So? Have you come with a question on these aphorisms?
There arent many questions to ask.
I count on the question to set off the movement, because for the moment theres nothing.
More and more its like that: I know what I must do at the time of doing it, I know what I must say at the time of saying it. I dont try, though once or twice I did try just to seeuseless, nothing comes. But when it has to come, it comes as if a tap were openedeffortlessly, without my having to do anything, it just comes.
So for the moment, nothing.
Read me those aphorisms again.
81Gods laughter is sometimes very coarse and unfit for polite ears; He is not satisfied with being Molire, He must needs also be Aristophanes and Rabelais.
82If men took life less seriously, they could very soon make it more perfect.
Indeed!
God never takes His works seriously; therefore one looks out on this wonderful universe.
So whats your question?
One may ask how taking things seriously prevents life from being more perfect?
(After a long silence) Virtue has always been busy eliminating things from life and (laughing) if we could put together all the virtues from all the countries in the world, nothing much would remain in life!
Virtue claims to seek perfection, but perfection is a totality. So the two movements are contradictory: virtue, which eliminates, prunes, sets limits, and perfection, which accepts everything, rejects nothing but puts everything in its place, evidently cannot go well together.
Taking life seriously generally consists of two movements: the first is to give importance to things that probably have none, and the second is to want life to be limited to a certain number of qualities considered to be pure and worthy. With some (for instance, those Sri Aurobindo refers to here: the prudish or the puritans), that virtue becomes dry, barren, gray, aggressive, and almost always finds fault in all that is joyful, free and happy.
The only way to make life perfect (I mean here life on earth, of course) is to look at it from a sufficient height to see it in its totality, not only its present totality, but over the whole past, present and future: what it has been, what it is, what it must beyou must be able to see it all at once. Because thats the only way to put everything in its place. Nothing can be done away with, nothing SHOULD be done away with, but each thing must find its own place in total harmony with the rest. Then all those things that appear so evil, so reprehensible and unacceptable to the puritan mind would become movements of joy and freedom in a totally divine life. And then nothing would stop us from knowing, understanding, feeling and living this wonderful Laughter of the Supreme who takes infinite delight in watching Himself live infinitely.
This delight, this wonderful Laughter which dissolves all shadows, all pain, all suffering We only have to go deep enough into ourselves to find the inner Sun and let ourselves be bathed in it. Then everything is but a cascade of harmonious, luminous, sun-filled laughter which leaves no room for shadow and pain.
In fact, even the greatest difficulty, even the greatest grief, even the greatest physical pain, if you can look at them from THERE, take your stand THERE, you see the unreality of the difficulty, the unreality of the grief, the unreality of the pain and all becomes a joyful and luminous vibration.
It is ultimately the most powerful means of dissolving difficulties, overcoming grief and getting rid of pain. The first two [difficulties and grief] are relatively easy (relatively), the last [pain] is more difficult because of our habit of regarding the body and its sensations as extremely concrete and positive but actually it is the same thing, its just that we havent been taught and accustomed to seeing our body as something fluid, plastic, uncertain, malleable. We havent learned to permeate it with this luminous Laughter which dissolves all shadows and difficulties, all discords, all disharmony, all that grates, cries and weeps.
(silence)
This Sun the Sun of divine laughteris a: the core of everything, it is the truth of everything. What is needed is to learn to see it, feel it, live it.
And for that, let us flee from those who take life seriously, they are the most boring people on earth!
Thats all.
But its true. The other day I was telling you about some cellular difficulties. I noticed that as soon as they start, I start laughing! But if someone is here and I tell him the difficulty solemnly, it goes from bad to worse; if I start laughing and talk about it laughingly, it vanishes. Really, its dreadful to take life seriously! Dreadful. Those who have given me the most difficulties have always been the people who take life seriously.
Ive had this experience even just recently. All that comes to me from people who have dedicated their lives to spiritual life, people who do a yoga in the traditional way, who are very solemn, who see adversaries everywhere, obstacles everywhere, taboos everywhere, prohibitions everywhere, oh, how they complicate life and how far they are from the Divine! I saw this the other day with someone you know. With that kind of people, you should not do this, should not do that, should not At such and such time you must not do this, on such and such day you must not do that; you should not eat this, you should not And then, for heavens sake, dont you go mixing your daily life with your sacred life!thats how you dig an abyss.
Its the exact, exact opposite of what I feel now: no matter what happens something wrong in the body, something wrong with people, something wrong in circumstancesinstantly, the first movement: O my sweet Lord, my Beloved! And I laugh! And then all is well. I did this the other day (its spontaneous and instantaneous, it isnt thought out or willed or plannednone of itit just happens), it happened the other day (I dont recall the details but it was over a circumstance that hardly seemed sacred): I saw myself, and I started laughing. I said, But look! I dont need to be serious, I dont need to be solemn!
