are complementary to each other.”

Yes, the two states are complementary but that does not necessarily mean that they are simultaneous. Most often “to live for Thee” comes first and if the being is unified and sincere, “to live in Thee” soon follows.

But of course, for the first to be perfect the second must be present.

1.7.67

From yesterday the lower vital has been raising its evil head and I am trying to reject its movements. I pray to You to enable me to act radically and without pity.

The direct fight is sometimes difficult. But to let the impulse fall down while concentrating one’s energies in the psychic aspiration is a very effective means.

6.7.67

Your hands are open to give everything but I can only receive a small part of it because I am not receptive enough.

This is the exact image of the state of the world which suffers because it is not receptive whereas it could live in beatitude if it would open to the Divine Love.

But there is a remedy:

Sincere and constant aspiration.

9.7.67

Your Grace has calmed the vital, the clouds disappear.

I pray that the future be a sunlit path. Pranam and gratitude.

Have confidence. The Light is with you and will never leave you.

13.7.67

I have begun to see that both the personal effort of the sadhak and its result depend on the Divine Grace.

About this one could say humorously: We are all divine but we are hardly aware of it, and that in us which is unaware that it is divine, is what we call “ourselves”.

16.7.67

A divine face, the eyes radiating two rays of light, the rays being white, vertical and immobile – what is its significance, sweet Mother?

When the beings or forces of invisible worlds manifest themselves before an individual consciousness, they put on forms suitable to the symbolism of each one – that is what makes it difficult to explain the visions of someone unless his symbolism is known in detail.

However, according to the description, it could be a force or an entity manifesting the light of Truth.

20.7.67

To establish the reign of the Divine on earth, who is slower – man or the Divine Himself?

To man the Divine seems slow.

In the eyes of the Divine man is slow indeed!

But in these two cases the slowness is perhaps not the same.

23.7.67

Material and useless thoughts have become boring, but to enter they do not wait for my invitation or permission, they simply come.... A strong sentinel has to be placed.

The conscious will of silence is the sentinel.

But in order that it be quite effective, the silence must be quite immobile and attentive, turned upwards, like a white and virgin plaque, to receive the light that comes from above.

24.7.67

This was written yesterday and sent in a closed envelope. It has been just brought to me as a new letter.

I open the envelope and find my letter!

27.7.67

From yesterday the prayer “May I melt in You” has been rising sometimes from my heart. I hope you have already heard it.

The prayer came straight towards me, not only in words, but with the warmth of the consciousness.

30.7.67

May I know whether it is true that after death, a dead man very often returns in his daughter’s child?

First the dead man must have a daughter in order to be reborn in her child....

It is not an absolute rule, far from it; but the case is quite frequent in India where the belief in frequent reincarnations is still quite common.

1.8.67

When I offer You money it is the “I” that spoils the offering. May the “I” disappear, O Divine Mother... may the pure and true consciousness install itself in Your child.

That he knows it is already very good. He is en route for liberation.

3.8.67

Each time that I go to You to make Pranam, You do something in my consciousness and my entire consciousness is bathed in Your Joy and Sweetness.

I return... some days pass, and soon the yearning to bow down again before You and to be blessed by Your divine hands becomes a thirst, an aspiration....

When you feel so, why not come in the afternoon about 3.30 – I will always have a minute to see you and bless you.

4.8.67

I am infinitely grateful to You for Your answer. Indeed You are opening a new chapter in my life. If my whole being could surrender itself to You, always more and more, what fortune!...

My blessings are with you.

7.8.67

I asked myself, “How can one express the inexpressible?” The reply came, “By living it, by becoming it, by being it.” What does the Mother say?

That is correct.

12.8.67

One thing is beyond my understanding: how can You find time to do all that You do? Perhaps physical time does not exist for You!

The body is able to bear the pressure of time because it knows and feels quite concretely that it is not itself that lives and acts but only the Supreme Lord exists and only He lives and acts.

This, moreover, is the secret of all endurance.

19.8.67

Instead of fighting against my impurities I would like to make them fall down like dust or burn them in the flame of Agni.

It is good.

But the most potent remedy is to open oneself more and more completely to Divine Love which is changed in our consciousness into love for the Divine and which by its mere presence consumes all impurities.

22.8.67

Here is an amusing phrase from an anonymous author: “Thank God, I am an atheist.”

The phrase would be even more amusing if he had written:

“Thank God for making me an atheist.”

24.8.67

From what I understand, You said that the psychic beings of the disciples of the Ashram all belong to the same family.

In spite of this, there is often a lack of collaboration among ourselves. Why is it so, Mother?

If I did say this (probably not quite in these words), it could only refer to a universal family open to all differences and even all divergences....

But in any case, mutual misunderstanding and lack of collaboration can only come from the outer, physical and vital being which is formed in this life and is not yet under the rule and influence of the psychic. As soon as one is united with one’s psychic, all the conflicts of clashing bad wills can no longer exist.

26.8.67

(Mother asked me to formulate four prayers and I wrote:)

The four prayers are formulated thus:

May the psychic dominate my entire being.

May the divine purity flood me.

May I belong to You alone, and integrally.

May I unite with the Divine.

Now it is Your turn, isn’t it, O Divine Mother, to grant them, to make me succeed!

It is settled, the prayers are granted. As for the rapidity of the success, it depends on the sincerity of the aspiration; that is to say that all the being should participate in it as a whole and in all its parts.

Blessings.

29.8.67

Can I know how is it that out of all godheads it is Ganesh whose statue is there on Your table?

Because Ganesh is a friend who during 12 consecutive years gave me very concrete proofs of his friendship.

It is a story I will tell you one day when there will be time.

4.9.67

How can one use shadow to realise the Light?

Painters use shadow to bring out the light.

Shadow is the symbol of the inconscient. This is where men rest at night from the effort of the day to become conscious. When consciousness becomes all-powerful, shadow will no longer be necessary and will disappear.

17.9.67

To come down from Your room is to fall into another world, and to go from the Ashram to other towns is to fall into yet another world.

How to construct a bridge between the three?

It is you (like all those who are conscious and consecrated) who are the bridge.

20.9.67

It is said that there are certain methods in the Tantras to open the cakras from below, whereas in the integral yoga the cakras open from above by the descent of the Mother’s force.

What is the difference between the results of the opening of the cakras in these two systems?

In Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga, there are no such rigid rules and distinctions. Each one follows his path and has his own experiences. Nevertheless, Sri Aurobindo often said and wrote that his yoga begins where the others end.

This is to say that yoga ordinarily consists in awakening the physical consciousness and making it rise gradually towards the Divine. Whereas Sri Aurobindo has said that in order to do his yoga, one must have already found the Divine and be united with Him, and then the consciousness descends through all the states of being down to the most material, bringing the Divine Force with it so that the Force can transform the whole being and finally divinise the physical body.

25.9.67

In the message for the radio You substituted the word “union” for the word “unity.”⁴

May I know, Sweet Mother, why this change was made?

Because most people, when they hear the word “unity”, understand uniformity and nothing can be further from the truth.

30.9.67

Does spontaneity come spontaneously or does one have to follow a discipline to obtain it?

Spontaneity in feelings and action comes from a permanent contact with the psychic, which brings order into the thoughts and automatically controls the vital impulses.

11.10.67

This afternoon I forgot one thing.

The day before yesterday I spontaneously prayed to You to strike with lightning all that is hostile in me, as Durga kills the Asuras.

(Mother underlined the last three words and wrote.)

Durga does not kill the Asuras; she dominates them and makes it impossible for them to destroy.

In the essence all is the Supreme Lord and has to return to the Supreme Lord for an ultimate transformation.

Death is only an expediency, submission is a victory.

16.10.67

I await the day when my ignorant “I” will be changed by You into “That”.

“That” is quite at the bottom of the “I”. Dig deep and you will find Him.

21.10.67

You taught me the importance of awakening the divine consciousness in the body, and now I pray to You to make my body aspire for You.

The body-cells thirst for the Divine Consciousness and when they are brought into contact with It their aspiration becomes very intense.

26.10.67

It seems that my ambitions no longer exist.

Now there is an aspiration to be simply what you want.

That is the best state for advancing swiftly on the path.

2.11.67

O Mother Divine!

May Your Grace make me live more and more in the true consciousness.

So it be!

With my blessings

in Light and Joy.

6.11.67

One morning when I was reading in “Prayers and Meditations”:

“My soul is in prayer... and my body also, and my thought falls silent in a mute ecstasy.”

something entered into my very body. I hope that it will stay and go forward.

The work is getting done all the time and one goes forward even when one does not know it. But now, for you, the progress is rapid.

8.11.67

Two extremely rich men who claim to be very religious and virtuous, are not paying what they owe even according to their accounts. One of them refuses to speak to me about it and the other says, “Have trust in God, you will not lose your money.”

If the Mother could make these two men honest (even temporarily, while they deal with this matter)....

It is said that Christ healed the sick and even raised the dead. One day an idiot was brought to him to be cured. But Christ slipped away, saying that to make a stupid man intelligent is an impossibility.

To make a dishonest man honest is an even more impossible miracle....

11.11.67

Which is swifter for transformation: Divine Love or Mahakali’s force?

Kali’s force is necessary only for those who are not yet open to Divine Love. For one who is open to Divine Love, nothing more is needed.

15.11.67

Before going to sleep I remember You and when I get up I remember You. But during sleep I go astray.... I move away far from Your feet.

Let me be with you in your excursions in the vital world, and all will go well.

20.11.67

The fall in consciousness is being felt more often and becoming more disagreeable, but I am not able to prevent it.

This perception is the proof of a big progress in the consciousness and the sign that one is going to find the remedy soon.

25.11.67

From the beginning of this week sometimes I see around You a light which is white, bluish and golden... rather there is a rain of this light!

It proves that you are open to Sri Aurobindo’s presence.

29.11.67

By Your Grace my body is now collaborating to get rid of its laziness. It is a new experience for me that even the body has a will of its own.

When the body is converted, it knows how to collaborate.

2.12.67

Who emerged first in the manifestation, the Gods or the Asuras?

The oldest tradition says that the first four emanations of the Mahashakti – Consciousness, Love, Truth and Life – cut themselves off (separated themselves) from their Supreme Origin and became Unconsciousness, Suffering, Falsehood and Death.

Then a second emanation was made to repair the damage. They are the Gods.

Naturally, this is a way of speaking which corresponds to a Reality that is difficult to put into words.

4.12.67

Transformation demands a very high degree of aspiration, surrender and receptivity, doesn’t it?

Transformation demands a total and integral consecration. But isn’t that the aspiration of every sincere sadhak?

Total means vertically in all the states of the being, from the most material to the most subtle.

Integral means horizontally in all the different and often contradictory parts which make up the outer being (physical, vital and mental).

6.12.67

When I contemplate Sri Aurobindo, sometimes it is Your image that appears, and when I concentrate on You, sometimes it is the image of Sri Aurobindo that appears.

This phenomenon is altogether natural.

9.12.67

In the heart a rose surrounded with red flames, what does it signify?

An intense aspiration full of love.

11.12.67

I await the state where all my being will be an ardent brazier of Agni.

It is coming, it is on the way. With a persistent will and a constant remembrance, one can hasten its arrival a great deal.

15.12.67

The fragrance of the flowers given by the Mother is often something extraordinary.

Flowers are very receptive and they are happy when loved.

19.12.67

I forgot the Divine for long in this life and in the earlier ones. But a drop of Your Grace can enable me to make up for all the lost time.

Whatever the past may have been, it is not time that is needed to establish the contact with the Divine but sincerity of aspiration.

23.12.67

Can one’s aspiration for the Divine have the required intensity and sincerity without the tears and anguish that are mentioned in nearly all the old legends of the saints?

Tears and anguish indicate the presence of a weak and paltry nature still unable to receive the Divine in all his power and glory. Not only are they unnecessary, they are useless and an obstacle to realisation.

27.12.67

You put something in Your words which enables us to see the Truth that words cannot convey. What is it that accompanies Your words?

Consciousness.

28.12.67

Consciousness is just the problem when I translate Sri Aurobindo’s and Mother’s works into Hindi. How to bring the true consciousness into the translation?

Mother explained while drawing the illustration that to pass directly from English to Hindi was bad, and to go up in the consciousness starting from English and then to come down towards Hindi was good.

29.12.67

Sometimes I see You in the sky, in the moon, in the sun.... And in all these places I am there at Your feet. An audacious fantasy of Your child who is so mediocre!

It is not a fantasy. It corresponds to something true. All human being feels itself to be mediocre as soon as it endeavours to become divine.

30.12.67

Was Sri Aurobindo’s presence very concrete during the Darshan last evening?

Yes.

3.1.68

I think that always, at every moment, someone or other is calling You and You answer. Doesn’t this disturb Your sleep or rest?

Day and night the calls come in hundreds – but the Consciousness is always alert and it answers.

One is limited only materially by time and space.

