-453_transfromation.html

X has spoken to me several times of his lack of esteem formost people in the Ashram: 'Why does Mother keep all these
empty pots?' he says.

If he imagines for one moment that I believe all the people here are doing sadhana, he is grossly mistaken!

The idea is that the earth as a whole must be prepared in all its forms, including even those least ready for the transformation. There must be a symbolic representation of all the elements on earth upon which we can work to establish the link.' The earth is a symbolic representation of the universe, and the group is a symbolic representation of the earth.

Sri Aurobindo and I had discussed the matter in 1914 (quite a long time ago), for we had seen two possibilities: what we are now doing, or to withdraw into solitude and isolation until we had not only attained the Supermind, but begun the material transformation as well. And Sri Aurobindo rightfully said that we could not isolate ourselves, for as you progress, you become more and more universalized, and consequently ... you take the burden upon yourself # in any case.

1. With the Supramental World.

2. Original English.

And life itself has responded by bringing people forward to form a nucleus. Of course, we clearly saw that this would make the work a bit more complex and difficult (it gives me a heavy responsibility, an enormous material work), but from the overall point of view - for the Work - it's indispensable and even inevitable. And in any case, as we were later able to verify, each one represents simultaneously a possibility and a special difficulty to resolve. I have even said, I believe, that each one here is an impossibility.'

1. 'Each one here represents an impossibility to be resolved'; Words of the Mother, p. 14 (January 15, 1933).

page 416 , Mother's Agenda , volume - 1, 20 sept. 1960

I came out of this trance two hours later, at 3 a.m. And during these two hours I saw ... with a new consciousness, a new vision, and above all a NEW POWER - I had a vision of the entire Work: all the people, all the things, all the systems, all of it. And it was ... it was different in appearance (this is only because appearances depend upon the needs of the moment), but mainly it differed IN POWER - A considerable difference. Considerable. The power itself was no longer the same. [[Later, Mother added: 'The Power that was acting was no longer the power that had been acting previously.' ]] A truly ESSENTIAL change in the body has occurred.

I see that the body will have to - how can I express it? ... It will have to accustom itself to this new Power. But essentially the change has been accomplished.

It's not ... it is far, very far from being the final change, there's a lot more to be done. But we may say that it's the conscious and total presence of the supramental Force in the body.

page 43 , Mother's Agenda , volume - 1, 24th Jan. 1961

But you know, it's no joke, this transformation!

(silence)

Yesterday I had such a strong feeling that ALL constructions, all habits, all ways of seeing, all ordinary reactions, were all crumbling away - completely. I felt I was suspended in something ... entirely different, something ... I don't know.

(silence)

And truly, with the feeling that ALL one has lived, all one has known, all one has done, all of it is a perfect illusion - that's what I was living yesterday evening.

And then....

It's one thing to have the spiritual experience of the illusion of material life (some find this painful, but I found it so wonderfully beautiful and happy that it was one of the loveliest experiences of my life); but now the whole spiritual construction as one has lived it is becoming ... a total illusion! Not the same illusion, a far more serious illusion.

If That was not there.... Obviously, That [divine Love] is here, like a mattress placed so you won't break your neck when you fall. That's precisely the feeling: this experience of the vibration of divine Love is the mattress ... so you don't break your neck!

So, petit, don't brood; whatever your difficulties may be (laughing), you can tell yourself they are only beginning!

And I'm not exactly a baby; I have been here forty-seven years, and for something like ... yes, certainly for sixty years I have been doing a conscious yoga, with all that memories of an immortal life can bring - and see where I am! When Sri Aurobindo says you must have endurance, I think he is right!

This path is not for the weak, that's for sure.

I believe this body has suffered as much as a body can bear without going to pieces, and it keeps going, it has never asked for mercy - not once has it said, 'No, it's too much,' not once. It says, 'As You will, Lord: here I am.'

And so it continues.

Well, I'm never going to tell people that it's just a promenade! No, it's nothing like a promenade. Some say, 'Oh, you're too severe!' But too bad for them; it's better to tell the truth, isn't it?

We mustn't get discouraged.

The absolute certainty of the Victory is unquestionable; but I am not speaking at the scale of our bounded mind. It's up to us to CHANGE TACK - this is what's expected of us, to change tack and not keep going round in circles.

There you are, petit.

It's a process of tempering, you know - we get tempered.

And there's no point in giving up, because it would just have to be started all over again next time. What I always say is: 'Here's the opportunity - go right to the end.' It's no use saying, 'Ah, I can't,' because next time it will be even more difficult.

page 147-48 - Mother's Agenda , volume - 2 , 27th March 1961

But even accepting all these misadventures a priori, things remain difficult because there's a double movement: both a cellular transformation and a capacity for '"something" that could replace expansion with readjustment, a constant intercellular reorganization. [[Mother later clarified the meaning of this sentence: "I saw that to follow the Supreme in the Becoming one has to be able to expand, because the universe expands in the Becoming - the amount of expansion in the universe is not matched by an equal amount of dissolution. So it is really necessary to be able to grow, as a child grows, to expand; but at the same time, for things to progress, this process of expansion demands a constant inner reorganization. As the quantity is increased (if we can speak of quantity here), so must the quality be simultaneously maintained by an ongoing internal reorganization of intercellular relationships." ]]

So long as there's no question of physical transformation, the psychological and in large part, the subjective point of view is sufficient - and that's relatively easy. But when it comes to incorporating matter into the work, matter as it is in this world where the very starting point is false (we start off in unconsciousness and ignorance), well, it's very difficult. Because, to recover the consciousness it has lost, Matter has had to individualize itself, and for that - for the form to last and retain this possibility of individuality - it has been created with a certain indispensable measure of rigidity. And that rigidity is the main obstacle to the expansion, to the plasticity and suppleness necessary for receiving the Supermind. I constantly find myself facing this problem, which is utterly concrete, absolutely material when you're dealing with cells that have to remain cells and not vaporize into some nonphysical reality, and at the same time have to have a suppleness, a lack of rigidity, enabling them to widen indefinitely. There have been times, while working in the most material mind (the mind ingrained in the material substance), when I felt my brain swelling and swelling and swelling, and my head becoming so large it seemed about to burst! On two occasions I was forced to stop, because it was ... (was it only an impression, or was it a fact?) in any event it seemed dangerous, as if the head would burst, because what was inside was becoming too tremendous (it was that power in Matter, that very powerful deep blue light which has such powerful vibrations; it is able to heal, for example, and change the functioning of the organs - really a very powerful thing materially). Well then, that's what was filling my head, more and more, more and more, and I had the feeling that my skull was (it was painful, you know) ... that there was a pressure inside my skull pushing out, pushing everything out.... I wondered what was going to happen. Then, instead of following the movement, helping it along and going with it, I became immobile, passive, to see what would happen. And both times it stopped. I was no longer helping the movement along, you see, I simply remained passive - and it came to a halt, there was a sort of stabilization.

(silence)

But Sri Aurobindo must have had the experience [of cellular expansion], because he said positively that it COULD be done.

