June 22, 1963 I had a rather amusing experience while walking [during japa]. I was looking at people's attitude (I mean those who think they lead a spiritual life, who think they have made a surrender), and how they are utterly vexed when things don't happen the way they want! (They don't always admit it, they don't always say it to themselves, but it's a fact.) Then all at once, I saw a huge robot - huge, magnificent, resplendent, covered with gold and jewels - a huge being ... but a robot. And all-powerful - all-powerful, capable of doing anything, anything at all; anything you could imagine, he could do it: you had only to press a button and he did it. And it was ... (laughing) as

August August 3, 1963 Physical Matter, physical substance - the very elementary consciousness that's in physical substance - has been so ill-treated (since man's presence on earth, I suppose, because before man, there probably wasn't enough self-consciousness to be aware of being ill-treated; the substance wasn't conscious enough, I suppose, to make a distinction between a normal peaceful state and unfavorable conditions; but anyway, that goes back quite long time), so ill-treated that it finds it very hard to believe things can be different. That consciousness has an aspiration - an aspiration especially for a LUMINOUS peace, something that isn't the dark peace of Unconsciousness, wh

December 7, 1963 (Mother first reads a letter by Sri Aurobindo:) "The way to get faith and all things else is to insist on having them and refuse to flag or despair or give up until one has them - it is the way by which everything has been got since this difficult earth began to have thinking and aspiring creatures upon it. It is to open always, always to the Light and turn one's back on the Darkness. It is to refuse the voices that say persistently, "You cannot, you shall not, you are incapable, you are the puppet of a dream," - for these are the enemy voices, they cut one off from the result that was coming, by their strident clamour and then triumphantly point to the barrenness o

August 7, 1963 You look tired.... The difficulties are continuing. There's a keen struggle against the constant Negation of all inner life - higher life, rather. That is to say, the general Disbelief [in the body]. It's giving me the same kind of nights again. But it's odd, I don't know what it means, last night there were buildings made of a kind of red granite, and many Japanese. Japanese women sewing and making ladies' dresses and fabrics; Japanese youths climbing up and down the buildings with great agility; and everybody was very nice. But it was always the same thing (gesture of a collapse or a fall into a hole): you know, a path opens up, you walk on it, and after a whil

November November 4, 1963 (Mother looks tired) Yesterday, I had resolved to see Sujata, and they kept me standing there arranging objects, perfectly unnecessarily, under the pretext that there are showcases, that visitors are expected and that the objects should be arranged in the showcases.... After spending more than an hour on that work, I told them, "Go away, I've had enough! And - do whatever you like." I was exasperated. An avalanche of people, of letters, of things, of complications.... But at the same time, there's an avalanche of ... (how can I put it?) - everything, everything is becoming so new. Everything. Everything. An example: yesterday, for at least a quarte

September 25, 1963 (Mother first reads her notation of a recent experience) It came in English. (I want to put it in the Bulletin to fill a gap!) We should put it in French, too. Love is ... (no need to say that it's the condensation of an experience - an experience I leave unsaid). Love is not sexual intercourse. Love is not vital attraction and interchange. Love is not the heart's hunger for affection. Love is a mighty vibration coming straight from the One. And only the very pure and very strong are capable of receiving and manifesting it. Then an explanation on what I mean by "pure," the very pure and very strong: To be pure is to be open only to the Supreme's infl

December December 3, 1963 (Regarding the difficulties of certain disciples) ... But anyway, it's settling down - we are in the years of settling down. Everyone is caught by his own illusion - it's always the mirage of an illusion. She [Y.] is convinced, it is her very deep belief, that she is causing the Supermind to descend upon earth. And many, many people among those I know are caught by that illusion; so they go off at a tangent far away from the Truth, towards a "fabulous" realization. Pride, vanity - that's the worst trap. And when they feel that sort of vital force in them [as Y. does], they believe all at once that they have caught the Thing.... The farther I go, th

February 21, 1963 (Message given by Mother for February 21:) The boon that we have asked from the Supreme is the greatest that the Earth can ask from the Highest, the change that is most difficult to realise, the most exacting in its conditions. It is nothing less than the descent of the supreme Truth and Power into Matter, the supramental established in the material plane and consciousness and the material world and an integral transformation down to the very principle of Matter. Only a supreme Grace can effect this miracle. The supreme Power has descended into the most material consciousness but it has stood there behind the density of the physical veil, demanding before manif

May 22, 1963 (This conversation took place a few days after Satprem had a violent attack of an infectious "illness.") The other evening, around 6:30, I was in a lot of pain; my head seemed about to burst, I really suffered: a racking pain. Then I lay down, and suddenly I felt a sort of relaxation - a sudden reversal followed by an easing. And, the next day, I came to know that it happened at the precise time when V. told you I was ill. Not only that, but there was a rather peculiar experience: a Will came into me.... I don't know, a Will: "Decide." Something that wanted me to decide: "It's for you to decide." So I immediately cast that Power on you, saying, "He must be cured." It's a

January 30, 1963 What are you going to read to me today? Nothing? Nothing at all? Well, I have something, then. I have finished my translation [of the Synthesis]. When you have finished your book and we have prepared the next Bulletin and we have a nice quiet moment, we'll go over it again. And then I've begun Savitri - ah! ... As you know, I prepare some illustrations with H., and for her illustrations she has chosen some passages from Savitri (the choice isn't hers, it's A.'s and P.'s and made intelligently), so she gives me these passages one by one, neatly typed (which is easier for my eyes). It's from the Book I, Canto IV. Page 37 And then, as I expected, the experien