On India
THEME/S
Messages and Visions THE Victory has come, Thy Victory, O Lord, for which we render to Thee infinite thanks-giving.
But now our ardent prayer rises towards Thee. It is with Thy force and by Thy force that the victors have conquered. Grant that they do not forget it in their success and that they keep the promises which they have made to Thee in the hours of danger and anguish. They have taken Thy name to make war, may they not forget Thy grace when they have to make the peace.
15 August 1945
*
You see, in the present condition of the world, circumstances are always difficult. The whole world is in a condition of strife, conflict, between the forces of truth and light wanting to manifest and the opposition of all that does not want to change, which represents in the past what is fixed, hardened and refuses to go. Naturally, each individual feels his own difficulties and is faced by the same obstacles.
There is only one way for you. It is a total, complete and unconditional surrender. What I mean by that is the giving up not only of your actions, work, ambitions, but also of all your feelings, in the sense that all that you do, all that your are, is exclusively for the Divine. So, you feel above the surrounding human reactions-not only above them but protected from them by the wall of the Divine's Grace. Once you have no more desires, no more attachments, once you have given up all necessity of receiving a reward from human beings, whoever they are-knowing that the only reward that is worth getting is the one that comes from the Supreme and that never fails-once you give up the attachment to all exterior beings and things, you at once feel in your heart this Presence, this Force, this Grace that is always with you.
And there is no other remedy. It's the only remedy, for everybody without exception. To all those who suffer, it is the same thing that has to be said: all suffering is the sign that the surrender is not total. Then, when you feel in you a bang, like that, instead of saying,
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Oh, this is bad or This circumstance is difficult, you say, My surrender is not perfect. Then it's all right. And then you feel the Grace that helps you and leads you, and go on. And one day you emerge into that peace that nothing can trouble. You answer to all the contrary forces, the contrary movements, the attacks, the misunderstandings, the bad wills, with the same smile that comes from full confidence in the Divine Grace. And that is the only way out, there is no other.
This world is a world of conflict, suffering, difficulty, strain; it is made of it. It has not yet changed, it will take some time before changing. And for each one there is a possibility of getting out. If you lean back on the presence of the Supreme Grace, that is the only way out. That I have been telling you since two or three days, like that constantly.
11 May 1967
(Silence)
A message was asked from me for the whole of India. I have given it. ( Mother hands the text to the disciple.)
Supreme Lord, Eternal Truth Let us obey Thee alone and line according to Truth.
It is a terrible onrush of Falsehood. It was as though the whole world, everyone were lying, even the most unexpected people-everywhere, everywhere, everywhere. And for me it was a living thing (Mother makes a gesture of seeing) oh! horrible, you con't imagine. . . .A little twist to the right, a little twist to- the left, a little twist. . . nothing,
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nothing, nothing is straight. And then the body asked itself, Where is your falsehood? It looked at itself. And it saw this old story: The Lord is to be called only when the matter is important! (Mother laughs) You don't expect to be with Him all the time! Then it got a good rap! .. . It was not aggressive, it looked something like humility-it got a good slap.
It was a mad fury of disagreeable things-more than disagreeable: truly, truly wicked and bad and destructive. A fury, until it got the understanding. Then this feeling came in the whole body, in all the cells, everywhere, all the while-it reached such a point that I was not able to swallow when I was eating-until everything, everything got the understanding: I exist only through the Divine and I cannot subsist but through the Divine... and I cannot be myself but by being the Divine. After that, things were better. Now the body has understood.
(Long silence)
You have nothing to ask? Nothing to say?
I have the feeling that the destiny is bad.
No, it is not true. This is part of the Falsehood; it is this Falsehood. There is no bad destiny, it is a lie! It is a real falsehood. . . . It is not true at all, at all, at all.
There, that just gives you an example: it is like that, like that everywhere (gesture, as though with claws). As for me, I feel as though I see goblins with hooked hands that try to clutch at everybody. Ah! You should have a look at them and then laugh-stick out your tongue, like a child with no manners.
In any case, you are attacked on all sides.
Oh! I tell you it is a massive rush-but it does not matter. . . .
One must rise above, and then (gesture of seeing from above).
What I have told you is the Truth, it is the only remedy:
To exist only for the Divine.
To exist only through the Divine.
To exist only in the service of the Divine.
To exist only... by becoming the Divine.
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There you are.
There is no you, there is no one must wait, there is no it will come in its time, there is no... all these things very reasonable do not exist any more-it is That (Mother brings down her fist), like a sword blade. It is That. It is That in spite of everything: the Divine, the Divine alone. All this rubbish of bad will and revolt and. . . all that (Mother lifts a stiff finger), that must be swept away. And that which says that one shall perish or be destroyed by That, is the ego-it is Sir Ego that tries to be taken as the true being.