The question, of course, is the supramentalization of MATTER - the consciousness, that's nothing at all. Most people who have had that experience had it on the mental level, which is relatively

easy. It's very easy: abolition of limits set by the ego, indefinite expansion with a movement following the rhythm of the Becoming. Mentally, it's all very easy. Vitally.... A few months after I withdrew to my room, I had the experience in the vital - wonderful, magnificent! Of course to have the experience there, the mind must have undergone a change, one must be in complete communion; without exception, any individual vital being that hasn't been prepared by what might be called a sufficient mental foundation would be panic-stricken. All those poor people who get scared at the least little experience had better not dabble with this - they'd panic! But as it happens - through divine grace, you might say - my vital, the vital being of this present incarnation, was born free and victorious. It has never been afraid of anything in the vital world; the most fantastic experiences were practically child's play. But when I had that experience, it was so interesting that for a few weeks I was tempted to stay in it; it was.... I once told you a little about that experience (it was quite a while ago, at least two years).[[This is part of the lost treasures, never noted down, because at the time Satprem was not aware that the experiences Mother was relating to him were already part of the Agenda.. ]] I told you that even during the day I seemed to be sitting on top of the Earth - that was this realization in the vital world. And what fantastic nights it gave me! Nights I have never been able to describe to anyone and never mentioned - but I would look forward to the night as a marvelous adventure.

I voluntarily renounced all that in order to go further. And when I did it, I understood what people here in India mean when they say: he surrendered his experience. I had never really understood what that meant. When I did it, I understood. "No," I said, "I don't want to stop there; I am giving it all to You, that I may go on to the end." Then I understood what it meant.

Had I kept it, oh - I would have become one of those world-renowned phenomena, turning the course of the earth's history upside down! A stupendous power! Stupendous, unheard-of.... But it meant stopping there, accepting that experience as final - I went on.

Well. So now, what can I tell you that's interesting - everything I've just said is a sort of miscellany, and three-fourths unusable.

page 35-38 - Mother's Agenda , volume 3 , 12th Jan. 1962

Actually, we'll be able to speak of what transforms Matter only when Matter is ... at least a bit transformed, when there is a beginning of transformation. Then we can talk about the process. But for the moment....

(silence)

But any transformation in the being, on any plane, always has repercussions on the planes below. There is always an action. Even those things which seem purely intellectual certainly have an effect on the structure of the brain.

And these kinds of revelations happen only in a silent mind - or at least a mind at rest. Unless the mind is absolutely tranquil and still, it doesn't come. Or if it does come, you don't even notice anything with all the racket you're making! And of course, these experiences help the tranquillity, the silence and receptivity to become better and better established. This sense of something utterly immobile, but not closed - immobile, but open and receptive - gets more established the more you have these experiences. There is a big difference between a dead, lackluster, unresponsive silence and the receptive silence of a quieted mind. It makes a big difference. And it results from these experiences. All the progress we make is always, quite naturally, the result of truths coming down from above.

It has an effect: all these things have an effect on the way the body functions - the workings of the organs, the brain, the nerves and so forth. And this will certainly take place long before there is any effect on the external form.

Actually, when people speak of transformation, they're mainly thinking of a picturesque transformation, aren't they? A beautiful appearance - luminous, supple, plastic, changing at will.... But they don't give much thought to this other thing, this rather ... anesthetic transformation of the organs! And yet it's certainly what's going to happen first, long before the appearance is transformed.

page 365 - Mother's Agenda , volume 3 , 6th Oct. 1962

Sri Aurobindo spoke of the working of the chakras [[Chakras: centers of consciousness. ]] replacing the organs.

Yes - 300 years, he said! (Mother laughs.)

(silence)

With a bit of reflection it's easy to understand: if it were a question of stopping something and starting something ELSE, it might be done rather rapidly. But to keep a body alive (to keep it functioning) and AT THE SAME TIME have enough of a new functioning so that it stays alive, and then a transformation - that makes a very difficult combination to realize. I am fully aware of it, fully aware ... of the immense amount of time that's needed for this to be done without catastrophe.

Above all, of course, when we come to the heart: to replace the heart with the center of Power, a formidable, dynamic power! (Mother laughs) At what precise MOMENT are you going to eliminate the circulation and throw in the Force!

It is ... it's difficult.

page 366 - Mother's Agenda , volume 3 , 6th Oct. 1962

And for the being - that sort of individual aggregate - to be transformed, it needs in effect to grow simpler and simpler. All those complexities of Nature which man is now beginning to understand and study, which for the smallest thing are so complex (the smallest of our physical workings is the result of such a complex system that it's almost unthinkable ... certainly it would be impossible for the human mind to think up and contrive all those things), are now being discovered by science. And it's quite plain to see that for the functioning to become divine, that is, to escape Disorder and Confusion, it must grow simpler and simpler.

page 142 , Mother's Agenda, volume 4 , 15th May 1963

All the means of getting out have been found and practiced. But only for getting out individually, or above - nobody has ever found the key to the change, the way to make that "thing" cease to exist.

Because it can cease only in order to become SOMETHING ELSE.

And to become something else, there must be that leaven of transformation.

There is a period (a period which from the human point of view may seem long, but which can certainly ...), a transitional period which must begin with the perception of what has to come, followed by the aspiration, the will to become it, and then the work of transformation.

How far have we gone in that work of transformation?

(silence)

Sri Aurobindo came with the notion, or the Command, or the conviction that it was in the present. But to what extent is the transformation present? And what does "present" mean? What span of time does it cover?...

There is such a certitude - such a certitude that the thing is ALREADY there, but that's when you see it from the other end. Seen from this end here ... When you see it on the scale of human beings and world events, how much time will it take? I don't know. And how far have we traveled, where are we on the road? I don't know.

And quite clearly, certainties as WE conceive of them, I mean someone who knows (and someone who knows can only be the Supreme) and tells you clearly, "Here is where you stand," and with YOUR way of seeing things, well (Mother laughs), such certainties aren't to be expected, it seems! Probably it's quite stupid to ask the question.

You do feel it's a bit stupid, but you often feel the need to know!

page 185 - Mother's Agenda , volume 4 , 22th June 1963

The big difficulty, in Matter, is that the material consciousness, that is to say, the mind in Matter, was formed under the pressure of difficulties - difficulties, obstacles, suffering, struggle. It was, so to speak, "worked out" by those things, and that gave it an imprint almost of pessimism and defeatism, which is certainly the greatest obstacle. This is the thing I am conscious of in my own work.

The most material consciousness, the most material mind, is in the habit of having to be whipped into acting, into making effort and moving forward, otherwise it's tames. So then, if it imagines, it always imagines the difficulty - always the obstacle, always the opposition, always the difficulty ... and that slows down the movement terribly. So it needs very concrete, very tangible and VERY REPEATED experiences to be convinced that behind all its difficulties, there is a Grace; behind all its failures, there is the Victory; behind all its pain and suffering and contradictions, there is Ananda. Of all the efforts, this is the one that has to be repeated most often: you are constantly forced to stop, put an end to, drive away, convert a pessimism, a doubt or a totally defeatist imagination.

I am speaking exclusively of the material consciousness.

Naturally, when something comes from above, it goes vrrm! like that, so everything falls silent and waits and stops. But ... I well understand why the Truth, the Truth-Consciousness, doesn't express itself more constantly: it's because the difference between its Power and the power of Matter is so great that the power of Matter is as if canceled - but then, that doesn't mean Transformation: it means a crushing. It doesn't mean a transformation. That's what used to be done in the past: they would crush the entire material consciousness under the weight of a Power that nothing can fight, nothing can oppose; and then they would feel, "Here we are! It's happened!" It hadn't happened at all! Because the rest down below remained as it was, unchanged.

