"Suffocated by the shallowness of the human nature we aspire to the knowledge that truly knows, the power that truly can, the love that truly loves."


page 151 , Mother's Agenda , volume 5 - 8th Aug 1964

And it was a world of ... Incidents of this kind bring about a world of parallels, of experiences and so on. So I began writing (it came, as always, through successive "sedimentations"). The first sedimentation gave this:

If you approach me in the hope

of obtaining favours, you will be

frustrated, because I have no

powers at my disposal.

It came in French too:

"Ceux qui s'approchent de moi avec l'intention d'obtenir des faveurs seront déçus, parce que je ne dispose pas de pouvoirs."

But the true version is this one (I replaced s'approchent with viennent and dispose with détiens, and I put the present tense), it's from the last sedimentation:

"Ceux qui viennent a moi avec

l'intention d'obtenir des faveurs

sont déçus, parce que je ne

détiens pas de pouvoirs.

"[[A literal translation into English of these two French versions gives: "Those who approach me with the intention of obtaining favors will be disappointed, because I have no powers at my disposal." "Those who come to me with the intention of obtaining favors are disappointed, because I possess no powers." ]]

And what's almost fantastic is that a whole ARMY OF ADVERSE FORCES WERE REDUCED TO SILENCE - immediately. And the atmosphere was clarified, relieved.


Then, taking a good look, I understood that it is that mixture in people's thoughts, in people's feelings, in their approach to spiritual life, which is catastrophic - they always "want" something, they always "demand" something, they always "expect" something. In fact, it's a perpetual bargaining. It's not the need to give yourself, not the need to melt into the Divine, to disappear into the Divine - no: they try to take, to obtain what they want.

And for several hours (it lasted several hours, from that moment till night) the atmosphere was clear, light, luminous - and my body, my body was in such joy! As if it were floating in the air.

Afterwards, everything came back - not "everything": something didn't come back, which was definitely settled, but one part of the attacks was clarified.

It was so concrete! I have never felt it so concretely, something seemed to have been completely swept away.

But how is your renouncing or your having no powers sufficient to sweep the adverse forces away?
No, it's the fact that I ANNOUNCED it.

That you announced it?
No powers - I knew very well I had no powers! And I couldn't have cared less because I understood perfectly well that what is being attempted now isn't miraculous events at all, but the LOGICAL and normal and inevitable CONSEQUENCE of the supramental transformation - that is the whole point. That I know and knew, and that's why I didn't even bother about powers; anyway it hadn't even remotely occurred to me that I might work a miracle for the doctor or for this or that other person who approaches me - I didn't think about it, it didn't enter my consciousness. Only, on the 18th, through that occasion it entered my consciousness, and so I asked the question to find out why I never thought about it: "Why?" And I was positively told: "You MUST NOT wield powers, because that's not the way things should be done."

You understand, the word "favor" is deliberate. It's quite deliberate, it really means a favor - to be helped in making the necessary progress is all very well, but what they want is the result WITHOUT HAVING TO WALK THE PATH, and that's what is impossible, that's what must not be. Basically, that's always what men ask of religions; the "God" of religion is a god who must do them favors: "I believe in You, therefore You must do this for me" (it isn't formulated so bluntly, but it is like that), It isn't the aspiration to be guided on the path in order to do exactly what should be done for the Transformation to take place. And that's what I was clearly told: "It MUST NOT be miraculous powers." The power of the Help is there, fully, of course, but the miraculous power that does things without their being the result of a progress achieved, that must not be.

(Mother goes on copying her note)

And I replaced the future tense with the present, deliberately too, because it isn't something new: it has always been that way; it isn't that I now announce they will be disappointed - they have always been disappointed. And asserting this fact is what had the power of dispelling a whole mass of formations: not only formations of beings of the vital or hostile beings, but the false mental formations of human beings.

