Auroville references in Mother's Agenda

February 15, 1967

AM VIII-54

... It seems the Pope was approached on the subject of Auroville, and he asked if there would be a Catholic church!... They asked me the question. I said, "No, no churches, no temples...."

February 18, 1967

AM VIII-58-59

[This passage is part of a longer conversation on the new Consciousness.]

Basically, we want... we know we need a language not artificially new but something supple enough to be adapted to the needs of a new Consciousness; and this language will probably emerge like that, through elimination of habits, from a group of older languages.

What is particular in languages (beyond some differences in words) is the order in which ideas are presented: the construction of sentences. The Japanese (especially the Chinese) have solved the problem by putting just the sign for ideas. Now, under outside influence, they've added phonetic signs to construct a sentence; but even now, the order in which ideas are constructed is different. It's different in Japan and it's different in China. And unless you FEEL that, you can never really know a foreign language. And so, we speak according to our old habit (but basically it's more convenient for us simply because it comes automatically). But for example, when I "receive", it's not even the thought: it's the formulated consciousness of Sri Aurobindo; then there is a sort of progressive approximation for the expression, and sometimes it comes very clearly; but very often it's a spontaneous mixture of French and English forms and I have the impression it's something else which is trying to be expressed. Sometimes (I follow the notation), he makes me correct something; sometimes it comes quite well; it depends... Oh, it depends on the limpidity. If one is very quiet, it comes very well. And there too, I see it's not really French, it's not really English. And it's not so much the words (the words are

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nothing), it's the ORDER in which things are presented. And when I see it objectively afterwards, I see: it 's partially the order in which it ' s presented in French, partially the order in which it 's presented in English, a n d it creates a mixture which is neither one nor the other a n d tries to express... what could be called a " new way of consciousness".

That leads me to think that something will be worked out like that, and that a too strict or too narrow adherence to the old rules is an impediment to the evolution of expression. And from that viewpoint, French is much more backward than English — English is much more supple. But it seems that in countries such as China and Japan, which use ideographic signs, it's infinitely more supple than our languages.

Surely!

They can express ideas and new things much more easily by juxtaposing signs.

And now, with the "new logic" and "new math", there is a whole group of new signs which are beginning to be universal, that is, the same signs express the same ideas or the same things in all countries, regardless of the language used in the country.

These new thoughts and experiences, this new logic, the new math are now taught in the higher grades, but all the primary and secondary studies have remained in the old form; and I was thinking very seriously of opening primary and secondary schools in Auroville, based on the new system - to try....

May 3, 1967

AM VIII-133

We have a little place which is called "Promises", where there will be six or eight rooms, an office which will be the first Auroville administrative office, and a guest house with some rooms too, five or six rooms for visitors. It's a very small place where there is a beautiful garden and there are trees, and it's on the side of the Madras road. It's on the edge of Auroville. So it's being built. And there will be a lotus pond in the middle with something like a large basin, in marble I believe, on which

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that* will be engraved (in French) to tell people passing through what Auroville is.

May 30, 1967

AM VIII-165-166

(Later, with regard to a letter of Sri Aurobindo on communism which Mother was going to publish in the next Bulletin:)

Ah, my child, I received a clipping from the Figaro [a French newspaper]. At the beginning of April, the cultural attaché of the Indian Embassy in Paris said that the Soviet government had expressed a desire to "participate in the construction of Auroville". I don't have confirmation yet, but it's there in the Figaro. In that case, if it's correct, perhaps it's not opportune to publish the "fallacy" of Karl Marx! (Mother laughs) Perhaps it would be better to wait a little!... I very much hesitated to publish it because it's a letter, and Sri Aurobindo had always told me that in letters he expressed himself very frankly from the social and political standpoint, but that he didn't want it published. So for a very long time I refused to publish it. Now, we've become more flexible; but perhaps the press clipping came just to tell me it was wiser to wait a little.

Yes, there's no need to offend them.

No, because it's always just one side of the question. Sri Aurobindo always expressed every side, and if you put all that together, it makes something that very much surpasses all popular opinion. Consequently, publishing just one part without the counterpart is not very good.

