4 June 1969

After a long relay of stories, to use a term from athletics, we come back to our main subject. But I've been asked to add one more story - one more for your teacher's birthday!²⁸ So here is one - of

27Sri Aurobindo's yoga aims at the achievement of immortality in this mortal frame and the sadhaks in the Ashram are pursuing the yoga towards this end.

28Nirod-da's birthday.

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which I don't know how much you'll understand.²⁹ I am going to read to you about Mother's experience:

It was very interesting, the experience I had that night. Nothing like it I ever had in my life. It was the night before the day he passed away. The time was nine o'clock. I felt he was withdrawing, withdrawing in an extraordinary manner. He was coming out of himself and gathering and pouring himself into me. He was coming out consciously and deliberately with the full force of a concentrated will. He continued to do so steadily, ceaselessly for hours. It ended at about one o'clock, I looked at the time.

There was no slackness or interruption or stop at any moment. It was throughout the same steady continuous flow, without a break, without a diminution in the strength. Such a concentrated undiminishing stream it was. The process continued until he was wholly within me as though he was pumping and exhausting all he was in the body till the last drop. I say it was wonderful - I never experienced such a thing. The flow stopped when there was very little left in the body: I let the body remain as long as it was needed for the work to continue, till long, quite long after the doctors declared it dead.

As he was in life, he could not have done the thing, I did not expect it of him, it must have been some past life of his that was at work and did the thing. Not many Yogis, not even the greatest among them could do such a thing. There he is within here, quite wakeful, looking in a rather amused way at what you people are doing. He is merged in me wholly, that is, dwelling within me, not dissolved: he has his personality intact. Amrita is different. He is there outside, one of you, one among you people moving about. At times, of course, when he wants to take rest and repose, he comes and lodges here. A remarkable story. A great and very difficult thing Pavitra has done.³⁰

I was asked for my opinion and I declared his body dead. M. Andre went and told the Mother, and She said that the body should be taken for cremation at 4 p.m. instead of 10 a.m. In spite of the medical announcement of his bodily death, the Mother had found vibrations of life in the body.

You won't understand the significance of this achievement. Sri

29Nhod-da read out what Mother had said about Pavitra-da on 25 May 1969.

30The Mother, Agenda, 13:186-187.

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Krishna says to Arjuna, "You will dwell in me." That tells us what a great sadhak pavitra-da was. So ladies and gentlemen, let's not pass comments on the sadhaks here. If one knows how to look, even the dishwashers in the kitchen have gone far, in spite of the appearance.

You see how one can draw oneself out of the physical body, with a strong will, to be merged with the Divine. He was completely withdrawn, so the whole night this process was going on.

***

So now to resume our story. Remember, we are speaking about the Mother. The discussion was about how, being born in France, She came into Sri Aurobindo's life, and about some incidents from her childhood. The Mother was working there independently in France, and Sri Aurobindo here in India, both on the same occult and spiritual planes!

We used to joke amongst ourselves: surrender, surrender, surrender, the most important requirement of this yoga, has been achieved only by two persons: Sri Aurobindo to the Mother, and the Mother to Sri Aurobindo!

Sri Aurobindo told us that if They had wanted, the Mother and He could have established a new religion with the happenings of the Golden Period (1926), but a religion was not what They wanted.

Many of us have seen the golden light emanating from Sri Aurobindo's body after He left His body. That light remained for a full five days. When Sri Aurobindo passed away, He transferred everything from Himself into the Mother. Mother experienced its passage into Herself almost physically.

My question - a foolish question - to Sri Aurobindo was: "Why don't you get supramentalised first ?" He said, "Supposing we did that, would you be able to come near us ?"

See the sacrifice! Even now it's not very easy to be near the Mother, and if she were completely supramentalised? Even Nolini-da would have had to run away! (Laughter)

Ramakrishna had cancer due to the ills of his disciples, so what about Her? She has to swallow all that and become like 'Neela Kantha'.³¹

31Sanskrit for 'Blue-throated' - referring to Lord Shiva, who drank up the poison that surfaced from the churning of the primordial cosmic ocean.

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