(Mother was strongly shaken on Wednesday the 16th and could not see Satprem.)
They have mixed me up (in Delhi and here) in all their political affairs… “mixed me up,” I mean they’re asking for my help. Some people are discontented and without scruples, and there was some mischief (on Wednesday, when I couldn’t see you). I realized it afterwards. But it’s troublesome. I haven’t told anyone what it was. It was an incredible affair… with no cause, no reason,1 and when I looked, I saw where it came from.
Anyway, I was in no condition to see anyone. That’s troublesome. It’s about their politics—here [in Pondicherry], it’s some nasty business, but in Delhi, it’s about their president.2 Anyway, I think they have found someone…. There’s Deshmukh (it seems his name has been proposed), and I said, “Very good.” Yes, this Deshmukh is a very fine man—if he agrees. I didn’t think he would accept, but it seems his name is there.3 But all that… Well, all that is to tell you why I didn’t see you on Wednesday.
But who did “mischief”?
I don’t exactly know where it comes from. I can’t accuse anyone because I don’t know where it comes from. But it’s… Once they had tried that on me (long ago, very long ago, when I was downstairs; at that time I don’t think we used to see each other often). But they have a trick, a sort of… I don’t know what, some trick of magic that causes your body to empty itself completely. Generally it kills people. The first time it really shook me, but… This time it was much less strong, but it’s the same thing. It stopped all functions, digestion and everything.
Anyway, it’s settled.
But there’s an interesting thing Nolini showed me yesterday. There’s a French lady, an astrologer, it seems, who has the reputation of being very skilled;4 she has made a prediction based on the stars, according to which in July this year (that is, this month), India would be in a very great difficulty (just what is happening), but she adds that India would come out of it with a great improvement of consciousness…. I haven’t seen [her prediction] in detail, I don’t know, but it seems she almost announces a sort of change of government…. But the disorder is there, oh, awful!…5 Everybody quarrels! And some people are without any scruples whatsoever. They are all against the prime minister because she wants to nationalize the banks; she wants to nationalize the banks because she has realized that there’s a gang of rich men (whom I know and had been denouncing for a very long time) who monopolize everything and cause general misery—people absolutely devoid of scruples. So then, by nationalizing the banks, she hopes to prevent them from… I told you there’s a gang of people (I’d rather not name them) who have money everywhere, and huge amounts abroad. So they have the country by the throat, because they can cause a bankruptcy here whenever they like. She knows it, and those are people no one has ever dared to touch. But as for her, she has found this solution: if she nationalizes the banks, they won’t be able to do their mischief anymore. So they’re furious—furious. And they have all kinds of means at their disposal….6 And through N.S., she is in constant contact with me, asking for help, for an indication, and so on.
We’ll see. I was happy with this prediction because… All depends on whether she’ll stand firm. If she stands firm, it will be all right.
We’ll see.
But a few days ago too, I felt there was the beginning of something.
Ah!
While usually those quarrels don’t strike me at all. I clearly felt, “This is the beginning of something.” That was three or four days ago, before all these events…. But this thought also came to me, “Won’t the Chinese take advantage of the situation?”
The danger is there.
But the internal chaos… already almost exists, you know.
Naturally, the Chinese would likely take advantage of it immediately.
(long silence)
***
(Then Mother takes from the table by her side a few letters of Sri Aurobindo which she intends to publish, including these:)
“The prestige of an institution claiming to be a centre of spirituality lies in its spirituality (Mother laughs), not in newspaper columns or famous people.”
This, I know, is about the Theosophical Society. I don’t know whom he wrote it to.7
“A sincere heart is worth all the extraordinary powers in the world.”
It’s lovely.
Then there is this… (Mother shows a note). You know that a Commission came from the government, and when they left, they asked if I could give them something. I gave them this:
“There is a Supreme Divine Consciousness. We want to manifest this divine Consciousness in the physical life.”
***
Soon afterwards
There was someone in America whom I would often see at night, a woman. I would go there, talk, and people answered…. Some of those night activities are strange: I feel as if I enter someone, because I speak, people answer me…. And I don’t know whom I enter or what it is. But there was someone I would often see: I would see her house, I would see gatherings (there were gatherings), I would see… I didn’t know who it was. Then, one day, we got a letter from a woman who said that for 1972, she wanted to get a boat and come with a group of people in that boat. I replied, and she sent her photo—it was the person I had seen so often and was in contact with! And she is a woman who seems to have authority there (she looks like a rich woman): she has authority, she knows government people and has written to them. She already has a very large group, there seems to be some good work being done in America. Very receptive and full of energy. I still remember that my conversations [with her] were very interesting. And the other day, her letter came (it was the second or third time she wrote) along with her photo, so I recognized her. That’s interesting, because… (just then the door of Mother’s room slams) the contact was constant: the place is constant, the people are constant, and I see them very often, it’s not something just random. She wrote to the government to tell them that they should take special interest in Auroville and do something. And she seems to have authority there.
(Sujata goes and sees who slammed the door, then comes back)
What is it? What happened?
