Auroville references in Mother's Agenda

April 23, 1966

AM VII-95-96

(Mother hands the disciple a brochure on Auroville)

The photos are very pretty. There is one which is just like a nebula.

Practically speaking, is it moving?

It seems to be going very well. A very wide collective response, and from two opposite sides: the whole communist side is stirring, and the whole American financial side is stirring. There is an effervescence.

It's certain to work, I KNOW that it exists - the city is already there (for many, many years). What is interesting is that I had made a creation with Sri Aurobindo at the centre, then when Sri Aurobindo left, I dropped the whole idea, I didn't budge any more. And suddenly it began to come back, as if I were being told, "Now is the time, it has to be done." Good. The Moslems would say, "It is written". It is written, it is sure to exist. How long it will take I don't know, but it seems to be going quickly.

The city already exists.

And what is remarkable is that I had simply given the broad outline to [the architect], asking him if it interested him. Then he went back to France and he received my formation (my old formation which I had left dormant); he received it over there. That interested me very much. He received it, he said to me, "It came suddenly, I was as though possessed by something, and in one night everything was done." And what is interesting is that a friend of his who is also an architect came to work with him and helped in the creation, and he is now quite enthusiastic; he is a man who has very extensive relations with the whole of communist Europe, including Russia. And he is carried away by the details. Thus, from that side it's moving. In America too it seems to be happening.

And it's just what I want, that those two countries which are on a collision course come here, and that both of them have a pavilion of their culture and their ideal, and that they are there, face to face, and shake hands.

Page 27

July 6, 1966

AM VII-155-156

Aphorisms of Sri Aurobindo

"118. The love of solitude is a sign of the disposition towards knowledge; but knowledge itself is only achieved when we have a settled perception of solitude in the crowd, in the battle and in the mart.

"119. If when thou art doing great actions and moving giant results, thou canst perceive that THOU art doing nothing, then know that God has removed His seal on thy eyelids.

"120. If when thou settest alone, still and voiceless on the mountain top, thou canst perceive the revolutions thou art conducting, then hast thou the divine vision and art freed from appearances.

"121. The love of inaction is folly and the scorn of inaction is folly; there is no inaction. The stone lying inert upon the sands which is kicked away in an idle moment, has been producing its effect upon the hemispheres."

That's interesting! That's just the experience I've had these last few days, yesterday and the day before. The feeling of an irresistible Power which governs everything: the world, things, people, everything... without having to lift a finger materially, and that this material hyper-activity is nothing more than a kind of foam that forms when water runs very fast - a foam on the surface - while the Force runs underneath it like an all-powerful current.

There's nothing else to say.

You always come back to that: to know is all right; to speak is good; to do is good; but to be, is the only thing which has power.

(silence)

That experience came in connection with Auroville. You know, people are getting nervous because it's "not going quickly";

Page 28

so I had that vision of the formation, the divine creation which is happening underneath, all-powerful, irresistible, and in spite of all this outer commotion.

July 23, 1966

AM VII-160

... We keep on receiving lots of letters from people who have read this article in Planete, or who have read your book. And then there are so many of them who want to come! That's more serious!... But anyway, we are sending them some literature. To most of them, we say they have first to prepare themselves. Then there are a great many of them whom I direct to Auroville; that might be Auroville's essential reason for being.

July 27, 1966

AM VII-164-165

We keep on receiving heaps of letters. There are lots of people who want to come and who are asking questions. There's going to be an inrush of people there are some who are chartering airplanes! So yesterday I said, "We're going to have one direct flight per year: Paris-Auroville!" And they're going to prepare an airport. They're already negotiating with the government for the land: it's immense, you could make four or five airports! There will be a landing field in Auroville: Paris-Auroville! (Mother seems very amused)

It seems that in 1972 there will be a new plane coming from Paris to India (Paris-Auroville!) in four hours. That means, if you leave Paris in the evening, you'll arrive here at dawn (you know you lose time in coming). And if you leave here at noon, you'll reach Paris at ten in the morning - two hours before your departure.

