From - Breath of Grace / Editor M.P. Pandit.– Second Edition 2002
My World: The Mother
PART II
1.7.1935
It is during the physical life on earth that one has occasion to purify oneself and to make spiritual progress.
10.7.1935
Q: How can one suffer after one is dead?
THE MOTHER: It is the vital that feels the suffering; and the vital being is not destroyed with the body.
8.7.1935
Q: There seems to be something extraordinary in the atmosphere of the Ashram or at least in mine. But my depression continues in spite of all effort, aspiration and calm. I do not know which way to turn.
THE MOTHER: I do not believe that things are as you say; in any case, as far as you are concerned, the best for you is not to torment yourself and to aspire peacefully till your difficulties disappear.
It is always the resistance that creates the confusion.
11.7.1935
Q: Why has my condition become so dry? Have I lost my way or is it a test?
THE MOTHER: What do you mean by test? Surely it is not a thing arbitrarily imposed upon you. The state in which you find yourself is always the normal result of your way of thinking, feeling and acting.
Q: I anticipate something hostile coming to me.
THE MOTHER: To anticipate a bad thing is useful only if one uses that anticipation to repulse the bad thing.
12.7.1935
Q: Something bad is going to happen to me. I do not know how and when. How to repel it?
THE MOTHER: You can simply repulse the thought that something bad is going to come.
Q: Anyway I cannot leave this yoga. I prefer death to giving up yoga.
THE MOTHER: There is no question of your giving up yoga and I am pretty sure you will not do it. There is also no reason whatever for you to die. You will live and live for the Divine.
29.7.1935
Q: Surely I do not want to leave thee, but what shall I do? Someone takes me away from thee.
THE MOTHER: Do not obey this “someone”.
Q: How to conquer ambition which continues in spite of the knowledge of the Truth?
THE MOTHER: Learn to see the vanity of these fugitive and hollow satisfactions.
Q: Is it possible for the psychic to control the being without coming to the front?
THE MOTHER: “To control the being” and “to come to the front” are two terms for the same thing.
Q: My mind says that in my previous life I failed in my effort for integral transformation. What is the surety that it would not be the same this time also?
THE MOTHER: Because in the last birth the moment had not come when integral transformation was possible.
Q: You said that my mind, vital and physical beings are controlled in a certain measure by the psychic. Does it mean that the psychic has come to the front?
THE MOTHER: All depends upon the measure of control. However, I do not think I wrote that this control is over the vital and the physical, but only on a part of the mind.
Q: Will my integral transformation be accomplished in this very birth?
THE MOTHER: This is not the time to reply to this question.
Q: Was I always with you in my previous lives?
THE MOTHER: The same; this is not the moment to reply to this question either.
I meant to say this control is directly over a part of the mind and through the mind over other parts of the being in the measure of their receptivity.
Ghosts exist most often in the imagination of people.
As for vital beings, if we have no fear they can do no harm. And with the divine protection what fear can one have? None.
Love and peace have not left you; it is you who see them no more. Most probably it is again the same force you speak of that tries to blind you.
Q: What is that force?
THE MOTHER: An adverse will that sends the suggestions. You must not believe its suggestions. That is all.
Naturally the more you will be yourself pure, luminous and unselfish, the more your actions will become effective and certain. My blessings and my light are with you.
5.7.1935
Q: You say that a hostile will sends suggestions. But I see neither that will nor am I conscious of these suggestions. Will you please explain to me?
THE MOTHER: How do you say you are not conscious when you yourself write: “But often someone makes me blind and I do not see thy light.” What you call “someone” is what I call the adverse suggestions.
Q: I see only the result of those suggestions but not how they enter, how I receive them. I wish to know the process.
THE MOTHER: It makes a mental formation in affinity with the mentality of the person to be influenced. This formation remains in the mental atmosphere of the person in question and enters on the least occasion. If the person is not conscious enough or vigilant, he becomes conscious of that formation only when it has entered the brain and then he takes this formation for his own thought.
15.7.1935
I think there is nothing to be worried about. You are not farther away from me than you ever were. There are always the same parts of your being which refuse to participate in the divine life; formerly you were not conscious but now, on the contrary, you have become more and more conscious, and the consciousness is a real progress, it is the way leading you to mastery.
15.7.1935
Q: Then what should I do so that the lower parts participate in the divine life?
THE MOTHER: Educate them as you would educate the child.
7.1935
Q: I know that what you do is always for my good.
THE MOTHER: Yes, in my action upon you it is exclusively your good that I see.
17.7.1935
Q: I will feel you so near, so near that…
THE MOTHER: All the victories will be easy for me.
Q: Without haste, without agitation, I aspire for this reign over me.
THE MOTHER: It is good, and my help and blessings are always with you in your aspiration.
16.8.1935
Q: Mother, what have I given to you this time?
THE MOTHER: Do you not know it yourself?
16.8.1935
Q: Was it good for me to have gone for music at D’s? THE MOTHER: It is not very useful to ask questions regarding things already done. If the effect has been bad, get over them; if good, keep them.
20.8.1935
Q: P says she is afraid of you. I do not understand the reason.
THE MOTHER: Nor do I.
20.8.1935
Q: When will I have the realisation of the Peace and Silence that I want so much?
THE MOTHER: Do not lose patience, it will come.
23.8.1935
Q: If P has fear of you, how can she progress?
THE MOTHER: Certainly fear is a great obstacle on the path.
23.8.1935
Q: All that I see around me surprises me. Where am I, O Mother?
THE MOTHER: On the earth.
23.8.1935
Q: What kind of liberty does P seek? What does she find here as prison?
THE MOTHER: It is her vital that complains.
Q: Are we here to do yoga or to have full liberty to indulge in desires and ambitions?
THE MOTHER: This pretentious liberty which the vital claims is not at all liberty, it is slavery to desires and lower impulses.
23.8.1935
Q: Mother, how can you like to stay here amidst this terrible obscurity and ignorance?
THE MOTHER: I am on earth because it is on earth that the Divine Work is to be done and not for any other reason.
25.8.1935
Q: The whole world is suffering from ignorance and obscurity. When will the Light descend and remove all that?
THE MOTHER: Soon, I hope.
27.8.1935
Q: Is it not true that barring a few exceptions, it is not easy for you to work as you wish in each person? There is always some resistance, some revolt.
THE MOTHER: Surely in almost all there is resistance and in many revolt.
Q: What should I do to let you work in me as you please? Do I not know it?
THE MOTHER: You know it, don’t you? All that remains is to do it.
29.8.1935
Q: Let us advance, advance always without falling backwards.
THE MOTHER: Yes, one must always go ahead.
30.8.1935
Q: Formerly I used to have periods of happiness, peace and love. But I do not have them for some time past. Why is it so?
THE MOTHER: In the children the psychic is often very much on the surface and makes the child happy and peaceful. As one grows, and the vital and the mind develop and take more importance, there begin the miseries and sorrow.
30.8.1935
Q: This time I am not going to yield to the vital. I shall do my best to remain on your side.
THE MOTHER: Keep this attitude and we will be sure of imminent success.
24.8.1935
Q: Y believes that his depression has come with your consent.
THE MOTHER: That is completely absurd. My will is, on the contrary, that each may advance always peacefully and regularly without ever falling back into lower states.
24.8.1935
Q: P says she is here as if in prison; she has no freedom with you.
THE MOTHER: I never put anyone in prison.
1.9.1935
Q: P insists on going into solitude. She says Sri Aurobindo would approve (though Mother’s reply is different).
SRI AUROBINDO: I have always disapproved of sadhaks retiring entirely and shutting themselves up like that. It tends to bring about a morbid inner condition.
3.9.1935
Q: I write all this, but have you time to go through all these outpourings of restlessness?
