January 17, 1961 51 - When I hear of a righteous wrath, I wonder at man's capacity for self-deception. What do you have to say? Our self-deception is always in good faith! We always act for the welfare of others or in the interests of humanity and to serve you (that goes without saying!). How exactly do we deceive ourselves? I would like to ask you a question in turn - because there are two ways of understanding your question. It can be taken in the same ironic or humorous tone that Sri Aurobindo has used in his aphorism when he wonders at man's capacity for self-deception. That is, you are putting yourself in the place of the self-deceiver and saying, 'But I am of good f

December 1, 1965 (Note from Mother to Satprem) Satprem, In the "Notes on the Way," there is a lot of pruning to be done. [[Mother is referring to the conversation of November 27 which Satprem wished to publish at least in part in the Ashram's Bulletin. ]] The passage concerning sanctioned marriages must be cut, and so must the entire reference to the Ashram's composition. All that is too "private" to be published. And along that line you may find here and there other sentences that are better omitted. I would like us to go over that again carefully next Saturday. Tenderness Signed: Mother Page 317

April 10, 1965 I have been asked a question (Mother looks for a note): How can I love the Lord? I have never seen Him and never He speaks to me. This is my answer: It is not what one sees or hears that one loves, it is love that one loves through the forms and sounds, and of all love the most perfect love, the most loving love is the Lord's love. When I wrote it, it was an extraordinarily intense experience: one cannot love anything but love, and it is love that one loves behind all things - it is love that one loves. It is Love that loves itself everywhere. Page 70 And form and sound are excuses. (silence) Do you find it hard to understand? !? No,

April 23, 1965 Every night now, almost without exception, I spend a part of the night in someone else, who seems to be me - it's "me," but the circumstances are completely different, the relationships are completely different. And last night, I don't know how (oh, it was a long story), I saw myself: I was wearing a sari and my hair was loose, and it was white! It was white with some black streaks that had remained black; and suddenly I saw my face in a mirror, and that's how I knew it was someone else. And it seems to be quite a daily occupation, a very regular occupation, with people totally different from one another, totally different, but all of them in contact with Sri Aurobindo'

January 12, 1965 (Regarding an old "Playground Talk" of March 8, 1951, in which Mother spoke of the being that possessed and "guided" Hitler: "Hitler was in contact with a being whom he considered to be the Supreme: that being would come and give him advice and tell him all that he had to do. Hitler would withdraw into solitude and wait long enough to come into contact with his 'guide' and receive inspirations from him which he would afterwards carry out very faithfully. That being whom Hitler took for the Supreme was quite simply an Asura, the one called in occultism 'the Lord of Falsehood,' and he Page 16 proclaimed himself to be 'the Lord of Nations.' He had a resplendent a

February 27, 1965 (Regarding the Playground Talk of March 10, 1951: "In the physical form there is the 'spirit of the form,' and that spirit of the form persists for a time, even when outwardly the person is said to be dead. And as long as the spirit of the form persists, the body isn't destroyed. In ancient Egypt they had that knowledge; they knew that if they prepared the body in a certain way, the spirit of the form wouldn't go away and the body wouldn't be dissolved. In certain cases, they succeeded wonderfully. And if you go and violate the sleep of those beings who for thousands of years have remained like that, I can understand that they aren't too pleased, especially when thei

November 23, 1965 Regarding the message Mother will give for the November 24 darshan: Page 300 "It is certainly a mistake to bring down the light by force - to pull it down. The Supramental cannot be taken by storm. When the time is ready it will open of itself - but first there is a great deal to be done and that must be done patiently and without haste." Sri Aurobindo That's good for sensible people. They will say, "There, he doesn't promise any miracles." Why? Are there lots of people who tend to "pull"? People are in a hurry, they want to see results right away. So then, they think they are pulling the Supramental down - and they pull some little vital ent

Chapter 5 Road to the Divine Reveal, who know, the road that I must tread ... SRI AUROBINDO What I call "being on the path" is being in a state of consciousness in which only union with the Divine has any value - this union is the only thing worth living, the sole object of aspiration. Everything else has lost all value and is not worth seeking, so there is no longer any question of renouncing it because it is no longer an object of desire. As long as union with the Divine is not the thing for which one lives, one is not yet on the path. THE MOTHER It is true that the path is very long, but for one who follows it with sincerity, it is

Chapter 7 Spiritual Attainments If mankind could but see though in a glimpse of fleeting experience what infinite enjoyments, what perfect forces, what luminous reaches of spontaneous knowledge, what wide calms of our being lie waiting for us in the tracts which our animal evolution has not yet conquered, they would leave all and never rest till they had gained these treasures. But the way is narrow, the doors are hard to force, and fear, distrust and scepticism are there, sentinels of Nature, to forbid the turning away of our feet from her ordinary pastures. SRI AUROBINDO Spirituality is in its essence an awakening to the inner reality of our

Chapter 6 Bases of Spiritual Life The earliest preoccupation of man in his awakened thoughts and, as it seems, his inevitable and ultimate preoccupation ... is also the highest which his thought can envisage. It manifests itself in the divination of Godhead, the impulse towards perfection, the search after pure Truth and unmixed Bliss, the sense of a secret immortality. The ancient dawns of human knowledge have left us their witness to this constant aspiration; today we see a humanity satiated but not satisfied by victorious analysis of the externalities of Nature preparing to return to its primeval longings. The earliest formula of Wisdom promises to be its last,