Someone opened this door, then closed it again, and nobody is there!
Gone?… But isn’t Champaklal there?…
No, Mother.
Oh, when no one is there on the landing, some people come upstairs and into the room!… (Mother laughs) Once there was a big to-do: it was in the morning and I was seeing people, when suddenly there barged in a very tall man. So everyone rushed to him and took him out. It seems that man had written to me that he wanted to see me, and I hadn’t replied, so (laughing) he had decided he would come without reply!… A fairly young man. Afterwards he said (he knew some people here, who told him it was a big scandal), he said, “I don’t even know why or how I did it!…” He was waiting there in front of the door on the terrace, and M. who had just seen me came out; thinking the man had come to see me, M. told him, “Come with me,” and the man replied, “Go ahead, I’ll follow you,” but instead of following him he came right in here! Then he said he hadn’t the least idea how or why he had done it…. So it means there are “formations” waiting there to get hold of people.
(silence)
I have become a little too “public” for my taste…. Yesterday, the whole morning I saw people from the government here. The [Pondicherry] governor comes very often: he comes, sits down, removes his Gandhi cap, then settles there in front of me, and stays for at least five minutes like that [absorbing energies]… like a sponge.
(silence)
Do you have anything to say?
Last time, you spoke about the subtle physical—about sleep and the subtle physical….
Yes.
Then you told me…
Yes, yes, I haven’t forgotten!
I must be dense because…
So then?
Well, yes, I am dense!
(after a long silence)
Nothing has happened?
No, Mother. But I have resumed doing japa. Instead of doing my mantra “just like that,” I have started doing it again systematically. Before going to sleep, for instance…
Ah!
For about half an hour. I don’t know, but anyway I think it’s a long process and one has to be patient.
Yes, yes.
(silence)
There’s a new phenomenon during the night. One phenomenon was there before, but has grown more precise: it’s a place in the subtle physical where those with a body and those without a body are mingled without difference. They have the same reality, the same density and the same conscious, independent existence. There I see… Last night (or the night before, I don’t know), there were things like that: Chandulal8 was there, Amrita too, they met and talked, made plans together, just as they would have done physically on earth. It wasn’t the first time they were meeting, and they said to each other, “I’ll tell you tomorrow…” like that, regarding their ideal. Interesting things. There’s another… (Mother tries to remember) Ah, yes, Purani9 also. They go about there. There’s an extraordinary likeness to material life, except that you can feel they’re freer in their movement. But that’s not new, it’s just growing more concrete and precise. What’s new is what has taken place these last few nights…
My sleep is no longer sleep at all, I don’t know, it’s a sort of… (gesture as if Mother drew her energies within) withdrawal, that is, I go within, and then I am active. And those people are in that same state. Among them, some are with people who still have a body: it’s not just those who no longer have a body. So then, I am also there, and in the same kind of state. But the strange thing is that when I supposedly “wake up” and get up, I go on with something (laughing) that’s not physical! You understand, the state of over there goes on, and it’s as real, as tangible as physical things; and after half an hour I realize that I have moved about here and done all kinds of things ENTIRELY in that consciousness!…10 What’s that consciousness?…
It’s a very clear, very harmonious consciousness, in which there are no difficulties, and very creative…. I don’t know what it is….11 This morning it was peculiar: for a half-hour I was literally there [in that world], and I wasn’t aware of it! It’s afterwards that I wondered, “But… is it physically like this?” There was someone, you understand, I was with someone [in that world], and I wondered, “But is this person physically like this? Is it physical?” And I was standing!… So it’s as if the two worlds were… (Mother slips the fingers of her right hand through those of her left hand). Strange….
The physical appears to be less imperative, less… Previously, there was the impression that, all right, it wasn’t a “dream” as people call it, but a more subtle and less precise consciousness, and that the physical consciousness was quite concrete and precise (Mother gestures as if to knock against something). But now this distinction… the other consciousness has become almost more concrete and real than the physical consciousness; the purely material consciousness is more wobbly: the impression of something not too… not too steady—not too steady, it’s odd.12
That’s odd; it’s new, it began two days ago.
We’ll see.
(long silence)
Maybe a new consciousness is trying to use this body?… It’s a new consciousness in the sense that what this body did, its activities, all the events of its life, appear in the memory as COMPLETELY different from the way it remembered them—not that events have changed, but the sense or sensation or vision or understanding of things is COMPLETELY, completely different. Completely different. It finds its earlier state… unconscious to the point of stupidity—for everything, everything. And there is a sort of… strange gap: it now finds its former state of consciousness artificial, untrue, and… incredibly stupid; and then, in the new consciousness, the SAME circumstances have a completely different MEANING—another meaning, they give another sensation.
I think there’s something changing in here.