Perhaps a time will come when Sri Aurobindo's vision should be communicated and how the world has evolved since he spoke of it (that would be very interesting), and then we would have again to find all that he said on different subjects.... From the religious standpoint, I had thought about that for a long time. They are the two things you can't touch without immediately

* The message is: Auroville is the shelter built for all those who want to hasten towards a future of Knowledge, Peace and Unity.

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arousing human passions, and then it becomes that quite narrow, limited vision which makes people not understand anything any more. Politics and religion, it's better to wait a little. Perhaps in ten years... it's possible. Things are going fast. Perhaps in two years one could see and say a little something. In any case, it's better to put that letter aside, (laughing) It's not the time to throw stones at them!

June 3, 1967

AM VIII-171-172

[Name] writes that he received some people in Paris who asked for some information about Auroville. He wrote a letter but just as he was about to send it, he thought, "Maybe after all I had better show it to Mother." He sent me the letter — and wisely so! These people had asked him the conditions for admission to Auroville; he replies, "Oh, that hasn't been decided yet"! (Mother laughs) So I prepared a little paper, for he simply says, "Oh, nothing is decided, we'll see", as if there weren't any Aurovilians yet. I don't know if he did it on purpose to discourage those people; in any case, it's not good to write like that. There are already some three or four hundred Aurovilians who have been accepted and for whom I have signed. So one cannot give such a reply... I know where he got it from, for I had told him that, materially speaking, the CONDITIONS FOR LIVING in Auroville were not fixed in advance, of course, arbitrarily.

This is what I put down:

"From the psychological point of view, the required conditions are:

"1. To be convinced of the essential unity of mankind and to have the will to collaborate for the material realization of that unity;

"2. To have the will to collaborate in all that furthers future realizations."

That's all, it is not complicated.

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And then, from the material point of view:

"The material conditions will be worked out as the realization proceeds."

It's not very complicated.

Of course, we will add a word to say that, for the moment, after having read the brochures where it says "Why Auroville", and having agreed to that, people should send their photograph with a request and I shall either accept them or not. For as long as there are not too many, just a few hundred, it is very easy to see the photos and to ensure that no mischief-makers get in. Because it's very easy to say, "Oh! I am thoroughly convinced and I want to participate", and these are merely words.... I can't see everyone, but even from their photograph, one can more or less tell whether or not they are sincere.

June 28, 1967

AM VIII-206-207

(Concerning an Italian disciple who has just arrived)

... The family wanted to baptize the child and they began to argue (because I say, "We don't want baptisms"), so they wrote to me, desperate, saying, "We don't know what to do, because we have the whole family against us and they try to quarrel with us all the time." So I wrote, "If they really want freedom, let them come to have the child in Auroville!..." Oh, they were enthusiastic and she left right away!

Well, here's the register! (Laughingly, Mother shows the notebook where she has recorded the first birth in Auroville, several days before.)

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June 30, 1967

AM VIII-207

(The subject is an Indian disciple from South Africa who had been incarcerated for several months in a Syrian prison on the pretext that his money was counterfeit.)

... They don't have any government to protect them. Before India's independence, they had a British passport, and now the government of South Africa doesn't recognize them, the government of India doesn't look after them, and they're like that, neither fish nor fowl, and no one to protect them. It's rather curious.

There are some here [in the Ashram] who still have an English passport and they don't know what to do. They're neither this nor that, they're nothing!

Those who are nice, I tell them: "It doesn't matter, you will become Aurovilians." That saves everything. Because the principle has been recognized by UNESCO, they've recognized the principle: everyone becomes Aurovilians, no separate nationality. So that's very good.

It's an interesting idea.

Only, I tell them to be cautious about admission, because... (Mother laughs) it could be considered a refuge for criminals who have been sent out of their own country!... As long as I control admissions, it's all right, but afterwards?...

So, which country was it that began as a colony of criminals?... (laughing) There is one country like that in the world, which began as a colony, I don't remember which one. [Maybe Australia?]

