In any case, my speculations about an extreme form of divinisation are something in a far distance and are in no part of the preoccupations of the spiritual life in the near future.¹

-7 December, 1949

Preface

“...but... it’s done".

(long silence)

That was the work Sri Aurobindo had given me, that was it. Now I understand.”

The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1970: March 14, 1970 But what is the Agenda?

And what is the work that Sri Aurobindo had given to the Mother, which was accomplished by Her?

This book is a modest effort to answer these two questions. Chapter 1 introduces us to Mother’s Agenda, and subsequent chapters provide a narration of some of the important steps that preceded the Mother’s declaration of the work that Sri Aurobindo had given to Her, as also some of the next steps.

It seems, however, useful to present in this Preface the conversation given in Volume 3 of Mother’s Agenda, where the Mother explains what a tremendous value she attached to the Agenda.

Here is that conversation in full:

March 13, 1962

You’re in a bad mood; oh yes, I could see it from far away.

(Satprem voices various complaints, then adds.) And then to top it off, the other day you tell me this Agenda isn’t interesting either, that it’s not worth keeping. So what am I doing here?

What? What’s not worth keeping?

Your Agenda.

My Agenda? but I treasure it!

Oh, you said it didn’t interest you…

Me? I said that!

Yes. You sure did!

Then I was lying.

No, obviously not. But you said it didn’t interest you and it should be filed away in a corner or I don’t know what. So what am I doing here?

You surely misunderstood me. I said it’s unpublishable for the time being; that’s quite different.

Yes, it’s certainly not publishable right now.

And I made a date with you for fifty years from now. I was very serious: I was laughing. When I laugh I am being serious.

No, no, mon petit, it’s simply that... you have swallowed some poison.

No, you even told me that if you happened to go you would leave a note saying it shouldn’t be published.

Published? Certainly not in the newspapers. It will be for those interested in the yoga.

Well, that’s different.

I was speaking about newspapers and magazines and the outside world. I said, “I don’t want the outside world to scoff at something sacred.” that’s all.

Of course.

And that’s all I said. Maybe I didn’t put it in exactly those words, but I said it was for those who love me. That’s the point. For those who have loved me, well, it’s all right, I give it to them; even if they forget me, it will make them remember. But it’s my gift to those who continue to love me. And I don’t intend to give them a worthless gift. No, no, I must really have expressed myself very poorly, because it was quite the opposite. I deem this Agenda far too intimate, far too near and dear to me, to be thrown as fodder to a bunch of idiots!

I fully agree! But you said (at least I thought you did) that you would systematically file this Agenda away, that it would never even be at the disposal of those interested in the Work.

No, not that. I said two things. One, if I make it through to the end, I may even let it be shown to the public, for the living proof will be there: “You don’t need to scoff—.just see where it leads—here!” And if the Lord decides it’s not for this time, well, then I will give it to those who have loved me, who have lived with me, worked with me, endeavored with me, and who respect what was attempted. it will be my parting gift... if I go. And I don’t intend to.

I certainly hope not!

Well then, is that all right? Are you satisfied? That’s what I meant to say. Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear.

No, but every so often you say: “Oh, I am not interested.”

No, I am never like that. It’s just that... (I may seem to be making fun of things, that’s different) but it’s precisely when… Listen, I can tell you: when I am like that, when I seem to be making fun of things, it’s because at times it’s really dangerous, really dangerous.

I can’t stand drama.

I don’t want to be tragic. I would rather make fun of everything than be tragic.

Instead of putting on grand airs and saying it’s difficult, I make jokes. But it’s something else entirely. I don’t like drama—I just don’t like it. The greatest, loftiest, noblest, most sublime things can be said with simplicity. There’s no need to be dramatic, to see things tragically. I don’t want to be a victim or a hero or... or a martyr or anything of the kind!

How well I understand!

You know, I don’t like the story of Christ.

Yes, that’s….

That’s exactly the point.

The crucified god—no thanks.

If he loses his skin, he loses it—so what, it doesn’t matter. You understand?

Oh, yes!

Well, that’s it.

That’s precisely the situation.

(silence)

Come now, mon petit…

No, if I sometimes seem like I couldn’t care less (is that what you meant?), it’s simply to avoid looking like a victim or a martyr; I am neither a victim nor a martyr—I detest that.

I understand.

All right, then.

Listen, I told you once—it wasn’t just words—and I thought you understood and would remember: everything I write is absolutely dependent on your work, in the sense that if you weren’t here I wouldn’t write another word—.just letters with “I send you my blessings.” Period. Not that I don’t have time or can’t do it, but I don’t enjoy it. When we do something together, when we write, I get the feeling it’s complete and has a certain quality that makes it useful. When you aren’t here to write it, I feel something missing. So if you think it’s useless to do this for me, I am sorry—that hurts!

No, of course not!

You do understand?

Because it comes from very high—it’s not from here, not at all; it was decided on high, and a long, Long time ago. Before you came here, I was constantly feeling… Besides, it hadn’t been so long without Sri Aurobindo; when Sri Aurobindo was here I had nothing to say, and if I did speak it was almost by chance. That’s all. What had to be said was said by him. And when he left and I began to read his books (which I hadn’t read before), I told myself, “Well, what do you know! There was absolutely no need for me to say anything.” And I had less and less desire to speak. The minute I met you, I began to get interested. “Ah,” I thought, “collaboration!... Something interesting can be done.”

None of this is random chance. It’s not that we’re taking advantage of circumstances, not at all; it was decreed.

All my life I have always, always felt I had something to say, but that there had to be another instrument to say it, to give it a kind of perfection of form I myself was unable to give. Because that’s not my job. It’s not my job. What I can bring to the world are flashes—something that goes beyond, above and through everything that is presently manifested. But I don’t have the patience for the concrete, fixed, material form. I could have been a scholar, I could have been a writer, just as I could have been a painter—and I have never had the patience for any of it. There was always “something” moving on too swiftly, too high and too far.

So I greatly appreciate beautiful written form. I love it. There were periods in my life when I read ever so much—I am quite a library! But it’s not my job.

Of course not! You didn’t come for that…

I like the form of your expression very, very much. It contains something deep, very supple and polished at the same time—like a lovely, finely chiseled statue. There is profound inspiration and a rhythm, a harmony, which I like very much. I really enjoyed reading your first book—the kind of enjoyment that comes from discovering beautiful forms, an original way of looking at things and expressing them. I appreciated it tremendously. Immediately, spontaneously, I ranked you as a true writer.

There you have it. I didn’t think it was necessary to keep telling you all these things. But it’s true.

Besides, you’re totally wrong—it’s not what you are that makes you grumble; it’s just the opposite: you see yourself that way because you grumble!

There, enough scolding, let’s get to work.

I have my pride, and I want the people who work with me to be content; this gives me more pleasure than anything. Of course, ideally… but one is never truly satisfied, one will never be truly satisfied; one will always go from aspiration to aspiration. But as a base, one should at least feel a sense of purpose in life. You said the very thing that hurts the most!

(Mother gazes at Satprem for a long time)

Petit…

The Mother, Mother's Agenda—1962: March 13, 1962

Chapter-I

The integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is, in fact, a programme of yogic research,—a programme of scientific and applied research. For Yoga is not a closed book. It is not a body of revelations made once for all, unverifiable and unsurpassable. It is not a religion; it is an advancing science, with its field of inquiry and search always enlarging; its methods are not only intuitive but include also bold experimentation and rigorous verification by means of abiding experience, and, finally, even by physical change and transformation. It is in this spirit that Sri Aurobindo and Mother went on testing day and night their experiments and results over decades and decades. Their programme of yogic research took within its sweep all the domains of life, all aspects of culture, and arrived at a synthesis of yoga based upon the discovery of the supermind, resulting in an ever-growing methodised discipline for the transformation of man and the eventual transmutation into a new species.

It is this discovery which is at the base of the affirmation that ‘spiritual liberation’ or Mukti is not the highest possible aim for Man on the earth, and that there is a farther aim imperatively demanded by the concealed intention of ‘evolutionary’ Nature. Not merely the liberation of the Spirit from Nature, but also the liberation of Nature itself from its limitations by a radical transformation; not an escape into the a cosmic static Reality of featureless Nirvana or into supraterrestrial planes of heavenly existence, but the establishment of the kingdom of the Spirit on the earth; not merely an individual achievement but a collective one for the earth; not merely the realisation of the Divine, but the realisation of the integral Divine and its integral manifestation in the physical life,—this is the aim which, according to Sri Aurobindo and Mother, is demanded of us, and which can be fulfilled only by the descent and manifestation of the Supermind.

There is, indeed, an ascending path which, by various processes or by the combination of various processes takes us to higher and higher levels of consciousness. And then there is a descending path for bringing down the higher levels of consciousness, including supermind, into lower levels of Matter, right up to the lowest, which is the Inconscient, in order to bring about transformation.

Sri Aurobindo’s Record of Yoga (2 volumes) and the Mother’s Agenda (13 volumes) constitute the rarest documentation of scientific accounts of the explorations in the formation, development and major accomplishments of the new synthesis of yoga, which is now known as the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Sri Aurobindo himself maintained the Record of Yoga, and the two volumes cover the period 1909-1927 and the Mother’s Agenda covers the period 1950-51 up to 1972-73. There are also three volumes of Letters on Yoga, which Sri Aurobindo wrote to his disciples, which too, shed light on the progression of the development of Integral Yoga. These volumes largely cover the period between 1926 and 1939. In addition there are three volumes of the Mother’s letters to disciples and seven volumes of the Mother’s questions and answers. An extremely important volume of the Mother’s yoga is the one entitled Prayers and Meditations, which covers the period 1912-1919. There are also two other volumes by Sri Aurobindo entitled On Himself and The Mother. All these volumes stand as testimony for the scientific rigour with which the Integral Yoga has been developed and built up. As a result, Sri Aurobindo’s two volumes on The Synthesis of Yoga are a scientific exposition of the objectives, methods and processes of the Integral Yoga. Sri Aurobindo himself has stated the following to explain the scientific rigour and accuracy that are evident in developing the Integral Yoga:

“...we do not found ourselves on faith alone, but on a great ground of knowledge which we have been developing and testing all our lives. I think I can say that I have been testing day and night for years upon years more scrupulously than any scientist his theory or his method on the physical plane.”²

Perhaps the most important exploration was connected with Saptachatushtaya, which describes the seven limbs of the Integral Yoga. In Sri Aurobindo’s Record of Yoga, we find a day-to-day progression of Sri Aurobindo in the process of the accomplishment of summits pertaining to purification, liberation, divine joy and perfection. A detailed but incomplete explanation of Saptachatushtaya is to be found in the last part of Sri Aurobindo’s Synthesis of Yoga (sabcl, Vol. 21). Since the Mother’s Agenda is a continuation of Sri Aurobindo’s Synthesis of Yoga, we can find in it some of those summits of accomplishment, which were not reached during Sri Aurobindo’s life in his body but were achieved by the Mother. The fact that the experiences and realisations were not confined to Sri Aurobindo alone, or to the Mother alone, but were shared by both of them and confirmed by both of them, removes the basic obstacle which presents itself to any scientific account which concerns only one person and is therefore likely to be considered subjective. Authenticity and objectivity are extremely important for yogic knowledge, since yogic knowledge is not speculative but scientific and carries with it, not only the idea that it is based upon repeated verification and upon the proof of its effectiveness, but also that it can be tested again by others by the pursuit of the methods that have been laid down. It is on account of this soundness of the validity of the knowledge that we find in Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s writings on yoga, that enables us to put forward Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s task of supramental manifestation on the earth as directly relevant to the highest welfare of the evolutionary development of humanity of today and tomorrow.

It is impossible to exaggerate the value of the Mother’s Agenda. It contains the Mother’s day-to-day account of her experiences and realisations covering the long period 1950-1 up to 1972-3. This account is in the form of conversations with a disciple, Satprem, whose own yogic tribulations have incidentally been described in the Agenda. These conversations were tape-recorded and the transcriptions were often read out to the Mother for authentication. Fortunately, all the conversations that were tape-recorded have been brought out, and the authenticity of the texts can be verified by comparing them with the corresponding cassettes.

Satprem (1923-2007) was a famous French writer, who was born in Paris. His original name was Bernard Enginger. Satprem was the name given to him by the Mother. He spent much of his childhood sailing off the coasts of Brittany in France. He was arrested at the age of twenty by the Gestapo, and he spent a year and a half in a German concentration camp. This difficult sojourn, during which he lived between life and death constantly, deepened his quest for a true meaning of life and led him to Egypt, to the forests of Guyana, finally to India. It was here that he discovered “the new evolution” heralded by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and he participated thereafter in the practice of this evolutionary yoga.

As we read Mother’s Agenda, we find ourselves transported into unknown regions of consciousness and incredible capacities and potentialities of consciousness. Although the account is conversational, expressions are chiseled and meticulously precise with microscopic care to ensure that the records bear scientific accuracy. Her experiences which have been recorded included from time to time her reminiscences, her early childhood and various stages of her own personal yogic development. These reminiscences reveal unimaginably exceptional dimensions of her being and her personality. They also speak of the Mother’s past births, and we come to know how ancient she was and how she even recalled her own first birth in the human body at the beginning of human evolution on earth. She narrates her experiences of the various traditions of the world, including those of the Veda, Egypt, Chaldea, Greece and others. She has also narrated her own experiences of the gods and goddesses that are known in various traditions. In regard to the Vedic times, she has traced the highest achievements of the Rishis. As she read Sri Aurobindo’s book The Secret of the Veda, she relived her experiences of the Vedic gods. She speaks of the glory of the gods but also of their limitations and how the human being, on account of his inmost soul and the psychic being, is superior, and capable of complete surrender to the Supreme Divine who transcends all the gods and goddesses. Her knowledge of the Supreme Divine, she states, is integral and confirms that she had already covered the ascending path to the Supermind by the beginning of the twentieth century and “had established a constant relationship with the Supreme—That which is beyond the Personal and the gods and all the outward expressions of the Divine, but also beyond the Absolute Impersonal”.³ The Mother also narrates some amazing experiences and her explorations in occultism in Algeria under the guidance of Max Theon who had worked with Blavatsky and who had a good knowledge of the Rigveda. One of the most extraordinary experiences of the Mother was a vision of Sri Aurobindo in 1904—years before she had even heard of Sri Aurobindo and ten years before she actually met Sri Aurobindo. This vision, the Mother tells us, was frequent, and each time it was the same, and in that vision she saw herself prostrating at the feet of Sri Aurobindo in the Indian way, a way that was alien to her knowledge and practice. She was born French, but as she declared:

“From the first time I came to India in 1914—I felt that India is my true country, the country of my soul and spirit... I am French by birth and early education, I am Indian by choice and predilection.”⁴

Her knowledge of all the systems of yoga of the past and the present was colossal, and her accomplishments were innumerable.

The Mother describes her own life, and Sri Aurobindo’s life as a fairy tale, the events of which are as unlikely and even miraculously true as they are in a fairy tale. It is through the Agenda that we come to understand Sri Aurobindo in his full majesty and as a leader of human evolution to supermanhood jointly with the Mother. As Sri Aurobindo has declared, the Integral Yoga is a joint yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and Mother’s Agenda explains in detail how both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and their joint work has been indispensable in the development of the Integral Yoga. In this brief introduction, it is impossible to bring out, even faintly, the immense value of this fabulous document of six thousand pages, which the Mother herself had called Agenda of the Supramental Action upon Earth. The most important aspect of the Agenda is the meticulous account that the Mother has given of the critical passage of the Integral Yoga when the human species through the instrumentality of the Mother was passing into the next species. For the proof of evolution, for the proof of consciousness as a leading principle of evolution, and for the proof of the methods and stages by which the laws of evolution themselves are undergoing a change, Mother’s Agenda is indispensable. To say more at this stage may not be necessary, and the best thing would be to study all the thirteen volumes of the Agenda. A few extracts from the Mother’s Agenda, will give to the reader some introductory idea of the colossal but scientifically microscopic work that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have accomplished for human evolution in its transition to supermanhood and for the consequent uplifting of humanity from the evolutionary crisis through which it is passing today.

