Sri Aurobindo And Lao Tse

On both occasions when Paul Brunton saw you, he had the
impression of you as a Chinese sage. In the early days of my
stay here, you struck me as a king of Hungarian gypsies! And
when I say Hungarian, I mean the Magyar element which I
suppose has mid-Asiatic characteristics. Do these ideas point
to some occult truth or some outstanding fact of previous
birth?

Confucius? Lao-Tse? Mencius? Hang-whang-pu? (Don’t know
who the last was, but his name sounds nice.) Can’t remember
anything about it. As for the Hungarian gypsy, I suppose we
must have been everything at one time or another, on this earth
in some other cycle. But I am not aware of any particularly
Magyar or Chinese element in me. However, when I came here,
Iwas told I looked just like a Tamil sannyasi and some Christians
said I was just like Christ. So it may be.
More seriously, Brunton seems to have thought I was Lao-
Tse. Maybe, I can’t say it is impossible.
 7 December 1936
source:http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Letters-On-Himself-And-The-Ashram.pdf

The Mysterious Night

From the kindled fire of Energy of Consciousness Truth was
born and the Law of Truth; from that the Night, from the
Night the flowing ocean of being. Rig Veda.1

[Yusufali 16:12] We have made the Night and the Day as two (of Our) Signs: the Sign of the Night have We obscured, while the Sign of the Day We have made to enlighten you; that ye may seek bounty from your Lord, and that ye may know the number and count of the years: all things have We explained in detail-the quran.

[Yusufali 17:1] We have indeed revealed this (Message) in the Night of Power:-the quran


[Yusufali 73:2] And what will explain to thee what the night of power is?-the quran

Chapter XIII
Exclusive Concentration
of Consciousness-Force
and the Ignorance
 (Source:Sri Aurobindo Life Divine)


 "....In the infinity of being and its infinite awareness concentration
of consciousness, Tapas, is always present as an inherent
power of Consciousness-Force: it is a self-held or self-gathered
dwelling of the eternal Awareness in itself and on itself or on its
object; but the object is always in some way itself, its own being
or a manifestation and movement of its being. The concentration
may be essential; it may be even a sole indwelling or an entire
absorption in the essence of its own being, a luminous or else a
self-oblivious self-immersion. Or it may be an integral or else a
total-multiple or a part-multiple concentration. Or it may be a
single separative regard on one field of its being or movement a
 single-pointed concentration in one centre or an absorption in
one objective form of its self-existence. The first, the essential,
is at one end the superconscient Silence and at the other end the
Inconscience; the second, the integral, is the total consciousness
of Sachchidananda, the supramental concentration; the third,
the multiple, is the method of the totalising or global overmental
awareness; the fourth, the separative, is the characteristic nature
of the Ignorance. The supreme integrality of the Absolute holds
all these states or powers of its consciousness together as a single
indivisible being looking at all itself in manifestation with a
simultaneous self-vision..."

The healer part2

September 27, 1969

(A.R., the healer, enters; Mother gives him a red rose.)

(A.R.:) Thank you ... I come to you as a child thirsting and hungering for Truth, Justice, and the Knowledge of spiritual laws. Please give me this nourishment that is the knowledge of the laws, so I may serve the Divine in the most perfect universal Harmony.

(silence)

(To Satprem:) Did you tell him that I don't speak?

(Satprem to A.R.:) Mother doesn't speak.

If he has something to say, he can do so.

(Satprem:) What is the central question that preoccupies you?

(A.R.:) The central question ... The central question for me, with regard to past experiences, is to understand the Law - to understand it perfectly, not imperfectly, that is, not empirically, so that by fulfilling the conditions of the Law, we may re-create the same phenomena.

<351>

(Satprem:) You spoke of a "block" somewhere?

(A.R.:) Yes, exactly, the block is just that .... Ill give an image: when you know a law perfectly, you can't be in breach of the law; but if you know it imperfectly, you risk a fine at any moment.

(Satprem:) Mother, it's the knowledge of the Law that he would like to have, so as not to make any mistake.

But I don't know any "law"! ... I don't know what he calls the "law" - I don't know any laws.

(Satprem to A.R.:) What do you call the "law"?

(A.R.:) The Law ... I think that if in deep meditation one realizes union with the Divine according to the right rules, every time you have the same meditation for the same cause, you must certainly obtain the same result.

