October 17, 1970 I have a letter from Dr. V, he asks a question about something Sri Aurobindo said. (Satprem reads) "In The Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo writesabout the perfection of the lower mind, the psychic prana ... What's that? I think it's the vital substance Sri Aurobindo calls like that. "... and its tyrannical demands that represent the chief natural obstacle invading the whole action of the being. "Where does this psychic prana come from? Is it part of the psychic as the word is understood in India's psychological language?... Yes, at that time Sri Aurobindo used the phrase "psychic prana," but it's not at all the psych

April 29, 1970 (Mother has had several heart attacks since the April 24 darshan. Satprem could not see her on the preceding Saturday.) The darshan day was chosen for the transfer of the heart. I thought I would be unable to go to the balcony. But I went just the same. So then, the day after ... (Mother looks quite shaken). And it's not over. Interesting. Nothing pleasant to tell. What about you, do you have questions? I wonder, when those transfers take place in one part of the beingor another, it's not just the consciousness that changes, some thing in the substance changes too, doesn't it? Page 166 It's almost in the functioning. *** (Then M

February 4, 1970 (Mother looks tired.) Do you have something to say?... Neither do I.... I have nothing at all. Are you tired? Not that. Its difficult. (Mother goes into a long meditation which lasts the whole time) More and more, the sense of the uselessness of all one says, especially that. All words are an approximation - an approximation. Page 69

November 7, 1970 (Mother answers a question put by a young disciple.) "I have read a lot and heard about past and future lives, but I strongly feel that it is in this very life that we must realise our highest aspirations, as if it were the last chance given us. For me, allusions to other lives are intangible and aca demic rather than a help and a hope. It is not that I do not believe in reincarnation, but that thought recurs to my mind very often. Mother, is it a narrowness of vision on my part, or what?" The knowledge of past lives is interesting for a knowledge of one's nature and the mastery of one's imperfections. But to tell the truth, it has no cr

February 18, 1970 (Since early February Mother has been coughing a lot. On the 14th, Mother was unwell and could not see Satprem. The following conversation is very important as it marks the visible beginning of a conflict that might be called "medical" and was going to assume acute proportions with every passing year.) Page 81 I've never had such a cold in my whole life! Last night I had a kind of physical nightmare!... Never in my life have I had such things.... I can't say I was quite asleep, but ... How can I explain? It's a mixture between something that tries to find its true inner remedy, and the Doctor who says that if I don't take medicines it'll go on "

April 1, 1970 T. has asked me questions regarding the death of her brother, N.J. [[A young instructor of physical education who left his body a few years earlier. ]] It seems that a few months before his death, he knew he was going to die, and he said, "But I will come back in the Ashram." And his sister used to see him. I told her, "When he died, I know I led him to the place of rest - he may have come out of it." And when she told me about it, I concentrated a little, and one night, I saw; I saw him come back: he was in the body of a two- or three-year-old child. But I haven't seen him here - I don't know where he is. (silence) There's a very curious Aphorism I saw yesterday. I do

March 14, 1970 (Regarding the latest Aphorisms commented on by Mother.) 382 - Machinery is necessary to modern humanitybecause of our incurable barbarism. If we must encase ourselves in a bewildering multitude of comforts and trappings, we must needs do without Art and its methods; for to dispense with simplicity and freedom is to dispense with beauty. The luxury of our ancestors was rich and even gorgeous, but never encumbered. Page 97 383 - I cannot give to the barbarous comfort andencumbered ostentation of European life the name of civilisation. Men who are not free in their souls and nobly rhythmical in their appointments are not civilised.

March 4, 1970 (After reading the following aphorism) 135 - All disease is a means towards some new joy ofhealth, all evil and pain a tuning of Nature for some more intense bliss and good, all death an opening on widest immortality. Why and how this should be so, is God's secret which only the soul purified of egoism can penetrate. Yes, yes (Mother nods approvingly), that's what I am doing right now. And one has be really persevering. It's not to compliment myself, but I think it's not easy! Because as long as it's vital or mental, it's nothing - nothing at all! But when it becomes physical ... it's more difficult! (Mother laughs) This aphorism remains wholly, e

January 28, 1970 (Satprem first reads out to Mother his preface to the second edition of Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness. We publish it here to give the temperature of the times.) "The age of adventures is over. Even if we go to the seventh galaxy, we will go there helmeted and mechanised, and we will find ourselves exactly as we are: children in the face of death, Page 58 living beings who are not too sure how they live or why, nor where they are going. On the earth, as we know, the times of Cortez and Pizarro are gone: a single Machine hems us in, the trap is closing. But, as always, it turns out that our darkest adversities

June 3, 1970 Yesterday we started a work for Auroville, that is to say, we're basically trying to give people from "Aspiration" an idea, simply, of what Aurovilians want: why they are here and what they want. Because it appears that... in fact they've no idea about it. Each one of them came expecting something, but all that isn't coordinated, it's not clear. So R. asked me to clearly express important points. I thought it would be better to do it with the people so as to know what they themselves want, and to have them make an effort to find out. Otherwise ... So we started yesterday (Mother takes out a piece of paper). Yesterday I asked C. [a resident of Aspiration], "But why does one l