Satprem's Life & Works

An Overview


CURATOR'S NOTE

This curated page attempts to navigate through Satprem’s written works placing them within the framework of his life’s tumultuous journey. Satprem was a Rebel who became a Disciple and Confidant of The Mother. He faced Her departure in 1973 with a defiant NO and fought an epic battle for The Mother’s Agenda before silently withdrawing into solitude to complete his life’s mission. His written works - books, essays, letters, journal as well as his interviews bear the mark of the role that he was playing and the phase that he was embodying.

The classification has been kept fluid and the journey described using his own words. In some cases, works are placed not according to the year of publication but rather the relevant period. The Mother’s comments on some of Satprem’s written works are also included.





First Phase : 1950s-1960s

A WESTERNER IN REVOLT





I accept life only as a furious CHALLENGE to fate, to death.

Satprem






I am not a mystic, I am an anthropoid who does not want to be an anthropoid, even baptised, even spiritualised, but wants to be SOMETHING ELSE.

Satprem





The Mother on 'L'Orpailleur or The Gold-Seeker'


I like the form of your expression very, very much. It contains something deep, very supple and polished at the same time—like a lovely, finely chiseled statue. There is profound inspiration and a rhythm, a harmony, which I like very much. I really enjoyed reading your first book (L'Orpailleur or The Gold-Seeker).—the kind of enjoyment that comes from discovering beautiful forms, an original way of looking at things and expressing them. I appreciated it tremendously. Immediately, spontaneously, I ranked you as a true writer.

March 1962

...I liked the book very much when I read it, but the only image that remains now is a primeval forest with a huge tree and you struggling to blaze your way through the tree—that's what I see all the time (Mother looks again). Why?... That's it, that's what stayed in the consciousness. I can still see you with an axe, hacking off huge branches to open up a passage...

April 1972









Second Phase : 1960s-1970s

IN HER PRESENCE




The first evening I arrived in Pondicherry, I wanted to run away immediately…. I could not make out anything…Mother laughed a lot—not me. She put up with everything from me, I held my own for ten years. For such was the mystery of the human samples around her, I was one of those samples.

But the day I understood, then I understood totally, and I loved Mother totally.

Source



CORRESPONDENCE





Were it not for Sri Aurobindo, I would give up everything. The greatest "realisation" which he gave me is that THERE IS Sri Aurobindo.

Satprem



The Mother on 'The Adventure of Consciousness'


... [Sri Aurobindo] wanted to ensure that it doesn't become tiresome—at all costs, don't let it be tiresome. It can be bewildering, but not tiresome. Let them be hurled right into things... strange and unknown things, perhaps,... it would be better for people to say, 'He's a madman,' than to say, 'He's a boring sermonizer.'...

... let the end surge up and leave you in suspense;

... above all, don't try to be reasonable. An upsurge of light like a door bursting open onto a very luminous and unknown future, but with no attempt to make it tangible and approachable.

... have no ambition to make anyone understand anything whatsoever.

... An eruption, an explosion.

He casts forth the seeds; and then, for those who can gather them up, comes the slow and lengthy labor.

I had a feeling Sri Aurobindo put a lot of his force into it to make it a revelation—a lot. And I became convinced that my impression was correct when Pavitra told me it had opened some doors to him that had never opened before. But that means it has to be read by people who already know a lot. This book is perhaps a step forward, not merely an explanation.

15 October 1961


You see, your book on Sri Aurobindo is exceptional in all respects and it was a sort of summit in expression. There was also the fact that Sri Aurobindo was always there while you were writing it. When it came, I had the sense of a summit that cannot be exceeded....

31 January 1966









The Mother on 'The Body of the Earth'


Your book is very fine! But it's a book of tomorrow, not a book of yesterday.

I mean, someone who reads this book and doesn't feel anything has to be inwardly com-plete-ly obtuse—it's the mind going round in circles.