In the manifestation, no two minutes are alike, it's a continuous movement; so when you come into contact with the Divine, what you collaborate with is the Truth of that Movement. That's probably what he calls "the Law."

(A.R.:) That's right.

In the manifestation, it's the Consciousness that expresses itself. And if you identify with it, this Supreme Consciousness, this Divine Consciousness is what makes you act. But as I understand it, the "law" he refers to is a mentalization of this Movement, and that's not necessary - what's necessary is the IDENTIFICATION of the consciousness .... It's a question of words.

(A.R.:) Exactly, I fully agree with Mother. But the problem remains in spite of this explanation. The question mark subsists, because, of course, I've had numerous opportunities to experiment with it - it's something I frequently realize-and yet the results are different, I mean that one doesn't get the result one <352> might have hoped for, which seems (I say, seems) really normal in the circumstances.

(Satprem to A.R.:) You mean, when you want to cure someone?

(A.R.:) Yes, that's it.

(Satprem to Mother:) Mother, he says that when he wants to heal, for instance, there aren't two systems, there's only one: he goes into a deep, intimate communion with the Divine, and lets That come through ....

Yes, that's right.

(Satprem:) So he wonders why, in certain cases, the result isn't obtained?

But that's because on the supreme level it's decided that it shouldn't be obtained! It's a partial consciousness that has the idea that whatever he does, the result should always be the same, but it's not like that!

(Satprem to A.R.:) Yes, it's not like that. It's a partial consciousness that tells you there must be a result, but in the total Consciousness ...

(A.R.:) I had always taken it like that too, but I wanted a confirmation of it.

(Satprem to Mother:) That's how he had taken it, but he wanted a confirmation. Because, for example, he has the case of a man whom he knows intimately and who has become a paralytic. He put all his heart into curing him, and he says he feels the Forces entering this man, he finds him receptive ...

But he isn't cured.

(Satprem:) He isn't cured. He has even given me the photo of the man, and he'd like to understand why, in this instance, he doesn't get cured.

(Mother looks at the photo) <353>

Does this man have faith?

(A.R.:) Well, in the beginning he didn't, but his faith has been growing.

It's because for everyone, what happens is the BEST thing to lead his individuality towards the goal - the goal of consciousness - and if he has faith, the action takes place in an even more precise way, and, we might say, even more rapidly. So in this case, it would mean that his paralysis helps him go faster towards his goal.

(A.R.:) Thank you.

(meditation)

Has he anything to ask?

(A.R.:) Yes, Id like to ask if you think it's good to carry on with this path of healing?

Oh, yes!

(A.R.:) Do you think it's a momentary limitation?

It's not a limitation, even the pettiest work isn't a limitation! It's only a means of expression; but it doesn't limit the possibility, that is to say, if one is capable of doing a general Work, it goes on CONSTANTLY, without a material occupation. I mean that the real Work is done like this (radiating gesture), in silence.

(A.R.:) Thank you.

(Mother gives a photo and A.R. leaves)

I don't know ... since the day before yesterday, when I saw him, the whole body has been very, very much shaken. I mean, difficult to eat, all kinds of things .... I feel it's an acceleration of the Work, but ... There's a strange (what should I call it?) ... fatigue. You see, I never used to use my head, it was always full of Light, and I could do anything without getting tired - but it's as if this Light within (Mother points to her head) had gone. So the head is painful. It's empty, it hurts. And ... I don't know ... maybe it's an acceleration <354> of the transformation - that's how I TAKE it, you understand - but it's difficult.

He speaks of it, too, he speaks of this transformation "from the tips of the toes to the roots of the hair," as he says, and he wants it to go fast.

Yes, it must be that.

(Mother goes into a meditation)

And how are you?

I am better now than before.

Ah, better ... It did you good?

To the body, yes. I don't know, when my body is near him, it's full of energy ... But this man is fine, Mother, isn't he?

I don't know how to put it .... My only contact with him is a receptivity: he takes and takes and takes, absorbs and absorbs and absorbs ....
But I don't at all feel that he draws anything from here (Mother points to her body or to herself), it's ... I might say there's the Presence (vast gesture everywhere), and so it's all the time like that. But what I am wondering about is why my body is in this state? ... I told you, I WANT to take it like that, as an acceleration of the work, and it seems to be true, but ... it's very difficult. You see, for months and months and months, the work never used to tire me; now, all of a sudden, I'll feel exhausted - the body It has difficulty eating, and a constant impression ... of nausea. At the same time, if I concentrate and am careful, I feel the Presence as usual. But as I said, all this (Mother points to her head) is empty - almost painfully empty.