They'll end up going so fast that they'll arrive the day before they take off!

Four hours, that's fast.

Where does that get me!... I'm behind the times, you know.

Page 29

What's the point of going so fast!

It's interesting.

Do you think it really serves some purpose?

(Mother laughs... silence) Some rather peculiar things are already happening. But I'll speak about them when I've finished my observations.

Another one or two years, and there will be something to say.

August 10, 1966

AM VII-175-176

They've asked me for a "message to the stars". Then, "Do you have a message for the Christmas issue [of the review =1] on the new man?"

They said, "What message can we send? It will take 200 years to reach its goal"; the message they send from here will reach the stars 200 years from now. But of course they don't say whether French or English will be understood on the star! They even say that it isn't understood... They want to send signals like =1, and they say these will be understood - it will be understood that we are intelligent beings! (Mother laughs, scoffing)

I no longer remember the message I gave them.

But a message for the new man... What am I going to say to them?... What is the new man? Do you know what the new man is?... Man is always new!

It won't be an intelligent man.

Well, so much the better! So much the better.

You could say, the return to instinct and impulse, but these would be divine impulses.

And then another progress (which really would be a progress) would be silent communication of consciousnesses, without words. That would be lovely: a little bit of silence.

(silence)

Page 30

[passage omitted]

There is an engineer who came with [the architect]. Nine people came with [the architect], among them was an engineer who sent me a note: "Are you God?"

I had seen the man two days before: he is very good. If I hadn't seen him, I wouldn't have answered, but as I had seen him and it happens that he is good, I suspected that he was a man born into a Catholic family to ask a question like that. So I answered him: "This question can be asked of ALL human beings , and the answer is: yes, potentially." And I added: out of consideration for his goodwill (I don't know the exact words any more):

"That's the task each one has to accomplish."

Since then, he has been absolutely silent.

There is another one who is a communist. He's a Russian who lives in Paris. He asked me if it wasn't necessary for all the workers of Auroville to meet and "discuss" (Mother laughs) the necessity of "moral conduct"! (It seems he keeps them all discussing until three in the morning.) So I answered him (laughing) that the value of morality is very relative from the standpoint of Truth: that it changes with the country, climate and age! I also told him that discussions were generally sterile and unproductive. But in order not to be just critical, I answered that it was enough if each one made an effort to be perfectly sincere, straightforward and of goodwill, and that that would constitute quite a sufficient basis for working... Poor man!...*

August 13, 1966

AM VII-178

You know there are a lot of people who have come for Auroville... Instead of working, they spend their time arguing and gossiping! And they send me letters. The whole mental ego of all of them is seething with agitation. You've seen them?

* This is the exact text of Mother's answer: "Moral laws have only a very relative value from the point of view of Truth, besides they vary considerably according to the country, the climate and the period. Discussions are generally sterile and without productive value. If each individual makes a personal effort of perfect sincerity, uprightness and goodwill, the best conditions for the work will be realized."

Page 31

No. I'm afraid they might "invite" me!

They are already beginning to talk about what the political situation of the city will be like - before the first stone is even laid! And there is one, the one who is of communist faith (he's the one with the most energy and power for realization), he is shocked: he wrote me yesterday saying that he couldn't participate in anything which wasn't "purely democratic"!... So I answered this (Mother hands her note to the disciple):

"Auroville should be at the service of the Truth, beyond all social, political and religious convictions."*

I told him many more things (Mother makes a gesture of mental communication), but above all I insisted on the fact that it was better for the city to be built first! and then we would see afterwards. Because he told me he insisted that we remain within the democratic system "until we find something better". I wanted to answer him: "Who told you that something better has not been found?" But I said nothing....

August 17, 1966

AM VII-179

... Me, I don't see any more.

