The Mother on Auroville

The Aspiration Talks

(From March to July 1970, the Mother met a group of people from Aspiration each week. Some of the meetings were a bath of silence', in others she would answer questions. The Mother wanted to revise the texts of these talks before publication, but this did not happen. Here are some extracts edited by the compiler.)

We would like to speak to you about work in Aspiration. What we would like to know, what we are looking for is the right attitude.... What is the trouble?

The trouble is....

Each one pulls in his own direction.

Each one pulls in his own direction. No one is really in contact with what is true....

We should take into account that we are starting from the present state of humanity. So you must face all the difficulties; you must find the solution....

But Sweet Mother, you know, several solutions are open to us. For instance, on one hand....

Every man has his own solution, and that is the great difficulty. To be in the truth, each one has his own solution. And yet we must find a way for all these solutions to work together.

( silence )

So the frame-work must be vast, very flexible, and there must be a great goodwill from everyone: that is the first condition—the first individual .condition, goodwill, to be flexible enough to do the best thing to be done at each moment.

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But for example, we are told that factories are needed, that there must be production, and some of us don't feel like doing work in that sense. They would rather do some research that is more....

More inward?

More inward rather than to launch into factories, work, production to make money, etc. That is not what we feel, that is not what we want to do in Aspiration at the moment. We would like to know what you think about it.

(Mother concentrates—long silence)

To be practical, you must first have a very clear vision of your goal, of where you are going. From this point of view, take money for example. An ideal which may be several hundred years ahead of its time, we don't know: money should be a power which belongs to nobody and which should be controlled by the most universal wisdom of the place; on earth, say, by someone who has a vision vast enough to be able to know the needs of the earth and precise enough to be able to tell where the money should go. You understand, we are very far from that, aren't we? For the moment, the gentleman still says, "This is mine", and when he is generous, he says, "I give it to you." That's not it.

There is a long way to go between what we are and what must be. And for that we must be very flexible, never losing sight of the goal, but knowing that we cannot reach it at one bound and that we must find the way. Well, that is much more difficult, even more difficult than to make the inner discovery. Truly speaking, that should have been made before coming here.

For there is a starting-point: when you have found within your-self the light that never wavers, the presence which can guide you with

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certitude, then you become aware that constantly, in everything that happens, there is something to be learnt, and that in the present state of matter, there is always a progress to be made. That is how one should come, eager to find out at every minute the progress to be made. To have a life that wants to grow and perfect itself, that is what the collective ideal of Auroville should be: "A life that wants to grow and perfect itself", and above all, not in the same way for everyone—each one in his own way.

Well, now there are thirty of you, it is difficult, isn't it? When there are thirty thousand of you, it will be easier, because, naturally, there will be many more possibilities. You are the pioneers, you have the most difficult task, but I feel it is the most interesting one. Because you must establish in a concrete, durable and growing way the attitude that is needed to truly be an Aurovilian. To learn everyday the lesson of the day.... Each sunrise is an opportunity to make a discovery. So, with that state of mind, you find out. Everyone does.

And the body needs activity: if you keep it inactive, it will begin to revolt, become sick, and so on. It needs an activity, it really needs an activity like planting flowers, building a house, something really material. You must feel it. Some people do exercises, some ride bicycles, there are countless activities, but in your little group you must all come to an agreement so that each one can find the activity which suits his temperament, his nature and his needs. But not with ideas. Ideas are not much good, ideas give you preconceptions, for example, "That is a good work, that work is not worthy of me," and all that sort of nonsense. There is no bad work—there are only bad workers. All work is good when you know how to do it in the right way. Everything. And it is a kind of communion. If you are fortunate enough to be conscious of an inner light, you will see that in your manual work, it is as if you called the Divine down into things; then the communion becomes very concrete, there is a whole world

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to be discovered, it is marvellous.

You are young, you have plenty of time before you. And to be young, to be really young, we must always, always keep on growing, always developing ourselves, always progressing. Growth is the sign of youth and there is no limit to the growth of consciousness. I know old people of twenty and young people of fifty, sixty, seventy. And if one does manual work, one keeps in good health.

10.3.1970

*

(As the Mother was giving Service and Transformation flowers, she said:)

Service leads to transformation.

In Aspiration some people would like to know if it could be not always the same persons who come to see you on Tuesdays.

You see, I am quite willing, but it is up to you. All I ask is that they be sincere, that they don't come out of mere curiosity, that they really wish to progress. Only the quality of the receptivity matters. If they are open and feel that it does them good, then it's quite all right.

I am going to set two conditions. To want to progress—that is really a moderate condition. To want to progress, to know that everything has yet to be done, everything has yet to be conquered. The second condition: to do, everyday, some activity, some work, something which is not for oneself, and especially something which expresses goodwill for all, so that you do not live solely for yourself as if you were at the centre of the universe and the whole universe had to revolve around you. That is how it is for the vast majority of people, and they don't even know it. Each one should become conscious that, spontaneously, one puts oneself at the centre of theuniverse and wants everything to come towards oneself in one way

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or another. But one should make an effort to recognise the existence of the whole, that's all. It is to widen one's consciousness, just to become a little less tiny. So those who adhere to my programme will come once a week, in turn. Is that all right?

24.3.1970

*

I am going to give each of you a packet. There are some petals, flower petals inside, but they are charged with force, and if you keep them upon you, the contact with me is kept. So, if you withdraw within and refer inside, you can re-establish the contact and have even an answer to a question.

