III

MEMOS AND NOTES

FROM THE MOTHER'S PAPERS

MYSELF AND MY CREED

THE DECLARATION OF A TRUE SLAVE OF GOD

I belong to no nation, no civilisation, no society, no race but to the Divine.

I give obedience to no master, no ruler, no law, no social convention, but to the Divine.

To Him I have surrendered all, will, life and self; for Him I am ready to give all my blood, drop by drop, if such is His will, with complete joy; and nothing in His service can be sacrifice for all is perfect delight.

"Ah! since India is the cradle of religion, since all the Gods preside over her destiny, what is he who will accomplish the miracle of resuscitating this city ... !" (A. Chaumel)

Blinded by false appearances, deceived by calumnies, held back by fears and prejudices, he has passed without knowing it by the side of the god whose intervention he implores; he has come close to the forces which will accomplish the miracle he demands but without waiting to recognise them; and thus he has missed the most beautiful chance of his life — a unique chance — of entering into contact with the mysteries and marvels the existence of which his mind guesses and to which his heart dimly aspires...

In all ages, before receiving initiation the aspirant had to pass through many tests. In the ancient schools these tests were artificial and hence lost the greater part of their value. Now it is no longer the same; the tests are hidden behind the most ordinary daily circumstances and they have a little innocent look of coincidence or chance which makes them so much the more difficult and dangerous.

So it is that India does not reveal the mystery of its treasures except to those who can conquer within themselves the mental preferences and prejudices of race and education. Others go away disappointed ... not having found what they were in search of — because they looked wrongly for it, because they did not agree to pay the price of the Divine.

Pondicherry 21 September 1928

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C. sitting on the floor at the feet of Sri Aurobindo and giving the "surrender of falsehood".

(Sri Aurobindo's remark on the above:

Seen in the night and written down early in the morning; the offering of the flowers took place later in the morning without C. being told of the prevision.)
23.5.31

Psychic beings

The quantity is definite but the number is undetermined.
24.3.32

It is always the same old story of "selling the birthright for a
mess of pottage" (I understand the "birthright" as the possibility
or capacity to be the first to reach the Divine Realisation).
4.5.32

I feel inclined to reply:

I live so far from all these conventions that I had not even thought of that.
16.5.32

Today at Pranam, for the first time I could enter D.'s heart and an emanation of mine settled there.
14.6.32

We live only because Thou wiliest it.
We do not die unless Thou wiliest it.

2.3.34

The anniversary of my return to Pondicherry which was the tangible sign of the sure Victory over the adverse forces.
24.4.37

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What I want to bring about in the material world, upon the earth.

1. Perfect Consciousness.

2. Integral Knowledge, omniscience.

3. Power Invincible, irresistible, ineluctable (Power), omnipotence.

4. Health, Perfect, constant, unshakable (Health), perpetually renewed energy.

5. Eternal Youth, constant growth, uninterrupted progress.

6. Perfect Beauty, complex and total harmony.

7. Inexhaustible unparalleled Riches, control over all the wealth of this world.

8. The Gift of healing and giving happiness.

9. Immunity from all accidents, invulnerability against all adverse attacks.

10. Perfect Power of expression in all fields and all activities.

11. The Gift of tongues, the power of making oneself under- stood perfectly by all.

12. And all else necessary for the accomplishment of Thy work. 23 Oct. 1937

Silence all outside noise, aspire for the Divine's help; open integrally to it when it comes and surrender to its action, and it will effectively bring about your transformation.

D.'s belief:

The Divine (as manifested in me) is all irony and deceit. It thinks only of playing tricks. When it laughs it mocks; when it says to do something it makes this very thing impossible to do etc.

I was told that our boys (young or old) like to play with me (the exact words were "to give me a game") for some reason or another, but to play truly and to learn to play they must play among themselves.

You have this extraordinary opportunity of being able to play

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a game and to take exercise in an atmosphere filled with Divine Consciousness, Light and Power in such a way that each of your movements is so to say permeated by the consciousness and the light "and the power which is in itself an intensive yoga; and your ignorant unconsciousness, your blindness and lack of sensitive- ness is such that you believe you are giving a game or even helping to play a good old lady for whom you feel a little gratefulness and some kind of affection!

