79God is infinite Possibility. Therefore Truth is never at rest; therefore, also, Error is justified of her children.
80To listen to some devout people, one would imagine that God never laughs; Heine was nearer the mark when he found in Him the divine Aristophanes.
Yes, he means that what is true at one moment is no longer true at another. And thats what justifies the children of Error.
Perhaps he means theres no such thing as error!
Yes, its the same thing, another way of saying the same thing. In other words, what we call error was at one time truth.
Error is a timebound notion.
But there are things that really might seem like errors.
Momentarily.
Thats exactly the impression: all our judgments are momentary. One moment one thing, the next moment something else. And errors exist for us because we see things in succession, one after the other; but that cant be how the Divine sees them, because everything is in Him.
Just try for a moment (laughing), try and imagine youre the Divine! Everything is in you; you simply play at bringing it all out in a certain order. But for you, in your consciousness, its all there simultaneously: there is no time, neither past, future, nor presentits all there together, every possible combination. Hes just playing at bringing out one thing and then another; but the poor devils down below see only a small part of the whole (about as much as this) and say, Heres an error! How is it an error? Simply because what they see is only a small part.
Its clear, isnt it? Its easy to understand. The notion of error belongs to time and space.
The same goes for the feeling that a thing cannot both BE and NOT BE at the same time. And yet thats the way things are: something both is and is not at the same time. The notion of time, of time and space, is what brings in the notion of error.
What do you mean, something both is and is not at the same time?
Something is, and simultaneously its opposite exists. Well, for us it cant be both yes and no at the same time; but for the Lord its CONSTANTLY both yes and no at the same time!
Its the same with our notion of space. I am here, we say, therefore you are not here. But I am here and you are here and all is here! (Mother laughs) But you cant understand this unless you go beyond the notion of space and time.
Its something that can be very concretely sensed, if we stop seeing things the way we usually do.
Many of these aphorisms were surely written at a time when the higher mind suddenly surged into the Supermind. It hasnt yet forgotten how things look in the ordinary way, but it now sees how they are in the supramental way. And as a result, theres this kind of thing, thats what gives this paradoxical form. Because the one is not forgotten and the other is already perceived.
(long silence)
Actually, if you look at things closely, youre forced to conclude that the Lord is acting out a tremendous comedy for Himself, that the Manifestation is a comedy Hes playing with and for Himself!
He has put Himself in the role of spectator and Hes watching Himself. And to watch Himself, He has to accept the notion of time and spaceo therwise He cant watch Himself! And immediately the whole comedy begins. But its a comedy and nothing more!
And were the puppets, eh! Thats why we take it so seriously. But as soon as we stop being puppets, we realize its a comedy.
For some people its a real tragedy, too.
Yes, because we make it tragic. WE make it tragic.
Ive been focusing on this lately. Ive been looking at the difference between similar events in the lives of human beings and the lives of animals. If you identify with animals, you clearly see that they dont take things tragically at allexcept for those which have come into contact with man. (But then theyre not in their natural state; its a transitional state, they are beings in transition between animal and man.) And naturally the first things they pick up from man are his defects thats always whats easiest to pick up! And then they make themselves unhappy for nothing.
So many things, so many things. Human beings have made an appalling tragedy out of death. And I saw, with all these recent experiences, I saw how many, many poor human beings have been destroyed by the very people they loved the most! Under the pretext that they were dead.
People give them a very bad time.
Destroyed?
Yes, burned. Or shut up in a box without air and lightwhile FULLY CONSCIOUS. And just because they can no longer express themselves, people say they are dead. They dont waste any time declaring them dead! But they are conscious. They are conscious. Imagine someone who can no longer speak or moveaccording to human laws, he is dead. He is dead but he is conscious. He is conscious, so he sees the people around him: some of them are weeping, some of them are if hes a bit clairvoyant, he also sees that some of them are rejoicing. And then he sees himself put into a box, sees the lid nailed down, shutting him in: Ah, now its all over, theyre going to cover me with earth! Or hes taken over there [to the cremation ground], and then its fire in the mouthFULLY conscious.
