The Mother Agenda August 14,1962

There's a fellow (he's neither young nor old) who has been living for twenty-five straight years at one of the sources of the Ganges, in a small cave carved into the mountainside – a tiny, bare space, an earth floor and a tiger skin. He sits on the tiger skin stark naked, without a stitch, naked as a newborn babe, in the dead of winter as well as in summer – outside everything is covered with snow. He eats... sometimes passers-by bring him fruit, which he dries in the sun, then puts into water and drinks. That's all. He hasn't once left there in twenty-five years.

One of our children, V., a courageous boy, went up there all by himself. In winter it's completely isolated, there's nothing nearby. It was May and still frightfully cold, it seems, snow still covered the ground. And the man was sitting there stark naked as though it were perfectly natural! He even asked the boy, “Do you want to spend the night here?...” That was a bit too much!

Anyway, V. went there, sat down next to him, and after a while the man went into a sort of trance and began to tell V. about his life (the boy's life, not his own!). So V. was interested and wanted to know more. “Where do I come from?” he asked. The man answered, “Oh, from an ashram by the sea... the sea is there.” Then he began to speak (I must mention that outwardly he knew nothing about Sri Aurobindo or me or the Ashram, absolutely nothing at all), and he told V. that a “great sage” and “the Mother” were there, and that they wanted to do something on earth that had never been done before – something very difficult. Then, I don't know whether he mentioned I was alone now (I have no idea), but he said, “Oh, she has had to withdraw² because the people around her don't understand and... life there has become very difficult. It will be very difficult until 1964.”

Perhaps he was reading the boy's mind (I don't know), but not his conscious mind. And he said several times, “They want to do something that has never been done before, it's very difficult – very difficult – and that's why they came, to do that.”

I learned about this two days ago. It interested me: “Something never done before, something entirely new.” ³

There were many other things, but it seems he speaks a particular Hindi which is very hard to understand. But this was quite clear, and he said it several times.

It interested me.

And that's really it, that's what Sri Aurobindo came for, and what I came for. And that's what was present above my head when I was quite young: something new and very difficult (Mother smiles). Very difficult.

It seems he said that if we could make it to 1964, afterwards the difficulties would disappear. (But this is a very strong formation – what did he pick up? Is it Sri Aurobindo's formation? Is it the boy's thought, or what?...) But he's a wonderful mind-reader; he must have a marvelous power of vision in the mental world.

It really amused me. If you asked... if you asked people here, not too many would have such a clear idea: “They have come to do something entirely new and very difficult.”

It's lovely.

Voilà, petit.
 http://www.aurobindo.ru/workings/ma/agenda_03/1962-08-14-01_e.htm