(In the night of the 4th to the 5th of June 1949)

French is indeed the most precise and clearest language. But from the spiritual point of view it is not true that French is the best language to use; for English has a suppleness, a fluidity which French does not have, and this suppleness is indispensable for not deforming what is vaster and more comprehensive in the experience than what mental expression can formulate.

Jan. 1950

Au revoir, my children, I wish that life may prove happy for you, and that one day you may be born into the Light and Truth.

Au revoir, my child, never forget what your experience was, and do not let any external darkness penetrate and veil your consciousness.

I am with you.

To my child of today and always

in remembrance of our new meeting.

A prayer for August 15, 1950

Lord,

Give me the strength of a total and perfect sincerity that I may be worthy of Thy Realisation.

Lord, give us the strength to live integrally the ideal we proclaim.

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Palmistry is a very interesting art but it depends for its exactitude and truthfulness almost entirely upon the real ability of the one who practises it. Moreover, it relates only to the material destiny and this destiny can be altered by the intervention of the higher forces.

3.1.1951

Do not take the sorrows of life for what they seem to be; they are in truth a way to greater achievements.

(Music of the 2nd December,'51)

"Who are you?" says the adverse force.

"I am the impartial and truthful Mirror in which everyone finds his own real image."

25.3.52

It is a fact that the Godhead has always taken a physical body with the intention of transforming that body and making of it a fit instrument for His manifestation upon earth. But it is a fact also that, until now. He has failed to do so and for one reason or another, He had always to leave that physical body with the work of transformation unfinished.

In order that the Divine may keep till a total transformation takes place, the body through which He is manifesting upon earth, it is necessary that at least one individual, if not more, fulfilling the required conditions of harmony, strength, sincerity,- endurance, unselfishness and poise in the physical, should consider the body in which the Divine incarnates, not only as the most important thing, but as the thing exclusively important, more important than the Divine's work itself, or rather that this body should become for him the symbol and the concretisation of the Divine's work upon earth.

3.10.52

The Lord has said: The hour is come and all the obstacles will be surmounted.

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A vision repeated for the third time.

A small mountain train (funiculaire) open, without sides or roof, just seats in rows close to one another, arrives and stops at its terminus. There is only one passenger and no visible driver.

When the train stops, the passenger stands up and steps out of it, on the platform outside. Nothing can be seen of the landscape outside; yet there is a strong feeling that it is the top of a very high mountain covered with ice and snow; beyond it there is only a very clear pale blue sky.

When the passenger stands outside the train he becomes clearly visible. It is Sri Aurobindo, but clean-shaved, no hair, no moustache, no beard, his complexion is pale and ivory, almost trans- lucid. He stands for a second on the platform, and then comes back, sits once more at the same place in the train and says quietly but very decidedly: "No, I will go further".

And the vision stops abruptly.

4.7.53

... very few, in fact, specially in an age like ours in which success alone counts and the material satisfactions it brings. However, an ever-increasing number of dissatisfied people are seeking to know the reason of life. And, on the other hand, there are sages who know and strive to help suffering humanity and to spread the light of knowledge. When the two meet, he who knows and he who wants to know, there springs up a new hope in the world, and a little light penetrates the prevailing darkness.

I dream at times of this wonderful thing we could have done together ... but for that I ought to have been beautiful and you a sage! ...

Today was truly a day of victory, victory over all that yet remained human in the physical consciousness.

0 Nature, I bring to thee force and light, truth and power; it is for thee to receive and utilise them. It is thou who wilt be receptive in the fruit of thy creation, man, and open the doors of his under- standing; it is thou who wilt give him the energy of progress and

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the will of transformation; and, above all, it is thou who wilt make

him accept the Presence and aspire for Realisation.