Read more:
Mother's Agenda > November 9, 1966
Mother's Agenda > June 12, 1968
Mother's Agenda > November 22, 1969






The Mother on 'On the way to Supermanhood'


I had made a special formation [for the book "On the way to Supermanhood"], I had put a special force,...

Source

Satprem reads the Introduction.

It's magnificent, mon petit, magnificent!

It's just the thing needed.

What could we do to spread it?... It should be... (gesture in every direction). A book isn't enough. We need something that would go everywhere.



Satprem reads the second chapter of Supermanhood, "The Great Process." After a few satisfied remarks, Mother adds:)

It produces a curious phenomenon of absorption: nothing existed anymore but that...

Source



Then Satprem reads the third chapter of Supermanhood: "The Sunlit Path." Afterwards, Mother remains looking at him for a long time, with a charming smile.)

You've entered a new world.... For those who can follow you, it will be good!

Oh, it's quite new.... (Smiling and approving) It's extraordinary, you understand, it's...

The impression that a new door has opened. The impression as if you had opened a new door for humanity.

Read full conversation >>



Then Satprem reads the fifth chapter of Supermanhood: "The New Consciousness."

That's very good, it's creative of the condition.

Source



Satprem reads the second part of the sixth chapter of On the Way to Supermanhood: "The Tearing of Limits."

It's a whole new world.

(silence)

As for me, I could keep listening like that without moving for hours! It's very restful. I don't know how to explain.... It's very restful.

It's strange.... You no longer feel like moving, no longer feel like speaking, nothing anymore.

Source



Satprem reads the second part of chapter 10, "The Harmony."

It's extraordinary! There is a sort of... a sort of EMOTION in it, which doesn't belong to this world. It puts you into contact with a certain... I don't know what to call it, but it's like an emotion1 which is beyond the mind—beyond everything, everything, not only the mind but the intellectual. And it has a strange power to transform things.... You understand, for me the Satprem of this book isn't the same Satprem as before. Everything takes on a... a new appearance, I don't know — a new contact.

Read full conversation >>



After the reading of Chapter 14 of On the Way to Supermanhood, "The Victory over Death."

I have the feeling of a new consciousness being formed.

Source







ESSAYS



The Mother on 'The Great Sense'


It's magnificent, it's really excellent….it’s inspired ….. Just what needed to be said.

Source

It's for the youth, that's where it must go; it's for those who aren't satisfied and who seek something.

Source




ESSAYS







Mother is the most wonderful adventure I have known, the last door that opens when all the others have closed on nothing. For fifteen years she took me on unknown paths leading into Man's morrow, or perhaps into his real beginning. My heart was beating as if for the first time ever. Mother is the secret of the Earth.

MOTHER'S AGENDA

OF THE SUPRAMENTAL ACTION UPON EARTH


Listen now >>



Mother's Agenda (13 volumes) are English translations of L’Agenda de Mère (13 volumes) - transcripts of the audio recordings of the conversations in French.

[1951-1960 ~ 1961 ~ 1962 ~ 1963 ~ 1964 ~ 1965 ~ 1966 ~ 1967 ~ 1968 ~ 1969 ~ 1970 ~ 1971 ~ 1972-1973]









Third Phase : 1970s-1980s

ALONE AND STANDING







I am perhaps the only one or one of the only two people who have never believed in Mother's PHYSICAL death. And I still do not. Because I have seen, touched, felt—only I do not know how to tell what I have seen. The map is not charted yet. We are going to chart it together. Perhaps we shall see Mother at the end of it. We do not believe in death; death is the falsehood of the world.






