The Mother
Agenda
Volume 8
December 16, 1967
Yesterday evening, Pavitra asked me for a message for the opening of the School today. I wasn't in too good a mood (!) and sent him back. This morning, at five, a message came, and I wrote it down. I had barely written it down when three others came! So I wrote the four of them, and at seven sent them to K., saying that each teacher or class should choose (they are all on the same subject and with the same idea, but shown from different angles).
And at eight, everyone already knew! Things spread very fast.... N. told me, “But the messages are for different classes and they haven't been selected!” I said, “No! It's not for me to select, but for the teacher in every class.” And I added, “That's much more fun for me!” And with that I sent him away!
It's true: the same idea (it's not an “idea”), the same aspiration, the same need, depending on the state you are in, on your state of consciousness (or, for ordinary people, their turn of mind), you approach from one side or another.
I don't at all remember what I wrote.... As usual it's a call to the Truth.1
(silence)
There is something apparently paradoxical, but it's very interesting. It's this (Mother takes a piece of paper and writes):
“The best way to prepare oneself to receive Divine Love is to adhere integrally to the Truth.”
(Mother then writes a second note:)
“Adhere totally to the Truth and you will be ready to receive Divine Love.”
When you say that to intelligent good folks, their heads spin!...
(Mother laughs) I must say that making their heads spin is great fun for me!
But the best part is that it's true! It's true, it is like that. Every time that there is (it's more than an aspiration, much more than a will, in English they call it an urge) a thirst to let Divine Love express itself completely, totally everywhere, the base, the favorable ground is the Truth.
Sri Aurobindo said it, of course. He said it, he wrote it in black and white (I forget the exact words): “The pure divine love can manifest safely only in a... in a ground” (it's not ground...) “of Truth.” I don't remember now. If we wanted to put it poetically, we'd say, “in a land of Truth.”
So before we can proclaim, “Love, manifest yourself, win the Victory,” the ground for Truth must be made ready.
That's what I put under everyone's eyes at the School: aspire, aspire to the Truth. I don't at all remember what I wrote... (Mother tries to remember). One is, “May the Truth be our master and our guide,” then two others, and then, “O Truth...” I don't remember.
That's quite a remarkable phenomenon: the second before, it's absolutely blank, empty, there isn't one word, one thought, one idea, nothing, just like that: not a thought. I am asked for a message, and I reply, “I have nothing to say.” It comes like that, imperatively; if I can [that is, if Mother is free], I write it down and it's over; if I can't [that is, if Mother is busy with people], it comes back obstinately until it's written. Once it's written, gone! Nothing remains. Another way to present it comes, another form: that also, gone!...
This (gesture to the forehead), you know, is like an empty box (very pleasant, it's very pleasant), an empty, peaceful box, like that: not closed, not compact, open, but it's a box – an empty box. Inside it's all white, nothing moving. And then, I don't even make an effort to bring something down, nothing: “It's not my business.” If I am asked, I answer, “Nothing, I have nothing to say.” Or else, something goes like this (gesture on alert, awakened), sits up and remains attentive, and after one minute, two minutes, ten minutes (I don't know), suddenly, plop! down it drops. Then I write it. And as it falls, it gathers words and makes its sentence. Sometimes it's in French, sometimes in English – it depends mostly on the person it's intended for, also on the subject. So then, if (that's why I keep pieces of paper and pens everywhere), if I have my piece of paper and pen, I write it down and it's over; if I don't write it, if I say,
“Oh well, I'll note it down a little later,” then it keeps coming and coming and coming back every second... until it's written down. And once it's written, gone!
But there is (what did Sri Aurobindo call it?2) something we might call a “critic,” there is constantly a critic there, saying, “Are you sure you put the right word? Wouldn't this be a better way to put it? Is it exactly the way it should be?” And also, “Are you sure there aren't any spelling mistakes, have you spelled it correctly?” Like that. What a nuisance! So sometimes I say to it, “Leave me in peace!” (not even as politely as that). Sometimes I give the piece of paper to someone, then take it back and say, “Let me see” – until it's satisfied. Sometimes a word isn't quite correctly spelled, then it says, “Ah! See, see, you've made a mistake here.” Sometimes there are spelling mistakes: “See, see, it's wrong here!”
Now I don't even remember what I wrote for the School. I know that one message was in the form of a wish (two or three were like that), and one was in the form of a prayer, that is, directly addressed to the Truth: O Truth...
But it's very pleasant to have this [the head] empty, oh, very restful.
And when, from outside, people fill it with letters, news, requests (it all piles up, you know), then I have only one way, the simplest way, which is to do this (gesture of offering): “Here...” (what Sri Aurobindo calls surrender), “Here, it's not my business, not my concern.” Then it's over.
*
* *
(Mother goes into a long contemplation lasting over half an hour, then still in a slightly “faraway” state, she starts speaking in English:)
I saw a strange beast who came from there like that [Mother points to her left], made a round around you and went away. It was a horse with a lion's head.
Beautiful beast! It was a lion, the head like that, the front form was a lion and behind, it was a horse. And it was the symbol of... a symbolical animal of something. At the moment I understood perfectly well, I said “Ah!” and...
Very dignified. Came from there [same gesture to the left], like
that, made a round around you and went away. It was for you. Lion is power, and
horse...3
And like that, it seems silly, but he was very beautiful, and of a beautiful color. And very dignified.
Oh!... (Mother notices she was speaking in English) It was Sri Aurobindo who said all that to you. It's funny, isn't it, it comes like that.
It was something that came to announce something to you. It was a being, but a being... There must be beings like that one. It was all in light, and it was... to announce something to you.
But so real!
1 1. May the Truth be your master and your guide.
2. We aspire to the Truth and its triumph in our being and our activities.
3. May aspiration to the Truth be the motive power of our efforts.
4. O Truth, we want to be guided by you. May your reign come upon earth.
December 16, 1967
2 A “censor.”
3 The horse, according to Sri Aurobindo, is life-power or the force of progress; he also says it is “the force of tapasya that gallops to... realisation” – all depends on the color.