I think that for the effect to be lasting (not to be, as I said, a miraculous effect that comes, dazzles, and goes away), for it to be truly the effect of a TRANSFORMATION, one has to be very, very, VERY patient. We are dealing with a very slow, very heavy, very obstinate consciousness, which cannot move on rapidly, which holds on tight to what it has, to what has seemed to it to be a "truth": even if it is a very small truth, that consciousness holds on tight to it and doesn't want to budge anymore. So to cure that takes a great deal of patience - a great, great deal of patience.

The whole thing is to endure - endure and endure.

Sri Aurobindo said it several times, in various forms: Endure and you will conquer.... Bear - bear and you will vanquish.

The triumph belongs to the most enduring.

page 222-24 , Mother's Agenda , volume 5 , 7th Oct - 1964

It's a vicious circle. The impression is that the transformation cannot come about without a development or a general receptivity

on the earth, a greater preparation on the earth, and at the same time, that greater preparation on the earth isn't possible without an acceleration of your transforming force.

Yes, but it acts, only it's an infinitesimal action. That's why millions of years are nothing. This stagnation, for instance, exists only for our consciousness; it's because the human consciousness, after all, measures everything on its own scale. For it, the history of the earth is an infinite - it isn't so in universal history, but for the human being, the impression is of an infinite (he knows very well that it isn't so, but that's theoretical knowledge), so then, on this scale, nothing changes - but that's not true.

Yes, but it should be done in the space of one lifetime.

Oh, that ...

That will only be the last life - the last life before the transformation. That will be the life of the transformation. Which means that all that has been prepared for millions and millions of years will be realized one fine day, and when it is realized, the one (the one or the ones, whatever) for whom it is realized will say, "Here, we've done it!" (Mother laughs) Forgetting that it took millions of years to prepare for that minute!

It would be good for that minute to come soon.

Ah, that's exactly the refrain I keep hearing all the time: "You say that the Truth is manifesting, well, we really hope it will win the Victory soon"!

I don't know.

Sri Aurobindo, when I saw him the first time, told me, "The others came to prepare and left, but this time, it's to ACHIEVE." He, too, left.

page 261 , Mother's Agenda , volume 6 , 25th Sep - 1965

But I've noticed that when I do material things - small things - there seems to be a tremendous vital force flowing into the

work, and in the end I find myself exhausted through having

done nothing at all! How come all that vital energy goes away?

It's because all the vital force is used to keep the body's balance in the phase of transformation. That's what I have called "the change of government," it's the phase of transformation. And during that change, well, all the vital force is there just to keep your balance so you don't topple over. Because it's difficult.

One must remain very calm and do what is indispensable, nothing more.

In ordinary life, when one doesn't know, with people who don't know, there is a tremendous wastage of vital forces, for no reason. Well, we no longer have the right to do that because all that vital force is there, as I said, concentrated to keep the body's balance.

page 117-18 , Mother's Agenda , volume 7 , 22nd May - 1966

After reading a hitherto

unpublished letter of

Sri Aurobindo's

"... Although St. Paul had remarkable mystic experiences and, certainly, much profound spiritual knowledge (profound rather than wide, I think) - I would not swear to it that he is referring [["For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." (I Corinthians 15:53-54) ]] to the supramentalised body (physical body). Perhaps to the supramental body or to some other luminous body in its own space and substance, which he found sometimes as if enveloping him and abolishing this body of death which he felt the material envelope to be. This verse like many others is capable of several interpretations and might refer to a quite supraphysical experience. The idea of a transformation of the body occurs in different traditions, but I have never been quite sure that it meant the change in this very matter. There was a yogi some time ago in this region who taught it, but he hoped when the change was complete, to disappear in light. The Vaishnavas speak of a divine body which will replace this one when there is the complete siddhi. But, again, is this a divine physical or supraphysical body? At the same time there is no obstacle in the way of supposing that all these ideas, intuitions, experiences point to, if they do not exactly denote, the physical transformation."[[Cent. Ed., 24.1237. ]]

Sri Aurobindo
December 24, 1930

Oddly, these last few days again, this has been the subject of my meditations (not willed ones: they are imposed from above). Because in all the transition from plant to animal and from animal to man (especially from animal to man), the differences of form are, ultimately, minor: the true transformation is the intervention of another agent of consciousness. All the differences between the life of the animal and the life of man stem from the intervention of the Mind; but the substance is essentially the same and it obeys the same laws of formation and construction. There isn't much difference, for instance, between the calf being formed in a cow's womb and the child being formed in its mother's womb. There is one difference: that of the Mind's intervention. But if we envisage a PHYSICAL being, that is, as visible as the physical now is and with the same density, for instance a body that wouldn't need blood circulation and bones (especially these two things: the skeleton and blood circulation) ... it's very hard to imagine. And as long as it is like this, with this blood circulation, this functioning of the heart, we could imagine - we can imagine - the renewal of strength, of energy through a power of the Spirit, through other means than food. It's conceivable. But the rigidity, the solidity of the body, how is it possible without a skeleton?... So it would be an infinitely greater transformation than that from animal to man; it would be a transition from man to a being that would no longer be built in the same way, that would no longer function in the same way, that would be like a densification or concretization of ... "something." Up till now, it doesn't correspond to anything we have seen physically, unless the scientists have found something I am not aware of.

We may conceive of a new light or force giving the cells a sort of spontaneous life, a spontaneous strength.

Yes, that's what I said: food can disappear. That's conceivable.

But the whole body could be driven by that force. The body could remain supple, for instance. While still having its bone structure, it could remain supple, with the suppleness of a child.

But that's just why a child can't stand! He can't exert himself. What would replace the bone structure, for example?

The same elements could be there, but endowed with suppleness. Elements whose firmness doesn't stem from hardness but from the force of light, no?

Yes, that's possible.... Only, what I mean is that it may again take place through a large number of new creations. Will the transition from man to this being, for instance, perhaps take place through all kinds of other intermediaries? You understand, what I find formidable is the switch from one to the other.

I can very well conceive of a being who could, through spiritual power, the power of his inner being, absorb the necessary forces, renew himself and remain ever young; that's quite easily conceivable; even providing for a certain suppleness so as to be able to change the form if necessary. But the complete disappearance of this system of construction right away - from one to the other right away, that seems ... It appears to require stages.

Obviously, unless something happens (which we are forced to call a "miracle" because we can't understand how it could happen), how can a body like ours become a body entirely built and driven by a higher force, and without a material support? ... How can this (Mother pinches the skin of her hands), how can this change into that other thing?... It appears impossible.

It seems miraculous, but ...

Yes, in all my experiences, I understand quite well the possibility of not having to eat anymore, of that whole process being done away with (changing the method of absorption, for instance, is possible), but how do you change the structure?