18.10.53

This experience followed conclusively the one I had last night whilst seeing Pranab's film. I felt very strongly that my children were emancipated and that they no longer need my physical intervention to do their work well. It is enough that my presence among them is an inspiration and guide for them to keep a clear vision of the goal and not to go astray on the way. This leads quite naturally to a physical withdrawal into oneself so as to concentrate materially upon the work of transformation of the body. I can now leave them externally to do things according to their own ideas of execution, reducing my presence to a more or less invisible role of creative inspiration and consciousness. 10th May 1954

Spirit of service has gone away from this place.

16.5,54

When I say that I have initiated someone, I mean that I have revealed myself to this person, without words, and that he was capable of seeing, feeling and knowing What I am.

It is their mental and vital formation of me that they love, it is not myself. More and more am I faced with this fact. Everyone has made for himself an image of me in conformity with his needs and desires; and it is with this image that he is in contact, it is through this that he receives what few universal forces and still less supramental forces succeed in filtering through all these formations. Unfortunately these people cling to my physical presence, otherwise I could withdraw into my inner solitude and, from there, do my work quietly and freely; but this physical presence is for them a symbol and that is why they cling to it, for, in fact, they have very little real contact with what my body truly is, and with the formidable accumulation of conscious energy it represents.

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And now, 0 supreme Force, now that you descend into me and penetrate more and more totally all the atoms of my body, the distance between me and everything around me -seems to increase more and more, and more and more do I feel as though I were floating in an atmosphere of radiant consciousness which completely escapes their understanding.

11.6.54

The body repeats constantly and with a poignant sincerity: "What am I to demand anything whatsoever from anyone at all ? Left to myself I am nothing, I know nothing, I can do nothing. Unless the truth penetrates into me and directs me, I am incapable of taking even the minutest decision and of knowing what is the best thing to do and to live even in the most insignificant circum- stance. Shall I ever be¹ capable of being transformed to the point of becoming What I ought to be and of manifesting What wants to manifest upon earth?" But why does this answer always come from the depths, from You, Lord, with an indisputable certitude: "If you cannot do it, no other body upon earth can do it." There is but one conclusion: I shall persist in my effort, without giving in, I shall persist until death or until victory.

8.9.54

Since I love only You, 0 Lord, it is You alone whom I love in all and in each one; and by dint of loving You in them, I shall end up by making them a little conscious of You.

For them, the real thing is to know how to let themselves be loved without any preference and obstruction. But, not only do they not want to be loved except in their own way, they do not want also to open themselves to love unless it comes to them through the intermediary of their choice ... and what could be done in a few hours, a few months or a few years takes centuries to be accomplished.

When a child lives in normal conditions, it has a spontaneous confidence that all it needs will be given to it.

¹ Am I truly

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This confidence should persist, unshaken, throughout life; but the limited idea, ignorant and superficial, of its needs which a child has must be replaced progressively by a wider, deeper and truer conception which culminates in the perfect conception of needs in accordance with the supreme wisdom, until we realise that the Divine alone knows what our true needs are and rely upon Him for everything.

November 19. 1954

The Avatar

The supreme Divine manifested in an earthly form — generally a human form — for a definite purpose.

They have a disastrous atmosphere. They are pessimistic, dissatisfied. shrivelled up — out of tune with both sides at once, with the soul and with physical nature, which makes their life very miserable.

Yesterday morning I distributed petals of "Divine's Love". The previous night was, here, the darkest of the year and in India it is a great festival. Its true significance is that the Divine's Love is at the base and core of all manifestation even where it seems most completely inconscient.

There is JUSTICE INELUCTABLE

There is here a Consciousness working. Each one when he goes against this divine Consciousness loses something of his consciousness every time he does so. He goes down each time he does something against it. Each one gains in his consciousness every time he acts according to this divine Consciousness.

The world goes on as it is. When there is nothing you or I can do to change it, we can only keep quiet, silent witness like Brahman. As in the world so here also. So many things go on: each one tries to prove his superiority; there is politics of all kinds,

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propaganda. I only witness like Brahman; I am neither for nor against, neither approve nor condemn.

26.4,55

There we are, Lord, it is those very people to whom you have shown most love who make you responsible for their difficulties.

My Lord, Thou hast given me tonight this supreme knowledge:

We are living only because such is Thy will.

We shall die only if it be Thy will.