4.1.68

How is it that ordinarily, the richer a man is (materially), the more dishonest he is?

It is because material wealth is controlled by the adverse forces – and because they have not yet been converted to the Divine Influence, although the work has begun.

That victory will form part of the triumph of Truth.

Wealth should not be a personal property and should be at the disposal of the Divine for the welfare of all.

6.1.68

When Mother says that wealth should not be a personal property, I understand that what should come is more a change of psychological attitude on the part of those who own money than any change in the law of property.

Undoubtedly.

Only the psychological change can be a solution.

8.1.68

The disciples of the Ashram have a sure and easy way to put their money at the disposal of the Divine: they offer it to the Mother.

But how can others do it? Can one say that each one should get rid of the sense of property and spend his money according to the Divine command within, from time to time?

I am sure that if someone is advanced enough on the path to receive the knowledge that money is an impersonal power and should be used for the progress of the earth, this person will be developed enough inwardly to receive the knowledge of how to make the best possible use of the money.

13.1.68

Four days ago, after midnight, I saw a rain of Light in Your room enveloping You. I saw it again the succeeding nights. Is it possible for me to bathe myself in this Light?

The Light is for all those who open themselves to it by sincere aspiration and self-giving.

I see nothing that may prevent you from bathing yourself in it.

16.1.68

One morning when I was reading Your Words,

“And my body smiles at Thee with happiness as my soul was smiling before at Thee!”

I saw a window opening on a beautiful and sublime horizon. But this horizon is very distant from me!

It will come.

One must not forget the number of years this body has lived. And now, what it accomplishes is contagious, and it passes its experience to others to the extent of their receptivity.

20.1.68

The anxiety for my progress gives place to an aspiration: the aspiration to place myself in Your hands for You to knead my being as You want, 0 Divine Mother!

This is the best means and the quickest.

I accept the responsibility.

25.1.68

Some days ago I wanted to begin each day of mine by making Pranam to you. Since then I get up with Your remembrance and I make my Pranam to You before anything else. It is Your Grace that has made this possible, and I hope that the Grace will hasten the constant remembrance.

Every day you will get my response and blessings for the day.

27.1.68

The day before yesterday, as I was arranging my vase for You, I said to a flower, “Oh, you are going to Mother!” and it really smiled. The same thing happened again yesterday and today.

That is very interesting indeed. Was it a rose or a hibiscus?

27.1.68

A hibiscus gave me this experience.

Yes, it is a very conscious flower, I have had many proofs of it.

29.1.68

Is constant remembrance of the Divine the begining of Union?

A beginning of union comes even before constant remembrance. When the remembrance is constant one often has the impression of a Presence that imposes itself on the remembrance.

2.2.68

One day I spoke to You of the laziness of my body and it began to diminish. I hope that your Grace will now lead this very body to consecrate itself to You.

This is quite certain. Aspire with ardour (but without impatience) and it will be soon.

5.2.68

Speaking of the “Transcendent Mother” (and the upper petal of the Transformation flower), You have said, “The Transcendent is one and two (or dual) at the same time.” What does this mean?

Beyond the creation lies the perfect Oneness, but potentially it contains duality, since the Mahashakti will manifest for the needs of the creation.

9.2.68

Last Monday You spoke to me about the Transcendent which is one and two at the same time. Naturally, I shall wait for the true consciousness to come in order to have this knowledge. But yesterday I tried to note down what You had said: The mind thinks about things in succession. But beyond and above, everything exists at the same time. The One is both one and two; manifested and the unmanifested, everything exists at the same time. When It is objectified in the creation, in the manifestation, there is a succession: one, two.... But this is only a way of speaking.... There is no succession, no beginning. Beyond, in the perfect Oneness, all exists together, simultaneously. This cannot be understood, it must be experienced; one can have the experience of it.

Please correct these lines.

They are correct.

12.2.68

I see in my heart a big bud, all white, around which arise lines of smoke like those from incense.

It is the symbol of your psychic being. And if the bud is that of a lotus, it means that your psychic being is aspiring to manifest the Divine Consciousness.

14.2.68

As a trial we have written to the Government of India to register the Ashram as the owner of the copyright of one of Sri Aurobindo’s works. Now I am filling the form for Mother’s “Conversations”. The form asks for the author’s nationality. What nationality can I put? French?

Do not fill the form for my book or books. I do not claim any copyright and I refuse to reply to the question that has been asked.

It is true that this body was born at Paris and that its soul declared that it was Indian, but I belong to no nation in particular. And as the officials cannot understand it, I refuse to deal with them.

16.2.68

Is the earth the only planet on which money exists?

It is probable. All depends on the density of other planets. The astronomers can certainly say about it.

19.2.68

One evening when I was saying, “Whatever You will, whatever You will, but You will make me realise the Divine”, a voice rose from my heart, “Only whatever You will, whatever You will.” (Mother underlined the words “rose... will” and answered:)

This, this is good – the true attitude and the most effective.

21.2.68

This blessed day, O Mother Divine, I am before You, the forehead on the soil, the arms around Your feet in the hope of living there always and constantly.

Your aspiration will get its accomplishment.

7.3.68

Now I can see the possibility of the dominance by You, by Your Love. Will Mother like to hasten the accomplishment?

All is going well – as fast as it can – for the being is multiple and the different parts have a sort of periodicity in their action – and the turn of each one has to be awaited so that nothing is neglected.

11.3.68

What is the difference between an emanation and a formation?

These words do not apply to the physical world as it is at present.

The explanation is only an approximation. However, one could say that the emanation is made of the very substance of the emanator, whereas the formation is made with a substance external to the formator.

To make a comparison, one could say that the emanation is like a child made of the substance of its mother and the formation is like a living statue made with a material external to the sculptor.

But naturally this is only a very approximate explanation.

19.3.68

In the supramental world You are in a supramental body in a permanent way.

Here we see You in the human body.

What relation is there between these two bodies?

Very cordial, but not constant in the physical way....

23.3.68

The path is long, very long, almost interminable. But remaining at Your feet I am no longer inquiet.

It is true that the path is very long, but for one who follows it with sincerity, it is really very interesting, and at every step one is rewarded for one’s trouble.

21.3.68

It seems to me that the very land of Auroville aspires. Is it true, Sweet Mother?

Yes, the land itself has a consciousness, even though this consciousness is not intellectualised and cannot express itself.

26.3.68

What relation is there between the wastage we (Your children) do and the shortage of money raising its head in the Ashram for years?

The relation of cause and effect.

The cure lies in a sincere consecration of each and all.

28.3.68

Today You have shown me the basic incompatibility between human law and the Truth. But this is a problem that confronts me very often.

Politics and so-called justice are still in humanity what is most closed to the Truth. But their turn for conversion will also come, perhaps sooner than we think.

30.3.68

I asked myself: “What do you want to be?”

The reply came like an aspiration.... “Simply to be Mother’s faithful child.”

It is very good.

The door is open on supreme realisations.

2.4.68

Can one say that all waste reflects a waste of consciousness?

Whatever be the waste, it is the result of an unconsciousness.

Consciousness in its Purity is perfect and infallible.

8.4.68

The Upanishad says that when one sleeps, one reaches the pure Being. Does this apply only to the Yogi or to everyone?

In theory, it applies to everyone. But the vast majority of human beings fall into unconsciousness, and if there is a contact with the pure Being it is quite unconscious. The number of persons conscious of this rapport is exhaustingly small. It is usually the result of Yoga.

16.4.68

I go to bed with Your remembrance and by Your Grace I get up with Your remembrance. But the sleep continues to be altogether unconscious.

During sleep the inner beings become consciously active. When one wakes up, it is the waking being that is not conscious of the activities of the night.

23.4.68

In the quotation chosen for tomorrow⁵, Sri Aurobindo speaks of the Truth that seeks to descend upon us and is already there within us. Please explain this paradox, which, as I can feel, is only apparent.

It is not a paradox.

It is the same phenomenon as for the Divine who is at the centre of our being, etc., and is at the same time beyond the creation and towards whom the whole creation is moving, but whom it could never reach if it did not carry him within itself.

One must go beyond notions of space and Matter to be able to understand.

25.4.68

Two days ago I was praying to You to give me a new birth and yesterday You sent me leaves of the same significance. Can I take them as Your “Yes”?

Naturally. It is my answer to your prayer which was heard.

6.5.68

Yesterday, coming down from Your room I could not stop my tears. There are bonds attached to me, rather it is myself attached to them. Only Your Grace, 0 Divine Mother, can do what needs to be done.

You must not be unquiet. When the hour of liberation will arrive, it will be done most naturally – without tears.

8.5.68

I have been wanting to offer You something nice, but I find nothing except my weaknesses and imperfections....

That, that is the best offering, because it makes a progress for the whole of the earth.

13.5.68

This morning when I was thinking of writing to You about my night of bonds and attachments that began three weeks ago, I felt that truly speaking these things had been there since long and now Your Grace ha shown them to me for the next step.

Mother, for me the night has already been long enough. But it matters little if I can continue to hold on to Your feet.

According to my experience, one should not try to destroy or to eliminate. One should concentrate all one’s effort on building up and strengthening the true consciousness and it is this consciousness that will automatically do the work of unifying the being.

In this way, everything that has to be transformed will be transformed quite naturally without clash or damage.

20.5.68

How can one hasten the day when the whole being will be able to say, “I am Yours, only Yours”?

There are two actions which in practice merge into one.

1) Never forget the goal one wants to attain.

2) Never allow any part of the being or any of its movements to contradict one’s aspiration.

This also makes it necessary to become conscious of one’s nights, because the activities of the night often contradict the aspiration of the day and undo its work.

Vigilance, sincerity, continuity of effort, and the Grace will do the rest.

22.5.68

Even “good and innocent movements” are said to take on different colours in the light of the psychic flame.

It is the very notion of good and bad that changes completely.

One can say very simply that all that leads closer to the Divine is good, and all that leads away from the Divine is bad.

There are many virtues that lead away from the Divine by making men satisfied with what they are.

27.5.68

Sri Aurobindo has written in Savitri:

“Yes, there are happy ways near to God’s sun;

But few are they who tread the sunlit path;

Only the pure in soul can walk in light.”⁶

What a fortune it would be to possess the required purity!

When one is living among men with all their miseries, it is only the Grace that can bestow this state – even in those who have abolished their ego by tapasya.

It is beyond all personal effort.

28.5.68

What is the most effective way to overcome the ego?

The simplest and most effective way is to offer it to the Divine; the more sincere and radical the offering, the speedier the result.

30.5.68

Now I can conceive that the Divine is all and everywhere, but I do not have the experience of it.

Because He is not on the surface and the appearance is false.

But if you concentrate in the psychic you will feel at once that He is there, everywhere, luminous, radiant, vibrant with force and love, and that without Him nothing could be.

3.6.68

To remain turned upwards and to live in the true consciousness – the two seem complementary to each other.

Are they not two ways of saying the same thing? – certainly two ways of doing the same thing.

5.6.68

Who should be put on guard to give the alert: “Be careful! Look upwards.”?

It is what is usually called conscience but in fact it is the psychic being. And one can hear it only when one is very attentive, because it is not very loud.

10.6.68

Your Presence makes itself felt concretely, almost in a materially concrete way. But, for me this is still quite rare.

It is good – be attentive and it will go on increasing.

12.6.68

Is transparent sincerity a more effective, indispensable means, or is it a realisation in itself?

Without sincerity nothing can be done. With total sincerity everything is possible.

15.6.68

What is the origin of man’s love for his own ignorance?

It is inconscience.

Inconscience is the negation of all effort. Ignorance (that is, the acknowledgement that there is something to be known which we do not know) is the first effect of the divine influence on the inconscient.

17.6.68

Sri Aurobindo speaks of Savitri’s firmness of purpose in the following line:

“Immutable like a fixed eternal star.”1

Can one say that such determination is demanded of the sadhak who aspires for transformation?

This is the great mystery of creation: immutable and yet eternally renewed.

22.6.68

What should I do to walk on the way without stumbling?

Fear nothing.

24.6.68

Savitri says:

“Not only is there hope for godheads pure;

The violent and darkened deities

Leaped down from the one breast in rage to find

What the white gods had missed: they too are safe;

A Mother’s eyes are on them and her arms

Stretched out in love desire her rebel sons.”⁷

What had the white gods missed?

The conversion of the Asuras.

26.6.68

Isn’t the power of the Asuras as boundless as the power of the gods?

The vibrations of evil are in truth less powerful than the vibrations of good.

28.6.68

Can one say that total sincerity and the abolition of ego are closely interdependent?

Only the Supreme Lord is perfectly sincere.

And when the ego is abolished, only the Supreme Lord exists.

2.7.68

I can see that in spiritual life, even to sit down is to fall back. But most often I sit down without knowing it!

This is so true that one could rightly say: even while sleeping one must move forward.

But there comes a time when the ascent becomes a perfect repose.