I have lived this in recent days. I have seen it. Last night or the night before, I spent at least two hours in a world the subtle physical worldwhere the living mingle with the dead with no sense of difference, it makes absolutely no difference there. For instance, when Mridu1 was in her body I used to see her at night maybe once a year (maybe not even that much). For years she was utterly nonexistent in my consciousness but since she left her body, I see her almost every night! There she is, just as she was, you know (rotund gesture), but no longer troubled, thats all. No longer troubled. And there were both living and what we call the living and the deadthey were both there together, eating together, moving around together, having fun together; and all in a lovely, tranquil lightpleasant, very pleasant. There! I thought, and humans have drawn a sharp line, saying, Now hes dead! Dead! And what really takes the cake is the way they treat the body like an unconscious object, and its still conscious!
Its treated like an object: Now then! Lets get rid of this just as quickly as we can: its a nuisance and it gets in the way. And even those who feel the most sorrow dont want to see it; its too painful for them.
(silence)
Where, where is the Error? Where is the Error?
In fact theres no such thing as error. There are only things that seem impossible because we dont know that the Lord is all possibility and can do whatever He wants, any way He wants. We just cant get it through our heads: This can be, but that cant, we keep saying. But its not true! Everything is possible, and only our own stupidity says that something cant be.
Difficult to say anything reasonable for the Bulletin.
(silence)
So you see, the only one whos not worried is the one watching the show, because he knows everything thats going to happen. He has an absolute knowledge of everything, everything that is happening, has happened or will happen for him, its all ONE presence. And then there are the actors, the poor actors, who dont even know their roles very well. They worry and fret because theyre being made to play something and they dont know what it is. Ive just had a very strong sense of this: were all playing parts in the comedy, but we dont know what the comedy is, nor where its going, where its coming from, nor what its all about. We just barely know (and poorly, at that) what were supposed to do at a given moment. And knowing it so poorly, we worry about it. But when you know everything, you cant worry any moreyou smile. He must be having great fun, but for us. And yet we are given the FULL POWER to have just as much fun as He does.
We just dont take the trouble to do it.
Its not easy!
Easy! If it were easy, wed get tired of it.
One does sometimes wonder why, why is this life so tragic? But in the first place, if it were a perpetual enchantment we wouldnt even appreciate it, because it would be completely natural thats mainly it: we wouldnt appreciate it because it would just be completely natural. And nothing says we wouldnt long for a little hullabaloo for a change! We just might.
This may be what the story of the earthly paradise is all about. People in that paradise had a spontaneous knowledge: they lived with the same sort of consciousness animals have, just enough of it to get a little joy out of life, to feel the joy of life. But then they started wanting to know the why and the how and where they were going and what they were supposed to do and so forth and so all their worries began they got tired of being peacefully happy.
(silence)
I think Sri Aurobindo wanted to say that error is an illusion like everything else, that there is no such thing as error: all possibilities are present, and since they ARE all present, they are oftenthey are NECESSARILY contradictory. Contradictory in their appearance. But all you have to do is look at yourself and ask, What do I call error? And if you face the thing squarely and ask, What do I call error? you immediately see how stupid it isthere is no error, you simply cant put your finger on it.
I cant tell people all this in the Bulletin, mon petittheyd go crazy! They mustnt be fed things too strong for them to digest.
Theres a person I wont name who has read Sri Aurobindos books and thought he understood them. He has been following a yogic discipline (anyway, he thought he was doing yoga) and he pulled down the Force. The Force responded (Mother laughs). He wound up with a headache! He got frightened and wrote to me in these exact words: This Force is the Lords Force (which is true, quite true), and it has turned into fear. So (Mother laughs) fear is the Lords principal perversion. There you have it. He read in books that the Lord is behind everything, that there is nothing that isnt the Lord; so its the Lord who has become perverted in His manifestation, naturally. The Force of the Lord came to help him and was changed into fear, so the Lords principal perversion is fear!