Thou hadst decided to submit our faith to Thy test and pass our sincerity to Thy touch-stone. Grant that from this ordeal we come out greater and purer.

It is indispensable to observe the lower movements in one's being in a detached and scientific way, like a clear-sighted and perspicacious witness; but one should never allow these movements to express and assert themselves as though they had the right to exist and govern the rest of the being. That is to say, one should never act under the impulsion of these movements, never translate physically their promptings into words or actions, never let their orders be expressed in inner or outer gestures. 19 Sept. 1956

And yet there is an analogy. Just as for the piano you may read all the books possible on the art of playing it, if you do not play it yourself you will never be a pianist, so too you may read everything that has been written on occultism, if you do not practise it your- self, you will never be an occultist.

Nov. 1957

Last night I had the vision of what this supramental world could become if men were not sufficiently prepared. The con-

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fusion existing at present upon earth is nothing in comparison with what could take place. Imagine that very powerful will has the power to transform matter as it likes! If the sense of collective unity did not grow in proportion to the development of power, the resulting conflict would be yet more acute and chaotic than our material conflicts.

15.2.1958

Every outer change must be the spontaneous and inevitable expression of an inner transformation. Normally, every improvement of the condition of physical life must be the flowing out on the surface of a progress realised internally.

29.3.58

In the final analysis, seeing the world such as it is and seems meant to be irremediable, human intellect has decided that this universe must be an error of God and that the manifestation or creation is certainly the result of a desire, the desire to manifest, know oneself, enjoy oneself. So the only thing to do is to put an end to this error as soon as possible by refusing to cling to desire and its fatal consequences.

But the Supreme Lord answers that the comedy is not entirely played out, and He adds: "Wait for the last act; undoubtedly you will change your mind."

23.7.58

ABOUT PEACE

It is only by the growth and establishment of the consciousness of human unity that a true and lasting peace can be realised upon earth. All means are welcome although the exterior ones have a very limited effect. But the most important, urgent and indispensable of all is a transformation of the human consciousness itself, an enlightenment and a conversion in its workings.

Meanwhile some exterior steps may be taken usefully and the acceptance of the principle of double nationality is one of them.

The main objection to it has always been the possibility of war

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and the awkward position in which those who have adopted a double nationality would be in case these two countries were at war. .But all those who sincerely want peace must understand that the first indispensable step towards it is not to foresee war; any action taking measures in prevision of a possible war is already a step taken towards its outbreak. On the contrary the larger the number of people who have a vital interest in the abolition of war the more effective the chances towards a stable peace until the advent of a new consciousness in man makes of war an impossibility.

Sri Aurobindo's Bust by E. Frankel:¹

From the artistic point of view, it is certainly a masterpiece. It is also an inspired work, inspired by an inner contact with Sri Aurobindo or rather with one of his aspects, with one side of his being, the intellectual side, that of knowledge, the Seer.

My Lord, what Thou hast wanted me to do I' have done. The gates of the Supramental have been thrown open and the Supramental Consciousness, Light and Force are flooding the earth.

But as yet those who are around me are little aware of it — no radical change has taken place in their consciousness and it is only because they trust my word that they do not say that nothing has truly happened. In addition the exterior circumstances are still harder than they were and the difficulties seem to be cropping up more unsurmountable than ever.

Now that the supramental is there — for of that I am absolutely certain even if I am the only one upon earth to be aware of it — is it that the mission of this form is ended and that another form is to take up the work in its place? I am putting the question to Thee and ask for an answer — a sign by which I shall know for certain that it is still my work and I must continue in spite of all the contradictions, of all the denials.

Whatever is the sign, I do not care but it must be obvious.

There is nobody here, even among the best, who is ready to give

¹ Exhibited now in the Sri Aurobindo Library.

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up all his habits, conveniences and preferences to win the final victory, even if he is to break his neck on the way.

One loses most of the advantage of being here if one is not convinced that I can foresee better the consequences and the results of things and actions.

For those who are afraid of a word.