(silence)

Not at all, not at all the sensation of something that shouldn't be here or that I should reject - absolutely not. The consciousness is like this (immutable gesture). So I say to myself that it may be that instead of following this body's natural rhythm, the Movement is hastened. <355>

When I asked him your question, whether seeing you made a difference between before and after, he added this (with great simplicity, moreover): "It must make a difference for Mother too.

(after a silence)

I constantly feel nauseous, which points to the insufficiency of material forces.

But that's strange, because in my case, when my body is near him, it's full of energy.

Yes, that's right, and that's why I am asking you. So it would really be a hastening in the work of transformation.

To such a point that the first time, I had so much energy that I didn't sleep all night!

Yes ... I don't know ... it must be that.

(Mother remains "pensive") <356>

@

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The healer

September 24, 1969

So did you see this healer?

Yes, I saw him. <345>

Tell me.

I am very much struck, I must say. First of all, to put things physically, the first time I saw him, I remained with him for three and a half hours-he didn't stop talking ....

Oh!

But the extraordinary thing is that usually, when I am with people, after half an hour I am exhausted - after three and a half hours (I didn't budge, didn't stop looking at him), I was as fresh as a daisy! And so full of energy that I didn't sleep the whole night! And I spent three and a half hours listening to this man .... Yesterday evening (I was tired, Id had a rather heavy day), I spent only half an hour chatting with him - I was as fresh as a daisy.

Oh, but he's first-rate!

I was quite fresh, as I am not after resting .... But Id like to mention one thing: I saw him BEFORE he came to Pondicherry. The day he reached Bombay, I had a sort of vision I didn't understand: I saw an enormous white horse, huge, but massive, like an enormous plough horse: not beautiful, but with an awesome massive power. A huge white horse. And when I saw him here, I thought, "But here's my white horse!"

Yes, surely.

A plough animal, you know, not beautiful but awesome.

And what does he say?

He's come here with a question-not a mental one .... But I should perhaps tell you the stages of his discovery. As you know, he discovered experimentally on himself what was going on. So he sought to understand: he bought books, went to see so-called "healers." The first people who taught him were "Spiritualists." They told him, "Use a pendulum." He used a pendulum to detect diseases, and it worked very well. Then, after a time, he thought, "But this isn't reality." And then his Pendulum stopped working! Afterwards, he went to see someone else, who told him, "But you <346> should do magnetic passes." He was taught how to do it, and it worked very well: with his fingers he could feel the organs that were out of harmony (because, for him, the key word is "Harmony" or "disharmony"). Then, after a while, he said to himself, "But this isn't reality either." And nothing worked anymore.

Oh, it's very interesting!

He thought, "But I have nothing left, neither a pendulum nor my hands nor anything ...." And all of a sudden he had a revelation: "You have nothing left because you no longer need anything!" Then he began, and he noticed that when his thought met with someone's thought or call, it was done in a split second. For instance, one day a woman sent him a wire in Paris: she had given birth and had a torn perineum. He got the wire, thought, and said, "She's cured." The next morning he went and saw her: the perineum had healed .... Another extraordinary case: a woman was dying in the fifth month of her pregnancy, dying of meningeal tuberculosis. The hospital was helpless, they brought her home. In reality, she didn't want her child. He went and saw her several times, and one day, she had terrible convulsions and died in his arms. Then, he says, "I had a sort of prayer at the bottom of my heart, I said, 'But this woman hasn't followed the law of love, it's right that she should die, but why should this child in her die? ... '" He had a sort of prayer. And five minutes later, the woman came back to life in his arms. She opened her eyes and said, "I am cured." She was indeed cured, but unable to move anymore. Two weeks later, she gave birth to a child, who was not only normal but viable and full-grown, which means that in those fifteen days, the gestation had accelerated and the child was just as full-grown as a nine-month-old child ....

Five months old ...

