23 March 1955 This talk is based upon Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, “Physical Consciousness, etc.”.                      Here Sri Aurobindo says: “As for the things in our nature that are thrown away from us by rejection but come back, it depends on where you throw them. Very often there is a sort of procedure about it.” What is this procedure, Sweet Mother? It is what he describes later. He explains afterwards that what is in the mind is thrown out into the vital, what is in the higher vital is thrown out into the lower vital, and what is in the lower vital is thrown out into the physical, and what is in the physical is thrown out into the subcons

27 April 1955*   This talk is based upon Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, “Physical Consciousness, etc.”. Sweet Mother, what is the difference between a sym- bolic dream and a vision? Usually one has a vision when one is not asleep, when one is awake. When one is awake and enters within oneself – whether in meditation or concentration – one has visions. Or at night you can't sleep… remain stretched out, remain quiet, don't sleep and you may have visions. Dreams come when one is asleep, that is, when one has no longer the waking consciousness; whereas in vision one is in the waking consciousness, but one quietens or immobilises it, and it is another more inner

9 March 1955 This talk is based upon Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5 “Physical Consciousness, etc.”. Sweet Mother, what is the meaning of “the psychic opening in the physical consciousness”? I think I have already told you this once. One can find the psychic through each part of the consciousness: you can find a psychic behind the physical… you can enter into contact with the psychic directly through the physical consciousness, directly through the vital consciousness, directly through the mental consciousness. It is not as though you had to cross all the states of being in order to find the psychic. You can enter the psychic without leaving your physical conscio

21 September 1955 Mother reads The Great Secret: The Writer. Sweet Mother, here it is written: “The word is suffi- ciently immaterial to be in contact with subtle things, forces and vibrations, principles and ideas.” My children, I have to tell you to begin with that this is “literature”. So you should not ask me for explanations. It is a literary way of speaking, you must understand it in a literary way; it is a literary description of the word; it is very precise, but it is literary. So I cannot produce literature on this literature. One must have the taste for forms, for a beautiful way of saying things, a little exceptional, not too banal; but i

5 October 1955         Mother reads The Great Secret: The Scientist. I had the intention of leaving out the last speeches and going straight to the answer of the Unknown Man. But... I shall tell you, because it didn't raise... it seemed to me that it didn't give rise to enough questions to justify all the time we would spend in reading it... but it happens that, for this one, “The Scientist”, someone who, by the way, is not here, has urgently asked two questions which seem interesting to me. So I shall read “The Scientist” today, and next week we shall directly take up “The Unknown Man”. (After Mother has read “The Scientist”, Pavitra gets ready to read the qu

-00_Publisher^s Note.htm Publisher's Note This volume contains the talks given by the Mother to the students, teachers and sadhaks of the Ashram in her "Wednesday Classes" of 1955. The classes generally began with a reading from one of her writings or her French translations of Sri Aurobindo's works. She then commented or answered questions on the texts or on other subjects. The talks of January 5 to May 11 are based upon Bases of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo, the talk of May 18 upon "TheProblem of Woman", an essay by the Mother, the talks of May 25 and June 1 upon "The Suprarational Beauty", Chapter 14 ofThe Human Cycle by Sri Aurobindo, the talks of September 14

31 August 1955        Mother reads from Lights on Yoga, “Work”. Sweet Mother, here I did not understand “One must have the same consciousness in inner experience and outward action and make both full of the Mother.” I haven't understood either.¹ Isn't there a clause of the sentence missing? I too haven't understood the structure of this sentence. (Mother turns to Pavitra) It seems to me that there's at least a word missing. (Pavitra) I shall verify it with the English on our return. No. It may be like this in English. I can imagine the English sentence, but in French it is not clear. (Mother takes up the book) Yes, it is right at the be

4 May 1955 This talk is based upon Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, “Physical Consciousness, etc.”. Sweet Mother, how can one draw on “the universal vital Force”? One can do it in many ways. First of all, you must know that it exists and that one can enter into contact with it. Secondly, you must try to make this contact, to feel it circulating everywhere, through everything, in all persons and all circumstances; to have this experience, for example, when you are in the countryside among trees, to see it circulating in the whole of Nature, in trees and things, and then commune with it, feel yourself close to it, and each time you want to deal with it, recall tha

3 August 1955        Mother reads from Lights on Yoga, “Surrender and Opening”. What is “the true life-activity”? It is to express the Divine. That is the very reason of existence and life, its truth and its sole true activity. Sweet Mother, here Sri Aurobindo has said “It is im- possible.” Why? For you have said that nothing is impossible! Nothing is impossible in principle. But if one refuses to do what is necessary, obviously one cannot succeed. In the material world there are conditions, otherwise it would not be what it is. If there were no conditions and processes, everything could be transformed and done miraculously. But eviden

9 November 1955 Mother reads from {The Synthesis of Yoga},  “The Four Aids”. Mother, I don't understand “Our sense of personal effort and aspiration comes from the attempt of the egoistic mind to identify itself in a wrong and imper- fect way with the workings of the divine Force.” What is it that you do not understand? The sentence or the idea? The idea, Mother. It can be put in very familiar terms. The individual being, and particularly the mind in it, have an instinctive repulsion to admitting that it's another force than their own small personal one which does things. There is a kind of instinct which makes you feel absolutely conv