If you read that, youd say he was going off his rocker.
Yes, one can say absolutely anything with that kind of reasoning.
Exactly! Thats just what happens when you feed people something too strong, something they cant understand and assimilate: it creates incoherence in their brains.
So none of this stuff can be published, though its fine for the Agenda. How can it be told to people?
(silence)
I have the feeling that Sri Aurobindo was in his period of ascent, the intuitive mind was piercing through and coming into contact with the Supermind, and it was coming into his thought like bursts of lightwhoosh! And then he would write these things. But if you follow the movement, you see the Origin.
This is plainly what he meant: Error is one of the innumerable, infinite possibilities (infinite means that absolutely nothing is outside the possibility of being). So where is there room for error in this? Its WE who call it error, its totally arbitrary. Thats an error, we say but in relation to what? To our judgment of what is true, yes, but certainly not in relation to the Lords judgment, since it is part of Him!
Few people can bear this widening of understanding.
When I start looking, you know (Mother closes her eyes), there are two things simultaneously: that smile, that joy, that laughter, and then that peace! Oh really, such peace. Such a full, luminous peace and TOTAL: no more struggle, no more contradictions. No more struggle. A SINGLE luminous harmony and yet everything is there, what we call error, suffering, misery, its all there. NOTHING is done away with. It is another way of seeing.
(long silence)
Theres nothing to sayif you sincerely want to get out of it, its really not so difficult: theres nothing to do but leave everything to the Lord. And He does it all. He does it all, He is its so wonderful! So wonderful!
He takes anything, even what we call a quite ordinary intelligence, and then He simply shows you how to put that intelligence aside, lay it to rest: There now, keep still, dont stir, dont bother me; I dont need you. And then a door opensyou dont even feel you have to open it; its wide open, and youre led through to the other side. Its Someone else who does all this, not you. And then the other way becomes impossible.
Oh, all this frightful toil, this effort of the mind to understand! Struggling, giving itself headachesphew! Absolutely useless, absolutely useless. It leads nowhere, except to more confusion.
You find yourself facing a so-called problem: What am I to say? What am I to do? How should I act? There is nothing to do! Nothing but to say to the Lord, You see, heres the situation. Thats all. And then keep very still. And spontaneously, without thinking about it, without reflecting, without calculating, without doing anything, anything whatsoever, without the slightest effort you do what must be done. But its the Lord who does it, its no longer you. He does it, He arranges the circumstances, He arranges the people, He puts the words in your mouth or under your penHe does it all, all, all, all, and you have nothing more to do, nothing but let yourself live in bliss.
I am beginning to be convinced that people dont really want it.
But its the spadework beforehand, clearing the way for it, thats hard, thats difficult.
You dont even need to do that! He does it for you.
But theres a constant invasion: the old consciousness, the old thoughts.
Yes, out of habit it all tries to start up again. But all you need to say is, Look, Lord; see, see how it is. Thats all. Look at this, Lord, look at that, look at this idiot here and its over. Immediately. And the change comes automatically, mon petit, without the slightest effort. Simply simply be sincere, in other words, TRULY want the right thing. One is quite conscious of being powerless, utterly incompetent: more and more, I feel that this amalgam of matter, of cells and all the rest, is just pitiful! Pitiful. I dont know, under certain conditions people may feel powerful, wonderful, luminous, competent but as far as I am concerned, thats because they have no idea what theyre really like! When you really see what youre made of its nothing, really nothing. But its capable of anything, provided provided you let the Lord do it. The trouble is that something always wants to do things on its own. If it werent like that.
