From - Breath of Grace / Editor M.P. Pandit.– Second Edition 2002
My World: The Mother
PART I
I came to Pondicherry on the 17th November 1930. I was 13 at that time. But there is a history behind it.
My father first came to the Ashram in 1927; he settled here two years later. He left the family without intimation and all the children were in great straits. We used to write to him describing our plight. But he was not opening our letters; he used to pass them on to the Mother. One day, however, an uncle of ours wrote to him mentioning the distress of the family. Finding the handwriting unfamiliar he opened the letter and was greatly upset by its contents. He informed the Mother and asked her what he was to do in the circumstances. The Mother told him: As you are touched by the letter, it is better you go back and return only with your wife’s consent.
Consequently my father came back and stayed with us though only for a short period. Suddenly one day he again left us without notice and returned to the Ashram. This time I started writing to him that I wanted to come to the Ashram. The Mother was approached and she gave permission which was communicated to me. But before I could start I received a wire that I was not to come. It appears the Mother had subsequently enquired of my age and then remarked that I was too young to be permitted to come. But I persisted and the Mother finally said that I could come for the Darshan only. My relatives tried to stop me from starting in many ways. But ultimately I managed to come.
I arrived by the early morning train by 6 a.m. The Mother was to see me the same evening at about 5 p.m. in the Library room. I was informed and taken there by my father. I still remember the scene vividly. The Mother was clad in all white sari, blouse and crown. She was sitting on a high chair. When she saw me she was all smiles and a spontaneous recognition arose in my heart that she was my adhisthatri. I told the Mother that I did not want to go back. She replied that she would ask Sri Aurobindo.
On the 24th was the Darshan. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother were seated on the sofa. As I approached them after my father, Sri Aurobindo smiled. He looked simply wonderful – I cannot describe what he looked like. When I made pranam holding his feet he bent down and blessed. (I must add that each time I did Pranam this way he used to bend down to bless me. I add this because I learnt recently that was not Sri Aurobindo’s custom with all.)
The day after the Darshan, Premanand, the Librarian, came and told me: Mother has sent word that Sri Aurobindo is pleased with you and you can start learning French. Naturally I was overjoyed and started my French lessons with Premanand that very day.
Because of my age I was at first not allowed to participate in the soup function in the evening. But at the instance of my father I was allowed from the Darshan day, 24th November. I was given work with Amrita. My job was to note the meter readings in all the houses in a note book which I was to present to the Mother on the first of every month. In those days the Mother used to sit in the Pranam hall downstairs every first morning and pay the wages to Ashram servants. Amrita used to hand over the monies to her and the workers would come in a line and receive their salary directly from her. I would go with my book at the end.
After fifteen days of my starting French lessons she spoke to me in French but I was unable to follow! However I came to know that after I had started conversing in French she had expressed appreciation of my accent. It would even appear that Sri Aurobindo hearing my talk to the Mother in French had remarked that my pronunciation was good. I mention this by way of recording my gratitude to them for the minute interest they took in my upbringing.
It was in 1932 on my birthday (22nd of May) that there was a memorable interview with the Mother.
MOTHER: What are your ambitions?
I: I do not know anything.
MOTHER: You have ambition to be a big yogi?
Suddenly I remembered that I did have some such desire though at the moment it was not active in my mind. So I corrected myself and said: Yes, Mother.
She then explained to me what it meant to be a big yogi, to have a large number of disciples around oneself. How one had to have a divine consciousness and a realisation of the Divine for that purpose. As I was listening I realised that I had none of those things and I burst out: I don’t want to be a yogi. I want to be your child.
The Mother was pleased and said: Très bien (very good) and blessed me.
Then I mentioned to Mother my ambition to be a big writer.
She heard and went on to describe what qualities are necessary to be a writer and how one must have wide knowledge of so many things before one could become a writer. I saw that I had none of those qualifications then.
As I look back I am moved by the considerate way in which Mother helped me to see myself as I was and to give up vain ambitions on my own. I myself was helped to realise the true state of things.
In keeping with the spirit of Sri Aurobindo’s injunction to speak and act as one would in the presence of the Mother, I started reporting to Mother in my notebook every day the persons to whom I talked during that day and the topics thereof. This continued for one full year in 1933. Occasionally I would ask a question or two and the Mother would invariably answer. Here are a few selections translated from the originals in French.
10.12.1933
A friend had just offered to present a blanket to me. On my asking the Mother about it, she replied:
If one wants to progress in yoga, one ought not to receive anything except from the Divine.
13.12.1933
Q: What is the meaning of this passage in the Prayers: What wisdom is there in wanting to live this way or that?
THE MOTHER: The Wisdom is to know what the Divine wants and not to decide for ourselves.
Q: Is it possible to acquire silence by intense aspiration alone and can one do the sadhana by means of this silence?
THE MOTHER: Yes.
23.12.1933
Q: Does all impurity – mental, vital and physical – disappear by the descent of this silence?
THE MOTHER: Silence cannot cure all impurities but it relieves a good many.
24.12.1933
Q: Is my mental surrendered to you?
THE MOTHER: In certain parts yes, but not entirely.
25.12.1933
Q: What are the parts of the mental that are not yet surrendered?
THE MOTHER: They are parts of the physical mind that are still under the influence of falsehood and ignorance. It is only a perfect sincerity in the aspiration that can illumine them.
3.1.1934
It was the 31st of December 1933. A sadhika was ill and the Mother asked Doctor Babu whether the lady could not get well by that night (for the New Year function at midnight). The doctor had said it was impossible. I observed in my notebook that if the doctor had replied, “If it be thy will, it will surely happen”, then the patient would have been able to attend.
The Mother replied:
An answer is not sufficient to change the course of things. Only an aspiration or a faith can do that. For it is only the aspiration and the faith that allow the Divine Grace to act.
3.12.1934
Q: This evening I have seized you strongly and I shall never let you go. I will never leave you, never, never, never.
THE MOTHER: Very good, I am very happy you will not leave me. Come for Pranam a little more in silence and quietude and you will see that you feel the force and love.
4.12.1934
Q: How do I lose what I receive?
THE MOTHER: By dissipation, by throwing out – either in thoughts, words or acts – the force and energy received.
4.12.1934
Q: This evening during meditation I felt something descending through my head. I thought it to be thy force.
THE MOTHER: What else do you wish it to be?
5.12.1934
This is very good. If you persevere with sincerity – an increasing sincerity – one day the vital will be convinced and get converted.
6.12.1934
Most certainly if you prove yourself to be firm and calm in your resolution not to be identified with the vital, soon it will be tired of its useless revolt and convert itself.
7.12.1934
In this world all movements are mixed until one attains identification with the Divine.
7.12.1934
Each one has his difficulties.
8.12.1934
Q: What is thy aim? To transform the whole world and lead it towards the Infinite? Or something still more vast?
THE MOTHER: Unite your consciousness with mine and you will know my aim.
8.12.1934
You will always find my blessings with you when you will be attentive and work hard on your studies.