As soon as it comes (Mother makes a solemn face), I get suspicious, I say to myself, Oh, something is wrong, some influence or other must have entered the atmosphere that shouldnt be there. All that remorse, all that regret, all that ooh! The sense of indignity, of fault and, going a little farther, the sense of sinoh, that! That seems to me to belong to another age, a Dark Age.
But especially all the prohibitions. For instance, let me quote you a statement from X which I heard from a third person: I will do a special puja to help money come. I will prepare a special yantram1 to bring money. But FOR GODS SAKE dont say anything [to Mother], dont do anything or give anything before January 14, because until January 14, a certain planet is in opposition to a certain other planet (Mother laughs), so things follow a downward trend and wont be successful. But afterwards, that particular planet will be ascending and everything will be successful! (Mother laughs) Something in me said spontaneously (something, well, someone), spontaneously and immediately, But why? I can always hear! And I laughed. So they thought I was making fun of him I dont make fun: I laugh, its not the same!
So, mon petit, thats all.
You can read me another aphorism. Thats enough for this one, its settled!
Whats the next one?
83Shame has admirable results and both in aesthetics and in morality we could ill spare it; but for all that it is a badge of weakness and the proof of ignorance.
Its the same thing! Thats what I said at the end: the sense of sin, regret, remorse, all of it, oh! That will do, wont it?
***
(Then Mother examines the list of people she will receive the following days and the birthday greetings to be given.)
February 2 is C.s birthday, so Ill give him a meditation, because these are people who still believe in meditation! (Mother laughs)
It has become quite an entertaining little field of experiences, by the way. Because nowadays I send people cards, and I have lots of cards, innumerable kinds of cards2 (C. spends his time preparing them), and automatically, whenever I have to write a card for someone, it isnt as I decided beforeh and (because sometimes I decide beforehand), the choice is made at the last minute: THIS is the card I must send and THIS is what I must say. I neednt worry about it, it comes just in time. Then I only have to get up, go find the card, write, and its all over. People will tell me (precisely those who lead a spiritual life), What! You make such a trifle the object of a spiritual experience! And its the same with ALL small things: what object to be used, what perfume to put on, what bath salts, all manner of futile, frivolous, unimportant thingsHow shocking! I dont even make an effort to find out or to (think, thank God I dont think!), it just comes: this, that, that. Not saidKNOWN. It isnt even said, I am not told, Do this, never. Its KNOWN: Ah, here we are, thats it! And I choose and do itvery comfortable!
It was actually my experience (for a long, long time, many years) but, these last few days, concrete, in the bodys cells. There arent things in which the Lord is and things in which He isntthere are only fools who think so! He is ALWAYS there. He takes nothing seriously and has fun with everything. And He plays with you, if you know how to play but you dont, people dont know how to play. But how well He knows! How He plays with everything, with the smallest things: you have objects to put on your table? Dont think you have to ponder over how to arrange themno, well play: lets put this here, lets put that there, lets put this like that. Then some other day (because people think, Now she has decided on this arrangement, so thats the way its going to bewell, not so!), some other day (they want to help you! They want to help you put things in order, so it just becomes a mess!), I stay still and quiet, and then we start playing: So! Lets put this here, and that there, and this there ah! (Mother laughs) Since I saw you last time it has been that way constantly, probably to prepare me for this aphorism!
Very entertaining.
There you are, mon petit.
Agreed, then, well try and learn to laugh with the Lord.
I know I know He wants me to learn not to take seriously the responsibility (responsibility isnt the right word), the formidable task of finding 8,000 rupees a day to meet the Ashrams expensesin other words, a colossal fortune every month.
And I very well see (because I told Him several times, You know, it would be great fun if I had plenty of money to play with), so I see that He laughs, but He doesnt answer! He teaches me to be able to laugh at this difficulty, to see the cashier send me his book in which the figures are growing astronomical ([laughing] its by 50,000, 60,000, 80,000, 90,000), while the drawer is nearly empty! And He wants me to learn to laugh at it. The day when I can really laughlaugh, enjoy myselfSINCERELY (not through effortyou can do anything you want through effort), when it makes me laugh spontaneously, I think it will change. Because otherwise its impossible. You see, we have fun with all sorts of things, theres no reason we couldnt have fun with more money than we need and do things in style! It will surely happen one day, but we shouldwe shouldnt be overwhelmed by the amount, and for that we shouldnt take money seriously.
We shouldnt take money seriously.
Its very hard nowadays, because all over the world people take money seriously, and that makes it very hard. Especially those who have money. Those who have money, how seriously they take it, oh, Lord! Thats why its difficult. We should be able to laughlaugh, laugh frankly and sincerely, then it would be over.
Well! All right, well talk about it again.
Good-bye, mon petit.
Yantram: a ritual drawing used to "capture" forces.
Showing flowers, landscapes, symbolic photographs, etc.
***
January 12, 1963
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