Nobody knew what this prodigious Agenda of Mother was, or what Power was contained in it — the Path. The single PATH at the end of so many millennia of Sorrow, the Response to our souls and our bodies which had so long burnt in vain, suffered so much in vain in this or that prison, under this or that Inquisition, or disappeared in a vain Revolt of outlaws. This time, the law was to change, it had to be said, as well as the Means. And the extraordinary, abyssal underground storm They had triggered off — digging a hole in their own body — and which was to shake the very foundations of the world. So I wrote this superhuman (or non-human) Trilogy, as if I were expecting death every day: I had to go quickly — at times, I fainted from exhaustion at my table after five or six hours of fierce concentration in a total, “listening” Silence.






There is no more "Satprem", there is no more a writer or even a "confidant of the Mother" — all this is dead. There is a crying soul, there is a bleeding child who is desperately trying to bring into his flesh what She wanted so much for the Earth. This child does not care a damn for the approbation or the mud of the world. He cares that Her suffering and agony do not go in vain.






I am not seeking consolation, I do not need to be consoled, I have a Fire within that laughs at all deaths. And Mother is with me. But the earth? What is the path of this beloved, damned and painful earth, how does Mother’s last path meet up with the path of the earth? The earth was her path; She hewed the path for the earth. What is the path?


JOURNALS





INTERVIEWS

Satprem par Georg Stephan Troller - An interview in April, 1980
L’Homme après l’homme - An interview by David Montemurri in 1981. 'Man after Man'
Sept Jours en Inde avec Satprem. An Audio interview in 1980 by Frederic de Towarnicki.'My Burning Heart'

COMPILATIONS

Conversations with Satprem (& Luc)
Entretiens avec Satprem









Final Phase : 1980s-2007

BEYOND THE TOMBS, FORWARD!







I'm facing the last task of my life - instead of writing, I should embody a little and achieve this evolution.

Satprem






Let me do the work alone, let me take at least a first decisive step and afterward I will perhaps be able to do something effective for the others, because I would then have power and knowledge. That is why I have broken off relations with everyone.






This life can burn for the Mother.

Satprem


ESSAYS

CORRESPONDENCE

Lettres choisies de Satprem à Luc







My only way to love Them is to try do what They wanted.

Satprem






BIBLIOGRAPHY

Original French TitleTypeYearEnglish Translation
L’Orpailleurbook1960The Gold Seeker
Sri Aurobindo, ou l’Aventure de la Consciencebook1964Sri Aurobindo or The Adventure Of Consciousness
Par le corps de la Terre, ou le Sannyasinbook1974By The Body Of The Earth Or The Sannyasin
La genése du surhommebook1974On The Way To Supermanhood
Mère ou Le Matérialisme divin - Ibook1976Mother or The Divine Materialism - I
Mère ou L’Espèce Nouvelle - IIbook1976Mother or The New Species - II
Mère ou le Mutation de la Mort - IIIbook1977Mother or The Mutation Of Death - III
Gringobook1980Gringo
Le mental des cellulesbook1981The Mind Of The Cells
La Révolte de la Terrebook1990The Revolt Of The Earth
Évolution IIbook1992Evolution Ii
Lettres d’un Insoumis - tome 1book1994Letters Of A Rebel - Vol. 1
Lettres d’un Insoumis - tome 2book1994Letters Of A Rebel - Vol. 2
La tragédie de la Terrebook1996The Tragedy Of The Earth
La Clef des Contesbook1998The Key Of The Fairy Tales
La Légende de l’Avenirbook1999The Legend Of The Future
L’Oiseau Doëlbook1999The Doel Bird
Mémoires d’un Patagonienbook2002Memories Of A Patagonian
La Philosophie de l’Amourbook2002The Philosophy Of Love
Le Véda et la destinée humaineessay1961The Veda And Human Destiny
Le Grand Sensessay1969The Great Sense
Sri Aurobindo et l’avenir de la terreessay1971Sri Aurobindo and the Earths Future
Néanderthal Regardeessay1999Neanderthal Looks On
Satprem par Georg Stephan Trollerinterview1980
Sept jours en Inde avec Satpreminterview1981My Burning Heart
L’Homme après l’hommeinterview1981Man After Man