This is what we mean by "Divine": all the knowledge we have to acquire, all the power we have to obtain, all the love we have to become, all the perfection we have to achieve, all the harmonious and progressive poise we must make manifest in light and joy, all the unknown and new splendours that are to be realised.

This is destined for all those who are working for the organisation and immediate future of human life upon earth, and who see that the only solution of this problem is the concrete and effective realisation of Human Unity.

At the moment, in the physical consciousness, the heart is with X, the lover, and the spiritual confidence with Y, the Guru.

I do not see very well what I have to do in this tableau if it is not as a Will that puts spokes in the wheels of the cart... of the truth of the Ego.

I prefer to withdraw and be the impartial and unseen witness.

I am always happy to receive and to help those who wish for harmony and conciliation, and are ready to correct their mistakes and to progress. But I can be of no help to those who throw all the blame on the others for they are inapt to see the truth and to act accordingly.

But it goes without saying that those who are here and are ready to face some difficulties in order to remain here, will always be welcome.

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As usual my words have been completely changed and their meaning quite distorted.

I said that this coming year may prove quite a difficult one.

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 realisation or, turning his back to the peaks, the easy descent to the interminable meanders of endless incarnations.

Solution of the economic problem. Arriving at the synthesis of two problems:

1) adjusting the production to the needs

2) adjusting the needs to the production

For me everything in human life is mixed, nothing is completely good, nothing completely bad. I cannot give my entire and exclusive support to this idea or that idea, to one cause or another. The only important thing for me, in action, is Sri Aurobindo's work, automatically my conscious support is with all that helps that work and in proportion of the help. And for the work to be carried on as it must be I need all collaborations and all helps, I cannot accept only this one or that one and reject the others. I cannot belong to this party or that party. I belong to the Divine alone and my action upon earth is and will always be for the triumph of the Divine, irrespective of all sects and parties.

"THE WIZARD OF OZ"

A short explanation will surely increase the interest of the picture shown to you tonight.

You will notice that it is in three sections, two black and one, the most extensive, in colour; the two black sections (first and last) show how things appear in the physical world, the coloured one expresses a similar sequence of events in the vital world, the world

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where one can go in deep sleep when one gets out of the body. So long as you have a body no true harm can happen to you in the vital world for the physical body acts like a protection and you can always return into it at will.

This is expressed in the picture in a classical way. You will see that the little girl wears on her feet some magic red slippers and that so long as she keeps the slippers on her feet, nothing wrong can truly happen to her. The ruby red slippers are the sign and the symbol of the connection with the physical body and so long as the slippers are on her feet she can at will return to her body and take shelter therein.

Two other details can be noted with interest. One is the snow shower that saves the party from the influence of the wicked witch who by her black magic has stopped^their advance towards the blue castle of knowledge and intellectual power. In the vital, snow is the symbol of purity itself. It is the purity of their feelings and intentions that saves them from the great danger.

Note that to go to the castle of the good wizard they must follow the big path of golden bricks, the path of luminous confidence and joy.

The second is when Dorothy throws water on the straw man to save him from burning, some water falls on the face of the wicked witch who at once gets dissolved and dies. The water is the symbol of the power of purification and no hostile being or force can resist this power handled with good will and sincerity.

Finally when the good fairy teaches to the little girl, on knocking her two red slippers one against the other, how to go back home, by home she means the physical world which is the place of protection and realisation.

As you see the subject of this picture is interesting and not altogether deprived of knowledge; unhappily the whole set up is not as beautiful and harmonious as it could have been. There are some serious mistakes of taste and many regrettable vulgarities.

There is only one thing of which I am absolutely sure, and that is who lam. Sri Aurobindo also knew it and declared it. Even the doubts of the whole of humanity would change nothing to this fact.

But another fact is not so certain — it is the usefulness of my

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being here in a body doing the work I am doing. It is not out of any personal urge that I am doing it. Sri Aurobindo told me to do it and that is why I do it as a sacred duty, in obedience to the dictates of the Supreme.

Time will reveal how far earth has benefitted through it.

A self-willed man can not" be grateful, because when he gets what he wants he gives all the credit for it to his own will, and when he gets what he does not want he resents it badly and throws all the blame on whoever he considers responsible. God, man or nature.