10.12.1934
Q: How do illustrations (in journals) harm?
THE MOTHER: Naturally that depends upon what the illustrations are; but very often they are related only to things of ordinary life and thus they pull the consciousness towards that.
10.12.1934
Q: May I have a file?
THE MOTHER: What do you want to place in your file?
11.12.1934
Q: I want to place myself in thy file so that I may not go far from thee.
THE MOTHER: It is a very good idea.
12.12.1934
Q: O Mother, when will I become one with thee? When will I live in thee, by thee?
THE MOTHER: You must want it with persistence but without impatience. It is with calm determination that one arrives most speedily. In getting agitated one loses more time than one gains.
13.12.1934
The resistance, the revolt of the vital is supported by this bad force, otherwise it would have yielded long ago.
13.12.1934
(I had written the following prayer in my notebook and then struck it off:
O Sweet Mother, I pray for thy presence and thy descent in my physical consciousness, in all its activity; thy will and thy knowledge behind all acts, all thoughts, all movements; thy ananda dispelling all the desires of the vital, all that is hostile…)
THE MOTHER: I do not see why you have crossed this prayer; it is as if you wished to suppress the best of yourself.
18.12.1934
Q: What are the conditions for the descent of the supramental in myself? I was very happy when I learnt that the supramental is going to descend in a measurable time.
THE MOTHER: These are things of which it is better not to talk. All sincere spiritual effort for the growth of consciousness is a preparation.
19.12.1934
Q: Why are joy and love attacked by obscurity? I am not conscious of having done anything wrong. Then how is it that joy and love withdraw and depression takes their place?
THE MOTHER: No, nothing withdraws. It is the physical being that by its nature is incapable of keeping for a long time the joy and love, unless it is fully governed by the psychic.
19.12.1934
Yes, it is mostly during the night that the physical being falls into obscurity and inconscience.
19.12.1934
Q: Why does depression follow joy and happiness, so often?
THE MOTHER: The movements of the consciousness are like those of a pendulum. The more it sways in one direction, the more it then swings in the opposite direction.
22.12.1934
Q: I have decided that on the day I do not study, I shall not take my food.
THE MOTHER: What a funny idea! You are going to punish your body for a fault the vital commits? That is not just.
24.12.1934
I think it necessary that you rest in the afternoon, otherwise you will be still more restless.
24.12.1934
Q: When will I know thy will for carrying it out?
THE MOTHER: When you learn to be quiet.
25.12.1934
Q: I have just heard that you are not well. What is it, my dear mama? Give me your illness I shall accept it with joy.
THE MOTHER: You are very nice, my dear child, but what you propose does not appear to me very practical…. With my blessings.
26.12.1934
Q: I am sure that yours is not an illness as we think.
THE MOTHER: There is some truth in what you say.
26.12.1934
Q: Dear Mother, how are you now?
THE MOTHER: Much better, it is almost over. My blessings are with you.
27.12.1934
Q: When you are not well, I should not write much. Pardon me, I have not done so.
THE MOTHER: No, it is all right. You can write freely when you have something to say.
28.12.1934
Make your love strong enough to conquer your desires. My help is always with you.
1.1.1935
All my blessings at the beginning of the New Year; I hope it will bring you peace and strength to overcome what seeks to oppose your spiritual progress.
5.1.1935
Q: Y. says that the supramental has already descended. Is it true?
THE MOTHER: No.
5.1.1935
Q: My being says it does not know what this world is. Then why is it so much attracted to the ignorance, falsehood and obscurity of the world?
THE MOTHER: It is just because it does not know the world that it is attracted to its obscurity.
7.1.1935
Q: I do not understand this: you are an eternal soul trying to manifest in a body. I thought that the soul is always in the body; there is no existence without its presence.
THE MOTHER: Certainly, it is in the body, but it is not manifested, that is, its presence is not evident and has only very little action on the life of this body.
7.1.1935
Q: What am I?
THE MOTHER: Outwardly: You are a child who is unconscious trying to become conscious. Inwardly: You are an eternal soul trying to manifest itself in a body.
7.1.1935
Q: What part of the being aspires for love, peace etc.?
THE MOTHER: Whichever part of the being (physical, vital or mental) that is open to the psychic influence.
8.1.1935
Q: I think I see a hidden smile on thy lips in the new photograph. But R. says he does not see it.
THE MOTHER: Yes, the smile is there.
9.1.1935
Q: How to know if there is depression in another person? One cannot judge by external appearance or by simply looking at the figure.
THE MOTHER: Certainly, it is not by the appearance but by an inner contact.
10.1.1935
Q: May I know for how many centuries past you have been on the earth?
THE MOTHER: I have never left the earth since its formation.
10.1.1935
Q: A dream: A serpent bit me. But by mere will the poison was expelled. At last the serpent was killed. I could not have done this in waking condition.
THE MOTHER: Certainly, there are profound parts of the being which have more knowledge and power than the physical being has.
10.1.1935
Q: The mind wants to know which is the part that rejected the poison (in dream).
THE MOTHER: It is a subtle part of the mind which is in contact with the psychic power.
10.1.1935
Q: What is the part that now aspires in me?
THE MOTHER: A part of the mind that responds to the psychic influence.
11.1.1935
Q: Were you not Krishna?
THE MOTHER: No.
11.1.1935
Q: Did people know you to be the Supreme incarnate in your previous lives?
THE MOTHER: That depends upon the lives and the people.
14.1.1935
Q: What does it mean to be calm?
THE MOTHER: Not to get agitated – I mean, above all, morally – in feelings and thoughts.
14.1.1935
You cannot understand all these problems until your thinking is quiet and mind silent.
14.1.1935
It is good that your mind is able to control your vital; it is necessary that this control grows till your vital has no more power to upset you and depress you. If you can remain calm, you will see I am always by you to help you.
15.1.1935
Q: How to bring about the change in the sex centre and turn the energy into a creative power, and ananda pure and divine?
THE MOTHER: By an infusion, little by little, of the Light into the centre.
16.1.1935
Q: This morning there is a great depression making it impossible to study.
THE MOTHER: That cannot be allowed. Force yourself to study and that depression will go. Imagine yourself to be a student going to school and telling the teacher: “Sir, I have not done my exercises today as I was depressed.” Surely, the teacher would punish very severely.
17.1.1935
Q: My being is still in a state of lower consciousness; gradually it is going worse.
THE MOTHER: Don’t you see that you are thinking a little too much about yourself? You appear to me like an imaginative patient who always feels his pulse to see if he has fever.
19.1.1935
Q: I no more feel thy love; it is as if I did not know thee. I think it is the vital that feels all that.
THE MOTHER: Yes, and also the greater part of the physical consciousness.
21.1.1935
Q: What must I do to feel thy love and peace?
THE MOTHER: Do not allow, any more, anything hostile to find expression through you.
22.1.1935
Q: Would you tell me what I have permitted to thus express itself through me?
THE MOTHER: When your vital revolts you let it express its revolt and even all its impertinence. But perhaps you do not know the value of the words you use when you speak French.
