The Smiling Lord Is Everywhere

"(After a silence) I can't say (it's inexpressible), it was something that contained horror, dread, sorrow - and a compassion, oh, intense! ... Never, never had the body felt things like that. Besides, that put it in a rather ... critical state for a few hours. Afterwards, it was as if everything, everything came-every single thing-with a Smile and a resplendent Light; as if (to put it into children's words), as if the Lord were saying, "See, I am everywhere. See, I am in all things." It was unbelievable- unbelievable .... But there's no communication between the two". =THE MOTHER

May 31, 1969

How are your nights? ... The same? Still the same?

(Satprem grimaces)

Two nights ago, I spent more than three hours with Sri Aurobindo, and I showed him all that was going to descend for Auroville. It was rather interesting. There were games, there was art, there was even cooking! But all that was very symbolic. I explained it to him as if on a table, in front of a large landscape; I explained the principle on whose basis physical exercises and games were going to be organized. It was very clear, very precise, I even did a demonstration, as if showing him on a very small scale: a representation on a very small scale of what was going to be done. I moved people, things ... (gesture as if on a chessboard). But it was very interesting, and he was interested: he gave kinds of broad laws of organization (I don't know how to explain). <202>
There was art and it was lovely, it was fine. And how to make houses pleasant and beautiful, with what principle of construction. And cooking too, it was very amusing! There were the different manners of presenting a dish; take a fish, for instance, with the different ways of preparing it, and everyone came with his own invention .... It went on for more than three hours (three hours of the night, that's huge). I woke up at 4 o'clock with that (4 o'clock, and I had gone back to bed at I o'clock: I to 4 is three hours - I can still calculate!). Very interesting.

Yet the conditions on earth seem very far from all that ....

No ... It was just there, it didn't seem "foreign" to the earth. It was a harmony A conscious harmony behind things: a conscious harmony behind physical exercises and games; a conscious harmony behind decoration and art; a conscious harmony behind food ...

I mean that all this looks poles apart from what is now on earth.

Not ...

No?

Today was Y's birthday She came, and (smiling) started telling me that the latest scientific discoveries are "absolutely wonderful," that they have found how thoughts are formed and travel from one person to another ... (Mother laughs). I couldn't help telling her, "Yes, that's what yogis already knew!"

Well, indeed. Really!

And she also told me that animal psychology can lead us to the knowledge of the superman's psychology.

Good.

There's something true there .... But anyway, it's ...

It's seen from below.

So I told her that the whole artistic, athletic, even culinary organizations, and all others, are ready in the subtle physical - ready to descend and incarnate-and I said, "All that is needed is a little soil <203>
(gesture in the hollow of the hand), a little soil to let the plant grow ...." I said that to her, "I am telling you because we have to find a little soil to let it grow ...." I don't know if she understood!

(silence)

I don't know if this perception is correct, but for several months I have felt that the earth has never been in such darkness. I have a sense of a tremendous darkness.

Yes, yes. But both are there. It's true. A CONFUSION-it's a confusion - a dark confusion, yes. A dark confusion, but that's what Sri Aurobindo always said: the confusion becomes much more intense and dark just when the light is to come. That's correct. It looks like a dark chaos. And especially in this country ... terrible, oh, unbelievable things. It's because serious people said them to me (they aren't newspaper gossip) that I am obliged to believe them. There are really dreadful things going on in the government and in the organization - dreadful. Unbelievable. And the Chinese ...

But Mother, do you know in the West, the influential books (not only influential, they're read and devoured by all the young) are those of Mao Tse-tung?

Of ...?

Mao Tse-tung.

What's that?

... He's the great Chinese, the great Chinese mandarin-Mao Tse-tung.

And what does he say, that man?

That man ... says that "Power flows from the barrel of a gun.

(Mother remains silent)

That's what they read in the West. And the latest bestseller is a book titled something like "The Wretched," which is an apology of violence: "Power must be seized through violence." That's what <204> is successful in the West, what all the students are devouring. [[The book is The Wretched of the Earth by Franz Fanon, whose central theme is "Violence alone pays" (quoted in The Indian Express of May 30). An extract: "The practice of violence binds men together as a whole, since each individual forms a violent link in the great chain, a part of the great organism of violence which has surged upward." The book is prefaced by Jean-Paul Sartre, who says even more explicitly, "Irrepressible violence ... is man recreating himself." It is "mad fury" through which "the wretched of the earth" can "become men." "To shoot down a European is to kill two birds with one stone ... there remains a dead man and a free man." ]]

Oh, an apology of violence ...

A gospel of violence.

That's the vital in full swing.

Yes.

Ooh! That explains all the visions I've had. I thought ... I put the blame on my body, thinking this poor body has an unfortunate atavism: constantly dreadful, frightful imaginations - but they weren't imaginations, it was conscious of what was going on .... Oh! ...
Oh, what you're telling me is very interesting, because yesterday (these last few days, these last three days), faced with the horror of the perception of things, this body (which is quite the opposite of sentimental, it's never, never been sentimental) started weeping .... It didn't weep materially, but it was ... And with an inner intensity, it said, "Oh, why does this world exist?" Like that, it was so ... awful, sad, miserable ... so miserable and ... so horrible, you know, oh! ... But it instantly gets the Response- not a response with words, it's simply ... like an immensity opening in the Light. Then, there's nothing more to say.
But how can That, that immensity, become this? ... I don't know. The question is, "How did That become this? ..." That's how it came: "How could That, the Wonder, become this-this hideous, monstrous thing?"
But the process to change this back into That is what I don't know ... The process is ... abdication (what word should we use?), self-giving (that's not it). But the body felt everything, everything to be so ... horrible. There was a very, very difficult day. [[On Thursday 29th May. On the 30th, too, mother received no one. This is probably the course of experience that began a little before Pavitra's departure (see conversation of May 17). ]] <205>
And curiously, I knew at that time that it was the exact repetition of the experience Buddha Siddhartha had, and that it was IN this experience that he said, "There is only one way out: Nirvana." And at the SAME TIME, I had the true state of consciousness: his solution and the true one. That was really interesting. How the Buddhistic solution is only ONE step taken on the path-one step. And BEYOND that (not on another path, but BEYOND that) is where the true solution lies. It was a decisive experience.

(long silence)

But what's this creation? ... You know, separation, then wickedness, cruelty (the thirst to cause harm, we might say), then suffering, again the joy of causing suffering, and then all disease, decomposition, death - destruction. (All that is part of a single thing.) What happened? ... The experience I had was the UNREALITY of those things, as though we had stepped into an unreal falsehood, and when you step out of it, everything vanishes - it DOES NOT exist, it isn't. That's what is frightful! What to us is so real, so concrete, so dreadful, all that does not exist. It's ... stepping into Falsehood. Why? How? What? ...
But never, never in this body's whole, entire existence, not once - not once - has it felt such a ... total and profound sorrow as on that day ... Oh, something that made it ... (Mother has a lump in her throat). And at the end of it all, Bliss. And then, pfft! it faded away, as if to say, "Not yet, not yet, the time hasn't come yet." But as if all this, which is so awful, did not exist.
After all, it's probably ... probably only on the earth (that I don't know). It doesn't seem to be like that, because for the moon, it's very concretely a sense of devastation. Anyway, there's nevertheless a very strong, very concrete sensation that what's like that, in this Falsehood, is something limited. And unreal. And that we are all in Falsehood and Unreality - that's why things are as they are. And the interesting point was that that escape into Nirvana wasn't the solution, it was only a remedy - a remedy for a time (how can I explain? I don't know) ... a partial remedy. A partial and, we might almost say, momentary remedy.
So that's a paroxysm at a certain point. Afterwards comes the long path: one must go on and on with the PROGRESSIVE work of transformation. Then, the next minute, there is what Sri Aurobindo called the supramental being. It's like the transition from the one towards the other. <206>
But how will all this change? I don't know.