Compassion and gratitude are purely psychic virtues. They appear in the consciousness only with the participation of the psychic being in active life. The vital and physical feel them as weaknesses because they put a check upon the free expression of their impulsions based on the power of force.

As usual, the mind, when it is not sufficiently educated, is the accomplice of the vital being and the slave of the physical nature whose crushing laws it does not know well through their half- conscious mechanism. When the mind awakens to the consciousness of the first psychic movements, it deforms them in its ignorance and changes compassion into pity and gratitude into the will to recompense which is transformed gradually into the capacity to recognise and admire. It is only when the psychic consciousness is all-powerful in the being that compassion for all that is below it on the evolutionary ladder and gratitude for all that is higher than it, in whatever form, manifest in their initial and luminous purity, not containing any vestige of the sense of condescension in the compassion or of inferiority in the gratitude.

In the Bible, God calls Cain and asks him: 'What have you done with your brother?'

Today I call man and ask him: "What have you done with the earth?"

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You have brought down upon earth Peace and Freedom.

Now Freedom and Wisdom must manifest in the heart of every man.

Have you never been mistaken in any of your decisions ? Yes, you have been mistaken, haven't you ? and many a time.

Then, by what right do you think that when my decision is not the same as yours, it is I who am mistaken ?

'... stand at street-corners, hat held out for alms. Had we diplomatically sided with a religious or political body, we would be nourishing, but the divine white radiance must have no stain.

Selfless work, the self-giving to the realisation of an ideal is for ordinary men something so unthinkable that they hasten to sully it so as not to have to admire it.

... are at one in vilifying the Ashram and bespattering it with their mud. It is the old story that repeats itself.... The worst enemies come together when it is a question of stoning a prophet, crucifying God or condemning a sage to death.

To do good work one must have good taste.

Taste can be educated by study and the help of those who have good taste.

To learn, it is necessary to feel first that one does not know.

15.12.65

Never I sit in meditation — there is no time and no necessity for it because it is not through meditation that one gives oneself to the Divine, it is through consecration and surrender and it is through all activities of life that consecration and surrender are to be made.

26.11.67

Until now, my spontaneous attitude was that of the supreme

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Mother who carries the universe in her loving arms, and I was dealing with each one as with the child from whom she tolerates everything equally; and all what the people here were doing to please me I was taking as a token of their love and I was very grateful for it. Today I have learnt that many, if not most/are looking at me as their Guru and that they are eager to please me because to please the Guru is the best way to acquire merit on the path. And then I have understood that the duty of the Guru is to encourage from each one only that which can lead him quickly to the Lord and serve His Divine Purpose, — and I am very grateful for the lesson.

In our way of working we must not be the slaves of Nature; all these habits of trying and changing¹, doing and undoing and redoing again and again, wasting energy, labour, material and money, are Nature's way of action, not the Divine's. The Divine Consciousness sees first the truth of a work, the best way of doing it according to given circumstances, and when She acts, it is final, She never comes back on what is done, She goes forward, using failure as well as success for a new progress, one more step towards the goal.

In order to progress, Nature destroys while the Divine Consciousness stimulates growth and finally transforms.

We have faith in Sri Aurobindo.

He represents for us something we formulate to ourselves with words which seem to us the most exact for expressing our experience. These words are evidently the best according to us for formulating our experience.

But if, in our enthusiasm, we were convinced that they are the only appropriate words to express correctly what Sri Aurobindo is and the experience he has given us, we would become dogmatic and be on the point of founding a religion.

He who has a spiritual experience and a faith formulates it in the most appropriate words for himself.

¹ failing

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But if he is convinced that this expression is the only correct and true one for this experience and faith, he becomes dogmatic and tends to create a religion.

Forward! towards a better future, the realisation of tomorrow.

To cure oneself: [of] a critical judgment expressing itself through an incontinence of speech

1) When one is in this state to refuse absolutely to speak — if need be to make it physically impossible for oneself to speak.

2) To study oneself pitilessly and become aware that one carries in oneself precisely all the things one finds so riduculous in others.