My way of seeing is very interesting — I can't say that I don't see any more. It's very interesting. Suddenly, something comes (a thing or a face or a letter or...) clear, precise, almost luminous. A minute later, everything becomes hazy. And it's as if I was being told, "This is worth the trouble of looking at". Then I look. "And this (laughing), isn't worth the bother"!

On the 15th, that boy, the communist architect who was here, left, because he found we "didn't respect moral laws enough"!... Word for word. He left. But then his thought is coming all the time — not "thought": something from here (heart), it comes and comes. He must be very unhappy at having left! And so he was

* This text was published on 20 September 1966 as follows: "Auroville should be at the service of Truth, beyond all social, political and religious convictions. Auroville is the effort towards peace, in sincerity and Truth."

Page 32

asking me... it was the 15th afternoon, something came that was disturbed and kept asking me, "How can one know the Truth? What is the Truth? How to know it?..." And Sri Aurobindo was there, and he told me IN FRENCH (!):

"The Truth cannot be put into words, but it can be lived if one is pure and plastic enough."

That's good, isn't it! And this perception was so present: let oneself be guided by it all the time, like that.

"Pure", means pure of ego, pure of all desire, all preference, all ideas: all that has to be finished - one must be supple, like that, and let oneself be led.

And he gave me the experience at the same time.

I translated it into English - so Sri Aurobindo speaks to me in French and I translate it into English! It's amusing.

"That is why there is Auroville. Auroville is the effort towards peace in sincerity and Truth."

It became clear like that. This, as almost the sole and last hope of avoiding the catastrophe. This is the importance of Auroville. If Auroville is successful, that is to say, if nations consent to understand that it is a means of avoiding war, Auroville will have the power to prevent war.

September 21, 1966

AM VI1-209-21

(This conversation resulted from a personal question from the disciple, who asked Mother if he shouldn't refuse the French Government's offer of a certain sum of money — a war pension. The disciple intended to refuse the pension because he didn't want to feel bound to any government or any country, whatever the amount of money. Mother advised him to accept the money for the Divine Work.)

Page 33

I had a revelation, in the sense that it was rather like a vision.

For other reasons I was in the process of seeing the sorry state in which all countries are, the conditions of the earth which are truly difficult and dangerous, and there was a sort of overall vision showing how nations (men as nations) have acted and more and more act in a growing Falsehood, and how they have used all their creative power to create such formidable means of destruction, with the really childish idea in the back of their minds that it would be so terrible that no one would want to use them. But they don't know (they should know, but they don't) that these things have a consciousness and a force for manifestation, and that all these means of destruction press to be used: even if they don't want to use them, forces stronger than themselves would press for their use.

So, seeing all that, the imminence of catastrophe, there was a sort of call or aspiration to bring in something which can at least neutralize this error. And an answer came... I can't say I heard it with my ears, but it was so clear, strong and precise that it was indisputable. I'm obliged to use words to translate; if I put it into words, I can say something like, "That's why you have created Auroville!"

And so, the clear vision that Auroville was a centre of force and creation with... (how to say?) a seed of truth, and that if it could blossom and develop, the very movement of its growth would be a reaction against the catastrophic consequences of the error of armament.

It interested me a lot because no thought preceded the birth of Auroville; it was simply, as always, a Force, a kind of absolute manifesting, and it was so strong [when the idea of Auroville came to Mother] that I was able to say to people, "Even if you don't believe it, even if all the circumstances seem quite unfavourable, I KNOW THAT AUROVILLE WILL BE. It may take a hundred years, it may take a thousand years, I don't know, but Auroville will be because it is decreed." And it had been decreed, done, very simply like that in obedience to a Command, without thought. And when " it" told me that (I say " it" but you understand what I mean); when it told me that, it was to say: "This is why you've made Auroville; you don't know it, but that 's why.. .. " Because this was the LAST HOPE of reacting against the imminent catastrophe. If an interest for this creation is awakened in every county, little by little it will have the power to

Page 34

react against the mistake they've made.