October 11, 1967

AM VIII-351-355

I met [the director of education]. They are preparing a special issue [of the periodical = 1/ on Auroville and she came with a list of questions like that (gesture). She told me, "I don't know very much about the sociology of Auroville." So I said, (laughing) "Me neither!" Then she asked me questions (notice, she

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asked very intelligent questions) and I answered her. But there was something about the choice of people and admission to Auroville...so I told her that naturally the essential condition to be able to choose people is that preferences, attractions, repulsions, sympathies, antipathies, all moral rules, all that must have completely disappeared — not that one is in the process of overcoming them, it's not that: all that must have disappeared (laughing), there must be no more ego! And then I told her: it's not a judgment, it's not looking at people and judging if they're capable of being there or not, if they are destined to be there or not, it's not that at all - you don't "judge"... And when she was gone, I jotted down the end of it. (Mother takes her note and reads):

"The Force is put on all, identical and supreme..."

The Force is identical for all (uniform gesture over the whole earth) and supreme, which means...well, what that means, supreme, like this (same smooth, flat gesture). Whatever they are and whatever their attitude, the Force is put on all identically -and it's THEY who sort themselves out; it's not that you decide that this one is here or there or there: THEY classify themselves according to..

"And each classifies himself, by himself, according to his receptivity and the quality of that receptivity — or else by his refusal or his incapacity."

You know, there are all the degrees. When it's refusal or incapacity, then, he HIMSELF runs away saying, "They're fools, they're trying to do something impossible, it's unrealizable" (I know many like that, they believe they're exceptionally intelligent). But even to place themselves, it is they who do it. ... She had come with the idea of a hierarchy. 1 said yes, everything is hierarchical, always, and especially all conscious individuals are part of a hierarchy, but there is no arbitrary will which puts them in a hierarchy: they themselves spontaneously take their place without knowing it, the place they should have; it's not, I told her, it's not a decision, we don't want any categories: there are these, there are those, and then this one will come in here and that one will come in there all those, I told her, are mental

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constructions, they're worth nothing! But the true thing is that NATURALLY, according to his receptivity, his capacity, and his inner mission, each one takes his place in the hierarchy, the place he truly, spontaneously occupies, without any decision.

What can be done to facilitate the organization is a sort of plan, or general chart so that each one need not construct his position, but will find it all ready for him — that's all.

It was amusing, but very interesting.

(Mother hands her note to the disciple) But the water from the flowers spilled on it, so it's half erased!

The danger with all those people is that they want to codify.

Oh, they want to construct mentally, like that, square like a prison, it's terrible.

But, you know... when she comes, she's very nice, very nice, very receptive, very open and very ready to receive and listen, at least in her outer attitude, but it seems she has a "group" over there, and then in the group... (I heard it from people who went there and who are sincere), it's frightful! You know, snap judgments. And an overwhelming superiority.

It's a pity.

It also seems (she didn't say or show anything to me), but anyway it seems that the Bulletin is old hat.

I heard that too.

Ah!

And it's funny, it seemed to be coming from [the director of education].

Really!¹

Just the word you used. 1 don't know why, one morning, something said, "Oh, the Bulletin is old hat!" And it was as if [the director of education] was at the end of the line. It's amusing.

(Mother remains silent) Sri Aurobindo is already "out of fashion"!

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But I know, because I received a letter from her in which there was an indication. She said that the Mother, in her four aspects, according to Sri Aurobindo's book, was " very good for the creation of today (let's not say yesterday yet, but today!), but for the creation of tomorrow, there must be this aspect of the Love of the Mother, which hasn't yet manifested." And then it was put very cleverly, but in such a way that it was impossible not to understand that it was that lady who was to manifest It."

I said, "Very good!" (Mother laughs) I said, "What the Lord wants will be." But since that time I've treated her... (what shall I say?) like more than an equal: like a superior, with affirmations... which are crushing for her. And then I don't miss a chance to tell her that to do this or do that, or manifest That or to... it's necessary to be SPONTANEOUSLY AND DEFINITIVELY above all desire, all ambition, all preference - and every time like this (Mother makes a gesture of hammering).

Nothing apparently stirs in her, but anyway... It's good (laughing), if she bears the test, we will really see.

There's something very hard in her.

Hard, yes, very hard — without mercy.

She's like a caricature of something else.