People come, letters arrive, various circumstances and problems arise (its over now, but at the timeeven a year ago that kind of thing was sometimes a problem for me). Well, right away, I (Mother opens her hands in front of her forehead, palms upwards, as though presenting the problem to the Lord): Here, Lord, look at this. All I am good for is (same gesture): I am presenting it to You, Lord. And then I keep still, I just keep still: I wont move unless You move me, I wont speak unless You make me speak. And then you stop thinking about it. You think about it just for a second, long enough to do this (same gesture). It comes in like this, then up it goes (gesture showing a problem coming to Mother from one side and being sent above). And later, you suddenly realize youre speaking or acting or making a decision or writing a letter or and He has done it all.
But one can be full of excellent goodwill and still want to Do things. And thats what complicates everything. Or else theres a lack of faith, a lack of belief in the Lords abilityyou think you have to do things yourself because He doesnt know how! (Mother laughs) This sort of stupidity is very widespread, you know: How can He see these things? Were living in a world of Falsehood, how can He see Falsehood? But in fact He does see things as they are!
And I am not talking about people with no intelligence, but about intelligent people, people who are trying. Theres still a sort of conviction in them somewhere, even in those who know that were living in a world of Ignorance and Falsehood and that theres a Lord who is all truth. Well, they reason that precisely because He is all truth, He wont understand (Mother laughs). He wont understand our falsehood, I have to deal with it on my own. This is a very predominant, very widespread attitude.
One sometimes even goes to a great deal of trouble to explain things to Him: Its this way, You see, thats how it is. And when youre finished, you realize. Oh, that reminds me of an experience I had one night two years ago. It was the first time the Supermind entered the cells of my body, and it had risen up to the brain. So the brain found itself in the presence of something (laughing) considerably more powerful than it was used to receiving! And, like the idiot it is, it got worried. As for me (gesture above or beyond), I saw it all, I saw that the brain was getting worried, so I tried to tell it what a nitwit it was and to just keep still. It did keep still, but you know, it was really seething away in there, as if it were about to explode. So I said, All right now, lets go see Sri Aurobindo and ask him what to do. Immediately everything became utterly calm and I woke up in Sri Aurobindos house in the subtle physicala very material sensation, with everything quite concrete. So I arrived, or rather not I but the body-consciousness arrived2 and started explaining to Sri Aurobindo what had happenedit was very excited, talking and talking. The response was a sort of inscrutable smile and then nothing. He simply looked. An inscrutable smilenot a word. All the excitement died away. A face out of eternity. The excitement died away. Then it was time for Sri Aurobindos lunch (people eat therein another way). So as not to disturb him, I went into the next room. He came in after some time and stood before me (Imy physical being, that is, my physical consciousness had had time to calm down). I knelt down and took his hand (a MUCH clearer sensation than anything physical, mon petit!); I kissed his hand. He simply said, Oh! This is better. (Mother laughs.)
I am skipping all the details (it was a long thing, lasting an hour), but suddenly he went out of the room, leaving me alone (after expressing what he wanted to tell me with a gesture, which I understood). And then I simply seemed to take a step (gesture of crossing a threshold), and I found myself lying in my bed again. And at that moment I said to myself, Really! We make all kinds of complications, and its so simple: you just have to go like this (same gesture) and there you are; then you go like that (same gesture in the opposite direction) and youre back here.
(silence)
All this is now ancient historyVERY old. Its not like that at all any more.
Oh, we make things complicated for nothing!
Theres no way you can make use of all this; its strictly for the Agenda.
I often wonder: when one prays to the Lord, when one wants to tell Him that somethings wrong, I always feel its necessary to concentrate very hard because its really something Far you have to call. But is this true? Or is it really.
It depends on us!
Personally, you know, I have come to feel Him everywhere, all the time, all the time, to the point of actual physical contact (its subtle physical, but physical): in things, in the air, in people, in like this (Mother presses her hands against her face). So I dont have far to go! I just have to do this (Mother turns her hands slightly inwards), one seconds concentration and there He is! Because He is here, you know, He is everywhere.
He is far only if we think Hes far.
