1 June 1955 Mother reads from The Human Cycle, Chapter 14, “The Suprarational Beauty”, second paragraph. What do you want to ask about this? Sweet Mother, what is an aesthetic conscience? It is the consciousness of beauty. Aesthetic means that which concerns beauty, art. There are people, for example, who move around in life and see landscapes, see people and things and have absolutely no sense of whether it is beautiful or not; and into the bargain, it makes no difference at all to them. They look at the sky, see whether there are any clouds, whether it will rain or be clear, for instance; or whether the sun is hot or the wind cold. But there are others –

12 January 1955 This talk is based upon Bases of Yoga, Chapter 3, “In Difficulty”.  “To question, to resist in some part of the being in- creases trouble and difficulties.” For instance, when the guru tells you to do something, if you begin to ask, “Why should I do it? What is the necessity of doing it? Explain to me what I must do. Why do I have to do it?” This is called questioning. To resist means to try to evade the order and not accomplish it. So naturally this increases the difficulties very much. There is the explanation later. Sri Aurobindo says that this was the reason why an absolute unquestioning surrender was demanded; no argument was all

21 December 1955 Mother reads from {The Synthesis of Yoga},  “Self-Consecration”. “Often he (the sadhak) finds that even after he has won persistently his own personal battle, he has still to win it over and over again….” Yes. So? Then does this mean that others profit by his sadhana? You understand, it's like that for everyone. If there was only one, it could be like this: that he alone could do it for all; but if everybody does it... you understand... You are fifty persons doing the Integral Yoga. If it is only one of the fifty who is doing it, then he does it for all the fifty. But if each one of the fifty is doing it, each doing

6 April 1955 This talk is based upon Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, “Physical Consciousness, etc.”. What is this psychoanalysis of Freud, Sweet Mother? Ah, my child, it is something that was in vogue, very much in vogue at the beginning of the century… no, in the middle of the century! (Mother turns to Pavitra) Do you know, Pavitra, when it was in fashion? (Pavitra) At the beginning of the century. At the beginning of the century, that's it. This is what Sri Aurobindo says: dangerous, useless, ignorant, superficial; and it was in fashion because people like these things, it corresponds precisely with all that is unhealthy in their nature. You kno

6 July 1955        Mother reads from Lights on Yoga, “Planes and Parts of the Being”. Sweet Mother, here it is written: “Finally the soul or psychic being retires into the psychic world to rest there till a new birth is close.” Then, Mother, what happens to the central being afterwards? This depends absolutely on the different instances. We said that the central being and the psychic being are the same thing but the part which stays and is in the Divine stays and is in the Divine. The psychic is the delegate of this Divine in the earth life, for the growth on earth. But the part of the central being which is identified with the Divine remains identif

7 December 1955 Mother reads from {The Synthesis of Yoga}, “SeIf-Consecration”. Mother, one can make an offering of oneself only when one reaches quite a high level, but when one is leading a more or less unconscious life, the self-giving becomes more or less mental, doesn't it? And it is not effective. What should one do? Can one begin from the very beginning by self-giving? It depends on people, my child. There are people in whom the psychic movement, the emotional impulse is stronger than intellectual understanding. They feel an irresistible attraction for the Divine without knowing, without having the slightest idea of what it is,

13 July 1955        Mother reads from Lights on Yoga, “Planes and Parts of the Being”. Now then! Sweet Mother, what does “cosmic spirit and cosmic Nature” mean? Universal. Cosmic is the synonym of universal. But what does “cosmic spirit” mean? Cosmic spirit? It is the cosmic spirit, it is the universal spirit, it is the spirit that's in the whole universe. There is a universe. You know what the universe is? Well, this universe has a spirit, and this spirit is the cosmic spirit; this universe has a consciousness and its consciousness is the cosmic, universal consciousness. One may very well imagine that the universe is only an entity in

20 July 1955 Mother reads from Lights on Yoga, “Surrender and Opening”. What does “to seek after the Impersonal” mean? Oh! It's very much in fashion in the West, my child. All those who are tired or disgusted with the God taught by the Chaldean religions, and especially by the Christian religion – a single God, jealous, severe, despotic and so much in the image of man that one wonders if it is not a demiurge as Anatole France said – these people when they want to lead a spiritual life no longer want the personal God, because they are too frightened lest the personal God resemble the one they have been taught about; they want an impersonal Godhead, something

26 January 1955 This talk is based upon Bases of Yoga, Chapter 3, “In Difficulty”. Sweet Mother, who is this “Master of forces” who sees “the defects of the present machinery”? It is the divine Presence which sees from within what is incomplete and imperfect in the working of the present being. The divine Consciousness is present in the psychic being and it sees what is imperfect and at the same time it is aware of the attacks, and it knows what should be done to repulse them. But for this, one must be conscious of his psychic being. It is always the same thing. We always come back to the same thing. Why does one suffer when one commits suicide?

16 February 1955 This talk is based upon Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4,  “Desire – Food - Sex”. Sweet Mother, here it is said that one should have no attachment for material things; then, when you give us something, if we lose it and feel sad, it can be called attachment? It is better not to lose it. (Laughter) But in fact the thing ought to be only… It is not the thing itself to which one must be attached. It is to open oneself to what is within, what I put into the thing I give, this indeed is much more important. And, of course, there can always be an accident but it is certain that if one gives to a thing its inner symbolical or spiritual value, t