Exactly

(silence)

She brought me a little poem in French on "The Lover and the Beloved" (all that, in the clouds), which I must say is very lovely. Then she read it to me and when it was finished, I said to her, "But Love - that Lover and his Beloved - is not a person - they're not people; they're not human beings; they're not even symbolically human beings..." And at that moment it opened up above and I told her what it was.

It took her by the throat so strongly that I almost lost my voice afterwards.

We'll see. Everyone can change, can't they? I'm giving her EVERY chance.

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You know, it's just so wonderful... Where That manifests itself is not what is important; That manifests itself here or there or wherever, it doesn't matter at all, it is always the same thing which is manifesting everywhere. And where That chooses to manifest, where That must necessarily best be manifested — is where That manifests. The only thing - the only thing is not to allow illusion and deception to become mixed in: to mercilessly keep them in their place, otherwise... None of the ego's tricks, we don't want that; because it's very small, mean, stupid, useless and it's a waste of time, and because it uselessly stirs up the atmosphere. But aside from that... That manifests itself here or there or there...

(silence)

There are some people who are completely taken by [the director of education]. But there are others who are conscious and who went there once and never set foot there again.

From the beginning I felt a recoil in front of her... The hardness of the ego, that's it.

Yes, with that whole mask of benevolence. It's very interesting.

(long silence)

October 14, 1967

AM VIII-359-360

The requests for admission to Auroville are multiplying at an alarming rate these days - every day a packet like that - and then naturally everyone has to send his photo with his request and say why he wants to be in Auroville and what he knows how to do and what category he belongs to: the category of those who want to work to build it and the category of those who would like to come and quietly sit down in it when it's ready. But what people, my child!... In general, it is precisely all the dissatisfied ones. From time to time, there's one with a light in his eyes and the need for something which he isn't finding (so that's very good). There are those who have succeeded in nothing and who are completely disgusted and ask themselves

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if they couldn't succeed there. And then the older ones who have worked hard and want to rest. There are very few young people. These few young ones are all worthwhile people. The average youth isn't interested at all. The few young people I've seen want to work: they come not to profit from the work of others, but to work. So we'll soon get a rather interesting team. But (laughing) the old satiated ones... I postpone decision, "put in observation" (Mother laughs). Yesterday there were a lot like that. Those, we're going to see; if they want to be useful, that is, give money or things, or propose to do something, we'll see, but just as it is, the fat, fully satiated gentleman, the fat lady firmly seated there, who want to come and spend the rest of their days quietly, you tell them: wait a little bit, we'll see!

As for the workers, we ask nothing of them, that is, they don't need to pay: they can come and work on condition that they prove they're useful. But those who want a piece of land or lodging have to pay; then there are some who have limited trust (laughing) and say, I'm going to give you a little money right away and then I'll pay the rest little by little, in installments -those I generally refuse. There are some who so much want to come they send money in advance, and so when there's life or something in them, I accept them. But almost all, aside from two or three, I said "in observation" - we'll see how they react to that!

October 19, 1967

AM VIII-362-363

It's the same with Auroville: there is a whole section of the government which is quire keen on it, and then three or four people here, in Madras State, who are totally against it and who have a frightful energy: they are blocking everything. Some ministers (as usual) who come, we see them, they make promises, they tell you, "I am with you, you will get everything you want"; they leave the room and they send a telegram to their "executor" saying, "Don't sign the papers". This kind of falsehood, you see, everywhere.

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October 25, 1967

AM VIII-373-375

We can see the notebook of this boy (a young disciple who regularly asks Mother questions). What does he want?

"Sweet Mother, why, even in the Ashram do they want to form little groups and societies, for example, World Union, New Age, etc.? What is their raison d'être?"

"Raison d'etre"! (laughing) Does it have a "raison d'etre"?... I'm simply going to answer him: "Because men like to form groups." Very simply, nothing to say.

(Mother writes, then interrupts herself after a silence)

I'm going to shake him up a little, aren't I?

Yes.

(Mother finishes writing and hands over his notebook)

"It's because men still imagine that to do something useful, they have to form groups. It's a caricature of organization."

That's enough, isn't it?

World Union!... They really imagined that they were going to make humanity progress!... But when I tell people that the creation of a city such as Auroville has more weight in the history of the earth than all the groupings in the world, they don't believe me. They don't believe, people think that it hasn't any importance, it's a fantasy'.