THE MOTHER: I read them always.
11.9.1935
Q: Did you write that I would live for the Divine, merely to encourage me?
THE MOTHER: No, I wrote that to you because I thought so.
11.9.1935
Q: Is it very necessary to feel the atmosphere of others?
THE MOTHER: It is preferable not to feel it as long as one has not acquired the power to set right all adverse vibrations.
11.9.1935
Q: Is it necessary to know the nature of the people with whom one may have to talk, in order to be on guard?
THE MOTHER: Evidently, when one mixes with people, it is preferable to know what they are.
12.9.1935
Q: I want you to lead me hand in hand. I know it is difficult, but I want it at any cost.
THE MOTHER: In that case you are sure to have it, sooner or later.
13.9.1935
Do not torment yourself; all will come in its time.
14.9.1935
Q: My condition grows from bad to worse. I cannot place a single step forward.
THE MOTHER: At times, when one is not satisfied with oneself that is the moment when one makes the most progress.
14.9.1935
Q: Would you tell me why my progress has stopped? Formerly I used to feel your Presence constantly.
THE MOTHER: I have already explained to you that the first contact with the Force gives the psychic being the power to dominate the consciousness and govern the being. But little by little, the other parts (mental, vital and physical) resume their old activities and the good condition gets veiled. One must resolve, with persistence, to recover it.
14.9.1935
Q: Tell me what I must do to become like a child.
THE MOTHER: In the child the psychic life is not veiled by the mental life; being not formed he has great power to grow and progress in sufficient plasticity.
17.9.1935
Q: What is “child path” in yoga?
THE MOTHER: The child’s path is one of trust without discussion, complete dependence, surrender without reserve.
17.9.1935
Q: Did my psychic being ever have the power to control and govern my being and dominate the consciousness?
THE MOTHER: Yes, partially – from time to time.
18.9.1935
Q: Do you think much ego is expressed in my movements and also pride?
THE MOTHER: The physical consciousness is always full of pride and ego.
18.9.1935
Q: Do you think it good for me to take the path of the child?
THE MOTHER: The path of the child is always preferable, but it is not so easy because it should be taken spontaneously and in all sincerity.
19.9.1935
Q: My whole being offers resistance; there is nothing on the surface that can love and trust in thee.
THE MOTHER: I think you exaggerate; it is not as bad as that.
19.9.1935
Q: Is it not true that I live mostly in the physical consciousness?
THE MOTHER: Mostly, yes, but not always.
19.9.1935
Q: Is it from the subconscient that all this obscurity arises?
THE MOTHER: Yes.
8.9.1935
Q: I call thee, come and lift me up from this depression. I know it is the vital; it should not spread the depression.
THE MOTHER: I do not see any reasonable cause for this sadness; to me it appears an unreal thing, a kind of false imagination that has taken hold of you. Reject all – forthwith.
9.9.1935
Yes, it is the vital that delights in its depression.
10.9.1935
Q: How to prevent the vital from this pastime? It does not listen.
THE MOTHER: Strengthen your will.
10.9.1935
Q: Can you not, please, pacify my vital and make it understand the truth?
THE MOTHER: So often it has been pacified, but each time it has shaken off the peace as a cloak of ennui.
10.9.1935
Q: How to strengthen my love so as to conquer all desires and impulses that hinder my progress?
THE MOTHER: Concentrate on the psychic consciousness.
Q: Is it a want of confidence that delays the conversion of the vital?
THE MOTHER: Yes, undoubtedly.
10.9.1935
Q: May I forget myself and become a simple, humble, plastic being who can be easily led! When will that be?
THE MOTHER: Soon, if your will to be that is persistent.
21.9.1935
Q: Today I have understood that there are two Wills: one the divine Will and the other, the will as the human individual mother.
THE MOTHER: Absurd.
Q: The latter permits desires and satisfactions; the divine Will permits only such activities as are based on the divine Presence. Thus you have two wills.
THE MOTHER: It is absolutely false.
22.9.1935
Q: All passes like a dream which ought to happen for a happier future.
THE MOTHER: Yes, you are right. This is how things pass here.
24.9.1935
Q: Who observes that all passes like a dream?
THE MOTHER: The mental witness.
24.9.1935
Q: Is it true that I have an ego to be a guru?
THE MOTHER: There is something of it somewhere in the vital mind.
25.9.1935
Q: Do I understand whether my actions are according to thy will or contrary to it?
THE MOTHER: At times you discern correctly, at times you mistake.
25.9.1935
Q: Where is your presence which I want so much? Once you were in my heart but now, in my blindness, I see you not. But you are there no doubt, when will the veil disappear? I look for you, but I do not find you.
THE MOTHER: Yes, you are right. I am there in your heart always but something in the external consciousness is too active, makes too much noise for you to be conscious of this presence. It is only in silence and tranquility that you can become aware of it.
28.9.1935
Q: Is there any path on which one does not have to make effort at all?
THE MOTHER: I do not think so; but there are persons who make effort in a natural way without attaching much importance to it.
30.9.1935
Q: By whom do you think I have been influenced?
THE MOTHER: By nobody in particular, but by all kinds of movements and passing forces.
1.10.1935
I did not say persons, I said movements and forces and in order to free yourself from them you must enter into the consciousness where these forces are perfectible.
2.10.1935
Q: May I do embroidery in my free time? It interests me.
THE MOTHER: No, it is not a men’s job.
3.10.1935
Q: Though it is veiled now, the fact remains that I am your child and you are my mother. My heart has to open. Is it not so?
THE MOTHER: Surely, I am always there to help you and to lead you on the path.
11.10.1935
Q: My mind refuses to believe unless it understands well.
THE MOTHER: That is the trouble – that it does not understand.
12.10.1935
Q: Some part of my being refuses to believe blindly; it wants to understand. That is why I ask so many questions.
THE MOTHER: Very often, on the contrary, your questions are entirely unreasonable and if you were to reflect a little, you would not need to ask them.
14.10.1935
Q: To will and to aspire, how to do both at the same time?
THE MOTHER: If you cannot do both things at a time, do only one.
16.10.1935
You can write to me always whatever you think, but you must know that I answer when it is useful; you should not feel annoyed if at times I do not answer.
18.10.1935
Q: I do not understand what is called intellectual faith. Faith has no reason and intellect is always reasoning.
THE MOTHER: It is not intellectual but mental. The mental being has a faith, and the vital being also can have its faith as well as the physical being. As for the psychic being, its faith is natural and spontaneous; faith is the very essence of the psychic being.
19.10.1935
There is only one faith, but it manifests in the different parts of the being. I suppose what the person you speak of means by the name blind faith is the faith in the heart, the one that does not need reasons for its existence. But there is also a faith in the mind which can be based on reasoning. In order to be certain of an unshakable faith one must have it in all the parts of the being.
21.10.1935
Faith is an expression of a spiritual quality.
21.10.1935
Q: Is self-confidence a low thing?
THE MOTHER: All depends upon the person who has the self-confidence.
22.10.1935
Q: I shall make an effort to raise myself; you are there and hence I could succeed.
THE MOTHER: Yes, with a calm and regular effort, you are sure to succeed.
22.10.1935
Q: Sri Aurobindo has written in a letter: “Consciousness is a reality inherent in existence.” What does existence mean? Sat? Or material existence?
SRI AUROBINDO: Existence is existence – there is no need to put in adjectives.
11.10.1935
Q: What obscurity! Everything goes wrong. But what is the use of shrinking? There must be an inner change; failing that, a calm, an aspiration.
THE MOTHER: Yes, exactly. You must constantly aspire for the inner change; you must will that the obscure physical mind gets enlightened; you must await with calm the result of this aspiration and will.