I am absolutely convinced (because I've had experiences that proved it to me) that the life of this body - its life, what makes it move and change - can be replaced by a force; that is to say, a sort of immortality can be created, and the wear and tear can disappear. These two things are possible: the power of life can come, and the wear and tear can disappear. And it can come about psychologically, through total obedience to the divine Impulsion, so that every moment you have the force you need, you do the thing that must be done - all these things, all of them are certitudes. Certitudes. They're not a hope, not an imagining: they are certitudes. Of course, you must educate the body and slowly transform and change the habits. It can be done, all that can be done. But the question is, how much time would it take to do away with the necessity (to take just this problem) of the skeleton? This is still very far ahead, it seems to me. Which means many intermediary stages will be needed. Sri Aurobindo said that life can be prolonged indefinitely. Yes, that's clear. But we aren't yet built with something that completely escapes dissolution, the necessity of dissolution. Bones are very durable, they can even last a thousand years if conditions are favorable, that's agreed, but it doesn't mean immortality IN PRINCIPLE. Do you understand what I mean?

page 216-20 , Mother's Agenda , volume 7 , 30th Sep - 1966

If everything could be transformed at the same time, it would be all right, but it's clearly not like that. If one being were transformed all alone ...

page 222 , Mother's Agenda , volume 7 , 30th Sep - 1966

(After Satprem has read to Mother the conversation of September 30, in which she envisaged the transition from man to the new being.)

My feeling (it's a sort of feeling-sensation) is that intermediary stages are necessary.

And then, when you see how man has had to fight against all of Nature in order to exist, you get the feeling that those who will understand and love those beings will have with them a relationship of devotion, attachment, service, as animals have with man; but those who won't love them ... will be dangerous beings. I remember, I once had a very clear vision of the precarious situation of those new beings, and I said (this was before 1956, before the descent of the supramental power), I said, "The Supramental will first manifest in its aspect of Power, because that will be indispensable for the safety of the beings." And it was indeed Power that descended first - Power and Light. The Light that gives Knowledge and Power.

That's something I feel more and more clearly: the necessity of intermediary phases.... It's perfectly obvious that something is going on, but it's not the "something" that was seen and foreseen and will be the ultimate outcome: what's going to take place is ONE of the stages, not the ultimate outcome.

Sri Aurobindo also said, "There will first come the power to prolong life at will" (it's far more subtle and marvelous than that). But that's a state of consciousness which is now being established: it's a sort of constant and settled relationship and contact with the supreme Lord, which abolishes the sense of wear and tear; it replaces it with a sort of extraordinary flexibility, an extraordinary plasticity. But the SPONTANEOUS state of immortality isn't possible - at least not for the time being. This structure must be changed into something else, and judging from the way things are going on, it will take a long time before it's changed into something else. It may go much faster than in the past, but even assuming that the movement is speeding up, it still takes time (according to our notion of time). And the rather remarkable thing is that to be in the state of consciousness in which wear and tear no longer exists, you must change your sense of time: you enter a state in which time no longer has the same reality. It's something else. It's very peculiar ... it's an innumerable present. I don't know.... Even that habit we have of thinking ahead of time or foreseeing what's going to happen or ... it hinders, it reconnects you with the old way of being.

So many, so many habits that have to be changed.

page 310 , Mother's Agenda , volume 7 , 31st Dec - 1966

(Satprem asks Mother what he should do with the text of the

"instructions" of January 14 which Mother gave in the event of

her going into a long period of trance.)

I am going to keep it. When I receive the command to circulate it, I'll circulate it.

(silence)

I have seen rather clearly that that trance depended on the ratio between two aspects, the proportion between two aspects: that of the individual transformation (that is, the transformation of this body), and that of the general, collective and impersonal work.

If a certain balance is kept, that state [of prolonged trance] may be dispensed with, but then the same work which would have been done in a few weeks or months (I don't know) will extend over years

- years and years. So it's a question of patience - patience isn't lacking. But it's not only a question of patience, it's a question of proportion: there must be a certain balance between the two, between the outside pressure of the external work (not "external," the collective work), and the pressure on the body for its transformation. If wisdom is still there, that is, if the instrument is constantly and infallibly capable of doing exactly what is expected of it (to put it into words: the supreme Lord's precise will), then the trance might not be necessary. It would only be if out of ignorance there is a resistance in the execution.

That's how I feel.

This possibility of transformation in trance was announced to the body some ... yes, about sixty years ago now, and periodically afterwards. And there has always been a prayer: "No, may it not be necessary: it's the method of laziness." It's the method of inertia. Now all those preferences, all that is gone. There is only an increasingly alerted, awakened consciousness, but awakened to the point of being alerted to the possibility of unconscious resistances, with the will for them to disappear. All depends on the plasticity, the receptivity.

You understand, even if this body is told, "You will have to last a hundred or two hundred years for the work to be done without trance," it says, "It's all the same to me." All it wants is to be conscious. All it wants is, "Lord, to be conscious of Your consciousness," nothing else. That's its sole, exclusive will: "To be conscious of Your consciousness," that is, to consciously become You in another mode. But it isn't in a hurry, because it has no reason to be in a hurry.

You said just before (if I understood right) that that "state"may last for years. Were you referring to the state of trance?

No, that's not possible.

It's not possible.

No, it isn't.

The duration of that trance doesn't depend on outward condi tions, on the preparation of the world, for instance?

I don't think so.

That's another possibility that came up in the past (but it's part of the vision of all possibilities - there are all kinds of possibilities). Once, there was that vision (I had it when Sri Aurobindo was here) of the whole town [of Pondicherry] engulfed by bombs, I think (I don't remember now,[[See Agenda III, November 20, 1962, p. 428. ]] but it wasn't lived: it was known as something that had happened), and the engulfing had caused a sort of burial very deep underground, in a grotto with a radiant atmosphere, so that the body had been preserved. Then I woke up two thousand years later. The experience started after those two thousand years: I saw how I had learned where I was and how I had come out of that grotto, how I had found out the number of years that had elapsed, and so on. All that happened one day and I told it to Sri Aurobindo. He said to me, "It's one of the innumerable possibilities that offers itself up in order to be manifested." He didn't attach more importance to it than that. All kinds of things come up as possibilities.

So you don't envisage the possibility of a long duration - that trance can't be very long?

I don't think that's materially possible.

And the purpose of that trance would basically be to fix thesupramental vibration in the body?

To transform what's not receptive.

There are billions of elements in the body, so it's a mixture of receptivity and nonreceptivity. It's still mixed. And that mixture is why the appearance [Mother's physical appearance] remains what it is. So making everything receptive, in every element, is a work, you understand, a formidable work. If it had to be done in detail, it would be impossible, but through the pressure of the Force it can be done. So then, the trance would be made necessary precisely so it's done fast (relatively fast). This work is BEING DONE (I am myself conscious of it), but, you understand (laughing), it may stretch over hundreds of years! That's what Sri Aurobindo said: a state of consciousness has to be established in which the collective life of the cells can be preserved for as long as desired; in other words, the Lord's Will must be sufficiently active for the balance between all those elements to be kept for as long as necessary

for all of them to change. And always, it has always been said that the most external form would be the last to change; that the whole internal, organic functioning would be changed before the external form, the appearance (it's only an appearance, of course); that the appearance would be the last to change.

It seems to me to be the legacy of primordial habits - the habits of Matter. This Matter, of course, comes from total unconsciousness, and throughout the ages and all the ways of being, it returns to total consciousness - it goes from one extreme to the other; well, what gives that need for trance is the habits of static immobility. It shouldn't be necessary. Only (how can I explain?...), logically, as things are, it depends on the balance between the body's capacity of receptivity and its external activity: it's obviously far more receptive when it is immobile, because its energies are turned to the transformation.

