Do you object to my doing some pranayama [[Pranayama: breathing exercises. ]] before I begin working? I think it would do you good, mon petit. I began three days ago, but I keep getting entangled with the traditional formation around it: "Oh, it's dangerous, it's dangerous, be careful." So this morning I thought I'd better speak to you about it. Are you doing it without instructions? There's a traditional way of doing it, I know the formula. How does it go? The time varies. You inhale through the left nostril for let's say 4 seconds, then you hold your breath for 16 seconds, raising the dia

(Regarding a Playground Talk of March 17, 1951, published in the latest "Bulletin," in which Mother says that when she returned from Japan in 1920, she felt Sri Aurobindo's atmosphere two nautical miles away from Pondicherry:) It appears that in 1958 we said one thing and that this time we said another, so they ask me which is correct. It's about Sri Aurobindo's atmosphere which I felt at sea. So in 1958 (I probably remembered more precisely then) I said ten nautical miles (I remember having asked on the ship, just so I would know), and it appears that this time I said two miles. So they tell me ... What does it matter!

You haven't spoken of Sri Aurobindo in a long time. Me, I have nothing to say. What about Sri Aurobindo, is he saying anything? (after a silence) He's very busy with ... (gesture to the north) with everything happening in the country. It's serious, you know. But what is India waiting for? Waiting for what? Well, to recognize that country.[[To recognize officially the "provisional government" of Bangladesh under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur. Only eight months later, on December 6, would India recognize Bangladesh. ]] Oh, she has recognized it!

When the mind came down upon earth, something like a million years went by between the manifestation of the mind in the earth atmosphere and the appearance of the first man. But it will go faster this time because man is waiting for something, he has a vague idea: he is awaiting in some way or another the advent of the superman. Whereas the apes were certainly not awaiting the birth of man, they never thought of it - for the excellent reason that they probably don't think very much! But man has thought about it and is waiting, so it will go faster. But faster probably still means thousands of years. We shall speak of this again in a few thousand years! page

In this respect, you say somewhere that the gods too must incarnate to become fully conscious. Yes, because.... How is this possible? Aren't the gods already fully conscious?! No, they have no psychic being, so that whole side of life does not exist for them. In all the traditions here in India (and in other countries and other religions as well), most of the time these gods behave impossibly! This is simply because they have no psychic being. The psychic being is the one thing belonging specifically to terrestrial life; it has been given as a grace ... to repair, to undo what had been done.

I learned all this through Theon. Probably, he was .. I don't know if he was Russian or Polish (a Russian or Polish Jew), he never said who he really was or where he was born, nor his age nor anything. He had assumed two names: one was an Arab name he had adopted when he took refuge in Algeria (I don't know for what reason). After having worked with Blavatsky and having founded an occult society in Egypt, he went to Algeria, and there he first called himself 'Aia Aziz' (a word of Arabic origin meaning 'the beloved'). Then, when he began setting up his Cosmic Review and his 'cosmic group,' he called himself Max Theon, meaning the supreme God (!), the

But if the soul has had but ONE call, but ONE contact with the Grace, then in your next life you are put in the conditions, once, whereby EVERYTHING can be swept away at one stroke. And at this present moment on earth, you cannot imagine the number of people I have met - that is, the number of souls - who had reached out towards this possibility with such an intensity - and they have all found themselves on my path. At that point, sometimes a great courage is needed, sometimes a great endurance is needed, sometimes a true love is enough, sometimes, oh! if only faith were there, one thing, one tiny little thing is enough, and ... everything can be swe

As you know, N.S. has left his body. It was the result of an accident (he had a weak heart, and he worried about it). He took a fall, probably because he fainted, and fractured his skull: "loss of consciousness" due to cerebral hemorrhage (that's modern science speaking!). When the accident occurred, he came to me (not in a precise form, but in a state of consciousness I immediately recognized), and stayed here motionless, in complete trust and blissful peace - motionless in every state of being, absolutely ... (gesture of surrender) total, total trust: what will be, will be; what is, is. No questions, not even a need to know. A cosy peace ... a great ease.

There was one man here who could have done something: it was the former chief of the army, K.'s cousin [[K. is a disciple. ]] - but they sent him to Canada! ... It had the result that now the whole of Canada is interested in India! There's quite a widespread and interesting movement there. But they don't want him here. And he was a good military chief .... It's a pity he's gone away. Also, he was in contact with us, and just now ... So that's why: there's constantly the pressure of very serious things. page 144 , Mother's Agenda , volume 10 , 19th April - 1969