I have just explained to Z my program for getting out of the present difficulties,' and I think if he has not concluded that I am totally mad, it is because he has an immense respect for me! But as always in these cases, there is such a joy in me, such an exultation: all the cells are dancing. I understand why people begin singing, dancing, etc. It takes a formidable power to remain like that (gesture of solidity): there is such a desire in the throat to sing! page 173 , Mother's Agenda , volume 1 , 5th July - 1958 |
I answered. The letters must have left. I wrote (in English) that it's not so much a question of organization as of attitude - to begin with. Then I said, 'It seems to me that unless the teachers themselves get out of this ordinary intellectuality (!), they will never be able to fulfill their duty.' And this is what I wrote to Z (Mother reads): page 405 - Mother's Agenda , volume 1 , 10th Aug. - 1960 |
Then Z asks about languages: should they choose ONE language or ... I don't know. And then, if only ONE language, which language? ... She said, 'Should it be a common or international language, or their [the students'] vernacular?' I answered her, 'If only ONE language is known [well], it is better (international or common). " These are matters of common sense - I don't even know why they bring them up. Then they asked some questions about teaching literature and poetry. I answered them. And then, at the bottom, I added this: 'If you carefully study what Sri Aurobindo has written on every subject ...He wrote on EVERYTHING, there is not one subject on which he has not written! The point is to find it everywhere. ... a complete knowledge of the things of the world can be easily achieved.'What I call 'studying' is to take Sri Aurobindo's books, where he quotes or speaks of one thing or another, then have the corresponding books - when he quotes something, you must take the book it corresponds to; when he speaks of something, you must study the writings on that subject. This is what I call 'studying.' Then, after having read the corresponding works, you compare them with what Sri Aurobindo has said, and in this way there may be a beginning of understanding. If someone is very studious, he can 'review' all that has ever been written or taught by going through Sri Aurobindo's books. I mean this for someone who loves working. I SEE this state of mind, this mental attitude ... Oh! It's ... it's so repugnant. People are so afraid of taking sides, so afraid of appearing biased; they are so afraid of appearing to have faith, so afraid ... Oh, it's disgraceful. And I will keep hammering that into your heads till I enter right into them. page 406 - Mother's Agenda , volume 1 , 10th Aug. - 1960 |
(This is an extract from a meeting with a few teachers from the school. We owe these recordings to the kind cooperation of one of them.) What is the best way of preparing ourselves? For one clearly feels that all this is going to require a rather extensive prepa ration.To broaden and enlighten your consciousness, naturally. But how to do that ? ... How do you broaden and enlighten your consciousness? If each one of you could find his psychic being and unite with it, all problems would be solved. The psychic being is the Divine's representative in the human being. It's true, you know: the Divine isn't something far-off and out of reach; the Divine is within you, but you aren't fully conscious of it. You have rather ... so far it is acting more as an influence than a Presence. It must become a conscious Presence, so at each moment you can ask yourselves how ... how the Divine sees. That's how it is: first, how the Divine sees; then, how the Divine Wills ... then, how the Divine does. It has nothing to do with going off to inaccessible regions: it's RIGHT HERE. Although, for the moment, all the old habits and the general unconsciousness have put a sort of lid on it, which prevents us from seeing and feeling. We must ... we must lift that, lift it off. Basically, we must become conscious instruments ... conscious ... conscious of the Divine. Normally it takes an entire lifetime, or even several lives in some cases. But here, in the present conditions, you can do it in ... a few months. Those who have an ardent aspiration can do it in a few MONTHS. (Mother remains concentrated for a few moments) Did you feel anything?(One of the teachers:) Was there a special descent?There is no "descent"! That's another wrong idea. There is no "descent." It's something that is ALWAYS here, but you just don't feel it. There is no descent, that's a completely wrong idea. Do you know what the fourth dimension is? We have heard about it....Have you experienced it? No, Mother.Oh, but it's precisely the best example modern science can offer - the fourth dimension. The Divine is the fourth dimension for us. It ... belongs to the fourth dimension. It's everywhere, you see - always everywhere. It doesn't come and go: it's always there ... everywhere. It's we, it's our stupidity that keeps us from feeling it. There's no need to go off anywhere ... no need at all, none at all To be conscious of your psychic being, you must be able to have felt the fourth dimension, felt it once, otherwise you cannot know what it is.... Oh, Lord! It's been seventy years since I've known what the fourth dimension is - more than seventy years. (silence) Indispensable, it's