22.1.1935
Q: I see that I lack peace completely. At one time it was there in me.
THE MOTHER: Consequently there is no reason why you should not receive it again.
23.1.1935
Q: Someone told me in dream that on one occasion there was no food at all for Sri Aurobindo and Thee. I said to him that if I were there he could cut me to pieces and serve. Which part of my being said this?
THE MOTHER: It is something from the physical consciousness responding to the influence of the psychic.
23.1.1935
Q: Is it a fact that at one time there was divine reign everywhere? Satyayuga?
THE MOTHER: Certainly not on the earth.
23.1.1935
Q: Will there be no end for the soul? Must it always take a body?
THE MOTHER: Not necessarily. But the soul has to arrive at a very great perfection in order to have the power to choose between the return to physical life and rest outside the manifestation.
24.1.1935
Q: Often I wonder how men can live a life without joy, peace, love. How do they exist where there is no Truth?
THE MOTHER: They are not even aware of their not being in the Truth.
24.1.1935
Q: I had thought that the soul is fully perfect by nature. Then what is meant by evolution of the soul?
THE MOTHER: The essence of the soul is divine, but the soul (the psychic being) grows through all the forms of evolution; it individualises itself more and more, becomes more and more conscious of itself and its origin.
24.1.1935
I know the inner movements without one’s telling them to me. But to tell is good for the person who has the movements.
24.1.1935
Q: I have the faith that one day I will realise Thee.
THE MOTHER: You are right in having the faith; it will lead you to the goal.
25.1.1935
Q: I think that your action changes according to my state.
THE MOTHER: My action does not change; it is your way of seeing that does.
25.1.1935
Q: I will try to keep calm and not get agitated.
THE MOTHER: Very good, indeed. If you try with persistence, you are sure to succeed.
28.1.1935
Q: Why was my night yesterday so agitated?
THE MOTHER: No doubt you did not calm your mind before sleeping. One must always, before sleeping, begin with quieting the mind.
28.1.1935
Studies strengthen the mind and divert the attention of concentration upon the impulses and desires of the vital. Concentration upon studies is one of the most powerful means to control the mind and vital; that is why it is so important to study.
28.1.1935
Q: I think there is a difference between finding your presence and finding you in oneself.
THE MOTHER: If there be a difference it is quite subtle.
30.1.1935
Q: I do so many things that do not conform to thee. There is so much to do and if I go on losing time, when will I be able to do it?
THE MOTHER: It is a matter of will. You must cultivate and strengthen your will; then time is no more whiled away in vain.
31.1.1935
Q: T said she was getting ill.
THE MOTHER: Thus she purposely falls ill!
16.1.1935
Q: I do not wish that others are affected by my depressions.
THE MOTHER: A very laudable sentiment; but the best would be if you yourself come out of the depression, thus you would not risk passing it on to others.
18.1.1935
Q: I think too much of my own movements, wrong or otherwise. Hereafter I won’t write to you of them more than once.
THE MOTHER: No purpose would be served by not informing me about them, if you think so. On the contrary, if you tell me I can help you more easily.
19.1.1935
Q: Why did you give me such a serious look at Pranam this morning? What fault have I done? I am unhappy.
THE MOTHER: I was serious this morning because I want you to get cured, to come back to a more true and more peaceful attitude. You should never doubt my love and solicitude.
23.1.1935
Q: One part of me says it is not necessary to inform you of this incident but another part says that I must inform. I am inclined to the latter. What are those parts?
THE MOTHER: Both of them are parts of the physical mind; but one is submitted to the Divine Will while the other is not.
23.1.1935
Q: One part is inclined to revolt, the other says it is better to submit than to revolt.
THE MOTHER: The same answer. The part which asks to surrender is already under the influence of the psychic.
24.1.1935
Q: To know your will at each moment one must…
THE MOTHER: One must be very quiet within and very attentive.
25.1.1935
Q: I like solitude very much.
THE MOTHER: Taste for solitude is, indeed, a very good thing.
25.1.1935
What you have written in this letter pleases me for it shows that you can reflect and reason.
28.1.1935
Q: There was again a depression, but it was removed by aspiration. Perhaps all hostility can be burnt out in the fire of aspiration; nothing can resist it.
THE MOTHER: Here again entirely true. My Blessings are with you, my dear child.
30.1.1935
Q: There is some part in me which likes to help others; not to take anything from others but to give and give freely.
THE MOTHER: It speaks of a very good nature, but to be able to do that without danger, one must have complete control over oneself.
1.2.1935
One does not study for pleasure; one studies to learn and develop mentally.
2.2.1935
Q: If I am able to give up my life without hesitation the moment you ask for it, then only my love for you is real.
THE MOTHER: Evidently that is a perfect love; but one can arrive at it by stages.
Q: Is my physical consciousness turned entirely to you?
THE MOTHER: This also is a progressive condition.
2.2.1935
Q: When you were very young, in your infant stage, did you know you are the Divine incarnate?
THE MOTHER: I was conscious.
4.2.1935
Q: All that I do is not in conformity with thy truth. Is it all discordant?
THE MOTHER: All is not in conformity with the Truth, but neither is all discordant. There is a little of one and a little of the other.
4.2.1935
Q: What should be my aspiration at present?
THE MOTHER: To make the mind clear and increase the consciousness.
5.2.1935
Q: O Mother, on this earth, is there none but we two?
THE MOTHER: If what you write is for you a living experience, that is very good.
6.2.1935
Q: “Till one sees the eternal truth in itself.” I do not understand the in itself.
THE MOTHER: I mean the pure Truth, without all the deformations that ensue from its manifestation in an obscure world.
6.2.1935
Q: It is said that knowledge is already there within oneself. I believe the soul receives the knowledge from the eternal Truth and transmits it to the mind or the vital. Which is right?
THE MOTHER: I do not see any contradictory ideas. The Truth is received by the psychic which transmits it to the mind and vital.
6.2.1935
Q: It looks to me that the victory is approaching.
THE MOTHER: Undoubtedly.
2.2.1934
Q: If there is an illness that does not allow one to come to you for pranam, is it not possible that by sheer resolution to come to you, the illness may be suspended, at least for the time being?
THE MOTHER: Yes, it is possible, but for that one must have a faith intense enough and without contradiction in the being.
4.2.1935
Q: Often I reflect after doing an act. If only I could reflect before doing this, I could avoid many wrong movements.
THE MOTHER: Yes, it is a very good habit to have to reflect for a few seconds before acting and ask oneself if that action is truly useful from the point of view of spiritual life.
6.2.1935
Q: I report my experiences to you in order to get confirmation in the absence of which I do not believe them. Since you have not said anything regarding some that I have written about, I take it they are mental construction.
THE MOTHER: It is rarely that a thing is wholly good or wholly bad. That is why it is difficult, at times, to say anything.
6.2.1935
Q: So many things appear to be true from outside but within they are false. One sees it clearly by throwing light upon it. You alone can give that light.
THE MOTHER: Yes, exactly. It is very difficult to discern the true from the false as long as one is not able to see the Eternal Truth in itself.
