February 7, 1961 (Mother reads the following letter aloud in English, before sending it to a disciple.) 'You ask me what you must do. It would be better to ask what you must be, because the circumstances and activities in life have not much importance. What is important is our way of reacting towards them.' This is where it begins.... 'Human nature is such that when you concentrate on your body you fall ill; when you concentrate on your heart and feelings you become unhappy; when you concentrate on the mind you get bewildered.' (Laughing) And it's absolutely true! 'There are two ways of getting out of this precarious condition. 'One is very arduous: it is a severe

DECEMBER December 16, 1961 (Mother comes in with a rolled-up paper.) Here's my original manuscript - although it's not very 'original.' It's a message for the first of January. One day ... (I'm translating the last section of The Synthesis of Yoga, 'The Yoga of Self-Perfection' - it plunges you into bottomless gulfs ... ) and one day (I think I've told you this), I had a vision of the gap between ... not even what ought to be, because we probably haven't the slightest idea of that, but between our concept of what we would like to be and what is. And it was so dreadful that the body was thrown into, oh ... an anguish, a horror; and along with it an intensity of aspiration, a pr

February 28, 1961 I have brought you the exact text of that sentence on Sri Aurobindo I told you about the other day. [[ See conversation of February 18: 'Sri Aurobindo is an Action...' ]] It was in reply to a letter.... You know this mental habit (which people take for mental superiority!) of lumping everything together on the same level: all the teachings, all the prophets, all the sects, all the religions. You know the habit: 'We are not prejudiced, we have no preferences - it's all the SAME THING.' A dreadful muddle! It's one of the biggest mental difficulties of this age. Anyway, in reply to this nonsense, I have said: 'Your error, to be precise, is that you go to the Th

June 24, 1961 I have received your note [[Satprem no longer has the text of this letter. ]] and it didn't surprise me, because just about a month ago I received what seemed like an SOS from your mother, telling me your father was rapidly declining. I have done what I could, mainly to bring in some tranquillity, some calm, some inner peace. But I haven't done.... You see, there are always two possibilities when people are so seriously ill: they can be Page 231 helped to die quickly, or else made to linger on for a very long time. When I have no outer or inner indications, all I ever do is apply the consciousness for the best to happen to them (the best from the soul's standpoint, of

March 11, 1961 Good morning! I have to fight to get out of there! I began to scold them all, saying they were wasting all my time - then I was able to come. Otherwise, impossible. (Satprem puts a cushion under Mother's feet) It's almost a luxury these days! When was it? ... Not last night, but the night before, I was with you; and while I was with you I heard the clock strike. I didn't count, but I told myself, 'It's 4 o'clock!' and got out of bed.... One hour later I saw that it was 4 a.m.: I had risen at 3, and by then we had been together for quite a long time. I had gone ... where? I don't know. I was living some place (certainly somewhere in the Mind) and we were toge

January 27, 1961 (On the moralistic reactions of someone who thought that certain acts 'angered' God:) They are only too eager to believe that God can get angry with them! I try to dispel this notion as much as I can, because it's not true - it isn't true. (long silence) Page 46 This time, something has really been achieved. Since the last experience [January 24] I see it daily. The following day, probably for reasons connected with the body's development and adaptation, I was rather seriously ill - what is usually called 'painfully ill': the body was suffering a lot, or WOULD HAVE suffered a lot had it been in its former normal consciousness. That's where I saw the

March 25, 1961 (On the previous day, Satprem had written a letter to Mother complaining of never having any concrete experiences. [[This letter has disappeared. ]] After a meditation together, this is what Mother replied.) It's not that you don't have experiences! You even have access to regions where people very rarely go; you are capable of receiving light, intuitions, revelations - but this is probably so normal for you that you don't notice it! I came to meditate with you especially to see what was preventing you from being conscious.... And on your right side, I saw a sort of crystallization ... somewhat as though you were inside a statue. It seemed made of transparent ala

January 10, 1961 I have a stack of unread letters this high and an even bigger stack I've read but haven't answered. How can I work on the Aphorisms when I am constantly hounded by people 'pulling' on me simply because they have written! If I don't answer immediately, they say (not in words, but ... ): 'So you're not answering my letter!' These are not very favorable conditions! Everything is in an awful confusion. (silence) What is the next aphorism? 49 - To feel and love the God of beauty and good in the ugly and the evil, and still yearn in utter love to heal it of its ugliness and its evil, this is real virtue and morality. [[Sri Aurobindo's aphorisms appear in the Cent.

September 23, 1961 I have the right to 150 pages! The publisher is giving me 150 pages in his collection.... Terrible.... But in this 'Sri Aurobindo,' you understand, I would like to make his whole poetic aspect stand out, that poetry which is like the Veda, like a revelation, so a bit of space is required: it can't be squeezed into a few lines, or reduced to a skeleton. This analogy between the ancient form of spiritual revelations and Savitri, this blossoming into poetry of his prophetic revelation is ... what could be called the most exceptional part of his work. And what is remarkable (I saw him do it) is that he changed Savitri: he went along changing it as his experience c

January 29, 1961 My legs are tired.... (Mother looks at T's questions on Sri Aurobindo's Aphorisms.) 53 - The quarrels of religious sects are like the disputing of pots, which shall be alone allowed to hold the immortalizing nectar. Let them dispute, but the thing for us is to get at the nectar in whatever pot and attain immortality. What is this nectar of immortality? This consciousness of immortality ... is OUR becoming conscious of the realms where immortality exists; but to bring immortality into the physical consciousness requires not only a transformation of physical consciousness but a transformation of physical substance as well. So.... * (Concerning the