indispensable. Life begins with that. Otherwise, you are in falsehood - in a hodgepodge of confusion and ignorance.... The mind! The mind! The mind! Otherwise, to be conscious of your own consciousness, you must mentalize it. It's dreadful, dreadful! There you are.This new life isn't the continuation of the old one, is it Mother,it has to spring up from within.Yes! Yes! There is no common ground between the two....There is - there is, but you aren't conscious of it. You must ... you must ... it's the mind that prevents you from feeling it. One Must BE, you see. All you do is mentalize everything - everything. What you call "consciousness" is thinking things out; that's what you call consciousness. But that's not it at all! That's not consciousness. Consciousness ... should be wholly lucid and WORDLESS. (Mother closes her eyes) Like that ... everything becomes luminous and warm and ... STRONG! And peaceful ... a true peace, which is not inertia or immobility.Mother, can we give this as an objective to all children?All ... no! They are not all the same age, even when they are the same physical age. Some children are primitive. One should.... You see, if you yourself were fully conscious of your psychic being, you would know which children are psychically developed. Some children have only an embryonic psychic - the age of the psychic varies enormously. Normally, it takes several lives for the psychic to become completely formed, and it's the psychic that passes from one body to another; that's why we aren't conscious of our past lives - because we aren't conscious of our psychic being. But sometimes, at some MOMENT the psychic being participated in a particular event, it became conscious; and that creates a memory. Sometimes you may find you have a partial recollection of something, the fleeting memory of a circumstance or event or thought, or even of an action.... It's because the psychic was conscious of it. (silence) What would you, I am nearing my hundredth year - it's only five years away - and I started my effort to become conscious when I was five. It's a fact. That's telling you.... And I am going on, and it is going on. Now, of course, I have come to doing the work in the cells of the body, but the work started long ago. I don't mean to discourage you, but only to tell you it isn't done in a wink! The body ... the body is made of a substance that is still very heavy. It is the substance itself that must change for the Supermind to manifest. That's all I can say.page 360-63 , Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 8th Feb - 1972-1973 |
(Extracts from a meeting with the schoolteachers. One of them complains that the first signs of violence are showing up in the children.) Violence is necessary as long as men are ruled by their ego and its desires. But violence must be used only as a means of defense when you are attacked. The ideal towards which humanity is moving and which we want to realize is a state of luminous understanding in which each person's needs as well as the harmony of the whole are taken into account. The future will have no need of violence because it will be governed by the Divine Consciousness, in which all things are harmonized and complement each other. For the moment, we are still in a stage where weapons are necessary. But it should be understood that this is a transitory stage, not a permanent one, and we must strive for the other one. Peace ... peace and harmony will be a natural outcome of the change of consciousness.page 367 , Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 18th Feb - 1972-1973 |
(Excerpts from a conversation with the teachers. One of them complains about the "lack of coordination.") Coordination! ... But that's because people are accustomed to using the mind to organize things, that's all they know: organization as devised by the mind. While we here are trying to change that pattern. We seek a change of government - but the new government isn't very well-known yet, that's the difficulty. Maybe I want to go too fast. I see clearly ... I tend to go too fast, possibly.page 382 , Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 26th March - 1972-1973 |
Excerpts from a meeting with the teachers. (At the end of a long and distressing conversation that exposes the grudges of a particular individual against her neighbor, then angry remarks, then finally a request for "blessings" for a new trucking company, with a photo of the truck on the back of which Mother is asked to write something, one of the teachers announces that an epidemic of chickenpox and mumps has broken out at the school among the students and teachers, and that one of them has typhoid fever. Mother listens to all that.... This will be the last meeting with the teachers.) I hope you're not bringing any of that here?(the teachers laugh, uncomprehending) Have you taken all the necessary precautions? ... Otherwise it would be a real catastrophe.(silence) I hope you took every precaution not to bring me any of it here?(silence, one of the teachers explains that the incubation period lasts from 3 to 4 weeks) If you haven't, it's really a crime (there is almost anguish in Mother's voice), because.... There's nothing to explain. It's a crime. I am not AT ALL protected. page 383-84 , Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 30th March - 1972-1973 |