6.2.1935
It is always dangerous to form intimacies; there is always a tendency for them to become ties.
7.2.1935
Q: I do not understand the difference between the supramental and the Divine in this passage from Sri Aurobindo: “The psychic is not, by definition, that part which is in direct touch with the supramental plane. The psychic part of us is something that comes direct from the Divine and is in touch with the Divine.”
THE MOTHER: The Divine spoken of here is He who has been, all the time, in relation with the earth; the supramental is a new aspect of the Divine which has, till now, not been manifested on earth.
9.2.1935 Q: What is the flame of Agni?
THE MOTHER: It is the flame of purification, the will for progress.
11.2.1935
Q: What is the vital soul?
THE MOTHER: The vital soul is what the ancients call “anima”, that which animates, which gives life to the body. One calls it at times the etheric being.
13.2.1935
Q: Once I imagined and wrote that the external action of the Mother is not of divine origin while the inner action is.
THE MOTHER: You confuse two different things. I may assure you that my action, whether inner or external, is always from divine origin. The uneasiness you feel is no proof of want of divinity in the action, but of want of plasticity and receptivity in your mental, your vital and your physical.
13.2.1935
Q: My uneasiness continues. It looks as if aspiration alone is not enough to get relief.
THE MOTHER: It is only a true humility that can save you from these uneasinesses – humility which consists in knowing that, at the moment, you are totally incapable of understanding me and it is a presumptuous stupidity to want to judge me.
14.2.1935
When I wrote again that I did not mean to understand, much less to judge her and was feeling miserable, she wrote:
THE MOTHER: Do not torment yourself; be tranquil. Certainly that part of you which speaks now never wanted to judge me.
It is in the calm that the being can unify itself around the highest aspiration.
15.2.1935
Q: Then, which parts of my being wanted to judge you?
THE MOTHER: A part of the physical mind and the most material vital.
18.2.1935
Q: Is it desirable that I speak on yoga to others who wish to hear from me?
THE MOTHER: I do not believe it is good for you to talk thus to people; that gives you the illusion that you have something to teach them and it does not help for humility in yourself.
5.3.1935
Q: “To bring the Divine Love and Beauty and Ananda…” (Sri Aurobindo). What is meant by beauty here? Is it what people call beauty – beauty in things?
THE MOTHER: There is a beauty on all the planes of being up to the Divine Himself. The material beauty is only a very poor rendering of that.
6.3.1935
Q: Is it not inadvisable for G. to speak to me of his sadhana?
THE MOTHER: That is not of much importance so long as you do not give him advice. However, as a general rule, the less one talks of sadhana, the better it is.
7.3.1935
Q: What is within the depths of the being hardly matters unless it expresses itself on the surface.
THE MOTHER: What the inner being has is far from being without importance; but that is not sufficient.
8.3.1935
Q: Is it possible to progress without encountering difficulties and obstacles?
THE MOTHER: No, the difficulties present themselves, but there is no reason at all why they should produce depression.
8.3.1935
Q: What I write about the inner being must be all imagination, for I am not yet really conscious of it.
THE MOTHER: Your imagination is fairly correct, though incomplete. For there are many inner beings and their nature differs according to the plane to which they belong.
8.3.1935
What is mentalised vital and middle vital?
THE MOTHER: That part of the vital which thinks is the vital mentalised. The middle vital is that which is between the lower vital and the higher vital.
9.3.1935
Q: What is to be done to prevent difficulties from producing depressions?
THE MOTHER: Become conscious.
9.3.1935
Q: What is meant by the yogic term heart? Higher vital?
THE MOTHER: Yes, the emotional being.
9.3.1935
Q: Is it not possible to surmount a difficulty without a lowering of the consciousness?
THE MOTHER: Certainly, it is even impossible to surmount the difficulty if the consciousness lowers itself. To surmount the difficulties, the consciousness must, on the contrary, make an effort and raise itself above its ordinary level.
10.3.1935
Q: It is absurd that I get irritated against you. After all I do yoga not for your good but for my own. With this attitude all revolt, all irritations must stop. THE MOTHER: This is perfectly true. Surely if you can remember this you will never have to struggle against revolt.
12.3.1935
Q: To detach the inner being from it (sex tendency). Detach?
THE MOTHER: To detach, in this case, means not to identify oneself with.
13.3.1935
Q: Is it not possible to stop the vital from creating difficulties by calling your help?
THE MOTHER: Certainly, not only possible but relatively easy.
14.3.1935
Q: “When the central being has made its surrender, the principal difficulty has disappeared.” What is this central being? The psychic? I believe it is already consecrated to the Divine by its very nature.
THE MOTHER: The central being is not the same in each. It is that which governs the rest of the person and imposes its will. When it is the psychic being that has this central position in the person, then all becomes very easy.
4.3.1935
Q: I do hope you will rid me soon of all this obscurity and ignorance.
THE MOTHER: Certainly, it will be done in as little a time as will be possible.
15.3.1935
Q: Mother, I call thee, come, light up the obscure part that has come up. Give me thy love and thy peace.
THE MOTHER: My love and my peace are always with you. Open your heart and your mind to receive them.
16.3.1935
Q: The vital must cease from all these stupidities and become wise. For this, I am ready to do all you wish. I hope to be able to succeed with your help.
THE MOTHER: Yes, you will certainly be able to do it. The part that has goodwill must strengthen itself till it has the power to govern the recalcitrant parts and force its conversion.
17.3.1935
Q: What is the difference between the voice of the mental Purusha and the voice of the psychic?
THE MOTHER: The psychic voice is silent, it manifests itself more in the form of an understanding, a knowledge, rather than with words.
18.3.1935
Q: Is there no difference in the effect of the voice of the psychic and that of the mental purusha?
THE MOTHER: Indeed, there is a great difference. It is much more difficult to hear the message of the psychic than the voice of the mental purusha. The latter is not infallible and can err. The psychic never errs.
18.3.1935
Q: From where did the love and peace that I used to experience before come if my heart was always closed?
THE MOTHER: Your heart is not always closed. When it opens, the peace and love enter into you.
18.3.1935
Q: Open my heart and set afloat, O Mother, the stream of love and peace.
THE MOTHER: Very willingly, my dear child.
19.3.1935
Q: My vital being is normally under the control of the mental purusha; why is it not under the vital purusha?
THE MOTHER: The vital purusha awakes only when all the desires are mastered and the vital being is calm.
19.3.1935
Q: When can one hear the voice of the psychic?
THE MOTHER: When one is very silent and very attentive.
19.3.1935
Q: How is the mental purusha to be awakened?
THE MOTHER: The mental purusha is always more or less awakened in those who are used to observing themselves.
19.3.1935
Q: I take it that the love and peace that come with the opening of the heart are psychic and therefore without mixture.
THE MOTHER: Not necessarily. Even though they come from the psychic, they can get mixed up with other movements less enlightened, when they manifest in the mind or vital.
Love and peace can come also from above directly from Divine regions.