Yes. Then the woman died the day after giving birth, and the child is now seventeen, I think .... He told me, "That's how it is: there is NO' power,' it doesn't exist - there is That, the Harmony; everyone has the capacity to call this Harmony, and It acts. And It acts in a second, instantly .... But then, he told me, "Here is my question" (as far as I can express what he said) .... Basically, he is aware of quite an extraordinary Power-though I should say I didn't feel a shadow of ego in this man, there's no trace of <347 ego .... He read my book, but that didn't teach him things, it only confirmed some experiences .... This man spoke to me for more than three hours, and apart from you and Sri Aurobindo, I have heard no one speak like him. It was a sage who spoke, a living experience that sprang forth, there wasn't one thing he said you wouldn't subscribe to: those "great Forces of Harmony" that must be embodied on earth, brought down on earth ... It was really a sage who spoke, and those were your words, Sri Aurobindo's words.

That's what A. told me; the first day when he received him, he told me, "I thought I was listening to you or to Sri Aurobindo!"

But the surprising thing is that when he spoke to me, it wasn't his mind that spoke: it was a living experience that sprang forth, that's what was extraordinary! ... He said, "I have the experience of the transformation, the experience of cellular regeneration .... I know from experience that there is intelligence, there is divinity deep down in the cells - I know all that, but it has to be embodied. Something has to be done." So here's his question ....

What does he want to know?

He is conscious of this Power, but he says one needs to have the TOTAL vision, the vision of TOTAL Harmony. Because, he says, it's all an equilibrium, a wonderful harmony, and we mustn't cause any disequilibrium, we must obey the Law, follow the Law of Harmony, but it's a TOTAL Law, of course, and we mustn't make any mistake. "I need the total vision," he says. "Take the Ashram: it's a center of light where there is total harmony; then there's a circle around it, Pondicherry, which is already darker ...

Very dark!

" ... and less receptive; so you can't bring the Ashram's law into that obscurity without causing a disequilibrium; you can only bring part of it, or something that can be adapted to that darkness. Then there is a third, still darker circle, to which it's still harder to apply the law of total Harmony-so how to find out what one has to do depending on the particular point? How to know the right law, the total law? ..." He says, "I don't want to cause any disequilibrium, I want to obey the Law ..... <348>

A. told me you asked to come with him on Saturday?

It's not that I asked, I just thought it might be interesting for him to try and put himself his question to you.

The interesting thing would be to know what he feels when he sees me. [[This is precisely what was going to be a revelation for Satprem and a decisive turning point in his own understanding of Mother. ]] That would be interesting .... I'll see him tomorrow the first time, but it would be good if you brought him on Saturday. I don't think he'll speak tomorrow.

I told him, "Mother doesn't speak." He said, "But of course! It's not words I need, expressing is useless; what I want is the vibration, the experience." He understands silence very well.

Then we'll see. In that case the result might come on Saturday.

Because it would be interesting if in front of you he tried to formulate his question outwardly ... He understands quite well that evolution has reached a point where things must accelerate and those Forces of Harmony must be brought into the world, but basically, he feels such a power in him that he wouldn't want to act arbitrarily: he wouldn't want to "break the equilibrium," but to "follow the Law." And for that, total vision is needed .... He told me, "The miracles Christ worked, for instance (there is no such thing as 'miracles,' by the way), all that I can do, but if I did it, with the means of communication of modern science, it would immediately be known the world over, and something of that sort could strike a 'great blow' to the ordinary mind which only believes in the truths of matter." He asks, "That would be a means of action, but should I do that? ..." His problem is one of action ....

What is he doing now?

Right now, for three days he has been fasting; he's stopped eating. He said, "I'll go and see Mother like this, without having taken any food." So for three days he has been taking nothing but water ... The wonderful thing is that there isn't an atom of mentalization, it's all an experience that springs forth. And all that you've said, all that Sri Aurobindo said, he has experienced ....

<349>

He is conscious of the "Moment" in the History of the earth, he feels all that. So he wants to participate in the Work.

(after a silence)

What is it that speaks in him, then? Is it his mind or his physical mind?

I think he's inspired. Because the first day, when I spent three hours and a half with him, the first hour (he's very slow to get started), it took a long time, he was groping for words, trying to express himself clearly. Later on, I tried to drive him into his experience, and it started flowing. What he said was beautiful, it sprang forth like that, spontaneously. It was really inspired .... And at the same time, so moved, because for the first time in his life he can talk about these things with people who understand him. He told me, "No one understands me - but here, everyone understands me." So it comes out, it springs forth.