The unprecedented importance of this work can be seen from the following statement of the Mother:

“Sri Aurobindo had made it clear to me when I was still in France that this yoga in matter is the most difficult of all. For the other yogas, the paths have been well laid, you know where to tread, how to proceed, what to do in such-and-such a case. But for the yoga of matter, nothing has ever been ne, never, so at each moment everything has to be invented.”⁵

The dimensions of the difficulty of the work have been brought out by the Mother in the following statement:

“When you follow the ascending path, the work is relatively easy. I had already covered this path by the beginning of the century and had established a constant relationship with the Supreme—That which is beyond the Personal and the gods and all the outward expressions of the Divine, but also beyond the Absolute Impersonal. It’s something you cannot describe; you must experience it. And this is what must be brought down into Matter. Such is the descending path, the one I began with Sri Aurobindo; and there, the work is immense.

“The thing can still be brought down as far as the mental and vital planes (although Sri Aurobindo said that thousands of lifetimes would be needed merely to bring it down to the mental plane, unless one practiced a perfect surrender). With Sri Aurobindo, we went down below Matter, right into the Subconscient and even into the lnconscient. But after the descent comes the transformation, and when you come down to the body, when you attempt to make it take one step forward— oh, not even a real step, just a little step!—everything starts grating; it’s like stepping on an anthill….

“The path is difficult….”⁶

As we see above, the Mother had attained the realisation of the Supreme and also the Supermind, much before she came to Pondicherry from France and met Sri Aurobindo. In the following extract, the Mother gives an account of an early stage of her sadhana:

... when I first began to work (not with Theon personally but with an acquaintance of his in France, a boy who was a friend of my brother), well, I had a series of visions (I knew nothing about India, mind you, nothing, just as most Europeans know nothing about it: ‘a country full of people with certain customs and religions, a confused and hazy history, where a lot of “extraordinary things” are said to have happened.’ I knew nothing.) Well, in several of these visions I saw Sri Aurobindo just as he looked physically, but glorified; that is, the same man I would see on my first visit, almost thin, with that golden-bronze hue and rather sharp profile, an unruly beard and long hair, dressed in a dhoti with one end of it thrown over his shoulder, arms and chest bare, and bare feet. At the time I thought it was ‘vision attire’! I mean I really knew nothing about India; I had never seen Indians dressed in the Indian way.

Well, I saw him. I experienced what were at once symbolic visions and spiritual facts: absolutely decisive spiritual experiences and facts of meeting and having a united perception of the Work to be accomplished. And in these visions I did something I had never done physically: I prostrated before him in the Hindu manner. All this without any comprehension in the little brain (I mean I really didn’t know what I was doing or how I was doing it—nothing at all). I did it, and at the same time the outer being was asking, ‘What is all this?!’

I wrote the vision down (or perhaps that was later on) but I never spoke of it to anyone (one doesn’t talk about such things, naturally). But my impression was that it was premonitory, that one day something like it would happen. And it remained in the background of the consciousness, not active, but constantly present.⁷

The following extract, which is taken from her great book, Prayers and Meditations, the Mother speaks of her union with the Divine, which had become constant. This is dated November 19, 1912.

“I said yesterday to that young Englishman who is seeking for Thee with so sincere a desire, that I had definitively found Thee, that the Union was constant. Such is indeed the state of which I am conscious. All my thoughts go towards Thee, all my acts are consecrated to Thee; Thy Presence is for me an absolute, immutable, invariable fact, and Thy Peace dwells constantly in my heart. Yet I know that this state of union is poor and precarious compared with that which it will become possible for me to realise tomorrow, and I am as yet far, no doubt very far, from that identification in which I shall totally lose the notion of the “I”, of that “I”, which I still use in order to express myself, but which is each time a constraint, like a term unfit to express the thought that is seeking for expression…”

The state of consciousness and realisation that the Mother had attained was to continue to develop further as we see it described in numerous entries in the above book. In 1914, she sailed for Pondicherry from France and the entry of 30th March concerning her first meeting with Sri Aurobindo, states as follows:

He whom we saw yesterday is on earth.

Much later, she narrated her experience of this meeting with Sri Aurobindo during her conversation recorded in Mother’s Agenda dated 20th December 1961:

Exactly my vision.

“He” whom she was seeing in her vision, since 1904, corresponded exactly with Sri Aurobindo. In her own words:

“I came here…. But something in me wanted to meet Sri Aurobindo all alone the first time. Richard went to him in the morning and I had an appointment for the afternoon. He was living in the house that’s now part of the second dormitory, the old Guest House. I climbed up the stairway and he was standing there, waiting for me at the top of the stairs... exactly my vision! Dressed the same way, in the same position, in profile, his head held high. He turned his head towards me... and I saw in his eyes that it was He. The two things clicked (gesture of instantaneous shock), the inner experience immediately became one with the outer experience and there was a fusion—the decisive shock.

“But this was merely the beginning of my vision. Only after a series of experiences—a ten months’ sojourn in Pondicherry, five years of separation, then the return to Pondicherry and the meeting in the same house and in the same way—did the end of the vision occur.... I was standing just beside him. My head wasn’t exactly on his shoulder, but where his shoulder was (I don’t know how to explain it—physically there was hardly any contact). We were standing side by side like that, gazing out through the open window, and then together, at exactly the same moment, we felt, ‘Now the Realisation will be accomplished.’ That the seal was set and the Realisation would be accomplished. I felt the Thing descending massively within me, with the same certainty I had felt in my vision. From that moment on there was nothing to say—no words, nothing. We knew it was that.”⁸

Her meeting with Sri Aurobindo on 29th March 1914, had an important sequel, since on the next day when she met Sri Aurobindo, she had a decisive experience of mental silence. The Mother has narrated the meeting in the following words:

“I was sitting there on the veranda. There was a table in front of him, and Richard was on the other side facing him. They began talking. Myself, I was seated at his feet, very small, with the table just in front of me—it came to my forehead, which gave me a little protection... I didn’t say anything, I didn’t think anything, try anything, want any thing—I merely sat near him. When I stood up half an hour later, he had put silence in my head, that’s all, without my even having asked him—perhaps even without his trying.

“Oh, I had tried—for years I had tried to catch silence in my head... I never succeeded. I could detach myself from it, but it would keep on turning... But at that moment, all the mental constructions, all the mental, speculative structures... none of it remained—a big hole.

“And such a peaceful, such a luminous hole!

“Afterwards, I kept very still so as not to disturb it. I didn’t speak, above all I refrained from thinking and held it, held it tight against me—I said to myself, ‘make it last, make it last, make it last…’

“For years, from 1912 to 1914, I did endless exercises, all kinds of things, even pranayama—if it would only shut up! Really, if it would only be quiet!... I was able to go out (that wasn’t difficult), but inside it kept turning. This lasted about half an hour. I quietly remained there—I heard the noise of their conversation, but I wasn’t listening. And then when I got up, I no longer knew anything, I no longer thought anything, I no longer had any mental construction—everything was gone, absolutely gone, blank!—as if I had just been born.”⁹

In August 1914, World War I broke out as a result of which she had to leave Pondicherry for France, and after a short sojourn in France she stayed for nearly four years in Japan. An important experience that she has narrated in her Prayers and Meditations (20th December, 1916) relates to the answer that she received to her search about the Work that she was missioned to do. This answer she received from the Buddha, Sakyamuni. The Mother has written the following:

“(Communication received at 5.30 in the evening after meditation.)

“As thou art contemplating me, I shall speak to thee this evening. I see in thy heart a diamond surrounded by a golden light. It is at once pure and warm, something which may manifest impersonal love; but why dost thou keep this treasure enclosed in that dark casket lined with deep purple? The outermost covering is of a deep lustreless blue, a real mantle of darkness. It would seem that thou art afraid of showing thy splendour. Learn to radiate and do not fear the storm: the wind carries us far from the shore but shows us over the world. Wouldst thou be thrifty of thy tenderness? But the source of love is infinite. Dost thou fear to be misunderstood? But where hast thou seen man capable of understanding the Divine? And if the eternal truth finds in thee a means of manifesting itself, what dost thou care for all the rest? Thou art like a pilgrim coming out of the sanctuary; standing on the threshold in front of the crowd, he hesitates before revealing his precious secret, that of his supreme discovery. Listen, I too hesitated for days, for I could foresee both my preaching and its results: the imperfection of expression and the still greater imperfection of understanding. And yet I turned to the earth and men and brought them my message. Turn to the earth and men—isn’t this the command thou always hearest in thy heart?—in thy heart, for it is that which carries a blessed message for those who are athirst for compassion. Henceforth nothing can attack the diamond. It is unassailable in its perfect constitution and the soft radiance that flashes from it can change many things in the hearts of men. Thou doubtest thy power and fearest thy ignorance? It is precisely this that wraps up thy strength in that dark mantle of starless night. Thou hesitatest and tremblest as on the threshold of a mystery, for now the mystery of the manifestation seems to thee more terrible and unfathomable than that of the Eternal Cause. But thou must take courage again and obey the injunction from the depths. It is I who am telling thee this, for I know thee and love thee as thou didst know and love me once. I have appeared clearly before thy sight so that thou mayst in no way doubt my word. And also to thy eyes I have shown thy heart so that thou canst thus see what the supreme Truth has willed for it, so that thou mayst discover in it the law of thy being. The thing still seems to thee quite difficult: a day will come when thou wilt wonder how for so long it could have been otherwise.

“Sakyamuni”

The Mother, Prayers and Meditations: December 20, 1916

The Mother’s mission was now clear. It was to turn to the earth, and after a series of innumerable experiences in Japan, she arrived from Japan to Pondicherry 24th April 1920. From that day onwards, the objective of the Integral Yoga, viz., the transformation of the levels of consciousness descending downwards and reaching the Inconscient was pursued with unprecedented acceleration of progression and of this process, the Mother explains a few important points in the following extract:

“One can realize the Divine in the Inconscient rather quickly (in fact, I think it can happen just as soon as one has found the Divine within). But does this give the power to transform directly? Does the direct junction between the supreme Consciousness and the Inconscient (because that is the experience) give the power to transform the Inconscient just like that, without any intermediary? I don’t think so. I simply haven’t had that experience...

“One thing is certain—as soon as one goes beyond the terrestrial atmosphere, beyond the higher mind’s ‘highest’ region, the sensation of ‘high’ and ‘low’ totally vanishes. There are no longer movements of ascent and descent, but (Mother turns her hand over) something like inner reversals.

“‘It is by rising to the summit of consciousness through a progressive ascent... that one unites with the Supermind.

“But as soon as the union is achieved, one knows and one sees that the Supermind exists in the heart of the Inconscient as well. When one is in that state, there is neither high nor low. But generally... it is by redescending through the levels of the being with a supramentalised consciousness that one can accomplish the permanent transformation of physical nature.’ (This can be experienced in all sorts of ways, but what we want and what Sri Aurobindo spoke of is a change that will never be revoked, that will persist, that will be as durable as the present terrestrial conditions….)”¹⁰

This durable transformation necessitated the descent into Inconscience with the power of the Supermind. Necessarily, owing to the resistance of the lower levels of consciousness, particularly of Matter and Subconscience and Inconscience, the process is long, and, there are several stages. Higher and higher levels of consciousness had to be fixed in Matter. By 1926, the Overmind was brought down into Matter, and an overmental creation came into view. Something momentous was being worked out. As the Mother explained:

“In 1926, I had begun a sort of overmental creation, that is, I had brought the Overmind down into matter, here on earth (miracles and all kinds of things were beginning to happen)... Well, with my very own eyes I saw Krishna, who had always been in rapport with Sri Aurobindo, consent to come down into his body...

“Yes, in fact I wanted to ask you what this realization of 1926 was.

“It was this: Krishna consented to descend into Sri Aurobindo’s body—to be fixed there; there is a great difference, you understand, between incarnating, being fixed in a body, and simply acting as an influence that comes and goes and moves about. The gods are always moving about, and it’s plain that we ourselves, in our inner beings, come and go and act in a hundred or a thousand places at once. There is a difference between just coming occasionally and accepting to be permanently tied to a body—between a permanent influence and a permanent presence.

“These things have to be experienced.”¹¹

Volumes can be written about the work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother from 1926 to 1950, the year in which Sri Aurobindo withdrew from his body.

A few weeks after the passing of Sri Aurobindo, the Mother said, in one of the conversations with a disciple:

“As soon as Sri Aurobindo withdrew from his body, what he had called the Mind of Light got¹² realised here….”

“The Supermind had descended long ago—very long ago—into the mind and even into the vital: it was working in the physical also but indirectly through those intermediaries. The question was about the direct action of the Supermind in the physical. Sri Aurobindo said it could be possible only if the physical mind received the Supramental light; the physical mind was the instrument for direct action upon the most material. This physical mind receiving the Supramental light Sri Aurobindo called the Mind of Light.”¹³

In a strikingly revealing talk in the Agenda, the Mother says that in order to be able to continue the work; the first thing was to continue to be in her body. And for that purpose, she did something that can be regarded as truly drastic and momentous. It was to ‘lock’ up her psychic being for ten years, until things were ready. As she said:

“Well, I saw it all, all those thirty years of life; not for a second did I have any sense of responsibility, in spite of all the work I was doing, all the organizing and everything. He had supposedly passed on the responsibility to me, you see, but he was standing behind—he was actually doing everything! I was active, but with absolutely no responsibility. I never felt responsible for a single minute—he took the full responsibility....

“... when he went out of his body and entered into mine (the most material part of him, the part involved with external things) and I understood that I had the entire responsibility for all the work and for the sadhana—well, then I locked a part of me away, a deep psychic part that was living, beyond all responsibility, in the ecstasy of the realization: the Supreme. I took it and locked it away, I sealed it off and said, “You’re not moving until... until all the rest is ready”.”¹⁴

On 29th February 1956, during the meditation after her evening class, the momentous event, which was awaited since long, occurred. She described this event in the following text given by her:

FIRST SUPRAMENTAL MANIFESTATION

(During the common meditation on Wednesday the 29th February 1956)

“This evening the Divine Presence, concrete and material, was there present amongst you. I had a form of living gold, bigger than the universe, and I was facing a huge and massive golden door which separated the world from the Divine.

“As I looked at the door, I knew and willed, in a single movement of consciousness, that ‘the time has come’, and lifting with both hands a mighty golden hammer I struck one blow, one single blow on the door and the door was shattered to pieces.

“Then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow.”¹⁵

In the evening class of September 12, 1956, the Mother recounted an experience of hers as follows:

“... A supramental entity had entirely possessed me. Something a little taller than myself: its feet extended below my feet and its head went a little beyond my head.... A solid block with a rectangular base—a rectangle with a square base—one single piece.

“... A light, not like the golden light of the Supermind: rather a kind of phosphorescence. I felt that had it been night, it would have been physically visible.

“... And it was denser than my physical body: the physical body seemed to me almost unreal—as though crumbly—like sand running through your fingers.

“... I would have been incapable of speaking, words seemed so petty, narrow, ignorant.

“... I saw (how shall I put it?) the successive preparations which took place, in certain anterior beings, in order to achieve this.

“... It felt as if I had several heads.