20.3.1935
Q: Is there no difference between the voice of the psychic and the voice of the Divine?
THE MOTHER: One can hardly say that the Divine expresses Himself through voice but rather by communicating a certain state of consciousness.
20.3.1935
Q: When can the physical purusha awaken and control the physical being?
THE MOTHER: When the Light has descended into the physical consciousness.
20.3.1935
Q: Cannot the love and peace that descend from above get deformed when they enter into the mind or the vital?
THE MOTHER: Certainly they are so very often; love changes into a kind of passion and peace into inertia.
21.3.1935
Q: Are there other purushas besides the mental, vital and physical?
THE MOTHER: The psychic.
Q: As long as the psychic is veiled can one hear its voice without any deformation?
THE MOTHER: Little likelihood.
Q: As long as the being is not ready, can love, peace, ananda descend?
THE MOTHER: Partially.
Q: What is the function of the purushas?
THE MOTHER: Read the “Essays on the Gita”.
Q: What do you mean when you say, ‘open the thought’? open the thought mind?
THE MOTHER: Yes.
21.3.1935
Q: I do not wish to take your valuable time. I shall not let anything hostile take expression in me; I shall not accept any influence except yours and shall reject whatever does not come from you. But certainly that is not easy.
THE MOTHER: Yes, but it will be so nice, good and useful! If you do that, nothing else will remain to be done – that will be entirely good.
23.3.1935
Q: P says that there is nothing we can give to the Mother, as all is Mother’s. It is She who has made us. I said I have so far not given anything to Mother. I have still to give all, on the contrary.
THE MOTHER: You are both right – on different planes; and it is only in harmonising the two ideas that one approaches the Truth.
23.1.1935
Q: Normally I do not feel anything about material objects, whether they are broken or lost.
THE MOTHER: That is wrong. Not to take care of the material things which one uses is a sign of unconsciousness and ignorance. One has no right whatsoever to make use of material objects, whatever they be, if one does not take care of them.
25.3.1935
Q: Now I understand that even in material things there is the Divine.
THE MOTHER: Yes; and one must take care not because one is attached to them oneself but because they also manifest something of the Divine Consciousness.
25.3.1935
Q: How to know that the heart is fully open?
THE MOTHER: That is a thing which one feels and which one cannot doubt when it happens.
25.3.1935
Q: To open the heart – does it mean to bring the psychic being to the front?
THE MOTHER: The psychic coming to the surface is rather a result than the procedure.
27.3.1935
Q: Today the whole world appears to me to be at peace; all is quiet and it looks as if I am a stranger in this unknown world. I am not aware of things around me. Was it always like this or had there been a change? I am not sure if I have expressed my experience correctly.
THE MOTHER: I understand very well what you want to say. It is an experience that takes place when one enters into a new field of consciousness.
27.3.1935
Q: If this is a good experience, I do not understand why I do not feel your love and happiness.
THE MOTHER: Happiness and love do not accompany all experience.
27.3.1935
The experience is only of an awakening of the consciousness.
28.3.1935
Q: It appears these are the last moments of my life. I do not know what will happen, but in any case, my life will no more be as before. Something new is going to come soon.
THE MOTHER: I hope, indeed, these are the last moments of your revolts and depression and soon you will awake to the psychic consciousness, no more to depart from it.
30.3.1935
Q: To live without Thee is to live in hell. I know nothing and I do not even question, for all is according to Thy Will.
THE MOTHER: All this is very good and you seem to have put one step forward. But you must be calm and quiet, a calm strong and full of aspiration, but without impatience.
2.4.1935
Q: I wrote yesterday that there was a great calm; today it looks there is only a great depression.
THE MOTHER: There is simultaneously a part of being which lives in light and joy and another part which lives in depression and obscurity. If you turn your attention towards the depression, you feel it. If, on the contrary, you turn your attention towards the light and joy, you live in them.
2.4.1935
Q: Let me turn entirely to thee, let me become thee. Thou alone shalt exist. I await that blessed hour. I do not know if I exaggerate.
THE MOTHER: It is for you to make true, by practice, the ideal your mind sets for you to fulfil.
3.4.1935
Q: What is my central being at present?
THE MOTHER: Most probably a part of your mental being.
Q: Under what conditions can the psychic awake?
THE MOTHER: It depends upon no conditions.
Q: I feel your presence. In which part do I feel it since my heart is closed?
THE MOTHER: You can find me in all the parts of the being if they are open and receptive.
6.4.1935
Q: The depression is increasing. You ask me to come out of it, but I cannot do so without knowing how and why it comes.
THE MOTHER: Try to understand and see clearly, then tell me what you see.
Q: Formerly I used to get rid of a cold within a few hours but this time it continues giving no end of trouble. Its reason is plain enough.
THE MOTHER: What reason do you see for it all? Try to express it precisely and clearly.
6.4.1935
Q: I take it that my depression is the cause of my cold; it always pulls down the consciousness.
THE MOTHER: It is also a resistance in the brain pointing to what refuses to get transformed in the physical mind.
Q: I attribute the depression to the obscure parts of my being preventing the consciousness from uplifting itself. Maybe also it is ambition pulling the consciousness to the ordinary life.
THE MOTHER: Both are true.
8.4.1935
Q: The psychic consciousness is the part by which one enters into the divine consciousness. Once one has the psychic consciousness, it is easy to get the divine consciousness.
THE MOTHER: Surely.
Q: It is only when one has the psychic consciousness that effort disappears and life becomes harmonious, full of beauty, divinity.
THE MOTHER: Yes.
Q: I believe that it is only when the psychic comes to the surface and acts that one has the psychic consciousness.
THE MOTHER: Or when one interiorises oneself sufficiently to enter into contact with one’s psychic being.
Q: Then what should I do to overcome the resistance of the physical mind – it obstructs and its pressure is always there.
THE MOTHER: You must first of all detach yourself from it, not identify yourself with its movements.
Q: Would you tell me something about the obscure parts of my vital? I do not know how they pull my consciousness, how they act on the physical plane.
THE MOTHER: It is through the organs of sense (sight, hearing, etc.) that they are in relation with the material plane.
9.4.1935
Q: How to conquer the subconscient?
THE MOTHER: By advancing step by step, attentively observing with the light of consciousness.
11.4.1935
All that one does with care becomes necessarily interesting.
11.4.1935
Q: I have no more hope of psychic consciousness. I do not understand what is happening.
THE MOTHER: Do not torment yourself, be quiet and peaceful. Little by little, the consciousness will grow.
12.4.1935
I have told you already, and I repeat it, you cannot understand with mental agitation. You must keep the mind absolutely quiet. It is only in quietude that the light can penetrate without resistance.
16.4.1935
Q: The depressions comes everyday. I do not know what to do.
THE MOTHER: The only unfailing way to get rid of depressions is to divert one’s attention from and not to give them any importance.
23.4.1935
Q: I fail to understand why people seek the help of others who are themselves imperfect.
THE MOTHER: They understand them better because they are nearer to them.