Of course, when we start thinking of all the zones, all the universal planes of consciousness, and that Hes way, way, way up there at the end of all that, well then it does become very far, very far indeed! (Mother laughs) But if we think of Him as being everywhere, in everything, that He is everything, that only our way of perceiving things keeps us from seeing and feeling Him, and all we have to do is this (Mother turns her hands inwards) a movement like this, a movement like that (Mother turns her hands inwards and outwards in turn), then it gets to be quite concrete: you go like this (outward gesture) and everything becomes artificialhard, dry, false, deceptive, artificial; you go like that (inward gesture) and all is vast, tranquil, luminous, peaceful, immense, joyous. And its merely this or that (Mother turns her hands inwards and outwards in turn). How? Where? It cant be described, but it is solelysolelya movement of consciousness, nothing else. A movement of consciousness. And the difference between the true and the false consciousness becomes more and more precise and at the same time THIN: you dont need to do great things to get out of it. Before, there used to be a feeling of living WITHIN something and that a great effort of interiorization, concentration, absorption was needed to get out of it; but now I feel its something one accepts (Mother puts her hand in front of her face like a screen), something like a thin little rind, very hardmalleable, but very hard, very dry, very thin, very thin something like a mask you put on then you go like this (gesture), and its gone.
I foresee a time when it will no longer be necessary to be aware of the mask: the mask will be so thin that we can see and feel and act through it, and it wont be necessary to put it back on.
Thats what is starting to happen.
But this Presence in all things. It is a Vibrationa Vibration containing everything. A Vibration containing a sort of infinite power, infinite joy, infinite peace, and immensity, IMMENSITY, IMMENSITY: its boundless. But it is solely a Vibration, it doesnt. Oh, Lord! It cant be thought, so it cant be described. If you think as soon as you start thinking, its the same old mess again. Thats why you cant say anything.
Indeed, He is far because you think He is far. If you could just, you know, think of Him being right here, like this (gesture close to the face), touching you if you could feel this. Its not like touching another person, its not like that. Its not something foreign, external, coming to you from outsideno! Its everywhere.
There was a period when I used to sort of curl up into a ball Within. For the least difficulty I became just like a circumference! All curled up into a ball Within.
And you feel Him everywhere, everywhere, everywherewithin, without, everywhere. Him, nothing but HimHim, His Vibration.
But you have to shut this off (the head). Until you shut it off, you cant see the TRUE thingyou can only use comparisons, you say its like this or like that oh!
(silence)
And how many times, how many times the feeling that. There is no formthere is a form and there is none, it just cant be expressed. You feel a look, too, and there are no eyesthere is no look but there is a look; a look and a smile and theres no mouth, no face! And yet there is a smile and a look and (Mother laughs) you cant help saying, Yes, Lord, I am stupid! But He laughsand you laugh, and youre happy.
It cant, it cant be explained! It cant be expressed. You cant say anything. Whatever you say is nothing, nothing.
Well.
Anyway, if you can get a suitable half page for the Bulletin out of this.
No, I am incapable of speaking, I cant say anything publishable; its impossible, impossible. It seems so artificial to me, so artificial. And besides, it gives me a headache.
So youre the one who has to do the work. You can condense a littlea sentence here, a sentence there.
Well, petit.
I am not worth much at the moment!
Bring me your book on the 16th.
Thats whats difficultwriting.
Not at all, mon petit! You just call on the Lord and say Now then: heres the program. And thats enoughit comes.
It comes.
It would be all right if I was writing stories or poetry, but to write something that has to hang together.
That doesnt matter! It will hang together by an invisible thread, and that will be far more interesting.
Sri Aurobindo's old cook, round as a barrel.
It is quite remarkable that it was the body-consciousness that discoverednine years after his passingSri Aurobindo's abode (experience of July 24-25, 1959). The world where Mother went is thus a material world, not an "inner" world. The other Matter, the true Matter? We recall that in her very last Playground class, on November 28, 1958, Mother said: "Through each individual formation, physical substance progresses, and one day it will be able to build a bridge between physical life as we know it and the supramental life that is to manifest."
***
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last updated: 2022-02-04 21:51:56
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