The Mother confides to a disciple her experiences on the path of a 'yoga of the body'.
Dans ces conversations, la Mère confie à un disciple ses expériences sur le chemin du « yoga du corps », au cours des années 1961-1973.
During the years 1961 to 1973 the Mother had frequent conversations with one of her disciples about the experiences she was having at the time. She called these conversations, which were in French, l’Agenda. Selected transcripts of the tape-recorded conversations were seen, approved and occasionally revised by the Mother for publication as 'Notes on the Way' and 'A Propos'. The following introductory note preceded the first of the 'Notes on the Way' conversations: 'We begin under this title to publish some fragments of conversations with the Mother. These reflections or experiences, these observations, which are very recent, are like landmarks on the way of Transformation: they were chosen not only because they illumine the work under way — a yoga of the body of which all the processes have to be established — but because they can be a sort of indication of the endeavour that has to be made.'
Mother "looks inwardly".
Do you see something?
(Silence)
I believe I already told you that there is as though a golden Force which is pressing down (gesture of pressing) that has no material consistence and yet seems to be tremendously heavy...
Yes, yes.
... and which is pressing upon Matter, thus, to compel it to turn towards the Divine inwardly—not an outward escape (gesture upward), but inwardly to turn to the Divine. And so the apparent result is as though catastrophes were inevitable. And yet along with this perception of inevitable catastrophe, there are at the same time solutions to the situation, events which come about that are by themselves altogether miraculous. It is as though the two extremes were becoming more extreme, as though what is good was becoming better and what is bad becoming worse. It is like that. With the formidable Power that is pressing upon the world—that was my impression.
Yes, it is perceptible.
Yes, it is felt like that (Mother fingers the air). And then in the circumstances, many things that happen generally in an indifferent way become acute; situations, differences become acute; bad wills become acute; and, at the same time, extraordinary miracles—extraordinary! People are saved who were about to die, things that were inextricable all of a sudden get sorted out.
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And then, for individuals also, it is the same thing.
They who know how to turn towards... (how to say it?) who sincerely call the Divine, who feel that it is the only salvation, the only way out, and who sincerely give themselves, then (gesture of breaking through) in a few minutes it becomes wonderful. For the smallest things—there is nothing small or big, important or unimportant—it is all the same.
The values change.
It is as though the vision of the world changes.
It is, as it were, to give an idea of the change in the world by the descent of the Supramental. Truly things that were neutral become absolute: a little error becomes categorical in its consequences, and a little sincerity, a little true aspiration becomes miraculous in its result. The values have intensified in people, and even from the material point of view the smallest fault, the very smallest, has big consequences, and the least sincerity in the aspiration has wonderful results. The values have intensified, become precise.
Mother, you speak of fault, error—I do not know if it is an aberration, but I am having a more and more precise impression that fault, error, all that is not true. It is not like that. It is a means... how to say? Yes, it is a means for widening the field of aspiration.
Yes, yes, perfectly so.
The perception of the whole is that everything is... everything is willed with a view to the conscious ascent of the world. The consciousness is preparing to become divine. And it is perfectly true:
what we consider as faults are altogether part of the ordinary human conception, altogether, altogether.
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The only fault—if there is any—is not to want the other thing. But from the time one wants the other thing...
But it is not a fault, it is an imbecility!
Well, it is very simple. The whole creation must want nothing but the Divine, nothing but to manifest the Divine. And all that it does, even all its so-called errors, are only means towards making it inevitable for the whole creation to manifest the Divine—but not the "Divine" as man conceives him to be, "this and not that", with all kinds of restrictions: a Totality of tremendous power and light. It is truly the Power in the world, a new and tremendous Power that has come into the world and must manifest itself and must make "manifestable" (if one may so put it) this Divine All-Power.
I have come to this conclusion. I have looked, I have observed and I have seen that what we call "supramental", lacking a better word, this Supramental makes the creation more sensitive to the higher Power; we call that "divine" because we... It is divine in relation to what we are, but... It is something (gesture of descent and pressure) which must make Matter more sensitive and more... "responsive" to the Force. How to say it? At present whatever is invisible or insensible is unreal for us (I mean to say for the human being in general). We say that there are "concrete" things and things that are not so; yet this Puissance, this Power that is not material, becomes more concretely powerful upon earth than earthly material things. Yes, it is that.
This is the protection and the means of defence for supramental beings. It will be a thing which is not material in appearance but which has a greater power over Matter than material things. This is becoming more and more true from day to day, from hour to hour—the feeling that this Force, when it is directed by what we call "the Divine", it can, truly it can—you understand—it has the power to move Matter, it can produce a material accident; and it can efface the consequences of an absolutely material thing—it is stronger than... Matter. This
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is what is altogether new and incomprehensible; and therefore it produces a kind of panic in the ordinary consciousness of people. Yes, it is that. It seems... it is no more what it was. And truly there is something new—it is no more as it was.
All our common sense, all our logic, all our practical sense is dashed to the ground! Useless! It has no force any more, no reality any more; it no longer corresponds to what is. It is truly a new world.
It is this in the body which finds it difficult to adapt itself to this new Power and creates the disorder and difficulties, the illnesses. But all of a sudden one feels that if one were wholly receptive, one would become formidable. That is the impression—the impression I am having more and more, that if the whole consciousness (the whole of the most material consciousness—the most material) were receptive to this new Power... one would become for-mi-da-ble.
(Mother closes her eyes.)
But one essential condition: the reign of the ego must be ended. The ego is now the obstacle. The ego must be replaced by the divine consciousness—Sri Aurobindo himself called it "supramental"; we can call it supramental so that there might not be any misunderstanding, because when one speaks of "the Divine", immediately people think of a "God", and that spoils everything. It is not that. No, it is not that. (Mother slowly brings down her closed fists) It is the descent of the supramental world, which is not a purely imaginative thing (gesture upward), it is an absolutely material Power. But (Mother smiles) it has no need of material means.
A world which wants to take a body in the world.
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Several times there have been moments when my body felt a kind of new unease and anxiety; and there was as though something which was not a voice, but which translated itself in words in my consciousness: "Why are you afraid? It is the new consciousness." It came several times. And then I understood.
You understand; it is this which in the human common sense says: "It is impossible, that has never been"; it is this which has come to an end. It is finished, it is foolish. It has become a stupidity. One might say: it is possible because it has never been. It is the new world and it is the new consciousness and it is the new Power, it is possible, and this is and will be more and more manifested because it is the new world, because it has never been.
It will be because it has never been.
It is beautiful: it will be because it has never been—because it has never been.
(Mother enters into a long contemplation.)
It is not material and it is more concrete than Matter!
Yes. It is crushing almost.
Crushing, yes, it is that.... Oh! It is...
All that is not receptive feels the crushing, but whatever is receptive feels on the contrary something like a... powerful widening.
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Yes, but it is very strange, it is both!
Both at the same time.
Yes, one feels something like a swelling, as though the whole thing is going to explode, and at the same time there is something that is crushed.
Yes, but that which is crushed is the thing that resists, that is not receptive. It has only to open itself. And then the thing becomes as though... a formidable thing.... It is extraordinary. It is our habit of centuries, is it not, which resists and gives this impression; but whatever opens out... one feels as though one became large, large, large.... It is magnificent. Oh! It is...
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