Undated 1957
What is meant exactly by, 'I am with you.' Are we really always
heard
when we pray of
struggle with an inner problem - in
spite of our blunders and imperfections, even in spite of our ill
will and mistakes? And who hears? You who are with us?
Is it you in your supreme consciousness, an impersonal divine
force, the force of the yoga, or you, the embodied Mother with
your physical consciousness - a personal presence really in
timate to our every thought and act, and not some anonymous
force? Can you tell us how and in what way you are present
with us?
It is said that Sri Aurobindo and you are one and the same
consciousness,
but are the personal presence of Sri Aurobindo
and your own personal presence two distinct things, each play
ing a particular role?
I am with you because I AM you or you are me.
'I am with you' means a world of things, for I am with you at every level,
on every plane, from the supreme consciousness to my most physical
consciousness. Here, in Pondicherry, you cannot breathe without breathing my
consciousness. It permeates the atmosphere in the subtle physical almost
materially and extends right to the lake, seven miles away from here. Beyond,
my consciousness can be felt in the material vital, and then on the mental and
the other higher planes everywhere. When I came here for the first time, I felt
Sri Aurobindo's atmosphere, felt it materially, ten miles from the shore - ten
nautical miles, not kilometers! It was very sudden,
very concrete, a pure and luminous atmosphere, light, so light that it lifts
you up.
A long time ago, Sri Aurobindo had this reminder, with which you are all
quite familiar, put up everywhere in the Ashram: 'Always behave as if the
Mother was looking at you; because she is, indeed, always present.'
This is not some mere sentence, these are not just words, it is a fact. I am
very concretely with you, and those with a subtle vision can see me.
Generally speaking, my Force is constantly here at work, constantly changing
the psychological elements of your being to put them into new relationships and
to make clear to you the diverse
Page 116
facets of your nature so that you may see what must be changed,
developed or eliminated.
But besides all this, there is a special personal bond of affection between
you and me, between all who have turned towards Sri Aurobindo's teaching and me
- and of course, distance does not count; you may be in France, at the other
end of the world, or in Pondicherry, but this bond remains just as real and as
living. Each time there is a call, each time I need to know something to send
out a force, an inspiration, a protection or whatever else, a sort of message
suddenly comes to me, and I do what is needed. Obviously, these communications
come to me at any moment whatsoever, and you may have seen me more than once
suddenly stop in the middle of a sentence or some work: it means something,
some communication is coming, so I concentrate.
There is more than a bond with those whom I have accepted as disciples,
those to whom I have said 'yes' - there is an emanation of myself. Whenever
necessary, this emanation notifies me as to what is happening. In fact, I know
constantly, but all these things are not registered in my active memory,
otherwise I would be flooded - the physical consciousness acts as a filter:
things are recorded on a subtle plane and remain there in the latent state,
rather like music that is silently recorded, and when I need to know something
with my physical consciousness, I plug into this subtle plane and the tape
starts playing. Then I can see things, their evolution and the present result.
And if, for some reason or other, you write asking for my help, and I
answer, 'I am with you,' this means that the communication with you becomes
active, that you are even in my active consciousness for some time - the time
needed.
And this bond between you and me is never cut. There are people who left the
Ashram a long time ago, in a state of revolt, and yet I continue to know them
and to take care of them. You are never abandoned.
In truth, I feel responsible for everyone, even for people I have met for
only one second in my life.
Now, you know that Sri Aurobindo and I are always one and the same
consciousness, one and the same person. Only, when this unique force or presence
is felt in your individual consciousness, it assumes different forms or
appearances depending upon your temperament, your aspirations, your needs, the
particular cast of your nature. Your individual consciousness is
Page 117
like a filter, a pointer, as it were; it makes a choice and settles
upon one possibility in the infinity of divine possibilities. In truth, the
Divine gives to each one exactly what he expects from Him. If you believe the
Divine to be distant and cruel, He will be distant and cruel, because it may be
necessary for your supreme wellbeing to feel the wrath of God. He will be Kali'
for the worshippers of Kali, and bliss for the bhakta.² He will be the
All-Knowledge of seekers after Knowledge, the Transcendent Impersonal of the
illusionist. He will be an atheist for the atheist, and the love of the lover.
He will be fraternal and near, an ever faithful friend, ever helpful, to those
who feel him as the inner guide of each movement, at each minute. And if you
believe that He can erase everything, He will erase all your faults, all your
errors, tirelessly, and at each moment you will feel his infinite Grace. In
truth, the Divine is what you expect of Him in your deep aspiration.
And once you enter into this consciousness where all things are seen with a
single look, the infinite multitude of the Divine's relationships with men, you
realize how wonderful everything is, in every detail. You can also look at the
history of mankind and see how much the Divine has evolved depending upon what
men have understood, desired, hoped for or dreamed; how he was materialistic
with the materialist, and how each day he grows, draws nearer, becomes more
luminous, as the human consciousness widens. Everyone is free to choose. The
perfection of this endless variety of relationships between man and God
throughout the history of the world is an unutterable wonder. Yet all this
together is but a second in the total manifestation of the Divine.
The Divine is with you according to your aspirations. This does not mean,
naturally, that He bends to the whims of your outer nature - I am speaking here
of the truth of your being. Yet sometimes He does fashion himself according to
your outer aspirations; and if, like the devout, you live alternately in
estrangement and embrace, ecstasy and despair, the Divine too will be estranged
from you or draw near, according to your belief. Therefore, one's attitude is
extremely important, even one's outer attitude. People do not know just how
important faith is, how faith is miracle - the creator of miracles. For if at
each moment, you expect to be uplifted and drawn towards the Divine, He will
Page 118
come and uplift you, and He will be there, very near, nearer and nearer.
1. Kali: the warrior (or destroyer) aspect of the Divine.
2. Bhakta: one who follows the path of
love.
Undated 1957
THE MOTHER'S SUTRAS'
1) Be ambitious for nothing, above all pretend nothing, but be at each
instant the utmost of what you can be.²
2) As for your place in the universal manifestation, only the Supreme can
assign it to you.
3) It is the Supreme Lord who has ineluctably decreed the place you occupy
in the universal concert, but whatever be this place, you have equally the same
right as all others to ascend the supreme summits right to the supramental
realization.
4) What you are in the truth of your being is decreed in an irrevocable way,
and nothing nor anyone can stop you from being it; but the path you take to get
there is left to your own free choice.
5) On the road of the ascending evolution, every one is free to choose the
direction he will take: the swift and steep climb towards the summits of Truth,
to the supreme realization, or turning his back to the peaks, the easy descent
to the interminable meanderings of endless incarnations.
6) In the course of time and even in the course of your present life, you
can make your choice once and for all, irrevocably, and then you have only to
confirm
it with every new occasion; or else if you do not take a definite decision
from the beginning, you will have to choose anew at each moment between the
falsehood and the Truth.
1. Sutra: aphorism, in Sanskrit.
2. This first Sutra was ultimately destined to become the epigraph to
Satprem's first novel,
L'Orpailleur.
Page 119
7) But even in the event you have not made the irrevocable decision at the
outset, should you have the good fortune to live during one of these
unimaginable hours of universal history when the Grace is present, embodied
upon earth, It will offer you, at certain exceptional moments, the renewed
possibility of making a final choice that will lead you straight to the goal.
Page 120