There is another thing that could help to change the course of events: it's that the vital is growing increasingly receptive and collaborative. This whole vital zone, which was the zone of revolt and deliberate opposition to the divine transformation, is growing increasingly collaborative, and with its collaboration (because this vital zone is the zone of movement, action, energy put to use), with its conscious collaboration, the methods of transformation may become different (it's something I have been studying these last few days). It may change the methods. But that's a whole world to be learned.

One should grow increasingly not only attentive but receptive, with a precision in details which would every second give one the knowledge of what should be done and how it should be done (not outwardly: inwardly). These cells should learn to have every second the attitude necessary for everything to unfold smoothly, keeping pace with the supreme Consciousness.

To replace the need for immobility and immobile rest by the power of inner concentration and peace - that peace which is perfectly independent of action, which can be there, unchanging, even in the midst of the most frantic actions.

Is that where you envisage the vital's intervention?

Yes.

I often wonder what the best possible attitude is for us. Is it better to be simply in a state of silence, open to the heights, a wide
silence, or...

I think that's it.

But what's the alternative?

Or should one have, I don't know, a special concentration inthe activity?

No, because the transformation is the only thing that doesn't call for the mind's intervention: the mind befuddles everything.

I clearly see what its use will be - why there has been the mind, why it exists, what its use will be - but that will come afterwards.

The mind will be transformed quite naturally, effortlessly; it's not the same as with this body. But for the moment, it can't be used as yet. It can be used only through aspiration, like this (gesture opened to the heights), a constant aspiration - the constancy of aspiration and receptivity to let the forces and the light come through.

There. So we'll meet again on Saturday.

I'll bring you the text of those "instructions."

Yes. There's no hurry - I don't think there is. It's better if it's ready, but ... The higher part of the consciousness is clearly in favor of the trance being unnecessary. And if the lower part becomes receptive enough in time, it won't be necessary. Or else, it will amount to very little. Just keep the text, that's all, keep it ready (Mother laughs).[[These "instructions'' were distributed a few days later. ]]

page 25-29 , Mother's Agenda , volume 8 , 14th Jan - 1967

Every disease represents its own vibratory mode. Every disease has its own vibratory mode; it represents a whole field of vibrations to be corrected. It's the EXACT measure of what in Matter resists the divine Influence - the exact measure, to the atom.

Oh, how interesting it is, if you knew how interesting.... Take coughing, for instance (not in the chest, in the throat). So, the first vibration: an irritation that draws your attention in order to make you cough. It has a certain kind of vibration which we may call "pointed," but it's not violent: it's light, annoying. It's the first little vibration. So with that vibration, awakening of the attention in the surrounding consciousness [of the throat cells]; then refusal to accept the cough, a rejection here [in the throat], which at first almost causes nausea (all this is seen through a microscope, you understand, they are tiny things). The attention is focused. Then, at that point, there are several possible factors, sometimes simultaneous and sometimes one driving the other away; one is anxiety: something goes wrong and there is apprehension at what's going to happen; another is a will that nothing should be disturbed by the irritation; and all of a sudden, the faith that the Force is capable of restoring order everywhere instantly (none of this is intellectual: it's vibrations).

Then, sometime yesterday morning, something very interesting took place: a clear perception that the vast majority of the cells (in THIS case: I'm not talking about the whole body, I am talking about this particular spot - throat, nose, etc.), that the vast majority of the cells still have a sort of feeling - which seems to be the result of innumerable experiences or of habits (it's both; not clearly one or the other, but both) - that Nature's force, that is to say, the nature governing the body, knows what needs to be done better than the divine Power: it's "used to it," it "knows better." That's how it is. So then, when this new consciousness [the mind of the cells] which is being worked out in the physical being caught hold of that, oh, it was as if it had caught hold of an extraordinary revelation; it said, "Ah, I've got you, you culprit! You are the one who is preventing the transformation."

It's tremendously interesting, tremendously interesting!

page 45 , Mother's Agenda , volume 8 , 8th Feb - 1967

Yes, this problem of the transformation, I see more and more clearly that there are three approaches, three ways to go about it, and that in order to be more complete one should combine the three.

One - the most important, naturally - is the way we could call "spiritual," the way of the contact with the Consciousness - Love-Consciousness-Power, that is. These three aspects: supreme Love-Consciousness-Power. And the contact, the identification: making all the material cells capable of receiving Him and expressing Him - of BEING That.

Of all the ways, that is the most powerful and most indispensable.

There is the occult way, which brings all the intermediary worlds into play. There is a very detailed knowledge of all the powers and personalities, all the intermediary regions, and it makes use of all that. That's where one makes use of the Overmind godheads: it's in this second way. Shiva, Krishna, all the aspects of the Mother are part of this second way.

Then there is the higher intellectual approach, which is the projection of a surpassing scientific mind and takes up the problem from below. It has its own importance too. From the standpoint of the detail of the procedure, it reduces approximation, it gives a more direct and precise action.

If one can combine all three, then obviously the thing will go faster.

Without the first, nothing is possible (and even, the other two are an illusion without the first: they lead nowhere, you go round in circles endlessly). But if you clothe the first in the other two, then I think the action is more precise, direct, rapid.

It's the result of these last few days' "study."

page 72-73 , Mother's Agenda , volume 8 , 4th March - 1967

But Sri Aurobindo's conclusion is that it isn't this [the body] that can change: it will be a new being.

No! He says "if" man cannot, it will be a new being.

No, I don't mean here in this text, I mean in the things he wrote afterwards.

?...

Besides, it's the same problem, because ... Can a body change?... It does seem very difficult - though not impossible. It's not impossible, but ... it's such a formidable labor that life is too short. So even there, something needs to be changed, that habit of wear and tear is indeed a terrible thing.

Yes, but where would a "new being" come from? He won'tdrop from heaven, will he?!

Of course not, that's just the problem! The more you look at it ... It won't come that way (Mother laughs), it will obviously come in a similar way that man came from the animal. But we lack the stages between the animal and man - we may think them up, imagine them, they have found some things, but to tell the truth we weren't there to see it all! We don't know how it happened. But that doesn't matter.... According to some, the transformation can be consciously begun inwardly by forming the child. It may be, I am not saying no. It may be. Then he will have to form another more transformed, and so on - several stages, which will disappear just as the stages between the ape and man disappeared?

Well, yes, that is the whole story of human improvement.

We can call it what we like, of course. But a NEW BEING ... We can imagine, as you say, a new being coming down ready-made from start to finish! ... But that's pulp fiction.

That's what Sri Aurobindo also says. That being must be worked out.

After two or three - or four or ten or twenty, I don't know - intermediary beings, there would come the new way, the supramental way of creating.... But will it be necessary to have children? Will it not do away with the need to have children in order to replace those who go, since they will now live on indefinitely? They will transform themselves sufficiently to adapt to the new needs.

All that is quite conceivable in the long term.

Yes, in the long term.

But Sri Aurobindo and you are here so it's done in the short term!

No, Sri Aurobindo didn't conceive of it in the short term.

Anyway, so it's done by you. Whether in the long or the shortterm, so it's done by you in this life and this body.

But what I see ...