But the body has learn that even without the ego, it is what it is, because it is that by the divine Will, not by the ego-we exist by the divine Will and not by the ego. The ego was a means-a means for many centuries-now it is worth nothing, its time has passed. Now. . .(Mother brings down her fist), consciousness, it is the Divine; power, it is the Divine; action, it is the Divine; individuality, it is the Divine.
And the body has understood, felt very well; it has realised, understood that this sense of being a separate individuality is altogether useless, altogether; it is not at all indispensable for its existence, it is Wholly useless. It exists through another power and another will, which is not personal: it is the divine Will. And it will be what it should be only the day it feels that there is no difference between itself and the Divine. That is all.
All the rest is falsehood-falsehood, falsehood, and falsehood that must disappear. There is only one reality, there is only one life, there is only one consciousness (Mother brings down her fist): the Divine.
9 June 1971
THE ATOMIC BOMB
The Atomic bomb is in itself the most wonderful achievement and the Sign of a growing power of man over material nature. But what is to be regretted is that this material progress and mastery is not the result of and in keeping with a spiritual progress and mastery which alone has the power to contradict and counteract the terrible danger coming from these discoveries. We cannot and must not stop progress, but we must achieve it in an equilibrium between the inside and the outside.
30 August 1945
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I disapprove totally of violence. Each act of violence is a step back on the path leading to the goal to which we aspire.
The Divine is everywhere and always supremely conscious. Nothing must ever be done that cannot be done before the Divine.
When I say that the wise should govern the world, I am not taking a political point of View but a spiritual one.
The various forms of government can stay as they are; that is only of secondary importance. But whatever the social status of the men in power, they should receive their inspiration from those who have realised the Truth and have no other will than that of the Supreme.
The earth will enjoy a lasting and living peace only when men understand that they must be truthful and sincere even in their international dealings.
For the Governments honesty lies not only in saying what they are doing but also in doing what they say.
ABOUT PEACE
It is only by the growth and establishment of the consciousness of human unity, that a true and lasting peace can be achieved upon earth. All means leading towards this goal are welcome, although the external ones have a very limited effect; however, the most important, urgent and indispensable of all, is a transformation of the human consciousness itself, an enlightenment of and conversion in its working.
Meanwhile some exterior steps may be taken usefully, and the acceptance of the principle of double nationality is one of them. The main objection to it has always been the awkward position in which those who have adopted a double nationality would be in case the two countries were at war.
But all those who sincerely want peace must understand that to think of war, to, speak of war, to foresee war is to open the door to it.
On the contrary, the larger the number of people who have a vital interest in the abolition of war, the more effective the chances towards
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24 April 1955
The future of the earth depends on a change of consciousness.
The only hope for the future is in a change of man's consciousness and the change is bound to come.
But it is left to men to decide if they will collaborate for this change or if it will have to be enforced upon them by the power of crashing circumstances.
So, wake up and collaborate!
Blessings.
August 1964
THE WORLD TODAY
We are at one of the hours of God as Sri Aurobindo puts it-and the transforming evolution of the world has taken a hastened and intensified movement.
It is true that we are passing through a difficult period (we means the world) but those who remain steady will get out of it much stronger than before.
We are definitely not living at a time when men have been left to their own means.
The Divine has sent down His consciousness to enlighten them.
All who are able to do so, should profit by this.
Truth will conquer in spite of the turmoil.
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Every day things seem to become worse. In truth we feel more and more disgusted: with the old rotting world, and are more and more convinced of the necessity of founding, somewhere out of the well tracks, a new centre of life in which a new and truer light can be manifested, a new world no more based on selfish competitions and egoistic strife but on general and eager endeavours to promote the welfare, knowledge and progress of all-a society based on spiritual aspiration instead of lust for money and material power.
What I see is the world of tomorrow, but the world of yesterday is still alive and will still live for some time. Let the old arrangements go on so long as they are alive.
Upon earth, the changes are slow to come.
Do not worry-and keep hope for the future.
Let us wait and see. The result is sure-but the way and the time are uncertain.
1946
Grant that those who so valiantly struggled and suffered for Thy Victory, may see the true and genuine results of that victory realised in the world.
1947
This is not a prayer, but an encouragement.
Here is the encouragement and a comment upon it:
"At the very moment when everything seems to go from bad to worse, it is then that we must make a supreme act of faith and know that the Grace will never fail us."
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The hours before the dawn are always the darkest.
The servitude just before freedom comes is the most painful of all.
But in the heart endowed with faith burns the eternal flame of hope which leaves no room for discouragement.
1967
Men, countries, continents! The choice is imperative: Truth or the abyss.
The confidence is quite legitimate.