“... The experience of February 29 was of a general nature; but this one was intended for me.

“... An experience I had never had.

“... I begin to see what the supramental body will be.

“... I had had a somewhat similar experience at the time of the union of the supreme creative principle with the physical consciousness. But that was a subtle experience, while this was material—in the body.

“... I did not have the experience, I did not look at it: I was it.

“... And it radiated from me: myriads of little sparks that were penetrating everybody—I saw them enter into each one of those present.

“... One more step.”¹⁶

From that momentous evening of 29th February 1956, the Mother began to have from week to week, from day to day, various experiences of the Supermind in Matter. On the 3rd, February 1958, the Mother had for the first time a radical experience in which she went strolling in a concrete way in an objective supramental world—a world that exists in itself, beyond all subjectivity. In the evening class of the 19th February 1958, the record of this experience, was read out by her as follows:

“Between the beings of the supramental world and men, there exists approximately the same gap as between men and animals. Sometime ago, I had the experience of identification with animal life, and it is a fact that animals do not understand us; their consciousness is so constituted that we elude them almost entirely. And yet I have known domestic animals—cats and dogs, but especially cats—who made an almost yogic effort of consciousness to understand us. But generally, when they watch us living and acting, they don’t understand, they don’t see us as we are, and they suffer because of us. We are a constant enigma to them. Only a very tiny part of their consciousness is linked to us. And it is the same for us when we try to look at the supramental world. Only when the link of consciousness has been built shall we see it— and even then, only that part of our being which has undergone the transformation will be capable of seeing it as it is—otherwise the two worlds would remain as separate as the animal world and the human world.

“The experience I had on February 3 proves this. Before, I had had an individual, subjective contact with the supramental world, whereas on February 3, I went strolling there in a concrete way—as concretely as I used to go strolling in Paris in times past—in a world that exists in itself, beyond all subjectivity.

“It is like a bridge being built between the two worlds. This is the experience as I dictated it immediately thereafter:

“(silence)

“The supramental world exists in a permanent way, and I am there permanently in a supramental body. I had proof of this today when my earthly consciousness went there and consciously remained there between two and three o’clock in the afternoon. I now know that for the two worlds to join in a constant and conscious relationship what is missing is an intermediate zone between the existing physical world and the supramental world as it exists. This zone has yet to be built, both in the individual consciousness and in the objective world, and it is being built. When formerly I used to speak of the new world that is being created, I was speaking of this intermediate zone. And similarly, when I am on ‘this’ side—that is, in the realm of the physical consciousness—and I see the supramental power, the supramental light and substance constantly permeating matter, I am seeing and participating in the construction of this zone.”¹⁷

On 7th November 1958, the Mother had an experience, which was a further step in the building of the link between the two worlds. The Mother described and explained the experience in the following conversation that is recorded in the Agenda: ….

“And I had the impression... It was not an impression—I saw it. I was descending into a crevass between two steep rocks, rocks that appeared to be made of something harder than basalt, black, but metallic at the same time, with such sharp edges—it seemed that a mere touch would lacerate you. It appeared endless and bottomless, and it kept getting narrower, narrower and narrower, narrower and narrower, like a funnel, so narrow that there was almost no more room—not even for the consciousness—to pass through. And the bottom was invisible, a black hole. And it went down, down, down, like that, without air, without light, except for a sort of glimmer that enabled me to make out the rock edges. They seemed to be cut so steeply, so sharply... Finally, when my head began touching my knees, I asked myself, ‘But what is there at the bottom of this... this hole?’

“And as soon as I had uttered, ‘What is there at the bottom of this hole?’ I seemed to touch a spring that was in the very depths—a spring I didn’t see but that acted instantly with a tremendous power—and it cast me up forthwith, hurled me out of this crevass into... (arms extended, motionless) a formless, limitless vast which was infinitely comfortable—not exactly warm, but it gave a feeling of ease and of an intimate warmth.

“And it was all-powerful, with an infinite richness. It did not have... no, it didn’t have any kind of form, and it had no limits (naturally, as I was identified with it I knew there was neither limit nor form). It was as if (because it was not visible), as if this vast were made of countless, imperceptible points—points that occupied no place in space (there was no sense of space), that were of a deep warm gold—but this is only a feeling, a transcription. And all this was absolutely living, living with a power that seemed infinite. And yet motionless.

“It lasted for quite some time, for the rest of the meditation.

“It seemed to contain a whole wealth of possibilities, and all this that was formless had the power to become form.

“I have not described anything. I have only stated a fact...”¹⁸

“At the very bottom of the inconscience most hard and rigid and narrow and stifling, I struck upon an almighty spring that cast me up forthwith into a formless, limitless Vast, vibrating with the seeds of a new world.”¹⁹

On July 24th, 1959, the Supramental light entered directly into the Mother’s body. Let us read her description of the experience:

“Shortly before the 15th of August I had a unique experience that exemplifies all this. For the first time the supramental light entered directly into my body, without passing through the inner beings. It entered through the feet (a red and gold color—marvelous, warm, intense), and it climbed up and up. And as it climbed, the fever also climbed because the body was not accustomed to this intensity. As all this light neared the head, I thought I would burst and that the experience would have to be stopped. But then, I very clearly received the indication to make the Calm and Peace descend, to widen all this body-consciousness and all these cells, so that they could contain the supramental light. So I widened, and as the light was ascending, I brought down the vastness and an unshakable peace. And suddenly, there was a second of fainting.

“I found myself in another world, but not far away (I was not in a total trance). This world was almost as substantial as the physical world. There were rooms—Sri Aurobindo’s room with the bed he rests on—and he was living there, he was there all the time: it was his abode. Even my room was there, with a large mirror like the one I have here, combs, all kinds of things. And the substance of these objects was almost as dense as in the physical world, but they shone with their own light. It was not translucent, not transparent, not radiant, but self-luminous. The various objects and the material of the rooms did not have this same opacity as the physical objects here, they were not dry and hard as in the physical world we know.

“And Sri Aurobindo was there, with a majesty, a magnificent beauty. He had all his beautiful hair as before. It was all so concrete, so substantial—he was even being served some kind of food. I remained there for one hour (I had looked at my watch before and I looked at it afterwards). I spoke to Sri Aurobindo, for I had some important questions to ask him about the way certain things are to be realized. He said nothing. He listened to me quietly and looked at me as if all my words were useless: he understood everything at once. And he answered me with a gesture and two expressions on his face, an unexpected gesture that did not at all correspond to any thought of mine; for example, he picked up three combs that were lying near the mirror (combs similar to those I use here, but larger) and he put them in his hair. He planted one comb in the middle of his head and the two others on each side, as if to gather all his hair over his temples. He was literally coiffed with these three combs, which gave him a kind of crown. And I immediately understood that by this he meant that he was adopting my conception: ‘You see, I embrace your conception of things, and I coif myself with it; it is my will.’ Anyway, I remained there for one hour.

“And when I awoke, I didn’t have this feeling of returning from afar and of having to re-enter my body, as I usually do. No, it was simply as though I were in this other world, then I took a step backwards and found myself here again. It took me a good half an hour to understand that this world here existed as much as the other and that I was no longer on the other side but here, in the world of falsehood. I had forgotten everything—people, things, what I had to do; everything had gone, as if it had no reality at all.

“You see, it’s not as if this world of Truth had to be created from nothing: it is fully ready, it is there, like a lining of our own present world. Everything is there, EVERYTHING is there.

“I remained in that state for two full days, two days of absolute felicity. And Sri Aurobindo was with me the whole time, the whole time—when I walked, he walked with me, when I sat down, he sat next to me. On the day of August 15th, too, he remained there constantly during the darshan. But who was aware of it? A few—one or two—felt something. But who saw?—No one.

“And I showed all these people to Sri Aurobindo, this whole field of work, and asked him when this other world, the real one that is there, so near, would come to take the place of our world of falsehood. Not ready. That was all he replied. Not ready.

“Sri Aurobindo gave me two days of this—total bliss. But all the same, by the end of the second day I realized that I could not continue to remain there, for the work was not advancing. The work must be done in the body; the realization must be attained here in this physical world, for otherwise it is not complete. So I withdrew from that world and set to work here again.”

“The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1951-1960: October 6, 1959

There is an interesting experience that describes the complete replacement of the Mother by the Supreme Lord who manifested as Krishna. The Mother has called this the experience of complete annulment of oneself so that the Lord is found to be the only existent. This experience occurred on 29th February 1960; the first anniversary of the Supramental Manifestation and it is connected with the function of that day when the Mother was to distribute gold coins to her disciples:

“Experiences are coming at a furious pace—fabulous experiences. If I were to speak now, it’s certain that I would not at all speak as I used to. That’s why we must date all these Questions and Answers, at least all which come before the [Supramental] Manifestation of February 1956, so that there will be a clear cut between those before and those after.

“Only a few days ago, on the morning of the 29th, I had one of those experiences that mark one’s life. It happened upstairs in my room. I was doing my japa, walking up and down with my eyes wide open, when suddenly Krishna came—a gold Krishna, all golden, in a golden light that filled the whole room. I was walking, but I could not even see the windows or the rug any longer, for this golden light was everywhere with Krishna at its center. And it must have lasted at least fifteen minutes.

“He was dressed in those same clothes in which he is normally portrayed when he dances. He was all light, all dancing: ‘You see, I will be there this evening during the Darshan.’ And suddenly, the chair I use for darshan came into the room! Krishna climbed up onto it, and his eyes twinkled mischievously, as if to say, ‘I will be there, you see, and there’ll be no room for you.’

“When I came down that evening for distribution, at first I was annoyed. I had said that I didn’t want anybody in the hall, precisely because I wanted to establish an atmosphere of concentration, the immobility of the Spirit—but there were at least thirty people in there, those who had decorated the hall, thirty of them stirring, stirring about, a mass of little vibrations. And before I could even say ‘scat’—I had hardly taken my seat—someone put the tray of medals on my lap and they started filing past.

“But what is surprising is that in a flash, no one was there any longer. No one, you understand—I was gone. Perhaps I was everywhere (but in fact I am always everywhere, I am always conscious of being everywhere at the same time), though normally there is the sense of the body, a physical center, but that evening there was no more center! Nothing, no one, not even the sense that there was no one—nothing. I was gone. There was indeed something handing out the medals which felt the joy of giving the medal, the joy of receiving it, the joy of mutually looking at each other. It was simply the joy of the action taking place, the joy of looking, this joy everywhere, but me?—Nothing, no one, gone...

“...There is a line by Sri Aurobindo in Savitri which expresses this very well: to annul oneself so that only the Supreme Lord may be.”²⁰

The Mother narrated to Satprem on January 24, 1961, the following experience that marks an extremely important stage:

“I have something to tell you now…. We’ll work later.

“In the middle of the night before last, I woke up (or rather I returned to an external consciousness) with the feeling of having a much larger (by larger I mean more voluminous) and much more powerful being in my body than I usually have. It was as if it could scarcely be held inside me but was spilling over; and so compactly powerful that it was almost uncomfortable. The feeling of: what to do with all this?

“It lasted the remainder of the night and all day long I had considerable trouble containing an overwhelming power that spontaneously created reactions utterly disproportionate to a human body and made me speak in a way that... When something was not going well: wham! Such an instantaneous and strong reply that it looked like anger. And I found it difficult to control the movement—it had happened already in the morning and it very nearly happened again in the afternoon. ‘That last attack has weakened me terribly!’ I told myself, ‘I don’t have the strength to contain this Power; it’s difficult to remain calm and controlled.’ That was my first thought, so I insisted upon calm.

“Then yesterday afternoon, when I went upstairs to walk,... Then suddenly, I saw a Force coming (‘coming’, well, ‘manifesting’) which was the same as that ‘thing’ I had felt within me but even bigger; it began whirling upon the earth and within circumstances…

“At midnight I was lying in bed. (And I remained there from midnight until 1 o’clock fully awake. I don’t know if my eyes were open or closed, but I was wide awake, not in trance—I could hear all the noises, the clocks, and so forth.) Then, lying flat, my entire body (but a slightly enlarged body, exceeding the purely physical form) became ONE vibration, extremely rapid and intense but immobile. I don’t know how to explain this, because it did not move in space but was a vibration (that is, it wasn’t motionless); yet it was motionless in space. And the exact form of my body was absolutely the most brilliant white Light of the supreme Consciousness, the consciousness of the Supreme. It was IN the body and it was as though in each cell there was a vibration, and it was all part of a single block of vibration. It extended this much beyond the body (gesture indicating about six centimeters). I was absolutely immobile in my bed. Then, without moving, without shifting, it began consciously to rise up—without moving, you understand: I remained like this (Mother holds her two joined and motionless hands at the level of her forehead, as if her entire body were mounting in prayer)—consciously... like an ascension of this consciousness towards the supreme Consciousness.

“The body was stretched out flat.

“And for a quarter of an hour, the consciousness rose, rose, without moving. It kept rising up, up, up—until... the junction was made.

“A conscious junction, absolutely awake, no trance.

“Thus the consciousness became the ONE Consciousness: perfect, eternal, outside time, outside space, outside movement… beyond everything, in... I don’t know, in an ecstasy, a beatitude, something ineffable.

“(silence)

“It was the consciousness of the body.

“I have had this experience before in exteriorization and trance, but this time it was the body, the consciousness of the body.

“It remained like that for a certain time (I knew it was a quarter of an hour because the clock chimed), but it was completely outside time. It was an eternity.

“Then, with the same precision, the same calm, the same deliberate, clear and concentrated consciousness (absolutely nothing mental), I began to come back down. And as I was descending, I realized that all the difficulty I had been fighting the other day and which had created this illness was absolutely ended, annulled—mastered. Actually, it was not even mastery but the non-existence of anything to be mastered: simply the vibration from top to bottom; yet there was neither high nor low nor any direction.

“And it went on like that. After this, slowly, still without moving, everything went back into each of the different centers of the being. (Ah, let me say parenthetically that it wasn’t at all the ascent of a force like the ascent of the Kundalini! It had absolutely nothing to do with the Kundalini movement and the centers, it wasn’t that at all.) But while redescending, it was as though without leaving this state, without leaving this state which remained conscious all the time, this supreme Consciousness began to reactivate the different centers: first here (Mother points to the centre above the head and then touches the crown of the head, the forehead, throat, chest, etc.) then there, there, there. At each there was a pause while this new realization organized everything. It organized and made the necessary decisions, sometimes down to the most minute details: what had to be done in this case or said in that case; and all of that together, at once, not one by one but seen entirely as a whole. It kept on descending—I noted many things, it was extremely interesting—down and down, farther and farther, right to the depths. Everything went on at the same time, simultaneously, and at the same time this supreme Consciousness was organizing everything separately.

“This descending reorganization ended exactly when the clock struck one. At that moment I knew that I had to go into trance for the work to be perfected, but until then I was wide awake.

“So I slipped into trance.

“I came out of this trance two hours later, at 3 a.m. And during these two hours I saw... with a new consciousness, a new vision, and above all a new power—I had a vision of the entire Work: all the people, all the things, all the systems, all of it. And it was... it was different in appearance (this is only because appearances depend upon the needs of the moment), but mainly it differed in power—a considerable difference. Considerable. The power itself was no longer the same.

“A truly essential change in the body has occurred.

“I see that the body will have to—how can I express it?... It will have to accustom itself to this new Power. But essentially the change has been accomplished.

“It’s not... it is far, very far from being the final change, there’s a lot more to be done. But we may say that it’s the conscious and total presence of the supramental Force in the body.

“(silence)

“When I got up today, I was going over all this to myself, and my first instinct was not to speak of it, to observe and see what would happen; but then I received a distinct and precise Command to tell it to you this morning. The experience had to be noted down just as it occurred, recorded in its exact form.