And here, I wrote: Je ne détiens pas de pouvoirs ["I possess no powers"], which is better than Je ne dispose pas de pouvoirs ["I have no powers at my disposal"]. I had chosen the word dispose in French (chosen, I mean, not mentally), but the word dispose came along with the meaning that the power wasn't at my disposal - there is a nuance. I mean that if, by some aberration (it would really be an aberration), if by some aberration I had the desire to work a miracle, I wouldn't be able to - it would be contrary to the supreme Will. It isn't that I am deliberately making the choice, "No, I won't work miracles" - I can't, that's not the way, it MUST NOT be like that.

You'll have a lot of difficulty driving that into people's heads!
Oh, but there has been a dreadful revolt in the Ashram's atmosphere! Not in their conscious mind, but in the subconscient - a terrible revolt. In order to write down my declaration, in order to formulate it, I had to overcome a whole mass of things, it was extraordinary! There have even been individual reactions: "Then I am going away." I said, "Very well, here is the exact proof."


It was interesting.

The doctor himself received it as a blow - he was trembling inside.

No, what should be asked, since we're always asking for something, is for the substance to become conscious enough to receive the Force and itself work its own "miracle," get cured, or this or that, anyway do the work.
Yes, it mustn't be a "favor." "Give me the Force to be what I should be," that, yes.

What triggered the whole experience (I forgot to tell you this), when I asked the Lord, "Why? Why couldn't I do something for these people who are really nice?" is that that story of the past came back, when Sri Aurobindo told me, "You are doing a work of the Overmind, you will work miracles that will fill the world with admiration ..." and so on, I told you the story. It came back massively, exactly the same thing: "That is not the truth we want...." And that's also why I stopped all those pujas of the Mother in October-November, because they all used to come with the idea of getting something: miracles, miracles, miracles - never for the True Thing. And that's what they expect of God, of course, miracles or favors, illogical and unreasonable things, instead of wanting the Divine's progressive advance.

Obviously, that's more difficult.


page 250-54 - Mother's Agenda , volume 5 , 21st Oct 1964

Mother comments again on her declaration: "I possess no powers."

Oh, it has caused a general upheaval in the atmosphere! I have even received thoughts of this kind: "So then, Sri Aurobindo deceived us!" They're furious, furious.

They haven't understood.... But anyway, it's going on in the subconscient.
No, no! They DELIBERATELY hadn't understood it before my declaration, because Sri Aurobindo never said we would work miracles! They deliberately hadn't understood. So, naturally, they're furious. But it may be better not to insist outwardly by publishing this. [[Satprem had suggested that some extracts from the last conversation be published in the Bulletin. ]] It will come in its own time.


page 254-55 - Mother's Agenda , volume 5 , 24th Oct - 1964

And all of a sudden, I saw - that's not it at all! When they have the experience, at the time of the experience, it is the thing ITSELF, the perfection ITSELF that has been reached, and they are in a state of perfection; and it is because they COME OUT of it that they feel they have to slowly prepare themselves for the result.... I don't know if I am expressing myself clearly, but my notation was like this: perfection is there, always, coexisting with imperfection - perfection and imperfection are coexistent, always, and not only simultaneous, but in the SAME PLACE (Mother presses her two hands together), I don't know how to put it - coexistent. Which means that at any second and in any conditions, you can attain perfection: it isn't something that has to be gained little by little, through successive progress; perfection is THERE, and YOU change states, from the state of imperfection to the state of perfection; and it is the capacity to remain in that state of perfection that grows for some reason or other and gives you the feeling that you must "prepare" yourself or "transform" yourself. That was very real and very concrete.


The perfection is there coexistent

with the imperfection and attainable

at each and any moment.

Yes, it isn't something that becomes: perfection is an absolute state that can be attained at any moment.


page 275 - Mother's Agenda , volume 5 , 12th Nov - 1964

Mother holds a series of slips of paper in her hand:

This morning I was in a sort of zone - a zone or a vein.... You know, the veins of gold inside the earth? It was like that. In the mental banality of the world, there was a sort of luminous vein going past and in which I found myself plunged - it felt pleasant, it felt very comfortable. And I started noting things down, when those people came with all the usual ineptitudes, each one asking something, each one shut in like this (gesture with blinkers), so it went away.