3.7.68

Yesterday Mother said, “Even while one sleeps one must move forward.” But I am so poor that I have not yet succeeded in making my sleep conscious, and the night continues to be free to undo the work of the day.

Have you tried a small prayer before going to sleep? A prayer that the sleep may become an offering of the physical being to the Supreme Consciousness.

8.7.68

Once Mother spoke to me about total sincerity. What does transparent sincerity mean?

Sincerity is compared to an atmosphere or a sheet of glass. If the one or the other is completely transparent, it lets the light through without distorting it.

Similarly, a sincere consciousness lets the divine vibrations through without distorting them.

9.7.68

Can an individual achieve transformation even if the universe continues to be as it is?

In the evolution, the individual is far ahead of the earth, but as long as he lives on earth there is a certain interdependence. But the condition of the earth is sure to become such that a supramental being will soon be able to live on it.

11.7.68

I have not been able to make total surrender and I do not feel happy, I feel an emptiness....

Patiently, unflaggingly, the false movement, to whatever state of being it belongs, should be put in the presence of the Truth-Consciousness for it to do the needful.

25.7.68

What is the best attitude with which I should come to You?

To be happy.

26.7.68

The Buddha said that Nirvana results in the cessation of rebirth. But isn’t the Divine always free to send back into the manifestation the spark that extinguishes itself in Him?

Of course, each time one makes a rule one makes a mistake.

Besides, although he did not take up another physical body, the Buddha himself returned to work in the earth-atmosphere.

28.9.68

If the universe is one, shouldn’t the liberation of one single person on earth have the power to liberate everyone?

Oneness means identity in origin; but in the manifestation each entity follows its own path of conscious return to the Oneness.

30.9.68

In 1953 Mother said: “Whatever the way one follows, whether it be the religious way, the philosophical way, the yogic ways, the mystic way, no one has realised transformation.”⁸

Can one hope that the sadhaks have now made good progress towards this goal?

Now the conditions are such that every sincere effort must necessarily tend towards this goal.

7.10.68

How can one collaborate in the transformation?

Things are now arranged in such a way that as soon as one collaborates for the Divine Dawn in any form, one necessarily collaborates in the transformation.

14.10.68

The Divine is the goal, the path and the one who treads the path. But isn’t a person who is not advancing towards the Divine also the Divine?

All are the Divine, but very few are those who know it and fewer still are those who want to realise it consciously. This explains the long duration and difficulty of the creation if its goal is that all and everything should once more become consciously divine.

16.10.68

One would like to have the fundamental realisation that the Divine is all and everything.

For that one must identify oneself with the Supreme Divine.

Once one is identified, when one turns towards the creation, one sees and knows that the Divine alone exists both in the Essence and in the manifestation.

18.10.68

Is immunity to the attack of adverse forces possible without transformation?

Immunity does not come automatically from transformation.

One has to cut off all connection with the manifested world in order to be immune.

But in any case, transformation gives the power of victory.

20.10.68

Now the sleep becomes more calm. I can keep there a little more of my aspiration, a little more of Your remembrance. Is this the beginning, though very small, of the desired change for the nights?

Yes, it is a good beginning. The nights will thus become more and more conscious.

22.10.68

Is Divine Love equal for all even in the manifestation?

Yes, equal and immutable.

But it is the capacity to perceive and receive it and the habit of distorting it that are different in each one.

24.10.68

“The ideal Sadhaka should be able to say in the Biblical phrase, ‘My zeal for the Lord has eaten me up.’”⁹

Does this mean an intense, constant and integral aspiration?

Yes, it means that the entire being is absorbed in its consecration.

26.10.68

Does the subconscient go on recording during sleep?

For most people, in their sleep, it is precisely what has been recorded in the subconscient during the day or previously which becomes active again and constitutes their dreams.

28.10.68

Looking at the push being given to me by Mother towards transformation, and at my banality and mediocrity, I am reminded of this line of “Savitri”:

“All can be done if the God-touch is there.”

As soon as one has a contact with the divine Consciousness, this mediocrity of the outer being becomes obvious, but the promise of Savitri is true and will be fulfilled.

30.10.68

Perhaps now Your Grace will like to help me make the surrender of all my being in love and joy.

Yes, the hour is near when it will be possible and you will have the joy of total consecration.

1.11.68

Each time that I come to You I should make of it an occasion to progress towards the goal.

Aswapathy was very fortunate. For him,

“Each day was a spiritual romance,

Each happening was a deep experience.”¹⁰

This possibility is open to all whose aspiration is fervent.

3.11.68

How can one keep what You give?

It does not go away but enters the subconscient and continues to act.

To remain conscious of it, one must reduce the range of the subconscient within oneself and thus increase the consciousness.

5.11.68

What should one do to reduce the range of the subconscient?

To grow in consciousness is the very purpose of life on earth. It is through the experience of successive lives that the range of the subconscient is gradually reduced.

By Yoga and the effort to find the Divine in oneself and in life, the work is considerably accelerated and can be accomplished in a few years.

7.11.68

“A knowledge which became what it perceived,

Replaced the separated sense and heart

And drew all Nature into its embrace.”¹¹

Is Sri Aurobindo referring here to knowledge by identity?

Yes, it is a very exact description.

9.11.68

“A greater force than the earthly held his limbs,

....

Unwound the triple cord of mind and freed

The heavenly wideness of a Godhead’s gaze.”¹²

What does “the triple cord of mind” mean?

The cords symbolise the limitations of the mind; and there are three of them because there is a physical mind, a vital mind and a mental mind.

11.11.68

“The days were travellers on a destined road.

The nights companions of his musing spirit.”¹³

Yes, there comes a time when nothing, absolutely nothing is outside the Yoga and the Divine’s Presence is felt and found in all things and all circumstances.

13.11.68

When I feel an emptiness or uneasiness, often I find that I had forgotten the Divine.

It is just the sign of the forgetting – or rather its consequence which becomes more and more clear and precise as one progresses, until the time comes, when one never forgets any more and the feeling of the Divine Presence is constant.

15.11.68

“A last high world was seen where all worlds meet;

In its summit gleam where Night is not nor Sleep,

The light began of the Trinity supreme.”¹⁴

Is the “Trinity supreme” Sachchidananda?

Yes.

17.11.68

By Krishna’s Grace, Arjuna realised the cosmic Divine and Virat in the twinkling of an eye. What a good Guru and what a good disciple?

Speed is not necessarily a sign of superiority.

These “instantaneous” conversions are most often the result of lives of preparation.

19.11.68

“Our body’s cells must hold the Immortal’s flame.”¹⁵

Is this the secret of the luminous body?

It is a poetic way of expressing the transformation which has to take place and which is more complicated than that.

21.11.68

It seems to me, Mother, that when man does not accept the Divine, it is more out of ignorance than out of wickedness? Isn’t it so?

It is undoubtedly out of ignorance and fear of what he doesn’t know.

It is only the Asuras and a few great hostile beings who refuse or oppose the Divine even though they know what He is.

23.11.68

Your child Shyam Sundar must accomplish the three “S”: Sincerity, Surrender and Spontaneity.

Very good – we are going to work for it with such ardour that the result will be obtained

in 6 × 6 days minimum

or 3 × 3 months at the most.

Blessings.

25.11.68

It seems to me, Mother, that the flame that calls and the flame that responds are one and the same.

Essentially, they are the same; but the plenitude of the response far exceeds the intensity of the call. The response always exceeds our receptivity by far.

27.11.68

Can one say, Mother, that perfect receptivity comes only with constant union with the Divine?

If we call “perfect receptivity” the receptivity that receives only the Divine Influence and no other, certainly it is perfect purity at the same time.

That is what we should strive for.

29.11.68

“None can reach heaven who has not passed through hell.”¹⁶

But still, Mother, doesn’t the soul chosen by the Divine go through hell in a different way than others?

This quotation means that in order to reach the divine regions one must, while on earth, pass through the vital, which in some of its parts is a veritable hell. But those who have surrendered to the Divine and have been adopted by Him are surrounded by the divine protection and for them the passage is not difficult.

1.12.68

Yesterday, Mother, I had had some perception that even the body can remember You.

Here is something very good. It is a good beginning.

And the body’s remembrance is much more stable than the mind’s or the vital’s.

3.12.68

“His failure is not failure whom God leads”¹⁷

Because it is part of the play?

It is the human mind that has the conception of success and failure. It is the human mind that wants one thing and does not want another. In the divine plan each thing has its place and importance. So it is not success that matters. What matters is to be a docile and if possible a conscious instrument of the Divine Will.

To be and to do what the Divine wants, this is truly the important thing.

5.12.68

“The one original transcendent Shakti, the Mother stands above all the worlds and bears in her eternal consciousness the Supreme Divine.”¹⁸

Similarly, can one say that the Supreme Divine carries the Mother in his eternal consciousness?

Beyond all question.

They are ONE in essence and manifestation.

7.12.68

Can the ego not consent to its own abolition?

The ego was created for the work of individualisation; when the work is achieved, it is not unusual for the ego to accept its dissolution of its own accord.

9.12.68

The aspiration of this morning:

May I do nothing to delay the manifestation for which Sri Aurobindo sacrificed his body.

Yes, his work is in the course of accomplishment ineluctably, and it is our own participation that we can make more and more perfect, if we know how to put no obstacle to the Grace.

11.12.68

The human pleasure of possession is a perversion of what, Mother?

All pleasures are perversions by egoistic limitation of the Ananda which is the raison d’être of the universal manifestation.

13.12.68

“When we eat, we should be conscious that we are giving our food to that Presence in us....”¹⁹

When I try to take this attitude, the food tastes better and the atmosphere becomes quieter.

The presence is always there whatever we do and it is because of ignorance, negligence or absent-mindedness that we do not feel it. But each time that we are attentive and concentrated, we become aware of a wonderful transformation in all things.

15.12.68

Without being able to feel constantly Your presence, O Divine Mother, the life is no longer joyous. But also, something protects it from being sad.

It is so because the Presence is constant, be it felt or not, and its protection is constant and effective, even when it is not perceived.

17.12.68

In order to be conscious of the constant Presence, is memory helpful?

Memory is a mental faculty and helps the mental consciousness. But feeling and sensation must also participate.

19.12.68

When the Presence becomes concrete, does this indicate the participation of feeling and sensation?

To have the perception of the presence the participation of feeling is indispensable, and when sensation collaborates, then the perception becomes concrete and tangible.

21.12.68

“All things shall change in God’s transfiguring hour,”²⁰

Can man delay or hasten the coming of this hour?

Neither the one nor the other in their apparent contradiction created by the divisive consciousness, but something else which our words cannot express.

In the present state of human consciousness, it is good for it to think that aspiration and human effort can hasten the advent of the divine transformation, because effort and aspiration are needed for the transformation to occur.

23.12.68

The Upanishad says: “When That is known, all is known.” All is known in its essential truth or also in detail?

In its essential truth, but one usually keeps the perception of the illusory appearance at the same time.

25.12.68

It seems to me that to know things in detail, the ordinary instrumentation is necessary for the Yogi too, but that the Yogi puts this knowledge to the test of the essential truth.

Yes, one can put in that way. But above all it is the attitude towards the outer appearance that changes completely.

27.12.68

In fact, Mother, what is the Yogi’s attitude towards outer appearance?

The usefulness of seeing clearly instead of being blind.

The usefulness of not being deceived any more by outer appearances.

The usefulness of knowing the true raison d’être of life instead of living in ignorance and falsehood.

29.12.68

Is the perception of the illusory appearance automatic for the Yogi?

That probably depends on the Yogi and his condition.

But when one is united with the Supreme Consciousness and when the body is in the course of transformation, the body keeps its automatic perception of the outer world, but this perception is more complete than the ordinary one, as if it revealed something of its content.

31.12.68

Therefore, Mother, the transformation of the body is necessary even to live in the Integral Knowledge!

Certainly.

In Sri Aurobindo’s yoga, the transformation of the body is indispensable so far as it can be done. Because the aim of this yoga is not an escape from but a divinisation of the physical consciousness.

2.1.69

Mother has said, “In the Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, the transformation of the body is indispensable so far as it can be done.” Are there limits to the transformation of the body?

For the present, yes. But in the time, no. I am convinced that in two hundred years for example the physical body could be infinitely superior to what it is now – luminous, plastic, enduring, harmonious...

And our effort of today would have made it possible.

4.1.69

With progress in the Yoga of the body, will there be a change in the material environment?

Most certainly a greater harmony will be manifested in the material world, in the same way as the terrestrial appearance has changed much with the advent of the human species.

6.1.69

In other words, Mother, it can be said that the transformation of the human body, the microcosm, will serve the transformation of the material world, the macrocosm.

Yes, it is an intellectual way of transcribing what is happening.

8.1.69

I do not find any progress towards seeing the Divine everywhere and in everything.

According to the experience of this body, here called Mother, it is first necessary to realise the union with the supreme and transcendent Divine, and after that one is able to find the Divine again in everything, but covered with a veil, more or less thick.

