Rita: "The actual fact of death evokes in me an experience in which one is thrust into space and soars up." Amusing! I found it very amusing. She is the only one, besides, the others are quite practical. [[This young girl, to whom death looked so graceful, was to die four years later. ]] Dilip: "A cessation of all physical activity caused by the absence of a source of energy (or soul)." It's not clear.... The other two are quite practical (!) Anand: "When the brain stops functioning and the body starts decomposing, it's death." (Mother l

Didn't you ever see your body? Never. [[This is in fact incorrect. Satprem remembers occasions when, while playing in his room as a child, he saw his body quietly asleep in bed - only to rush back into it. ]] Well, it's safer that way than the other way! I've known several people, especially I., who worked with Dilip (she used to have visions, she danced also): when she went into meditation, it was all over; even when she tried to come back and move, she couldn't. Dilip had to come and pull her hands, disengage her fingers and move her body, till she began coming around. But you understand, that sort of thing won't do at all.

(Mother listens to a few pieces of pop music brought to her by François B., an enthusiastic visitor) It's very amusing! (Mother laughs) It's the vital in full revolt against the mind, but it's magnificent! They reject the whole mind. It's interesting, very- interesting! You get the feeling that if they pushed a little farther on (gesture of piercing above), they would catch something. (François B.:) Mother, a few groups have pushed much farther on. This one [the Rolling Stones] is the most vital of all the groups. But there are others, more open, less rough. They are really ready to rec

We have a great mathematician here who comes from Madras regularly, Dr. V. (you know him, don't you?), and for my birthday,[[Mother was eighty-five on February 21. ]] he played around with the figures of my date of birth and made up with them a square with small compartments (what a painstaking work it must be!): any way you read it, it always adds up to the same figure. Admirable. The figure is 116. Heavenly mathematics, all that (!) and it is supposed to be my number of years. But I find it a little on the short side. Because if the present pace is any indication, 116 doesn't leave me many years, thirty years or so ... yes, some thirty years, that's all

We live perennially with a burden on our shoulders, something that bows our heads down, and we feel pulled, led by all kinds of external forces, we don't know by whom or what, nor where to - this is what men call Fate, Destiny. When you do yoga, one of the first experiences - the experience of the kundalini, as it is called here in India - is precisely one in which the consciousness rises, breaks through this hard 'lid,' here, at the crown of the head, and at last you emerge into the Light. Then you see, you know, you decide and you realize - difficulties may still remain, but truly speaking one is above them. Well, as a result of the supramental manifestation,

What I say to people depends entirely upon their inner state. That's precisely why I had such enormous difficulty at the Playground [[Twice a week, during the period of the Playground Talks, Mother would publicly reply to questions put to her by the disciples assembled at the Ashram Playground. ]] - the atmosphere was so mixed! It was a STRUGGLE to find someone receptive so I could speak. And if I'm in the presence of people who understand nothing, I can't say a word. On the other hand, some people come prepared to receive and then suddenly it all comes - but usually there's no tape-recorder! page 22 , Mother's Agenda , volume 2 , 10th Jan. 1961

First, one may ask: What is a miracle? Because Sri Aurobindo often says that "there is no such thing as a miracle," but at the same time, in "Savitri," for example, he says, "All's miracle here and can by miracle change."[[Savitri, I.V.85. ]] It depends which way you look at it: from this side or from the other side. People only call miracles things they can't explain clearly, in mental terms. From that point of view, innumerable things that happen can be said to be "miracles," because you can't explain the why or the how. What would a real miracle be, then? I don't see what a real miracle can be, because what

(Regarding the ego and the ancient religious initiations which taught: 'You are That' or 'You are the All.) A moment comes when self-observation is no longer possible. Even in these expressions 'All is You' or 'You are the All' (and the same holds for 'You are the Divine' or 'The Divine is you'), there is still something watching. A moment comes - it comes in flashes and doesn't easily remain - when it's the All who thinks, the All who knows, the All who feels, the All who lives. There's not even - not even - the feeling that you have reached this state. Then it is good. But up to this point there is

When I began the readings from the Dhammapada, I had hoped that my listeners would take enough interest in the 'practical' spiritual side for me to read only one verse at a time. But quite quickly, I saw they found this very boring and were making no effort to benefit from the meditation. The only solution then was to treat the matter as an intellectual study, which is why I started reading chapter by chapter. page 358 , Mother's Agenda - volume 1 , 31st Jan. 1960