The Mother

Agenda

Volume 5

August 29, 1964

(Regarding the definitive break between Satprem and his Tantric guru, with whom he had worked for six years. The occasion for this break was a sort of repetition of what had happened two years earlier, i.e., a swarming little horde of businessmen and “disciples” in search of petty powers, against whom, once again, Satprem wanted to warn X, for he loved him in spite of everything. This break nearly cost Satprem his life, as will be seen later. Thus is it said that those things are fire.)

...I see in a very clear way that even in circumstances in which you seem to have made a mistake, even with things that betrayed a hope and give you proof that what you expected wasn't legitimate, even in such a case, there isn't one circumstance, not one encounter, not one event that isn't EXACTLY what's necessary to lead you to the victory as rapidly as possible.

This, to me, is an absolute thing.

I have noted that whenever something occurred and I said to myself (at the time), “Oh, I shouldn't have done this – I should have done that” or “I shouldn't have felt this way – I should have felt that way ...,” afterwards, when I looked at it carefully with the higher knowledge and higher consciousness, I saw that it was EXACTLY what I should have done under the circumstances! But instead of doing it knowingly and consciously, I did it in the usual ignorant way of human beings. And if I had had Knowledge, I would have done exactly the same thing.

So, this whole story [with X], the meeting with this man, his coming into our life, I KNOW it was absolutely necessary and that it brought along a whole set of circumstances that have contributed to the Work. Only, one starts with a certain illusion, and after a while one loses it – but one doesn't alter the course of circumstances, which happen as they have to happen.

This to me is an absolute thing, there isn't a shadow of doubt – not a shadow of doubt.

And as always, when there is nothing pleasant to say, it's better to keep quiet. One has no right to give one's Knowledge, which stems from a higher Consciousness, to those who aren't capable of having it; this is why, in fact, from the beginning I decided never to talk to X: I never tell him anything, I will never tell him anything, because there are things I know and see, and I have no right to reveal them to those who aren't capable of seeing and feeling. Far more complications and disorders are created by an excess of words than by silence. So one shouldn't say anything, one should just let things follow their course – one knows, one KNOWS perfectly well, one isn't deceived, one knows what's what, but one does what one has to do, without comments.

In your case, I had known it from the beginning. From the beginning, I had seen the proportion between what agreed with the truth and what was the product... (how should I put it?) of the mental hope you placed on X, but I didn't say anything. I knew that his passage through our life here, that contact of a moment, was necessary for certain things to be realized – and I let him enter... and exit.

It's so amusing every minute when you can discern the TRUE THING from what's added on by the mental functioning, by mental creation and activity – the two things stand out so clearly! But Wisdom lets you know that it would be pointless to want to make an arbitrary purification, that circumstances should be left to unfold as they have to so your knowledge may be TRUE, not arbitrary – at the appropriate time, in the appropriate conditions and with the appropriate receptivity.

One must learn how to wait.

Sri Aurobindo said that he who has learned how to wait puts time on his side.

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(Soon afterwards, Mother asks what the next aphorism will be for her to comment on. Satprem answers that it is the story of Narada and of Janaka who practiced yoga while leading the ordinary human life.¹)

That's odd! Very recently, a few days ago, after you came last time, again while I was walking for my japa, this whole story of Narada came to me! Sri Aurobindo said that Narada himself was deceived and didn't recognize in Janaka a true spiritual man – it all came back to me suddenly. I wondered, “Well, well! Why am I thinking of this?”

It's like that all the time! All the time, all the time.

I receive the explanation afterwards.

So I looked, and all sorts of things came....

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(Then Satprem reads Mother the first “Playground Talk” for the next Bulletin and tells her that the next Talk is about “exteriorization.”)

Again! That's amusing.... Not only the memory of the time when I was occupied with that, but an entire detailed knowledge of the different methods and the vision of what should be done and how – all that has been coming back to me these last few days! It came in the same way as the story of Janaka (Mother indicates a sort of film being projected): it comes, so I am a spectator, I watch – I watch all sorts of things – until the work appears to be over, then it stops, and then it goes away just as it came – I have absolutely no part to play in it.

It's odd.

And it happens every day, for all kinds of things. At times I have happened in that way to be a witness of certain incidents that corresponded to events taking place or about to take place in other countries. But it comes without the precise name or detail that would allow you to “play the prophet.” From that point of view, it's very interesting. Different events taking place in different countries come in the same way as that story of Janaka (gesture of a film being projected): it's a story “being told” (not always pretty stories: wars, quarrels, political struggles, all sorts of things that come and unfold). But there isn't the name of the country or the detail that would allow you to say, “Oh, you know, such and such a thing is going to happen in such and such a country.” It's only when the news comes from outside that I say to myself, “Why, but that's what I saw!”

I suppose that the lack of precision is to protect you from the temptation to speak! But I never speak about those things, just because they're uninteresting: there are no precise details.

But what's interesting is the agreement: the story of Janaka and the other that come at the exact time.... It's very interesting.

¹ Narada was a demigod, immortal like the gods, who had the power to appear on earth whenever he wished. Janaka, Mithila's king at the time of the Upanishads was famed for his spiritual knowledge and divine realization, even though he led a worldly life. This is how Sri Aurobindo refers to him: 106 – “Sannyasa [renunciation of worldly life] has a formal garb and outer tokens; therefore men think they can easily recognise it; but the freedom of a Janaka does not proclaim itself and it wears the garb of the world; to its presence even Narada was blinded.”

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