-809_S ( he ).html Someone here, whose name is S., a man over forty (oh, yes, much older than that, I think he is approaching fifty), has been learning French, but so energetically that he writes French really remarkably. He regularly sends me questions in French, and because of the care with which he writes, I reply. The other day, he wrote to me (I forget his exact words, but it was very well put) that he had just realized that aspiration for progress and the result of the aspiration were both the divine Grace, the effect of the divine Grace.... So I thought, "Well, well, let me see if he knows French well enough to have a sense of humor." And I replied this: "O

(Pavitra shows Mother a photograph of the house in which She lived in Paris, rue du Val de Grâce) Well, well! The house on Val de Grâce! It looks inhabited, the windows have curtains in them. I lived there - a small house, really very small, with a bedroom upstairs. Here, this is the kitchen; here is the living room, this is the studio. And then behind the kitchen there was a small room that I used as the dining room, and it opened onto a courtyard. Between the dining room and the kitchen there was a bathroom and a small hallway. The kitchen is here; you went up three steps and then there was this small hallway

Something quite curious took place during a recent meditation. I no longer recall when exactly, but it was at a time when there were many visitors, for the courtyard was full. After perhaps no more than a few minutes, I suddenly heard a distinct voice, coming from my right, say 'OM,' like that. And then a second time, 'OM.' What an impact it had upon me! I felt an emotion here (gesture towards the heart) as I have not felt for years and years and years. And all, all, all was filled with light, with force - it was absolutely marvelous. It was an invocation, and during the whole meditation the Presence was resplendent. I said to myself, 'Wh

Aphorism 60 - There is no mortality. it is only the Immortal who can die; the mortal could neither be born nor perish. The Immortal can pass from the condition of life to the condition of death (but not 'death' as we understand it); 'can die' means 'can change condition.' The Immortal can pass from this condition to that condition and back and forth again. We call it 'death,' but it has nothing to do with either life or death. They are changes of state. (silence) I've had this notebook [[The notebook of a disciple who asks questions on the Aphorisms which Mother 'must' answer regularly. ]] for days - don't

There is something interesting (not the faintings!). You know that Z has started a yoga in the body (I didn't ask her to do anything, she did it spontaneously); she wrote to me her first experiences, and there were observations quite similar to those I had made and with an accuracy that interested me - I have encouraged her. She is going on. I don't have the time to read her letters: they're piling up there. But what I found very interesting is that yesterday I was read a letter from an English writer (a lady): she has a little group there, they meditate together, and they had a sort of Indian guru (I don't know who) who was teaching them meditation. Then they came

The dates ... I am no good at dates! And I don't have any papers left to give me precise details. But the realization of the inner Divine must have been in 1911, because that's when I started writing my Meditations. [[The first Prayers and Meditations date from November 1912, but there may have been earlier ones among the numerous texts Mother destroyed. ]] But since my earliest childhood, you know, this presence was always there, with an initial emphasis on consciousness, then on the vital and aesthetics, then on the mind ... and culminating here, in 1920, with action. page 291 , Mother's Agenda , volume 3 , 28th July 1962.

What I mean by "experience" is something totally different from what people normally understand. It's something almost ... not new as such but assuming a new reality. It is not "experiencing what one knows" - that's taken for granted, it's banal - but.... We would need another word. Instead of knowing something (even a knowledge far superior to mental knowledge, even a very integral knowledge), you ... become the power that makes it BE. Essentially, it is becoming the tapas [energy] of things - the tapas of the universe. The Manifestation is always said to begin with Sachchidananda: first Sat, pure Existence; then Chit, the aw

(In the presence of Pavitra and Abhay Singh, * Mother recounts a vision she had during the night) It was just at four o'clock in the morning, and it woke me up. It was exactly like this ... I was apparently in my bathroom, and I had to open the door between the bathroom and Sri Aurobindo's room; the moment I put my hand on the doorknob, I knew with an absolute certainty that destruction was awaiting me behind the door. It had the form or image of those great invaders of India, those who had swooped down upon India and destroyed everything in their wake ... But it was only an impression. So the door had to

"According to what I know and see, in a general way, children OVER FOURTEEN should be left inde pendent, and should be given advice only in so far as they ASK for it. They must know that steering their own life is their responsibility." page 195 , Mother's Agenda , volume 9 , 10th July - 1968