I'll see him tomorrow. But I think it would be better to tell him it's only a first contact and won't last long, because tomorrow I have a list long like this - every day it's the same! And on Saturday he'll come back with you, he'll stay for some more time.

(long silence)

How old is he? Do you know the year of his birth?

No, Mother, he must be about sixty-five. [[He was born in April, 1904. ]]

How old was he when he noticed that?

He noticed it when he very nearly died, that is when he was about forty-five.

Oh, as late as that!

When he was at a complete loss, he was cured in twenty minutes; so that suddenly started him off in quest of the True Thing.

<350>
So some twenty years ago ....
Did he tell you in which year it happened?

No, but I can ask him.

Ask him. [[In fact this power had been there ever since he was born, for his diseased mother noticed that her suffering increased when he was not present, and decreased when he was at home. He is the thirteenth child in a family of peasants. ]]

So, to sum up his question: "To accelerate the movement without causing any disequilibrium," and "to apply the Law without making any mistake" - that's what he wants.

@

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ISBN 2-902776-33-0

Sri Aurobindo : The Synthesis of Yoga

This index page has been copied from the website intyoga.online.fr, which has much more extensive information about the chronology and other details, but not the book itself.
This book used to be available on a "Webserver for Integral Yoga", which is no longer accessible. Fortunately, I found a copy that I downloaded long ago. I present that version. There are many typographic errors. Please point them out as you find them, so I can fix them.
- Sai Susarla.






Read it here

MOTHER OF LOVE

Sin is a trick and a disguise of Krishna to conceal Himself from the gaze of the virtuous

April 22, 1970

So, have you brought questions?

(Laughing) No!

And you?

(silence)

Outwardly, sick people, difficulties, complications.... Very difficult ... very difficult... It has almost come to look like a relentless fury.
The only thing is Sri Aurobindos Aphorisms, which are more and more amusing. Have you received them?

(Satprem reads)

483 - Sin is a trick and a disguise of Krishna to conceal Himself from the gaze of the virtuous. Behold, O Pharisee, God in the sinner, sin in thyself purifying thy heart; clasp thy brother.

"Sin in thy heart," it looks like ... Isn't it a joke? Is the word "sinning" or "fishing"?! [[The two words are similar in French (pécher, to sin, and pêcher, to fish). ]]

It's "sinning"!

In French, it's hard to distinguish!

But this one is wonderful:

482 - My lover took away my robe of sin ...

Oh, yes, it's wonderful! And when he takes away the robe of virtue!...

... and I let it fall, rejoicing; then he plucked at my robe of virtue, but I was ashamed and alarmed and prevented him. It was not till he wrested it from me by force that I saw how my soul had been hidden from me.

Ah, that's admirable. Admirable.
But T. [a disciple who asks "questions" on the Aphorisms] sends me four or five of them at one go, without space to answer each ... so I only answer the last one!
It would be good to say, "Let our robe of virtue fall so we may be ready for the Truth."
That's one of the things being constantly done - oh, it's been like that for a long time, it's a long time since the body has been free from this illusion of sin and virtue, a long time. It finds it quite ... quite ridiculous!
And then, in the contact with people ... I hardly know who the people I see are (just about), so I see them without a thought, you understand, as they are, and AFTERWARDS I ask, or I am told about them, and ... (laughing) I realize that most of the time, if a contact is made (when I see them, a contact is made, a receptivity), it's with the people most scorned by others, people who outwardly behave like real boors! Just recently again I had an experience like that.
One of the things hardest to bear is obviously self-righteous indignation. You know, people tell me what's going on (everyone tells me some story), and the vibrations hardest to bear, those that cause a ... (gesture of unpleasant friction) are those of self-righteous indignation.
Now, I have to say one thing: when people come to see me (people whom I don't know, not those I see all the time), all those visitors, it's the best part of them that comes out. Several times I had contacts with people and the impression that something can be done, that they have a receptivity - and afterwards, those people misbehave, they cause disorder or trouble for others! But when they are in front of me, they're not the same. They feel it, they feel it's something else becoming active. But it's the Presence that ... compels; then they go away, and they behave very badly, they quarrel, they ... It's very difficult!
I see people from Auroville in rotation (once a week), in fact to try and work on this material, and it's really interesting (people I don't know: every time I am brought one or two or three new ones; some stay on, and others come in rotation). I said, "Those who want a bath of silence can come in turn," and not a word is spoken. It's really interesting. Well, there are people there who behave like ... and despite everything, they feel that what they are here is superior to what they are there. But the others would need to have a lot of patience!...