The message is only for those who are still asleep and quite satisfied with their sleep.
Right now there is a great tension. They have all taken positions as if to start war. It is the blind passion that men put into their international relations.
At the base of all there is fear, general distrust, and what they believe to be their interests (money, business)-a combination of these three things. When these three lowest passions of humanity are brought into play, that is what I call the abyss.
That is the response of the Grace. People believe that the Grace means making everything smooth for all your life. It is not true.
The Grace works for the realisation of your aspiration and, everything is arranged to gain the most prompt, the quickest realisation-so there is nothing to fear.
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Fear comes with insincerity. If you want a comfortable life, agreeable circumstances, etc., you are putting conditions and restrictions, and then you can fear.
But it has no business in the sadhana!
26 May 1967
HUMANITY-PRESENT CONDITION AND FUTURE POSSIBILITIES
You felt nothing special on the Darshan day?
No.
Sri Aurobindo was there from the morning till the evening.
For, yes, for more than an hour he made me live, as in a concrete and living vision of the condition of humanity and of the different strata of humanity in relation to the new or supramental creation. And it was wonderfully clear and concrete and living. . . . There was all the humanity which is no longer altogether animal, which has benefited by mental development and created a kind of harmony in its life - a harmony vital and artistic, literary - in which the large majority are content to live. They have caught a kind of harmony, and within it they live life as it exists in a civilised surrounding, that is to say, somewhat cultured, with refined tastes and refined habits. And all this life has a certain beauty where they are at ease, and unless something catastrophic happens to them, they live happy and contented, satisfied with life. These people can be drawn (because they have a taste, they are intellectually developed), they can be attracted by the new forces, the new things, the future life; for example, they can become disciples of Sri Aurobindo mentally, intellectually. But they do not feel at all the need to change materially; and if they were compelled to do so, it would be first of all premature, unjust, and would simply create a greater disorder and disturb their life altogether uselessly.
This was very clear.
Then there were some - rare individuals - who were ready to make the necessary effort to prepare for the transformation and to draw the new forces, to try to adapt Matter, to seek means of expression, etc. These are ready for the yoga of Sri Aurobindo. They are very few in number. There are even those who have the sense of sacrifice and
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are ready for a hard, painful life, if that would lead or help towards this future transformation. But they should not, they should not in any way try to influence the others and make them share in their own effort; it would be altogether unfair-not only unfair, but extremely maladroit, for it would change the universal rhythm and movement, or at least the terrestrial movement, and instead of helping, it would create conflicts and end in a chaos.
But it was so living, so real that my whole attitude (how to say it? -a passive attitude which is not the result of an active will), the whole position taken in the work has changed. And that has brought a peace -a peace and a calmness and a confidence altogether decisive. A decisive change. And even what seemed in the earlier position to be obstinacy, clumsiness, inconscience, all kinds of deplorable things, all that has disappeared. It was like the vision of a great universal Rhythm in which each thing takes its place and . . . everything is all right. And the effort for transformation, reduced to a small number, becomes a thing much more precious and much more powerful for the realisation. It is as though a choice has been made for those who will be the pioneers of the new creation. And all these ideas of spreading, of preparing, or of churning Matter. .. are a childishness. It is human restlessness.
The vision was of a beauty 50- majestic, so calm, so smiling, oh! . .. it was full, truly full of the divine Love. And not a divine Love that "pardons"-it is not at all that, not at all! Each thing in its place, realising its inner rhythm as perfectly as it can.
It was a very beautiful gift.
Well, all these things people know in some part, intellectually, like that, in idea; they know all that, but it is quite useless. In everyday practice you. live in another way, with a truer understanding. And there, it is as though you touched the things-you saw them, you touched them-in their higher disposition.
It came after a vision of plants and the spontaneous beauty of plants (it is something so wonderful), then of the animal with so harmonious a life (so long as men do not intervene), and all that was in its right place; then of the true humanity as humanity, that is to say, the maximum of what a mental poise could create of beauty, harmony, charm, elegance of life, taste of living-a taste of living in beauty, and, naturally, suppressing all that is ugly and low and vulgar. It was a fine humanity-humanity at its maximum, but nice. And perfectly satisfied with its being humanity, because it lives harmoniously. And it is perhaps also like a promise of what almost the whole of humanity will become under the influence of the new creation. It
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appeared to me that it was what the supramental consciousness could make of humanity. There was even a comparison with what humanity has made of the animal species. It is extremely mixed, naturally, but things have been perfected, bettered, utilised more completely. Animality, under the mind's influence, has become another thing, which is, naturally, something mixed, because the mind was incomplete. In the same way there are examples of a harmonious humanity among well-balanced people, and this seemed to be what humanity could become under the supramental influence.