10.1.69

A confession: I could not yet receive from You the complete realisation of the Divine within myself.

Yes, I know it, nor I am surprised.

Your mind is strong and well organised; it is so to say “the chief of the house”. It is very active and has the habit of directing everything. And for having the realisation of the Inner Divine, the mind must fall quiet and hold itself tranquil – at least for a time.

It will come.

12.1.69

I hope that one day my mind will open above and, if necessary, Mother will dig a hole there.

No hole is necessary. What you need is only silent aspiration and receptivity, turned upwards.

14.1.69

Some hours after writing my last letter I opened “Prayers and Meditations” and here is the first sentence I saw:

“O Lord, deliver me from the mental influences that weigh heavily on me, so that, completely free, I may rush towards Thee.”

This is a very good response to your aspiration and indicates to you the process to follow.

16.1.69

It seems to me, Mother, that if I can aspire to the Divine for the Divine Himself, the way could be shorter.

To aspire to the Divine for the Divine himself and without personal aim is certainly the best and the shortest way – and the surest means to get rid of the ego.

Blessings.

18.1.69

I have often seen Mother like a column of white light. This month there are furrows of gold.

In fact, from the 1st January a new form of Consciousness has manifested on the earth and one of its characteristics is a golden luminosity; undoubtedly it is this that you see.

20.1.69

The day before yesterday, waiting for my turn to go to You, I saw a white avalanche sliding towards me making me happy. Looking at it I saw a dark point in it. Can this dark point be my ego?

The dark point is obviously the sign of a lack of receptivity somewhere. But it is not necessarily a personal thing.

22.1.69

I can feel that my mind is on the point of losing its pride and complacence. Is it true, Mother?

Yes, it is true. I have myself found an important change in its attitude, and feel that the conversion will not take long to come.

24.1.69

Can it be said, Mother, that in this world it is the ego that is the most wily?

As for deceiving oneself, the ego is certainly very skilful, particularly the mental ego that always finds arguments to prove that it is right.

That is why a scrupulous and integral sincerity turns out to be indispensable.

26.1.69

My mind knows well that it has to become silent, but it continues its old habit. Obviously it is very dishonest.

It is not dishonesty, it is rather weakness, for it has to be very strong in order to dominate the old habit. True silence is a great power.

28.1.69

That is to say, Mother, that in the silence the mind will find its truth and receive what Mother wants to give it.

In the silence the mind can open to higher regions and get the light of intuition and the consciousness of superman whose power is active in the terrestrial atmosphere. In the silence develops the discernment that allows to distinguish the true from the false.

30.1.69

Can the mind’s silence help in making the nights conscious?

Certainly yes, because to remember the activities of the night, at the moment of waking up one must hold one’s head very immobile and remain quite silent.

If one begins to think the memory of the dream disappears.

1.2.69

Is it not the mind that prevents me from abandoning the responsibility for myself?

It is not the mind in its faculty of understanding and thinking. It is the ego (mental, vital and physical) that holds on to the responsibility of the life so that it may conform to its egoistic tastes.

3.2.69

In the work also, Mother, instead of serving the mind, I would like to be Your faithful and simple servitor.

That is good.

To begin, when you have a decision to take, instead of listening to the mental reasons for and against, keep the silence for a little moment, concentrated in the depths of the heart, and wait for the indication which will come to you from there.

Persist in doing so even if you do not succeed at once, and surely you will receive a certitude in one form or another. The precision grows with the persistence.

5.2.69

When Your Presence becomes concrete, O Divine Mother, the existence becomes quite different!

This must become a constant fact because the presence is constant.

7.2.69

Doesn’t irritation come from the ego, even when it is justified by the mind?

Most certainly. In fact the justification of the mind is exceedingly far from a guarantee of truth.

Irritation is always a sign of incomprehension and narrowness of spirit, both of which are incompatible with the presence of the supreme Consciousness.

9.2.69

Your Love, O Mother, does not dimmish at all when I oppose You with all my obscurity. I have had clear experiences of it.

It is so because it is not a personal love, but divine love which is constant, invariable, above every circumstance and always at the maximum of its activity. Divine love is limitless and unfluctuating. In fact, in each one it is limited only by the incapacity to receive it.

11.2.69

Man often says that he searches for the Divine but the Divine hides himself.

As for me I find that it is the Divine who searches for me and it is I who hide myself.

(Mother underlined the second para and replied:)

Altogether true. Once one has opened oneself and found the Divine, one sees that He is there always present, always active, a marvel of mercy and solicitude, and that it is our utter foolishness that was not letting us have this perception.

13.2.69

The time I pass without the true consciousness no longer seems to me to be a life.

In truth it is not a life, it is hardly its appearance and most often a false appearance. But this can be eliminated from the being and replaced by the constant consciousness of the Presence.

15.2.69

In 1917 Mother spoke of a vertiginous rapidity on the path of Transformation.

Here am I, a big laggard by contrast. What can be my destiny?

Why do you get unquiet over it? Is the Grace not there to remedy all the delays?

The only thing called for is sincerity... and it is there.

17.2.69

With Your Remembrance, Mother, the aspiration becomes more straight and calm.

This is very good. I am here to help and make the task easier.

My blessings are always with you, consciously.

19.2.69

In place of merely understanding the words of Mother, I want to receive that which they contain and which is behind them.

That is possible when the mind knows how to fall quiet, turning in an attentive silence towards the Higher Consciousness.

21.2.69

This day of Grace, O Mother, I wanted to offer You something worthy, but I found nothing. Perhaps only a pure Pranam.

No material thing can be more valuable than the consecration of a fervent soul... and I have received your offering with my blessings.

23.2.69

In spite of the perception of my imperfections the distant goals no longer discourage me.

For him who has faith discouragement is impossible since he has the certitude of belonging to the Divine and for him union with the Divine is inevitable.

25.2.69

The Upanishad says:

“He who knows that he is the Supreme Lord, he becomes That.”

This knowledge and this becoming, do they come about suddenly or are they progressive?

All is possible.

But rarely does it come about suddenly for it demands subconscious preparation, that is to say without participation of the conscious will.

A long conscious preparation extending sometimes over several lives is a more frequent rule.

27.2.69

Indeed I would like to have the realisation as soon as possible, but now I am going to leave all this in Mother’s hands.

This undoubtedly is the shortest way, because for me conscious union with the Divine is the only thing worth living for.

1.3.69

I see the growing vigil of the Mother over me and I hope to be Her good child.

It is true that you are opening more and more to the influence and it makes a good and prompt result possible.

In confident surrender lies the certitude of victory.

3.3.69

In the Bulletin Mother has spoken of a body without mind and vital.

That is to say, the body has its own means of living, something different from what is called the vital force or Prana?

It is a rather special case.

The body (in all well developed beings) has a mind and a vital more or less rudimentary which are its particularities and can be fully developed.

In this case there is also, and above all, a psychic fully developed that governs the whole house and directs all action. Moreover, there is the superman-consciousness that has manifested from the beginning of this year and serves as mentor to the body which learns from it things the mind itself did not know.

5.3.69

The lack of consecration of the Aurovilians and the wastage being done there, has it something to do with the fact that money is not coming for Auroville?

Certainly the attitude of most of them is not favourable to the richness of Auroville and does not create an attractive atmosphere for money.

7.3.69

Now, Mother, the desire to do something good and new in Your service is replaced by an aspiration to be Your true servitor.

I feel you closer and closer, more and more open to the Influence, and I hope that soon you will be fully conscious of the Force penetrating and animating you.

9.3.69

Everyone criticises the Creator of the universe and it seems that He must be the most criticised one among all the beings. I hope He takes all this with a smile.

The smile is constant. And it is a marvellous smile that has the power to change the worst catastrophes into bliss.

11.3.69

It is becoming evident that the Divine is more anxious for the progress of the sadhak than what the sadhak himself can be.

This is certain. Even a very ardent aspiration is only a reflection of the triumphal march of the Divine... and this in a Perfect Peace!

13.3.69

“All that transpires on earth and all beyond

Are parts of an illimitable plan

The One keeps in his heart and knows alone.”²¹

He who is united with the Divine, does he know this “plan”?

To the extent it is necessary for the execution, yes; and to the extent of the need, but not in its integrality and all at once.

15.3.69

Often I find that if I criticise some action of others, later I do the same thing and that with justification!

Yes, it is thus that one learns not to criticise. For most often criticism is an incomprehension or a narrowness, and if we want to serve truly that which we have got to be and that which we must do to go near the Supreme Lord and finally to be in conscious union with Him, it is He alone who can teach that to us.

17.3.69

What man calls “chance”, isn’t it a play of possibilities of which he is ignorant?

“Chance” is only a label put on that which man does not understand. All is put in form and movement by the Supreme Consciousness which is not outside the creation, but is the Truth and the very substance of the creation.

Without the Supreme Consciousness nothing exists; in It all is.

19.3.69

Can the Yogi foresee the chance? (Perhaps he is no longer concerned with it!)

For the practitioner of the integral Yoga the capacity to foresee the immediate future is a part of the capacities that can be acquired.

But this demands a special attention and all depends on what the Supreme Lord expects of him. Because for the true sadhak it is only this that matters.

21.3.69

Is it the psychic being that knows or can know what the Supreme Lord expects of me?

Yes, the psychic being has not only the capacity to know but also to realise. The psychic being, much better than the mind and vital, understands the body and knows how to gain its obedience.

23.3.69

There is a joy in knowing the future, there is also a joy in proceeding on the virgin path, without care, in the Mother’s arms!

These two joys are not in the same domain. It is the mind that enjoys knowing the future and it is the psychic that is at ease in the attitude of confident abandonment.

25.3.69

It is not always easy to distinguish between inner indication, instinct and intuition.

Generally they are not perceived in the same part of the being.

Intuition is perceived when the mind is altogether tranquil, the brain, so to say, is immobile like a blank page turned upwards.

Inner indication is generally seen deep at the top of the solar plexus, and the instinct surges either from the navel-region, or at the top of the neck which is usually the place of relation with others and the outer world.

However, to be able to make this distinction clearly, there are needed the calm and a great habitual tranquility.

27.3.69

Now I can feel that Mother is with me during my sleep although I am still unconscious of it.

It may be that during the sleep something within you is conscious of my presence, but the memory is not transferred to the consciousness of the waking.

29.3.69

May I melt in You!

Yes – in peace, immensity, silence and harmony... With my blessings.

31.3.69

Mother has said, “The remedy is at the centre of the ill.”

Is it so because the Divine is at the centre of all?

Yes.

And if we know how to go always to the deep centre of our difficulty, we find there the supreme remedy.

2.4.69

As soon as some demand or expectation enters into love, does not love disappear?

Divine love in its purity is sufficient to itself and is eternal. But as soon as it manifests on the earth it is mixed with all the egoistic movements of the mind, vital and body.... Thus it is veiled and deformed beyond all recognition. What men call love is a sad caricature of the essential love, the Divine love.

4.4.69

Since some days when I go to sleep, often I sense the Presence of Sri Aurobindo and Mother at the head of the bed.

For me it is an act of Grace.

I am always there and these days Sri Aurobindo has been actively present. What is an effect of the Grace is that your consciousness is awakened to the fact of this presence.

6.4.69

The recalcitrant parts oppose You with their persistent obscurity but, no doubt, it is for Your victory that I want to collaborate.

There is a region of Consciousness where opposition no longer exists – every movement makes part of the great play and collaborates for the supreme realisation.

8.4.69

The more I lose myself, the more I find You.

But when you will be altogether lost you will find your true self, that which lives eternally.

10.4.69

In the case of profound things the true understanding often comes when I do not try to understand.

It is always the mind that tries to understand – the outer and superficial things it can understand and even explain – but the profound things it does not understand; they belong to another domain, to a higher and purer light. It is only when the mind is silent that this Consciousness wakes up in us, and it understands.

12.4.69

Is it preferable for me to continue to have fixed hours of meditation?

Usually fixed hours are recommended with the idea that the outer nature should get habituated to it and thus offer less resistance.

But my experience has been different. I have had the experience that the true concentration imposes itself at the desired moment and that when one obeys this inner inspiration, the contemplation, the concentration and even the meditation which is an exclusively mental phenomenon, are of a very superior quality and much less mechanical.

14.4.69

From today I stop having fixed hours of meditation. I aspire to live more and more in the true consciousness at Your feet....

It is good.

Yesterday I asked this Consciousness what was the condition required to be able to receive it without deforming it. It replied, “One must be able to stand in the light of the Supreme Consciousness without casting a shadow.” This means the absence of ego.

16.4.69

Now I can see the play of my ego in those reactions where I saw before the ego of others.

This is a great progress and considerably facilitates this inner equality which is indispensable to the yoga.

18.4.69

In the context of what happened on the first of January the following lines of “Savitri” become significant:

“The superman shall wake in mortal man

And manifest in hidden demi-god

Or grow into the God-light and God-force

Revealing the secret deity in the cave.”²²

Yes, undoubtedly this is what is going to happen.