3) To discover in one's nature the state contrary to this (benevolence, humility, goodwill) and insist on developing it to the detriment of the opposite element.

In all religious and specially occult initiations, the ritual of the different ceremonies is prescribed in all detail; all the words pronounced, all the gestures made have their importance and the least infraction of the rule, the least fault committed can have fatal consequences.

It is the same in the material life and if one had the initiation into the true way of living, one could transform the physical existence.

This body has neither the uncontested authority of a god nor the imperturbable calm of the sage. It is yet only an apprentice in supermanhood.

On the choice of a motor-car:

Do you want to go from one place to another without getting tired and without spending much time on the way, or do you want to be smart and look like an important man?

And the body says to the Supreme Lord: "What You want me to be, I shall be, what You want me to know, I shall know, what You want me to do, I shall do."

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And you want to make me speak and mentalise the experience until a new "system" is established and you can sit down comfortably in your new mental construction.

By definition the Ashramite has resolved to consecrate his life to the realisation and service of the Divine.

For this four virtues are indispensable, without which progress is uncertain and subject to interruptions and troublesome falls at the first opportunity:

Sincerity, faithfulness, modesty and gratitude.

... substitute the spirit of rivalry and competition by the good- will of collaboration and mutual understanding.

liberty and order

fraternity and independence

equality and hierarchy

unity and diversity

abundance and scarcity

effort and repose

power and compassion

discernment and benevolence

generosity and economy

wastage and avarice

Obey your soul, it alone has the right to govern your life.

In their blindness men leave the Light and go to the darkness to obtain knowledge!

... so that his life may be governed by a true splendour of soul, so as to face his responsibilities with a noble and generous heart.

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And the radiant bliss of this splendour was felt in a perfect peace.

Transformation and intimacy

with my blessings full of love and energy.

21.6.70

LOVE

Consciousness is a state and a power.

Love is a force and an action.

* * *

When Consciousness separated from its Origin and became in- conscience the Origin emanated Love to re-awaken Consciousness from the depth of the inconscience and bring it back into touch with its Origin.

It may be said that at its origin love is the supreme power of attraction which awakens, in response, the irresistible need of an absolute self-giving, they are the two poles of the urge towards complete fusion.

No other movement could, better and more surely than this, throw a bridge across the abyss dug by the sense, of separation that comes from the formation of the individual. It was necessary to bring back to itself what had been projected into space without destroying for this purpose the universe created thus.

That is why love sprang up, the irresistible power of union.

This world is a chaos where darkness and light, falsehood and truth, life and death, hatred and love are so closely enlaced that it is almost impossible to distinguish them from one another and still more impossible to decide between them and undo a grip which has all the horror of a merciless struggle, so much the more intense the more veiled it is, above all in the consciousness of man where the conflict changes into the anguish of knowing, of ability, of conquering — a dark and dolorous battle, the more atrocious

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because it seems without any issue, but which can be resolved above all sensations and feelings and ideas, beyond the worlds of the mind ... in the Divine Consciousness.

The integral yoga is constituted of an uninterrupted series of examinations which one must pass without being warned about them beforehand — which puts you under the obligation of being always vigilant and attentive.

Three groups of examiners set these tests. Apparently they have nothing to do with one another and their procedures are so different, at times even they seem so contradictory that they do not appear to be able to move towards the same end, and yet they complete one another, they collaborate for the same purpose and are indispensable to the integrality of the result.

These three categories of examinations are those set by the forces of Nature, those set by the spiritual and divine forces, and those set by the hostile forces. These latter are the most deceptive in their appearance and in order not to be taken by surprise, unprepared, demands a constant state of vigilance, sincerity and humility.

The most banal circumstances, the events of everyday life, people, things, — apparently the most insignificant, all belong to one or other of these three categories of examiners. In this great and complex organisation of tests it is the events usually considered the most important in life which constitute the examinations easiest to pass for they find you on your guard and prepared. One stumbles more easily on the little pebbles on the road because they do not draw attention.

Endurance and plasticity, cheerfulness and intrepedity are the qualities more specially required for the examinations of physical Nature.