24.4.1935
Q: My nights are disturbed. I feel fatigued in the morning; there is obscurity all round. How long will this continue?
THE MOTHER: Certainly it is not by getting agitated or impatient that the wrong movement will pass soon. On the contrary, if you can remain a little calm within you will be sooner out of your difficulties.
It is only in calm that one can enter into touch with the psychic consciousness.
24.4.1935
Q: Is my life going to continue for ever in this unhappy way as at present?
THE MOTHER: I certainly hope not. But if you remain a little more peaceful inwardly, your boredoms will end sooner.
25.4.1935
Q: I hope to be thy child and nothing else; I do not want to lose time.
THE MOTHER: You are my child; you have only to become conscious of it. I bless you, my dear child.
30.4.1935
Q: When will people cease idling away their time and gossiping? Why don’t they understand?
THE MOTHER: Because they are still mentally too young.
5.4.1935
Q: Remove from me the depression and fill my being with a supreme felicity. THE MOTHER: You ought to be able to come out of your depression, to keep away from it and take refuge in a more harmonious consciousness.
15.4.1935
Q: I aspire to have the psychic consciousness which would prevent me from wrong movements.
THE MOTHER: In the absence of the psychic, an enlightened mind can prevent the vital from its stupidities.
19.4.1935
Q: Why does not the spiritual consciousness stay always?
THE MOTHER: Because the ordinary consciousness chases it out.
20.4.1935
Q: The part which tells me, “unite yourself with the Divine”, is it already united?
THE MOTHER: Not necessarily, but it can have had a little experience of the Divine Reality.
20.4.1935
Q: What is to be done so that the ordinary consciousness does not chase out the spiritual?
THE MOTHER: Remembrance of it always and in all circumstance.
20.4.1935
I do not believe much in pure love among human beings.
4.1935
Q: What do you mean by “spiritual consciousness”?
THE MOTHER: In a general way, the consciousness that is turned towards the Divine.
“When we have passed beyond individualising then we shall be real Persons.”
“When we have passed beyond humanity, then we shall be the Man.”
(Sri Aurobindo: Thoughts and Glimpses)
28.4.1935
Q: What is the difference between Person and Man?
THE MOTHER: A Person is a being fully conscious and individualised (not necessarily a man). The gods are persons.
Man is he who still belongs to animality.
2.5.1935
Affinities are almost instinctive and do not have much importance. One has only to take care that they do not turn into attachments.
2.5.1935
Each one has his qualities and his defects.
2.5.1935
Only he who seeks the Truth integrally does yoga. Those who do it in the mind alone or in the higher vital alone are not in yoga.
Things are not so strictly cut out. One may have commenced the yoga in some part of his being while the rest – the other parts of his being – still refuse to be transformed.
3.5.1935
Almost all persons descend to their most ordinary consciousness when they enter into contact with others.
3.5.1935
It is better, evidently, not to lay stress on the dark side of things.
4.5.1935
Q: What should I do to remain in my central consciousness and not to go down to the ordinary when I meet others?
THE MOTHER: Never to forget the Divine Presence.
4.5.1935
Q: P says that you change according to her condition.
THE MOTHER: No, I do not change according to the state of the people. It is their impression of me that changes with their mood of the moment.
4.5.1935
To be in peace is good. You must not risk spoiling it by speaking of this state.
8.5.1935
It is desire and revolt which prevent the vital from feeling the Presence; but the fact that you do not feel it is no proof at all that it is not there.
9.5.1935
Q: What did you say this morning during Pranam?
THE MOTHER: That it is very easy to convert the vital if the will is not divided.
9.5.1935
Q: Today I felt thy Presence and closeness. But I feel it no more now. I think the atmosphere of somebody from outside has spoilt it.
THE MOTHER: The loss of the experience is most probably due to the intrusion of a foreign force.
10.5.1935
Q: What is to be done to prevent a foreign force from entering into us whenever there is a good experience?
THE MOTHER: A foreign and undesirable force does not always enter into us every time we have a good experience; on the contrary, the good experience ought to give the necessary force to repel the foreign force when it tries to enter.
12.5.1935
Q: I do not understand what one gains by telling lies.
THE MOTHER: Certainly, one gains nothing by lying, on the contrary one obscures the consciousness.
13.5.1935
Q: I do not see anywhere any superhuman life, the divine life.
THE MOTHER: If your consciousness were superhuman, divine or even spiritual, you would see this same consciousness everywhere.
13.5.1935
It is only in inner peace that your consecration can become perfect.
14.5.1935
Q: I have headaches. Perhaps I should stop thinking of sadhana, I do not see any other way of keeping peace.
THE MOTHER: It is certainly not the sadhana which hinders the inner peace; on the contrary, since the sadhana is entirely based upon this inner peace which is the essential condition for progress. Certainly a patient concentration is necessary for entering into contact with the psychic consciousness.
15.5.1935
Q: What hinders the inner peace?
THE MOTHER: Mental and vital restlessness.
17.5.1935
Q: I do not know why obscurity sets in so often and remains long. It was not so before. Does it mean that I have deteriorated?
THE MOTHER: No, you have become more conscious. Formerly there was much more obscurity but you were not conscious of it. It did not appear to you as obscurity.
17.5.1935
Q: There is no more peace, love and energy to work. Through what state am I passing?
THE MOTHER: A period of transition in which you have become more conscious but have not yet acquired control.
17.5.1935
Q: In which part is this obscurity and how long will it remain?
THE MOTHER: Especially in the physical consciousness – till the physical is illumined.
18.5.1935
Q: What should I do to get illumined the physical and the vital which, I suppose, is also equally obscure?
THE MOTHER: Prefer always light to obscurity.
18.5.1995
Q: Are there many persons in the Ashram who do not believe that you are the Divine Incarnate?
THE MOTHER: I have made no enquiry on the subject.
Q: Is it true that you will disappear one day?
THE MOTHER: Who has told of this extraordinary thing?
18.5.1935
Q: The obscurity must go. I am prepared to do anything you wish. Let it evaporate.
THE MOTHER: I am there and I cast on you all the light needed to dissolve the obscurity no matter which. It is for you to receive it.
21.5.1935
Q: What should I do to get rid of vanity, ignorance, jealousy etc.?
THE MOTHER: To rise above the lower nature and take shelter in the psychic nature.
Q: I have already made effort to dissolve them, has it been in vain?
THE MOTHER: No, you have made progress; but character is difficult to change and that cannot be done quick.
21.5.1935
Q: When shall I be thine?
THE MOTHER: Sooner than you think.
23.5.1935
Q: What is the way I should follow? What is the correct method?
THE MOTHER: Make the brain work by studying regularly and systematically; then during the hours you do not study, your brain which will have worked enough can rest and it will be possible for you to concentrate in the depths of the heart and find there the psychic source; with that you will, at the same time, become conscious of gratitude and true happiness.
23.5.1935
Q: P says she had a great depression after the Pranam.
THE MOTHER: Obviously she had approached me with a desire and her desire, finding it will not be satisfied, made her sad and depressed.