Yes, the other day, I had a perception (I don't have the gift of vision), but such a concrete perception, that the earth was as if beneath a black cloak-what you call Falsehood or Illusion. It was something COVERING the earth.

Yes, yes.

I felt that, but very concretely: a black coat.

Yes, exactly

Only, it would have to be pulled back FOR EVERYONE.

(After a silence) I can't say (it's inexpressible), it was something that contained horror, dread, sorrow - and a compassion, oh, intense! ... Never, never had the body felt things like that. Besides, that put it in a rather ... critical state for a few hours. Afterwards, it was as if everything, everything came-every single thing-with a Smile and a resplendent Light; as if (to put it into children's words), as if the Lord were saying, "See, I am everywhere. See, I am in all things." It was unbelievable- unbelievable .... But there's no communication between the two.
You understand, that was when the body said, "What? Shall we have to go on and on with that? Must we ... go on and on with that? The world, people, the whole creation - go on and on with that? ..." It seemed ... I suddenly understood: "Ah! That's what they expressed as 'perpetual hell'." That's it. It was someone who had that perception.
And all the methods - which we may call artificial, Nirvana included-all the methods to get out of it are worthless. Beginning with the fool who kills himself to "Put an end" to his life: that's ... of all stupidities, that one is the biggest, it makes his case still worse. From that up to Nirvana (where one imagines one can get out of it), all of it, all of it is worth NOTHING. Those are different stages, but they're worth NOTHING. And then, after that, when you really have a sense of perpetual hell, all of a sudden ... (nothing but a state of consciousness, it's nothing but that), all of a sudden, a state of consciousness ... in which all is light, splendor, beauty, happiness, goodness .... And all that is inexpressible. It comes like that: "Oh, here it is," and then pfft! It shows itself, and hop! it's <207> gone. Then the Consciousness, which sees, imposes itself, and says, "Now, the next step." So it's in the presence of all this that the body had ... never, never in its whole life had it felt such a sorrow, and even now ... (Mother touches her heart).
Is this, is this the lever? ... I don't know. But salvation is PHYSICAL -not at all mental, but PHYSICAL. I mean it's not in escape: it's ... HERE. That I felt very strongly.
But the body had a few very difficult hours. And to it, that's always indifferent, it says, "All right," it's fully ready for dissolution or ... There was no question of that; there was no question of that, the question was to ... know how to receive the Cure. And what is the Cure like? - Inexpressible with our means.
But it's not that it's veiled or hidden or anything: it's HERE. Why? What in the whole deprives you of the power to live THAT? I don't know. It's here, HERE! All the rest, including death and everything, really becomes a falsehood, that is to say, something that does not exist.

Yes, it's a cloak that has to be drawn back.

If it were only that, it would be nothing!

No, I mean that all this Illusion is like a cloak to be drawn back off the earth.

Yes, that's it. But of course, that's it! But is it only off the earth? I don't know ... They're going tip there to find out!
All I know, the impression I have, is that it's concentrated here. The concentration is here, the work is here. But it may be ... the whole solar system, I don't know.

(silence)

But one can't get out all alone.

Of course! ... Mother, the other day you said something. You said, "The time has come to take one's stand." You said, "The body has taken its stand," but you didn't dare urge others to do it, and you added, "Now the time has come to take one's stand."

Yes, I think so.

But what do you mean by "taking one's stand"? <208>

This, the awareness the body now has that all this is unreal.
If you asked the body, it would say, I don't know if I am alive, I don't know if I am dead." Because that's really how it is. For a few minutes it absolutely has the feeling of being dead; at other times, it has the feeling of being alive. The body is like that. And it feels that exclusively depends on ... whether the Truth is perceived or not.

(silence)

What does it depend on? ...

(silence)

According to what others say or write or experience, I have seen that what the vast majority of humanity fears the most is this perception of the Falsehood of it all, and all that leads to it. I know people (they've written to me) who just these last few days have had terrible frights, because all of a sudden they were forcibly seized, something was beginning to touch them: the perception of the unreality of life. So that shows the immensity of the path still ahead. Which means that any hope of a solution near at hand seems childishness. Unless ... things take place differently.
If things must follow the movement they've followed till now ... How many centuries and centuries and centuries there have been .... So the superman would only be one more stage, and after him there would be many other more things ....

Every time I think of that, I always get the impression that the only solution is for you to have a glorified body, visible to all. Then everyone would come and see-come and see what the Divine is like!

(Mother laughs a lot) That would be quite convenient!

It would so much upset all their notions ....

Yes, of course! That would be really convenient. Will it be like that? ... That's for sure, I wholly agree! And I would be very happy if it were anyone, I don't have the least desire that it should be mine!

Come and see what the Divine is like! <209>

Yes, what it's like! (Mother laughs)
Oh, you should write that ....
Write it, write that.

(Mother remains "gazing" for a long time, with an unbelievable expression. The clock strikes .... <210>

Purusha,Prakriti And Beyond

Disciple: What is the characteristic of the Purusha on each plane of being – the physical, the vital and the mental – looking at the world?

Sri Aurobindo: The Purusha looks at the world as Prakriti i.e. Nature, represents it to be. On the mental plane Prakriti represents thoughts, ideas – in short, all mental movements. On the vital plane Prakriti represents itself as desires – in short, as action of the vital force. On the physical plane it represents itself as the unchangeable law of physical life.

Disciple: When the Purusha separates itself from Prakriti, how is it possible for it to aspire for something higher?

Sri Aurobindo: It is not the Purusha but the Prakriti which has to be made to aspire and made fit. The Purusha is silent, passive, looking at Prakriti.

Disciple: What is the characteristic way of Purusha looking at the world from the Supermind?

Sri Aurobindo: The Supramental Purusha looks at the world as the Truth looks at it.

Disciple: how does the Truth look at the world?

Sri Aurobindo: (with a gesture of hand pointing up): You get up there and you will see.

Disciple: In the Taittiriya Upanishad the following pa occurs: "Vijnana extends the sacrifice – what is its head; delight is its right side; great delight the left side; bliss, the body; Brahman the lower the foundation". 

Sri Aurobindo: Here puccham – "tail" –-means the basis. It means the basis of ānanda (bliss) Infinite, the Brahman. 

Disciple: Further it says: "By that this is filled; its head; Truth of movement the right side of being the left side; union, the body; the great plane the lower part, – the foundation".

Sri Aurobindo: It means if you want to rise to the Supermind you have to attain the mahas – the wide, infinite and universal consciousness which is its basis: Ritam means "Truth of movement". Satyam is "Truth of being" śraddhā is the acceptance of the Truth when it is there. 

