Mother’s Agenda 1967

April 5, 1967

Mother writes a note leaning on the window sill:

It's the answer to a question. Have you heard what I said to the School teachers?...¹ They've asked me another question. This is the beginning of my answer:

"It is the division between 'ordinary life' and 'spiritual life' which is antiquated and obsolete...."

(Then Mother gives Satprem roses and a garland of flowers called "adoration")²

Do you want this?

(Satprem accepts unenthusiastically)

Mon petit, when the cells get into this state, it's wonderful, you can't imagine! It changes life com-plete-ly. They are like that: a sense of wonder at the first Contact. "Is it possible? Can it be that beautiful! Is it possible?" Like that. And constantly, all the time, at any moment, about anything: "Can it possibly be like that?" Such a sense of wonder! Then you see the difference with the old habits and everything people have had crammed into their heads (renunciation, the beyond)—it's marvellous! Unbelievable. All morning again it was like that.... There comes a malaise (it always comes from outside, from this and that, in relation to this and that; that's how it comes), and immediately, they remember immediately. They remember, they say, "No! What You will, Lord." That's their attitude, an attitude of such complete self-giving! Much, much more complete, much simpler, much more charming than in any other part of the being. It's, "What You will.... You, You, You, what You will. To be... to be You not with an idea of aggrandizement, but to melt, to flow, to disappear in You like that." And then, "But You are reality!" And all these words are a diminution. Diminution not of sensation, but of consciousness—it's a marvel of consciousness, you know: "You, You ... But You alone

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exist, You alone are." Then all the discomforts, all the pains, they vanish without a trace. It's a marvel, one can't imagine!

Sri Aurobindo once wrote somewhere, after an experience like this of the Divine Presence in the being, he wrote, "If men knew how marvellous is the way.... But they don't know." He wrote it, I can't quote because I'll quote it incorrectly, but he had this experience, "If men knew how marvellous it is, they wouldn't hesitate for a minute."

Now they still make a distinction: the "spiritual life" and the "ordinary life."

Only, one should have what I had when I was very young: the sense of material realization in its utmost perfection, the will for perfection THERE. One should have this in order not to fling everything out of the window and just remain like that (beatific gesture), like an idiot doing nothing. It's thanks to that old discipline that everything I do is automatically done with a will for perfection. It's an old discipline. Otherwise one would be there, laughing at everyone and everything, "Have my experience, you'll see what it's worth!"

It's really interesting.

Mother then returns to her note:

Have you read his question? Read it to me again.

"... We talked about the future. It seemed to me that almost all the teachers were anxious to do something so the children would become more conscious of why they are here. At this point, I said that in my opinion, telling the children about spiritual things often had the opposite result and that those words lost all their value ..."

"Spiritual things," what does he mean by spiritual things?

If the teachers churn it all out like a story, of course... Besides, often that's what they do.

"Spiritual things"!... They teach History OR spiritual things, they teach Science OR spiritual things. That's what is idiotic! In History, there is the Spirit; in Science, there is the Spirit—the Truth is everywhere. And what is needed is to teach it not in an untruthful but in a true way.

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They can't get that into their heads.

He adds: "I suggested it might be better to gather and listen to Mother's voice (the recordings of the Wednesday and Friday classes), for even if one doesn't understand at all, your voice would do its inner work, which we are not able to comprehend. In this regard I would like to know what is the best way to put the child in contact with you. For all the suggestions, mine included, seem to me arbitrary and worthless.... Mother, would it not be better for the teachers to concentrate exclusively on the subjects they teach, for you are there to look after spiritual life?"

For?

"For you are there to look after spiritual life."

I am going to answer him, "There's no such thing as 'spiritual life'!"

It's still the old idea. Still the old idea of the sage, the yogi, the sannyasi, the ... who represents spiritual life, while all others represent ordinary life—but it's not true! It's not true, not true at all.