20.4.69

Isn’t disinterested self-giving basically a movement of divine Love?

Certainly yes, and it is also the best means to melt into the Divine and become identified with Him.

22.4.69

Aren’t self-consecration and self-renunciation two aspects of a single movement?

They are indissolubly tied, but almost always one of them precedes the other which follows like a logical consequence.

The movement attains its perfection when the separate self disappears melted in the Supreme and only the Divine Consciousness exists animating the innumerable bodies.

24.4.69

Is my mind less noisy now?

Yes.

Your mind is capable of transformation.

It should first silently open upwards to receive the Light of the Supreme Consciousness.

Then, remaining peaceful and plastic, it has to let this Light penetrate in all the intellectual activities and mould them according to the Truth.

I expect it to be so.

26.4.69

For me now the prayer is more a means to open myself than to make me heard.

It is sure that the Supreme Lord knows better than we know what we think, what we want and what we need. One tells this to Him not to make it known to Him but to offer oneself to Him as totally as one can.

28.4.69

The duration of the separation no longer disturbs me. Is it my indifference? I do not know.

It is not indifference. The certitude of accomplishment gives the patience to wait for the time necessary for its realisation.

It is in the peace of this certitude that things go fastest.

30.4.69

What should be the sadhak’s attitude towards the wasted past to which, no doubt, most of the present moments go on adding?

We cannot get rid of the ties binding us to the world of ignorance entirely and at one stroke.

But the Grace is there to comfort us, and we should have a total confidence in its action. And if we turn constantly towards the Supreme Consciousness while being exclusively receptive towards It, we are doing all that is in our power to do.

2.5.69

When I see the fall in my consciousness, if I remain tranquil the little inner flame shows up and the normal condition returns quickly.

Yes, to remain tranquil is in fact the best way to let the Consciousness do its work.

4.5.69

Instead of asking for Your Blessing for that which seems good to me, I want to be capable of knowing Your will and obeying it.

Yes, it is very good.

When one asks for something it is the Grace that answers and grants; and one progresses if one is grateful. But if one aspires without asking, it is the Supreme Consciousness that hears and answers immediately by the most favourable conditions for the most rapid integral progress.

6.5.69

May I be like a new-born in the Mother’s arms!

All individual consciousnesses are like babies in the infinite arms of the Supreme Consciousness. Only there is a great difference between those who know it and those who do not.

For to know it brings a wonderful joy which transforms the whole existence with the sense of the Liberation.

8.5.69

It seems to me, Mother, that my nights are not negative any more.

Yes – a time comes when the night prepares the progress of the tomorrow, or utilises the progress of the day before.

10.5.69

Mental conceptions of the Divine no longer satisfy me, I would like to live in the Divine.

Yes, that is the only way to know him.

It is also the best way to surmount one’s ego definitively.

13.5.69

Aspiration with no demands is becoming more and more interesting.

Little by little the cells of the physical body have a constant elan that can be translated thus:

“Whatever You want Lord, whatever You want.”

Without trying to know what it will be, without desire or preference of any kind, the body says in all sincerity:

“I will know what You want me to know.

I will be what You want me to be.

I will do what You want me to do....

in peace, light and joy.”

15.5.69

Are the conditions now more favourable for the Yoga of the body?

Since the time that this new consciousness is working on the earth, it is certainly helping powerfully the Yoga of the body. But even now it is not an easy thing and it demands that the body be neither tender nor timid, and of course that it be without desire.

17.5.69

What should be the first step in the Yoga of the body?

Perfect adherence to the Higher Will.

19.5.69

Once the aspiration is awakened in the body, will the body show for it the same persistence that we see in its physical movements?

For that the body is marvellous. As soon as the cells aspire consciously for union with the Divine, this aspiration becomes constant, and if this aspiration is expressed by a mantra, it is spontaneously and constantly that the cells repeat the mantra as an invocation.

21.5.69

Will the body receive its mantra in time, spontaneously?

It is good if the mantra surges forth spontaneously with the simplicity of a child’s call – 2 or 3 words with rhythmic repetition.

If it does not come spontaneously, the body can repeat the mantra which your mind has chosen.

23.5.69

There is a very vague perception of a fantastic possibility: it is that one day the body could physically feel itself one with all existence.

This is just the experience that this physical body (which is reading and writing here) is in course of having progressively. And I find it interesting that you came to know something of it without my ever having told you anything about it.

25.5.69

I will be glad to say farewell to the mental “wisdom”.

Persist in your aspiration and it will surely happen.

And the “wisdom” of the Supreme Consciousness is so much more marvellous!

27.5.69

What will be my fortune if the Mother gives me a new birth every morning!

If you mean by “new birth” an opening of the consciousness on the innumerable inner fields yet unexplored, that is possible on the condition that your thirst for progress be ardent and sustained. For that you must come to me in the morning in a state of aspiration but passive and receptive and, if possible, devoid of thought.

29.5.69

Even when the aspiration is not formulated, the Mother’s reply is there...

Often that which is expressed without words is clearer and more precise than all the spoken or written words.

5.6.69

Contrary to the current notions, the more the aspiration is ardent, the more it brings its own calm.

It is in perfect mental immobility that the aspiration is most ardent, like a flame that rises all straight without a puff of air to make it waver.

7.6.69

The light of gold is becoming a splendid rain around the Mother!

It is the new Consciousness ready to help all those who are ready to listen to it.

9.6.69

My ego’s reactions, produced constantly, make a veil between me and the Truth.

This is inevitable and has to be thwarted by a continuous and vigilant action.

And the cure is brought about by the Grace.

11.6.69

God created this world of ignorance for His joy. Why then disturb Him by the Yoga?

You make of this God a personage, quite personal and arbitrary... such is not the Truth.

But to continue in the same spirit, one can say more truly that God created the world for the individuals to return consciously towards Him. And then the Yoga becomes imperative.

13.6.69

There are parts of my being for which surrender is becoming a thing of joy.

True surrender is profoundly happy and joyous because with it comes the sensation of the infinite and of the luminous and eternal peace.

15.6.69

Is it possible to melt in You (like Pavitra, the last night of his life) and still continue to live?

No, it is not possible for it is the totality of his soul that entered.

But a part of the being, an emanation can do it, if the aspiration is enough.

17.6.69

My obstinate ego deserves a lightning-strike from the Mother...

The Grace does not punish, it cures.

19.6.69

I want to learn to face insults with a smile.

That is quite easy when one is convinced that only the Divine knows the Truth and that human opinions have nothing of true worth.

21.6.69

Mother has given me a place at Her feet, this is my great safety...

Yes, it is true.

And sincerity in consecration is of all securities the greatest.

23.6.69

Perhaps the small “I” will get dissolved in the aspiration to be what You want.

Certainly, this is what will happen to it one day and perhaps even without its knowing it.

Often it happens like an enlargement, a blossoming in the Light.

25.6.69

To be what the Mother wants, isn’t this to be transformed?

Unquestionably:

For all, to prepare themselves for this transformation

For some, to begin the work of transformation

For a very small number, to hasten the process of transformation.

27.6.69

The Mother’s patience is so infinite that she can be accused of slowness!

And yet the work of transformation goes as fast as it can; there are even a number of persons who cannot follow it and are thrown out of balance.

But usually the notion of time is based for man on his bodily existence which is terribly short.

29.6.69

One day, if it interests you, I will explain what should be the true role and true place of money.

Yes, Mother, I pray to You to explain the true role and place of money.

In a truer world, towards the realisation of which the creation is moving, money has to be one of the terrestrial forces placed at the disposal of the Divine Consciousness for its work on earth.

The first step towards this realisation is the abolition of the sense of ownership. Each one is the user and distributor of the money at his disposal – and this leads naturally to the next step: Those who have the truest and vastest vision and knowledge have to become these distributors and users.

The processes to arrive at this result should be elaborated and put into execution in accordance with the need and possibilities.

1.7.69

Isn’t the sense of ownership an attribute of the ego?

The sense of ownership is surely a manner of being natural to the ego, but in spite of his blindness man has not the sense of ownership for the air he breathes, the water of the river or the falling rain.

3.7.69

If the Mother has the time I can note down my financial situation in four or five pages of this note book. I want to act according to the Truth.

Very good, I will find time to read it.

7.7.69

Thoughts and personal will do not let me live spontaneously.

One day the Supreme Lord will take up the conscious direction.

9.7.69

I would like to do sadhana as a child of the Mother.

For me the sadhana consists of loving the Divine more and more integrally, more and more absolutely, with a love so total that it leads to the identification.

11.7.69

My offerings to Mother are still not free from the sense that it is I who offer.

Perhaps because that way they give me more pleasure.

13.7.69

What is the secret of Your constant and invariable smile?

Constant contact with the Supreme Lord.

15.7.69

If I could let the past fall off like an old robe, I could be a new-born...

Try to concentrate your consciousness on the Divine Presence which is a concrete fact, and the past will get effaced of itself quite naturally.

18.7.69

Little by little the desire of realisation is changing into an aspiration.

Here is a very good thing. Now the advance can be very swift.

21.7.69

The golden light is becoming more and more lovable in spite of all my obscurity.

It comes to make us conscious of our absurdity and to cure us of it. So it is natural that its very presence makes us more and more conscious of our absurdity and there remains only one step to take to cure us of it for good.

23.7.69

Can we hope that the new consciousness that descended on the 1st of January will do in the field of Yoga what the astronauts are in the course of doing in the scientific field?

What the astronauts have just done on the moon is surely a wonderful accomplishment of calculation, endurance and courage, but they are a child’s realisations in comparison to what the new Consciousness is in course of accomplishing on the earth and which will lead to the creation of the superman.

25.7.69

Time presses but there is no inquietude.

As soon as the consciousness of eternity is attained, what would have otherwise taken many a year can be accomplished in some moments.

27.7.69

I am Your spoilt child...

You have capacity, aspiration and sincerity. With these three qualities success is sure, and if one adds patience and intensity to them, time is no longer important.

29.7.69

The prayer “Whatever You will” seems to solve the problems better than specific prayers.

This, according to my experience, is the prayer that gives the best attitude in every circumstance.

31.7.69

Sometimes, Mother, the Light becomes physically visible.

It is probable that this is a phenomenon that will take place more and more frequently.

2.8.69

I am convinced that the Mother’s Light is more powerful than my obscurity.

Leaving personalities aside, we can say with certainty that the divine Light is definitely more powerful than human obscurity.

4.8.69

Does Durga’s lion represent the Divine Power over adverse forces?

It can be understood that way.

But in the vital there is a lion very much alive who is very often near me and whom several persons have often seen. He is evidently not an animal though having an animal appearance symbolic of his royal strength.

6.8.69

The pleasure of possession now appears like dust in front of self-giving.

The pleasure of possession is a purely vital and physical thing which, to the extent that the inner being is developed and the consciousness is enlarged, gets replaced by the sense of judicious employment and becomes a clear vision of the true use of all things.

8.8.69

I understand that the true use of things depends on the loss of the sense of ownership and on the growth of consciousness.

The sense of ownership belongs to the ego, and when the ego disappears the sense of ownership is replaced by the correct vision of the true use of each thing (money or object) and it remains only to act according to what one sees.

12.8.69

When Mother is late for the breakfast I say to myself “The Divine likes to be late in all things!”

Rather will it not be that for the Divine time does not exist, or in any case, has not the same value that man gives it.

14.8.69

One day, enveloped by Your Presence, the ego can get dissolved... isn’t it, Mother?

Yes, certainly.

I have also seen cases where it gets converted and transformed.

16.8.69

I prostrate myself before Sri Aurobindo and Mother in one single movement.

Yes, it is true that Sri Aurobindo is always present.

18.8.69

Doesn’t my ego deserve a frontal assault?

I do not feel so. Your ego seems to me to be mental above all, with some rather fixed ideas. But with the growth of consciousness this will disappear.

20.8.69

I hope Mother has already cured persons whose mind was more resistant than mine.

Don’t torment yourself – the resistance of your mind is not so big, and moreover the Supreme Lord’s Grace is infinite.

22.8.69

Without the disappearance of the ego my true life with You does not begin.

The best way to make it disappear is to enlarge it to the dimension of the universe. You can do it without violence but with a tranquil persistence.

I am with you in your effort.

24.8.69

The mind seems to recognise the need to yield to the higher light.

Yes, it is visible; there are good reasons to hope that its transformative conversion will not take long to happen.

26.8.69

I am going to lose the desire to be useful to Mother.

You have only to replace the desire by the will to be useful and the clear consciousness of how to be most useful; because I need you for my work.

Blessings.

28.8.69

I depend on the Mother for moulding me according to Her Will.

It is the Supreme Lord’s Consciousness that will do the work in all the details, forgetting nothing, and up to its perfection.

30.8.69

Now I feel the importance of being desireless.

The agitation of the vibrations of desire disturbs the receptivity and makes one incapable of seeing the vibrations of divine will that can be seen only in calm and silence.

