(The conversation begins ten minutes early. Mother hands a "Transformation"flower to Satprem.)
Would you like one?
Yes, it’s necessary!
They’re pretty… Only one is necessary: all the way down, this one (Mother gives the flower, laughing).
To you (to Sujata) I give four.
There.
But does it get done independently of our effort?
Something is done, that I know. Something is done.
The Pressure is very strong, and some people even take it to be discomfort. I made the experiment on my body: the moment of the change of authority—you know, it goes from one authority to another—is always difficult, and if one isn’t aware one can take it to be the sign of an illness, you understand, the beginning of an illness. I have noticed that with many people here, in the Ashram, it’s like that. They think they’re ill—it’s not that, it’s the uncertainty… it’s the cells which no longer know whom they must obey. So if there is the conscious Pressure, it’s over very soon. But I’ve seen things… If all those things were told in detail, they would truly look like a multitude of small miracles; it’s not that, it’s quite simply that the Consciousness is working, but instead of stretching over a very long time, it gets done very fast. It starts as a great pain here or there, something completely disorganized, but if one remains very still and calls the Consciousness, then… it melts, it disappears—but “just like that,” in a few minutes. I have that all the time, the experience takes place four or five times a day Yet, there’s still a lot of work to be done. And the appearance (it’s perfectly obvious) will be the LAST thing to change, it will take perhaps much more time than the inner change.1
At the last attack, I stooped, and it hasn’t gone (at one point, I even thought that when A.R. came, he might be able to do something—it didn’t do anything at all… the time hadn’t come). Then, quite recently, two or three times, there came the consciousness of straightening up—I was able to straighten up quite well, but… it came as if to tell me, “See, this is how it will take place.” Then it left, because the time hadn’t come yet. It left. The visible change seems to be meant to be the last, and… God knows when it will come.
The inner change is being made. But for those who aren’t aware, it’s deceptive, because it may even begin with a rather strong pain.
The physical consciousness (if we can call it “consciousness”: the consciousness contained in the cells—not deep down, but the consciousness that makes the cells function) is accustomed to effort, struggle, misery, defeat… so accustomed—that’s quite universal. In people, it’s only their mental consciousness (and often, when they are more advanced, their vital consciousness) that holds out; but their physical consciousness tends to foresee catastrophe, so accustomed it is: the end, you know, that end which for centuries and centuries was inescapable…. It weighs down. It’s very difficult. It takes a very slow and constant work to replace that sort of habit… of defeat, basically, with a… It mustn’t be a will, it must be a faith; there must be faith. So then, for that faith to settle, first the cells must be wholly, completely surrendered, that is, constantly turned towards the Supreme with… “Let Your Will be done,” whatever it is. “It doesn’t concern me, it’s not my business: let Your Will be done.” So when that is well settled, little by little the true consciousness can come; the true consciousness that truth is Harmony, truth is Progress, truth is Light, truth is… Then, little by little, it comes. But it’s a long work.
Only, as I said in the last “Notes,”2 what is learned is learned, there are no more fluctuations. But, of course, there are lots of cells. Scientifically, do you know how many?
No, it must be billions.
Yes, something like that. And one feels them: some vibrate and are luminous, but they’re swamped in the mass….
I told you last time that when I was at the piano, I noticed that my hands were very conscious, that is to say, extremely receptive, they found it perfectly natural—there was no connection with the body consciousness, they were moved by the higher Consciousness…. The hands have had a special education. But you understand…
And there is a part, the part of the body most in contact with outside (Mother touches the region of the mouth and throat), this part, this center which is in contact with outside, all this… oh, it’s difficult, very difficult. Now and then with an aspiration, there is a beginning of change, and then it causes a sort of catastrophe! Choking and coughing and… horrible. Then I am obliged to calm things down—and wait. It has to take time. The organism wouldn’t have the power to withstand the disorder that creates.
Moreover, Sri Aurobindo told me straight out, he said to me, “We can’t hope it will take less than two years.”
Two years?
Two hundred years! We can’t hope it will take less than two hundred years. He said, “Normally, it should take three hundred years.” He himself had begun it, of course, and he knew—he knew very well, I saw it when he left: the consciousness which came out of his body and straight into mine… quite a lot of it! Yet that didn’t prevent him from being ill.
It’s a big task.
But this Consciousness is very active. And it’s active to make one conscious; so one with a bad character gets a still worse character, and one who is wicked gets still more wicked! That’s how it is. And one who is sensitive gets still more sensitive. That makes life extremely difficult, extremely…
It’s obvious that time—time, that sort of work of Nature which seemed to be a ceaseless waste of time and of everything—may have been a charity It was so as not to upset things! I SEE that. I see it: you understand, confusion is growing increasingly acute, difficulties increasingly difficult—naturally, the consciousness is clearer and clearer, it’s very clear, oh, very clear… That’s really interesting. I’ll look at someone, I’ll hear a work, I’ll be told some affair, and instantly the complete picture is there (gesture as a film just before Mother’s eyes), along with everyone’s impressions; and if I am very quiet and attentive, the consequences, what’s going to happen.
(silence)
I told you that I did what Sri Aurobindo had done, that is, being absolutely passive, with the aspiration—living ONLY in the aspiration to unite with and manifest the Divine: the ONLY occupation. But then, I saw that life was getting more and more disorganized!3 So I decided that on certain points, what I saw as being the true thing, I would impose. And I must say that the Power is really powerful! (Mother laughs) See the result!4 I decided. I was expecting more resistance, but there was none. We’ll see if now it continues…5
***
(Soon afterwards, regarding the English translation of “the Great Sense,” a text written by Satprem.)
I wrote it for Italian television, but then, they’re under the control of the Vatican, so they didn’t want it.
It’s very, very, very good. We must print that.
For the English, I’m not absolutely sure of myself, which is why I want someone else to see it again, but in the last analysis… Because the connection with Sri Aurobindo is constant, so I can ask him. And more and more, he lets me know English accurately But languages are evolving a lot: French is evolving, English too, a lot. And the strange thing is that languages are moving closer; instead of moving away from each other, they’re moving closer. There’s a world language being prepared somewhere—not here, somewhere.
Sri Aurobindo used to say that frenchifying the English form improved it, while on the contrary, anglicizing the French language diminished it. The French language is clearer. But it’s a bit rigid, it needs suppleness.
(silence)
I am not surprised they didn’t take it [The Great Sense], it’s a fighting work.
It’s for the youth, that’s where it must go; it’s for those who aren’t satisfied and who seek something.
It seems almost certain that Mother meant to say the opposite: much less time. Let us recall that she once said to Satprem, "In the end, it's nothing—a mere breath and it will be done." ↩
Conversation of October 1: "When the physical has learned something, it never forgets, that doesn't budge anymore." ↩
Like these conversations which began an hour and a half late. ↩
This conversation began at 9:50. ↩
The previous state of things was to return on the sly. ↩
***
November 5, 1969
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