August 21, 1965 (Regarding a Playground Talk of March 17, 1951, published in the latest "Bulletin," in which Mother says that when she returned from Japan in 1920, she felt Sri Aurobindo's atmosphere two nautical miles away from Pondicherry:) It appears that in 1958 we said one thing and that this time we said another, so they ask me which is correct. It's about Sri Aurobindo's atmosphere which I felt at sea. So in 1958 (I probably remembered more precisely then) I said ten nautical miles (I remember having asked on the ship, just so I would know), and it appears that this time I said two miles. So they tell me ... What does it matter! That's how they are, they are stupid. Y

April 30, 1965 I spent part of the night in your rooms - didn't you know?... How did you sleep?... As usual. I don't know. How can I explain?... (Smiling) It was like a round of inspection of the "spiritual sanitary" conditions of the different lodgings (1). I am putting it like this, but it was rather curious; it was like a force, yes, or a sort of consciousness that came to inspect the different premises from the standpoint of spiritual health - it was rather curious, interesting. It had started with a visit to my own rooms here; then I asked for the explanation of the principle, if I may say so, on which that inspection was based, and when the explanation was given, I said, "Wel

September 15, 1965 (Letter to Mother from Sujata) September 15, 1965 Little Mother, After what you said this morning, I am wondering if we, the young, do not as citizens of India have the duty of offering our service to the country. Or at least to prepare ourselves for this possibility? Your child who loves you, Signed: Sujata (Mother's answer) For those who are capable of it, the service to the divine Work is infinitely more important than the service to the country. I do not think I have said anything this morning that could contradict this undeniable fact. Signed: Mother Page >

July 10, 1965 (About an "idiotic" tuberculosis:) How are you? Not too well. Where aren't you well? Here, there [gestures]. Oh, mon petit, all sensations are false! That's an experience I have dozens of times every day, in every detail. We feel we need this, we feel we need that, we feel pain here, pain there ... but it's all false. In reality, it means we have left the state of Harmony, that Harmony which is always there; but we have left it, so we need this, need that, have pain here, pain there. Something is lacking, and That is what is lacking. There are three states, we could say: the state of Harmony - that is the one we reach towards all the time, and sometimes we

November 10, 1965 (Mother hands Satprem a brochure, "Spiritual Unity of India," in which quotations from Sri Aurobindo and Mother on the partition of India have been gathered, in particular Mother's declaration: "India must fight until India and Pakistan have once more become ONE.") It has gone around India. Thousands of copies have been distributed in India. There are even lots of newspapers that have written about it. It has made a lot of noise in the country. But they don't seem - the leaders at least - to have understood at all. The Prime Minister has fully approved. But he is a weak man. They are afraid of the United Nations. Oh, they're afraid of everything. Bu

June 2, 1965 Mother tries to read a paper with a magnifying glass: It's quite peculiar, it doesn't help me anymore.... Is it clean? (Mother holds out the magnifying glass to Satprem) There seems to be a haze. Yes, it's clean. It's rather strange, this eyesight. There always seems to be a veil between me and things, constantly; I am so used to it; I see everything very well, but as if there were a slight veil. Then all of a sudden, without any apparent reason (an outwardly logical reason, I mean), a thing becomes clear, precise, sharp (gesture: leaping to the eyes) - the next minute, it's over. Sometimes it's a word in a letter or written somewhere, sometimes it's an object. And it

June 5, 1965 Mother shows the text of a letter she has sent in answer to a disciple: ... She speaks like a child, and it has the charm of the child. She told me, "Oh, I beg you, ask the Lord to be quick and sort things out!" (Mother laughs) So I answered: We are always free (laughing) to make our proposals to the Lord, but after all it is only His will that is realized. And the child's logical conclusion: "Oh, then I have to want what He wants" - that's the point. That's what I said some time ago: one must be in the "It pleases Him"; not only in what is objectified, but in That which objectifies. It's put in a childlike way, but it's so true and so simple! The more you see thin

January 9, 1965 ... You must get better, mon petit. All I can say is that there is a fierceness in the resistance to the descent of the Truth. This descent is totally concrete and evident, of course, and everything averse to it is resisting with terrible fierceness - it can't last. But we must bear up, that's the difficulty. For me, there is a struggle every minute with all that is most negative in life, in the terrestrial consciousness, with what REFUSES to admit the possibility of divinity. In other words, the materialistic concept in its most stubbornly dark aspect. However ... in the consciousness up above, even in the mental consciousness, there are no consequences (I

January 6, 1965 (About the music composed by Sunil for January 1, 1965:) It's odd, all that music of the past, European music, which I knew very well and admired, it seems to me almost void of substance, while here, there is a contact right up above: you plunge into it instantly. Yes, that's right. When I heard his music for the first time, something suddenly opened up and I was right in the middle of the place I know, from which true Harmony comes - suddenly. *** (A little later, regarding the serious operation Satprem has just undergone:) ... Don't let people eat you up. And I would like to be what you want me to be. Yes, mon petit. I want you to be peaceful,

September 16, 1965 A member of UNESCO has asked a stupid question, something to this effect: "There was a time when India represented the spiritual consciousness" (or "taught the spiritual consciousness," I don't remember now), "but now that she is engaged in such a war, who will play this role?"...[[Here is the exact text of the question: "If India, who held (till recently) the hope for humanity in the light of her spiritual leaders, can get involved in such a war, who would lead the world?" ]] So instead of replying to the question, because I might have told him a thing or two, I answered what you've just read. Of course! All those Europeans ... for fifty years they have been to