16.10.1935
I once wrote to Sri Aurobindo that I wished to get replies from him just as I was getting from the Mother. He wrote:
SRI AUROBINDO: Mother’s writing is equivalent to mine. There is no difference.
26.10.1935
Q: It looks my vital and physical will never resolve to turn towards thee.
THE MOTHER: That, however, is what ought to be.
Q: I have tried for long but nothing succeeds.
THE MOTHER: You must try again till it succeeds.
A few letters answered by Sri Aurobindo
28.10.1935
Q: How were the Sastras written? By whom? Did yogis write them from their imagination? How did they calculate the several lakhs of years of the Kaliyuga, the Satyayuga to follow and so on.
SRI AUROBINDO: I don’t know that it was any yogi who made that calculation.
Q: After how many years do you expect the reign of Satyayuga on earth?
SRI AUROBINDO: I don’t bother my head about it.
Q: Do you think there was ever a Satyayuga upon earth?
SRI AUROBINDO: Perhaps – or upon some earth.
Q: Is it desirable, Mother, that I write all these?
SRI AUROBINDO: It is not very necessary.
25.10.1935
Q: When can faith manifest in the vital and the physical?
A: When they are converted, that is when they turn towards the Divine.
25.10.1935
Q: Is your action always in the subconscient?
A: Not necessarily; that depends upon the receptivity of each.
25.10.1935
Q: My consciousness is always in the vital and the physical, rarely on the mental domain, never in the psychic.
A: The picture is a little sombre, but there is some truth in what you say.
26.10.1935
Q: When can the mind, vital and physical turn towards thee?
A: Tomorrow, even today, if they take the resolution.
26.10.1935
Q: You said that the picture is a little sombre; does it mean I have not expressed well, that what I said is not clear?
A: No, I mean to say that you are a little pessimistic.
31.10.1935
Q: How to come out of this gross inertia?
A: There is only one way, to concentrate on the psychic.
1.11.1935
What you call “affection” is only a movement of vital attraction having no deeper basis in the psychic. And when the vital sees that it is not going to get what it desires, it is no more interested in the undertaking.
16.12.1935
To open to me, you must have great sincerity in the aspiration for it to be effective.
17.12.1935
At present your aspiration is only in a part of your mind and that is why it is not effective enough. To be effective it must come from the quiet depths of the heart.
18.12.1935
The heart of which I speak is not the surface heart; it is the seat of deep sentiments. It is true there was a time when you were in contact with it and at that time you felt the love and the aspiration that are always present in it. It is not the love that has dried up; it is your consciousness that has moved to the surface.
Go within yourself and light up there the sacred flame.
19.12.1935
My help is always with you; you must learn to receive it and utilise it.
21.12.1935
Q: My nature looks like becoming more and more complex, less sincere. Why is it so?
A: As the mind develops, the simple and pure sincerity of the child disappears. One must replace it by a sincerity more conscious, more spiritual – the psychic sincerity.
23.12.1935
Patience is one of the most necessary conditions for spiritual life. One must learn to wait in order to receive.
28.12.1935
One can always rise again with a will to do it.
30.12.1935
Yes, for some months, with some short and rare exceptions, your consciousness is established in a most material and half-conscient domain. It is that which prevents you from becoming aware of my love and help which are always with you.
2.1.1936
Q: Would you tell me how my consciousness got shifted to the most material and subconscient domain?
A: It is not shifted, it is there in a most natural way as that of most human beings. It is when the consciousness rises above the material plane that it becomes exceptional.
10.1.1936
My dear child; be assured of my help and my force; they always accompany you on the path which leads to your soul. With my Blessings.
11.1.1936
My dear child, it is within yourself that you ought to find the peace, the silence and the solitude; and in that solitude you will become conscious of my presence. My Blessings are with you.
11.1.1936
Q: O my Mother, where art thou?
A: Always in the depths of your heart.
14.1.1936
Q: How can I recover thee, thy presence?
A: Yes, if you let burn in you the fire of aspiration.
15.1.1936
It is by throwing in the fire all one’s difficulties, all desires, all imperfections that one keeps it burning. Morning and evening when you come to see me you should pray in your heart, “Keep the fire burning”, and offer to me all these things like combustibles. My blessings are with you, dear child.
16.1.1936
Q: Sweet Mother, I offer all my imperfections, desires and difficulties; pray accept them. I surrender all to thee.
A: My dear child, I accept your offering and use it to light in you the flame of progress.
17.1.1936
Q: I think I need to retire into some solitude so that the flame could burn more intensely.
A: It is in activity that the fire ought to burn in order that it may rectify all movements.
Q: Keep the fire burning, Mother, I offer to thee all my movements.
A: As long as you aspire to keep the fire burning, I shall watch so that it does not get extinguished at all.
21.1.1936
Q: When shall I get the solitude in which I may find thee? Where is the peace and silence by which I can get detached?
A: This solitude is to be found within yourself.
22.1.1936
Q: Light up the fire, O Mother, light up the fire so that it may burn out all that is false.
A: My Blessings are like a flame in your heart.
23.1.1936
Q: It looks the flame is extinct. Thy Blessings are indeed always there but I am blind to receive them.
A: Certainly, if you constantly do things I do not want, how can you remain open and how can the flame burn?
24.1.1936
Be according to your heart and your aspiration; but take care to see that your vital does not react with dissatisfaction and revolt.
It is not for you to light the flame. As I have told you, I light it always; you have only open yourself to receive it and maintain it with your good will.
26.1.1936
Q: How to get rid of this attachment?
A: Do not attach too much importance to it, it will pass by itself if your eyes are fixed on the Divine Consciousness you want to attain.
27.1.1936
Q: All desires, attachments, impurities are to be thrown in the fire like fuel.
A: Yes, it is good that way. One must repeat this movement constantly. My help and blessings are with you.
27.1.1936
I am always there before you, open your eyes and you will see.
29.1.1936
A moment of true good will on the part of the vital and all will become very much easy.
30.1.1936
It is impossible to mix with someone without at least an exchange of influence taking place.
31.1.1936
To cut off brusquely a relation and to want to react too violently against attachment, with a mental will that is not fully supported by the vital consent, always brings grievous reaction. One must leave it to time to do its work.
4.2.1936
Yes, you can stop going there. But you must not again change your mind tomorrow for all these incertitudes weaken the will.
6.2.1936
In all effort that you make to progress, you can always be assured of my help and blessings.
8.2.1936
Keep to your resolution with calm and all the difficulties will disappear.
12.2.1936
Your subconscient identifies itself particularly with that of the persons you mix with and that is why they have so much influence over you. The only remedy is to increase your consciousness and turn it more and more towards the Divine.
18.2.1936
Q: Is it a fact that there is a period when the good parts of the being recede and only the lower ones remain on the surface making one feel fallen, obscure and forgetful of good experiences?
A: There are people in whom such a thing takes place, but it is not inevitable and certainly not desirable.
7.3.1936
You are right, my dear child, those who are not happy here cannot be happy anywhere.
7.3.1936
Q: When will I regain thy presence? I cry from my heart.
A: Do not torment yourself, it will surely come back.
It is perhaps wise not to give such advices because people do not listen to them.
Q: What attitude should I have when I come to you?
A: When you come to me, you must be peaceful and open.
12.3.1936
Q: How to detach myself from the melancholy that comes from inside?
A: Not to attach importance to it.
Q: Is suffering inevitable in yoga?
A: Surely, suffering is not indispensable, not even necessary. It is in fact ignorance which makes one suffer.
12.3.1936
Yes, this yoga is built upon peace and joy, not on suffering.
13.3.1936
Ignorance always lacks humility. The more the mind is ignorant, more it judges and more it revolts.
23.3.1936
Q: You did not find in me the love and calm you had hoped for?