That interested me a lot, because I had never thought of it. Of course, when I was shown that, I understood; I felt how, what, invisible action the creation of Auroville has. It's not an external, material action: it's an invisible action. And so, since that time, I've tried to make it understood to the countries - not outwardly, of course because they all believe that they're much too shrewd to be taught anything, but inwardly, invisibly.

It's rather recent, it goes back two or three days. This has never been told to me. It was said very clearly. And "said": seen, you know, shown like this [like a picture of a vision]. So my interest in Auroville has grown considerably since then. Because I understood that it's not just an idealistic creation but an entirely practical phenomenon in the hope, rather in the will, to counteract and counterbalance the results — the dreadful results — of this psychological error of believing that fear can save you from danger! Fear attracts the danger rather than saving you from it. And all these countries, all these governments make one blunder after another because of their fear of catastrophe.

All this is just to tell you that if the nations collaborate, even to a very small extent [like that offer of money from the French Government] in the work of Auroville, it will do them a lot of good - it can do them a lot of good, a good which may be quite out of proportion to the apparent action.

But you speak of the imminence of a catastrophe. Nevertheless it will take time for Auroville to be realized?

No! I'm speaking of the collaboration of countries TO CREATE something. It's not when Auroville is finished: it's the collaboration of countries to create something, but to create something based on Truth instead of emulation in the creation of Falsehood. It's not when Auroville is ready - when Auroville is ready, it will be but one city among cities, and it is only its own capacity for truth which will have power, but that... that remains to be seen.

No, it's a question of a common interest in building something which is based on Truth. They've had a common interest (and commonly unsympathetic, you know) to create a power for destruction based on Falsehood; and Auroville is to divert a little of that force (the amount is minimal but the quality is

Page 35

superior). It's really a hope - it is based on a hope — to do something which is the beginning of a harmony.

No, it's RIGHT AWAY, immediately. The force of dissemination is much greater, it's disproportionate to the transmitting
centre (Mother) which, from a world standpoint is , so to speak , unknown and almost nonexistent; but the centre, the power of radiation and sp reading is disproportionate, it is quite remarkable: there is a response everywhere, everywhere (to Auroville); a response from the new Africa, a response from France, a response from Russia, a response from America, a response from Canada a n d from numerous countries, Italy. .. everywhere and all over. And not just individuals: groups, tendencies, movements , even governments.

What appears to be most recalcitrant (and this is wonderfully ironic) is... the United Nations! Those people are so old-fashioned, oh!... they are still at the stage of the "materialist anti-religious movement", and they've made a disparaging remark about the Auroville brochure, saying it is "mystical", with a "religious" tendency. The irony is lovely!

Moreover, even quite outwardly, this conflict between India and Pakistan [she is referring to the conflict which took place last year in September 1965, at which time Mother officially encouraged India to fight till the end] was clearly... what shall I say? The English words "initiated" and "driven" come to mind, that is, put in motion by and impelled by the forces of Truth which sought to create a great "Asiatic Federation" which would have the power to counterbalance Red China and its movement. It was a federation which needed precisely the return of Pakistan and all those regions, including Nepal, Tibet, then Burma and further down, Ceylon. A great federation in which each one would have its free and autonomous development, but which would be united in one, general aspiration for peace and struggle against the invasion of the forces of disintegration. It was very clear, it was very willed — and it was the intervention of the United Nations which has brought it all to a halt.*

Officially I say nothing, because I said and I repeat that politics is full of Falsehood, is based on Falsehood, and I don't bother with it, that is, I don't practise politics, I don't want to

* Under United Nations pressure, India abandoned its advantage over Pakistan and "surrendered" at Tashkent.