I called it, "A few definitions."

The first one was about someone going away who wanted to take something [blessed by Mother] for his family. I told him, "Oh, they aren't receptive." So he asked, "What does being receptive mean?" (He didn't ask me, but when he left the room he was scratching his head and he asked his friend, "What does Mother mean? What does being receptive mean?") I answered in English and it took many, many forms, and today, it's one of the things that came in that "vein." And what's peculiar in this sort of experience is that when it comes, the words take on a very precise meaning; I am not at all sure if it's their usual meaning, but they have the vibration of their meaning, a sort of crystalline little vibration. And it comes without alteration. I put:

"To be receptive is to feel the urge to give

and the joy of giving to the Divine's Work

all one has

all one is

all one does."


It's the one that came first. After it, there came the old story of "being pure" - what does being pure mean? It doesn't mean all kinds of old moral ideas, no.

"To be pure is to refuse ...

In other words, there was the sensation of something very active - very active: being passive wasn't enough, it was necessary to be very active.

"... to refuse any influence other than

that of the supreme Truth-Love."

"Truth-Love" as one word.

Then a third definition came:

"To be sincere is to unify one's entire being

around the supreme inner Will."

To unify one's entire being around the supreme inner Will. And this supreme Will was visible, like a flame that had the shape of a sword; and only what is governed by That is allowed to act.

Then the last one (the last because they brought me my breakfast and I had to stop):

"To be integral is to make a harmonious

synthesis of all one's possibilities."

It came along with the vibration it contained. And it could have gone on, it was there, but then I was interrupted. It's more amusing than to listen to their stories, at any rate.

The inspiration of it all was that vein of gold?

Yes. It was light, not gold. It was a light like a strip (gesture). Then one is bathed in that and one is very happy.

And it brought me (what I have just said is nothing, it was the end) a clear vision of what's necessary for the world, the necessary transformations in the mental atmosphere of the earth to put an end to wars, for instance. The "end to wars" was one of the consequences. And each thing was in its place in relation to the other (Mother draws a sort of chessboard), and there was such a clear, clear vision of all the relationships, of all the positions, of all that.

It's great fun.


page 176-78 - Mother's Agenda , volume 6, 14th July - 1965

"Always listen to what the Lord of Truth has to tell you and let your action be guided by Him."


page 203 - Mother's Agenda , volume 6, 4th Aug - 1965

(Message for Sri Aurobindo's birthday:)
Some day surely

The world too shall be saved from death by love.

Sri Aurobindo


page 218 , Mother's Agenda , volume 6 , 15th Aug - 1965

(Soon afterwards, Mother files an answer she has just sent to a disciple.)

She is a girl who has written to me several times (there are several like her), who has a well-built body, who should be quite solid and healthy, but she has an emotive and sentimental vital, and ... (somewhat ironically) they aren't "loved" as they would like to be loved. Result: one has a pain in her stomach, another has a pain elsewhere. Finally they write to ask me, "What's going on?" And the other day, I said to myself, "Why don't I tell them?" So I wrote:

"You feel lonely because you want to be loved.

Learn the joy of loving without demand, just

for the JOY OF LOVING - the most wonderful

joy in the world - and you will never more

feel lonely."

That, mon petit, for me is the key. The key that solves all problems - for me. I am not saying it will eternally be like that; it isn't the supreme truth, but for my present experience of the present time, it's the key.

page 85 , Mother's Agenda , volume 7 , 13th April - 1966

(Mother shows Satprem a note she has entitled "The rungs of Love")

The last "rung" is the absolutely pure Thing. And the power ... the creative and transforming power of that Vibration is unimaginable! While you are living it, nothing is impossible. It's unimaginable.

"At first one loves only when one is loved....

That's the usual state of human beings. Someone's vibration of love has to come to awaken love, otherwise they are inert.

"Next one loves spontaneously ...

