Mother’s Agenda 1970

May 23, 1970

(Satprem hands over his pension to Mother. She goes on:)

This is the time of discoveries... everywhere!... Something seems to have exerted a pressure until things can no longer put on a pretense—all has to show itself as it is. So then (laughing), what discoveries!

And naturally, if you hear both sides, it's an almost contradictory story, so... you don't know where reality is.

But it's not only here [at the Ashram]: it's in the whole country. And then, they tell me all the miseries and ask me to intervene (not outwardly, of course).

It's such a mess....

(silence)

Have you seen the latest Aphorisms of Sri Aurobindo?... He tells us to lose all our moral sense!

(Satprem reads)

520—Our parents fell, in the deep Semitic apologue, because they tasted the fruit of the tree of good and

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evil. Had they taken at once of the tree of eternal life, they would have escaped the immediate consequence; but God's purpose in humanity would have been defeated. His wrath is our eternal advantage.

And you say:

"Sri Aurobindo is trying to make us understand how the limitations of our vision prevent us from perceiving the Divine Wisdom."

(Mother laughs) This I wrote yesterday.

Some people are seriously trying to locate the Garden of Eden! Some have found it. They told me, but I forget where.

As for Théon, he used to say that the serpent is evolution.

(silence)

Do you have any questions?

As a matter of fact, I saw R. [Auroville's architect]. I saw him twice.

Oh! What did he tell you?

It's interesting. First, I found him considerably changed.

(Mother nods approvingly)

He is a changed man. I found him close, not far away. I felt he was very close.

(Mother nods)

And he was prodigiously interested in this new consciousness. He said, "I'd like to experience this new consciousness, so what should I do?..." He told me, "All spiritual stories tell us that you mustn't do this, mustn't do that, then you must do this, must meditate and..."

No, no!

So I tried to explain that, in fact, this new consciousness is not like that.

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Yes. But he didn't tell me about it.

It torments him a lot: "What's to be done to experience the new consciousness?"

He needs to be helped.

You get the feeling he's just on the edge of something.

Yes.

"How to experience the new consciousness?"

Well, you'll be able to help him.

I tried to tell him something; I don't know if I...

With me, he doesn't ask anything.

Yet he told me, "Ah, every morning I go and see Mother, it's my oxygen."

Yes, we talk about what goes on there [in Auroville] and I tell him (very frankly, I must say) what I see and understand. That's true, but I mean that he doesn't tell me about himself at all.

He certainly feels the pull of France, of his ties. But I tell you, I feel lie's on the edge of something.

Yes, oh yes!

He has to hold on for some more time.

You can help him a lot.

What I tried to tell him is that this new consciousness doesn't demand spiritual athleticism, great concentrations and meditations and tapasya [austerities], or special virtues....

No.

It simply demands trust in something else, a sort of childlike trust, and a need of something else.

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Yes, that's right.

Above all, he was afraid it was again a question of "spiritual discipline."

No, no, no! There's no question of that.

But people always fall for that! Even in Auroville: they want "meditation"! And I can't decently tell them, "It's useless"! (Mother laughs)

He was touched by what I said, and reassured. Only, he doesn't know how to go about it.

But you can tell him things that will help him.

It's a very good sign that he asked to see you.

(long silence)

Do you have anything to ask?

It would be interesting if you could tell them practically how one can experience the new consciousness?

But that's the really extraordinary thing! For all other realizations I worked, I followed disciplines.... But that came like this (gesture of sudden descent), without my saying or seeking anything, without effort, without...

The only thing is that afterwards, I was attentive. That's all.

What can I tell them?

Does it result in a more precise direction in action, in what one has to do, or...?

No... What I have noticed is that the vision, the reaction (that is, the way of looking at things, and especially the way of understanding) was completely different. Even now, day after day, all the old things in my body, all that is over. But then I see, for instance, when I read things by Sri Aurobindo, I understand them in a completely different way. So then I say to myself that, after all, Sri Aurobindo too was in contact with this consciousness (!)... But the difference is that it's very practical. For instance, when the government (either Indira or N. S.) sends me a question, "This is the situation, what should we do?", previously I would have replied, "I don't know."