14.4.1970*

*

(In answer to questions on how to deal with the local villagers.)

For your questions, the best way, you see, it is education. To educate them not by words and speeches but by example. If you can make them mix with your life and your work, and if they receive the influence of your way of being, your way of understanding, then, little by little, they will change; and when they become curious and they ask questions, then it will be time to answer and to tell them what you know.

21.4.1970*

*

It seems very difficult to be able to want to achieve any specific thing and at the same time to love everyone. When we begin to want something and try to act with a particular result in mind, immediately we cut ourselves off from everyone who does not agree with that. In practice, how can we do both at the same time?

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You cut yourself off from people who do not think as you do?

Really,... All the time....

But not a single person thinks as you do!

Of course....

So how can you love anyone?

As long as I don't want anything, it is all right....

Oh!

Yes!

(Mother concentrates for two or three minutes before she replies)

It is because when you want something, it is the ego that wants. So, the ego... must be ignored. The first thing to do is not to act for yourself but to act in obedience to the Divine, to express the divine Will.... As long as it is a personal will, a personal desire, it is not the true thing, and you cannot.... Not only is it not the true thing, but you cannot know the true thing!

That must be.... (Mother makes the gesture of rejecting something forcefully) ... expelled!

That is why alone, we are nothing at all. This is life. We do not act for ourselves. We do not act by personal will and for a personal result. We act only by the divine Will and for the divine Will. So much so, that effortlessly, spontaneously, we can have the deepest affection for our physical enemy. When you have felt that, you will understand.

When we say, "we are at the service of the Divine", it is not just words. It is He who should act through us, not ourselves. The greatest objection is: How can we know the divine Will? But as a matter offact, I am telling you, "If you sincerely renounce your personal will,

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you will know."

26.5.1970

*

Sweet Mother, why is it so difficult to carry on a physical activity, sports or any other kind, in Auroville in general and particularly in Aspiration ?

Difficult? Why is it difficult?

It is difficult, Sweet Mother, to be steady, to go on with an activity, sports or anything else, which we have started. So I am asking you why ?

Don't you have any students?

We have started Judo classes. There were eight of us two months ago, but now we are two or three. And for lots of activities it is like that.

What reason do they give? Is it laziness, indolence or because they feel superior?

I don't know, Sweet Mother.

If it is laziness, you must begin with a little and go on increasing as the body becomes used to it. If it is because of a sense of superiority, that is a serious disease! (Laughing) It must be cured!

We have been given a body not to reject it but to make it into something higher. And that is precisely one of the goals of Auroville. The human body must be improved, perfected and it must become a superhuman body capable of expressing a being higher than man, and this certainly cannot happen if we neglect it: this can be by an enlightened physical education and by using physical activities—the activities of the body—not for little personal needs and satisfactions, but to make the body more capable of expressing a higher beauty and consciousness. And for that, physical education has an important

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place, which should be given to it.

And this physical education must be done with an enlightened sense, not to do eccentric or marvellous things, but to give the body the possibility of being strong and supple enough to express a higher consciousness.

2.6.1970

*

Q : Divine Mother, there is great confusion concerning Auroville's organisation, inner as well as outer. How can we work together towards the realisation of a higher consciousness? In order to realise a greater sense of unity would it be possible for all the inhabitants to work together one day a week on a communal garden, perhaps the garden of Truth? Or on a communal farm for the production of food for Auroville?

Yes, the idea is good, but this is how I see it. We want to build the Matrimandir; and then, that was the idea: when we begin to build the Matrimandir, everyone who wants to work there will be able to do so. And that would really be working on the central idea.

And it should be soon. It should have been already. We have been thinking of beginning the Matrimandir for a long time. It is the centre of the town, isn't it? It is like the Force, the central Force of Auroville, the Force of cohesion in Auroville.

There will be gardens, everything, all possibilities: engineers, architects, all kinds of manual work; there will be work for all. In fact everyone should go and work there except of course those who have work somewhere else. A person would have to say, "No, I don't want to", and have his reasons.

We want it to be truly symbolic. And when we start to build the Matrimandir, we will set everybody to work there. Not everyday and all the time, but it will be organised.

7.7.1970

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There are people who live in Auroville and who insist on keeping to all the old habits—the old ones and the new ones too—which damage and lower the consciousness, things like smoking, drinking and, of course, drugs.... If they ask my advice, I tell them: All that is as if you were cutting pieces out of your being. I advise you not to drink because it diminishes the consciousness and spoils your health.

I can affirm from experience that all that drugs bring by way of experiences, all that contact with the invisible world can be had in a much better, much more conscious and controlled way without drugs. Only one must control oneself.

Some people believe that smoking, drinking, etc., will form part of the life of tomorrow. They will realise that they are imprisoning themselves in their own desires. But anyway, I am not a moralist, not at all, at all, at all. That is their business. If they want to go through this experience let them do it. Only, the Ashram is not the place for that. Thank God, at the Ashram we have learnt that life is something different. True life is not the satisfaction of desires.

We want to grow in consciousness, we don't want to go down into the pit of desires. To those who refuse to understand, I say, "The aim of Auroville is to discover a new life, deeper, more complete, more perfect, and to show the world that tomorrow will be better than today."

28.7.1970

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