I am trying to do it - not out of an arbitrary will, not at all: there is simply "something," or someone, or a consciousness or whatever (I don't want to talk about it) which uses this (Mother's body) to try and do something with it. Which means that I do the work and am a witness at the same time, and as for the "I," I don't know where it is: it's not down here, it's not up above, it's not ... I don't know where it is, it's for the requirements of language. There is "something" that works and is a witness of the work at the same time, and is at the same time the action being done: the three things.

page 196-97 , Mother's Agenda , volume 8 , 24th June - 1967

Then Mother goes into

a long contemplation

It seems to be accelerated transformation, it's a little crushing. We'll see.

page 221 , Mother's Agenda , volume 9 , 3rd Aug - 1968

(Mother gives Satprem a flower called "Transformation.")

I give you the right one.

Why the "right one"?

I say that because there is confusion in many people's minds. When, from the standpoint of progress, for instance, I speak of progress, I mean "going from the mental consciousness to a higher consciousness," but people generally understand "to make progress materially or mentally or ..." So when they are told of transformation, all kinds of queer things come to their minds.... As for us, when we speak of transformation, we mean the supramental transformation.

That's why.

page 261 , Mother's Agenda , volume 9 , 25th Sep - 1968

The cells are quite, absolutely convinced that... (I'll put it in the simplest way) the Lord is all-powerful, you understand? Only, what they're not convinced of is whether He WANTS (laughing) it to be this way or that, that is to say, whether He wants the transformation to be done in an already existing body, or in stages.

But then, in stages means centuries and centuries....

Yes, naturally!

But it seems that the TIME has come, doesn't it?

There's an absolute refusal to answer.

Oh, I very well know why! Because (how shall I put it?... I must put it in a quite childlike way) physical matter is lazy so ... (laughing) if it were sure, it would let itself go!

But the one thing the body has conquered (almost totally I may say) is, no more desires, no more preferences (immutable gesture). It's replaced by ... "Only what You will." Doesn't choose, doesn't say "This is better than that" - what You will.

That's the natural and spontaneous state.

(silence)

Very well (laughing), we'll see!

No, I don't think so.

What?

I don't think so. Because, otherwise, it would really needcenturies and centuries and centuries.

Yes. But centuries, that's nothing for the Supreme.

Yes, of course.

For him, it's ...

But still, the world has reached such an acute state of sufferingand pain that ...

Yes.

The time has come for ONE body to change itself sufficiently togive a concrete hope to humanity.

Yes, yes ... Even if only, perhaps, as an example.

Yes, perhaps, but not only that, because the day that Powerwould have entered your matter so totally, you would have the
possibility of passing it on to other bodies that were ready.

Ah, but the possibility already exists. I have constant proof of that - extraordinary proof.... You know, little miracles take place all the time, all the time.

(silence)

Its clear that there will be ONE moment when the thing will occur.

page 121-122, Mother's Agenda , volume 11 , 25th March - 1970

The experience in the body is very interesting. All so-called moral, intellectual, psychological suffering, in other words, the suffering of the consciousness that is not purely material, seems childish to the body. Yesterday, it had ... (what shall I say? I don't know how to explain it). It doesn't feel things in relation to itself, it feels things ... (silence) IN others, but with a general consciousness, not a personal one; and it has such a horror of physical suffering, that is to say illnesses, accidents, that it wondered why, why the world exists like that. [[Let us point out that on this day Mother had an indirect contact (through the family) with a disciple stricken with cancer. ]] It then understood why some people don't want to have a body anymore (that always seemed absurd before), it understood why. It was such an intense experience! It had an aspiration, something like a prayer, but it's not a prayer: "May the world change! May the world change. It HAS to change -- or else disappear." The idea of disappearing had not come before, it seemed ... it used to think that the world was moving towards a harmonious perfection; but, you see, it's long -- the length of time is terrible! There was an aspiration of incredible intensity for the transformation. Everything looks so dreadful because ... because the transformation must, MUST take place. That anyone can be satisfied with a world like this is impossible -- it's impossible to a physical consciousness that is conscious of the Divine. It's impossible, it absolutely has to change. And that was so vivid ... I was gripped by it all night and all day, even while seeing people, with such an intensity: it must change, it must change.... The being, the inner consciousness can say and be conscious that that suffering is unreal, but the physical consciousness can't -- it can't, it HAS to change. It's not a matter of merging with a consciousness, leaving this physical consciousness to disappear: it has to change, it has to change.... I can't put it into words, I can't say it.

Yes, yes, I understand.

It is so very conscious that in all the worlds, even the vital world, everything depends on the attitude, and if you are in contact with the Divine, everything is fine, there's no problem, but this (Mother touches her body), this physical suffering -- cancer and all those things -- it's so concrete: It HAS to change, it has to change. It can't be considered something one must "see in a different way." It actually must change. You understand what I mean?

Yes, Mother.

In all the other domains, it depends on the attitude; here it doesn't depend on the attitude -- you may suffer more, suffer less, but.... The FACT has to change, you see. Because the world, the material world seen as it is, is a FRIGHTFUL thing.

You see, it is bearable due to the mental influence (vital and mental), but that influence is not enough, it has to be transformed.

Let me say it in a very down-to-earth way: for example, take a supramental being having the supramental consciousness, if his body gets cancer, it will remain cancer, you follow?... He may not feel anything, but only if he detaches himself from his body; whereas, for the transformation to be genuine, the body ALSO has to attain a harmony above -- above all illnesses and accidents.

It is the only part. The other parts of the being can be transformed, can transform their consciousness while remaining what they are -- but the physical body needs to change.

I don't know whether it's a passing experience or a final one -- that I don't know. We'll see.

We are just at the most difficult period.

page 186-89 - Mother's Agenda , volume 12 , 10th July - 1971

I am deep in transformation, that's why I've lost control. What I could do before I can't do anymore. I see, I clearly see the direction it will take, but it's not there yet. So now I am good-for-nothing.

My voice is completely ruined.

It's interesting only from a documentary standpoint [the present conditions], because when this experience ends, and the supermind really starts coming, things will change and it will have a mere historical value.

It's the most unpleasant moment.... The Power is here, you see, but the means of expressing it have not yet been created.

(silence)

The old control is slipping away. It's quite irksome for me -- especially for eating, for instance, it's very hard to swallow, to ... oh!

The body has simply a kind of ... perception -- a distant perception -- of what the true supramental control will be, but it's only like this (gesture into the distance), almost like a promise, nothing more.

Truly a transition between two worlds.

page 211-12 - Mother's Agenda , volume 12 , 4th Aug - 1971

It's very concrete. Take food, for example ... the best example is food. The body needs food to live, yet everything in the body is a stranger to food. So meals are becoming an almost unsolvable problem.... To put it in a simplistic way, it's as if I no longer knew how to eat, although another way of eating comes spontaneously when I don't observe myself eating. Do you understand what I mean?

Yes, yes, Mother.

And the same applies to seeing, to hearing. I feet all my faculties diminishing. In that respect, it is true, I don't know what people are doing, saying or anything, but at the same time ... At the same time - I have a MUCH TRUER perception of what they are, of what they think and do: of the world. A truer perception, but so new that I don't know how to describe it.

page 27 - Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 8th Jan - 1972-1973

For the first time, early this morning, I saw myself: my body. I don't know whether it's the supramental body or ... (what shall I say?) a transitional body, but I had a completely new body, in the sense that it was sexless: it was neither woman nor man.

It was very white. But that could be because I have white skin, I don't know.

It was very slender (gesture). Really lovely, a truly harmonious form.

That's the first time.