A: I believe truly that there is still much to be done so that you become truly calm and quiet; but I do not say that you have not made progress towards this realisation.
24.3.1936
At the core of all revolts by people who revolt, there is a fall in obscurity and falsehood.
25.3.1936
Q: I saw you in dream embracing me. Was it an imagination?
A: In spirit I always hold you in my arms like a little child, to help you and protect you.
26.3.1936
Q: When will you hold me actually in thy arms, so that I may rest wholly outside foreign influence?
A: I do not think you expect me to hold you in my arms physically. If I were to hold all my children in my arms (to begin with the 140 in the Ashram), truly my body would have to be much larger than it is!
However, to an awakened consciousness my presence is absolutely concrete.
31.3.1936
Q: What should be my aspiration at present?
A: To be more and more sincere and pure.
1.4.1936
Q: What do you think of my faith? I believe I have very little and that too in a part of the mind.
A: I do not think it necessary to dissert on these things. One must live them more and more sincerely in a constant aspiration.
3.4.1936
Q: Would you give me some advice for concentration?
A: Will to concentrate and strengthen your will.
3.4.1936
Q: I want to rise above this ordinary consciousness and soar towards thee.
A: Keep this aspiration and you will always find my help on the path.
6.4.1936
It may be that I do not say all that I think, but all that I say I do think.
11.4.1936
As for cure, it can come only by the growth of consciousness and will. It will be done in its own time.
14.3.1936
I am always with you in the silence of your heart.
16.4.1936
Q: I am conscious of things, but have not the force to surmount them.
A: That is because in you the consciousness is more developed than the will.
17.4.1936
You will always do well to write to me what you feel.
20.4.1936
If one were to mix only with those who are perfectly sincere, one’s relations would be very limited.
20.4.1936
I do not wish to intervene because I am not sure that you will have the strength and constancy to do continually what I ask you to do. And for the spiritual life it is preferable to act in ignorance rather than act in disobedience to the order of one’s guru.
20.4.1936
Do not torment yourself. That will come to be one day, for you aspire for it so much. Meanwhile my help and blessings are with you.
24.4.1936
As you say very well, each must mind his own things and his relations with me and not at all what others do or do not do, for the affairs of others concern none.
27.4.1936
Q: How to come out of this chaos?
A: Make your aspiration more and more sincere and integral.
30.4.1936
Everything will come in its time.
1.5.1936
Q: May this month of my birthday be for me….
A: The beginning of a life truly sincere.
2.5.1936
Q: What do you mean by a life truly sincere?
A: To conform all actions to one’s highest aspiration and purest will.
4.5.1936
Q: Free, free, free. Today I feel less tied to my nature; I do not know what is going on. Would you please explain?
A: It is always better to let the experience establish itself in silence and tranquillity.
8.5.1936
Q: Why do hostile suggestions have so strong an effect on me?
A: They have the same effect on all who receive them.
13.5.1936
The very tone of what you write shows that you are making a vital effort big enough. But I do not see any inconvenience in your making the effort and my force is always with you to help you to do it with success.
14.5.1936
A sentimental attachment is an affective attachment – a vital attachment is a sensual attachment. By this expression I mean: to exchange tender words or sensual gestures, like holding the hand, caressing etc.
15.5.1936
Q: May my consciousness turn inward.
A: That is indeed, quite indispensable.
16.5.1936
Q: Do you trust that what I would say to you is without hypocrisy?
A: I truly wish that you are not hypocrite, for hypocrisy is a big obstacle on the spiritual path.
18.5.1936
I do not think it good to give up effort. It resembles very much a defeat. What one cannot do today one is sure to be able to do one day, if one persists in the effort.
19.5.1936
The first condition is to keep the mind calm and peaceful. It is in calm that the light can descend.
20.5.1936
Don’t you believe there is a great deal of imagination in all this? For, truth to tell, I do not feel you more distant today than on other days.
21.5.1936
Q: It looks to me that I should become a little more selfish.
A: Not more selfish but more strong – less influencable by the will of others. These ladies wanted to go there and you did what they wished; you ought to have asked yourself: “Is it the will of the Mother that I should obey thus?”
21.5.1936
Q: I admit it is my mistake that has brought about this ill-turn. I beg pardon.
A: It is not a big calamity and on your part it was rather a thoughtlessness than a fault. Do not be “too sad”. That is not a good preparation to see me on the occasion of your birthday. On the contrary you must be full of energy to discard from your life hereafter all that hinders you in approaching the Divine. My special blessings for this day, – May 22, 1936.
22.5.1936
Q: You will strengthen my will?
A: Indeed, your will must become more and more consecrated and firm.
24.5.1936
Q: I am still ignorant, I am nothing, I know nothing. A: My help is always with you and also the force to surmount the weaknesses and difficulties. But you must know how to receive and utilise that.
25.5.1936
Q: Where am I? How changed am I? Is life this?
A: It is not a question of life but a question of yoga and for that the indispensable basis is calm and tranquillity in the mind and the vital. It is to that you must work hard.
27.5.1936
Q: I am going to try my best to achieve detachment.
A: Certainly that looks to me indispensable enough if you wish to be able to do yoga.
28.5.1936
Q: Each day I make the effort, I see that unfortunately there is opposition to that effort.
A: If there were no reactions, you would not need to make effort.
29.5.1936
I do not see any reason why all this procession of miseries should accompany you and I think it preferable not to dramatise an incident, which, after all, has nothing dramatic in itself.
30.5.1936
Q: How to lift up my lower consciousness towards the higher?
A: I have already told you that the first condition is to quiet the mind and to make effort for the vital also to be peaceful.
30.5.1936
In any case it is always wiser to discard from oneself all that pulls the consciousness downward.
1.6.1936
Q: May I receive your help?
A: Yes, may you receive it and utilise it as one must.
2.6.1936
Q: I aspire to receive your help.
A: My help is always with you, but to receive and profit by it, there must be sincerity and stability in the will.
6.6.1936
Q: I am unhappy, I cannot control my movements, what shall I do?
A: Be sincere, always more sincere.
8.6.1936
Q: Would you make me conscious of my insincerities?
A: Sincerity exacts that you confess immediately without my needing to question you.
8.6.1936
Yes, in continuing to do what you know very well ought not to be done, you harden yourself and more and more veil your consciousness.
8.6.1936
Q: I believe that the will to uplift myself is persistent, I must be patient.
A: It is of utmost importance that this will should assert itself and triumph. It is absolutely necessary.
9.6.1936
Q: Make me free, free. Uplift me above all impulse and all desire and give me the psychic consciousness.
A: I want, as you do, that you come out of this confusion and that you make the inner discovery of your psychic being.
6.1936
It is necessary, indeed, that the consciousness turns towards spiritual life in an exclusive way.
12.6.1936
Q: Yesterday morning while reading this notebook there was a depression in a part of the being. Would you tell me why and in which part?
A: Perhaps your physical mind was not satisfied with my answer.
12.6.1936
Q: I am not sure if the passion has been chased out from the vital or it is hiding somewhere below to surge up at any moment.
A: It is always wiser to be on guard.
13.6.1936
As long as the vital is not converted and at least partially transformed, there will always be struggles.
Q: Do you think my central being is acting according to the suggestions of the vital?
A: The central being does not act, it is the external physical that does.
15.6.1936
Q: Is the psychic influence no more in the mind?
A: Undoubtedly, the psychic influence is there, but it is not strong enough to control your movements and actions.
15.6.1936
Q: Do you think that the mental purusha which had once opened is now closed due to lowering in consciousness?
A: Let us hope not.
16.6.1936
Q: Tell me frankly if my mental purusha is not veiled.