“In the body now, there is a very clear... not only a certitude, but a feeling that a certain omnipotence is not far away, and that very soon when it sees (‘it’ sees... ‘it’!

“There is only one ‘It’ in this whole affair, which is neither ‘he’ nor ‘she’ nor...), when it sees that something must be, it automatically will be.

“There is still a long, long way to go. But the first step on the way has been taken.”²¹

Extremely important experiences followed thereafter.

Since March 16, 1962, the Mother went through a grave ordeal that threatened her physical existence. Practically one full month was perilous. However, on the night of April 12-13, she had suddenly a formidable and decisive experience. On April 13, around ten in the morning, she gave her message as follows:

“Night of April 12-13.

“Suddenly in the night I woke up with the full awareness of what we could call the Yoga of the world. The Supreme Love was manifesting through big pulsations, and each pulsation was bringing the world further in its manifestation. It was the formidable pulsations of the eternal, stupendous Love, only Love: each pulsation of the Love was carrying the universe further in its manifestation.

“And the certitude that what is to be done is done and the

“Supramental Manifestation is realized.

Everything was Personal, nothing was individual. This was going on and on and on and on...

“The certitude that what is to be done is done.

“All the results of the Falsehood had disappeared: Death was an illusion, Sickness was an illusion, Ignorance was an illusion—something that had no reality, no existence Only Love, and Love, and Love and Love—immense, formidable, stupendous, carrying everything.

“And how, how to express in the world? It was like an impossibility, because of the contradiction… But then it came: “You have accepted that this world should know the Supramental Truth... and it will be expressed totally, integrally.” Yes, yes ….

“And the thing is done.

“(long silence)

“The individual consciousness came back, just the sense of a limitation, limitation of pain; without that, no individual.

“And we set off again on the way, certain of the Victory.

“The heavens are ringing with chants of Victory!

“Truth alone exists; Truth alone shall manifest. Onward!... Onward!

“Gloire a Toi, Seigneur, Triomphateur supreme!”²²

“(silence)

“And now, to work.

“Patience... endurance... perfect equanimity. And absolute faith.

“(silence)

“Compared to the experience, whatever I say is nothing, nothing, nothing but words.

“And our consciousness is the same, absolutely the same as the Lord’s. There was no difference, no difference at all….

“We are That, we are That, we are That.

“(silence)

“Later on, I will explain it more clearly. The instrument is not yet ready.

“It is only the beginning.

“The Mother later added:

“The experience lasted at least four hours.

“There are many things I will speak of later.”²³

The Mother enlarged upon the above experience on May 13, 1962, as follows:

“I was at the Origin— I was the Origin. For more than two hours, consciously, here on this bed, I was the Origin. And it was like gusts—like great gusts ending in explosions. And each one of these gusts was a span of the universe.

“It was Love in its supreme essence—which has nothing to do with what people normally understand by that word.

“And each gust of this essence of Love was dividing and spreading out... but they weren’t forces, it was far beyond the realm of forces. The universe as we know it no longer existed; it was a sort of bizarre illusion, bearing no relation to that. There was only the truth of the universe, with those great gusts of color—they were colored—great gusts colored with something that is the essence of color.

“It was stupendous. I lived more than two hours like that, consciously.

“And then a Voice was explaining everything to me (not exactly a Voice, but something that was Sri Aurobindo’s origin, like the most recent gust from the Origin). As the experience unfolded, this Voice explained each gust to me, each span of the universe; and then it explained how it all became like this (Mother makes a gesture of reversal): the distortion of the universe. And I was wondering how it was possible, with that Consciousness, that supreme Consciousness, to relate to the present, distorted universe. How to make the connection without losing that Consciousness? A relationship between the two seemed impossible. And that’s when that sort of Voice reminded me of my promise, that I had promised to do the Work on earth and it would be done. “I promised to do the Work and it will be done.”

“Then began the process of descent, and the Voice was explaining it to me—I lived through it all in detail, and it wasn’t pleasant. It took an hour and a half to change from that true Consciousness to the individual consciousness. Because throughout the experience this present individuality no longer existed, this body no longer existed, there were no more limits, I was no longer here—what was here was the person. An hour and a half was needed to return to the body-consciousness (not the physical consciousness but the body-consciousness), to the individual body-consciousness.

“The first sign of the return to individuality was a prick of pain, a tiny point (Mother holds between her fingers a minuscule point in the space of her being). Yes, because I have a sore, a sore in a rather awkward place, and it hurts (Mother laughs). So I felt the pain: it was the sign of individuality coming back. Other than that, there was nothing any more—no body, no individual, no limits. But it’s strange, I have made a strange discovery: I used to think it was the individual (Mother touches her body) who experienced pain and disabilities and all the misfortunes of human life; well, I perceived that what experiences misfortunes is not the individual, not my body, but that each misfortune, each pain, each disability has its own individuality as it were, and each one represents a battle.

“And my body is a world of battles.

“It is the battlefield.”²⁴

The purpose here in this chapter is not to take the reader right up to the point of the accomplishment of the work that Sri Aurobindo had given to the Mother, viz., to fix the Supramental consciousness in the physical consciousness permanently, so that the body may be able to manifest the Supermind. This task the Mother accomplished after a long and arduous journey, during which she had to find the way by which the Supermind could enter directly into the physical mind so that it could be silenced and go farther still to touch the mind of Matter, the material mind—corporeal mind—to transform it, to transform the mind of the cells, and to supramentalise it, as a result of which only, the Supramental could be irrevocably established in the physical consciousness. Indeed the rest of the work has to be carried out subsequently over what could be even the next three centuries, during which several intermediary bodies may have to undergo a similar process of transformation. Only then, a new body, a Divine Body, as Sri Aurobindo has called it can evolve and produce on the earth its supramental consequences.

Sri Aurobindo has outlined in his Supramental Manifestation the nature and structure of the Divine Body, and pointed out that just as the human body, even while retaining many features of the animal body evolved into a different and strikingly new form in which the human body could take an erect posture, even so, and even much more so, the Divine Body, while retaining certain basic elements of the form of the human body, will have certain radically different features. Sri Aurobindo has also explained why the emergence of the Divine Body is intended in the evolutionary process, and how the progression of evolution towards that emergence will be able to uplift humanity from the contemporary crisis and create progressive harmony and unity of humankind. But all this needs to be studied in detail in the original works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

Chapter - II

The important conditions that the Mother discovered for the physical transformation are purification, universalisation and impersonalisation of the physical consciousness. In her conversation with Satprem on April 6, 1963, the Mother gave a very interesting and instructive account of the progress in the impersonalisation of the physical consciousness as follows:

“There is progress in the impersonalization of the physical, bodily consciousness, with consequences that are probably interesting, but impossible to explain to people who don’t understand. For instance...

“(silence)

“I am conscious of the body, but it isn’t the consciousness of this body (Mother touches her body): it’s the consciousness of the Body—it may be anyone’s body. I am conscious, for instance, of vibrations of disorder (most often they come in the form of suggestions of disorder) in order to see whether they are accepted and have an effect. Let’s take the example of a suggestion of hemorrhage, or some such suggestion (I mention hemorrhage because it will soon come into the picture). Under the higher Influence, the body consciousness rejects it. Then begins the battle (all this takes place all the way down in the cells, in the material consciousness) between what we could call the “will for hemorrhage,” for example, and the reaction of the body’s cells. But it’s very like a real battle, a real confrontation. And all of a sudden, there’s something like a general issuing a command and saying, “What’s this!”... You understand, that general is conscious of the higher forces, the higher realities and the divine intervention in Matter; and after trying to use the will, this reaction, that feeling of peace and so on, suddenly he is seized by a very strong determination and issues a command—in no time the effect begins to make itself felt, and little by little everything returns to order. All this takes place in the material consciousness. Physically, the body has all the sensations—but not the hemorrhage, you understand. But it does have the sensations, that is, the effects: all the sensory effects. It goes on for a while and then follows a whole curve. All right. Once the battle is over, I take a look and wonder (I observe the whole thing, I see my body, which has been fairly shaken, mind you), I say to myself, “What in the world is all this?” But just for a second, then I forget about it.

“A few days afterwards, I receive a letter from someone very close, who has an ardent faith and really holds on to me with almost perfect faith, exceptional. In the letter: the whole story, the attack, the hemorrhage, how suddenly the being is seized, the consciousness is seized with an irresistible will, and hears words—the very words that were uttered here. The result: saved (he was dying), saved, cured.

“Just enough time for the letter to reach me.

“I remembered my episode... and began to understand that my body is everywhere!!

“You see, it’s not a question of just these cells here: it’s a question of cells in, well, quite a lot of people, hundreds, maybe thousands—all that clings anywhere and in any way to the higher Consciousness. And since my mind is silent (I deliberately keep the mind absolutely still, trying not to react to all that constantly comes to it from “outside,” or trying to react almost subconsciously), nothing is there to think, “Oh, it’s this one’s body, it’s that one’s body”—it’s the Body! That’s what is so difficult for people to understand. It is the body… this (Mother touches her body) is not my body any more than other bodies (a bit more, in the sense that it is more directly the object of the concentration of the Force). So everything, all the sensations, the movements of consciousness, the battles, all of it is everywhere. And suddenly, with this little affair, oh, I understood a fantastic number of things—and also the difficulty, mon petit!... The difficulty... because really, after this experience, the body was not ill but very tired. But then it is seized with such things all the time! All the time, all the time, all the time, you know, they spring up, brrm! pounce on it, brrm! from this side, that side, every which way. So I have to keep still (gesture of stopping, silent, in the midst of other activities), and then I start waging the battle.

“(silence)

“Which means the body has got its own difficulties (no aggregate of cells is free from difficulties in the present conditions of life), and I think that its capacity to keep still (to an extent) is its only safeguard... but that doesn’t reduce the difficulties at all, since the contact doesn’t even depend on the physical presence! But then what tremendous, prodigious power has to be embodied in the physical cells to withstand all that!...

“But there too, a shift is taking place (what I told you once: those abrupt experiences that do not settle in but are first contacts). After the lesson was drawn from this story, suddenly something arose in the body consciousness—which isn’t one body’s consciousness but a general body consciousness-an aspiration, something so pure, so sweet... so sweet... something like an entreaty that Truth and Light may at last be manifested here, in this. Not “here in this” (Mother touches her own body): it was everywhere.

“Then there was a contact—there was a contact—and a pale blue Light, very sweet, very bright, and an Assurance.

“It lasted only a second, but it was like a new chapter suddenly opening up.

“Mon petit, you are the only person to whom I can say all this-there is not one, not one! Not one able to simply understand. Which makes things more difficult, because I am constantly weighed down by the stupidity of people’s thoughts (stupidity in the sense of incomprehension), the thoughts of all those around me, who think I am (“I,” what they call “I,” you know, “me”), who think I am ill and... I can’t tell them a thing! If I hadn’t spoken to you today, it would be gone. I would never have said anything. Well, that’s the way it is.

“So looking at it from an ordinary viewpoint, it’s so... fantastic, it means such a... colossal work. Of course, it’s the Lord who does it, but will this hold out? (Mother touches her body) I can’t say.

“If He wants, certainly He will find a way for it to hold out. But the thing is rather new….

“(silence)”²⁵

The question was often raised by the Mother whether the process of transformation would continue uninterruptedly and produce a new ‘divine’ body or whether it may be dissolved at a certain stage. On this question the Mother made several statements from time to time, but she never indicated that she had any full assurance that a new ‘divine’ body would emerge from her body or that her body would not be dissolved. One of the important statements in this connection is in the following conversation recorded in the Agenda (July 31, 1963):

“Mother seems quite shaken and tired, though smiling as always

“I’ve made a discovery-not positively a discovery, but a confirmation. A rather interesting observation.

“There was a sort of periodicity in the attacks-can I call them “physical “?... They’re not physical, although they’re on the body. They didn’t recur at exactly regular intervals, because the periods of time in between weren’t always the same, but there was a sort of analogy, of similarity in the circumstances. And now I have come to a kind of certainty.

“The work consists, I could say, in... either removing or transforming (I am not sure which of the two) all the body’s cells that are or have been under the influence of Falsehood (not “lie” but falsehood), of the state contrary to the Divine. But since probably a radical purge or transformation would have resulted in nothing but the body’s dissolution, the work goes on in stages, progressively (I am going very far back in time, to my first attacks). So the sequence is the following: first, a series of activities or visions (but those visions are always activities at the same time: both activities and visions) in the subconscious domain, showing in a very living and objective way the Falsehood that has to be removed (transformed or removed). At first, I took them as adverse attacks, but now I see they are “states of falsehood” to which certain elements in the physical being are linked (at the time, I thought, “I am brought into contact with that because of the correspondence in me,” and I worked on that level —but it’s another way of seeing the same thing). And it produces... certainly there is a dissolution—there is a transformation, but a dissolution too—and that dissolution naturally brings about an extreme fatigue or a sort of exhaustion in the body; so between two of those stages of transformation, the body is given time to recover strength and energy.²⁶ And I had noticed that those “attacks” always come after the observation (an observation I made these last few days) of a great increase in power, energy and force; when the body grows more and more solid, there always follows the next day or the day after, first, a series of nights I could call unpleasant (they are not, for they’re instructive), and then a terrible battle in the body. This time I was conscious—naturally, I am conscious every time, but (smiling) more so every time.

“I had observed lately that the body was getting much stronger, much more solid, that it was even putting on weight (!), which is almost abnormal. Then, I had a first vision (not vision: an activity, but very clear), then another, and then a third. Last night, I was fed a subtle food, as if to tell me that I would need it because I wouldn’t take any physical food (not that I thought about it, I simply noticed I had been fed, given certain foods). And with the visions I had the two preceding nights, I knew that at issue were certain elements forming part of the body’s construction (psychological construction), and that they had to be eliminated. So I worked hard for their elimination. And today, the battle was waged.

“But then, as I had worked hard for the elimination, the battle was quite formidable-when it exceeds a certain measure, the heart has trouble, and then I need to rest. That’s how it happened. But it was so clear, so obvious! And the entire process was seen from the beginning, every single step of it, it’s... a marvel! A marvel of consciousness, of measure, of dosage, to allow the purification and transformation to take place without disrupting the balance, so that dissolution does not occur. It’s based on the capacity to endure and withstand (naturally, if the body were unable to endure, that work couldn’t be done).

“And now the body knows (in the beginning it didn’t, it thought it was “attacks” from the outside, “adverse” forces; and it can always be explained like that, it was true in a certain way, but it wasn’t the true truth, the deepest truth), now the body knows where it all comes from, and it’s so marvelous! A marvel of wisdom… It puts everything in its place, it makes you realize that all that play of the adverse forces is a way of seeing things (a necessary way at a given time, maybe—by “necessary,” I mean practical), but it’s still an illusion; illnesses are a necessary way of seeing things to enable you to resist properly, to fight properly, but it’s still an illusion. And now, the body itself knows all this—as long as it was only the mind that knew it, it was a remote notion in the realm of ideas, but now the body itself knows it. And it is full not only of goodwill but also of an infinite gratitude —it always wonders (that’s its first movement), “Do I have the capacity?” And it always gets the same answer, “It isn’t your capacity.” “Will I have the strength?”—“It isn’t your strength.” Even that sense of infirmity disappears in the joy of infinite gratitude—the thing is done with such goodness, such insight, such thoughtfulness, such care to maintain, as far as possible, a progressive balance.

“It came with a certitude, an obviousness: this is the process of transformation.

“But this time, there was a voluntary collaboration, so maybe it will go faster.

“I was unable to do my work: the jolt was too strong. But I said I would see you because I wanted to tell you about it.

