Starts the terrible years.The change is DONE: a new mode of being of the cellular consciousness has appeared on earth. The future awaits - will the 'old' yield?
The beginning of the terrible years.... There was the feeling that Mother had found the secret of the change, conquered all she could from her own body, and that she was now sitting there, surrounded by the pack, just putting up with each and every resistance of the old species. "The change is DONE. Everything is tooth and nail, ferociously after me, but it's over." A new mode of being of the cellular consciousness had appeared on earth, as one day, in inert matter, there appeared a new mode of being called life - but this time it is "overlife": "The impression there is a way of being of the cells that would be the beginning of a new body; only, when that comes, the body itself feels it is dying." What would be the feeling of the first corpuscle to experience life? "The body feels it has reached the point of.... unknown. A very, very strange sensation. A sort of new vibration. It's so new that.... I can't speak of anguish, but it's.... the unknown. A mystery of the unknown." And there, what we call death is like the other side of the bowl for the former fish, and yet it is not "another world": "They are surprisingly one within the other! There is something there.... Is it possible? For overlife is both life and death together." And then, this cry of the breakthrough: "What appears to us as 'the laws of nature' is nonsense!...." Another world ON EARTH in which the old mortal laws of our bowl break down.... into something else? "I have just had a fantastic vision of the cradle of a future.... which is not very far. It's like a formidable mass suspended above the earth." But will the old pack let her go through to the end?
THE TERRIBLE AGENDA
(Mother looks exhausted. She speaks with great difficulty, as if out of breath.)
Me, I have nothing to say; if you have something to ask, I can speak a little.
(long silence Mother pants for breath)
So then, what do you say?
Last time, when you spoke of that long period, you said that what happened was something prodigious and... almost "idiotic," so simple is it—almost idiotic, you said.
I don't remember.
Prodigious and at the same time... so simple that it's almost idiotic.
Only there was... For the first time, the brain was affected, in the sense that I had uncontrolled movements. I can manage to control them, but... it's very troublesome. And I spend absolutely sleepless nights, because of that. I am obliged to remain awake so that... But something happened—the day you came, which day was it?
Wednesday.
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Wednesday night, I was like that, lying down, without sleeping, when suddenly I saw a St. Peters1 in front of me, and from it rays were coming out towards me. So I understood they had done some magic. At the time, I was quite... (what shall I say?), as if... you know, as if desperate—I was tired and... When... (Mother takes her forehead in her hands and remains silent for a long time).
I can't speak, I am not used to speaking....
So I called him [Sri Aurobindo], I told him; then he told me, "But what does it matter to you! What can they do—they can't do anything, they have no force!" That was enough. And naturally, the Force came, but then it was a force... unbelievable! And it acted like this (crushing gesture) on the entire world, and I spent my night in a sort of white Power that kept repulsing and dealing blows.... At least six hours—six hours of a Power of domination as I had never felt.... But the body doesn't profit from it; that's the trouble, my body is in a state...
That [the experience of the white Power] I had never had in my whole life. For at least six or seven hours, a white Power sending back and as if... crushing things, you know.... Only, the body didn't seem to profit from it. The movements are almost under control—still one or two a day, like that—but the... That2 is over, it was like that and then it was over. It didn't come back.
But the body is so tired—it's not tired, of course: incapable!... Not that I try to do things and can't, it's that there is no will to try.
Yet, from the external standpoint, the doctor said that the best thing is to "do" something, some work; for instance, to signs photos, things like that, a mechanical work.
But it's... it's disgusting.
Yes.
So, you see, it doesn't get cured (Mother touches her chest). It's better, but it doesn't get cured. I still have the same cough. It seems there's a lung infection (Mother touches the top of her chest on the left side).
(panting silence)
You see, I am short of breath.
The thing is, I don't know... Sometimes the body is tired; that
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means it would like to cease. But that doesn't last, of course, only there is in the consciousness the fact that... It still has a very great energy—an energy, even force; but it's in... I don't know, in the consciousness, like a... It doesn't know what's expected of it: whether it's expected to find the energy to recover and live normally again, or else whether... it is to go like this (crumbling gesture). But then this [general disorganization] is disgusting, it's...
You understand, it's tired of the battle.
(silence Satprem feels heartbroken)
There is around an atmosphere... a mixed and complex atmosphere of those who don't believe in the possibility of... It believes in the possibility of the prolongation of life, but not in these conditions—not this, it's absurd, of course, absurd!
One can't last like this, it's meaningless.
I clearly see that it depends on the condition, because at certain times I almost can't see anymore, while at other times I see almost clearly, and naturally... This (Mother points to her swollen left eye) is another accident, it seems it's emphysema.... There's a physical disorganization that's not tolerable. The doctors all say it's perfectly repairable.... So here's all I know—that it can recover completely. If it can recover completely, it's good. But...
The consciousness above (gesture above the head) hasn't changed, but... (Mother takes her forehead in her hands) the physical transmission isn't so good anymore. But that too, they say it can recover.
The state is like this: now there is a will, and so a progress obviously, now there is... as if a fatigue at effort.
That's how it is, all the time out of breath.
(silence)
And then, earlier I would always take refuge in silence and concentration, but now this thing comes3—that has been the biggest difficulty. In silence and concentration I could spend hours and hours and hours, but now those uncontrolled movements come, and... That's... That's really what saddened me, you understand?
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(Satprem feels tears flow on his cheeks)
Because concentrated silence, I could spend twenty-four hours in it—that joy has been taken away from me.
(Mother takes soup packets near her and gives them to Satprem)
And I have great difficulty eating, a great difficulty.
(Then she goes into a long meditation, now quieter, now panting for breath; she emerges from it with a start4)
It's constantly like that.
(Mother changes her position and plunges in again, now panting, now quieted. She gives a start again, shakes her head, then pants for breath again with brief quieter moments. Suddenly she sits up.)
And then the legs hurt.
(Sujata and Satprem try to massage lightly Mother's legs)
The legs hurt.
(long silence, now quieter, now visibly in pain, then Mother gives a start again)
That's what is tiring.... You see, twenty-four hours a day, no... no possibility of real rest. That's it.
(long silence)
If I let myself go, I would cry out.
But crying out brings no relief, it's worse.
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(silence, Mother plunges in, then she gives a start again)
Terrible!... You know.... So that night, I said to myself, "Yes, this is how hell is."
Terrible, it's terrible.
I don't see why I've had to go through this.... Because, you understand, that way, it was death that wasn't a solution. That was frightful.
(the clock strikes, Satprem lays his forehead on Mother's knees)
Tempted to say, pray for me.
Yes, Mother.
(Mother has tears in her eyes) You know, it's like this, it's so horrible that it... I am tempted to say, pray for me.
Yes. Mother.5
(Satprem lays his head on Mother's knees, then goes to Sri Aurobindo's room)
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