A: I think that in constantly yielding to vital impulsions you have veiled your consciousness much. But it is not irredeemable and with a persistent goodwill and persevering effort you will come out of this obscurity.
16.6.1936
Q: I think my mental being was at one time under the influence of the psychic. But now there is not a single psychic action.
A: This kind of inquest is not of much use. What must be done is to react against the bad movement and put oneself again in contact with the psychic.
17.6.1936
Q: Why is it easier to love a human being than the divine?
A: I do not see that it is easier. It depends upon the persons. The difference is that what men call “love” when it concerns another human being is not love at all but a frightful mixture of sentimentality, egoism, weakness, ignorance and sensuality. Evidently such a sentiment cannot be addressed to the divine.
17.6.1936
Every effort to remove the veil is sure to yield result and little by little the consciousness will awake if the effort is continued.
20.6.1936
Certainly you are very much weak in the presence of vital movements. You ought to detach yourself from them, look upon them from above and impose upon them the will of your higher consciousness.
22.6.1936
Q: My nights are almost blank and even a little noise wakes me up completely and I have fear.
A: It is ridiculous to have fear, you are not a baby.
22.6.1936
Q: Today I thought: Why am I on earth?
A: All these are absurdities you have to reject far from you without giving them the least importance.
23.6.1936
Q: I must recover sincerity, fidelity, obedience and psychic influence.
A: Yes, it is a very good and very useful resolution. My force is with you to realise it.
25.6.1936
Q: I want to rise to my higher consciousness and lift myself above the lower nature.
A: Persist in this attitude which is good and more and more you will be able to receive my force and help and to utilise them. My blessings are with you.
26.6.1936
Q: Is it possible to receive your help and yet utilise it ill or not at all?
A: Yes, even that happens very often.
2.7.1936
Q: Would you explain?
A: One receives the force and the power that I give and uses it to satisfy one’s own desires instead of utilising them in service of the Divine.
4.7.1936
There must be great vigilance in order not to fall into movements of the lower consciousness; and there must be a will still greater in order to come out of it. Hence arm yourself with patience and will.
6.7.1936
Q: It is too painful. Do a miracle so that I may completely detach myself from the vital movements, may receive none of the impulsions of that nature.
A: Do not make a mountain of such a little trifle; later you will laugh at this adventure – which you take so tragically at the moment – when a little more light and consciousness will have penetrated your lower vital.
Q: Yesterday I was mad, nothing interested me; it was not imagination. Was it all a mental formation?
A: I find all that completely ridiculous and quite out of proportion to the circumstances.
Q: Then why all these reactions?
A: Because the vital has the fancy of contradiction. If I had said to it: You ought not to and never can leave P it would have only thought of one thing – to flee far from P.
7.7.1936
Q: Is there nothing wrong in such terrible reactions taking place by forcing me to detach myself?
A: Do not exaggerate like that. These reactions are terrible only if you think them to be such. Correct your thought, see up to what point all this is childish and unimportant, and all those “terrible” reactions will disappear at once.
8.7.1936
Q: How do you say that all this is completely ridiculous while I felt it absolutely real?
A: It was the pretended folly that was ridiculous not the fact that you were conscious of it.
Q: Would you tell me why the vital produced this physical sickness, fever?
A: It had no intention, the illness was simply a consequence of the vital depression.
8.7.1936
Q: You wish that I do not frequent P. So if the vital flees from P so much the better, instead of attachment there will be detachment.
A: No, the flight is the reverse of attachment, not its cure.
9.7.1936
Q: I can neither go to P nor detach myself from P nor be without thought of P.
A: You have done well to score this paragraph, for it was all stupid. If your attempt to detach adds to your attachment, it shows that the effort is badly done, in a false way and without sincerity, and you have only to learn to do it better.
10.7.1936
Sincerity: One can be perfectly so only when one is completely conscious. But keep up your will to be more and more perfectly sincere – and all will be well.
14.7.1936
Q: Could you tell me what thought you had when you received my report?
A: I thought that your physical mind is terribly stupid and impertinent.
Q: Has it been always so or it has become like that?
A: No, it has always been so.
One must have a great detachment and much discernment to know that one’s physical mind is stupid.
14.7.1936
Q: It has become very difficult not to yield to the vital. You alone can save me. It is dangerous.
A: No, no and no.
These are adverse suggestions to which you shall not listen.
15.7.1936
Q: You see well how these suggestions have taken place in me and to undo them and rise above these movements has become a big problem.
A: That also is an illusion. If you think the contrary (“I am free, I have no attachments”) with enough persistence, the problem would be soon solved.
15.7.1936
Q: Do you believe I have become inferior? Or rather all these things were already in me but I was not aware of them?
A: One always carries in oneself the germ of all that one is and does. But this germ can die before it is hatched and that is what ought to happen to undesirable things.
15.7.1936
Q: Is it that all the higher parts are veiled by the lower and what one has gained is not lost but is always there behind?
A: Yes, exactly.
15.7.1936
Q: O Mama, open my heart closed for long and make the peace, the love, the happiness flow and the force necessary to accomplish your divine will.
A: The great secret is to think correctly according to the deep truth.
16.7.1936
Q: I aspire for thy grace to come and uplift me from the ordinary consciousness towards spirituality.
A: For the Grace to help you, you must fulfil the conditions and the first of them is to reject all doubt, however small it be. I repeat to you again you will do well to read again, with care and attention, the first two chapters of The Mother.
17.7.1936
Q: Now I understand the surrender I have to make, but something in me refuses to surrender.
A: Remain firm in your will, use persuasion and, little by little, the revolting part will yield. It is by ignorance that it refuses to submit. This ignorance must be dissolved.
18.7.1936
Q: Would you tell me which are the parts that have not yet surrendered or perhaps none has done so.
A: No, there are parts which have begun their surrender and that will go on increasing in every way.
18.7.1936 Q: Would you tell me what still remains to be done to regain the right attitude so that the Grace may come again?
A: Be quiet and have confidence in the Grace. It is always there ready to help those who call it with a sincere heart.
21.7.1936
Q: As long as I am in my room I am calm; but once I go out for work my mind gets agitated.
A: When you do your work you must attend your work only and not the people; you have no need to talk to them or busy yourself with them.
20.7.1936
Q: I embrace you dear mama, before I go to bed.
A: I bless you, my dear child.
21.7.1936
Q: O Divine Grace, come and help me, make me strong.
A: Yes, my help is with you and I want you to be strong and calm.
22.7.1936
Q: Since morning I see that my consciousness is turned outwards. May thy Grace come lift me above ignorance and falsehood.
A: Do not worry yourself, persist in your effort to turn inward and you are sure to succeed.
23.7.1936
Q: It looks to me that this time the physical consciousness does not turn towards Thee. I tried to remain calm. May thy Grace come and uplift me from the ordinary consciousness towards the psychic.
A: Yes, remain calm with perseverance and with a quiet aspiration towards the true Consciousness, you are sure to succeed if you keep this attitude.
24.7.1936
Q: I want only one thing: the consciousness and the accomplishment of thy will. O Mother, I am yours and you will do what you choose of this being who aspires to be yours.
A: Very good – persist in this attitude and you are sure of victory.
25.7.1936
Q: Does the universal justice hamper us when we try to rise above the universe?
A: In a certain manner, yes. Certainly to rise above the universe one must be entirely freed from this justice for it forms part of the universe.
27.7.1936
Q: Can it be that kindness is received ill? A: Yes, that is exactly what happens most often with human beings.
27.7.1936Q: By what forces is the universal justice supported?
A: By the universal nature.
27.7.1936
Q: Enlighten my physical consciousness so that it obeys thy will.
A: That you have begun to be a little more conscious is already a sign that the Light can transmit its influence on the external consciousness.