24.5.1935
Q: In the beginning I felt so much love for you, but now the stream seems to have dried up or deviated; also it has become egoistic.
THE MOTHER: Yes, that is so. You have begun to bargain with what you gave and that has dried up the source.
24.5.1935
Q: I have not known how to love you truly. What shall I do?
THE MOTHER: However, if you resolve not to ask for anything in exchange for what you give, you will soon recover the unique joy of loving.
25.5.1935
Q: O Mother, do not let me go as I please. Hold me to thy bosom.
THE MOTHER: Certainly I do not want to let you leave me and there is nothing of the kind either.
27.5.1935
Q: Let me keep the silence; let me enter into the solitude.
THE MOTHER: Keep the silence in your mind, enter into the solitude of the psychic being and there you will find me.
28.5.1935
Q: Is it possible to come close to you with a love that is egoistic, full of desires and demands?
THE MOTHER: Until the nature is entirely transformed, it is always mixed: good and bad are side by side. Hence till the transformation, there will always be a mixture of egoism in all who come to me.
28.5.1935
Q: How to make my love pure and psychic?
THE MOTHER: Do not think of yourself.
28.5.1935
Q: You have asked me to keep the silence in the mind and enter the solitude of the psychic being. But how to do it? It is only you who can put me into that stage.
THE MOTHER: This is a totally tamasic response. My consciousness is always at work but on your side you must want and make an effort.
28.5.1935
Q: Perhaps I need to live in physical solitude before I am able to enter into the solitude of the psychic being. I live only in the external consciousness.
THE MOTHER: Certainly, you live mostly in the mind, vital and physical. A little concentration would do you no harm, but you must keep a just balance.
30.5.1935
If what you call solitude is to see just those whom it is indispensable to meet and no more and talk to them only when it is indispensable, then we agree.
31.5.1935
Q: The depression continues. How long will I have to suffer this way? Take me up, Mother.
THE MOTHER: My dear child, I ask for nothing more than to get you out of this absurd depression. But I am afraid it is made of conflicting desires; in that case you must, first of all, give up these desires and ambitions. But you can be sure my help is always with you.
5.6.1935
Q: What do you mean by psychic life of the world?
THE MOTHER: Just as there is a psychic life in human beings, there is a psychic life of the Earth and no doubt of the other worlds.
5.6.1935
Q: How long will it take for the divine control to be established over my nature?
THE MOTHER: The time cannot be measured this way.
5.6.1935
Q: What is the goal of human existence on earth?
THE MOTHER: Make the consciousness progress towards the Divine.
6.6.1935
Q: P says one can do everything before Thee, revolt against Thee, show irritation, make demands, etc.
THE MOTHER: Of all the ways to approach me this is the worst. If you revolt, you can receive nothing and thus by revolting you waste your time and mine.
6.6.1935
Q: When will I learn to live by Thee and for Thee?
THE MOTHER: It seems to me you are in the course of learning it and soon you will be able to do it continuously.
7.6.1935
Q: When will I give myself completely to Thee?
THE MOTHER: When your whole being will be centralised around the psychic will.
8.6.1935
Q: All to Thee, all that I am and to me…
THE MOTHER: The love, protection and help of your mama.
10.6.1935
Q: If I have the psychic consciousness there will be no more difficulties.
THE MOTHER: Certainly the psychic consciousness has none of those difficulties; it has constantly the experience of my love and presence.
11.6.1935
Q: How to acquire this psychic consciousness?
THE MOTHER: By aspiration, prayer and concentration.
11.6.1935
Q: Perhaps my aspiration is not intense enough.
THE MOTHER: It is especially too intermittent.
11.6.1935 Q: Would you tell me why I do not succeed immediately in my effort? THE MOTHER: Because the external ignorance is too obstinate and yields only to a persistent effort. 11.6.1935
Q: Why does your presence in me not prevent me from wrong?
THE MOTHER: Because the outer being – the one going wrong – ignores or refuses to recognise this presence.
11.6.1935
Q: I am prepared to pay any price for the psychic consciousness. Tell me what I should do to get it?
THE MOTHER: The price to be paid is only a persevering will without fluctuation.
11.6.1935
My blessings and my help accompany you on the path towards the psychic victory.
12.6.1935
Q: Is the obscurity there within me or does it come from outside?
THE MOTHER: Obscurity is everywhere in material things – within and without.
12.6.1935
Q: It is now three months since you said that you hoped I would soon have the psychic consciousness. It has not yet come. How long will it take still?
THE MOTHER: All depends on what one understands by soon.
13.6.1935
Q: What do you mean by ‘soon’?
THE MOTHER: In my mind it means as quick as will be possible for me to do it under the given circumstances of your character. And the quantity is variable according to the resistance you will put up to me. May be some months, perhaps some years.
13.6.1935
Q: I am not open, nor plastic, what shall I do?
THE MOTHER: If you were a little more calm inwardly, surely you would be more receptive.
14.6.1935
Q: I have faith that you will lead me to the goal. I am impatient, I will try my best to persevere and be patient.
THE MOTHER: You will always find me with you in this effort.
14.6.1935 Q: This notebook is ending. It has brought me thy presence. Perhaps the next one will bring thy self, at least glimpses of thee. THE MOTHER: Yes, I wish that with the next notebook you receive the light and peace. With my blessings. 1.6.1935
Q: What an effort is needed to turn to thee from this rigid, egoistic and obscure nature! When will this sort of life end?
THE MOTHER: When you will take the resolution to be a little more calm and poised in your mind and vital.
3.6.1935
Q: I think I must stay physically at a little distance from you as long as I have these demands in me.
THE MOTHER: This is a hostile suggestion, totally false, to be rejected immediately.
4.6.1935
Q: There is a part in me which takes joy in the evolution of the world.
THE MOTHER: Certainly there is a part in you which is in harmony with the psychic life of the universe.
10.6.1935
Q: Turn my consciousness towards Thee.
THE MOTHER: Never doubt my love and then, all naturally, you will turn towards me.
11.6.1935
Q: I made a great effort yesterday to rediscover myself in light and joy, but I floundered.
THE MOTHER: It is very good to have made the effort, but you must not get discouraged so quickly because you did not succeed immediately. You must, on the contrary, persevere in your effort till you succeed. My help will be always with you.
13.6.1935
Q: Last evening I made an effort and the illness disappeared. But today again it has come back. Why? How?
THE MOTHER: It is always so; there is nothing exceptional in it.
14.6.1935
Q: Now I have the hope that I will be surely out of all obscurity and ignorance.
THE MOTHER: There is no doubt about this; and the more you will remain calm and confident, the sooner it will be done.
18.6.1935
Q: Sometime after the Pranam I had been to X. I started crying. Something had happened during pranam.
THE MOTHER: During the Pranam I had put you in communion with your psychic being. But why did you then go to X? It is because you thus lost what I have given you, that you wept.
20.6.1935
Q: Always the same fire ravages from all sides!
THE MOTHER: You will do well to extinguish it if it ravages you or utilise it if it can purify you.