1.9.69

Will the Unmanifest not be always greater than the manifestation?

If one conceives that the manifestation is eternal, it is unquestionable.

3.9.69

Can the manifestation come to its dissolution, its Pralaya?

A very old tradition, more ancient than the Vedas, says that the present manifestation is the seventh, the six preceding ones having been followed by six pralayas, but this one will get transformed perpetually, without return to the Creator.

5.9.69

Perhaps the old tradition had foreseen the supramentalisation in the seventh manifestation with its eternal transformation.

It had foreseen not only the supramentalisation of Matter, but also the appearance of the new species that must succeed man and be immortal.

7.9.69

The mental light no longer seems a light before the sun.

If by “sun” you mean the Supermind, it is unquestionable.

But all physical lights, even the light of the sun, appear as obscure to an inner vision.

9.9.69

The physical light does not hide itself, but the supramental Light which is greater can hide itself. It is a mystery for man.

The physical eyes are not made to see the supramental light, that is why they cannot see it. But that human being whose inner senses are awakened, can see the supramental light when he wants so – it never hides itself.

11.9.69

What are the conditions to be fulfilled to be able to see the supramental light?

To be in conscious contact with it.

The supramental vision develops quite naturally with the supramental Consciousness.

18.9.69

I hope that it is the Grace that makes me want to go in speed.

The Grace responds always to a sincere aspiration and favours its realisation even when the appearances are deceptive.

20.9.69

On 11 January 1914 Mother had written,

“I know that a day will come when Thou wilt transform all those who come to us...”

I find an echo of it in what Mother has said on 18 January 1969 about the descent of the new consciousness:

“It was there... it is curious, it is as if I was charged with putting it in rapport with all those who will come to me.”

Indeed I was not remembering at all what I had written a bit prophetically in 1914.

And my only reply is:

The Lord’s Grace is infinite.

22.9.69

“As one climbs peak after peak, appears all that remains to be done.”

Perhaps the Rig-Veda speaks here of endless progression?

Most certainly the spiritual wisdom existed for a small number in that epoch.

24.9.69

In “Last Poems” Sri Aurobindo shows the relation between the Transcendent and the Cosmos:

“My vast transcendence holds the cosmic whirl,

I am hid in it as in the sea a pearl.”

What an experience!...

This is transcendent poetry.

26.9.69

Is it the mind that has deprived man of the simplicity of flowers?

It is unquestionable, but the vital’s desires are also there for something.

28.9.69

When

“The eyes of mortal body plunge their gaze Into Eyes that look upon Eternity”,

one finds there his native land!

That is to say the Divine origin.

It is true. You are becoming a poet in your expression.

30.9.69

What have I to do so that the Mother takes direct charge of the sadhana?

I have already taken direct charge of the sadhana, but if you want that I express it in words, it is necessary to ask me precise, practical questions, not mental and speculative.

2.10.69

I want to learn to retain in its entirety what Mother gives me.

The best way to receive that allows to hold, is to abandon oneself passively. If you can make that movement when you are before me, things will go faster.

4.10.69

I see more and more the necessity of mental silence, but it is a difficult thing for me.

You are not the only one to find it difficult. For more than four years I tried to get it without total result, and it is Sri Aurobindo who gave it to me definitively in 1914 in half an hour. Persevere and you will get it.

6.10.69

If my mind becomes more sincere, will it collaborate for its silence?

If it understands the immense advantage of silence that allows to receive the inspiration from higher regions, then it will collaborate with joy.

8.10.69

Towards the heights,

always towards the heights,

I accept the call.

This is good.

And the response is certain.

10.10.69

Oh, the sweetness of the possibility of remaining always “on the Mother’s knees where the soul sees”.

So it be.

It is the privilege of those who have made their surrender to the Divine and who want to live according to the Truth.

12.10.69

The Divine knocks at the door but I sleep.

Receive Him in the dream,

and He will awaken you.

14.10.69

I feel that it is in my passivity towards the Mother that the true activity will begin.

In truth, to know how to be passive in regard to the Divine Consciousness is the great secret of transformation.

16.10.69

The more the Mother frees me from desires, the more the life becomes simple.

Most certainly, it is desires that complicate the existence and are the cause of most of the sufferings. One can even say that they are at the base of all the dramas, or nearly so.

18.10.69

Opening at random the book “The Mother”, I found this sentence:

“Let your sincerity and surrender be genuine and entire.”

I take this as a demand and a blessing at the same time.

It is good.

And the result is sure.

Blessings.

20.10.69

The mental noise is no longer a pleasant thing to me.

This is the time to make it quiet and to enjoy the joy and peace of silence.

22.10.69

The day before yesterday when Mother was giving me the flower “Mental Prayer” I did not know its significance and felt that Mother was giving me receptivity!

That is very good. For, in fact, when the mind begins to pray the true way, it becomes receptive swiftly and more and more.

24.10.69

What is the true manner of doing mental prayer?

Mental prayer is formulated in words, and when it receives its inspiration from above the formulation becomes artistic and powerful by its beauty; sometimes it has even the power of an invocation.

26.10.69

The mind is very active now, but with a difference – it is no longer pleased with itself.

It is in the silence of a complete identification with the Divine that true understanding is gained.

28.10.69

For all that I have to realise, Your Grace, O Divine Mother, is my refuge.

The Grace is with you and will take you to the goal. Blessings.

30.10.69

To be useful to Mother I feel the necessity of being more open to Her.

When you came to me this morning, you said this to me in silence, and I replied to you that with this aspiration it is enough for you to remain attentive and in all circumstances you will feel what is the right thing to do.

With a little practice it can become quite clear and precise.

Blessings.

1.11.69

It seems that I will bring this notebook less often and try to receive in silence and absorb that which will come from Mother.

Yes, you must try to receive in silence the solution of problems. Then if the solution comes, you could write the problem and the answer to know if it is correct; or if no answer has been received the problem alone could be sent to know if I can resolve it.

Blessings.

3.11.69

Mother told me once again that She will take me to the heights, beyond.

It is a settled matter, isn’t it true?

The only thing indispensable is a constant aspiration.

Blessings.

5.11.69

The day before yesterday, Mother, when I was before You I felt the presence of Ganesh behind me.

This is very good. Ganesh is an old friend who had promised me long long ago that he would supply the needs of the Ashram, and kept his word for years (when Sri Aurobindo was physically here). It is a good sign that he came when you were here.

7.11.69

Yesterday from midday to midnight I had fever; I had had a warning of it the day before yesterday, but I could not prevent it.

If you had informed me when you knew that you were going to have fever, perhaps it would not have come.

10.11.69

From some time I feel that Mother is going to open a new door but She awaits “something” from my side. Did Mother tell me in silence that this “something” is the progress that consists of silencing the mind?

In fact, when you sit before me and I put upon you the Supreme Consciousness, often and particularly these last days, I begin by recommending the holding of your mind as tranquil and silent as you can, because that is the best means to increase receptivity and to open to the action of the Higher Force.

12.11.69

You have often granted me, O Divine Mother, what I wanted. Now I pray to You to grant only what you want, what You want.

Total and constant contact with the Divine Consciousness. It is towards this that I am working for you.

18.11.69

Is it the obstinacy of my mind that gave me the fever?

The obstinacy of the mind is undoubtedly at the origin, but the immediate cause is a resistance of the body to the force of transformation which is at work this moment.

20.11.69

I am less interested in the outer cure of my cough than in profiting inwardly by it.

It is obvious that if you discover the psychological reason of the cough, that is to say what in your physical or vital being resists the penetration of the Divine Force in your body, not only will you have profited from the illness for making a big progress, but also, the body itself will begin the long work of transformation.

Blessings.

25.11.69

Did Mother give me a red coat yesterday during the Darshan?

During the Darshan I give to everyone what he needs and everyone gets according to his receptivity. A red coat can be the symbol of a physical protection because I want your body to be solid and in good health.

27.11.69

The Divine is so near and so far at the same time!

In fact He is constantly with us, but it is only when the body-cells open to His influence and perceive His Presence that we begin to be truly conscious of Him and His unceasing action.

29.11.69

The alternations of light and darkness, what a play! But there is no longer inquietude.

The alternations, the contraries, the oppositions have been the great means employed by Nature to awaken the inconscient to consciousness and the inertia to movement of progress. When inconscience and inertia would have disappeared, the alternations will no longer be necessary.

1.12.69

Can the individual rise above the alternations of light and darkness while the universal inconscience and inertia exist?

Not only can he rise there, but even a part of his consciousness can stay there in a permanent way. It is this that gives the faculty to be in conscious rapport with the Supreme.

5.12.69

May I not be disloyal to the sacrifice made by Sri Aurobindo for the earth!

For his consciousness it was not a sacrifice.

The earth was not yet ready to draw the biggest profit from his physical presence.

His help is always there, conscious and active. He has said that he will come back in the first supramental body.

7.12.69

Very rarely can I see You in dreams.

If you “dream” in the vital or mental, there is little chance that you will meet me there.

If your dreams are in the subtle physical, there you could meet me because I often work there in the night.

9.12.69

Is it possible to dream at will in the subtle physical in order to meet you there?

All is possible. It is only a question of inner development and of the necessary discipline to achieve it.

The control of the activities of the night is very interesting, and has very effective results for the integral development of the being; but it is a work that demands much patience and regularity. Sometimes years are needed to learn what happens during one’s sleep; because to conserve a good health one must not take the risk of disturbing the sleep by an ill-timed activity.

I advise you for the moment to do only a little concentration before you sleep, with an aspiration to meet me there in the night.

We will see what happens.

Blessings.

11.12.69

The lower nature aided by my vital prevents me from enlarging myself. And the ego smiles.

Let it smile.

The day of its defeat will surely come and, may be, sooner than you think.

13.12.69

The work I do has begun to leave me two free hours, from 1.30 to 3.30. How to utilise them?

It is an excellent hour for reading, meditating and entering little by little in a receptive silence which allows the Higher Consciousness to enter the body to transform it.

15.12.69

I find that after the recent fever I sleep more; this I don’t like.

Since the arrival of the new Consciousness on earth the sleep seems to have acquired a special utility for letting it work on the body. So you must not get disturbed by it; it is the mind that does not like the sleep.

But when the body learns to sleep consciously in an attitude of “surrender” to the Divine, much useful work can be done during the sleep.

17.12.69

Sometimes, Mother, even the body takes a joy in the words, “Only You”.

This is good.

It does not surprise me for I know that your very body is in the course of progressing.

19.12.69

Is the Yogi’s sleep without dreams?

They are no longer dreams. They are visions and activities in worlds that are invisible for the physical consciousness.

21.12.69

May my whole being become a straight line towards You, Divine Mother!

En route towards integral transformation.

23.12.69

I find that if I complain against the Divine I am always wrong.

Certainly, it is rather better to try to understand than complain!

When something does not go well, it is always to show us where we have to make a progress.

25.12.69

I see that he who criticises me is a good friend of my progress, but I see this after having a first disagreeable reaction.

Provided that you see it and know to profit by it, that is all that is needed.

27.12.69

When the mind is engaged in things that are useless according to itself, it is pitiable.

There also, if it has the right attitude, it can learn and progress. When we have understood that all that comes to us in life comes to us from the Supreme Lord to make us learn to live, nothing is useless any more. It is our attitude that changes and becomes enlightened.

29.12.69

The plans drawn by the mind are losing their charm, but that which should replace them is not yet there.

The indications of the Higher Consciousness do not come in advance, but as and when needed.

It is almost at every minute that one knows what has to be done, and this is why those who have the mental habit of making plans long in advance find that to obey the Divine is something very difficult.

But it is simply a question of habit and of inner attitude which has to be very peaceful and attentive.

31.12.69

It is with gratitude to You, O Mother, that I say farewell to this year.

And as for me, I say, give good welcome to the new year that brings with it a new decade and an intensification of the work of the superman Consciousness.

With my blessings for a Happy New Year.

4.1.70

In order that I be fully transparent before You, is it sincerity that has to increase?

Truly speaking, the Supreme Lord makes me see in each what He wants me to see, and He has not made me see insincerity in you. What is not yet very clear, is undoubtedly the mental and vital habits; but these do not appear to me as being obstacles in the work of transformation.

6.1.70

In spite of my weak body I always liked to go to the mountain peaks. And now it is the peaks of consciousness that attract me.

The true force is that of the Divine and it can make even a weak body strong. He alone should be the master of our being, its goal and its support.

8.1.70

To my aspiration towards the heights You answered, “I am there”.

To open the door for you, to welcome you and to show you the way to the Supreme Lord.

With my blessings.

10.1.70

For accepting or not accepting illness which is the part of the being whose attitude decides the thing?

A great mental will that refuses obstinately to be ill, is effective.

A vital power that inflexibly pushes the illness back, is efficacious.

A consciousness of the cells that finds its support exclusively in the Divine Presence and refuses to receive any other influence, is much more efficacious.