29.7.1936
Q: Several parts are in revolt, but my effort continues, one day I will have the victory.
A: Certainly, you must persist in the effort and the victory cannot fail to come.
20.8.1936
Q: May the heart unfold itself and the soul become visible. Would you do that?
A: My force is on you so that it may be granted.
31.8.1936
Q: O Mother, I call Thee. May Thy force come and uplift me from the ordinary consciousness towards the higher. I await Thy grace for, it seems to me, that alone can lift me up.
A: It is good to count on the Grace but the aspiration has to be intense and constant.
3.9.1936
Q: O Mother, when shall I see thee in my heart?
A: Keep this aspiration very living and, surely, it will not delay.
5.9.1936
Q: O my beloved, teach me to love Thee truly.
A: True love is to forget oneself.
8.9.1936
Q: Sweet Mother, here are my ideas: He who tries to help others without being Thy worthy instrument insults Thee.
A: Yes.
Q: He who before loving Thee truly tries to love others deceives himself.
A: Yes.
Q: Is it true there is no harm in one’s taking help from another if he cannot approach you directly?
A: I cannot answer in a general way, it depends entirely on cases.
Q: Is it not that one should try to approach you and wait till you are reached instead of seeking help elsewhere?
A: Evidently that is wiser.
Q: Now I have come to believe that our idea of love for human beings must be got rid of; for at present it is not possible to have true and pure love and also it is not necessary.
A: Exactly.
Q: Mother, now I think neither of helping nor loving others.
A: That, indeed, is more prudent.
Q: I will do my best to be true to you in my words.
A: In your thoughts and actions also, I hope.
10.9.1936
Q: Would you tell me why my inner vision does not grow further? As before, I see only forces in movement, in form of vibrations.
A: This kind of growth is not always constant. Surely that will come later on.
10.9.1936
Q: I do not feel you within my heart but I see you above me. If my feeling is not imagination, would you tell me the difference between feeling you within the heart and above oneself?
A: No, it is not false.
In the heart it is a psychic contact, above the head, it is mental.
11.9.1936
Q: Would you tell me in what part of the mind is your presence? What is the difference in the effect of your presence in the heart and above the body?
A: The higher mind – no difference in its effect.
11.9.1936
Q: Am I not wrong in thinking I am far away from thy Grace? Am I not already under it? Without thy grace how could I feel thy presence?
A: Certainly you are wrong in thinking that you are far from the Grace.
14.9.1936
The external consciousness has difficulty in keeping up the fire of aspiration burning always, with the same intensity. But, with will, one must watch over the purifying fire and reawaken it when it slumbers.
15.9.1936
Q: Is it not true, O Mother, that I love you? I know that my love is neither pure, nor perfect, nor integral.
A: Yes, it is true, you love me; and you learn to love me better and better, more and more. It is this love that will open for you the door of identification.
18.9.1936
Q: Is there room for reason in true love?
A: They can be together in some but generally they do not have much to do with each other.
19.9.1936
Q: Mother, do you believe I have emotion?
A: Everyone has more or less.
19.9.1936
Q: Is love like the tide and ebb of the sea, like emotion?
A: Vital love, yes, but not the psychic love which is invariable.
22.9.1936
Q: Is it not true that one can feel thy presence even before having psychic love for thee?
A: It is the psychic above all that feels the Presence. But at times also the mind and the vital and even the physical perceive it.
22.9.1936
To develop a philosophic mind you must methodically study philosophy, the different schools, their theories etc.
23.9.1936
One must not do good in order to get a reward but for the pleasure of doing it. Then one is happy always whatever may happen.
24.9.1936
It is not impossible to feel the Presence without having the psychic love. But that must be a rare case.
25.9.1936
The extent to which you have love for me, it can only be the psychic love, but it is mixed in the external consciousness with mental and vital movements.
26.9.1936
Q: Do you think my psychic love is never manifest without mixture?
A: The psychic being would have to become the absolute master of the entire being; when that comes to be, the consciousness can no more be veiled.
28.9.1936
Q: What is that part in me that does not love you and appears indifferent to you?
A: It is the superficial consciousness which is generally occupied only with itself and hence closed to all that is not itself.
30.9.1936
Q: My ideal of faith: to arrive at such a point that if you were to say it is midnight when it is midday it believes.
A: Evidently that is faith.
30.9.1936
Q: What is it that has exhausted my love, happiness and peace?
A: The vital.
1.10.1936
Q: What does the vital want? Why does it strike at my happiness?
A: The vital has no reason, it is absolutely unreasonable.
2.10.1936
Q: Is it that all love and happiness that one has before the absolute mastery of the psychic being is always vital?
A: In any case always mixed.
2.10.1936
Q: How can the vital be made reasonable?
A: In the same way as a child, by education.
2.10.1936
Q: Is it good that I only study, and do not concentrate?
A: Yes, that is good. If you concentrate in the morning at pranam, in the evening during meditation, that is sufficient.
9.10.1936
Complete and pure faith in the Truth is the best of all protections.
10.10.1936
Q: Do you think there is in me a part that has complete and pure faith in the Truth?
A: Let us hope so.
Q: Which is that?
A: That can only be psychic.
10.10.1936
Q: At times it appears that we have known you for ages, at times as if you were a stranger.
A: They are two different consciousnesses, one deep, the other superficial.
13.10.1936
Q: Explanation of the flower “disinterested work”?
A: This flower means exactly all work done in all sincerity in consecration to the Divine.
3.10.1936
Q: Is it not true that one must not think of one’s progress?
A: Certainly one must not worry oneself about it, but one must want to progress.
Q: What must I do to find out that you love me?
A: To give more importance to love than to being loved.
15.10.1936
Q: Today you gave me the flower “psychic flame”. I do not fully follow what you want to tell me by it.
A: “Agni” is the will to progress, the flame of purification that burns away all obstacles and all difficulties. In giving you the flower I encourage you to let this burn in you.
16.10.1936
Q: Today you gave me the flower “psychic centre”. What did you want to convey?
A: It is to encourage you to make an effort for awakening the contact with the psychic being.
19.10.1936
Q: Today you gave the flower “psychic centre” but at present I aspire only for the Divine Grace. How to do both the things at the same time?
A: To follow the sadhana, one must do, if necessary, a dozen things at a time.
20.10.1936
Q: Today you gave the flower “supramental light in the subconscient”. What do you mean to tell me?
A: The conscious light must penetrate into the subconscient.
20.10.1936
Q: Mother, do not leave me and see that I do not leave you. From where do these prayers come?
A: The first prayer comes from an emotional part of the mind, the second (which is truer) comes from a part of the mind open to the psychic light.
22.10.1936
Q: What did you mean to tell me in giving me the flower “protection”?
A: The protection is there. It is therefore for you to know how to profit by it.
22.10.1936
Q: Mother, is there truly suffering in our yoga? Those who suffer, do they suffer because of difficulties in yoga?
A: No. They suffer, generally, because of want of sincerity.
Q: Or perhaps, they suffer because they invent suffering. They want to satisfy something by suffering.
A: Yes, that also happens.
Q: All suffering in this yoga looks to me imaginary.
A: Yes.
22.10.1936
Q: What is it that suffers? The vital? Because one does not satisfy desires?
A: Most often. But it manages to suffer even when desires are satisfied.
Q: If one understands the cause of suffering, suffering is no more.
A: Exactly.
Q: It is by our stupidity that we suffer.
A: Generally, it is so.
23.10.1936
Q: Do I not always approach you with desires?
A: You come to me thinking almost exclusively of yourself.
24.10.1936
Q: Is it natural or do I think of myself because I am too egoistic?
A: In the ordinary life, that is perfectly natural, it is extremely rare to be otherwise.