Especially for food: it will be very different. I am BEGINNING to understand how it will work, but I don't know enough yet to describe it - I haven't had the experience, so I don't know.... Most probably, we will absorb things that don't need to be digested - there are some. But not food as such. For example, one idea these days is glucose (things of that sort). But I am not sure because I am just undergoing the experience. Once I have the vision of what to do, I'll do it.

page 96-97 - Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 24th Mar - 1972-1973

Sujata told me about the experience you had the other day,that vision you had of your body, the transitional body.

Yes, I WAS like that. It was me; I didn't look at myself in a mirror, I saw myself like this (Mother bends her head to look at her body), I was ... I just was like that.

That's the first time. It was around four in the morning, I think. And perfectly natural - I mean, I didn't look in a mirror, it felt perfectly natural. I only remember what I saw (gesture from the chest to the waist). I was covered only with veils, so I only saw.... What was very different was the torso, from the chest to the waist: it was neither male nor female.

But it was lovely, my form was extremely svelte and slim - slim but not thin. And the skin was very white, just like my skin. A lovely form. And no sex - you couldn't tell: neither male nor female. The sex had disappeared.

The same here (Mother points to her chest), all that was flat. I don't know how to explain it. There was an outline reminiscent of what is now, but with no forms (Mother touches her chest), not even as much as a man's. A very white skin, very smooth. Practically no abdomen to speak of. And no stomach. All that was slim.

I didn't pay any special attention, you see, because I was that: it felt perfectly natural to me. That's the first time it happened, it was the night before last; but last night I didn't see anything. That was the first and the last time so far.

But this form is in the subtle physical, isn't it?

It must be already like that in the subtle physical.

But how will it pass into the physical?

That's the question I don't know.... I don't know.

I don't know.

Also, clearly there was none of the complex digestion we have now, or the kind of elimination we have now. It didn't work that way.

But how? ... Food is already obviously very different and becoming more and more so - glucose, for instance, or substances that don't require an elaborate digestion. But how will the body itself change? ... That I don't know. I don't know.

You see, I didn't look to see how it worked, for it was completely natural to me, so I can't describe it in detail. Simply, it was neither a woman's body nor a man's - that much is certain. And the outline was fairly similar to that of a very young person. There was a faint suggestion of a human form (Mother draws a form in the air): with a shoulder and a waist. Just a hint of it.

I see it but.... I saw it exactly as you see yourself, I didn't even look at myself in the mirror. And I had a sort of veil, which I wore to cover myself.

It was my way of being (there was nothing surprising in it), my natural way of being.

That must be how it is in the subtle physical.

But what's mysterious is the transition from one to the other.

Yes - how?

But it's the same mystery as the transition from chimpanzee to man.

Oh, no, Mother! It's more colossal than that! It's more colossalfor, after all, there isn't that much difference between a chim
panzee and a man.

But there wasn't such a difference in the appearance either (Mother draws a form in the air): there were shoulders, arms, legs, a body, a waist. Similar to ours. There was only....

Yes, but I mean the way a chimpanzee functions and the way a man functions are the same.

They are the same.

Well, yes! They digest the same, breathe the same.... Whereas here....

No, but here too there must have been breathing. The shoulders were strikingly broad (gesture), in contrast. That's important. But the chest was neither feminine nor even masculine: only reminiscent of it. And all that - stomach, abdomen and the rest - was simply an outline, a very slender and harmonious form, which certainly wasn't used for the purpose we now use our bodies.

The two different things - totally different - were procreation, which was no longer possible, and food. Though even our present food is manifestly not the same as that of chimpanzees or even the first humans; it's quite different. So now, it seems we have to find a food that doesn't require all this digesting.... Not exactly liquid, but not solid either. And there's also the question of the mouth - I don't know about that - and the teeth? Naturally, chewing should no longer be necessary, and therefore teeth wouldn't be either.... But there has to be something to replace them. I haven't the slightest idea what the face looked like. But it didn't seem too, too unlike what it is now.

What will change a great deal, of course - it had acquired a prominent role - is breathing. That being depended much on it.

Yes, he probably absorbs energies directly.

Yes. There will probably be intermediary beings who won't last, you see, just as there were intermediary beings between the chimpanzee and man.

But I don't know, something has to happen that has never before happened.

Yes.

page 98-100 - Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 25th Mar - 1972-1973

The other day, when I saw that little child playing (I still see it), on top of a HUGE mental head, kicking it - it's the supramental. But what are we going to call that being? ... We mustn't call it "superman," it isn't the superman: it's the supramental. Because, you see, the transition from animal to man is clear to us; the transition from man to supramental being is accomplished (or isn't) through the superman - there may be a few supermen (there are) who will actually make that transition, but that's not actually how it works. First, that supramental being has to be born. [[By mistake, Mother said "overmental being," which is probably what prompted Satprem to ask the next question. ]]

Now it's becoming plainer and plainer. The other day, I saw that little being (symbolically a child) sitting on a big mental head: it was the supramental being sitting, to symbolize its "independence," I could say, over the mind.

Things are becoming clearer. But we are just in the transitional period, the most difficult time.

Will some reach a similar state - at least similar or at any rate precursor to the supramental?.- . Such seems to be the present attempt, what is taking place now. And so you are no longer on this side, not yet on the other - you are ... (gesture in suspense). Rather a precarious condition.

Evidently, all those who are born now and are here now have asked to participate in this, they have prepared for it in previous lives. From the standpoint of global knowledge, it would be interesting to know what's happening and how it's happening. But from the individual standpoint, it's not exactly pleasant (!), the period is difficult: you are no longer on this side, not yet on the other-just in between. There we stand.

page 156 - 57 - Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 15th Apr - 1972-1973

But, of course, at best - at the very best - we are transitional beings. And well, transitional beings.... But the consciousness of the inner being ultimately gets stronger, you follow? Stronger even than the consciousness of the material being. So the material being can be dissolved, but the inner consciousness remains stronger. It is of that consciousness that we can say, "This is me."

Yes.

There you are. THAT is the important thing.

The important thing.

As for me, the purpose of this body is now simply: the Command and the Will of the Lord, so I can do as much groundwork as possible. But it isn't the Goal at all. You see, we don't know, we don't have the slightest knowledge of what the supramental life is. Therefore we don't know if this (Mother pinches the skin of her hand) can change enough to adapt or not - and to tell the truth, I am not worried about it, it's not a problem that preoccupies me too much; the problem I am preoccupied with is building that supramental consciousness So IT becomes the being. It's that consciousness which must become the being. That's what's important. As for the rest, we'll see (it's the same as worrying over a change of clothing). But it must truly be IT, you see. And in order to do that, all the consciousness contained in these cells must aggregate, form and organize itself into an independent conscious entity - the consciousness in the cells must aggregate and form into a conscious entity capable of being conscious of Matter as well as conscious of the Supramental. That's the thing. That's what is being done. How far will we be able to go? I don't know.

You understand?

Yes, Mother, I understand very well.

How far we'll go, I don't know. I feel that if I last up to my hundredth birthday, that is, another six years, much will be accomplished - much. Something significant and decisive will be accomplished. I am not saying that the body will be able to get transformed ... I have no such signs, but the consciousness - the physical, material consciousness becoming... "supramentalized."