Once I had asked Sri Aurobindo (because we had talked a lot about Auroville and there were many difficulties), I asked him (because it was an idea I had - not an "idea", it was a need which was expressed perhaps thirty years ago - more than thirty years, almost forty years), so I asked him, and he answered me (I told you, I believe): "It is the best chance men have to avoid a

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general conflict." [See I' Agenda de Mère VII, 21 September 1966] There you are.

So, since he told me that, I am working very seriously. And, you know, it wasn't "said": it was SEEN.

Only I see that they don't believe it, no one feels it. Then what?... And the concrete materialization of the spirit of Auroville hasn't taken place yet, it doesn't exist, there is not a single formation of "the spirit of Auroville" in the earth's atmosphere, which is a spirit... (Mother remains absorbed a long time)... Basically, the art of creating a unity with complexity. Without uniformity, you see: unity through the harmony of complexity, each thing in its place...

It's very difficult.

When [the architect] was here last time, he said, "When is the atmosphere of Auroville going to be created? Everyone is quarrelling!" (Mother laughs) I said, "Yes, that's the difficulty"... And it goes on. But anyway there is a Pressure from above, like that, a Pressure. We'll see.

It's still a symbol.

Each little group believes itself a symbol - that too is a symbol.

In so far as the formation descends to manifest itself, all the oppositions rise up, the contradictions rise up, complications come, and inwardly, one sees that they do not understand. So I spend my time telling them, "Don't try to organize, don't try to organize, you're going to fossilize the thing before it's begun."

I wanted it to grow spontaneously like that, with all the unforeseen. But then, we have to deal with all the regulations: we are in a country [India] - it would be better to be on a desert island. But that doesn't exist any more in the world, there are no more islands that do not belong to one nation or another -we are caught, we are stuck.

Anyway, we'll struggle along, as well as we can.

It's an attempt, that's all.

But what Sri Aurobindo meant is that the movement, the general movement was towards a catastrophe, and this was to divert the current of force.

But I wondered if the Tower of Babel, in so far as it is a true story, wasn't a similar attempt? An attempt to create a harmony among men?... It's presented to us in another way, but I wondered if it wasn't that.

We'll see.

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Now, integrally, including the most material consciousness, the bodily consciousness: leave all responsibility to the Lord - what He wants will be, and that says it all. When He wants you to do something, you do it, but after all... You simply do it because He tells you to do it. And then what will happen will happen. And then if one wants to know, one puts oneself in the poise of the Witness and one looks. And that is very amusing! As soon as you assume the poise of the Witness, it's very interesting - very interesting - and one can smile.

It's like that.

The body has learned to be that way even for the smallest things, so it's good.

There you are.

December 30, 1967

AM VIII-450-456

[This conversation was translated and published separately before I 'Agenda de Mere came out. This is a corrected translation.]

"Auroville will be a self-supporting township.

"All who live there will participate in its life and development.

"This participation may be passive or active.

"There will be no taxes as such but each will contribute to the collective welfare in work, kind or money. "Sections like industries which participate actively will contribute part of their income towards the development of the township.

"Or if they produce something (like foodstuffs) useful for the citizens, they will contribute in kind to the township, which is responsible for feeding its citizens.

"No rules or laws are being framed. Things will get formulated as the underlying truth of the township emerges and takes shape progressively. We do not anticipate."

I thought I had said more than that because I said a good deal about it, inwardly, on the organization, the food, etc. We are

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going to make experiments.

Some things are really interesting; first of all, for example, I would like each country to have its pavilion, and in the pavilion there will be the kitchen of that country, that is, the Japanese will be able to eat Japanese food if they want to, etc. But in the town itself there will be food for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians, and there will also be some attempt to find the food of tomorrow.

The whole process of assimilation which weighs you down — this occupies so much of a person's time and energy - that should be done beforehand, and then one should be given something which is immediately assimilable, like what they are doing now with vitamin pills and proteins which can be assimilated directly, nutritious basics which are found in one thing or another and which are not bulky. Chemistry is clever enough nowadays to simplify this.