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But now I see clearly, I tell them, "Do like this and like that, there." And I don't give it any prior thought: it's this Consciousness that sees.

Only, I can't give it as an indication, because I don't think it's the same thing with everybody.

One has to be clarified first, obviously.

Yes.

Otherwise there's a risk one might take one's...

It's very dangerous, I never tell people. They might take all their impulses for revelations.

(silence)

Trust is probably a great key, isn't it?

But in my case, the whole work is done in the body, and the body is... From morning to evening, from evening to morning, it's a constant call.... Everything, everything is referred to the Divine all the time, all the time, constantly... everything, even the most microscopic.

(silence)

And that I can't tell or ask anyone, because... all these people, like R., for example, if I tell them "the Divine," for them it's a zero, it doesn't correspond to anything!

As for me, I tell them, "something else."

That's much better. That's why, I tell you, you can help him much more than I can (!)

Oh! [laughter].... Well, you've certainly transformed him, in any case....

(Mother laughs)

And me too!

(long silence)

Mother, I feel I should soon enough start work on another book...

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Ah!

...which would be...

The continuation.

Yes, the continuation, the "next step," the next stage.¹

(Mother nods approvingly)

A completely different approach.

(silence)

The country seems to be falling apart, so there [in Delhi] they asked me what should be done. I told them that this Centenary [of Sri Aurobindo, in 1972] has come ON PURPOSE. It's certainly something that's coming now because the ONLY salvation for the country, the ONLY thing that can unify it, is for it to adopt Sri Aurobindo's ideal for the country—he had a plan, he very clearly saw how the country should be organized, he said it to me. It's there, if one reads his books seriously, one can see it. So I said that things should be so organized that THROUGHOUT India there should be study groups, libraries, lectures, anything whatever, so the whole country should know Sri Aurobindo's thought and will. And the Centenary is an excellent opportunity. They asked me, "What's the way out of this chaos?..." On my advice, Indira has been trying to surround herself with people of value. (She had me told that she had forgotten questions of party and wants to surround herself with capable people....) The difficulty is to find upright people. So they need to be educated—they don't even have a NOTION of how they can be! So I said, "This Centenary should be organized right now, at once, like something covering the whole country on the occasion of the Centenary...." And in what Sri Aurobindo wrote, they will find all they need to organize the country, and much better, I tell them, infinitely better than what I may say, because he knew the country infinitely better than I do, and the mental formation and everything.

People need occasions to do things. But this seems to have been wonderfully prepared ON PURPOSE.

(long silence)

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Is that all?

To write this new book, shouldn't I read your whole Agenda again?

My Agenda?

Yes.

What's in there?!

[Laughter]... The whole process.

(Mother laughs) You can read it again if you like!

(silence)

Day after day, almost hour after hour, the body realizes its ignorance, its imbecility, its... all the time. And it's seen very differently, outside all moral sense and, naturally, all preconceived ideas—all that has been nicely swept away, oh, you can't imagine how grateful my body is that the mind was taken away from it, oh!... And it has formed a mind of its own, which doesn't function in the ordinary way at all, but which is a sort of vision, a vision with... with eyes from above. And... (laughing) it might be frightful, but it's so comical! (Mother laughs a lot)

The only thing is that everything, every second... (Mother opens her hands in a gesture of offering, with a blissful smile) what still feels separate, oh, rushes with... an aspiration to be a little more plastic.

(silence)

Here, the body is learning that... You see, all life is organized on the basis of this old habit of opposition between what's good and what's evil, what does good and what does harm, and that has been completely swept away, so it's now learning... For instance, a little sensation comes (it's constant, of course, to express it I have to take one thing among hundreds), but like this: how can the sensation become true? That's really interesting.

Only, it's inexpressible; the minute you put it into words, it takes on enormous proportions.

The body's nature isn't literary, it doesn't like wordiness, and as

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soon as something tries to express itself, oh, to the body it's just... words.

Can you tell me the time?

Five to eleven.

We have time. Would you like us to stay silent?

(meditation)

It can go on indefinitely!