And at the same time, a sense of… (what should I call it?) unimportance, of nothingness, and then the sensation, the perception of the divine Presence, so concrete, so powerful… that sometimes I get the feeling people will break down! (Mother laughs) That’s how it is: when they’re here I feel as if… (gesture) That so-called “accident” of last Wednesday has had a very considerable effect on the body consciousness: it’s now very different. The perception of a Power limited only by… the prudence of an infinite Patience. Like that. And at the same time… well, what we might call “remnants of personality,” reduced to a musty and absolutely unimportant state.13 The two are there together. But it’s very difficult…. For instance, they’ve taken new photos [of Mother], yesterday I saw a number of them: I looked at them as I would look at the photos of someone else—they were exactly like the photos of someone else! And I passed some comments, mon petit! (laughing) I remember the impression I had while looking at them…. Well, I do think I’ve changed quite a bit in appearance, too, haven’t I? Haven’t I changed?
I wouldn’t be able to say.
You haven’t noticed.
Have you seen those photos?
No, Mother.
There must be a big beige envelope there.
(Sujata brings the envelope)
I don’t know if they are the ones…. There’s a photo taken in profile….
(Mother and Satprem look at the photos)
You have very different expressions!
Haven’t I!
Yes, but you also look very mocking!
One especially…
A slightly mischievous air…
(Mother searches among the photos)
It’s the eyes that I find different.
That photo isn’t here, I don’t know where it is…. Ah, here it is (Mother shows a photo taken in profile). Don’t you find it strange?
Yes, a little… Yes, it’s not the usual thing.
Isn’t it?
Strange… Yesterday, they had me sign them (because they made lots of them so as to distribute them), and I don’t even know who spoke, but when I looked… (I took the magnifying glass and looked) I said, “Oh… Oh, she is a dangerous person, she knows too much!” It was exactly the impression… like what ordinary humanity feels: a sort of fear of someone who knows too much—because it’s true, when people are sitting here in front of me and I look at them, I see what they think, I see what they feel, I see what they want, you understand, all of it. It’s not that I try to see: it’s more visible for me than the features of their faces. So then, it was like their impression: brrr! let’s beware! (laughter)
You look a bit Chinese in these photos.
Very Chinese, very Chinese. But long ago, I saw an old Chinese come into me. It was a man, and an old Chinese….14
Through all these photos it’s striking.
Yes. But what’s most, most extraordinary is this change of consciousness of the BODY!… You understand, it’s as if it were reliving… they are things that have remained in the consciousness because the psychic being took part—they’re very clear, very precise; the rest has been erased (it’s been like that for a long time). Well, those things were recorded by the psychic being, and the body had an impression, you understand, an impression of its own; now the psychic consciousness is the same, it sees things in the same way, but the physical impression is completely different!… Which means it’s the PHYSICAL consciousness that has changed. These last few days it has become very, VERY clear. It began on Wednesday—from Wednesday to today: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday… It’s quite recent.
(Laughing) A dangerous person!
(Satprem lays his forehead on Mother’s knees and prepares to leave)
(Mother looks at Satprem) I have a sort of impression that … there’s going to be a change for you too, for your nights.
We’ll see.
Violent vomiting, probably the result of some magic. ↩
All parties, including the Congress, are divided over the choice of a new president of India: Indira proposes V. V. Giri, who will be elected, while the "old Congress" proposes Sanjiva Reddy, who will become president in 1977. ↩
C. D. Deshmukh will withdraw his candidacy. ↩
Madeleine Montalban. ↩
A split within the Congress Committee between "rightist" and "leftist" elements. Finally, the prime minister, Indira Gandhi, took away the finance portfolio from Morarji Desai, the deputy prime minister, and declared her intention to nationalize banks (which she did two days later). This will lead to a scission in the Congress, and this same faction will overthrow Indira in 1977. ↩
Including Tantrics experts in black magic. ↩
In fact, the text of this letter was given truncated to Mother. Sri Aurobindo was referring to the Ashram and not to the Theosophical Society. Here is the full text of the letter: "Queer idea all you fellows seem to have of the 'prestige' of the Asram. The prestige of an institution claiming to be a centre of spirituality lies in its spirituality, not in newspaper columns or famous people. Is it because of this mundane view of life and of the Asram held by the sadhaks that this Asram is not yet the centre of spirituality it set out to be?" (Nirodbaran's Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo, vol. 2, p. 1105. Even in the Centenary Edition—26.380-381—the last sentence was omitted.) ↩
Chandulal is the engineer who built Golconde. He left his body in November 1945... twenty-four years earlier. ↩
Purani left his body in December 1965. ↩
Mother described a similar phenomenon two years earlier (the story of a golden watch). See Agenda VIII of August 30, 1967. ↩
Also in 1967, about the story of a diplomat's son killed during the war who had merged with Pavitra, Mother said, "It's a knowledge of the CELLS' consciousness." See Agenda VIII of March 7, 1967. ↩
Could it be the transition from the physical, material consciousness as we know it to the cellular consciousness in which there are not two "sides"—one of "life" and one of "death"—but something else? ↩
Mother is referring to her own body. ↩
Could it be the old Chinese who gave Mother delicious food, then said, "I have no path"? See Agenda VII of 11 February 1966. ↩
***
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