That's already a slightly more evolved humanity. One feels love all of a sudden; one meets someone or something - ah! - and it comes. Only ...

"... but one wants to be loved in return.

One very much wants to be loved in return!

"Further on, one loves even if one is not loved ...

Those are generally people who have reached a fairly advanced yogic state.

"... but one still wants one's love to be accepted.

Yes, that's an experience I personally had. There is a time when one is quite capable of loving without response, one is above the need to be loved, but one still has ... not positively a need, but, at least, a wish that one's love may be felt and be effective.

Afterwards, it makes one smile.

"And finally one loves purely and simply without

any other need or joy than that of loving."

page 86 , Mother's Agenda , volume 7 , 16th April - 1966

"Because the Truth is supremely destructive of Falsehood and ill will; were It to act at once on the world as it is, little of it would remain.... It is patiently preparing its advent."


page 265 , Mother's Agenda , volume 7 , 15th Nov. - 1966

(Mother first reads her "message" for the year 1967:)

Men, countries, continents!

The choice is imperative:

Truth or the abyss.


page 302 , Mother's Agenda , volume 7 , 21st Dec. - 1966

Mother shows a note she has just written:

I wrote this to someone here.... He hasn't been in India for a long time, and he doesn't understand anything about Indians - which isn't a crime, but he's full of scorn. Because he doesn't understand he is full of scorn. So I wrote him this:

"One should be careful not to scorn what one

does not understand, for innumerable are the

marvels sealed from our narrow view.

"The Lord has unsuspected splendors which

He reveals progressively to our too limited under

standing."

page 35 , Mother's Agenda , volume 8 , 28th Jan - 1967

To tell the truth, the Lord makes use of everything! One is always on the way towards something.


page 38 , Mother's Agenda , volume 8 , 28th Jan - 1967

I told you the other day that I'd met D. before she left [in search of a Tibetan guru] and we had talked together. I told her about Sri Aurobindo and his teaching. But she has been converted! Yes, really. She again wrote me a letter, which I've just got today (it's the second letter she has written me from up there), in which she says she has met that famous Tibetan sage with whom she wanted to discuss.... He seems to have made fun of her - she doesn't say so, but she says he "constantly puts you face to face with your mental formations" (he must have shown her that she was feeding on words). And then she adds, "But as for me, I feel, I do feel your love always with me, and everything is fine." - Never! It's the first time in her life she has told me this.

So it gave me the idea of writing down what I told her about Sri Aurobindo's teaching:

"In order to understand and follow Sri Aurobindo's

teaching, one must learn to rise above all possibility

of contradiction."

That is, to reach the region where contradictions no longer exist. That's true. You understand, if you take quotations from Sri Aurobindo on a particular subject, you can put side by side things that are the very opposite of each other: he says one thing, then its opposite, then again something different. So to understand him and not keep saying to yourself, "But why does he constantly say the opposite of what he said just before!", you must learn to rise up above - up above, it's quite fine (!) There, it's ... very interesting. Once you are there, it's very interesting.

And from the practical point of view, the remarkable thing is that in that region, which is beyond all possible contradictions, there lies the source of the true Power.


page 171 , Mother's Agenda , volume 8 , 7th June - 1967

(Message for Sri Aurobindo's ninety-fifth birthday:)

"But in any case the Divine Power is working

always behind and one day, perhaps when one least

expects it, the obstacle breaks, the clouds vanish

and there is again the light and the sunshine. The


best thing in these cases is, if one can manage it,

not to fret, not to despond, but to insist quietly

and keep oneself open, spread to the Light and

waiting in faith for it to come: that, I have found,

shortens these ordeals."

Sri Aurobindo


page 261-62 , Mother's Agenda , volume 8 , 15th Aug - 1967

(Mother hands to Satprem the message she has given for February 21, her ninety-first birthday anniversary:)
"It is only immutable peace that can make possible eternity of existence."

page 71 , Mother's Agenda , volume 10 , 22nd feb - 1969