November 14, 1962 (Satprem reads a passage from his manuscript describing the relation between the subconscient and the supraconscient, in which he says: "One cannot be healed unless one goes down to the very bottom; and one cannot go down to the very bottom unless one goes up to the very heights.") Page 411 It's getting interesting.... It's the formulation - not the theory, not the explanation (it's more than intellectual), but the literary expression of what I've been experiencing all these nights. Not only at night, in the daytime too. It's as if I were touching the dregs of things. No later than yesterday night, I had this feeling: "My god, there's always farther dow

September 22, 1962 (Mother makes this brief remark about someone who practices traditional yoga and is constantly ill:) ... That's the essential failing of the old yogic system: things go quite nicely on the level where they practice yoga, but as soon as they descend, they're worse than everyone else! *** (After listening to a passage in Satprem's manuscript on nonviolence and Gandhi, Mother makes another brief remark:) They're really smacking their lips over their ahimsa[[Ahimsa: nonviolence. ]] - it's disgusting! *** ADDENDUM (Short extract from the passage in The Adventure of Consciousness that Satprem just read to Mother:) ... In the middle of the First Wo

May May 8, 1962 (Note to Mother from Satprem) Among other things, X writes: 1) That he will make a special four-day puja here, in order to help. 2) That he has "understood": it has come to his [inner] knowledge that "the present period is terrible." What am I to tell him or give him to understand when I meet him at the station? (Mother's reply overleaf) If he is not yet aware of it, he should probably be informed of the message that was taped. You can tell him that the body is much better, but that I still have to take a great deal of care and precaution. I don't come down from my room, which has been transformed into a sickroom, and it will be impossible for me to s

July 28, 1962 (Mother refers back to the last conversation, where she spoke of her different stages of development.) I have seen that the different stages of my development occurred in twelve-year periods, though I don't recall the exact dates. The first period, from the age of five (I can't start earlier than five!) to about eighteen, dealt with consciousness. Then came all the artistic and vital development, culminating in the occult development with Théon (I met Théon around 1905 or '06, I think[[In fact, Mother met Théon for the first time one day in 1904, in Paris. Then she went to Tlemcen in 1905 and again in 1906. ]]). Then right around this time an intensive mental development

March March 3, 1962 Here's a strange aphorism.... Ah! .. Read it to me. 76 - Europe prides herself on her practical and scientific organisation and efficiency. I am waiting till her organisation is perfect; then a child shall destroy her. That's embarrassing.... It's terribly embarrassing. Let's pass it over in silence. I would be curious to know what Sri Aurobindo meant by it. I did know, but I hastened to forget it I knew it when he was still in his body. Once or twice it came back and each time I sort of (gesture) locked it away in a cupboard. We'll see. It's better left unsaid. I once knew what he meant - right now I don't remember. [[Nine years

January 24, 1962 (In connection with the preceding conversation on antidivine forces.) I read a passage in Savitri which seems to link up exactly with what you were saying.... Ah, read it to me! I'd rather you read it yourself, because my English.... I found it really striking - these four lines here.... (Mother reads:) "Not only is there hope for godheads pure; The violent and darkened deities Leaped down from the one breast in rage to find What the white gods had missed: they too are safe; A Mother's eyes are on them and her arms Stretched out in love desire her rebel sons."[[Savitri, Book X, Canto 2 (Cent. Ed. XXIX.613). ]] Yes, that's it. "What t

July July 4, 1962 The other day, Pavitra said to me in passing, "Modern science would neither follow nor believe us." According to him, scientists acknowledge only "essential hypotheses," and not having the experience, would take our science for a set of "non-essential" hypotheses. I didn't argue, or else I would have told him, "We don't make any hypotheses, far from it, we simply state our experiences." They are free to disbelieve us or to think we're half crazy or hallucinating - that's up to them, it's their business. But we don't make hypotheses, we speak of things we know and have experienced. For several hours afterwards I had a vision of this state of mind and found absolutely

July 14, 1962 Mon petit, last night for the first time I saw you, just as you are, coming to me. "How wonderful!" I said to you. You came up like this (Mother makes a gesture close to her face) and looked at me. "He's conscious!" I said to myself. You weren't conscious? ?... It was around three o'clock in the morning. I have seen you very often in visions, symbolic visions in the mental realm, but that's not what it was. It was in the subtle physical, this close (same gesture); you came deliberately, and you looked at me. "Oh," I told you, "how nice!" I had a dream about you, but I felt the subconscient made it up. No, it must be a transcription. Page 255 A stra

September 26, 1962 (After listening to a passage from Satprem's manuscript:) It's very good! I'd like to see their faces ... it would be funny. After this, I go on to Alipore: the Supraconscient. It's going to be fascinating. Its difficult. No, it's very good. It will be a beautiful book - unusual. It's an original way of presenting things. Interesting, mon petit. Page 351 One day when you have time, I'll have to ask you some questions. Because for the Supraconscient, some things aren't too clear in my mind. You may ask me questions, but you will find all the answers in what he has written, don't you think? Yes and no. What do you want to know?

September 18, 1962 I don't have far to go on my translation of The Synthesis of Yoga (it's going very quickly), and I have found what I'll do next.... It will be something like those notebooks [Prayers and Meditations]. I am going to take the whole section of Savitri (to start with, I'll see later) from "The Debate of Love and Death" to the point where the Supreme Lord makes his prophecy about the earth's future; it's long - several pages long. This is for my own satisfaction. I am going to translate it line by line (not word by word - line by line), leaving a space between each line; and when I've finished Page 347 I will try to recapture it in French (gesture of pulling d