November 20, 1962 (Mother looks weary.) The situation is bad, very bad. They're on the verge of taking Assam - things are very bad. But for what reason? Why are they doing this? It seems they're circulating maps in China showing Nepal, Bhutan, Assam and the rest as all part of China. So that's their intention - to settle there. It's not very clear why. National ambition. To put a constant pressure on India and force it to go communist. To impose their rule, you see - they're at the door and can enter whenever they want. Why did they take Tibet? And then they've declared that Gaurishankar is Chinese - the summit of the earth is China, not India at all....

November 7, 1962 (Mother again speaks of the experience of SAT or pure Existence in the background of consciousness, and describes the movement of consciousness needed to enter that state.) .,. It's somewhat similar to collecting one's thoughts. It's part concentration, part interiorization, and both together - like drawing back, but without movement. After a while, it becomes almost automatic; I do it hundreds of times a day. It's difficult to describe, because the description makes it too concrete. But it's a drawing back, an interiorization - a self-gathering. But all those words seem dense, heavy; too material, too heavy. Yet it's a very concrete sensation, very concrete, whi

July 31, 1962 (At the start of this conversation, Mother listens to Satprem read an unpleasant letter he has just received from P.A.L., his Paris publisher.) Here's what he says: "I read with great interest the Introduction to your new book on Shri Aurobindo. I must confess that Page 291 if I have been late in replying it is because I am still very hesitant. The text reads well, but it leaves doubts as to how well the book that follows will conform to the norms of our 'Spiritual Masters' series. I greatly fear that we will both end up disappointed again. The book you want to write is, I feel, very personal, whereas this series must consist of books which are essentially exposit

November 10, 1962 (Mother listens to Satprem read a chapter from his manuscript entitled "Under the Sign of the Gods, " in which he speaks of the overmind's inadequacy for attaining the plenitude of evolution, Afterwards, Mother tells what she saw while he was reading.) There's a kind of cadence.... (Mother "listens" for a long while) Some people found it interesting, mon petit! First of all, Sri Aurobindo was there - it was like a large hall: a very large room with scarcely any walls, just enough so it didn't seem wide open to everything. And then there was a kind of musical instrument, like a grand piano, but much bigger and higher, playing its own music: nobody was playing

October 12, 1962 What shall we do? Do you have another aphorism? 79 - God is infinite Possibility. Therefore Truth is never at rest; therefore, also, Error is justified of her children. 80 - To listen to some devout people, one would imagine that God never laughs; Heine was nearer the mark when he found in Him the divine Aristophanes. Yes, he means that what is true at one moment is no longer true at another. And that's what justifies the children of Error. Perhaps he means there's no such thing as error! Yes, it's the same thing, another way of saying the same thing. In other words, what we call error was at one time truth. Error is a timebound notion. But there a

September 29, 1962 (Concerning an old Talk of October 3, 1956, to be published in the next "Bulletin":) This is what you say: "Beyond the shadow of a doubt, modern scientific perception comes much closer to expressing universal reality than, say, Stone Age perceptions did. Yet even science will suddenly find itself completely surpassed and probably turned upside down by the intrusion of something that DID NOT EXIST in the observed universe...." The trouble is, Sri Aurobindo said the thing was INSIDE already, involved. He always says it's "involved" and then evolves. Yes, but "involved" simply means unmanifested. The intrusion of the new, supramental element is the intrusi

September September 5, 1962 (Before reading his manuscript on Sri Aurobindo to Mother, Satprem asks her to correct any inaccuracies in the text, since he doesn't have the direct experience of everything he speaks of.) I don't have the experience of some of these things. Neither do I; I don't have every experience. Oh, come on now.... (Laughing) I've had a number of them, but.... In principle, after a few thousand births, one should have every possible experience, provided one goes to the trouble of remembering. That would be the advantage of reincarnation; you can't do everything in one lifetime, but with a few thousand lives, it's possible to pass through all the st

September 15, 1962 (Satprem reads a passage from his manuscript in which he mentions the difference in luminosity of the various planes of consciousness. Mother interrupts him to add.) Somewhere in the overmind (beyond the higher mind and from the overmind onwards), things are luminous IN THEMSELVES. Light doesn't have to strike them: things themselves are luminous. And this makes a considerable difference in vision. Things are no longer lit from outside, they are luminous in themselves. This is the main difference in the quality of the light. It has even come to the point where things lit from outside seem artificial to me. They have lost their light. There may be a very di

July 21, 1962 The other day, speaking of Europe, you said that the "Old World is truly old...." Ah, look at this - yesterday someone read me a letter Sri Aurobindo wrote to Barin in April 1920, a few days before I returned from Japan. It was written in Bengali - tremendously interesting! He speaks of the state of the world, particularly India, and of how he envisaged a certain part of his action after completing his yoga. It's extremely interesting. And there's some very high praise for Europe. Sri Aurobindo says something like this: Page 267 "You all think Europe is over and done with, but that's not true, it's not finished yet." In other words, its power is still alive. Thi

June 23, 1962 One or two days ago, I am not sure when, but anyway after our last meeting, suddenly, without thinking about it or wishing it or anything (I was walking or doing something or other), I suddenly became, or saw, a tall being, all white, with a kind of halberd in its hand and an expression of iron will. And it seemed as if the world were being told: "Enough shilly-shallying, enough wavering, now it is time: the thing must be done." And the body's activities hadn't the least importance; whatever I did, that remained. I was seeing that tall being from above, like a great transformative power in the vital. A huge being, very calm and powerful - with no violence in it of course,