(silence)

What do you have to ask, or to say?... There is no need to "ask" - tell me something.

How can one make conscious contact with this subtle physical?

That, mon petit, I have no idea, because I never did it deliberately! (Mother laughs) It came on its own.
Now, very strangely, there are times when both are there, and then ... A good thing I keep quiet (it's only to you that I speak), otherwise people would surely say, "Mother is taking leave of her senses!" (laughter)
For instance, there is a region (I went there exclusively for a time, a few months - I don't remember, maybe a little more, maybe a year), a region where there are many scenes from Nature, like fields, gardens ... but all behind nets! There is a net of one color, another color ... And it has a meaning. Absolutely everything is behind a net, you are ... as if you moved about with nets. But it's not a single net, it depends: for its form and color the net depends on what's behind. And it is ... the means of communication. You understand, it's lucky I don't speak because they'd say I have taken leave of my senses! And I see that with my eyes open, during the day, can you imagine! So I'll see my room, for example - I'll be here, seeing people - and at the same time I'll see one landscape or another, and it all changes and moves about... with a net between me and the landscapes, like that.... The net seems to be ... (how can I explain?) what separates this subtle physical from the ordinary physical. But what does this net represent? I don't know... You see, there is no mentalization, there are no explanations, there's no thought, no reasoning, all that is clearly done away with. So, in fact, I see ...
The sensation isn't the same either. Our way of feeling on the physical level isn't there, it doesn't work that way.... It's more like a sense of proximity or non-communication, or indifference; but things belonging to the indifferent world do not show themselves when the dual vision is there.

(silence)