Disciple: When the Truth is there present on the Supra-mental level, why is śraddhā – faith – required?

Sri Aurobindo: śhraddha here means that when you see the Truth, you are ready to accept it. "Yoga Atma" means that the lower being has to attain the union with the higher being in order to go up to the level higher than the Mind. 

Disciple: About the prānāmaya also it speaks and adds that it is fulfilled by it. 

Sri Aurobindo: It says that the mental – manomaya – is higher than the vital and is fulfilled by it.

Disciple: It also says "yajnas is the head; the rk is the right side; saman is the left side; command is the soul; atharva-angirasa is the end and foundation".

Sri Aurobindo: Rik means the intuitive movement in the mind; saman is "the rhythm of the movement and harmony.” Atharva means "the effective action of the physical plane". Angirasa, in the Veda at least, means the power of Agni which releases the cows – the Light – from the cave of darkness of the panis with the help of the Word and Indra and the other gods.

Disciple: There is a description of the vital and its function.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, vyān is the right side; apān is the left side; akāśa is ātmā. It may refer to the vital ether and Prathwi puccham pratiśthā clearly means that the vital is based on and looks from above upon the physical.

Disciple: Does the Christian Trinity correspond to Brahma. Vishnu and Shiva?

Sri Aurobindo: No. The Indian trinity refers to cosmic powers which preside over certain movements in the universe Brahma-creative etc. "Son" in the Christian Trinity means perhaps the "Divine in man". "Holy Ghost" symbolises the "Divine Consciousness".

Sri Aurbindo on the 3  Purushas

Darshan Day:24th Novembar,2012

Money And Its Role

November 22, 1969

(Satprem gives his pension to Mother)

You give money just like that! But don't you need any?

No, no, Mother!

Here it's an abyss, money goes away like ...
I have something for next February: I "received" certain things regarding money and what's going on there, in Delhi. [[Indira Gandhi has just been expelled from the Congress by the syndicate of financiers. ]] The government is shaky; so far, things are all right. Everything tends towards the dissolution of the Congress, but that was foreseen and willed. But then, the Congress president [[Nijalingappa. ]] is on one side and the prime minister is on the other, each looking at the other ... Anyway, I think things will work out. But all that is mostly because of money: the most powerful party against the present government, against Indira, is that of financiers. They're furious. So then, in this connection, I took up again what I had said long ago:

Money is not meant to make money,
money is meant to prepare the earth for the new creation.

And I added this (it's already gone to Delhi): <442>

The men of finance and the businessmen have been offered the possibility to collaborate with the future, but most of them refuse, convinced that money is stronger than the future.

Thus, the future will crush them with its irresistible power.

I wrote it in French before putting it into English, but in French, I spoke directly to the financiers:

(translation)

To financiers and businessmen

You have been offered the possibility of collaborating with the future, but you have thought that the power of money is stronger than that of the future. And the future will crush you with its irresistible power.

But that's a first version, I intend to rewrite it. In English, I put most of them refuse ..."

The French is more combative.

A little too combative. Some have accepted to collaborate, so I wouldn't like them to say I'm going on announcing catastrophes for them!

Yes, obviously, it's a bit threatening.

Yes, too threatening. We'll translate the English.

(Mother translates into French)

Now, something else. These days, I am writing a lot of notes about children's education. I have been asked, "What should we do? ..." Some children are wicked, with a wickedness ... really unbelievable inventions, they [the teachers] don't know what to do. So I wrote a lot of things, but among them, one, I think, is important:

"A child must cease to be wicked because he learns to be ashamed of being wicked, not because he fears a punishment ....

That's the first step. Once he reaches it, then he can progress one <443> more step and learn the happiness of being good, the joy of being good. But that I didn't write.

"In the first case, he progresses; in the second he goes down one rung in human consciousness.

"Fear is a degradation of human consciousness."

I think that's very important. Because EVERYWHERE, people are convinced that punishment is what ... Horrible!
I get multitudes of questions of that sort - it's I who gives them to me, and I write in her notebook. I don't know what she'll do with it .... There are some things I'd like to revise; for instance, sometimes I use slightly easier words for her to understand - we could put the true word instead. But for that, I'd have to revise it.

I could see it, if you like?

But I dare not ask her! I don't know if she would give it to me. [[As unbelievable as it may appear, Mother did not dare to ask her own disciples, knowing the storms that would give rise to. Thus Satprem could never recover the notes written by Mother. Even the words changed by Mother herself were later reintroduced. ]]

***

Soon afterwards

What you said last time [on the supramental Consciousness] might be used for "Notes on the Way"?

(Mother opens her eyes wide) I don't know ... I don't know.
I've just learned that others are beginning to feel. Do you know Dr. V? He was the head of the hospital here for a long time. He got very interested in A.R. [the healer], very interested, and I think that hastened something in him, so that for a few nights he's had "phenomena" which I've, myself had lots of times, but I knew what it was and wasn't alarmed. But he's a doctor (!) and was a little alarmed. It's a sort of discomfort with the heart - it can't be called a pain: it's a discomfort, followed by intense perspiration. I had one this morning again - maybe because I was trying to see what's going on in him (I was told about it yesterday, and I tried to see if it was that). That may be why I got that, I don't know. It may be because there was still something ... <444>
I told you several times, the organs are "supported" in their functioning by the forces of Nature, and in this process of transformation, the forces of Nature are withdrawn and replaced with the divine Presence. But you understand, there comes a moment when there is a gap [between the old functioning and the new] - it may be imperceptible, but still it has an effect; a moment comes when there is an anguish. And then, some things are only partially transformed; so one part, then another part, then yet another part are taken up in succession, and since the heart is a very important thing, I am convinced it takes place very slowly. As a result, one often experiences the same thing, more or less strongly. The calmer one is, the more trusting one is, the more one is in the true attitude, and the less strong it is - the consequences are less strong. But still, there is a consequence, and he was taken by surprise, he didn't know what it was.
But it interested me. What A.R. said, "To be entirely governed by the divine Consciousness," appealed to him a lot, it's an approach he understood. He must have tried, and that's the result. I saw other people who had pains, but that one is more "alarming." Others have pains here or there or ... but when it touches the heart, people start being more alarmed. But in several cases, I saw that this Force doesn't act only here [in Mother]: it acts in others. And always, always, the moment of transition (it may be very brief, or it may take some time) is a bit ... difficult. One needs to be forewarned.
I've seen that everywhere: the moment of transition in other functionings is sometimes unpleasant, but not so alarming; there [with the heart], people are generally ... they're a bit scared! He is a very strong man, he wasn't afraid; he sent me a line asking me, if this was the sign that he must go, to prepare him to go as he should.
But that has happened to me any number of times. If one isn't afraid, it's nothing.

(Sujata:) Mother, why does it happen at night, most of the time?

Because one is lying down!

(Satprem to Sujata:) Have you felt something at night? <445>

(Sujata:) Last night I had the same thing, and I perspired.

