June 8, 1968 I was looking at a problem.... Basically, if you remove the veneer - the veneer of good manners - man admits the existence of the Divine only on condition that his sole occupation be to satisfy all of man's needs and desires - it may be collective desires, even "planetary" desires as Y. would put it, but it boils down to that. And it's like that especially, especially with the notion of a Divine who put on a body.... In fact, they found it quite natural that Christ should be crucified for their own salvation - I find it monstrous. I've always found it monstrous. But now, I see it's ... quite spontaneous. Here in India, with the notion of guru, of Avatar, you may re

November 20, 1968 (Mother looks weary. Her face is swollen by a tooth abscess.) Do you have anything? Yes, news from the Vatican. Oh! ... tell me, it's interesting. P.L. has sent photos of the man supposed to be doing magic. You know that he is an intimate friend of the Pope's, his private collaborator, and at the same time archbishop at the State Secretariat of the Holy See. Here's his photo. Oh, he wears such a big hat! (Mother looks for a long time) And what does V. say? [[V. is the disciple who had a vision of a prelate repeating mantras. ]] He isn't here at the moment. Page 322 Are archbishops dressed like this? What nationality is he? He i

May 18, 1968 (Satprem expresses his surprise at the speed with which Mother has been cured of the swelling, without a trace. Mother laughs.) I know the knack! Then ... there's something else. The pupils, we're trying to knock the rough edges off them! They're given subjects to study and research, and I was asked to give a subject for them. I gave, "What is death?" One class took it up, and they sent me the pupils' notes - four of them. (Mother holds out four sheets, which Satprem reads:) Rita: "The actual fact of death evokes in me an experience in which one is thrust into space and soars up." Amusing! I found it very amusing. She is the only one, beside

August 28, 1968 (Mother receives Satprem and Sujata in her new, low armchair made of rosewood, which will remain till the end. She no longer gets up to fetch flowers for them.) Come here, I am more deaf than ever! How are you? It's been a long time without seeing you! It was interesting, mon petit. I've kept all these notes, we'll see them. It's not over. It's not over and I don't know when it will be. But anyway, I'll be able to see you again in the morning. First, you must be famished! No, not at all! (Mother gives Satprem soup packets) Do you have news? Page 226 No, Mother. I saw something before August 15, one nightaround August 11. I saw a hu

January 12, 1968 I have a question, but ... A question? There is a fact you are probably aware of ... Which one? You had the visit of E., that Italian, and his wife? So then? He asked me questions on "left-hand Tantrism," you know, the "Vama Marga".... What's that? It's those so-called Tantrics who make a "yoga" out of sexuality. And he asked me all sorts of questions on the place of sexuality in yoga, adding that for a year, he and his wife have been trying to live on another level and in a different way. So I tried to tell him the true standpoint, and I gave him a letter I had written a year earlier on the subject - a letter I was really inspired t

April 17, 1968 (Mother spends the entire time in contemplation. Towards the end:) ... Don't feel like talking. Anything to ask? You look a little grave? No, it's not that. It's ... Page 108 (After a long silence) It's very hard to say, but it's clearly the phenomenon of material transformation. It begins with what we may call a "change of government": instead of a personal, inner being governing, it's directly the Consciousness, the supreme Consciousness. So then, there is the transfer of all movements, all activities - the entire functioning. The transfer of the personal being. Instead of obeying a personal being, it's under the Influence of and directly IMPEL

October 19, 1968 (Mother speaks these words haltingly; they are interspersed with long silences, as though dropping from far away ... perhaps from eternity.) I can remain without coughing, but because of that I can't speak.... There's nothing we can talk about. So there. (silence) The material, the physical is learning - it's learning what it is - and that's very interesting. But ... it's very hard to express. (silence) You see, I remain for hours and hours on end without speaking, and it's like a development unfolding logically, but ... This cough must be deliberate, to prevent me from speaking. Because I see things clearly.... One seems to waste one's time spea

March 16, 1968 Mother holds out a flower to Satprem This is "Happy Heart."[[Ravenalia spectabilis. ]] I am discovering the secret of it. (long silence) You feel you are constantly - constantly - on the way to a great discovery, then you make that discovery, and then you realize it had always been made! ... It's only (laughing) that you look at it in another way. This morning, there was an experience; it seemed an extraordinary revelation, and ... it's something that was always known. So you mentalize it - the moment you mentalize it, it becomes clear, but that's no longer it! You see, we say this creation is "the creation of equilibrium,"[[We may recall Agenda 4 of Novembe

January 27, 1968 Yesterday I got a letter from the director of the [All India] Radio, in which he said he wanted to make a "spectacular" broadcast on February 21; and at the end, to "crown" the thing, he asked me to give "reminiscences of my life in India"! (Mother laughs) So I've prepared my answer.... "The reminiscences will be short. I came to India to meet Sri Aurobindo, I remained in India to live with Sri Aurobindo, when he left his body I con tinued to live here in order to do his work which is by serving the Truth and enlightening humanity to hasten the rule of the Divine's Love upon earth." There, and that's that. Period. It came in English and afterwar

April 13, 1968 R. [Auroville's architect] has come for five days, and he wants to make what he calls a "district" of Auroville, that is to say, instead of tackling the problem of ten or twenty thousand people at once, he wants to start with two or three thousand, on the level of infrastructure, but above all to see how it will work: the experiment of life in Auroville.... I had thought about it, and when I spoke to you last time, that's what came: in what direction should the experiment be carried out? You see, Y. has ideas in the field of education (I am not intervening); as for R., he has ideas in the field of construction (I am not intervening); but no one has studied the problem on t