“(silence)

“It’s odd, when I am in that state, I feel as if to make myself heard I have to lift a staggering weight. I feel (for a few days now) as if I have to speak very, very loudly to be heard; it’s almost like a mass... yes, as though I were buried underground and had to shout very loudly in order to be heard.

“Am I speaking very loudly?

“No.

“Because, with everybody, I feel as if I had to shout in order to be heard—and it’s an effort, a considerable effort. There is a sort of mass, the color of brownish earth, weighing down on me, as though I were buried and had to shout. All the while I was speaking to you just now, I felt as if I were making an enormous effort to be heard. Am I shouting or...?

“No.

“Not at all?

“No, it must be the thickness of consciousnesses that you’re feeling?

“Yes! Yes.

“Yes, it’s the air—it’s in the air.

“(long silence)

“And I was told something this morning (I think it was this morning, or in the night, I don’t remember); it was said to the body, not to me. The body was told that it would go on till complete purification, and that at that point it will have the choice between continuing its work or... You see, once it has attained complete purification from the cellular point of view (not what people call physical “purity,” that’s not it), from the point of view of the divine Influence, which means that each cell will be under the exclusive influence of the Supreme (that’s the work under way now), the body was told that that work would be done, and once it was completed, the body itself, entirely under the Supreme’s influence, would decide whether it wants to continue or be dissolved.

“It was very interesting, because... dissolution means a scattering, but to scatter (that’s easy to understand) is a way to spread the consciousness over a very large area. So the cells will be given the choice either to act in that way (gesture of diffusion) or to act in agglomeration (Mother makes a fist).

“(silence)

“It’s the first time the problem has been envisaged from that angle, that is to say, from the standpoint of a general work.

“But I don’t see how the scattering... If it is scattered, if it is dissolved, the whole work is dissolved, isn’t it?

“No, each cell is perfectly conscious.

“Then they would go into other bodies?

“(Mother remains thoughtful a moment) What happens from the material point of view?... Do they know if it reverts to inert Matter, or what? Does it become dust—what does it become?

“Dust, yes.

“Dust ….

“They’re not cells any more?

“No, I don’t think so.

“Then that’s not it, because according to what I was told, they were cells-they remained cells.

“It must be something new.

“They remained cells, it was the cell that was given the choice either of staying in its present agglomeration or of spreading.

“I don’t know, but it seems to me they could persist only in agglomeration with other living beings.

“Are the cells in the human body different from the cells in other bodies, in animals, for instance? Or are they the same?

“Except for certain specialized cells, the other cells aren’t different, I believe.

“But the specialized cells must be the ones in question, because those in question are fully conscious cells—they are specialized cells.

“So I don’t see that they could go into animals, I don’t think they’re the same kind.

“They could only go into other human organisms.

“Human, yes.

“Maybe it’s the difference between one being and many beings?...

“It must be something in preparation. We’ll see.

“So mon petit, I’ll let you go now, because...”

The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1963: July 31, 1963

“A few days afterwards, the Mother added this reflection:

“It is clearly (according to external logic) a new way of dying that must be possible—no longer death as we regard it. But that... for the moment, all we could say would be speculative, not a concrete experience.

“We’ll see.”²⁷

Here is an interesting account of one of the Mother’s cellular experiences:

“...last night, I had a series of fantastic cellular experiences, which I cannot even explain and which must be the beginning of a new revelation.

“When the experience began, there was something looking on (you know, there is always in me something looking on somewhat ironically, always amused) which said, “Very well! If that happened to someone else, he would think he was quite sick! (laughing) Or half mad.” So I stayed very quiet and thought, “All right, let it be, I’ll watch, I’ll see—I’ll see soon enough! It has started, so it will have to end!...” Indescribable! Indescribable (the experience will have to recur several times before I can understand), fantastic! It started at 8:30 and went on till 2:30 in the morning; that is to say, not for a second did I lose consciousness, I was there watching the most extraordinary things—for six hours.

“I don’t know where this is going

“Indescribable; you know, you become a forest, a river, a mountain, a house—and it’s the sensation (an absolutely concrete sensation) of the body, of this (gesture to the body). Many other things too. Indescribable. It lasted a long time, with a whole variety of things.

“So at 2:30 in the morning, I said to the Lord, “That will do, won’t it?!” (Mother laughs) And He gave me a blissful rest till 4:30.

“Good.

“All that on the aphorism!... Anyway, you can use the beginning. But you should ask me a question. Ask me a question.

“I asked myself if for everybody the supramental process will always automatically involve a lot of physical suffering.

“No.

“No, because I have a growing proof that those things I have mastered now, in the body, I have the power (I keep receiving letters and notes from here or there, from people here or there who have an illness)... it is beginning; so far it’s only a beginning, a very small beginning: the power to eliminate pain.

“You know, on a smaller scale, what happened with your illness.

“Yes, but I didn’t mean sick people. I mean people who today or in the future will seek to effect the transformation in themselves.

“No, they...

“Will they have to go through all that suffering?

“No! That Sri Aurobindo wrote very clearly: for all those who have faith and open themselves in surrender and faith, the work will be done automatically. As long as he was here, mon petit, all the thirty years I spent with him working, not once did I have to make an effort for a transformation. Simply, whenever there was a difficulty, I repeated, My Lord, my Lord, my Lord... I just thought of him—hop! it went away. Physical pain: he annulled it. You know, some things that were hampering the body, some old habits that had come back, I only had to tell him: off they would go. And through me, he did the same for others. He always said that he and I did the Work (in fact, when he was here, it was he who did it; I only did the external work), that he and I did the Work, and that all that was asked from the others was faith and surrender, nothing more.

“If they had trust and gave themselves in perfect trust, the Work was done automatically.

“In your body’s cells, it is therefore a universal progress that is being made, it’s the earth that progresses.

“Yes.

“(silence)

“This body was built for that purpose, because I remember very well that when the war-the First World War-started and I offered my body up in sacrifice to the Lord so that the war would not be in vain, every part of my body, one after another (Mother touches her legs, her arms etc.), or sometimes the same part several times over, represented a battlefield: I could see it, I could feel it, I lived it. Every time it was... it was very strange, I had only to sit quietly and watch: I would see here, there, there, the whole thing in my body, all that was going on. And while it went on, I would put the concentration of the divine Force there, so that all—all that pain, all that suffering, everything—would hasten the preparation of the earth and the Descent of the Force. And that went on consciously throughout the war.

“The body was built for that purpose.

“At the time, there was still a lot of mental activity, and those experiences took all the forms the mind gives to things—very nice, very literary! Now, all that is over—happily, thank God! A complete silence—I don’t make speeches on the thing. But the experience of last night!... And to think that when an experience lasts half an hour, three quarters of an hour, one hour, it’s considered extraordinary—it lasted from 8:30 till 2:15, nonstop.

“A sort of ubiquity in the cells?

“Yes, yes.

“A oneness—the sense of Oneness.

“(silence)

“It is clear that if this experience becomes natural, spontaneous and constant, death can no longer exist: even for this, I mean (Mother touches her body).

“There’s something I sense there, without being able to express or understand it mentally. There must be some difference, even in the behavior of the cells, when you leave your body.

“It must be another phenomenon that takes place.”²⁸

Between 1962 and 1967, the Mother had numerous experiences of the mastery over and liberation from the hold of the physical mind. At the same time, she underwent the training of the cells resulting in the growth and development of the mind of the cells. These five years were marked by nonstop illness and countless heart problems which led her to find the key to the functioning of the cells. In order that the cells could function ‘purely’—without any intrusion of factors foreign to its substance, the body had to be emptied completely of its old habits and its old coatings. This meant a direct contact of the supermind with the cells without the need to pass through the layers of the intellectual mind, the vital mind, the sensory mind and the physical mind. All the protective walls of the species had to disappear so that the new species can emerge.

Indeed, as we have seen above, the first radical turning point was in 1962. As the Mother said:

“It began when the doctors declared I was seriously ill [1962], that was the beginning. Because the entire body was emptied of its habits and forces,...”

“The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1967: November 22, 1967

“I couldn’t take a step without fainting: if I wanted to walk from here to there, poff! I would faint on the way;

“I had to be held up so my body wouldn’t drop to the ground… But as for me, not for one minute did I lose consciousness! I would faint but remain conscious, I would see my body and know I had fainted; I didn’t lose consciousness, the body didn’t lose consciousness. So now I understand! The body was cut off from the vital and the mind and left to its own means...”²⁹

In 1965 she had said:

“I had always been under the impression of what Sri Aurobindo said: “This instrument [the physical mind] is useless, it can only be got rid of…” It was very difficult to get rid of it because it was so intimately linked to the aggregate of the physical body and its present form... it was difficult; and when I tried and a deeper consciousness tried to manifest, it used to cause fainting. I mean that the union, the fusion, the identification with the Supreme Presence without that, without this physical mind, by annulling it, caused fainting. I didn’t know what to do...”³⁰

Let us study certain other ‘important’ experiences in the same domain:

I am on the border of a new perception of life. As if certain parts of the consciousness were in a metamorphosis from the caterpillar state into the butterfly state, something like that.³¹
These last few days (yesterday or the day before), there was this: a sort of completely decentralized consciousness (I am always referring to the physical consciousness, of course, not at all to the higher consciousness), a decentralized consciousness that happened to be here, there, there, in this body, that body (in what people call “this person” and “that person,” but that notion doesn’t quite exist anymore), and then there was a kind of intervention of a universal consciousness in the cells, as though it were asking these cells what their reason was for wanting to retain this combination (if we may say so) or this aggregate... while in fact making them understand or feel the difficulties that come, for example, from the number of years, wear and tear, external difficulties-from all the deterioration caused by friction, wear and tear. But they seemed to be perfectly indifferent to that!...

...the universal Consciousness... [was] saying, “But here are the obstacles…” And those obstacles were clearly seen: that kind of pessimism of the mind (a formless mind that’s beginning to be born and organized in these cells). But the cells themselves didn’t care a whit! To them it was like a disease, they said, “Oh, that...” (the word distorts, but it was felt as a sort of “accident” or an “inescapable disease or something that did not form a normal part of their development and had been forced on them), “Oh, that, we don’t care about it!” And then, at that moment, a sort of lower power to act on that mind was born; it gave the cells a material power to separate themselves from that and reject it.

... something truly decisive had taken place. There was a sort of trusting joy: “Ah! We’re free from that nightmare.”...

And at the same time, a relief—a physical relief—as if the air were easier to breathe… Yes, it was a bit like being shut inside a shell—a suffocating shell—and... at any rate, an opening has been made in it. You can breathe. I don’t know if it’s more than that, but at any rate, something has been as if torn open, and you can breathe.

It was a totally, totally material and cellular action.³²

3)... A transfer of power.

The cells, the whole material consciousness, used to obey the inner individual consciousness—the psychic consciousness most of the time, or the mental (but the mind had been silent for a long time). But now this material mind is organizing itself like the other one, or the other ones, rather, like the mind of all the states of being-do you know, it is educating itself. It is learning things and organizing the ordinary science of the material world. When I write, for instance, I have noticed that it takes great care not to make spelling errors; and it doesn’t know, so it inquires, it learns, it looks up in the dictionary or it asks. That’s very interesting. It wants to know. You see, all the memory that came from mental knowledge went away a long, long time ago, and I used to receive indications only like this (gesture from above). But now it’s a sort of memory being built from below... It’s like a shift in the directing will. And then, there was materially, physically, a sort of surprise, and a need to identify with the new direction-it’s a little difficult. It’s difficult to explain, too… It’s no longer the same thing that makes you act—“act” or anything, of course: move, walk, anything...

The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1965: August 21, 1965

The most difficult part is in the nerves, because they are so habituated to that ordinary conscious will that when it stops and you want the direct Action from the highest height, they seem to become mad. Yesterday morning I had that experience, which lasted for more than an hour, and it was difficult; but it taught me many things-many things. And all this is what we may call the “transfer of power”: it is the old power that withdraws. But then, until the body adapts to the new power, there is a period which is, well, critical. As all the cells are in a state of conscious aspiration, it’s going relatively fast, but still... the minutes are long.

The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1965: August 31, 1965

... this material, cellular mind, I can assure you that it’s absolutely new! Absolutely new.³³

It’s rather strange, this eyesight. There always seems to be a veil between me and things, constantly; I am so used to it; I see everything very well, but as if there were a slight veil. Then all of a sudden, without any apparent reason (an outwardly logical reason, I mean), a thing becomes clear, precise, sharp (gesture: leaping to the eyes)—the next minute, it’s over. Sometimes it’s a word in a letter or written somewhere, sometimes it’s an object. And it is a different quality of vision, a vision... (how can I explain it?) as if light were shining from within things instead of shining on them: it isn’t a reflected light. It isn’t luminous, it isn’t like a candle, for instance, or a lamp, not that, but instead of being lit by a projected light, things have their own light, which doesn’t radiate.

It’s becoming more and more frequent, but with perfect illogic. Which means that I don’t understand the logic of it at all; I don’t know why this thing [“lights up”] rather than that thing, or that rather than this: suddenly something leaps to the eyes—“Ah!”—and it’s gone in a flash. And the vision is so precise! Extraordinary, with the full understanding of the thing seen while you are seeing it...

For instance, I noticed this while washing early in the morning: I go into the bathroom before turning the light on, because I turn it on from inside; but I see just as clearly as when the light is on! It makes no difference. And then everything was as if behind a kind of veil. Then I turned my attention (or rather my attention was drawn) and I said to myself, “But all this is becoming so lackluster, it’s completely uninteresting!” And I started thinking (not thinking, but becoming aware of one thing or another), and suddenly, I saw that phenomenon of a bottle in the cupboard becoming so clear, so... with an inner life (gesture as if the bottle lit up from inside). “Oh!” I said—the next minute, it was over...

... this is clearly the preparation for a vision through the inner light rather than projected light. And it is... oh, it’s warm, living, intense—and of such precision! You see everything at the same time, not only the color and shape, but the character of the vibration: in a liquid, the character of its vibration—it’s marvelous.³⁴

5)...all kinds of little disorders come, but to the consciousness they are clearly disorders related to the transformation, so you see to that particular point, you want order to be restored; at the same time, something knows full well that the disorder came to make the transition from the ordinary automatic functioning to the conscious functioning under the direct Direction and the direct Influence of the Supreme. And the body itself knows this (still, it’s no fun to have a pain here or a pain there, or this or that being disorganized, but it knows). And when that point has reached a certain stage of transformation, you move on to another point, then on to another, and on to another again. So nothing is done, no work is definitively done until... everything is ready.

And everything is a question of changing the habit. The whole automatic habit of millennia must be changed into a conscious action, directly guided by the supreme Consciousness.³⁵

There is a new activity…. At times I find myself (I catch myself doing something, to be precise) talking with people whom most of the time I don’t know, then describing a scene: they can get such and such a thing done, they can be advised to do this or that thing, and it will end with such and such a thing. They are kinds of scenes from a book or scenes from a movie. Then, the same day or the next, someone suddenly tells me, “I received a message from you and you told me to write to so-and-so and tell him such and such a thing”!... And I am not doing it mentally, it’s not that I think, “A letter must be sent to so-and-so and such and such a thing must be done,” not at all: I live—I live a scene or narrate a scene, and it’s received by someone else (and I am not at all thinking of that someone else), it’s received by “someone,” this or that or this person, as a message in which I tell him to do this or that thing. And it’s happening here, in France, in America, everywhere.

It’s becoming amusing!

Someone writes to me, “You told me this,” and it’s one of my “scenes”! One of the scenes I lived—not “lived,” lived and created at the same time! I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like a work of... (Mother seems to feel an invisible substance between her fingers, as if fashioning it).