Because at night, you're resting and passive, that is to say, more receptive. During the day, one is more active, less receptive.
Trust, you know: being aware that it's a higher intervention - trust first of all. Then, perfect surrender: "What You will" - let the body, in full sincerity, be ready for anything. And then, that sort of perfect peace that comes from surrender: one is like this (Mother opens her arms). Those are the best conditions.
One should avoid emotions and all those things.
But the more sincere one is - the more sincere the body is - the more it's truly ready for anything: it has given itself entirely and ... what will happen will happen, that's all. And it's really like this: "What You WILL, what You will I shall do, whatever it may be - I am not even asking to know." Then it's in peace and things go fast enough.
Anxiety brings about a vibration which isn't good.

(silence)

That's how it is, one thing and another, one thing and another ... But then, there's the old way which is less and less strong, and the new which is stronger and stronger. In other words, the one is the whole sense and consciousness of instability, uncertainty, fragility -impermanence (it's really something devoid of any true solidity); while the other is the sense of Permanence (Mother stretches out her arms) and ... progression without fall, like that, in something that's vast and ... such a powerful movement that it's immobile, giving a sense of immobility So one is like this (gesture of swinging from one state to the other).
This morning, I remembered what I told you last Wednesday (not remembered what I said: remembered the STATE I told you about). And then, the body was like this (gesture of intense aspiration), oh, saying, "This Consciousness, this Consciousness, this Consciousness ..." It wanted it, you know, intensely, and there was such a clear perception of what prevents it from being there .... What prevents is a "concentric" vibration, a sort of concentric vibration, meaning that instead of being like this (Mother opens her arms), in an infinite Eternity, things are seen in relation to oneself. That's what prevents.

(silence) <446>

One must really reach the state in which ... one doesn't care about living and one doesn't care about not living: absolutely indifferent - it's not indifference, it's a ... what should I call it? A peaceful and ... unquestioning acceptance. And above all, above all, no alarm.
You see, the movement of surrender is a preliminary movement (the movement of surrender is total and constant), well, it's a preliminary movement; there's another movement in which one no longer has anything to surrender! It's like that, it's quite natural.

(silence)

I see lots and lots of people, and the body notices that even those with the best goodwill don't understand - a total and general incomprehension of the condition it is in.
And then, some really amusing things all the time, all the time, every minute .... For an extremely long time it hasn't felt offended anymore, an extremely long time, but there was still a time when it would see, perceive incomprehension as a ridiculous thing or ... an ignorance. Now that's over. Now ... For a long time, every time it used to ask, "Ah! What do You want me to learn?" Now that too is past. Because as soon as something comes (what Sri Aurobindo called the old man), something left from the old personality, which shows up like that, the body doesn't need anything to see the truth instantly: it appears profoundly ridiculous.

***

Soon afterwards
Did you have something to ask? ... Nothing to say? ... No? ... What? (Mother laughs)

I was wondering about what you told me some two weeks ago. You spoke about writing a new book. And you said it should "crystallize the next step, the intermediary ..."

Yes.

I was wondering in what direction that book should be: would it be a book about you, as I wrote the Adventure about Sri Aurobindo? <447>

Oh, no, not about me! Please, it makes my work so much more complicated when people think of me.

So would it be simply a sequel to the "Adventure of Consciousness," but more developed? What should it be?

If it could be a vision of what will be - I would like you to have that. A vision of the next step.
Very far ahead, one does see the possibility (as you yourself said) of a "materialization," but between now and then, there is something .... Lately I've discovered a great deal of things while looking in that direction. I saw (I don't know if I noted that, I think I forgot to write it), I saw that with most people who have children almost without wanting it, "just like that," for them it's a sort of ... (naturally, many women desire to have children, but without even knowing what it means), for the VAST majority of educated people, that is to say, whose heads have been stuffed full of ideas about the faults one mustn't have, the qualities one must have and so on, all that they repressed in their beings, all the bad, pernicious instincts, it all comes out [in the child]. I remembered (I observed and saw), I remembered something I read very, very long ago; I think it was by Renan, he wrote somewhere that one should beware of parents who are good and very respectable, because ... (laughing) birth is a "purge"! And he also said: observe carefully the children of bad people, because those often are a reaction! So then, after that, after my experience, when I saw, I said to myself, "But that man was right!" For people, it's a way of purging themselves. They throw out of themselves all that they don't want. There are some children here ... horrid! And that's it, you wonder, "How come? Their parents are very good people ...." It's very interesting, because it gives the KEY of what should be done - by showing you what shouldn't be done, it gives you the key of what should be done.
In that case, this "prenatal education" Y speaks of isn't a falsehood after all. It's something that may be true.
The children, those who are a few months old (as I said, those who were born in Auroville) are remarkable-they're remarkable. I thought it was just one case, but in all those I've seen till now, all of them, a concentration of consciousness.
That little Tamil was a marvel.

So in sum, what should be written is the making or the preparation of the Superman? <448>

Yes, yes, exactly Exactly Have you seen this (Mother points to the just released booklet, "The Great Sense")? This is going to be very useful - so a sequel to it, you understand?

Yes, but still in the form of a book?

Yes, yes.

The development of consciousness that leads to ...

A book ... it could be a story, that I don't know. But then people wouldn't take it so seriously!

It would be the same genre as the "Adventure of Consciousness"?

Ah, you know, it's a growing success.

Yes, my publisher wrote to me; he says it's picking up and wants to reprint it.

Ah!

He writes, "The press hasn't said a word about your book, yet it's selling well!"

It's not the press! (Laughing) It's the consciousness! Ah, no, your publishing fellow must understand that it doesn't belong to the past, that all the methods of the past have become worthless.
In America, the book has a tremendous success.

Yes, one feels quite evidently the consciousness that's behind this book and touches people, because all of them have the same reaction: all of them, everywhere, at all levels, the more intellectual as much as the less intellectual.

Yes, as in A.R.'s case, for instance.

On the other hand, the "Sannyasin" appears to be lost .... [[The manuscript has been in Paris for a year. ]] <449>

Lost?

I don't know.

You know, I'll tell you very frankly: it's very interesting, but it made me sad.

Why?

Why I don't know.

The "Sannyasin"? What made you sad?

The book, what you read me .... It's very interesting, I was very interested, I felt very comfortable, but then there was a sort of ... it's something that puts you (I don't know why) in contact with the whole part of the atmosphere that pulls you out of life - Buddhism and all those things, the whole nihilism. It puts you in contact with that: the flight out of life. And it's not intellectual, it's not the ideas, not the words, not the facts, it's ... What is it? I wondered a few times what made the book catch on to the nihilist atmosphere of Buddhism? That's what would explain ... It's not that people don't like it, but ... it's a non-creative force that acts. Why? I don't know.

But what this book tried to say, to show, is in fact the transition beyond that.

Yes, but ... Perhaps people aren't ready? Now, I didn't read it in full, so I can't know. You only read me a few passages. But it's not so much the words, you understand, it was the vision.

But since I read you those passages, I rewrote it. I wrote the book again after I read it to you.

You didn't show it to me, that's it. But when F took it up, I for one felt it was going to succeed. [[It will take another four years, then for some fifteen years this unfortunate Sannyasin will fall victim to an unscrupulous Indian "publisher" who will use Auroville's name as a cover for his own affairs. ]]

Ah, then we just have to wait.

<450>

(long silence)

Don't you feel in you the soul of a prophet?

I feel in me the soul I'm given!