Aspiration, confidence, idealism, enthusiasm and generosity in self-giving for the spiritual examinations.

Vigilance, sincerity and humility for the examinations set by the adverse forces.

And do not think that on one side there are those who pass exams and on the other those who set them. At the same time, according to the circumstances and moments, one is both examiner and examinee and it may even happen that one is simultaneously,

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all at once, examined and examiner. And the profit drawn from this depends upon the quality and degree of intensity in one's aspiration and the awakening of one's consciousness.

And, finally, a last recommendation, never pose as an examiner. For, whilst it is very well to remember constantly that one is perhaps fairly in the course of passing a very important exam, it is on the contrary extremely dangerous to think oneself appointed to set tests for others, for this is opening the door to the most ridiculous and disastrous vanities.

The overmind is the age of the gods and consequently of religions; the idea of the unity of religions is one of the principal ideas of the age of the overmind.

In the supramental creation there will no longer be any religions, the whole of life will be the expression, the flowering into forms of the divine Unity manifesting in the world, and there will no longer be any gods. The great divine beings who will choose not to manifest physically will be friends and collaborators on a footing of equality.

When the physical substance is supramentalised, to be incarnated upon earth will not be a cause of inferiority; on the contrary, one will gain from it a plenitude which could not be had otherwise.

The whole of humanity should be organised upon these bases. But the organisation will not be true and viable unless at its centre and at its head there is the supramental Truth-Consciousness manifested in an. individual or a small group of individuals who will be the representatives of the new race, the incarnation of the supramental consciousness upon earth.

During the last lesson we learnt how to detach ourselves from our thoughts so as to be able to observe them like an attentive spectator.

Today we must learn how to watch these thoughts, look at them like an enlightened judge so as to discern between the good ones and the bad, between thoughts which are useful and those which are harmful, between constructive thoughts which lead to victory

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and defeatist thoughts which take us away from it. It is this power of discernment which we have to acquire now.

Second stage — discernment — discerning between good and bad thoughts, useful and harmful thoughts, thoughts which help progress and defeatist thoughts.

This is the counterpart of what we read last time. But note that here it is a question only of the thoughts which produce resentment. It is because rancour as well as jealousy are among the most widespread causes of human misery.

. But how to get rid of rancour"? A vast and generous heart is surely the best means, but it is not within everybody's reach. The control of one's thought may be more commonly used. Thought- control is the third stage of our mental discipline. After the en- lightened judge of our consciousness has discerned between the useful thoughts and the harmful ones, there comes the inner policeman who will let only the accepted thoughts pass and refuse admission strictly to every undesirable element. With a magisterial gesture this policeman will close the entry to every bad thought and push it away as far as possible.

It is this movement of admission or refusal which we call the control of thought and this will be the object of our meditation this evening.

He pushed on the table before me a scrap of paper which seemed to have been torn from an exercise-book page, without any letterhead or anything official, on which he had written for me in a clumsy hand that I was promising to pay for the extra stamps if they were necessary.

I felt like a poor traveller accosted in the corner of a wood by a band of brigands, pistols in hand, asking you to empty your pockets before letting you pass. I hesitated for a moment, but I am a sport and I signed, thinking 'We shall see how far they dare to go...

In this world one pays dearly for wanting to be unselfish!

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In a severe tone:

"Madam, you are pledging your word."

Very quietly:

"I know it, sir, and when I make a promise, I keep it. But for me these things don't have much importance. I have no attachment for any religion, and when one has no attachment, one has no aversion either. For me religions are forms, much too human, of -^spiritual life. Each one expresses one aspect of the single and eternal Truth, but in expressing it exclusively of the other aspects it deforms and diminishes it. None has the right to call itself the only true one, any more than it has the right to deny the truth contained in the others. And all of them together would not suffice to express the Supreme Truth which is beyond all expression, even whilst being present in each one."

In a dry tone:

"I am sorry, madam, but in this field I cannot follow you."

Smiling and peaceful:

"I know that very well, sir, and I told you all this only to ex- plain to you why I did not reply very seriously to the promise you were demanding from me."

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