15.6.1935
Q: S says that those whom you caress during Pranam make more progress than the rest.
THE MOTHER: What are these stories?
15.6.1935
Q: Why has it not been possible for me to put into effect all the knowledge the mind has?
THE MOTHER: Because the vital is not habitual to obey.
15.6.1935
Q: What parts of my being are still under foreign influence?
THE MOTHER: Principally in the physical and the vital, but also some parts of the mind.
18.6.1935
Q: I always lose what you give. What is to be done?
THE MOTHER: Be more careful in future and take care not to lose what I give.
18.6.1935
Q: I think I must go into solitude if I am to save myself from going far from Thee.
THE MOTHER: It is for you to know if you can do it without falling into depression which will be still worse than gossiping.
19.6.1935
Q: If my physical, vital are entirely under the influence of falsehood and also parts of the mind, what then have I been doing in the past four and half years?
THE MOTHER: What is four years for sadhana! Very little….
20.6.1935
Q: The physical vital has become uncontrollable. It destroys everything that I put by way of control. I burn. I feel weak and helpless.
THE MOTHER: All these are wrong suggestions that you must reject. Have you got fever? In that case you must ask Nirod to treat you. But if you have no fever this story of fire is a wrong imagination that must be rejected.
There is a sacred fire that burns in the heart and envelops the whole being; it is agni that illumines and purifies everything. Each time you ask me for progress, I light up this fire in you; but it destroys nothing except falsehood and obscurity.
21.6.1935
Q: If still falsehood and obscurity persist in me, what is to be done?
THE MOTHER: An integral purification and a long and slow work.
21.6.1935
Q: A prayer for peace and silence rises towards thee.
THE MOTHER: Yes, you need peace and silence, but an inner peace and silence.
21.6.1935
Q: Once the earth is transformed by the Divine Presence, will it always stay in the Divine state or will it again turn towards obscurity and ignorance?
THE MOTHER: One should hope not.
21.6.1935
Q: Will you tell me from where we come and where we go?
THE MOTHER: You are asking for the story of the universe!
21.6.1935
Q: Is it not a fact that it is the divine that has made us ignorant and inconvenient?
THE MOTHER: It is stupid.
21.6.1935
Q: Then how have we become inconscient and ignorant?
THE MOTHER: I take it that by us you mean human beings. Human beings have not become ignorant and obscure, they have always been so, for the material nature was inconscient and obscure long before the appearance of man.
21.6.1935
Q: I want to know about silence. Is silence more worthwhile than concentration upon the lower nature to control it?
THE MOTHER: Concentration upon lower nature is never good; one must concentrate on what one wants to develop and not on what one wants to destroy.
21.6.1935
Q: One ought not to concentrate upon the lower nature; but I believe great care is to be taken not to allow it to express itself.
THE MOTHER: Yes, certainly.
21.6.1935
Q: I think one must be peaceful and silent externally also.
THE MOTHER: Peaceful, certainly; silence is not always possible.
21.6.1935
Q: Does silence bring all the force needed for purification and transformation?
THE MOTHER: Does not bring it positively but it is in silence that one receives.
6.1935
Q: S. tells me contradictory things; how can one trust her?
THE MOTHER: Only those who have the inner vision and the knowledge of Truth, have a judgement in which one can have confidence.
6.1935
Q: Can silence bring me the force to correct my error and soar towards Thee?
THE MOTHER: Of course if in the silence there is a sincere aspiration.
6.1935
Q: Tell me why I love Thee.
THE MOTHER: It is your psychic being – like all psychic beings – that loves me.
6.1935
Q: All have psychic being; why then do not all love Thee?
THE MOTHER: Either because they are not conscious of their psychic being or they do not know me.
6.1935
Psychic love never bargains; but the vital always tries to draw some profit from all circumstances.
6.1935
Q: Is it that only my psychic being loves Thee and no other part?
THE MOTHER: In the measure in which the mind, the vital and the physical are under the control of the psychic being, they also love me.
6.1935
Repose is not necessarily a cessation of inner effort.
6.1935
Q: Do you think there might be some redoubtable difficulties which would make me give up yoga?
THE MOTHER: I do not think so.
Q: We saw H making extraordinary progress; in spite of all that he disobeyed Thee. I ask this in order to be sure of myself.
THE MOTHER: You have had no past before coming here. It is H’s past that stands in his way.
Q: I am yours; what have I to fear?
THE MOTHER: Certainly you have nothing to fear.
6.1935
Q: I am afraid of the old ambition to be a yogi, though it is much less now.
THE MOTHER: Since you are conscious of the danger, why not conquer it?
6.1935
Q: Can the subconscient reject an attained union with the Divine?
THE MOTHER: A part of the being may have attained union (naturally partial) and another part remain in its obscurity and ignorance.
6.1935
Q: Anyway I have no fear; you are leading me.
THE MOTHER: Yes, if you are sincere in your aspiration and your will to reach this goal.
Q: What attitude should I have so that nothing may harm me?
THE MOTHER: Perfect detachment, equality of soul, disinterestedness.
7.6.1935
Q: One must not kill animals that do not harm. It follows that one must kill all those that do harm.
THE MOTHER: The solution of the problem does not lie in mental rules but in a conscious union with the Divine Will and in a constant perception of the Truth.
8.6.1935
Q: In our yoga, what is the right attitude towards animals?
THE MOTHER: It is only when one has attained the consciousness of the divine Unity that one can have the right attitude. In the meanwhile it is always good to act towards the animals with respect, love and compassion.
12.6.1935
Q: But then should not injurious insects be killed?
THE MOTHER: Without any doubt.
13.6.1935
Q: What is the way to get out of the obsession of pain when it is too much?
THE MOTHER: Look at a beautiful flower.
14.6.1935
Q: But when the pain is too much even the flower looks poor.
THE MOTHER: That would be the proof of a total slavery to the vital part that suffers. You must learn to bifurcate yourself and detach from external and inferior movements.
16.6.1935
Q: Not to be able to watch the suffering of others but to flee is a weakness.
THE MOTHER: If one has not the means, moral or material to relieve them, I do not see what purpose it can serve to watch them.
24.6.1935
One must be capable of giving all in order to learn to possess truly.
24.6.1935
Q: It is by wish that one attains beatitude. Without wishing one gets nothing.
THE MOTHER: No. The desire is useful only at the beginning of the evolution to awake the consciousness out of its torpor, but it is not desire that can lead towards Beatitude; that is the result of self-giving.
26.6.1935
The ego is a help as long as it helps to form the physical individuality, but when it is formed the ego ought to disappear.
1.7.1935
Humanity such as it is actually, is still in the animal stage; one must, then, pass beyond this ordinary human state to become a true man capable of being conscious of the Divine.
6.1935
Q: Is there a thing called hell?
THE MOTHER: Yes, there are hells formed by human thought and they exist in certain regions of the vital worlds.
24.6.1935
Q: Does one suffer torments of hell after death?
THE MOTHER: Yes, if one believes in it.
My World: The Mother - PART II