(Mother laughs) I'd like a beautiful prophetic book.
It's there somewhere: what's going to take place here is ALREADY there somewhere. It's not in a region where one "sees," it's ... (gesture showing the world of consciousness).
My impression is that you can write it.

(Satprem opens his hands)

We'll see.

I'll try to put myself in the atmosphere.

Yes - no! I've just seen: it's all right! (Mother laughs)

Heaven And Earth Is One

 [Yusufali 43:84] It is He Who is Allah in heaven and Allah on earth; and He is full of Wisdom and Knowledge.

Shadow and Light, Good and Evil have all prepared a divine birth in Matter: "Day and Night both suckle the divine Child."²⁵⁰ Nothing is accursed, nothing is in vain. Night and Day are "two sisters, immortal, with a common Lover (the Sun)... common they, though different their forms." (I.113.2.3) At the end of the "pilgrimage" of ascent and descent, the seeker is "a son of the two Mothers (III.55.7): the son of Aditi, the white Mother²⁵¹ of the superconscious infinite, and the son of Diti, the earthly Mother of "the dark infinite." He possesses "the two births," human and divine, "eternal and in one nest... as the Enjoyer of his two wives" (I.62.7): "The contents of the pregnant hill²⁵² (came forth) for the supreme birth... a god opened the human doors." (V.45) "Then indeed, they awoke and saw all behind and wide around them, then, indeed, they held the ecstasy that is enjoyed in heaven. In all gated houses²⁵³ were all the gods." (Rig Veda IV.1.18)

Man's hope is fulfilled as well as the rishi's prayer: "May Heaven and Earth be equal and one."²⁵⁴ The great Balance is at last restored.

Heaven in its rapture dreams of perfect earth,

Earth in its sorrow dreams of perfect heaven...

They are kept from their oneness by enchanted fears.²⁵⁵

And finally, there is joy – Ananda. It is at the beginning of things and at the end and everywhere, if we dig deep enough. It is "the well of honey covered by the rock." (Rig Veda II.24.4)
(Exerpt frm  Satrprem;Sri Aurobindo or Adventure Of Consciousness)

The Mother's Agenda:February 1951

February 1951

(Note written by hand two months after Sri Aurobindo's departure)

The lack of the earth's receptivity and the behavior of Sri Aurobindo's disciples' are largely responsible for what happened to his body. But one thing is certain: the great misfortune that has just beset us in no way affects the truth of his teaching. All he said is perfectly true and remains so. Time and the course of events will make this abundantly clear.

---

ISBN 2-902776-33-0

At The Bottom Of Hell Fire

The Mother

Two things you must never forget:

Sri Aurobindo's compassion and the Mother's love, and it is with these two things that you will go on fighting steadily, patiently, until the enemies are definitively routed and the Victory is won for ever.

Courage outside, peace inside and a quiet unshakable trust in the Divine's Grace.

19 May 1933 

[Yusufali 37:64] For it is a tree that springs out of the bottom of Hell-Fire -the quran                                                                        

                                                                                  

The Mother's Agenda: 9th Septembar,1970

September 9, 1970

The Hell

(Mother seems very slightly better, though still quite exhausted.)

I had something to tell you, but I don't remember at all.... Maybe it'll come back.

(very long silence, then Mother gestures that she remembers and plunges in again)

It's coming, but not yet precise enough. Do YOU have anything to ask?

Was it related to "that night," when you were as if in hell?

Yes, it was related to that. It was ... I'll try to explain. You know that OM is said to be the sound of the whole universe turned towards the Supreme, imploring the Supreme - and the result is OM. I had the impression that I was all the pain of the world - all the pain of the world (how can I put it) felt together. I don't know how to explain.
It must be that - it must be that because, before, I was dominated, you understand: when it came, I was as if crushed by the thing; whereas from the moment I understood that way, I was able to be above pain. And I am much better. But just when I said it, it was very ... it even had the character of a revelation. So then, it was very precise - very precise, very concrete. Now ... it's a translation, of course.
I felt, I felt at the same time something like an extraordinary Protection which prevented from going mad.... It was a VERY concrete experience for several hours: the protection of a Consciousness ... a higher consciousness, and a sort of power dominating the thing, with the perception that if That weren't there, there was enough to make lots of people go mad.
But the body is very ... the body is very affected (Mother touches her left eye and forehead). You see, there are ...
Impossible, almost impossible to eat - especially that.

(very long, moaning silence)

That sense of being crushed hasn't gone yet. It's like something preventing me from breathing freely. But the night after the day I saw you, when I told you, you remember, I told you (smiling) to pray for me ...

Yes, Mother.

... that night was absolutely wonderful - absolutely peaceful and wonderful. A night as I hadn't had in a long, long time.... I thanked you, I don't know if you know!

Oh, Mother....

(Mother laughs, Satprem lays his head on her knees, silence)

But Sri Aurobindo? Sri Aurobindo ...

Yes.

What does he say?

(after a silence)

I had (and that was frightful), I had the consciousness of all that he suffered physically. And that was one of the things most ... (Mother's voice is covered in tears) the hardest to bear. As if ... physically ... And our physical unconsciousness beside that, and the kind of physical TORTURE he was subjected to. [["We insisted on the dangerous remedies ...," confesses one of the doctors who were looking after Sri Aurobindo (Nirodbaran, Sri Aurobindo - "I Am Here, I Am Here!", 1951, p. 20). Sri Aurobindo refused - once. Mother refused. Then they stopped saying anything. "He knew that [one such remedy] would be of no avail and he emphatically ruled it out, but as we had not the insight nor the proper appraisement of the value of words when they are clothed in the common language we are habituated to use, we insisted on the dangerous remedies in which we had faith and confidence." (Ibid.) Let us note that the same phenomenon was to recur with Mother. ]] That was one of the most difficult things, most difficult.
The torture he was subjected to, which we treated so lightly, as if... as if he felt nothing. That was one of the most frightful things.

(very long silence Mother plunges in, then gives a start)

You see, it's like this (Mother gestures as if suffocating): an Anguish weighing down, and that's terrible. It's not in the thought, you understand (same suffocated gesture).

But Mother, this pain of the earth, isn't it to make it call the Supreme Consciousness there too, deep down?

Yes, of course. That's what I say to myself, what I try to find, but ...
There is something to be found.

(very long silence)

It's like this (same gesture of suffocation), and it's still there.... There is one spot, like a spot where there is such a dreadful anguish.... Do you feel how I have difficulty breathing? - That's it. It's constant.

(silence)

It's here (Mother draws a bar across the top of her chest). It's here. And I am as if forbidden to ... (Mother makes the gesture of rising to join the Origin above the head) ... As if I absolutely had to find something.

(silence [["A voice cried, 'Go where none have gone! Dig deeper, deeper yet // Till thou reach the grim foundation stone // And knock at the keyless gate.' ... I left the surface gods of mind // And life's unsatisfied seas And plunged through the body's alleys blind // To the nether mysteries." (A God's Labour) ]] )

What time is it?

Ten past eleven, Mother.

Do you have anything to say?

But doesn't the Mantra have an action on this?

My body repeats the Mantra ceaselessly. I think it couldn't hold out if it didn't.... Constantly, constantly.