A total identification with the Supreme Consciousness abolishing all division, is the sovereign remedy.

12.1.70

Yesterday, Mother, while before You, I was not thinking of my health but You said to me, “I wish you good health”, and I felt the presence of a person of big size behind me.

Yesterday, I saw behind you the Consciousness that wanted to enter into you and which needs a solid body for its manifestation; that is why I insisted on the necessity of good health; and it is the Presence of the Consciousness concentrated on you that you took for a person of big size.

This is good.

Blessings.

14.1.70

It seems to me that if I am more consecrated to You, I can better receive good health when it comes.

This, this is unquestionable.

You will see in the next issue of the Bulletin that the best way to the body’s well-being is to concentrate all one’s consciousness on the Divine leaving the watch over one’s body in His care. Further, we have only to be attentive to the orders He gives us in all circumstances and to obey scrupulously.

16.1.70

The little moment passed before You, O Divine Mother, becomes a life in itself; it is going to be an eternal moment...

The eternal supreme Consciousness is always there, concretely present and active.

18.1.70

I do not live in the right consciousness, thus there are necessarily defects in my translation of “The Life Divine” into Hindi. I said this to Sri Aurobindo. I feel he accepted the work with a smile of encouragement.

Work done sincerely is always accepted by Sri Aurobindo with a smile.

Thus He might have accepted several Hindi translations of his works.

This is why the problem of publication is difficult to solve. And as I have not any competence in Hindi it is impossible for me to solve the problem.

20.1.70

The day before yesterday I began to do the exercises given to me by Dada to improve my health. This is as a collaboration with the Divine Will.

Here is something very good. Surely it will have a very good effect. The food has also to be taken care of.

22.1.70

I pray to You to give me indications for food.

What you should eat depends on your condition of general health, what is lacking in your body and what your body cannot tolerate. This only a doctor, expert in the subject, can say.

The food must be very clean, very healthy and strengthening. Moral restrictions are inventions of human mind and should be neglected if necessary.

Food should be taken exclusively according to the body’s needs and not after rules, conventions and desires.

24.1.70

Yesterday, Mother, before You, for a moment, the body could aspire to have the Light, to become the Light...

This is good.

The body carries the light in each of its cells, and one day it will no longer hide it.

26.1.70

I have a longing to hear Krishna’s flute.

Krishna’s flute is the equivalent of the Supreme Lord’s smile of love. To hear the flute or see the smile, one must be in the total peace of perfect and integral “surrender”.

28.1.70

I find that I have still attachment to money – direct or indirect.

It is the contagion of collective attachment. Money is a god universally worshipped on the earth and difficult to dethrone. When it will be nothing but an instrument of divine work, the difficulty will disappear.

30.1.70

Is it something in my vital aided by mental wisdom that preserves the dirt of money?

The physical atmosphere is full of the suggestion and one cannot breathe without absorbing it; and the attachment in the vital comes from the collective conviction of the invincible power of money. This is the cause of almost all difficulties.

1.2.70

A month of what we were calling the new year has passed, and at what speed!

For him who advances fast, time passes rapidly.

3.2.70

I feel a growing need for the mind to learn to hold itself quiet.

Bravo to the mind for its decision – it is the indispensable beginning of the work of integral transformation.

7.2.70

You want to take away all my anxiety but it is I who do not let it go!

There is only one solution, it is to leave all anxiety to the Supreme Lord and to let Him do all, all, absolutely all. Then all will be done as perfectly as possible. And we will live in peace and joy.

9.2.70

One cannot breathe without absorbing what is in the terrestrial atmosphere. Mother, what is the solution?

To become more and more constantly conscious of the Divine Presence that counterbalances marvellously everything which may be absorbed in an automatic unconsciousness.

11.2.70

Yesterday the body wanted to receive the Light and you said yes.

Certainly, I envelop it with light every morning so that the light be always around it, penetrating it each time that there is a possibility of it being received.

13.2.70

The more I can go near You, O Divine Mother, the more the life becomes a true life.

This body itself is in the midst of the struggle to realise the true life.

17.2.70

I can feel that the golden light has become very active.

Yes, very active. It seems that it does not want to tolerate insincerities and even imperfections. For those who receive it in the body it is very perceptible.

But one must not complain, the work goes on speedily.

19.2.70

Now that the Light does not want to tolerate imperfections, I can have a good hope... provided that I collaborate.

Your collaboration is sure, because the central will is awake, and even if there are resistances because of some old habits, they are sure to yield.

21.2.70

To be possessed by You, by You alone, O Mother Divine, this is going to be my great joy...

May the divine blessings be on you, my child, for an integral realisation.

23.2.70

Little by little the horizon becomes clearer and greater and more beautiful.

As our consciousness wakes up to the eternal Truth, our perception is transformed by it.

25.2.70

According to certain traditions 9 is a mystic-occult number. Is it true, Mother?

Physically, the number 9 is certainly associated with birth.

It has been even associated with the appearance on earth of the supramental world.

But more than this, for the moment, I cannot say.

Mentally, an occult significance has been given to each lumber.

27.2.70

Deliver me, O Divine Mother, from personal impotence.

All that is united with the Supreme Lord, melted into Him, partakes of His Omnipotence.

The body-cells themselves have the experience of it.

But for the union to be integral and total, it is a long and slow work.

1.3.70

These two days the old things have surged up to veil and delay, but perhaps I can make an occasion of it to progress.

It is always an occasion of progress. In truth the difficulties surge up just when the higher wisdom has seen that we have become capable of overcoming them.

3.3.70

The future chosen by You for me is going to be different from all my ideas!

Ideas see always only one or at the most, some several sides of things. The supramental consciousness has a total view of life that animates and directs the special action which the body is destined to accomplish.

7.3.70

Perhaps there is an intensity of aspiration after which the realisation will no longer be delayed.

Certainly the intensity that comes from an absolute sincerity in aspiration can do in a moment what would otherwise be taking centuries. Certainly there are steps forward from where one never goes back.

9.3.70

The time passed without Your remembrance is losing its taste.

When the body-cells would have participated in the experience, it will no longer be possible to forget it, for once they have become aware of the Presence within them, they never forget it.

11.3.70

Can it be said that no realisation can be perfect without the participation of the body-cells?

Most certainly, for in the divine plan for earth, the supramental being must succeed the man on earth, and all our effort must tend to prepare its coming.

13.3.70

There is a descent of light from above like a flow, there is also its stream springing from below!

Yes, it is exact.

The light rises from the depths as it descends from the heights, and the two flows of light join around the earth to flood the human consciousness and prepare it for the new creation.

15.3.70

Yesterday You said,

“A constant alert.

No relaxation.”

Yes, it is exact.

The work of physical transformation has begun; but the work is immense and the years are short.

17.3.70

If 1 am faithful to You the length of the way is not disquieting.

If you are integrally faithful, that is to say if all the parts of the being unite in the same aspiration, then the length of the way diminishes considerably and each step forward becomes a happy discovery.

19.3.70

I pray that the flame of aspiration may awake in those parts of my being that are as yet recalcitrant.

All gets organised in life to make us go as fast as possible. If our attention is well awake we can profit from all circumstances.

21.3.70

“The more rapidly one goes, individually, the more one must try to extend and strengthen the collective base.”

(Questions and Answers)

Happily all this is Mahashakti’s affair.

Now, more and more, the whole world works in the joy of being at the service of the Supreme Lord.

23.3.70

Yesternoon I was feeling an aspiration which got formulated later as follows: An inner rhythm in harmony with the Divine Will.

Here is a very good thing.

It is in fact the source of true activity.

25.3.70

In the night there were tiresome dreams, but I got up remembering you and I am fresh.

If before sleeping, when you are in bed, you offer your body to the Divine with this prayer:

“Lord, let me rest in You”

the nights will be better.

27.3.70

Mother, where does the identification take place?

Normally the identification is in the psychic being that forms itself consciously around the Divine Presence.

But now with the descent of the new consciousness, the Divine Presence can be felt by the body-cells where It is at work for the transformation of Matter.

29.3.70

Whatever work will come to me from You, I will like to take it as Your blessings.

I know that it is thus that you take it. The only thing that makes me hesitate sometimes is that I do not want that you tire yourself. The work must be done harmoniously, not with any tension.

31.3.70

The anxiety for quickness and result seems to produce tension in my work.

The best attitude for the work is to make of it an offering to the Divine, and for that, to do it as well as one can, leaving the result in the care of the Divine. Thus all tension disappears.

And when one knows how to make the offering, the necessary force for execution of the work comes spontaneously and thus fatigue is avoided.

2.4.70

With Your help, Mother, I must succeed in making the offering of my work.

I am altogether convinced that you will succeed. In a general way you have already the right attitude.

Blessings.

4.4.70

Without mental silence it is really difficult to know the Divine Will.

It is almost impossible because always there is the risk of taking one’s own mental formation for the expression of the divine will.

A great intensity of aspiration can help towards this mental silence (an aspiration not formulated in words).

Blessings.

6.4.70

I pray to You to make me able to receive that which You send me with Your answers.

The consciousness works very energetically, and it is in an attentive silence that one lets it work best.

8.4.70

The flame in the navel-region is still smoky.

It is the old vital habits that believe themselves to be indispensable for the equilibrium of the body. Nothing must be upset.

10.4.70

I can feel that it is in silence that I should aspire for silence.

This is very good, this is a good beginning.

12.4.70

Mother, the mind is making so much noise again, hut I am not discouraged.

It is to give you the occasion to control and purify its activity because this also is indispensable.

14.4.70

In an increasing love for You, my bad movements have to offer themselves to You, O Divine Mother...

I had been aware of the prayer and believed that I had written the reply...

It is nothing but the memory of the old habits which are exhausting themselves in their last expressions.

16.4.70

(Mother wrote the above reply on receiving the next letter.)

Yesterday I got the notebook without Your written reply to the enclosed prayer but Your action is there.

Yes, the action is always there very consciously, and my blessings.

18.4.70

Now I have tooth-ache. I regard this as the resistance of old habits.

I know by experience that one can stop tooth-ache in some minutes if the suffering spot invokes the Divine Presence in a total abandonment.

But if you have not yet learnt to do this in the body, not mentally, it is better to go to Rigos who will treat you.

Blessings.

20.4.70

I find very interesting the method indicated by You to stop tooth-ache and I hope to learn it with mental silence and progress in the body.

It is very good. You can count upon my help.

Blessings.

22.4.70

Before You, Mother, one can climb so high that physical pain disappears, but... there is always a coming back.

A day will come when this change of consciousness could be done at will, and by consequence could be much more durable.

24.4.70

I find myself unworthy of You, O Divine Mother.

Be sincere in your aspiration and there is no unworthiness...

27.4.70

How can one rise above the struggle?

By identifying one’s consciousness with the Divine Consciousness. Then all changes in its aspect and the values are not the same.

30.4.70

I find that I no longer try to know what You want to make of me.

Here is an excellent attitude which proves that you are just in the course of becoming what I expect of you.

2.5.70

You are with me, always, but I am not aware of it.

I am more subtle than the air; and already the air you do not see.

There are infinitely more things which we do not see than those we see.

4.5.70

The joy of prostrating before You without desire.

It is the joy with which the Lord envelops those who are sincere.

Bonne Fete

6.5.70

In spite of the difficulties I hope to hold straight to the path.

With a sincere aspiration the thing is certain.

9.5.70

Perhaps the Lord created the world with a smile and it is with a smile that He looks at it.

Most certainly. And we also must learn to look at everything with a smile. But we have taken to very bad habits which we now must learn to lose.

11.5.70

This morning it is the need of cosmic consciousness that is felt.

The peace of totality.

13.5.70

I am made of dust, but it is a dust which can change at your contact...

The whole of the physical world is made of dust.

But this dust has this speciality that at the contact of the Divine it changes into light.

15.5.70

The mind’s ineffectiveness is now very clear.

The mind is an instrument of study and analysis. But it is not capable of having knowledge because it acts in division.

17.5.70

Among the darknesses that I harbour there are those which have begun to love the light...

That which in you is yet in the obscurity, is so by ignorance, not by bad will; and this is a certitude of victory, even rapid, for the illumination is taking place promptly.

20.5.70

Does the sense of physical suffering not exist in the cosmic consciousness?

In the cosmic consciousness it certainly exists.

It is in the Supreme Divine Consciousness that it does not exist, that is to say, the nature of the sensation changes and the opposites disappear for being replaced by something which is indefinable in our language.

22.5.70

If my aspiration becomes constant, sincere and integral, things will be simple...

It already needs a great sincerity to perceive the instability of the aspiration.

24.5.70

These three days the idea has been coming that the Matrimandir at Auroville should be built soon.

In fact this will be good and will change things in an unexpected way.... But it does not appear to have been revealed to others.

26.5.70

Isn’t ordered intuition a necessity for Your true servitor?

Ordered intuition is certainly a very useful instrument for replacing the mind which has proved itself incapable of translating correctly the higher consciousness. But beyond intuition there is a consciousness that reflects yet better the Supreme Consciousness.