24.10.1936
Q: Does my whole external being think of itself only?
A: Relates all to itself, and ego-centric. Does not deal with things in themselves but with them as related to itself.
24.10.1936
Q: I had believed that I was not so egoistic.
A: The whole physical nature everywhere and in all, is thoroughly egoistic till it is spiritualised – that is rare.
24.10.1936
Q: I thank you very much for telling this to me. And I believe it is for this reason that I see you indifferent, that I do not see your love.
A: Surely, instead of thinking of the love I give you or which you would like me to give you, if you were to think of the love you wish to have for me, you would be more open and receptive.
Q: I think it is only your grace that can teach me to forget myself and think only of you.
A: You must also exert your will.
Q: Today I feel fatigued though I have slept well.
A: Probably it is because you have done fatiguing things during the sleep.
Q: Would you say what kind of fatiguing things?
A: Fatigue in the body is a physical transcription that comes from certain activities and contact in the vital. One can, during one’s sleep go to the worst places of the vital and meet very bad beings.
Q: Then, what should be my aspiration at present?
A: That the consciousness may grow, that you will affirm and that your consecration to the Divine become more and more sincere.
On the Prayers and Meditations
30.7.1934
Q: I do not follow the construction: “But certain that Thy will alone exists”. (Prayers and Meditations, 11.12.1912)
A: But as I am certain that Thy will alone exists.
30.7.1934
“Behind the veil is already heard the wordless symphony of gladness revealing Thy sublime presence.” (ibid., 11.12.1912)
Q: What does it signify?
A: Behind the appearances there exists a harmony of forces and movements which resembles an accord of all the diverse instruments in a perfect symphony.
31.7.1934
“And all leads towards Me, who am endless Peace, shadowless Light, perfect Harmony, Certitude, Rest and supreme Blessedness.” (ibid., 5.2.1913)
Q: What does Certitude mean?
A: Faith confirmed by spiritual experience of that in which one has the faith.
“In this simplicity lies the greatest power, the power which is least mixed and least gives rise to harmful reactions.” (ibid., 12.2.1913).
Q: This simplicity cannot be good since it is mixed somewhat.
A: What can there be without mixture in the world such as it is presently? Nothing, nothing, nothing.
“The power of the vital should be mistrusted for it gives you the taste of immediate results.” (ibid., 12.2.1913)
Q: How?
A: It is because we like immediate and visible results that we allow ourselves to be deceived by the vital.
Q: I think it is only by consciousness that one can come to understand the play of the vital and reject it by control and divine help.
A: Certainly.
“As soon as I have no longer any material responsibilities, all thoughts about these things flee far away from me, and I am solely and entirely occupied with Thee and Thy service.” (ibid., 11.5.1913)
Q: What is ‘Thy service’ when ‘material responsibilities’ are no longer there?
A: I wrote that because, for a time, I was not living at mine but at my mother’s and thus I had no more the responsibility of the mistress of the house who should see that all is well materially.
“Then in that perfect peace and serenity, I unite my will to Thine, and in that integral silence I listen to thy truth and hear its expression.”
Q: I understand this to mean that only when one has perfect peace and serenity can he unite his will with Thine. And it is only in integral silence that one can hear the expression of Thy truth.
A: Yes, that is it.
“It is by becoming conscious of Thy will and identifying ours with Thine that there is found the secret of true liberty and all-puissance the secret of the regeneration of forces and the transfiguration of the being.”
Q: What is the meaning of ‘the secret of the regeneration of forces’?
A: The vital and material forces are perverted. They must be regenerated so that they may be capable of expressing the divine will.
Q: ‘secret of the all-puissance’: does it mean the secret of the force that is all-puissant?
A: Yes.
“To be constantly and integrally at one with Thee is to have the assurance that we shall overcome every obstacle and triumph over all difficulties, both within and without.”
Q: The inner difficulties are those concerning the mind, vital and physical – is that right?
A: Yes.
Q: External difficulties are those caused by material things.
A: Yes.
Q: To be at one with Thee integrally means consent of all the being.
A: In harmony.
“Thou fillest my being, Thou animatest it, Thou settest in motion its hidden springs.”
Q: What are the hidden springs?
A: The springs mean the dynamic forces that give the impulsion of movement.
Q: Is there a difference between losing the “sense of separativity” and “identification”? (ibid., 19.11.1912)
A: To lose the sense of separativity is the last stage before the identification and even in identification there are several stages.
“When it is needful that something should be known, one knows it, and the more passive the mind to Thy illumination, the clearer and the more adequate is its expression.” (ibid., 3.12.1912)
Q: Mother, when will it be possible? It will be a wonderful thing when that happens.
A: It can take place only when one has given up all personal preference.
“For now I should not be able to repeat what was said” (ibid., 3.12.1912)
Q: Why does it happen so?
A: Because the memory belongs to the mind and it is not the mind which spoke, it was a consciousness coming from beyond.
“Yes, we should not put too much intensity, too much effort into our seeking for Thee…. We must not desire to see Thee.” (ibid., 5.12.1912)
Q: Is this meant for all? I had thought all this must be done.
A: Certainly not.
However, generally one must never try to reproduce my experiences. I started noting them after having attained communion with the Divine, a state to which you are far from having arrived.
“And on earth now I am the joyful [joyeux] child at play.” (ibid., 17.5.1914)
Q: I think the “I” refers to you. Then why have you not said “joyeuse” (feminine)?
A: You ought to know the Hindu tradition that the world is the result of “the play of the divine Child”. It is with this One that I was identified.
“I await, without haste, without inquietude, the tearing of another veil, the Union made more complete.” (ibid., 11.12.1912)
Q: Union between whom? Between you and the Lord of whom you speak?
A: Certainly it is the union with the Supreme that I spoke of.
“I know that the veil is formed of a whole mass of imperfections, of attachments without number.”
Q: I believe this is the veil that exists between the Supreme and the obscure material world, but it has nothing to do with you.
A: To do my work I have been obliged to identify myself with the material world and its imperfections.
Q: In the Prayer of 26.11.1912 you speak of having “almost entirely lost the gross illusion of ‘me’ and ‘mine’”. Even after this identification, the attitude does not completely let the divine act as He wishes!
A: In everything there are degrees and the perfection of one day does not any more seem a perfection the next day.
“How many times a day still, I act without my action being consecrated to Thee.” (ibid., 2.11.1912)
Q: Can one act without consecration even after communion with the Divine?
A: Certainly, communion and consecration are very different things.
Q: But is it possible to have communion before consecration?
A: The part of being which has the communion is not the same that has no consecration.
“Thou art there wherever there is need of Thee, and if they could have the supreme faith to give up seeking for Thee, but rather to await Thee Thou wouldst be there whenever there was need of Thee.” (ibid., 10.2.1913)
Q: Is that not for me?
A: It is for all – for you as for others – who are capable of taking the attitude with an integral sincerity; but I must say that it is still more difficult than to make the effort.
“More and more I fail to make a distinction between Thy work and my life, between my personality and the whole earth.” (ibid., 17.6.1913)
Q: Does it mean that the whole of your life had become a supreme work and that you had become the whole earth – one with the earth?
A: Yes.
“Thy voice is so modest, impartial, sublime in its patience and its mercy that it does not make itself heard with any authority, any potency of will; it is like a cool, soft and pure breeze, it is like a crystalline murmur that imparts a note of harmony to discordant concert.” (ibid., 27.6.1913)
Q: I do not understand what is this voice. And how to listen to it.
A: It is the voice of the Divine; by becoming silent.
Q: Is this the same voice that comes from the depths of the heart and guides men, shows the right path, prevents men from blinding themselves?
A: When the voice comes from the heart it can have the same divine origin, but it expresses through the psychic.