Page 36

but I can see clearly!... From all sides they come to ask me my opinion, advice or counsel; I said, "No, I don't care about politics." You see, all diplomacy is absolutely based on a DELIBERATE Falsehood; as long as it's like that, there is no hoper the inspiration will always come from the wrong si de, everything will come from th e wrong side ; that is, the inevitable blunder, for everyone. Some rare individuals feel it and know it and they are half-desperate because nobody listens to them.

Unfortunately, given to present-day tendencies, they want to have UNESCO's support for Auroville! I didn't know beforehand that those people couldn't understand, but... we are trying. Because there are people everywhere (it's a kind of superstition) who say, "No, I'll not open my purse-strings unless UNESCO approves and encourages it" (I'm speaking of people whose contributions matter), many people, so....

Except for me, all that is the crust, the superficial experience - the crust; things have to happen underneath, underneath that crust. It's just an appearance.

I told all those who are concerned with Auroville, "Those people (UNESCO) are 200 years behind the earth's progress, consequently there isn't much hope that they will understand." But in the end, I didn't tell them not to bother with it - I don't give advice.

But very small details, like the one we spoke of earlier (the French Government's offer of a pension) are an indication: countries who are collaborating with the Truth without knowing it. And it's very good, so much the better for them. It's good for them. It doesn't matter that they don't know it (smiling): they don't have the satisfaction of having done it, that's all!

(silence)

But I was the first to be very interested because it came like this (gesture of irresistible descent), with an all-powerful authority: "That's why Auroville was started."

(Mother goes into contemplation, then resumes)

There are all sorts of very amusing things which one sees going on; just now, a thought: "Ah! it's the Tower of Babel in

Page 37

reverse". (Mother laughs) It's interesting! They came together and they split up in the construction; so now they've come together again to unite in the construction. There you are: a Tower of Babel... in reverse!

(Mother stops for a moment, as if she were seeing something)

Suddenly one sees... a region of the earth's atmosphere which is vast and imperishable, where things take on another importance which sometimes belies appearances, and one sees a sort of great, immense current carrying circumstances and events towards a goal... always the same and by very unexpected paths. It becomes very wide and in spite of the horror of the details, on the whole it takes on a very smiling Rhythm....

I know now, I remember this whole experience came after having read a book which was published in India very recently in English, which was titled The Roll of Honour, in Which there is a photograph and a short biography of all those who died in India's freedom fight against the British. There were photos throughout, many photographs; some of them were nothing but police photographs taken just after the victims had been slain and were still lying on the ground. All of that brought a certain atmosphere: the atmosphere of people of disinterested goodwill who met with a tragic fate. It had the same effect on me as that produced by the photographs of the German atrocities during the war over there. It is obvious that these things are directly under the influence of certain adverse forces, but we know that the adverse forces are, so to sneak, authorized to work — precisely by this feeling of horror — to hasten the awakening of the consciousness. And so that experience, which was very strong, which resembled very much the one I had when I saw the photographs of the German atrocities in France, put me in touch with the vision of the modern (it's modern: it began in the last thousand years and has become more and more acute in the last hundred years), terrestrial human error, with the aspiration to counterbalance that: how to do it?...what to do?...and the answer: "That's why you created Auroville."

It's a perception of forces, forces which act directly on events, material events, which are... illusory and false; for instance, the man who fought for his country's freedom, who has just been

Page 38

assassinated because he is a rebel, and who appears to be vanquished, lying on the side of the road: it is he who is victorious. That's it, it clearly demonstrates the kind of relationship between truth and its expression. So, if one enters into that consciousness where one perceives the play of forces and sees the world like that, it's very interesting; and that's how, when I was in that state, it was told to me, clearly shown (it's inexpressible because it is not in words, but in facts): "That's why you created Auroville...." It's the same thing as for this photo. Here, you keep it.

(With a gesture, Mother shows the victorious corpse lying by the roadside, meaning that the modest appearance of Auroville is no measure of its invisible, its true role.)

Page 39