(silence)

Sometimes I say to myself that OUR darknesses are YOUR obstacle, and that if we could conquer our own darknesses ...

Ah, naturally it would be easier for me. But that ... (how can I put it?) it's not my business. I have no right to demand it: I have to do the work.... Naturally, as I told you, your prayer that night had a ... you know, the word relief in English. It was, oh, such a relief!

(very long, moaning silence)

It's strange, it takes hold here (gesture from the waist to the knees), but especially here (gesture at the waist). I can't say what it is, but it's a dreadful anguish.... When it comes here (gesture to the chest), I scream.
It's in the legs down to the knees. Now I can hardly walk.
Its totally physical, material.

(silence)

Ah!...
I know very well what should be done, of course: this [phenomenon] should be observed rather than felt - it should be known: a knowledge rather than a sensation. Then it would be like other kinds of knowledge, you see.... But what does it depend on? I don't know.

(long silence)

We shall conquer, Mother.

Yes.

(silence, Satprem lays his forehead on Mother's knees)

You understand, that it will be conquered I am ABSOLUTELY certain of, but ... has the time come? That's the question. And it's this, this doubt, that's a torture.

(Mother takes Satprem's hands)

The Revolters

I looked at her.... Those cells, that body, so clear, so transparent, was constantly absorbing the surrounding negation, refusal, and even revolt. Each time it's as if those cells caught a human disease, or perhaps the human disease – THE human disease. And each time she had to purify, in her own body, all those suggestions, all that ill-will....

And WHO believed?

WHO said, "Mother WILL find the way. Mother WILL go through it."

Who believed?

She used to tell me, "I have no one here."

I have no one here.

So that being who tried so much for the earth, who sought so much for the sake of the love and beauty of the earth – and... "I have no one." It was so... moving, poignant, you know, to see her increasingly crushed, if I may say, by the pain of that human refusal, that human incomprehension.

There I truly loved Mother.

She was grand.

She was heroic.

Then, one day, they closed her door on me.

Towarnicki: Who?

Her disciples.

I don't know. I don't understand their world; their way of being escapes me. I couldn't understand it. I couldn't understand all those jealousies. I couldn't understand any of it.

They closed the door on me.

So there was no one left, you see.

Why become immortal?

Why become radiant?

For herself alone?

She who loved the earth so much, who tried so much to give it its own secret joy – joy in matter, that is. Its secret of vastness, of communication with everything and everyone.

She has gone.

But she has not gone far.

She is there. She is there.

I feel her. She smiles at me. She holds me.

But this is not for myself alone, either. It's so obvious that anybody can call in his heart, in a childlike way, anywhere, in any language.... "That" is ready to help us and... make us move mountains.

She is there.

If we have the courage of Joy.

Towarnicki: What did she say to you before she died?

Oh, yes!

Towarnicki: Could you tell us the whole sentence?

"They will believe me dead. You who know, you will tell them. I would tell them myself, but they will not believe me." That's what she said.

"But they will not believe me."

What did they believe?

That she was old.

Anyway...

Towarnicki: What was that revolt all about? Why did they rebel against Mother during those last years?

The revolt wasn't manifest. It was a muffled rumbling in many people, and especially in her immediate entourage.

Well, it's... fairly easy to understand.

For each one she represented an obstacle to his little desire, his little ego, his little power or prestige.... Each one felt it as an obstacle.

In fact, one just has to look around: After she left, the squirmings started to break loose. All those little... beings athirst for power, for prestige – all dressed in immaculate white – who even tried to lay their hands on Mother's Agenda, all the conversations she had had with me, so afraid were they of what she might have told me. They tried everything.

But there's no point in speaking of those negative things.

They'll go – let them go their own way; it doesn't matter.

More than one old orangutan or old primate protested against man. But that didn't prevent man from coming.

Let them return to their spiritual meditation, to their dust.

But what Mother sowed in the earth, with so much suffering – that's irreversible.

And that's what is in the process of... You see, the very same squirming we saw and are seeing in the disciples around her, well, that's what is now squirming everywhere on earth! It's all the little rats coming out of their holes, all the little cockroaches thrashing about, all the cruelties, the horrible things... coming out everywhere, as if the sewers had been opened.

Why?... It's because there's truly a STUPENDOUS beam of light that's focused here, revealing all the filth in the depths, so it can be gotten rid of. So something else can emerge from the DEPTHS of this matter, from behind those rat nests, or saint nests – so a new air, a new possibility, can emerge.

That's the phenomenon taking place right now. And it's taking place REGARDLESS of what we want or don't want.

So why not with a little of our breath?

For once in evolution, human beings could participate in their own transformation.

Constantly, constantly, Mother's body used to repeat that same vibration, that same mantra.

Anybody can repeat it.

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE

JRD Tata And Auroville

J.R.D. Tata and Auroville....

Towarnicki: And how do you explain J.R.D. Tata's helping Auroville?

Ah, that is something else.

Towarnicki: Can one talk about it?

Of course, one can.

Towarnicki: Do you know exactly what he did?

He helped Auroville a great deal.

Auroville was besieged by a corrupt police, paid by the "owners of Auroville" (in quotation marks).

Towarnicki: The owners of the land?

Yes....

They weren't the "owners." Mother had put a few people in charge (you've got to have funds to start building a city); she had asked one or two of her disciples to concentrate particularly on raising funds wherever they could to help in the birth or creation of Auroville.

And the people she had entrusted with raising funds to help in the development of Auroville are the very ones who declared themselves the "owners of Auroville"! It's quite simple and straightforward: "Mother is gone, so we are the owners."

And so those "owners" (who were unscrupulous people – really crooks, in fact) used every means in the book to try to keep their authority over Auroville. And unfortunately, with corruption pervading everything in India, they paid EVERYBODY – the police, the villagers, various officials – in order to have the government expel, or to choke the lifeline of, those residents of Auroville who refused to participate in the swindle and the big spiritual business. They used absolutely everything. They had some of them put in jail, they... Oh, there were all sorts of awful things!

Towarnicki: Including aggression?

Yes, absolutely, including aggression!

This is where Mr. Tata was very helpful.... You see, in fact, Auroville needed to be protected against those mercenaries. And he agreed to –

Towarnicki: That's really something...

He agreed that his name be used, and he said, "I guarantee Auroville's integrity." Well, the moment somebody like Mr. Tata guarantees something, it puts an end to a lot of intrigues; it kept a lot of little hyenas from perpetrating their mischief.

He was very helpful in that way.

And not only did he give his personal guarantee, but several of us joined together to found... not an institute, but a sort of society, called Auromitra, meaning "The Friends of Auroville," to protect Auroville from these crooks.

Towarnicki: And why did he do it?

Out of love, of course! Simply because he believed; he believed in those young people.... The group of a few

hundred young people living there: Germans, Italians, Canadians, Americans, French. He had seen them. He had seen their vitality and sincerity. And even if it looked eccentric or uncustomary, there was something healthy about it, something genuine, authentic.

So he said to himself, "I am going to guarantee the integrity of these people."

And he had seen, on the other side, the people who called themselves "the owners" – he clearly saw that they were crooks.