And it’s not me, of course! Here (Mother touches her forehead), Lord, thank God, I hope it will go on forever: quiet, calm, so calm, so tranquil, so peaceful. But it comes from every side! (gesture of innumerable communications pouring into this silence)

There are stories of countries, stories of governments; I don’t know the result there—maybe we’ll see after some time.

And in this type of activity, I have all kinds of knowledge that I don’t have! Sometimes even medical knowledge or technical knowledge that I don’t at all have—yet that I have, of course, since I say, “This is how it is, that is how it is ” It’s rather amusing.³⁶

The Mother’s body had become a living and conscious laboratory of the new species. Sri Aurobindo had written long ago:

“The animal is a living laboratory in which Nature, it is said, worked out man. Man himself may well be a thinking and living laboratory in whom and with whose conscious co-operation she wills to work out the superman...”³⁷

Three simultaneous and inter-related processes were going on in the Mother’s body. Firstly, there was a progressive dissolution of the Inconscience at its utmost bottom. Secondly, there was the infiltration, permeation and invasion of the Supermind in the cellular consciousness so as to counteract the Falsehood in Matter, Life and Mind. Thirdly, there was the gradual transformation of the body by means of the collaboration and change of the material mind and by means of radical changes in various functionings of organs and faculties.

Chapter - III

There was a great turning point in the yoga of the Mother between 10th August and 22nd August 1968. On the 22nd August, Mother sent a note to Satprem (with packets of soup!) in which she had written:

“Here are some soups, you must not have any left.

“This time, it is truly interesting—but a bit total and radical.

“How far, far away we are from the goal...

“I will try to remember.”³⁸

On the 28th August, when Satprem met the Mother, he was given a few notes by her, one of which described a radical operation that was effected:

“The vital and the mind sent packing so that the physical may truly be left to its own resources.”³⁹ Another note said:

“For several hours, the landscapes were wonderful, perfectly harmonious.

“... Each thing with a precise reason and purpose, to express nonmentalized states of consciousness.

“Constant visions.

“Landscapes.

“Constructions.

“Cities.

“The whole thing immense and very diverse, covering the entire visual field and expressing states of consciousness of the body.

“Many, a great many constructions, immense cities being built….”⁴⁰

The Mother commented on this as follows:

“Yes, the world being built, the future world being built. I couldn’t hear anymore, couldn’t see anymore, couldn’t speak anymore: I was living inside that all the time, all the time, night and day.”

The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1968: August 28, 1968

There was also a note of the night of 26th to 27th August:

“Powerful and prolonged penetration of the supramental forces into the body, everywhere at the same time...”

The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1968: August 28, 1968

While commenting on this note, the Mother said:

“Penetration into the body. Yes, penetrations of currents I had had several times, but that night (two nights ago, that is), what came all of a sudden was as though there was nothing anymore except a supramental atmosphere. Nothing remained except that. My body was in it. And it was pressing to enter, from everywhere, but everywhere at the same time—everywhere. You understand, it wasn’t a current flowing in, it was an atmosphere penetrating from everywhere. It lasted for at least four or five hours...

“It’s the first time. For hours. Only That remained. And this (the body) was like a sponge soaking up...

“Ah! I noticed that the cells, everywhere, you know, constantly, all the time, were repeating, om namo bhagavate, om namo bhagavate... constantly, all the time.”⁴¹

This entire experience was crucial and radical. One has to imagine a true body growing up in an old body at the very cellular level, where there is no intermediate between the supermind and the psychic, on the one hand, and the cellular consciousness of the body, on the other. The cellular consciousness was liberated from all intermediate levels, including the physical mind. Here was now the possibility of infusing a new genetic code in the cells—the code of the supramental vibration of knowledge, power, harmony and immortality.

This is the phenomenon that took place in the Mother’s body. A new mind in matter began to work, a new mind of the cells. The key to transform the body was turned.

On 23rd November, 1968, the Mother spoke of a central experience. She said:

“I’ve spent days when I really lived all the horrors of the creation (and in the consciousness of their horror), then that brought about this experience, and... the whole horror vanished.

“It wasn’t moral things at all: it was mostly physical sufferings. Especially the physical suffering. And that physical suffering, I saw it: a physical suffering that lasts—unceasing, going on night and day. And all at once, instead of being in that state of consciousness, you are in the state of consciousness of this exclusive divine Presence—the pain is gone! And it was physical, quite physical, with a physical reason. You understand, doctors might say: “It’s for this reason, that reason...”—quite a material thing, absolutely physical: poff! Gone…. Your consciousness changes—it comes back.

“And if you stay long enough in the true consciousness, the appearance, that is, what we call the physical “fact” itself, disappears, not just the pain I have the feeling of having touched... (there’s no mind to understand, thank God!), of having touched the central experience.

“But it’s a very small beginning.

“One would have the impression or certitude of having touched the supreme Secret only if the physical were transformed… According to the experience (the experience in tiny details), that’s how it should be. But then, would there first be one body in which this Consciousness was expressed, or must everything, but everything be transformed?... That I don’t know.”⁴²

As we shall see, the question of the receptivity, collaboration and transformation of the collectivity will become more and more imperative. One single body, it seems,—without the support of the minimum collective transformation—cannot sustain full transformation. So Mother’s work was constantly double: work on her own body (which had already become the body of the earth) and the collectivity around her. This work was proceeding rapidly with increasing acceleration.

On 1st January 1969, the Mother had an experience of ‘new consciousness’, which was later on described by her as the consciousness of the superman, an intermediate between the human and the supramental being.

Speaking of this, the Mother said:

“On the 1st, something really strange took place.... And I wasn’t the only one to feel it, a few people felt it too. It began just after midnight, but I felt it at 2, and others at 4 in the morning. It was. I told you a few words about it last time, but the surprising thing is that it didn’t correspond to anything I expected (I didn’t expect anything), or to any of the things I had felt. It was something very material, I mean it was very external—very outward —and luminous, with a golden light. It was very strong, powerful. But its character was a smiling benevolence, a peaceful joy, and a sort of blossoming in the joy and the light. And it was like a “happy new year,” like a wish. I must say it took me by surprise.

“It lasted—I felt it for at least three hours. Afterwards, I stopped concerning myself with it, I don’t know what happened. But I told you a few words about it, and I spoke to two or three others: they had all felt it. Which means it was very material. They had all felt a sort of joy like that, but an amiable, powerful joy, and... oh, so sweet, very smiling, very benevolent... something. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what it is, but it’s a kind of benevolence; so it was something very close to the human. And so concrete! So concrete. As if it had a taste, so concrete was it. Afterwards, I didn’t concern myself with it anymore, except that I told two or three people about it: they had all felt it. Now, I don’t know whether it has mingled or. It hasn’t gone, it doesn’t give the feeling of something that comes only to go away.

“It was far more external than the things I usually feel, far more external.. Hardly mental at all, I mean there was no sense of a “promise” or. No. It would rather be like. My own impression was that of an immense personality, immense (meaning that for it, the earth was small, like this [Mother holds a small object in the hollow of her hands], like a ball), an immense personality, so very benevolent, and coming to. (Mother seems to gently raise the little ball in the hollow of her hands). It was the impression of a personal god (yet it was. I don’t know) who comes to help. So very strong! And so sweet at the same time, so understanding.

“And it was very external: the body felt it everywhere, everywhere (Mother touches her face, her hands), all over like this.

“What has become of it? I don’t know.

“It was the start of the year. As if someone on the scale of a god (someone, that is) had come to say “Happy new year,” with all the power to make it a happy year. It was like that.

“But what was it?...

“So concrete.

“I don’t know.

“Is it. is it the personality (because it didn’t have any form, I didn’t see any form, there was only what it brought along (Mother feels the atmosphere with her fingers), sensation and feeling, these two things—sensation and feeling), I wondered if it wasn’t the supramental personality. which will, then, manifest later in material forms?

“Since then, the body—this body—has been feeling (it has been permeated by that everywhere, a lot), it has been feeling much more joyful and less concentrated, living more in a happy, smiling expansion. For instance, it speaks more easily. There’s a note. a constant note of benevolence. A smile, you know, a benevolent smile, and all that with a great force.. I don’t know.

“Haven’t you felt anything?

“That day, I had a sense of contentment.

“Ah, that’s it! Yes, that’s right.

“Is it the supramental personality?. Which will incarnate in all those who will have a supramental body.?

“It was luminous, smiling, and so benevolent because of its power: I mean that generally, benevolence in the human being is something slightly weak, in the sense that it doesn’t like battle, it doesn’t like struggle—but this wasn’t like that at all! A benevolence that imposes itself (Mother brings her two fists down on the armrests of her chair).

“It interested me because it was entirely new. And so concrete! Concrete like this (Mother touches the arms of her chair), like what the physical consciousness usually regards as “others,” as concrete as that. Which means it didn’t come through some inner being, through the psychic being: it came directly onto the body.

“What is it?.. Yes, it may be that... The body’s feeling since that took place has been a sort of certitude; a certitude as if now it no longer were in an anxiety or uncertainty to know. “What will it be? What will this Supramental physically be like?” the body used to wonder. “What will it be like physically?” Now, it no longer thinks about it, it’s happy.

“Very well.

“Is it something that’s going to permeate the bodies that are ready?

“Yes.. I think so, yes. I feel it’s the formation that’s going to permeate and express itself-permeate and express itself-in the bodies. which will be the bodies of the Supramental.

“Or maybe… maybe the superman? I don’t know. The intermediary between the two. Maybe the superman: it was very human, but a human of divine proportions, you understand.

“A human without weaknesses and shadows: it was all luminous-all light and smile and. sweetness at the same time.

“Yes, maybe the superman...”⁴³

Mother continued on the 8th January her comments on the experience of the 1st January:

“And this descent of the superman consciousness..

“Did I tell you I had afterwards identified it?

“When you spoke last time, you had identified it.

“Yes, but I spoke of “supramental consciousness.”

“Later, you said, “Maybe the superman?”

“Yes, that’s it. It’s the descent of the superman consciousness. I had the assurance of it afterwards.

“It was on the 1st of January after midnight. I woke up at 2 in the morning, surrounded by a consciousness, but so concrete, and new, in the sense that I had never experienced that. It lasted, quite concrete and present, for two or three hours, and then it spread out and went to find all those who could receive it. And at the same time I knew it was the consciousness of the superman, that is, the intermediary between man and the supramental being.

“It has given the body a sort of assurance, a sort of trust. That experience has made it steady, as it were, and if it keeps the true attitude, all the support is there to help it. A certain number of people (I asked afterwards) had the experience, they felt it (not as clearly), felt the presence of a new consciousness—lots of people. They told me (I asked them if they had felt something), they told me, “Oh, yes!” But each with. (Mother twists her fingers slightly) naturally his own special approach.

“(silence)

“The curious thing (I’ve noticed it with others) is that when the Action is silent, it’s far more precise than when it takes place through words. Words are received mentally, and there is always a slight distortion: a distortion of the content of those words. Whereas when the action is direct (Mother makes a gesture of inner communication), it’s very precise.”⁴⁴

The advent of this New Consciousness may be regarded as a crucial development of the Mother’s yoga of the Body. Indeed, this consciousness was the supramental consciousness working through an intermediate body—a body, human in origin but thoroughly purified and refined right up to the cellular level and thus capable of the operations of the Supermind directly in the physical body.

True, the entire physical body was not yet fully transformed, but it was yet a vehicle in which the subtle physical was so much supramentalised that its real matter—which the Mother has described as something much more dense and compact and plastic that the gross physical that we see—could manifest, operate and produce results in and through the outer body.

This ‘new consciousness’, the Mother explained later, began to operate when her body lost all sense of separative individuality. Since the arrival of this consciousness, things began to precipitate and there was an extraordinary rapidity of movement in the circumstances. Its method of working consisted of putting people in front of themselves and to apply a pressure so that all that resisted in the nature would come out on the surface. The Mother said that she saw all this all the time, for small things as well as for big things, for the political affairs of the country as well as for the organisation of a household.⁴⁵

In the beginning of 1970, the Mother spoke of the replacement of knowledge-processes in her body by a new perception which was total, something that comprehended at the same time hearing, vision and knowledge. There was, she said, no differentiation among her organs. She pointed out that the new consciousness insisted on surpassing all divisions and all exclusiveness, including the great division of life and death. The Mother discovered ‘over-life’, which is at once life and death, or which is rather something that cannot be described either as life or as death, but some other third state in which the contradiction of life and death is overcome.

The question of death had begun to receive the Mother’s attention more and more pointedly during the last several years. In fact, as the Mother had said, the problem of death was the problem that was given to her to solve. One aspect of the problem was the waste that death would entail by cutting short the continuing process of the permeation of the supramental force in the cells. The Mother had spoken of this problem as far back as 1964:

“You see, for our consolation we are told in every possible way that the work done isn’t lost and that all this action on the cells to make them conscious of the higher life isn’t lost—that’s not true, it’s absolutely lost! Suppose I leave my body tomorrow; this body (not immediately, but after a time) reverts to dust; then all that I’ve done for these cells is perfectly useless! Except that the consciousness will come out of the cells—but it always does!...

“... it’s a pure waste...

“On the physical level, it’s a pure waste. The mind and vital are another affair, that’s not interesting: we have known for a very long time that their life doesn’t depend on the body—it depends on the body only in order to manifest. That’s another affair. I am speaking of the body, that’s what interests me: the body’s cells. Well, death is a waste and that’s that...

“That is to say, before this body dissolves, a new creation should be there...

“...a certain quality of cells should be able to allow the form to become different (the form can change, it changes all the time, it’s never the same), but with the conscious interrelationships of the cells persisting.”⁴⁶

No solution to this problem was found for several years. In the meantime, she made several experiments. In February 1966, the Mother said that she was trying to find out the secret of the process of death so that one could undo it. A fortnight later she said: ‘I am like a dead person who lives on the earth.’ She said that it was a different way of living, independent of physical laws, but dependent exclusively on the Supreme Will. Two months later, she spoke of a curve of experiences which demonstrated repeatedly the difference between being in the body and being without the body as far as the consciousness is concerned. Then came the question of eating. She said that she could no more eat; in fact this problem would remain right till the end—it was very difficult for her to eat, as though eating would mean swallowing the difficulties of the external world. She was rapidly proceeding towards preparing the cells that would be capable of sustaining the Supramental consciousness. This required, she found, an utter plasticity that is impossible in the the skeleton with all the rigidity of the bones. Indeed, the supramental body which would be a condensation or densification of ‘some stuff’ could be utterly plastic, but the question was how to graft that body in the body that we can see and touch. The gulf between the two was too great to be covered except by several intermediate stages.

Could this process be accelerated by recourse to a cataleptic trance? The Mother had felt the need of such a trance from time to time, but she had always considered it to be the method of inertia and laziness. However, on 14th January, 1967, she dictated a note in which she said that she might need to enter into a cataleptic trance and that her body should be left in peace. ‘This could last several days, perhaps weeks or even more.’ but she preferred that the need for immobile repose be replaced by the power of an inner concentration.

She began to perceive two states of Matter more and more persistently, the state of Matter as we ordinarily see, and the state of what she called true Matter, a luminous Matter, Matter of multi-coloured light associated with the shades of all the colours.

This gave rise to the possibility of a transition so that the outer body would be gradually replaced by the new body of true matter. The Mother found that a local or momentary manifestation would not be impossible; but more and more she felt that there had to be a sufficient collective transformation for achieving durable manifestation.