Nights are very peculiar. And precisely because all that isn't mentalized, it's hardly possible to describe or explain.... But this subtle physical very concretely has the sense or feeling or perception (I don't know) of the divine Presence - the divine Presence in all things, everywhere. So then, this body is ... one might say, partly this way and partly that way (gesture of oscillation between two worlds).... That was one thing I asked this morning: how (the body asked itself), why, how, how is it that, having this divine perception almost constantly (because, as I told you, that consciousness is in the process of being established), how is it that the body feels this anguish? - It lives in a sort of constant anguish. So what's that anguish?... And there are no explanations or ... But just when it asked that, there was something like Sri Aurobindo's manner, so full of humor, as if it were he (but not visible), telling me, "Look carefully: in this anguish, there is Bliss." And this morning, I was sitting on my bed about to get up, and there was this kind of ... I can't call it suffering, but ... it would be more like a discomfort, I don't know, as if at the thought of the whole day ahead (but "thought," it's not a thought: it's as if the day were weighing down), and while I was feeling that discomfort (I had to make an effort to get up and resume activity), at the same time, there was something laughing deep down, all the way down, and saying, "But!..." And it was in bliss. But then, the body has been (that was part of its formation) very careful to maintain commonsense - not to go off its rocker.... You feel you are ... just on the borderline, you know: one very small movement like that, and ... (gesture of dissolution).
The body was used to commonsense, practical sense - and that, prrrt!... seems to be crumbling away So there is a sort of ... What saves the situation is that I say to myself (I SEE - I don't know how to explain - I see it's people's reaction: in front of this, people quite naturally feel you're taking leave of your senses), so I say to myself, "What do I care! What do I care what they think of me - whoever it may be, I couldn't care less." The body couldn't care less (it's been a long time since the rest stopped caring, but the body). Then I see in my memory certain expressions of Sri Aurobindo's, certain smiles in front of perfectly reasonable attitudes ... and the ridiculousness of those reasonable attitudes becomes patent. I live in that all the time.
It's ... (I don't know how to put it), it's like this (tight gesture, one hand pressed against the other): in one attitude (but not a willed, devised attitude, not that: its spontaneous), in one attitude, you are per-fect-ly at ease - everything is peaceful, normal; then, things remaining the same, there is beside that (not even beside, not inside or ... I don't know how to explain, it's simultaneous), there is ... a slight anguish. And that anguish is constant - maybe it's the anguish of a dying way of being, I don't know, but it makes for a strange situation.
But then, everything becomes simple when someone is there, receptive, that is, comes without thought, without ... simply like a sponge that absorbs. Then the Presence becomes concretely perceptible, quite so. Things are exactly the same, but the Presence is concrete and quite ... not only perceptible: it imposes itself. Then things come to a halt, there is a stabilization - and everything becomes perfect.
But it depends a lot - I mean, it STILL depends - on peoples receptivity... And these last few days, I've had the impression, or something like a perception, an impression of an AWESOME Power! The Power that would seem capable of bringing a dead man back to life, you know. An awesome Power that uses this [the body] without conscious identification, but quite, quite naturally, without ... as if there were no resistance. It's a natural state, and it's neither this nor that nor that, it's ... it's EVERYTHING (gesture showing an immense movement) which ... which acts according to circumstances.
Usually I don't say anything (it's the first time I've said that), because there is still a sort of memory of what was [in the past], something remaining conscious that if those things are said quite simply as they are, then ... the impression people would get ... I don't know. The body doesn't care, but something is watchful - I see that "something" as a person (whom I don't know, besides) watching over my body and over circumstances, and stopping me from doing certain things ... so there may be no catastrophes.
It's an impersonal person, I don't know; there's no personal relationship with it, but it's someone whose responsibility is to see to this body's well-being, and especially to its relations with others, because the body has reached the point where ... it really couldn't care less.
Some curious things. Some people are quite well-disposed and even, I might say, full of affection, of care, and ... I don't know, I can't explain, but certain things have to remain as they are and there should be nothing to disturb those people - but the body is quite unconcerned about that. The conscious, active being is turned only to the supreme Consciousness and exclusively concerned with doing what this Consciousness wants it to do, and so there are, as it were, people (or someone) whose responsibility is to see that things can be understood in the transitory state we are in. There. [[Seventeen years earlier, on 20 May 1953, in the course of a talk at the Ashram's Playground in front of the gathered disciples, Mother had asked this question: "Is it possible for one body to change without something changing in those around it? What will be your relationship with other objects if you have changed so much? Or with other beings?... It seems necessary for a totality of things to change, at least in certain relative proportions, so that one may exist, go on existing...." That may well be the whole problem. ]]

(silence)

But with people, when I am told about a circumstance, when someone (directly or through someone else) tells me some difficulty, some circumstance ... there comes the clear, precise vision of what needs to be done, and it doesn't correspond to any thought, nothing at all (once I have said it, generally I don't even remember what I have said). And downright practical: this must be done, that must not be done.
Ordinary life, the ordinary way is as if projected onto a screen (it's not at all within, it's ...), and constantly the disorder of ordinary life is as if shown - insubstantial, but perceptible. And if there were something [in Mother] still open to that, or even (let's put it very simply), if there is something still open, the result is a fact: a discomfort, or quite unpleasant things - more and more it's beginning to be unreal and unable to touch [Mother] ... but you can't be sure.
It's a life which, described in detail, would be absolutely the life of ... [a madman]. Luckily, I still appear to have some common-sense! (laughter)
But I don't talk about all that.

(At that precise moment, Satprem strongly had the following thought, which he almost told Mother: "If a caterpillar's vision were suddenly changed into a man's vision, it would clearly mean a bursting of its whole logic.")

(long silence)

And you (to Sujata), do you have something to say?

Very often, afterwards when I am in front of you, I feel...

I can't hear.

After Satprem leaves, I come and do my pranam. [[Generally, when Satprem leaves at the end of the conversation, Sujata remains alone with Mother for a few moments. ]] Then, in front of your gaze, my true inner being seems to come to the front.

Yes.

And curiously, I have the sensation of a force of... Do you know the Ganges, the goddess Ganga? I feel an affinity with her.

With the river?

With that goddess.

Well, that's strange!

(silence)

This identification [with the Ganges] is the power of vital plasticity. ... Probably there are in that way families of beings.

(Mother plunges in)

Do you get a special sensation when you have that? Do you feel something special?

(Sujata:) Right now, it's as if very interiorized, and at the same time with the inner being in front: both at the same time, like that.

Yes.

(Mother plunges in again)