28.5.70

There are darknesses which want to flee away, there are others which want to get transformed!

Yes, there is a moment when the choice is between adhering or disappearing, then things go fast.

30.5.70

For most of the problems there is now only one answer: self-giving.

When self-giving is truly and completely realised, there is no longer any problem, all becomes simple.

1.6.70

An integral love seems to me to be the first necessity for self-giving to be integral.

From the moment the first contact with the Supreme Lord takes place, one feels overwhelmed and enveloped by so marvellous a love that the response is spontaneous and natural.

3.6.70

The glimpses of Truth have to get enlarged and become constant...

It is a sort of atmosphere of Truth in which one can take refuge as soon as one concentrates, until the moment comes when one lives there constantly, while maintaining a surface activity which no longer affects the consciousness.

5.6.70

Isn’t the Divine Will the only Truth to be followed in action?

All exists in and by the Divine Consciousness, and the place which each being and each thing occupies in the whole depends on the extent to which a thing or a being is aware of the Supreme Consciousness and identified with It.

7.6.70

For me the physical tamas is very obstinate, above all towards the evening.

It may be fatigue, the need of a conscious rest or more sleep, or some element lacking in the diet. It is a subject worth taking pains to study.

9.6.70

How to have conscious rest?

The body was relaxing, lying in bed, before sleeping, offering itself to the Divine, and the conscious rest came spontaneously without making effort to have it. Thus it is’ impossible for me to give a process, because none was used. The aspiration of the cells to surrender entirely to the Divine was the only conscious thing.

12.6.70

Isn’t the repose in Sat-chit-ananda the only true rest for the sadhak?

In principle yes, but I doubt that many know how to have it.

14.6.70

I do not yet find in me the reversal of consciousness.

Of which “reversal” of consciousness are you speaking? I do not understand what exactly you mean.

16.6.70

I do not yet find in me that reversal of consciousness which is a “revolution of the basic equilibrium”, the indispensable starting point for transformation.

There is no absolute rule. The contact with the inner Divinity can take place in an unexpected manner. The important thing is to maintain the aspiration.

18.6.70

When a sadhak has seen neither the goal nor the way, how can he say that he is progressing or not?

When one acts, to make offering of one’s action,

When one rests or sleeps, to make offering of one’s body,

and always, at each moment, to make offering of one’s consciousness,

is it not enough?

why be anxious for the result?

is it not still the ego?

20.6.70

Sometimes, with Your remembrance there is a thrill in the body.

It means that your body is sensitive to the supramental consciousness and that it can become more and more receptive to it.

22.6.70

The straight aspiration towards the Divine, without care for personal progress, is such a pure flame!

It is so comforting; it gives the force to overcome all difficulties.

24.6.70

To see and feel the Lord everywhere and in every thing, isn’t the union with Him the indispensable thing?

Naturally it is essential and imperative; otherwise there is the risk of becoming the plaything of all imaginations.

That is why it is preferable to concentrate first of all on the union with the Divine. The rest follows.

26.6.70

Mother has spoken of a kind of radiation that goes out of the body and mixes with others.

Is this radiation limited by physical distance?

The dimension of radiation is different for each one and depends on the power of consciousness contained in the cells.

For most it is some centimetres. The radiation of Sri Aurobindo’s body extended all around more than ten kilometres outside the town.

28.6.70

Perhaps it is easier for the body to aspire without inquietude for the answer.

I have found that the body-cells, as soon as they enter into contact with the Divine, surrender very promptly and very completely, and their surrender is very stable.

30.6.70

It is said that in the recent earthquake at Peru eighty thousand people perished. Is it possible that the souls of all these dead ones had decided to leave their bodies at the same time?

In the majority of men the psychic being is embryonic, little developed, and does not take decisions.

It is only in a human minority that the psychic being is fully conscious individually and takes individual decisions.

2.7.70

Your Purity,

O Mother Divine,

Your Purity...

May He alone exist!...

4.7.70

When the Truth approaches, if the mind wants to understand it, the Truth moves away.

The very attitude of the mind is contrary to the truth, that is why it cannot understand it.

It is only in mental silence that one can know the Truth.

6.7.70

The body also now begins to aspire for its reconstitution according to Your Will.

My blessings are with it so that this be the occasion for a new force to install itself with the new consciousness.

8.7.70

With Your aid all becomes possible and time no longer seems so important.

Of my aid you can be assured; it does not depend on physical conditions.

10.7.70

When meditation comes spontaneously, often the body gets relaxed and sleep becomes irresistible.

That is probably not an ordinary sleep. The body becomes able to receive higher forces which plunge it in a receptive rest. Consciousness will follow, and then the body will begin its transformation.

12.7.70

My vital ego continues to see the faults of others with pleasure.

When it will understand that the faults of others increase its own work, the pleasure will disappear.

14.7.70

In “Prayers and Meditations” Mother has said, “Above, no question arises...” Does “above” mean “in the consciousness of the Supreme Lord”?

If you had given me the date of this meditation I would have certainly told you what I meant exactly. In any case, it surely means above the mind.

16.7.70

The date of the above meditation is 9 April 1917.

The answer to your question is written in the prayer itself; the “above” means Divine Consciousness.

18.7.70

Isn’t prayer more effective than personal effort?

Each has its utility, but certainly aspiration and prayer have a greater efficacy because of the confidence they imply.

20.7.70

Is the personal effort of him who is chosen by the Divine an easy action for the Divine Force?

For the Divine all is bliss; but this word has to be given a meaning which man does not know.

24.7.70

To get something from men one has to ask, but from You one gets more if one does not ask!

Because usually one is not aware of one’s true need and often one asks for useless things. Whereas the divine consciousness gives always and exactly what is necessary for growth and ascent.

26.7.70

The loss of the ego, when it occurs, is going to be a great enrichment.

It can be said that that is the accomplishment of the true being.

28.7.70

When one aspires for the participation of one’s whole being in the Yoga, has one begun the integral Yoga?

Yes, when the consciousness of the body-cells perceives the Divine’s presence and action, one is on the right path for the integral Yoga.

30.7.70

Mother has told Pradyot that the protection of India lies in the descent of the Force from above.

So, Mother, all comes back to Yoga.

India is the holder of Yogic knowledges, but this knowledge had been covered by materialism. Sri Aurobindo has awakened it; now it only remains to spread it.

1.8.70

Can it be said that if one is sincere now, there are no errors of the past which will be irreparable?

There is nothing irreparable and even the consequences of past acts change to the extent that the being becomes purer and more sincere.

But it must never be forgotten that for the divine consciousness the value of beings and things is quite different from what it is for the human consciousness.

3.8.70

He who is chosen by the Infinite cannot escape, but it is true that he tries to escape. Why, Mother?

Men have fear of what they do not know, above all of that which is much superior to them.

5.8.70

The body, instead of being engaged with itself, wants to be Your faithful servitor.

This is very good. It will have occasions for it more and more. Already all its endeavour is given to the divine work.

5.10.70

The purity of the vital has become a great necessity.

The vital is the ego’s fortress. The ego must abdicate.

Only one will has value:

the Supreme Lord’s.

7.10.70

Without mental silence I am no longer joyful on the way.

If you have mental silence at will, it is already a great accomplishment and it should give patience for the day when the whole life will pass in mental silence.

9.10.70

Your Victory,

O Mother Divine,

Your own victory,

this is our only hope.

The victory is certain. It is for us to prepare ourselves to see it and participate in it.

Blessings.

11.10.70

Does the decrease of my impatience mean an increase of faith?

Undoubtedly, it is the first step towards enlightened confidence in the Divine Wisdom.

15.10.70

When the aspiration is sincere and strong a change of consciousness takes place. How to establish it?

By letting the aspiration surge forth more and more frequently.

17.10.70

In man is it the mind that prevents him from uniting with the cosmic rhythm?

Very often it is the vital vitiated by the adverse forces, and almost always the mind which wants to replace the cosmic rhythm by its own laws.

19.10.70

Is there an intensity of aspiration which can bring realisation without delay?

Yes. But that intensity itself is the sign that the being is ready for union with the Divine.

When this union is fully conscious, then begins the transformation.

21.10.70

When the movement of offering myself to You is spontaneous, there is a distinct joy.

Yes, it is that joy which can become constant as the background supporting the whole life.

23.10.70

My ego has become very subtle.

It is in the hope of hiding itself but it will not succeed.

25.10.70

Does the fatigue in work indicate the loss of contact with Your Force?

There are several kinds of fatigue. If it is a fatigue of the body it indicates the necessity of taking rest.

All other fatigues come because you take the forces at the personal source which is necessarily limited, and you are not leaning on the Divine Force which is necessarily unlimited.

27.10.70

The mind is learning not to be agitated by things it does not like.

It is good. But there is a higher condition to attain. It is to be above like and dislike, to understand the deep law of each thing in order to keep each thing in its right place, in one’s consciousness as well as around oneself.

29.10.70

Does consecration change only the attitude towards circumstances or the circumstances themselves?

Consecration changes completely the attitude and the manner of acting. That has naturally an influence over the circumstances.

2.11.70

Often the preferences do not allow to see clearly.

It is altogether indispensable to establish a consciousness in which preferences have no more meaning and are replaced by the clear vision of the place of each thing and each movement in the great universal play.

4.11.70

I find a general lowering in me since some days.

Perhaps you are tired. If it is not so you must react quickly.

6.11.70

I am trying to renew the offering of myself to You.

Yes, it is an offering which one cannot make once for all; it must be constantly renewed. Then all movements become impregnated with the Divine.

8.11.70

The chains of Ignorance are really hard.

Yes, so hard that only the Supreme Lord can melt them. That is why for him who has faith all is possible.

10.11.70

Sometimes the aspiration becomes a consecration.

It is always that in its essence and origin. In fact it is a state that becomes permanent in the being and governs all activities.

12.11.70

To be at Your service, isn’t this the only utility of the body?

If not the only one, at least the most effective.

14.11.70

When the clouds begin to disperse, the fatigue of the struggle gets forgotten.

There is a time when the struggle is nothing else than the victorious march of the Divine and the effort becomes glorious.

16.11.70

I hope that my entire being is going to become a flower that always turns towards You.

That is inevitable and will become more and more conscious.

18.11.70

The condition of India is becoming worse and worse, at least in appearance.

The old financial power and the so-called communists are at daggers drawn. Soon there will be the time for the true Consciousness to intervene and put a little order in this chaos.

20.11.70

The mind is no longer proud of itself, and it wants to have the light from above.

May it remain silent, turned upwards in an attitude of receptivity, and the light will answer.

22.11.70

Yesternoon when the mind was turning upwards Sri Aurobindo came with a smile.

Here is a very good thing and certainly it will renew itself.

24.11.70

This morning it is the word “Realisation” that is dominating.

The realisation is certain; to prepare oneself for it, that is all.

26.11.70

What is the right method to take rest for the restoration of energy?

A comfortable physical rest (sofa or easy chair),

vital tranquillity,

mental silence,

and on the part of the whole being a general attitude of passive offering to the Divine.

28.11.70

In the night there was a tide of useless thoughts, but Your remembrance was there as a wave of protection.

My will is to give you the peace of silence.

30.11.70

My hope lies in the certitude that the Mother’s Will is going to prevail over me.

You are right; in time we will triumph over all obstacles.

2.12.70

What I do one day is no longer satisfying the next days.

This proves that the elan of progress is very strong. It becomes all-powerful when it is accompanied by the peace of eternity.

¹ Questions and Answers 1957-58 (1977), p. 315.

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² Prayers and Meditations (24 August 1914).

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³ Prayers and Meditations (17 May 1914).

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⁴ “O India, land of light and spiritual knowledge! Wake up to your true mission in the world, show the way to union and harmony.” – Message for the inauguration of All India Radio, Pondicherry, 23 September 1967.

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⁵ In the spiritual order of things, the higher we project our view and our aspiration, the greater the Truth that seeks to descend upon us, because it is already there within us and calls for its release from the covering that conceals it in manifested Nature. (Sri Aurobindo)

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⁶ Savitri (1912), p. 448

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⁷ Savitri (1972), p. 606. 2 Ibid., p. 613.

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⁸ Questions and Answers 1953 (1976), p. 83.

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⁹ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga (1972), p. 52.

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¹⁰ Savitri (1972), pp. 30, 31.

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¹¹ Savitri (1972), p. 28.

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¹² Ibid., (1972), p. 82.

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¹³ Ibid., p. 43.

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¹⁴ Savitri (1912), p. 89

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¹⁵ Savitri (1972), p. 35.

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¹⁶ Savitri (1972), p. 227.

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¹⁷ Savitri (1972), p. 339

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¹⁸ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother (1972), p. 20

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¹⁹ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga (1972), p. 103.

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²⁰ Savitri (1912), p. 341.

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²¹ Savitri (1972), p. 52

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²² Savitri (1972), p. 705-6

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