March 16, 1963 (Regarding the conversation of March 9: "A few seconds' experience that gave me the sense that the most central problem was solved." That experience was what Mother called "the death of death.") Those things are strange.... You don't remember actively, that is, you can't find any thought whatsoever to express the experience; even the active sensation of the experience fades away. And yet you are no longer the same person - that's the remarkable thing! I experienced this phenomenon several times (I don't remember clearly enough to tell you exactly how many times), several times in my life, it was always the same thing: no longer the same person, you've become someone els

May 25, 1963 (Regarding a letter from a personal friend of Satprem at the Editions du Seuil, who hints that the second manuscript on Sri Aurobindo ["The Adventure of Consciousness"] will also be refused: "I do not know whether P.A.L. has read it yet, he hasn't told me, but as soon as I read the first pages, I felt that this manuscript would never be published by Le Seuil. It has some defects and clumsy passages - but that will not be the reason for its refusal....") Very well! (laughter) Let us wait and see what they say. Of course, I never thought even for a minute that those people would publish it - but others will. Once WE have published it, I am certain - certain - that there wi

October 26, 1963 (Pondicherry has just been hit by a cyclone and Satprem by a strange fever.) Did you feel anything during the cyclone? No, nothing particular? You always have a sense of something in a fury - and not too nice! (Laughing) Obviously! First it came from one direction, then a dead calm - it's always that way. You know how cyclones work? It's something that rotates, and at the center there's a dead calm; all around is a whirlwind, and it rotates as it advances. So the first part (what might be called the front of the cyclone) arrives from one direction, Page 364 then it goes on rotating, and the second part comes from the opposite direction. We have an A

M o t h e r's   A g e n d a   1963-08-13 August 13, 1963 and vital energy ... (hem!) is vital! Therefore to say that those who withdraw withdraw all their energies and consciousness into the psychic to attain Nirvana is nonsense! There is a nirvana behind the vital, a nirvana behind the psychic, a nirvana behind the mind; there is a nirvana on every level, even behind the physical - it's death. And those who withdraw, who try to attain Nirvana, NEVER go into the psychic - the psychic is something essentially linked to divine manifestation, not to divine nonintervention, not to Nirvana. All that is fit for the wastepaper basket! (Note from Mother to Satprem) (This note came apropos of an old "Pla

November 23, 1963 Kennedy has been assassinated, that means the possibility of war. He was one of the instruments for the establishment of peace - it's a setback for the entire political history of the earth. But probably, it means basically that things weren't ready: some parts would have been overlooked. But I had been told this a few weeks ago, last month, while I was conducting a general survey. I heard someone who said ("someone" is a manner of speaking, I know who it is): Kennedy won't be able to do it. I thought the instrument was too small, I didn't think of this. Page 389 And then five of our air force chiefs have been killed in a helicopter crash - helicopter

December 31, 1963 (Mother tests the organ: a little white figure swaying on her stool) There. You have recorded it, haven't you? ... And we'll play it tomorrow Page 430 [for the Ashram] - that way, I won't have any work to do! (Sujata:) Is it "work "? You always have fun. It gives me fun.... I don't know, I don't know what I play at all, at all, at all! I barely hear it. There is something having fun "over there." If I listen just a minute, it begins to disturb me! That's enough, no? (To Satprem:) What do you say, you there? Is that enough or do you want to hear more? It depends. If you're tired ... Oh (laughing), tiring, this! It doesn't tire anythin

March 17, 1973 I had a question I wanted to ask you. What is it? I was wondering about the difference between.... Youremember, in the past you used to go into trance, into the inner states. I wanted to know the difference between the trance you knew in the past and the one now? Completely different. So it isn't a "trance." No. Page 377 No, it's another type of consciousness. The difference is such that I wonder ... sometimes I wonder how it is possible - at times, it is so new, so unexpected it's almost painful. Aah!... So I ask myself, "What?" And externally I see but one solution: externally - I repeat OM Namo Bhagavateh. Constantly - that's for the o

June 7, 1972 What do You bring? ... And how do you feel? Well, I think I can feel your presence better. Ahh! In fact, I feel that alone can straighten things out. It's the Lord's presence passing through me - through what people call "me." An aggregate of cells which ... (laughing) took this form pretty long ago! Yes, but this form is very.... This form is.... It's most peculiar, you know: that [cellular] consciousness gives an impression of something trying to become fluid. Something is obviously trying to make it manifest a ... an otherness. Be an otherness. But how? ... (silence) The body is comfortable only when it is conscious of the divine Force acting (ges

April 18, 1973 What would you like? Stay like this. (Mother takes Satprem's hands and goes off immediately) Page 404

February 2, 1972 (Mother listens to the English translation of "Notes on the Way" of December 18, 1971, which causes a good deal of confusion between R., the American translator, and Nolini: "a muddle." Mother stops in particular at the following sentence.) "... Everything was simply taken away from me - themind is completely gone. If you like, in appearance, I had Page 51 become an idiot. I didn't know anything. And it's the physical mind that developed little by little, little by little ..." (Mother comments in English) One shouldn't repeat "little by little." It is not little by little. It was rapid because it took place suddenly. It came like