So, in his way, as the generous and very simple man that he is (he is indeed a very simple and straightforward man; Tata is a man who has a heart, a big heart), he said to himself, "I am going to protect these young people from the intrigues and corruption of those people" – who brought false charges against them to the police, who had them arrested...

He gave his personal guarantee. He had the guts to say, "No, no, no, this is not how things are."

Towarnicki: You have seen J.R.D. Tata several times, haven't you?

Yes.

Towarnicki: Have you talked to him?

Yes.

Towarnicki: He knows what you have tried to do, what Mother has done. He even went there....

Yes.

Yes, but he doesn't really understand how Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's undertaking can help present humanity in a practical and concrete way. He doesn't understand that.

Because, for him, the problem is mainly an economic one.

Yet, as he himself admits, what is needed is a change in human nature.

In truth, it is not so much a change in India's pocketbook that is needed as a change in human nature. If you don't change human nature, you always end up with failure.

In other words, it is not an economic problem.

Towarnicki: Or perhaps it's both. He thinks that, short of an economic solution, all attempts to ameliorate human nature – the "quality of mankind," as the founder of the Club of Rome put it – are bound to fail, because they will be thwarted by other forces we failed to take into account. If we let the fire in a nearby forest go unchecked, without fighting it, what is the sense of an experience aimed at opening the way to a future species? Will the force of such an experience be able to control the fire? Or will the fire inexorably and inevitably spread and end up destroying...

What you are saying is very true, but we keep talking of the future species as if... as if it were a thing of the future! But we are RIGHT IN IT – the process is taking place now.

We clothe the phenomenon in wrong explanations. But the real phenomenon is of an evolutionary order.

Towarnicki: Exactly.

The truth is, the old species is being broken apart so another possibility can emerge from it.

And that's the real key to everything.

Towarnicki: So...

The new species isn't in the next decade; it's right here and now.

We are living it. We are in the process of living it.

Instinct

http://www.aurobindo.ru/workings/satprem/my_burning_heart_e.htm#048

Anurag Banerjee's Interview on Sujata And Satprem

On Satprem and Sujata

An Interview By Anurag Banerjee

On the occasion of the second death anniversary of Satprem and Sujata Nahar, I had interviewed Nirmal Singh Nahar in which he had shared his reminiscences about them. What follows are the questions I had put to him:

What are your earliest recollections of Satprem? How and when did you meet him?

When Charles François Marie Baron came to Pondicherry as its Governor Satprem, who was then known as Bernard, was the First Secretary to the Governor and Information Officer. Just next to the Government House there was an annexe where Satprem’s office was situated. He was a chain-smoker at that time and charminar was his preferred brand. During that time as a journalist I was introduced to him. In 1964 when I went to Pondicherry for the first time after 1951, I was re-introduced to him by Sujata. At that time the Mother was regularly giving him interviews; he was recording her conversations which later became Mother’s Agenda. After the Mother left her body Pranab said certain things which were absolutely rubbish because in Mother’s Agenda, there were certain instructions related to the Mother’s cataleptic trance which might look like death. Since I used to go to the Samadhi regularly I could hear Pranab saying, “This happened to the Mother, that happened to the Mother” and so on. This was soon after the Mother’s passing away. I don’t exactly recall what he had said in detail but I had informed Satprem what Pranab was saying as Satprem wanted to know about it. At that time Satprem, Sujata and I used to go to the beach for a walk. Afterwards when Satprem and Sujata went to Nandanam—Deer House—we used to meet there. What happened next is known to all. They left Pondicherry and started living at Kotagiri. At Kotagiri I met him a couple of times. I have stayed there for a few days as well

During the period between 1964 and 1973 when the Mother was speaking about her sadhana and was telling Satprem about the development of his own sadhana, did you interact with him regarding the nature of the yoga he was doing?

No, I was unaware of any details. This was because I was not interested. I didn’t even know what Sujata was doing. I was busy with my life and so were they with theirs. I also didn’t know that Abhay Singh [his youngest brother and an Ashramite since 1940] was in-charge of so many departments of the Ashram. I knew that he was looking after the Workshop mainly.

Was the Agenda the sole reason for the conflict between the Trustees and Satprem?

Yes, because there are a few adverse comments made by the Mother on the Trustees in the Agenda particularly on Navajata. All these comments they wanted to edit and Satprem had strong objection about it. He argued that not a single line of what the Mother had said should be edited. And this is all recorded in the cassettes and still it is available in the Mother’s voice. So the question of superimposing anything on the Mother’s Agenda does not arise.

Was Sujata-di also expelled with Satprem?

No, Sujata was not expelled. Only Satprem was expelled.

But did anyone in the Ashram protest when Satprem was expelled?

Many had protested but I don’t know who they were. But the main protest came from Sir C.P.N. Singh. Abhay Singh knew who among the Ashramites had protested.

But what about the confidants of the Mother like Nolini Kanta Gupta, M.P. Pandit who knew Satprem well? Did they also remain mum?

Neither M.P. Pandit nor Nolini-da were the Mother’s confidants at that time. Only Pranab was the sole in-charge. All the others were mere puppets. Even the Mother’s son André was dictated by Pranab what-to-do and what-not-do and he obeyed. No one could utter a single word in front of him. It was only when all the preparations were complete and a new dress was put on the Mother that Nolini-da was informed of the Mother’s passing away. There was no scope for anyone to do anything. When Satprem asked the people to take the Mother’s body back to her room no one listened to him. Pranab could never tolerate Satprem. Nolini-da too couldn’t say anything. Pranab had told very clearly that he didn’t want to listen to anything. It is recorded in the cassette. [See Mother’s Agenda, Volume XIII, 7 April 1973]

Tell us about their life from 1978 onwards, that is, after they settled at Kotagiri

.

Initially, we had no contacts for several years. I started visiting them after many years. Sometimes I used to receive Sujata’s letters. Satprem didn’t write. Only when he sent me books did he pen a line in them. I started visiting probably from the 1980s or 1990s. I didn’t go straight to Kotagiri. I went to Coimbatore and Sujata came there with Micheline for a few hours. Then once I went to Mysore with my wife and stayed there for two days; then we proceeded to Pondicherry. And subsequently it was like this that we used to go to Pondicherry every year and on our way back we used to go to Kotagiri and from Kotagiri back to Calcutta. In those days Satprem used to tell me about his sadhana and the difficulties he was facing. He was very much perturbed to see the deteriorating political scene of India. And he always insisted that this has to be broken completely, shattered like this [gesture of hitting the left palm with the right fist]. Three or four years before his passing away, since he was not keeping well we were advised not to go there because Sujata used to look after him and she could not assign any time to anything else.

The family members of Monsieur Baron used to come to meet Satprem. He was held in high esteem by them. He was highly respected in France. After his leaving the body, France and other European countries gave a lot of publicity to him but no publicity was given in India.

What sort of difficulties did Satprem face in his sadhana?

The same type of trouble that the Mother used to face.

And how did he conquer them?

That I do not know.

Didn’t he reveal it?

No.

Did Satprem face any difficulties from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram after leaving it?

Oh, yes. They had a spy system. As it is revealed in the Notebooks [Notebooks of an Apocalypse], he was in Dehradun and the notice of his expulsion was served to him when nobody was supposed to know that he was there. For several years Satprem and Sujata stayed in France, they went to America also. After coming to Kotagiri, the reports revealed that they were in Kotagiri. It was known to J.R.D. Tata, C.P.N. Singh and few others who became the Trustees of Mother’s Institute of Research in Delhi.