People do not like this simply because they take an intense pleasure in eating; but when one no longer delights in eating, one still needs to be fed and not to waste time on the process. An enormous amount of time is wasted in the process of eating, digesting and the rest of it. I would like to have a trial kitchen here, a kind of culinary laboratory for experimenting. People will go to one place or another according to their taste and inclination.

And one does not pay for one's food, but one must offer one's work or materials: those who have fields, for example, should give the produce from their fields; those who have factories should give their products; or one's own labour in exchange for food.

That in itself eliminates a lot of the internal exchange of money. And for everything a way can be found. In reality, it should be a township for study, study and research in how to live in a way which is at once simplified and wherein the higher qualities will have MORE TIME to develop.

It is but a small beginning.

(Mother takes up the text sentence by sentence)

"Auroville will be a self-supporting township."

I want to insist on the fact that this will be an experiment, it

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is for making experiments — experiments, researches, studies. Auroville will be a city that will try to be, or will lean towards, or want to be "self-supporting", that is to say...

Autonomous?

"Autonomous" is understood to mean some kind of independence which cuts one off from relations with the outside, and that is not what I mean.

For example, those who are involved in the production of food, factories like Auro food (naturally, when there will be 50,000 people it will be difficult to meet their needs, but for the moment we are only a few thousand at most) well, a factory always produces too much, so it will sell that excess outside and earn money. Auro food, for example, wants to have special relations with its workers; not the old system, but something which will be an improvement on the communist system, a more balanced organization than Sovietism or communism, that is, something which does not lean too much to one side or the other. The idea of Auro food is good and they are trying to spread it among the industrialists.

There is one thing I wanted to say: participation in the well-being and life of the town as a whole is not something calculated on an individual basis: such and such an individual should give so much, not like that. It is calculated in accordance with the means, the activity, the possibilities of production; it is not the democratic idea which cuts everything up into equal pieces, which is an absurd machinery.

It is calculated according to one's means: he who has a lot to give gives a lot, he who has little gives little; one who is strong works hard, one who is not strong does something else. Well, it is something truer, deeper. That is why I do not try to explain it immediately, because people will start protesting in all sorts of ways. It must come all by itself, so to speak, spontaneously with the growth of the township, in the true spirit. That is why this note is very brief.

For example, this sentence:

"All who live there will participate in its life and development."

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... according to their capacities and means, not mechanically, so much per unit. That's it, it must be something living and TRUE, not mechanical; and according to each one's capacities, that is to say, he who has the material means, such as a factory, should provide in proportion to its production, not so much per head, per person.

"This participation may be passive or active."

I do not understand what they mean by "passive"; I said it in French and it has been translated into English. What could they possibly mean, "passive"?... That would more likely refer to various planes or levels of consciousness.

You meant to say that those who are wise, those who work within, need not...

Yes, that's it. Those who have a higher knowledge need not work with their hands, that is what I meant.

"There will be no taxes as such, but each will contribute to the collective welfare in work, kind or money."

So that is clear: there will be no taxes or duties, but each one will have to contribute to the collective welfare through work, in kind or in money. Those who have nothing to give but money will give money. But "work" may mean an inner work, to tell the truth (but one cannot say that, because people are not honest enough). The work can be an occult work, wholly within oneself; but for that, one must be absolutely sincere and truthful, and capable of it, not pretentious. This is not necessarily a material work.

"Sections like industries which participate actively will contribute part of their income towards the development of the township; or if they produce something (like foodstuffs) useful for the citizens, they will contribute in kind to the township, which is responsible for feeding its citizens."

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We have already said this. Industries will participate actively, they will contribute. If these industries produce articles which are not in constant demand and thus in quantities too large for the town to utilize, but which can still be sold outside, then naturally, the industry will participate with money. I use food as an example: those who produce food will give what they produce to the town (in proportion to what they produce, of course) and the town is responsible for feeding everyone. That means that people will not need to buy food with money; yet they must earn it.

It is a sort of adaptation of the communist system, but not in a spirit of levelling; according to capacity, position — not psychological or intellectual, but the inner position of each one.

With the democracies and the communists it's a levelling to the lowest point. Everyone is pulled down to the lowest level.