That's it, that's the work now in progress. And that's what's important. You too, you must be able, you must be destined to do that also, hence your disgust. But instead of dwelling on the disgust, you should dwell on the identification with the consciousness you are in when you are sitting still. You follow? That's the important part.

That's the important part.

(Satprem rests his forehead on

Mother's knees. Sujata approaches)

I am beginning to understand why Sri Aurobindo always said it was woman (Mother caresses Sujata's cheek with her finger) that could build a bridge between the two. I am beginning to understand. One day, I'll explain. I am beginning to understand. Sri Aurobindo used to say: it is woman that can build a bridge between the old world and the supramental world. Now I understand.

(Satprem:) Yes, I understand too.

Then it's all right. We must have patience.

page 170-71 - Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 26th Apr - 1972-1973

I think I already told you, there's a kind of golden Force pressing down (gesture); it has no material substantiality, and yet it feels terribly heavy....

Truly the Power is IN the world, a new and stupendous Power which has come into the world to manifest the divine Almightiness and make it "manifestable," so to say.

And in the body, whatever has trouble adjusting to this new Power creates difficulties, disorders and illnesses. Yet in a flash you sense that if you were totally receptive, you would become formidable. That's the sensation. That's more and more my sensation: that if the entire consciousness, the entire most material consciousness - the most material - were receptive to this new Power ... one would become for-mi-dable.

page 175-77 - Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 6th May - 1972-1973

Evidently someone had to do it. When Sri Aurobindo left, he told me that I alone could do it. I said all right.... So, I don't do it out of ambition - I just accepted, that's all.

page 183 - Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 17th May - 1972-1973

(Smiling) It's profoundly interesting.

(silence)

As if a superhuman Power were trying to manifest through millenniums of impotence.... That's it. This (the body) is made of millenniums of impotence. And a superhuman Power is trying to ... is exerting a pressure to manifest. That's what it is. What will be the outcome? I don't know.

Time does not exist anymore....

(Mother nods her head)

As if another time had entered this one.

page 199 - Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 31st May - 1972-1973

It's a supramental person. Something the cells don't quite understand yet, but they know, they sense. They feel as if they were thrust forcibly into a new world.

That's what is now pressing all the time like this (gesture of pressure and descent). In spite of an apparent weakness (which is purely illusory), there's a ... tremendous Force here.

Yes, certainly.

Mind you, it's a Force seemingly too strong for the body; but when the body stays VERY quiet, like this ... (gesture, hands open), and as nonexistent as possible, then all goes well.

Then, you feel ... (gesture of something flowing through Mother).

But that Force is ... stupendous!

page 205 , Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 7th June - 1972-1973

The Help is getting more and more accurate, more and more conscious, but ... I must say it's VERY difficult.

Yes.

But it doesn't matter. Since we have agreed to do it, let's do it. There's no point in complaining. But the Power - the Power is stu-pen-dous, only ... (Mother points to her body), this is like a mockery: the slightest thing gets inordinately magnified! Even physically. Physically, it's so strange, I've got insect bites on a spot that's completely covered (Mother touches her leg); for a mosquito to reach it is impossible. And, I don't know ... I am told there are no fleas or bugs here!

page 206-07 , Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 10th June - 1972-1973

I am no longer the same person, I don't know.

All, absolutely all the reactions are new. But I don't find the.... My only impression is that of CLINGING to the Divine every minute of the day. It's the only way out.

That's how the body functions.

The body's experience is that without the Divine, it would ... crumble.

That's all.

It has in fact a growing sense of nonexistence - of the absence of a separate individuality (Mother touches the skin of her hands).

But it is well aware that this is only a transitional consciousness - what will be the ultimate consciousness? I don't know.

(silence)

For example, the body asks the Divine, "Give me consciousness." And there's a kind of answer (a wordless answer): "Not yet, you would no longer want to live separated." Like that. If the body enjoyed the complete consciousness of the divine Presence, it would no longer want, no longer want the separate consciousness.

Obviously, there's still a lot of progress to be made.

page 219 , Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 1st July - 1972-1973

I have a feeling I am becoming another person.

No, not just that: I am entering ANOTHER world, another way of being ... which might be called a dangerous way of being (in terms of the ordinary consciousness). As if....

Dangerous, but wonderful - how to express it?

First, the [body's] subconscient is in the process of changing, and that is long, arduous and painful ... but marvelous as well. The feeling of ... (gesture as if standing on a ridge).

More and more, the body's sensation is that faith alone can save -knowledge is not yet possible, so only faith can save.

But "faith can save" still sounds like an old manner of speaking.... How to phrase it?... The feeling that the relation between what we call "life" and what we call "death" is becoming more and more different - yes, different (Mother nods her head), completely different.

Not that death disappears, mind you (death as we see it, as we know it and in relation to life as we know it): that's not it, not it at all. BOTH are changing ... into something we don't yet know, which seems at once extremely dangerous and absolutely marvelous. Dangerous: the least mistake has catastrophic consequences. And marvelous.

It is the consciousness, the true consciousness of immortality - not "immortality" as we understand it, something else. Something else.

page 222 , Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 12th July - 1972-1973

All possible contradictions are accumulated in the subconscient.

Yes.

And it keeps coming up like this (gesture gushing out), all the time, all the time. And ... you feel you are completely stupid, unconscious, obdurate.

All that is ... (same gesture rising from below).

But the consciousness here (gesture around the head) is peaceful, extraordinarily peaceful ... (Mother opens her hands): let Your Will be done, Lord. So "that" exerts a pressure on what rises from below.

As though the battle of the world were being fought in my consciousness.

page 300 , Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 25th Oct - 1972-1973

For a moment - just a few seconds - I had the supramental consciousness. It was so marvelous, mon petit! ... I understood that if we were to taste that now, we would no longer want to exist differently. We are in the process of ... (gesture of kneading dough) of changing laboriously. And the change, the process of change seems.... Yet you can grasp it in a kind of indifference (I don't know how to express it). But it doesn't last long. As a rule it's ... laborious. But that consciousness is so marvelous, you know! It's most interesting because there's a sort of EXTREME activity within complete peace. But it lasted only a few seconds.

page 308 , Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 8th Nov - 1972-1973

You see, I have a solution for the transformation of the body, but ... it's never been done before, so it's extremely ... hard to believe. I cannot, I cannot believe that that's it. Yet, it's the only solution I see.... The body has a wish to go to sleep and awake ... ("sleep" in a certain sense, of course: I remain perfectly conscious in consciousness, in the movement) and awake only after it is transformed ...

(Satprem, wordlessly:) Sleeping Beauty!

... but people will never have the patience to stand it, to take care of me. The task is colossal, a herculean task; they're nice (Mother points to the bathroom), but they're already doing their utmost, and I can't ask for more.

That's the problem.

Yet, it's the only solution to which the consciousness assents: "Yes, that's it."

page 390 , Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 7th Apr - 1972-1973

My nervous system is being transferred to the Supramental. It feels like ... you know, what people call "neurasthenia" [[Mother may have used this term in its original Greek root meaning: "strengthless nerves." Unless she meant "neuralgia" in its broader sense. ]] - they have no idea what it is; but the entire nervous system is.... It's worse than dying. [[We recall Mother also saying, "When people come into my room with ill thoughts, all the nerves are tortured." ]]

Yes, Mother.

But I think ... I think I can transmit the divine Vibration.

page 399 , Mother's Agenda , volume 13 , 14th Apr - 1972-1973