How did you witness the development of Satprem’s sadhana?

He was always in deep concentration. Sometimes he would walk with his hand resting on my shoulder for support but most of the time it was Sujata who supported him. This was because he was unable to take care of himself. He was not aware of his physical well being. And sometimes he used to sit on the doorstep; we used to sit there and he used to talk or simply meditate. Near a bush in the lawn of their house was a small Shiva-lingam which he used to worship regularly. And there was an idol of Ganesha at the entrance; everyday in the morning he used to go and offer some flowers to it.

In 2006 Satprem had sent a note to Kireet Joshi in which he wrote: “I have reached the goal.” What was the goal that he referred to? Was it the completion of the process of physical transformation or fixation of the supramental consciousness into his physical consciousness?

That I don’t know. Previously also he wrote to me that he had achieved the goal. What I know is that the supramental Light had come into his body. In his entire body there was a peculiar radiance. That I’ve observed. The way he used to walk showed he had no physical knowledge about his own body that’s why Sujata had to look after him.

Tell us something about Sujata-di’s sadhana?

Sujata was very silent about her sadhana. She had reached a very high level in sadhana. But she never revealed it except what she had said in her private conversations. She would narrate some of her experiences and those revealed that she had reached a very high level. We could understand that her consciousness was on a very high level. The supramental consciousness was present in her but she used to live in such a simple manner and she could adjust herself so well that it had to be seen to be believed. She had profound compassion and that used to come out.

In November 2006 I had received a letter from Sujata-di in which she wrote about Satprem: “He is deep in his new experiences…as he follows the footsteps of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.” But within five months we learned about the passing away of Satprem followed by Sujata-di. Please tell us what you know about their last days.

Satprem did not fall ill. He had completely lost consciousness about his physical being. He himself didn’t know what he was doing. That’s why Sujata had to look after him day and night because the condition was very intense for the last six months before he passed away. Sujata didn’t have even a wink of sleep. If she had gone to bed at night, suddenly Satprem called out “Ma Douce” (my dear) so naturally she had to look after him constantly. Gradually her health deteriorated and she too became bed-ridden. According to my nephew Pratip who saw her before her death she was not in a condition even to be moved to a hospital and she was not very conscious. My sister Suprabha and Pratip were the last ones whom she spoke to.

Didn’t you have a talk with her?

No, we didn’t have a talk. Almost a month and a half before Sujata passed away, when I had rung her up accidentally she had answered the telephone. That was the last time we spoke to each other. We just exchanged pleasantries. Before she left her body she was in a semi-conscious state for several days. I was in Palitana at that time. I used to ring up everyday and inquire about her health. I returned to Calcutta on 3 May 2007. Next day in the morning Suprabha told me that Sujata had left.

What happened to the mortal remains of Satprem and Sujata-di?

In Land’s End, that is, in the lawn of their house at Kotagiri, both Satprem and Sujata were buried side-by-side near the bush where the Shiva-lingam was placed.

Tell us something about the role Sujata-di had played in the sadhana of Satprem.

In one sentence I can say: Without Sujata Satprem was incomplete. And without Satprem Sujata would not have perhaps achieved so much. Basically Sujata had a beautiful soul since her childhood which developed under the Mother and Pavitra and then it bloomed in the company of Satprem.

ADDENDUM

What follows is a brief description of the last days of Satprem and Sujata Nahar that was reported to me by Shrimati Suprabha Nahar, youngest sister of Sujata Nahar and Shri Kireet Joshi:

Two months before Satprem left his body he had said: “The work is done.” His end came on the morning of Monday 9th April 2007. The last word he uttered while taking his breakfast was: “MA.” He was helped by the lady who looked after him and Sujata Nahar to get up from the bed and sit on the sofa kept near the cot. When she went to remove the curtains so that the morning light could enter the room, she heard two guttural sounds. She came to Satprem and saw that he had left his body in the sitting position with one eye closed and the other eye looking at a photograph of Sri Aurobindo. The following night his body was laid to rest in his garden.

Sujata Nahar was already bed-ridden when Satprem left his body. She had stopped talking and would only indicate whether she would take the liquid food or not that was given to her. Occasionally she called: “Ma, Ma.” On 4 May 2007, exactly twenty five days after the physical departure of Satprem, she was reading a passage from Mother’s Agenda (20 April 1966, re: Anousuya’s demise). Afterwards she was given some water to drink which she took and soon after she left her body.

***

Nirmal Singh Nahar belongs to the Swetambar Murtipujak Oswal Jain sect. Born on 28 July 1922, he is the fourth son of Prithwi Singh Nahar and elder brother of Sujata Nahar. He received his early education at Santiniketan where he stayed with his family from 1929 to 1935. He did his schooling from South Subarban Branch School where he was initiated to the student movement. He raised the national flag in the school building and as a result he was transferred to South Subarban Main School where along with other students he raised funds for flood relief work and handed the money to Subhash Chandra Bose. In 1943 he joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and worked in the Cazanove garden where he started rice cultivation till 1946; then he joined the Book Sales Department of the Ashram. In 1947 he joined Reuters Associated Press of India and Press Trust of India as their special correspondent. In 1951 he left the Ashram when he was declared a persona non grata by French India Government and an arrest warrant was issued for exposing French misrule in India as a journalist. He joined the Bengali daily Jana Sevak as its chief reporter after returning to Calcutta. In 1964 he promoted Haldia Scooter Project in collaboration with Armachie Harley-Davidson SPA, an Italian firm. He is a member of Governing Council of All India Sri Swetambar Murtipujak Jain Tirth Raksha Trust and The Mother’s Institute of Research (New Delhi). He was also a Founder-member of Sri Aurobindo Bhavan (Calcutta) and a member of West Bengal State Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Celebration Committee in 1971. He is also the author of the book Sri Aurobindo: His Birth Place.

Ungrateful India

"Apart from the odd item buried somewhere in the papers, there will be little on Sri Aurobindo on 15th August, though 15th August happens to be his birthday. 
source: http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/policypuzzles/entry/let-us-not-only-sing-but-also-read

In your scheme of things do you definitely see a free India? You have stated that for the spreading of spirituality in the world India must be free. I suppose you must be working for it! You are the only one who can do something really effective by the use of your spiritual Force.

 

That is all settled. It is a question of working out only. The question is what is India going to do with her independence? The above kind of affair? Bolshevism? Goonda-raj? Things look ominous.

16 September 1935

 

source:http://www.motherandsriaurobindo.org/Content.aspx?ContentURL=/_staticcontent/sriaurobindoashram/-09%20e-library/-01%20works%20of%20sri%20aurobindo/-01%20English/-03_CWSA/-35_Letters%20On%20Himself%20And%20The%20Ashram/-20_Remarks%20on%20Indian%20Affairs%201930%20%C2%AD%201946.htm

 

Return of the goonda raj in Akhilesh Yadav's Uttar Pradesh

READ MORE GOONDA RAJ

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/uttar-pradesh-goonds-raj-samajwadi-party/1/183704.html