During the first months of 1968, the Mother had repeated experiences of a state that determines the rupture of the equilibrium, the dissolution of the form which we call death. This was at one extreme; and, at the other extreme, she had repeated experiences of the state of unmixed Bliss. She said that the fusion of these two states would mean the supreme Power and that if That would be realised physically, the problem would end. The work consisted of bringing about that fusion, and this required the change of the consciousness of all the cells. Indeed, this was a gradual process, and it proceeded by taking up groups of cells or parts of faculties, one after the other.

It was against this background that the Mother had an important experience in early February 1969.

“... it was... Never, never had the body been so happy! It was the complete Presence, absolute freedom, and a certitude: these cells, other cells (gesture here and there showing other bodies), it didn’t matter, it was life everywhere, consciousness everywhere.

“Absolutely wonderful.

“It came effortlessly, and it left simply because... I was too busy. It doesn’t come at will—what comes at will is what we might call a “copy”: it looks like it, but it’s not the Thing. The Thing. There is something wholly independent of our aspiration, our will, our effort. wholly independent. And this something appears to be absolutely all-powerful, in the sense that none of the body’s difficulties exists. At such times, everything disappears. Aspiration, concentration, effort. No use at all. And it’s the divine sense, you understand, that’s what having the divine sense means. During these few hours (three or four hours), I understood in an absolute way what having the divine consciousness in the body means. And then, this body, that body, that other body. (gesture here and there, all around Mother), it doesn’t matter: it moved about from one body to another, quite free and independent, aware of the limitations or the possibilities of each body—absolutely wonderful, I had never, ever had this experience before. Absolutely wonderful. It left because I was so busy that.

“And it lasted for several hours. Never had this body, in the ninety-one years it’s been on earth, felt such happiness: freedom, absolute power, and no limits (gesture here and there and everywhere), no limits, no impossibilities, nothing. It was... all other bodies were itself. There was no difference...”⁴⁷

About a month later, the Mother said:

“The body consciousness has become individualized and at the same time independent, which means it can enter other bodies and feel quite at ease there. I made the experiment one day (“I made,” it wasn’t the body that made it, it was “made” to make it, precisely by this Consciousness) of entering three or four people like that, one after another, and of feeling in each one the body’s way of being: it wasn’t at all a vital or mental entry, it was a bodily entry. And that was really interesting...

“That completely changes the body’s attitude with regard to solutions: there’s no more attachment or sense of extinction, you understand, since the consciousness. It’s the body consciousness that has become independent. And that’s very interesting. In other words, in any physical substance sufficiently developed to receive it, it can manifest.”⁴⁸

A week later, the Mother said the following:

“One question kept coming back: “All this work of transformation of the cells, of consciousness in the cells, with the ordinary way [of dying], won’t it be wasted since the body is going to disintegrate?.” Then there came in a very precise, almost concrete manner: there is a way, which is, before dying, to prepare within oneself a body with all the transformed, illumined, conscious cells, to collect them together and form a body with the maximum number of conscious cells; then, when the work is over, the full consciousness enters it and the other body can dissolve, it no longer matters.”⁴⁹

When Sri Aurobindo left his body, the accumulated result of all his physical consciousness was transmitted to the Mother’s body, and thus there was no waste. But now, apart from the Mother’s body, there was no other body which was so developed that it could receive, if the Mother left her body, the accumulated result of her physical consciousness. This was a formidable problem. But as we see from what she said, this problem was now resolved. Even if she left her body, the work would not be spoilt, there would be no waste. The work could continue.

Chapter - IV

Perhaps the most decisive point which the Mother has explained in her conversation with Satprem on 14th March 1970 is concerned with the accomplishment by the Mother of the task that Sri Aurobindo had given to her. Let us study these important portions of the conversation that we find in Vol. 11 of the Mother’s Agenda:

... And the action of this Consciousness... (how shall I put it?), it almost pitilessly shows the extent to which the entire mental construction is false—everything, even apparently spontaneous reactions, all of it is the result of an extremely complex mental construction.

But this Consciousness is pitiless.

We are born in that, and we find it so natural to feel according to that, react according to that, organize everything according to that, and the result is... that the Truth passes you by.

It’s in the very organization of the body.

So then, the Action seems to impose itself with an extraordinary power, and in a manner that appears (appears to us) pitiless (Mother strikes her fist into Matter), so we may learn our lesson.

(long silence)

I remembered the time when Sri Aurobindo was here… You see, the inner part of the being used to enter into a consciousness that felt and saw things according to the higher consciousness—they were quite different; then, when Sri Aurobindo fell ill, in fact, when there were all those things, first that accident (he broke his leg)⁵⁰... then the body, the body used to say constantly, “Those are dreams, those are dreams, it’s not for us; for us bodies, this is how it is…” (gesture underground) It was frightful… Then all that left. It left completely after so many years—all those years of effort—it left: the body itself would feel the divine Presence, and its impression was that... everything necessarily had to change. So then, these last few days, that formation which had left (a terrestrial formation, of all mankind, which means that those who have the vision or perception of, or even just the aspiration to, that higher Truth, when they come back into the [material] Fact, they are in front of this dreadfully painful thing, this perpetual negation by all circumstances), that formation, from which the body had completely freed itself, came back. It came back, but... when it came back, when the body saw it, it saw it as one sees a falsehood. And I understood how much it had changed, because when it saw the formation, its impression... it looked at it with a smile and the impression: ah, an old formation now devoid of truth. It was an extraordinary experience: that thing, its time is over. Its time is over. And this Pressure of the Consciousness is a pressure for things as they were—so miserable and so petty and so obscure and so... apparently inescapable at the same time—all of it was... (Mother gestures above her shoulder) behind, like an antiquated past. So then, I really saw—saw, understood—that the work of this Consciousness (which is pitiless, it’s not concerned whether it’s difficult or not, probably not even much concerned about apparent damage) is for the normal state to cease to be this thing which is so heavy, so obscure, so ugly—so low—and for the dawn to come... you know, something dawning on the horizon: a new Consciousness. That something truer and more luminous.

What Sri Aurobindo says here about diseases is just the point: the power of habit, of all constructions, of what appears “inescapable” and “irrevocable” in diseases. With all that, experiences seem to multiply in order to show... in order for one to learn that it’s simply a question of attitude—the attitude of going beyond... beyond this mental prison humanity has locked itself in, and of... breathing up above.

It’s the body’s experience. Before, those who had inner experiences would say, “Yes, up above, that’s the way it is, but here...” Now the “but here” will soon cease to be. This tremendous change is what’s being conquered, so physical life may be ruled by the higher consciousness and not by the mental world. It’s the change of authority… It’s difficult. It’s hard. It’s painful. There is some damage done, naturally, but... But truly, one can see—one can see. And that’s the real change, that’s what will enable the new Consciousness to express itself. And the body is learning, it’s learning its lesson—all bodies, all bodies.

(silence)

That was the old division made by the mind: “Above, things are very fine, you may have all experiences and everything is luminous and marvelous; here, nothing doing.” And the impression that when one is born, one is born again into the “hopeless world.” That explains, by the way, why all those who did not foresee the possibility of things being otherwise had said, “Better get out of here, and then...” All that has become so clear! But this change, the fact that it’s no longer inescapable, that is the great Victory: it’s no longer inescapable. You feel—feel and see, and the body itself has experienced—the possibility that soon, here too, things will be truer.

There is... there is really something changed in the world.

(silence)

Naturally, for things to be truly established, it’s going to take time. That’s the battle going on. From every side, on every plane, there’s an onslaught of things coming to say outwardly, “Nothing has changed”—but it’s not true. It’s not true, the body knows it’s not true. And now it knows, it knows in what sense.

What Sri Aurobindo wrote, in fact in those Aphorisms I see right now, is so prophetic! It was so much the vision of the True Thing! So prophetic!

(silence)

Now I see, I see how his departure and his work so... so immense, you know, and constant in this subtle physical, how much, how much it has helped! How much he has (Mother gestures as if kneading Matter)... how much he has helped prepare things, change the structure of the physical.

All the experiences others had had of making contact with the higher worlds, used to leave the physical here as it is. (How should I put it?...) From the very beginning of existence up to Sri Aurobindo’s departure, I lived in the awareness that one may rise, one may know, one may have all experiences (and one did have them), but when one came back into this body... it was those for- mid-able old laws of the mind that ruled everything. So then, all these years have been years spent preparing and preparing—freeing oneself and preparing—and these last few days, it was... ah! the body physically noting that things had changed.

It has to be worked out, as they say, realized in every detail, but the change is done—the change is done.

Which means that the material conditions, which were elaborated by the mind, fixed by it (Mother clenches her fist tight), and which appeared so inescapable, to such a point that those who had a living experience of the higher worlds thought one had to flee this world, abandon this material world if one really wanted to live in the Truth (that’s the cause of all those theories and beliefs), now things are no longer like that. Now things are no longer like that. The physical is capable of receiving the higher Light, the Truth, the true Consciousness, and of man-i-fest-ing it.

It’s not easy, it calls for endurance and will, but a day will come when it will be quite natural. It’s only just the open door—that’s all, now we have to go on.

(silence)

Naturally, what was established hangs on tight and defends itself desperately. That’s the cause of this whole trouble (swarming gesture in the earth atmosphere)—but it has lost the battle. It’s over. It’s over.

(silence)

It has taken this Consciousness⁵¹... a little more than a year to win this Victory. Naturally, as yet it’s visible only to those who have the inner vision, but... it’s done.

(long silence)

That was the work Sri Aurobindo had given me, that was it. Now I understand.

But it’s as if from every side—every side—those mental forces, mental powers were rising in protest, violent in their protest, so as to impose their old laws: “But things have always been this way!...” But it’s over. They won’t always be this way, that’s all.

(long silence)

Something of this battle was going on in this body these last few days… It’s really very interesting… From outside, coming from outside, there was an effort to give the body experiences so as to force it to note for itself, “No, what has always been always will be; you may try, but it’s an illusion.” Then something would come, a nice little disorganization in the body, and it would respond with its attitude: a peace like (immutable gesture): “As You will, Lord, as You will....”—Everything disappeared as in a flash! And it happened several times (at least a dozen times in a day). Then—then the body begins to feel, “There you are!...” It has that joy, that joy of... the lived Marvel.

Things are not as they were, no longer as they were—things are no longer as they were.

We have to struggle on, we need patience, courage, will, trust—but things are no longer “just the way they are.” It’s the old thing trying to hang on tight—hideous! Hideous. But... it’s not like that anymore. It’s not like that anymore.

There.

(silence)

This too: how far, how far will the body be able to go? There too, it’s... perfectly peaceful and happy: it will be as You will.

(long silence)

All the rest looks so old, so old, like something... that belongs to a dead past—which is trying to come back to life, but it can’t anymore.

And all, all circumstances are as catastrophic as they can be: troubles, complications, difficulties, everything, just everything goes at it relentlessly like that, like wild beasts, but... it’s over. The body knows that it’s over. It may take centuries, but it’s over. To disappear, it may take centuries, but it’s over now.

This wholly concrete and absolute realization that one could have only when going out of Matter (Mother brings a finger down), it’s sure, sure and certain that we will have it right here.

(Mother looks at Satprem for a long time, then takes his hands)

It’s the fourteenth month since the Consciousness came—fourteenth month: twice seven.

(silence)

Is today the 14th?

Yes, the 14th.

So it’s interesting.

How he has worked since he left, oh!... All the time, all the time….

(silence)

It looks... it looks like a miracle in the body. The disappearance of this formation really looks miraculous. And everything becomes clear. We’ll see.

(long silence)

Things have moved relatively fast.

(silence)

Good...

“Does it mean that all the human consciousnesses that have a little faith now have the possibility of emerging from this mental hypnosis?

“Yes, yes, exactly. Exactly. Exactly.”⁵²

The Mother reiterated during her conversation with Satprem on 29.4.1970 that the object to be accomplished was the change in the physical consciousness, that the change in the physical appearance was a secondary consequence, and that that would be the last thing to change. She said emphatically that the thing that had to be accomplished was accomplished. In her own words:

“...We think that this, this appearance (Mother points to her body) is... to the ordinary consciousness it seems to be the most important thing—it’s obviously the last thing that will change. And to the ordinary consciousness, it seems to be the last thing that will change because its the most important: that will be the surest sign. But it’s not that at all!... It’s not that at all.

“The important thing is this change in the consciousness—which has taken place. All the rest is a consequence. And here, in this material world, it appears the most important to us because it’s... everything is upside down. I don’t know how to explain.

“For us, when this [the body] is able to visibly be some-

“thing different from what it is, we’ll say, “Ah, now the thing is done.”—That’s not true: the thing is done. This [the body] is a secondary consequence.”⁵³

A momentous stage was reached. An irreversible stage was reached. The whole work, the real work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, was to open up the consciousness of the cells by fixing the supramental consciousness in the body-consciousness. This work was done; the rest was a secondary consequence. As the Mother said: ‘It must be “worked out” as one says, it has to be realised in all details, but the change is done—the change is done... The physical is capable of receiving the Superior Light, the Truth, the true consciousness and to ma-ni-fest it.’ Again, as the Mother said: ‘Still one must struggle, one must have patience, courage, will, confidence,—but it is no longer “like that”. It is the old thing which tries to cling—hideous! Hideous. But... it is no longer like that.... and everything—everything, all circumstances are as catastrophic as they can be: problems, complications, difficulties, everything—everything is dead set against it like that, ferocious beasts, but...it is over. To disappear, it might take centuries, but it is over.’

The Mother said it might take centuries to ‘work out’ in all its details; Sri Aurobindo had said that it would take at least three hundred years. But the supramental consciousness imparts to the evolutionary movement an unimaginable acceleration to the process of transformation. It does not stop anywhere, it moves on as rapidly as possible towards the point where the transformation would be instantaneous.

The onward journey of the Mother was towards the total transformation of the body, so that even the residue of the old would undergo the change. In this process, the Mother will make many new discoveries, she will pass through a hell of resistances of the old world,—even after building up in her body, a new body of the awakened cells where there is no ‘life’ and ‘death’ but ‘overlife’. A perilous journey it was”—and the reader may, in order to follow this journey, peruse Volumes 11, 12 and 13 of the Mother’s Agenda.

Appendix

Significance of Auroville

Introduction

In the Agenda of 1961, the Mother has spoken of certain conditions of the idea of an ideal city which could be a habitation of a collective life and which could serve as the embryo or seed of the future supramental world. In the words of the Mother:

“What I myself have seen... was a plan that came complete in all details, but that doesn’t at all conform in spirit and consciousness with what is possible on earth now (although, in its most material manifestation, the plan was based on existing terrestrial conditions). It was the idea of an ideal city, the nucleus of a small ideal country, having only superficial and extremely limited contacts with the old world. One would already have to conceive (it’s possible) of a Power sufficient to be at once a protection against aggression or bad will (this would not be the most difficult protection to provide) and a protection (which can just barely be imagined) against infiltration and admixture…. From the social or organizational standpoint, these problems are not difficult, nor from the standpoint of inner life; the problem is the relationship with what is not supramentalized—preventing infiltration or admixture, keeping the nucleus from falling back into an inferior creation during the transitional period.⁵⁴...The realization under community or group conditions would clearly be far more complete, integral, total and probably more perfect than any individual realization, which is always, necessarily—necessarily—extremely limited on the external material level, because it’s only one way of being, one mode of manifestation, one microscopic set of vibrations that is touched.”⁵⁵

In due course, something of this idea of an ideal city began to take shape, and the Mother took a decision to establish a small international township (about 10 km away from Pondicherry). The Mother named it Auroville.

On 28th February, 1968, youths from 124 countries came to deposit a handful of earth from their countries into the urn at the centre of the proposed city, and the Mother gave the Charter of Auroville.

