January 19, 1961 I am going to let you work. No work for me! I'm a little.... I haven't eaten for two days, so ... not very bright. It won't tire you if I read these texts? No. It's purely physical. It's because people.... When I came down, I felt fine. Only they kept me standing there, on and on. When I am seated, it's all right; but beyond a certain point, speaking also becomes difficult. * After the work: I think it would be wiser if I went back upstairs - although if I leave here too early, people will be waiting for me and I'll have to see them before going up. We could meditate a little; as soon as I meditate, everything is fine. (meditation) Page 31

July July 4, 1961 (Mother remarks in passing that the inspiration coming to her from Sri Aurobindo when she writes is sometimes in French and sometimes in English, and adds:) Sri Aurobindo told me he had been French in a previous life and that French flowed back to him like a spontaneous memory - he understood all the subtleties of French. How is your work going? Tomorrow I'll begin on 'Savitri.' O lucky man! What joy! You know, Savitri is an exact description - not literature, not poetry (although the form is very poetical) - an exact description, step by step, paragraph by paragraph, page by page; as I read, I relived it all. Besides, many of my own experiences that I

November 16, 1961 (Letter from Mother to Satprem on the occasion of his manuscript being sent to Paris:) 11-16-61 Satprem, my dear child, You were scheduled for the 21st and the Italian 'delegate' for the 23rd. I have switched it around, so on the 23rd you take the place of this lady, whom I will now see on the 21st. I find the book VERY BEAUTIFUL. With all my tenderness, Signed: Mother Page 390

August 25, 1961 (Mother gives flowers) This is Alchemy. [[Hymenocallis (Spider Lily). ]] And here! (Mother hands Satprem some cheese) I still have plenty, you know! It doesn't matter, mon petit, this is the last of it. I may have one or two boxes left, but that's all. How is the work going? I don't know. It doesn't matter. You must know how it's going! (Mother laughs) Yes! And I say: 'It doesn't matter if you don't say anything!' I knew you wouldn't! But it's going all right, it's all right. [319] Anyway, X has written to me (and to M. also), telling me he will be here on the 29th, but will have to leave on the 10th, so it won't be for Page 319 ve

May 30, 1961 After working: And you? What's new? I don't know very well where I stand. Oh, it's best not to know! Personally I have stopped - I have stopped trying to know. With the stubbornness of a child, I keep repeating to the Lord, 'It's time You change all this!' There are moments, you know, when you want to weep - which is idiotic! So you surrender it all to the Lord: 'I leave this work to You - do what You will, as You will, when You will.' And I try to be as tranquil as I can (Mother makes a gesture of mental immobility), but when you do so, you become aware of ... oh, it's like a swarm of flies coming - from here, from there, from above, from below, oh ...

February 25, 1961 (Mother gives Satprem some flowers.) This one is the Constant Remembrance of the Divine. [[Lonicera japonica (Japanese Honeysuckle). ]] This is Life Energy [[Chrysanthemum, yellow. ]] and Purified Life Energy. [[Chrysanthemum, white. ]] Then Faithfulness [[Quisqualis indica. ]] : the peace of Faithfulness - Faithfulness to the Divine, of course, that's understood! This is Divine Solicitude [[Malvaviscus arboreus. ]] ;this is the Aspiration for Transformation, [[Millingtonia hortensis (Indian Cork Tree). ]] and the response: see how beautiful it is - like velvet! it's the Promise of Realization. [[Tropaeolum majus (Nasturtium). ]] Here is Light Without Obs

May 23, 1961 (Satprem inquires about Mother's health.) It's obviously a type of filariasis which obstinately refuses to go away, but anyway.... It causes only one inconvenience now: it makes the legs very weak - very weak. I go through what seem like terrible gymnastics to climb the stairs. Other than that it doesn't Page 212 matter. From time to time it pricks, it stings, it bites, it swells up - but it's nothing. X said it would go away completely. The doctor said, 'It will not go away.' So my body is observing the phenomenon! (Mother laughs) * (Mother reviews some earlier 'Questions and Answers.' In one of them - dated November 14, 1956 - someone had asked if maste

February February 4, 1961 Here, I have brought you two flowers. They have two different yet very typically Indian fragrances: this one is Straightforwardness, [[Ixora arborea (Torch Tree). ]] and this is SIMPLICITY. [[Hymenantherum, a tiny yellow flower like a miniature daisy. ]] I have always found that this one (Mother holds out the Simplicity) has a cleansing fragrance: when you breathe it, ah, everything becomes clean - it's wonderful! (Mother breathes in the flower's fragrance.) Once I cured myself of the onset of a cold with it - this can be done when you catch it at the very beginning. It fills you completely, the nose, the throat.... And this [Straightforwardness] is right

March 27, 1961 (Mother brings along a note she had written the same morning concerning a meditation with X, the tantric 'guru.') 'The extreme subjectivity of experiences is very disconcerting. 'Yesterday, while waiting for X, I was as usual in communion with the Supreme in his aspect of Love. Suddenly I felt X arriving and spontaneously, like a Veda, a movement of gratitude for his great goodwill arose from my heart, and it was formulated as a prayer to the Supreme: "Give him [X] the bliss of Your Love and the joys of Your Truth." 'For a long time X has said nothing about his meditations with me, but just yesterday he told N. that he had some difficulty at the start

October 30, 1961 (The day before and at the beginning of this conversation, Satprem read aloud some passages of his manuscript relating to the Veda. Then Mother chose the photograph of Sri Aurobindo for the frontispiece. She speaks slowly, as though from a great distance, in a semi-trance.) That's how I first saw him, at the head of the staircase. (silence) I had an experience while listening to you read; it was as if I heard, 'The beginning of the legend ... the beginning of the legend....' It's rather strange. He is there and the atmosphere is full of a sort of concentration of force, and there are these two things: 'This is how legends come into being ... how legends b