August 11, 1962 (Satprem asks for an explanation of this sentence from August 4: "... it is easier to feel wider, higher, vaster than the world, THAN AN INDIVIDUAL. For it is easier to take everything in, to embrace and change it from outside, than to change it from inside.") Yes, it is easier (for a Being or a Force or a Consciousness) to feel vaster than the earth than an individual [[Mother undoubtedly means than TO FEEL LIKE an individual." ]] Than an individual?... (Mother laughs) It's crystal clear to me! ... It's a sort of reply to something I am translating in The Synthesis of Yoga. You know, there are these three aspects that must always be kept united in one's cons

August 18, 1962 (Concerning Satprem's new book on Sri Aurobindo, Mother foresees that again many cuts will be necessary, and emphasizes that the main point is to prevent the publisher from entrusting the book's editing to some ignoramus. And she adds:) ... But it's quite clear that these people can't grasp it; they're a closed door! Not even a door of bronze, but of bricks and cement - impenetrable. Poor Sri Aurobindo! And as for what happened here in Pondicherry, there's no need to make it very long. Because from the time he withdrew to his room (to be exact, from about the time we moved from the house over there to this one [[Sri Aurobindo withdrew in 1926, but it was in 1927

March 11, 1962 (Satprem suggests he read certain past Agenda conversations to Mother. She refuses:) You know, I've almost felt like telling you that all this Agenda stuff isn't meant for circulation. It's only for when I have come to the end - and then what's in it won't matter at all. Or else I will have gone, leaving a note saying I don't want it published ... Why! Page 114 ... and that I am giving it only to ... I will say to whom. So it doesn't matter. Actually, you could type it up just as it is on the tape. You want to read it to me mainly to get (laughing) some additions, hmm? There may be additions, but there are also some questions. I should delete some th

June 30, 1962 (Mother gives Satprem an old note to keep - unfortunately, he does not recall exactly what it was - one of those little scraps of paper, scattered about almost everywhere, on which Mother would jot down notations of her experiences; or, to be more exact, on which she concretized in material words the Force then manifesting. As a comment on this note, Mother adds.) I have experienced this hundreds and hundreds of times: one has a deep, true experience, but the mind, even the higher mind, immediately latches onto it (usually it's the higher mind) and very actively makes its OWN thing out of the experience, thus bringing in its own distortion. It comes merely as an additi

May 18, 1962 The other day you said, "What I call Me high above, my consciousness, is completely outside the body." And on April 3, you also said something that gave me a kind of jolt: "I am no more in this body." Why?... Have you really left this body? (very long silence) How can I explain it?.. (long silence) I don't know how to explain it.... I could almost tell it as a joke: for years and years I felt my consciousness to be outside my body - I always used to say it was there (gesture above the head), and not in my body. But from the time of that first experience [April 3], when the doctor said the heart had been physically affected and would stop working if I wasn't care

February 6, 1962 These past few days I have been reading Perseus [[Perseus the Deliverer, a play in five acts by Sri Aurobindo. ]] - it was performed here, so I knew a little of it but it never much interested me. But reading it the way I read now, I have found it VERY interesting, I have discovered all kinds of things, all kinds. Yes, I have noticed that in the space of (I don't remember when we performed it,[[ The play was performed some eight years earlier, in December 1954. ]] you were already here) ... between then and now there is at least a good fifty years' difference - a fifty-year change in consciousness. But in practice, I am always up against the same problem. Look

December 15, 1962 (Mother shows Satprem some pamphlets printed during Théon's time, "Fundamental Axioms of Cosmic Philosophy," which have just been found among some old papers.) This is pretty funny! (Laughing, Mother reads.) "In his physical state, man is the supreme evolutor. "There is but one law, the law of Charity, and it is one with Justice. "There is but one disequilibrium: the violation of this law. "The cause of disequilibrium is excess. "Perpetual evolution towards perfection.... "Mortality is the result.... "Mortality"! What a word! Page 451 Infant mortality! "Mortality is the effect whose cause is disequilibrium. It is accidental and tem

October 30, 1962 My translation [of The Synthesis of Yoga] will be finished soon - I'll miss it. But aren't you going to start on Savitri? It suddenly seemed terribly ambitious to me.... (Laughing) My stock of words isn't so great! (silence) H.S.[[A Chinese disciple who translates Sri Aurobindo into Chinese. ]] has written to me, and there was a sentence in his letter that brought a certain problem to my attention. He said, "I have done so many hours of translation - it's a mechanical task." I wondered what he meant by "mechanical task" because, as far as I am concerned, you can't translate unless you have the experience - if you start translating word for word, it no longe

November 30, 1962 Another prophet! (Mother hands Satprem a typed sheet.) India is full of prophets. But this one is rather interesting because he's the first who seems to have seen this [Sing-Indian] war from the standpoint of the inner action. He seems to be a good man. He lives in Madras, (Satprem reads:[[Note in original English. ]]) A. has a neighbor who is an educational officer (retired). He does serious Puja daily and has certain powers of foretelling, mind-reading etc. He is under instructions from his Guru never to send back people without answering their questions of whatever kind; never to get angry under any conditions; never to accept money; and never to tell things o

June 16, 1962 It's going to take a long time, this business. [[The transformation. ]] When I look ahead, I see no radical change (that is, a change of organization, of life and so forth) before a VERY long time, a very long time. We have to have a lot of patience. No, it's not a matter of patience - it's like this (Mother holds her hands above her head, open to the Eternal). (silence) It gives me the feeling of a bell that no one rings! It's there on the table (you know, those little dinner bells) ... and no one rings it. Well. Page 215