SERIES FOURTEEN Series Fourteen To a sadhak of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram We are at a moment of transition in the history of the earth. It is merely a moment in eternal time, but this moment is long compared to human life. Matter is changing in order to prepare itself for the new manifestation, but the human body is not plastic enough and offers resistance; this is why the number of incomprehensible disorders and even diseases is increasing and becoming a problem for medical science. The remedy lies in union with the divine forces that are at work and a receptivity full of trust and peace which makes the task easier. 18 November 1971 *

SERIES TEN Series Ten To a young captain in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Department of Physical Education. He began writing to the Mother at the age of nineteen. Sweet Mother, On the night of Friday the 8th, I had a very peculiar dream. As I could not tell it to You at the Playground, I am going to tell You now. It was a very fine day very special. There was an important meeting at the Playground, so I was hurry- ing there. But near the Playground in front of Standard Stores, the road was covered with innumerable snakes. I was taken aback and r

SERIES NINE Series Nine To a young teacher in the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education. Sweet Mother, With what attitude should I read Sri Aurobindo's books when they are difficult and when I don't under- stand? Savitri, The Life Divine, for example. Read a little at a time, read again and again until you have understood. Sri Aurobindo says: “Yoga is nothing but practical psy- chology.”¹ What does this sentence mean? The whole paragraph is not clear to me. Because you know nothing about psychology. Study psychology and you will understand what he means. Sri Aurobindo says: “

SERIES THIRTEEN Series Thirteen To a student in the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education who began writing to the Mother at the age of sixteen. Sweet Mother, Should one give money to beggars or not? In a well-organized society, there should not be any beggars. But as long as there are, do as you feel. There are good reasons both for doing it and for not doing it. Blessings 8 July 1969 * There is no one for whom it is impossible to realise the Divine. Only, for some it will take many, many lives, whereas there are others who will do it in this very lifetime. It is a question of wi

23 March 1955 This talk is based upon Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, “Physical Consciousness, etc.”.                      Here Sri Aurobindo says: “As for the things in our nature that are thrown away from us by rejection but come back, it depends on where you throw them. Very often there is a sort of procedure about it.” What is this procedure, Sweet Mother? It is what he describes later. He explains afterwards that what is in the mind is thrown out into the vital, what is in the higher vital is thrown out into the lower vital, and what is in the lower vital is thrown out into the physical, and what is in the physical is thrown out into the subcons

27 April 1955*   This talk is based upon Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, “Physical Consciousness, etc.”. Sweet Mother, what is the difference between a sym- bolic dream and a vision? Usually one has a vision when one is not asleep, when one is awake. When one is awake and enters within oneself – whether in meditation or concentration – one has visions. Or at night you can't sleep… remain stretched out, remain quiet, don't sleep and you may have visions. Dreams come when one is asleep, that is, when one has no longer the waking consciousness; whereas in vision one is in the waking consciousness, but one quietens or immobilises it, and it is another more inner

9 March 1955 This talk is based upon Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5 “Physical Consciousness, etc.”. Sweet Mother, what is the meaning of “the psychic opening in the physical consciousness”? I think I have already told you this once. One can find the psychic through each part of the consciousness: you can find a psychic behind the physical… you can enter into contact with the psychic directly through the physical consciousness, directly through the vital consciousness, directly through the mental consciousness. It is not as though you had to cross all the states of being in order to find the psychic. You can enter the psychic without leaving your physical conscio

21 September 1955 Mother reads The Great Secret: The Writer. Sweet Mother, here it is written: “The word is suffi- ciently immaterial to be in contact with subtle things, forces and vibrations, principles and ideas.” My children, I have to tell you to begin with that this is “literature”. So you should not ask me for explanations. It is a literary way of speaking, you must understand it in a literary way; it is a literary description of the word; it is very precise, but it is literary. So I cannot produce literature on this literature. One must have the taste for forms, for a beautiful way of saying things, a little exceptional, not too banal; but i

5 October 1955         Mother reads The Great Secret: The Scientist. I had the intention of leaving out the last speeches and going straight to the answer of the Unknown Man. But... I shall tell you, because it didn't raise... it seemed to me that it didn't give rise to enough questions to justify all the time we would spend in reading it... but it happens that, for this one, “The Scientist”, someone who, by the way, is not here, has urgently asked two questions which seem interesting to me. So I shall read “The Scientist” today, and next week we shall directly take up “The Unknown Man”. (After Mother has read “The Scientist”, Pavitra gets ready to read the qu

-00_Publisher^s Note.htm Publisher's Note This volume contains the talks given by the Mother to the students, teachers and sadhaks of the Ashram in her "Wednesday Classes" of 1955. The classes generally began with a reading from one of her writings or her French translations of Sri Aurobindo's works. She then commented or answered questions on the texts or on other subjects. The talks of January 5 to May 11 are based upon Bases of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo, the talk of May 18 upon "TheProblem of Woman", an essay by the Mother, the talks of May 25 and June 1 upon "The Suprarational Beauty", Chapter 14 ofThe Human Cycle by Sri Aurobindo, the talks of September 14