Yes, exactly. What is true is that materially each human being has the right (but it is not a "right").... The organization should be such, should be so arranged, that the material necessities of everyone will be assured not on the basis of ideas of rights and equality, but on the basis of the most elementary necessities. Once that is established, each one will be free to organize his life around - not monetary means, but his inner capacities.

"No rules or laws are being framed. Things will get formulated as the underlying truth of the township emerges and takes shape progressively. We do not anticipate."

What I mean to say is that usually, always until now and more and more, men establish mental rules according to their conceptions and ideals, and then they apply them (Mother brings down her fist to show the world in the grip of mind), and that is absolutely false, it is arbitrary, unreal, and the result is that things revolt or wither or disappear.... It is the experience of LIFE ITSELF that should slowly work out rules that are AS SUPPLE and AS WIDE as possible, in such a way as to be always progressive. Nothing should be fixed.

That is the great error of governments: they make a framework and say, "There you are, we have set this up and now

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we must live under it", and so of course they crush the life in it and stop it from progressing. It must be Life itself developing more and more in a progression towards the Light, the Knowledge, the Power that should, little by little, establish rules, as general as possible so that they are extremely flexible and amenable to change, to change with the need AS QUICKLY as needs and habits change.

(silence)

The problem finally reduces itself to this: to replace the mental government of intelligence with the government of a spiritualized consciousness.

This is a highly interesting experience: how the same actions, the same work, the same observations, the same relations with the environment (near or far) happen in the mind through the intelligence, and in the consciousness through experience. And that is what the body is learning now — to replace the mental government of intelligence with the spiritual government of consciousness.

That makes a tremendous difference (though it seems like nothing: you can easily miss it), so much so that it increases a hundredfold the body's possibilities.... When the body is subject to rules, even if they are wide and comprehensive, it becomes a slave to these rules, and its possibilities are limited by these rules. But when it is governed by the Spirit and the Consciousness, that gives it an unequalled possibility and flexibility! And that is what will give it the capacity to prolong its life, its duration: the replacement of the mind's intellectual government with the government by the Spirit, the Consciousness THE Consciousness. Outwardly it doesn't seem to make much difference, but...

My experience is like that (because now my body no longer obeys the mind at all, nor the intellect, it does not even understand how it's possible to do so): it is that more and more, better and better the body follows the guidance, the impulse of the Consciousness. And so it sees, practically at every minute, the great difference that this makes.... For example, time has lost its value, its fixed value, one can do in a short space of time or a longer space, exactly the same thing. "Necessities" have lost their authority: one can adapt this way or that. All laws, the laws of Nature, have lost their despotism, if we can call it that: it is

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not like that any more. It is enough to be always supple, attentive and... "responsive" to the influence of the Consciousness, the Consciousness in its omnipotence, to pass through all that with an extraordinary flexibility.

That is a discovery which is being made more and more. It is wonderful, a wonderful discovery. It is like a gradual victory over all the imperatives. Thus, all the laws of Nature, and naturally all human laws, habits, rules - all that is losing its rigidity and will end up by becoming non-existent. And yet one can maintain a regular rhythm. that makes action easy — it is not contrary to suppleness. But it is a flexibility in the execution, the adaptation, that comes in and changes everything. From the viewpoints of hygiene, health, organization, of relations with others — all these have lost not only their aggressiveness (for that, it is sufficient to be wise - wise and balanced and calm -for that to lose its aggressively) but their absolutism, their imperative rule as well: it has all gone, it has left.

So one sees: In so far as the process becomes more and more perfect - "perfect" meaning integral, total, leaving nothing behind - it means NECESSARILY and inevitably the victory over death. Not that the dissolution of cells which death represents no longer exists; but. it would exist only when it was necessary and not as an absolute law, but merely as one of the procedures, when it was required.

Above all, it is that: all that the Mind has made as rigid and absolute and almost invincible... all that will disappear. And simply that, by passing the supreme power over to the Supreme Consciousness.

Perhaps that is what the ancient sages meant when they spoke of transferring the power of Nature (Prakriti) to Purusha, transferring it from Prakriti to Purusha. Perhaps it was this which they expressed that way.

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