Only, it is very far ahead. You must not expect that it will be immediately-it is very far ahead.
It is clearly, even now, a period of transition which may last quite long and which is rather painful. Only, the effort, sometimes painful (often painful) is compensated by a clear vision of the goal to attain, of the goal that will be attained: an assurance, yes, a certainty. But it would be something that would have the power to eliminate all error, all deformation, all the ugliness of the mental life-and then a humanity very happy, very satisfied with being human, not at all feeling the need of being anything other than human, but with a human beauty, a human harmony.
It was very charming, it was as though I lived in it. The contradictions had disappeared. It was as though I lived in this perfection. And it was almost like the ideal conceived by the supramental consciousness, of a humanity become as perfect as it can be. And it was very good. And this brings a great repose. The tension, the friction, all that disappeared, and the impatience. All that had completely disappeared.
No, it may be diffused materially, because the individuals are not necessarily collected together. But they are few in number.
This idea of a pressing need to prepare humanity for the new creation, this impatience has disappeared.
Quite so.
I was seeing, I saw that in such a concrete way. Apart from those
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who are fit to prepare the transformation and the supramental realisation, and whose number is necessarily very restricted, there must develop more and more, in the midst of the ordinary human mass, a superior humanity which has towards the supramental being of the future or in the making the same attitude as animality, for example, has towards man. There must be, besides those who work for the transformation and who are ready for it, a superior humanity, intermediary, which has found in itself or in life this harmony with Life-this harmony human-and which has the same feeling of adoration, devotion, faithful consecration to "something" which seems to it so high that it does not even try to realise it, but worships it and feels the need of its influence, its protection, and the need to live under this influence, to have the delight of being under this protection. It was so clear. But not this anguish, these torments of wanting something that escapes you because-because it is not your destiny yet to have it, and because the amount of transformation needed is premature for your life and it is that then which creates a disorder and suffering.
For example, one of the very concrete things that brings out the problem well: humanity has the sexual impulse in a way altogether natural, spontaneous and, I would say, legitimate. This impulse will naturally and spontaneously disappear with animality. Many other things will disappear, as for example the need to eat and perhaps also the need to sleep in the way we sleep now. But the most conscious impulse in a superior humanity, which has continued as a source of. . . bliss is a big word, but joy, delight-is certainly the sexual activity, and that will have absolutely no reason for existence in the functions of Nature when the need to create in that way will no longer exist. Therefore, the capacity of entering into relation with the joy of life will rise by one step or will be oriented differently. But what the ancient spiritual aspirants had sought on principle-sexual negation-is an absurd thing, because this must be only for those who have gone beyond this stage and no longer have animality in them. And it must drop off naturally, without effort and without struggle. To make of it a centre of conflict and struggle is ridiculous. It is only when the consciousness ceases to be human that it drops off quite naturally. Here also there is a transition which may be somewhat difficult, because the beings of transition are always in an unstable equilibrium; but within oneself there is a kind of flame and a need which makes it not painful-it is not painful effort, it is something that one can do with a smile. But to seek to impose it upon those who are not ready for this transition is absurd.
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It is common sense. They are human, but they must not pretend that they are not.
It is only when spontaneously the impulse becomes impossible for you, when you feel that it is something painful and contrary to your deeper need that it becomes easy; then, well, externally you cut these bonds and it is finished.
It is one of the most convincing examples.
It is the same with regard to food. It will be the same thing. When animality will drop off, the absolute necessity of food also will drop off. And there will probably be a transition where one will have less and less purely material food. For example, when you smell flowers it is nourishing. I have seen it, you nourish yourself in a more subtle way.
Only, the body is not ready. The body is not ready and it deteriorates, that is to say, it eats itself. This proves that the time has not come, that it is only an experience-an experience that teaches you something, teaches you that it will not be a brutal refusal to come into contact with the corresponding Matter and an isolation (one cannot isolate oneself, it is impossible), but a communion on a higher or deeper plane.
Those who have reached the higher regions of intelligence, but have not dominated the mental faculties in them, have an innocent need that everybody should think like them and be able to understand as they understand. And when they see that others do not, cannot understand, their first reflex is to be horribly shocked; they exclaim,What an idiot! But they are not at all idiots-they are different, they are in another domain. You do not go and say to an animal, You are an idiot; you say, It is an animal. Well, you say, It is a man. It is a man; only, there are those who are no longer men and are not yet gods, and they are in a situation. . . rather awkward.
But it was so soothing, so sweet, so wonderful, this vision-each thing expressing its kind quite naturally.
And it is quite evident that with the amplitude and totality of the Vision, there comes something which is a compassion that understands-not that pity of the superior for the inferior: the true divine Compassion, which is the total comprehension that each one is what he must be.
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