If they still need to oppose one thing to another (because that wretched mind doesn't work when it's not given an opposition), if they need an opposition, let them take the opposition between Truth and Falsehood, it's somewhat better (I am not saying it's perfect, but it's somewhat better). But then, in all things Falsehood and Truth are there, mixed, everywhere; in the so-called "spiritual life," in the sannyasins, the swamis, those who think they represent divine life on earth, all that, there is also that mixture of Falsehood and Truth.

It would be better not to make a split.

(silence)

For the children, precisely because they are children, the best would be to inculcate in them the will to conquer the future; the will to look ahead always and to move forward as rapidly as they can towards ... what will be. But not to drag along, like a millstone around their necks, the burden of a whole past weighing down on them. Only when you are already very high up in consciousness and knowledge is it good to look back in order to find the points wherein the future began to be outlined. When you can see the whole at a glance, when you have a very general vision, it's interesting to know that what will be realized ahead was already announced before; just

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as Sri Aurobindo said that "the divine life will manifest on earth because it is ALREADY buried in the depths of Matter." From this point of view it's interesting to look back or look at the very bottom (not in order to know what happened or to know what men have known—that's quite useless).

As for the child, he should be told, "There are marvels to be manifested, prepare yourself to receive them." Then, if they want something a little more concrete and easy to understand, they can be told, "Sri Aurobindo came to announce these things; when you are able to read him, you will understand." This awakens the interest and the desire to learn.

I do see the difficulty he alludes to: most people (in what we see written or in the conferences they have here), use pompous words ...

Yes.

...devoid of any truth of personal experience and without any effect. They rather have a negative effect. That's what he alludes to.

Yes. But that's why it would be better to do as I said.

Oh, but not so long ago, the majority of the teachers were saying, "Ah, we must do this here because it's done everywhere." They have (smiling) already come a little way. But they still have a long way to go.

But above all, what is most important is to get rid of that division. And they all have it in their minds—each and everyone of them! The division between living a spiritual life or living the ordinary life, having a spiritual consciousness or having an ordinary consciousness—there is only ONE consciousness!

In most people it's three-quarters asleep and distorted; in many it's still quite distorted. But what's necessary is not to leap from one consciousness to the other—it is, quite simply, to open one's consciousness (gesture upward) and fill it with the vibrations of the Truth, putting it in harmony with what must be here (up there, it's from all eternity), but HERE, what must be HERE: the tomorrow of the earth. And if you weigh yourself down with a whole burden that you have to drag along ... if you drag behind you all that you should let go of, you won't be able to move forward very fast.

Mind you, knowing things from the past of the earth can be very interesting and useful, but it must not be something that binds you

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or holds you back. If you use it as a springboard, it's all right. But in fact, it's rather secondary.

From the individual standpoint, there was a time (besides, it was fairly widespread in people who dealt with so-called occult things) when it seemed thrilling to know one's past lives, one's past experiences; but as soon as I came here and I understood the change that Sri Aurobindo had brought about, I found all that absolutely immaterial. It's childish curiosity. It doesn't help you in any way, it's merely either to glory in it or for fun, but it's unimportant. Some people still write to me, "Will you please tell me what my past lives were?" I answer them, "It's not interesting. What's interesting is the life you want to realize, not the errors you made in the past!"

(silence)

It would be interesting to formulate or work out a new method of teaching for the children, taking them very young. Very young, it's easy. We need people (oh, we would need remarkable teachers) who have, first of all, sufficient documentation on what is known to be able to answer any question; and at the same time, at least the knowledge, if not the experience (the experience would be better) of the true intuitive intellectual attitude, and ... (naturally, the capacity would be still preferable) but in any case the knowledge that the true way to know is mental silence: an attentive silence turned towards the truer Consciousness, and the capacity to receive what comes from there. The best would be to have that capacity; in any case, it should be explained that it's the true thing, a kind of demonstration, and that it works not only with regard to what must be learned, the whole field of knowledge, but also with regard to the whole field of what must be done: the capacity to receive the exact indication of HOW to do it, and as one progresses, it turns into a very clear perception of what must be done, and the precise indication of WHEN it must be done. At the very least, as soon as the children have the capacity to reflect (it begins at seven, but around fourteen or fifteen it's very clear), they should be given some first hints at the age of seven, and a complete explanation at fourteen, of how to do it and that it's the sole means of being in contact with the deeper truth of things; that all the rest is a more or less clumsy mental approximation of something you can know directly.