Q: Then does the voice of the Divine come directly to the being?
A: That can happen under certain conditions.
“Although my whole being is in theory consecrated to Thee, O Sublime, Master… I still find it hard to carry out this consecration in detail. It has taken me several weeks to learn that the reason for this written meditation, its justification, lies in the very fact of addressing it to Thee. In this way I shall put into material shape each day a little of the conversation I have so often with Thee.” (ibid., 2.11.1912)
Q: How to have conversation with the Divine even when one has not consecrated practically one’s being to the Divine?
A: Well! You will understand when that happens to you.
“Then are they ready to participate in the contemplation, and to identify themselves with Thee in the supreme concentration.” (ibid., 28.11.1912)
Q: What is this contemplation and supreme concentration?
A: You will understand it when you will have had the experience.
“Thou art ourselves in our real being.” (ibid., 15.8.1913)
Q: I do not understand what ‘our’ reality signifies? I thought there is only one Reality.
A: I use the word ‘Reality’ in the sense of the truth of the being.
Q: I believe it is in this truth that there is no division whatever between the Lord and ourselves.
A: That is exactly what I have said.
“In truth, the essence of the impression that is felt in the presence of the most sweet, the most calm, the most compassionate smile, has a feeble analogy with what I feel when I so perceive Thee.” (ibid., 8.8.1913)
Q: What is this smile? I think only the Divine can have such a smile.
A: Not the Divine but those who have a divine consciousness.
Q: What is the difference between having a divine consciousness and becoming one with the Divine?
A: I have not mentioned someone who becomes one with the Divine; I have spoken of the Divine himself because it is that which your sentence seemed to mean.
“Thou who ever teachest me the lesson of love” (ibid., 17.8.1913)
Q: Teach the lesson of love – does it mean how to love?
A: What is the true nature of love.
“Is that not enough to cure us of all personal thoughts and to make us unfurl our wings and soar above the contingencies of the material life so that we can fly up into Thy divine atmosphere with the power to return as messengers to the earth and announce the glorious tidings of thy Advent which is near?” (ibid., 17.8.1913)
Q: It is not clear to me to cure all personal thoughts one must soar into the divine atmosphere and immediately return – the idea is not clear.
A: It will become clear later with the beginning of experience.
“It was necessary that all pride should be broken, crushed, trampled down definitively, so that I may at last be capable of understanding, seeing and feeling things as they are.” (ibid., 7.10.1913)
Q: Is that sufficient (only the breaking up of pride)?
A: In this case it was sufficient.
“I am on visit here as everywhere else.”
Q: Visit of the Divine?
A: A visit of the Divine, yes…
“Thy messenger and thy servant upon earth, a stranger among men, and yet the very soul of their lives and the love in their hearts.” (ibid.)
Q: I do not understand the underlined words.
A: You will understand later when you will be more conscious.
Q: How is the soul stranger in the life of men and to the love in their hearts?
A: I have not said such a stupidity.
“In the unchanging solitude of the desert there is something of thy majestic presence, and I understand why one of the best means of finding thee has always been to retire into these immense plains of sand.” (ibid., 14.3.1914)
Q: You understand; would you make me understand?
A: In perceiving the “majestic presence”, I understood.
“This marvellous silence manifests Thee, in spite of the folly of human agitation, – the immutable and constant silence so living in everything that one has only to listen in order to hear it.” (ibid., 2.1.1914)
Q: I do not understand this.
A: When you will have the experience of silence, you will understand.
“I know that a day will come when thou willst transform all those who approach us.” (ibid., 11.1.1914)
Q: What does ‘us’ signify?
A: If someone asks you you will say you know nothing.
“All the individual faculties slumber and the consciousness is not awakened in the transcendental states; that is to say, its awakening in them is intermittent and in between it is asleep.” (ibid., 19.5.1914)
Q: Does it mean before the consciousness is awake in the transcendent state there is a period when it sleeps? How long does it sleep like this?
A: The consciousness sleeps in all till it is awakened – for a second or for eternity.
Q: Then I do not think you meant this. How could your consciousness have been asleep in 1914?
A: Evidently not.
Q: Then what does it exactly mean?
A: There are experiences of universal order which can be revealed only to those who have had them.
“Those who recognise thee not, those who know thee not, Those who…” (ibid., 1.6.1914)
Q: Why is the third Those in capitals?
A: It is a misprint; it ought to be small t.
“How many and different are the degrees of consciousness! This world should be reserved for that which, in a being, is illumined by thy Presence, identifies itself with thee and participates in thy absolute Consciousness, for that which has knowledge, which is ‘perfectly awakened’, as says the Buddha.” (ibid., 13.3.1914)
Q: Does it mean that when one is illumined by thy presence and identifies with thee, there are no more degrees of consciousness for him?
A: I mean that the word consciousness must be reserved for one who is conscious of the divine Presence.
Q: “In a being” – Which being?
A: Does not matter which.
“Outside this state, there are infinite degrees of consciousness descending down to the complete darkness, the veritable inconscience which may be a domain not yet touched by the light of thy divine love (but that appears improbable in physical substance), or which is, by reason of some ignorance, outside our individual region of perception.”
Q: What is this “veritable inconscience” you speak of?
A: The subconscient of the subconscient.
“But the fugitive duration of this supreme consciousness can be explained only by the complexity of the elements of the being, by their inequality in the illumination and by the fact that they enter successively into activity.”
Q: I do not follow.
A: Later when your brain will have formed a little more and you have a little more knowledge, you will understand what I mean to say.
“Undoubtedly we must learn how to control our subconscient as we control our conscious thought. The means of arriving at it are numerous…. But there is certainly something more rapidly effective.” (ibid., 25.11.1913)
Q: What is that?
A: The descent of the supramental.
“Thou hast sent me the struggle… I welcome it…. One of the best means of bringing back to light some element of the work which might otherwise have been forgotten.” (ibid., 22.6.1920)
Q: I do not follow.
A: It does not concern personally but the universal movements.
“A few days back I had known, I had heard: ‘If thou weepest frankly and without constraint before me, many things will change, a great victory will be won.’” (ibid., 12.7.1918)
Q: Weeping here does not have the usual meaning, is it not?
A: Evidently.
“The world is divided into two contrary forces which struggle for supremacy and both are equally opposed to thy law.” (ibid., 9.9.1914)
Q: Which are these forces?
A: If you had read the Meditations carefully you would not need to pose this question. The two forces are those of construction and destruction.
“And if I always show myself to be at the height of what thou expectest from me, a day will come O Lord, when thou wilt be upon the earth, and the whole earth will rise against thee. But thou wilt take the earth in thy arms and it will be transformed.” (ibid., 17.1.1915)
Q: I do not understand.
A: Yes, it needs some more years of spiritual progress for you before you are able to understand.
“May my consciousness be identified with thy consciousness so that thou alone mayst be the will acting through this fragile and transient instrument.” (ibid., 9.5.1914)
Q: Why do you call the instrument fragile and transient?
A: The instrument in question here is the earth which has a fugitive life in regard to the eternal consciousness.
“All rules have vanished, the regularity of the discipline has disappeared, all effort has ceased; not by my own will, not, I think by negligence either, but because the circumstances conspire to make it so.” (ibid., 23.4.1914)
Q: How does this happen? Because the Divine has taken possession and there is no more effort to be made?
A: Yes.
Q: Does the Divine draw away from us?
A: No, it is we who draw away from Him.
Q: When you write “O Divine Force, Supreme Illuminator, listen to our prayers, do not draw away, do not retire, help us to combat…” What do you mean to say?
A: I spoke not to the Divine himself but to a Force, emanation of the Divine, descended to do a certain work on the earth and could have receded if it had seen that the work which it had come to do was impossible.