In the first few years, Auroville grew rapidly under the Mother’s guidance, and its significance came to be recognised not only by India but also by unesco and various countries of the world.

The significance of Auroville has been explained by the Mother in several conversations with Satprem, which we find in the Mother’s Agenda. We give below the relevant portions from the Mother’s Agenda:

21 September, 1966

(This conversation came about following a personal question of Satprem’s, who asked Mother if he should not refuse an amount of money offered to him by the French government: a war pension. Satprem’s intention was to refuse that pension, not wanting to feel tied to any government and any country for any amount of money. Mother advised him to accept that money for the divine Work.)

I had a revelation, in the sense that it was more on the order of a vision.

For external reasons, I was looking at the sorry state in which all countries find themselves, the truly painful and dangerous conditions of the earth, and there was a sort of all-embracing vision showing how nations (men taken as nations) have acted and are increasingly acting in a growing Falsehood, and how they have used all their creative power to create such formidable means of destruction, with, at the back of their minds, the really childish notion that the destruction would be so terrible that no one would want to use them. But they don’t know (they ought to know, but they don’t) that things have a consciousness and a force of manifestation, and that all those means of destruction are pressing to be used; and even though men may not want to use them, a force stronger than they will be pushing them to do so.

Then, seeing all this, the imminence of the catastrophe, there was a sort of call or aspiration to bring down something that could at least neutralize that error. And it came, an answer... I can’t say I heard it with my ears, but it was so clear, so strong and precise that it was indisputable. I am obliged to translate it into words; if I translate it into words, I may say something like this: “That’s why you have created Auroville.”

And with the clear vision that Auroville was a center of force and creation, with... (how can I explain?) a seed of truth, and that if it could sprout and develop, the very movement of its growth would be a reaction against the catastrophic consequences of the error of armament.

I found this very interesting because this birth of Auroville wasn’t preceded by any thought; as always, it was simply a Force acting, like a sort of absolute manifesting, and it was so strong [when the idea of Auroville presented itself to Mother] that I could have told people, “Even if you don’t believe in it, even if all circumstances appear to be quite unfavorable, I know that Auroville will be. It may be in a hundred years, it may be in a thousand years, I don’t know, but Auroville will be, because it has been decreed.” So it was decreed—and done quite simply, like that, in obedience to a Command, without any thought. And when I was told that (I say, “I was told,” but you understand what I mean), when I was told that, it was to tell me, “Here is why you have made Auroville; you are unaware of it, but that’s why….” Because it was the last hope to react against the imminent catastrophe. If some interest is awakened in all countries for this creation, little by little it will have the power to react against the error they have committed.

I found this very interesting, because I had never thought about it.

And naturally, when I was shown that, I understood; I perceived how the creation of Auroville has an action in the invisible, and what action. It’s not a material, outward action: it’s an action in the invisible. And since then, I have been trying to make countries understand it, of course not outwardly because they all think they’re much too clever to be taught anything, but inwardly, in the invisible.

It’s fairly recent, it dates from two or three days ago. I had never been told this. It was said very clearly—“said,” I mean seen, shown like this (gesture of a scene offered to the sight). So my interest in Auroville has considerably increased since then. Because I have understood that it isn’t just a creation of idealism, but quite a practical phenomenon, in the hope... in the will, rather, to thwart and counterbalance the effects—the frightful effects—of the psychological error of believing that fear can save you from a danger! Fear attracts the danger much more than it saves you from it. And all these countries, all these governments commit blunder upon blunder because of that fear of the catastrophe.

All this is simply to tell you that if nations collaborate in the work of Auroville, even to a very modest extent [such as this offer of money from the French government], it will do them good— it can do them a lot of good, a good that can be out of proportion to the appearance of their actions.

You speak of the imminence of a catastrophe, but still Auroville will take some time to be realized?

No! I am speaking of the countries’ collaboration in creating something. It’s not when Auroville has been completed: it’s the nations’ collaboration in creating something—but creating something founded on the Truth instead of a rivalry in Falsehood’s creation. It’s not when Auroville is ready—when Auroville is ready, it will be one town among all other towns and it’s only its own capacity of truth that will have power, but that... remains to be seen.

No, the point is a combined interest in building something founded on the Truth. They have had a combined interest (combined without any mutual liking, of course) in creating a power of destruction built on Falsehood; well, Auroville means diverting a little of that force (the quantity is minor, but the quality is superior). It’s truly a hope—it’s founded on a hope—of doing something that can be the beginning of a harmony.

No, it’s right now, right now. The force of propagation is far greater, it’s out of proportion to the transmitting center [Mother], which, on a world scale, is so to say unknown and almost nonexistent. But the center, the power of radiation and propagation is out of proportion, it’s rather remarkable: the response [to Auroville] is everywhere, everywhere; a response from new Africa, a response in France, a response in Russia, a response in America, a response in Canada, and a response in numerous countries, in Italy... everywhere, everywhere. And not just individuals: groups, tendencies, movements, even in governments.

What’s proving to be the most refractory (and the irony of it is wonderful) is... the United Nations! Those people are outdated, oh!... They haven’t yet gone beyond the “materialistic, antireligious movement,” and they made a derogatory remark about the Auroville brochure, saying it was “mystic,” with “religious” tendency. The irony is lovely!

Besides, even quite outwardly, that fight between India and Pakistan was clearly... (how can I put it?... The words that come to me are English) initiated and driven, that is to say, set in motion by and under the impulsion of the forces of Truth that wanted to create a great “Asian Federation” with the power to counterbalance Red China and its movement. It was a federation that, as a matter of fact, needed the return of Pakistan and all those regions, and which includes Nepal, Tibet, also Burma, and in the south, Ceylon. A great federation with each country having its autonomous development, perfectly free, but which would be united in a common single aspiration for peace and fight against the invasion of forces of dissolution. That was very clear, it was willed—and it’s the intervention of this United Nations that stopped everything.

I am not saying anything officially; because I have said and always repeat that politics is in complete Falsehood, based on Falsehood, and I am not dealing with it, meaning that I am not in politics, I don’t want to be-but that doesn’t stop me from seeing clearly!... People have come and asked me (from every side, by the way) for my opinion, view or advice; I said, “No, I don’t deal in politics.” You see, all diplomacy is absolutely based on a deliberate Falsehood. As long as it is like that, there’s no hope: the inspirations will always come from the wrong side; inspirations, impulsions, ideas, everything will always come from the wrong side-which means the inescapable blunder, for everyone. A few rare individuals feel that and are aware of it, and they are half desperate because nobody listens to them.

Unfortunately, following the present tendencies, for Auroville they are trying to get unesco’s support (!) I, of course, knew beforehand that those [unesco] people couldn’t understand, but... they are trying. Because everywhere people (it’s a sort of superstition), everywhere people say, “No, I’ll open my purse strings only with unesco’s approval and encouragement”—I am talking about those whose contribution matters, lots of people, so...

Only, to me, all this is the crust, the quite superficial experience—the crust; and things have to happen underneath, beneath that crust. It’s just an appearance.

I said that to those who look after Auroville, I told them, “Those people [of unesco] are two hundred years behind the earth’s march, so there’s little hope they’ll understand.” But anyway, I didn’t tell them not to deal with them—I don’t give any advice.

But tiny details such as the one we spoke of just before [the French government’s offer of a pension] are an indication: it’s countries collaborating in the Truth without knowing it. And it’s very good, it will do them good. It’s good for them. It doesn’t matter if they aren’t aware of it (smiling): they won’t have the pleasure of having done it, that’s all!

(silence)

But I was the first to be very interested, because it came like that (gesture of irresistible descent), with all-powerful authority: “That’s why Auroville has been created.”

(Mother goes into a contemplation, then resumes)

I see all kinds of very amusing things pass by; just now, this reflection: “Ah, it’s a Tower of Babel in reverse.” (Mother laughs) That’s interesting! They united and divided in the construction, so now, they come together to unite in the construction. That’s it: a Tower of Babel... in reverse!

(Mother stops for an instant, as if she saw something)

One suddenly sees... It’s a certain region, there, a region in the earth atmosphere, vast and imperishable, where things take on a new importance, which sometimes belies appearances, and one sees a sort of great, immense current carrying circumstances and events along towards a goal... always the same goal, and through very unexpected paths. It becomes very vast, and despite the horror of details, as a whole it takes on a very smiling Rhythm….

Now I know, I remember, this whole experience came after I saw a book that was published quite recently in India, in English, which they entitled The Roll of Honour, and in which there is a photo and a short biography of all those who died in the fight against the British, for India’s freedom. There were photos everywhere, lots of them (some were only photos the police took after they had just been killed and were lying on the ground). And it all brought a certain atmosphere: the atmosphere of those disinterested goodwilled people who meet with a tragic fate. It had the same impression on me as the horrors of the Germans during the war over there. These things are obviously under the direct influence of certain adverse forces, but we know that the adverse forces are, so to say, permitted to work—through the sense of horror, in fact—in order to hasten the awakening of consciousness. So then, that experience, which was very strong and was very like the one I had when I saw the photographs of German atrocities in France, put me in contact with the vision of the human, terrestrial, modern error (it’s modern: it began these last one thousand years and has become more and more acute in the last hundred years), with the aspiration to counterbalance that: How to do it?... What is to be done?... And the answer: “That’s why you have created Auroville.”

There is a perception of forces—the forces that act directly in events, material events, which are... illusory and deceptive. For instance, the man who fought for his country’s freedom, who has just been assassinated because he is a rebel, and who looks defeated, lying there on the edge of the road—he is the real victor. That’s how it is, it clearly shows the kind of relationship between the truth and the expression. Then, if you enter the consciousness in which you perceive the play of forces and see the world in that light, it’s very interesting. And that’s how, when I was in that state, I was told, clearly shown (it’s inexpressible because it isn’t with words, but these are facts): “That’s why you have created Auroville…” It’s the same thing as with that photo.

There, you’ll keep this.

The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1966: September 21, 1966

A note on Auroville by Mother:

“Humanity is not the last rung of terrestrial creation. Evolution continues and man will be surpassed. It is for each one to know whether he wants to participate in the advent of the new species. For those who are satisfied with the world as it is, Auroville obviously has no raison d’etre.”

The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1966: September 21, 1966

February 3, 1968

(Mother first reads out for All India Radio the text of her “reminiscences” of her life in India)

Then I’ve written something else… They wanted to prepare a sort of brochure on Auroville to distribute to the press, the government, etc., on the 28th, and before that, there is in Delhi in two or three days a conference of all nations (“all nations” is an exaggeration, but anyway they say “all nations”). Z is going there, and she wants to take with her all the papers on Auroville. They have prepared texts-always lengthy, interminable: speeches and more speeches. So then I asked, I concentrated to know what had to be said. And all of a sudden, Sri Aurobindo gave me a revelation. That was something interesting. I concentrated to know the why, the how and so on, and all of a sudden Sri Aurobindo said...

(Mother reads out a note:)

“India has become...

It was the vision of the thing, and it instantly translated into French words.

“India has become the symbolic representation of all the difficulties of modern mankind.

“India will be the land of its resurrection—the resurrection to a higher and truer life.”

And the clear vision: the same thing which in the history of the universe made the earth the symbolic representation of the universe so as to concentrate the work on one point, the same phenomenon is now taking place: India is the representation of all human difficulties on earth, and it is in India that the... cure will be found. And then, that is why—that is why I was made to start Auroville.

It came and it was so clear, so tremendously powerful! So I wrote it down. I didn’t tell them how or why, I told them, “Put this at the beginning of your paper, whatever it is; you can say whatever you like, but put this first.”

(silence)

It was very interesting. It remained the whole time, for more than an hour, such a strong and clear vision, as if suddenly everything became clear. I often used to wonder about it (not “wonder,” but there was a tension to understand why things, here in India, have become such a chaos, with such sordid difficulties, and all of it piling up), and instantly, everything became clear, like that. It was really interesting. And immediately there was: “Here is why you have made Auroville.” I didn’t know it, you understand, I did the thing under pressure, and it took larger and larger proportions (it’s becoming really worldwide), and I would wonder why… For a time I thought it was the only present possibility to prevent a ware but it seemed to me a somewhat superficial explanation. Then it came all of a sudden: “Ah! That’s why.” And as that whole power was in it, I said, “Put it.” We’ll see—they won’t understand anything, but that doesn’t matter, it will act.

The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1968: February 3, 1968

22 March 1969

Two days ago (not yesterday, the day before), this Consciousness told me something; I said, “Very well,” but it went on saying the same thing again and again and again, until I’d written it down! So here it is (Mother holds out a note). And it explained to me why there was “we.”

“We will strive to make Auroville the cradle of the superman.”

Ah... it’s important news! (Mother smiles) So then, I said, “Why ‘we’?” It answered, “It’s because the attempt will be to get those who will live in Auroville to collaborate.”

The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1969: March 22, 1969

Notes

Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram: Spiritual Force and the Body
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Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram: 1932
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda—1951-1960: May 19, 1959
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These words are taken from the Mother’s Declaration made on August 15, 1954, where she expressed her long cherished wish of becoming a citizen of India.
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda—1951-1960: January 28, 1960
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda—1951-1960: May 19, 1959
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda—1961: December 20, 1961
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda—1961: December 20, 1961
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1951-1960: September 20, 1960
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1961: November 7, 1961
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1961: August 2, 1961
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Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga: Mind of Light
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The Mother, Words of the Mother - I: General
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1962: January 9, 1962
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1951-1960: February 29, 1956
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1951-1960: September 12, 1956
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1951-1960: February 3, 1958
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1951-1960: November 8, 1958
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1951-1960: November 8, 1958
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1951-1960: March 3, 1960
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1961: January 24, 1961
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Glory to You Lord, Triumphant One supreme.
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1962: April 13, 1962
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1962: May 13, 1962
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1963: April 6, 1963
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A few days later, Mother added: “There is also something I left unsaid: an urgent need to cease all material activity in order to enable the body to receive fully-as fully as possible-the divine Force that will replace what has been removed. There is something absolute about that need: to stay totally still, quiet, letting the Force descend-permeate the body, rather. All physical activity must be suspended in some way, and if the material organization, or the habit, tends to make it continue, a kind of material impossibility, an excessive fatigue or discomfort, comes to oblige the body to keep still. Because simply to remove or change what shouldn’t be there won’t do; it must also be replaced by what should be there. Otherwise, there would be a dwindling or gradual reduction of substance resulting in dissolution. What has been sublimated or removed has to be replaced by something which is the true Vibration, the one that comes straight from the Supreme.”
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1963: July 31, 1963
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1963: August 10, 1963
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1967: November 22, 1967
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1965: July 21, 1965
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1964: September 18, 1964
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1964: October 7, 1964
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1965: August 31, 1965
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1965: June 2, 1965
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1966: January 22, 1966
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1966: September 17, 1966
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Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine - I: The Human Aspiration
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1968: August 22, 1968
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1968: August 28, 1968
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1968: August 28, 1968
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1968: August 28, 1968
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1968: November 23, 1968
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1969: January 4, 1969
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1969: January 8, 1969
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Mother's Agenda, Vol. 10, p. 19.3.'69; 19.4.'69; 7.5.69; 23.8.'69
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1964: August 26, 1964
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1969: February 15, 1969
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1969: March 12, 1969
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1969: March 19, 1969
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1970: March 14, 1970
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1970: March 14, 1970
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1970: March 14, 1970
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1970: April 29, 1970
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1961: July 18, 1961
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The Mother, Mother's Agenda — 1961: July 18, 1961
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At the Feet of the Mother.

But it is done - Victory of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

Preface

Chapter-I

Chapter - II

Chapter - III

Chapter - IV

Appendix

Significance of Auroville

Notes