The conclusion is that the teachers themselves should have at least a sincere beginning of discipline and experience: it is not a question of piling up books and of repeating them like that. That's not the

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way to be a teacher—the whole earth is like that, let it be like that outside if it makes them happy! As for us, we aren't propagandists, we simply want to show what can be done and try to prove that it MUST be done.

When you begin with very small children, it's wonderful! With them, there's so little you have to do: it suffices TO BE.

Never make a mistake.

Never get angry.

Always understand.

Understand and see clearly why this movement took place, why that impulse, what the child's inner constitution is, which point needs to be strengthened and brought to the fore. That's all you have to do, and then leave them: leave them free to blossom, just give them the opportunity to see many things, touch many things, do as many things as possible. It's great fun. And above all, do not try to impose on them something you think you know.

Never scold, always understand, and, if the child is capable, explain. If he isn't capable of understanding an explanation (if you are yourself capable of it), replace the false vibration by a true one. But that... that's asking of the teachers a perfection they rarely have.

But it would be very interesting to draw up a program for the teachers, and the real program for study, starting with the very small ones—they are so plastic and anything leaves such a deep stamp on them! If they were given a few drops of truth when they are very small, they would blossom out quite naturally as their being grows.

That would be a nice work.

ADDENDUM

(Mother's answer in English to the School teachers when she was told that the new special afternoon classes at the library had chosen as a first research theme "India's Spiritual History.")

No! It won't do. It is not to be done that way. You should begin with a big "BANG"!

You were trying to show the continuity of History, with Sri Aurobindo as the outcome, the culmination—it is false, entirely.

Sri Aurobindo does not belong to History; he is outside and beyond History.

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Till the birth of Sri Aurobindo, religions and spiritualities were always centered on past figures, and they were showing as "the goal" the negation of life upon earth. So, you had a choice between two alternatives: either a life in this world with its round of petty pleasures and pains, joys and sufferings, threatened by hell if you were not behaving properly; or an escape into another world, heaven, nirvana, moksha [liberation]....

Between the two there is nothing much to choose from, they are equally bad.

Sri Aurobindo has told us that this was a fundamental mistake which accounts for the weakness and degradation of India. Buddhism, Jainism, Illusionism were sufficient to sap all energy out of the country.

True, India is the only place in the world which is still aware that something else than matter exists. The other countries have quite forgotten it: Europe, America and elsewhere.... That is why she still has a message to preserve and deliver to the world. But at present she is splashing and floundering in the muddle.

Sri Aurobindo has shown that the truth does not lie in running away from earthly life but in remaining in it, to transform it, divinize it, so that the Divine can manifest HERE, in this PHYSICAL WORLD.

You should tell all this at the first sitting. You should be square and frank.

Then, when this is told, strongly, squarely, and there is no doubt about it—and then only—you can go on and amuse them with the history of religions and religious or spiritual leaders.

Then—and then only—you will be able to show the seed of weakness and falsehood that they have harbored and proclaimed.

Then—and then only—you will be able to discern, from time to time, from place to place, an "intuition" that something else is possible: in the Vedas, for instance (the injunction to descend deep into the cave of the Panis); in the Tantras also ... a little light burning.

I may add that you could adopt as motto for your first project this quotation of Sri Aurobindo:

"We do not belong to the past dawns, but to the noons of the future."

(Essays on the Gita)

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Message from Mother to the School:

"Sri Aurobindo does not belong to the past nor to history.

"Sri Aurobindo is the future advancing towards its realization.

"Thus we must shelter the eternal youth required for a speedy advance, in order not to become laggards on the way."