13 May 1953 “There are some who, when they are sitting in medi- tation, get into a state which they think very fine and delightful.” Questions and Answers 1929 (21 April) * What is this state? Whatever it may be, they think their state is delightful and remarkable. They have a very high opinion of themselves. They believe they are remarkable people because they are able to sit quietly without moving; and if they don’t think of anything, that is remarkable. But usually it is a kind of kaleidoscope that is going on in their head, they do not even notice it. Still, those who can remain for a moment without moving, without speaking and thinking, hav

27 May 1953 “There is a state of consciousness in union with the Divine in which you can enjoy all you read, as you can all you observe, even the most indifferent books or the most uninteresting things. You can hear poor music, even music from which one would like to run away, and yet you can, not for its outward self but because of what is behind, enjoy it. You do not lose the distinction between good music and bad music, but you pass through either into that which it expresses. For there is nothing in the  world which has not its ultimate truth and support in the Divine.” Questions and Answers 1929 (28 April) *

15 July 1953 “Each man has some fad or one preferred shibboleth or another, each thinks that he is free from this or that prejudice from which others suffer and is willing to regard such notions as quite false; but he imagines that his is not like theirs, it is for him the truth, the real truth. An attachment to a rule of the mind is an indication of a blindness still hiding somewhere.” Questions and Answers 1929 (19 May) * Are superstitions mental rules? No, not rules but mental formations. Generally a superstition originates in an experience. For instance, there is a certain superstition in Europe, and you are told: “Never wa

30 December 1953 What do you mean by the instinct of destruction in children? It is not there in all children. I have known many who, on the contrary, were very careful. Children are not as “concretised”, materialised in their physical consciousness as older people - as one grows up, it is as though one is coagulated and becomes more and more gross in one’s consciousness unless through a willed action one develops otherwise. For instance, the majority of children find it very difficult to distinguish their imagination, their dreams, what they see within themselves from outer things. The world is not as limited as when one is older and more precise. And they ar

16 December 1953 Sweet Mother, you have said: “…Many methods have been framed to attain this perception [of the psychic being in us] and finally to achieve this identification [with the psychic being]. Some methods are psycho- logical, some religious, some even mechanical.” “The Science of Living”, On Education * Will you give some examples of this? Mechanical, these are the Asanas, Hathayoga. It is done with this intention. Religious, these are for those who believe in a particular religion and pray and perform religious ceremonies. When one believes in a religion – no matter which – one abides by the discipline of the religion and p

24 October 1956 I have something here, I don't know if it will take us very far, but still it will make a good change. All these last few weeks the subject was always progress: how to progress, what hindered progress, how to use the supramental Force, etc. This is going on, I have a whole packet still! But we may change the subject for once. Someone has asked me a question about death: what happens after death and how one takes a new body. Needless to say, it is a subject which could fill volumes, no two cases are alike: practically  everything is possible in the life after death as everything is possible on earth when one is in a physical body, and all statements when

22 February 1956 Sweet Mother, I don’t understand “the strong immo- bility of an immortal spirit”. The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 95 * What is it you don’t understand? That an immortal spirit has a strong immobility? It says what it means. An immortal spirit is necessarily immobile and strong, by the very fact of its being immortal. But then Sri Aurobindo says about the Gita: “Not the mind’s control of vital impulse is its rule, but the strong immobility of an immortal spirit.” Yes. But this is a conclusion, my child; you must read the beginning of the sentence if you want to understand.…Ah! (Turning to a disciple) Give me the light and th

15 February 1956 Sweet Mother, Sri Aurobindo speaks of “this executive world-Nature”. Is there an executive Nature on the other planes also? On the other planes, what do you mean? In the mind and higher up. The earth-Nature contains not only matter — the physical and its different planes — but also the vital and the mind; all this is part of the earth-Nature. And after that there is no Nature, that is to say, there is no longer this distinction. That belongs essentially to the material world as it is described here.¹ But, as Sri Aurobindo says, this is not “all the true truth”. He has simply given a summary of what is explained in the G

18 July 1956 I would like an explanation, Sweet Mother. In Prayers and Meditations there is a sentence: “And the hours s, fading away like unlived dreams.” 19 January 1917 * This is an experience. Do you know what an unlived dream is?... I did not take the word “dream” in the sense of dreams at night; I took the word dream to mean something one has built up in the best and most clear-sighted part of one’s being, something which is an ideal one would like to see realised, something higher, more beautiful, more noble, more wonderful than all that has been created, and one has a power of imagination or creation somewhere in one’s consciousness and one builds some

-00_Publisher^s Note.htm Publisher's Note This volume contains the talks Mother gave to the students, teachers and sadhaks of the Ashram in her "Wednesday classes" of 1956. This year Mother usually began by reading from her French translations of two of Sri Aurobindo's works. For most of the year the book was The Synthesis of Yoga (Part One, "The Yoga of Divine Works"). On November 21 she took up Thoughts and Glimpses. After the reading Mother answered questions on the text or on other subjects. These questions were either asked on the spot or submitted to her beforehand in writing. The talks, conducted in French, were tape-recorded at the time.