January 1969

01. Jan 1969 – Illnesses & bodily Disorder come from Vital & Mind

Last time, I told you about that “morbid imagination” the body had – completely gone, finished, cleaned out! The moment the body reacted by saying, “No, it’s disgusting, what’s that!” – gone. That’s what is so remarkable with this body: in the vital, in the mind, you have to do things over and over again for the experience to be established; the body is less prompt in opening itself, but once it has understood or has had the right experience, it’s over, the thing is established. That’s what is remarkable. And it’s very tranquil. So then, when certain things tried to come back (even when they were some distance away, just on the periphery), it said, “Ah, no! I no longer want that, it belongs to the past.”

Certainly, according to the present experience, the majority – the vast majority – of illnesses and bodily disorganizations come from the vital and the mind, from their influence.

Yes, that’s it. Oh, it has an extraordinary power on the vital atmosphere. I have seen it since I was quite small – I noticed it before knowing anything outwardly, before anyone explained it to me. And I saw it LEFT TO ITSELF, that is to say, without the intervention of all ideas and all that.... Strange. And invincible... (how should I put it?), it cannot be affected in any way: it doesn’t receive from outside, it receives only from the psychic consciousness, or directly from the supreme Consciousness. And now it’s going about here and there! (Mother laughs) These two, the vital and the mind, care very little – very little – for the body’s well-being: it’s merely an instrument meant to be used, and it just has to obey. But the body feels much freer than before. That’s one of the reasons why they were sent away, it’s not merely to go faster – we said it was for the speed of the work, but it’s not merely that, it’s because the body left to itself has so much more practical common sense.... I don’t know how to explain. An extraordinary STABILITY. The only thing in it that was a little morbid was this physical mind, the body-mind, which Sri Aurobindo regarded as impossible to change – it was very stubborn, but you see, it’s the one that has done the work, it has worked out the change. It had that habit of imagination, but it’s over, I mean it’s now like this (Mother brings down her hands in a gesture of authority), it’s the master. It has interesting possibilities.... Very patient, very patient. Very steady.

04. January 1969 – The Superman Consciousness

On the 1st, something really strange took place... And I wasn’t the only one to feel it, a few people felt it too. It began just after midnight, but I felt it at 2, and others at 4 in the morning. It was... I told you a few words about it last time, but the surprising thing is that it didn’t correspond to anything I expected (I didn’t expect anything), or to any of the things I had felt. It was something very material, I mean it was very external – very outward – and luminous, with a golden light. It was very strong, powerful. But its character was a smiling benevolence, a peaceful joy, and a sort of blossoming in the joy and the light. And it was like a “happy new year,” like a wish. I must say it took me by surprise. It lasted – I felt it for at least three hours. Afterwards, I stopped concerning myself with it, I don’t know what happened. But I told you a few words about it, and I spoke to two or three others: they had all felt it.

Which means it was VERY material. They had all felt a sort of joy like that, but an amiable, powerful joy, and... oh, so sweet, very smiling, VERY BENEVOLENT... something... I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what it is, but it’s a kind of benevolence; so it was something very close to the human. And so concrete! So concrete. As if it had a taste, so concrete was it. Afterwards, I didn’t concern myself with it anymore, except that I told two or three people about it: they had all felt it. Now, I don’t know whether it has mingled or... It hasn’t gone, it doesn’t give the feeling of something that comes only to go away. It was far more external than the things I usually feel, far more external...

Hardly mental at all, I mean there was no sense of a “promise” or... No. It would rather be like... My own impression was that of an immense personality, immense (meaning that for it, the earth was small, like this [Mother holds a small object in the hollow of her hands], like a ball), an immense personality, so very benevolent, and coming to... (Mother seems to gently raise the little ball in the hollow of her hands). It was the impression of a personal god (yet it was... I don’t know) who comes to help. So very strong! And so sweet at the same time, so understanding. And it was very external: the body felt it everywhere, everywhere (Mother touches her face, her hands), all over like this. What has become of it? I don’t know. It was the start of the year. As if someone on the scale of a god (someone, that is) had come to say “Happy new year,” with all the power to make it a happy year. It was like that. But what was it?... So concrete... I don’t know. Is it... is it the personality (because it didn’t have any form, I didn’t see any form, there was only what it brought along [Mother feels the atmosphere with her fingers], sensation and feeling, these two things – sensation and feeling), I wondered if it wasn’t the supramental personality... which will, then, manifest later in material forms? Since then, the body – this body – has been feeling (it has been permeated by that everywhere, a lot), it has been feeling much more joyful and less concentrated, living more in a happy, smiling expansion. For instance, it speaks more easily. There’s a note... a constant note of benevolence. A smile, you know, a benevolent smile, and all that with a GREAT FORCE... I don’t know.

Is it the supramental personality?... Which will incarnate in all those who will have a supramental body…? It was luminous, smiling, and so benevolent because of its POWER: I mean that generally, benevolence in the human being is something slightly weak, in the sense that it doesn’t like battle, it doesn’t like struggle – but this wasn’t like that at all! A benevolence that imposes itself (Mother brings her two fists down on the armrests of her chair). It interested me because it was entirely new. And so concrete! Concrete like this (Mother touches the arms of her chair), like what the physical consciousness usually regards as “others,” as concrete as that. Which means it didn’t come through some inner being, through the psychic being: it came DIRECTLY onto the body. What is it?... Yes, it may be that... The body’s feeling since that took place has been a sort of certitude; a certitude as if now it no longer were in an anxiety or uncertainty to know. “What will it be? What will this Supramental PHYSICALLY be like?” the body used to wonder. “What will it be like physically?” Now, it no longer thinks about it, it’s happy.

Mother's brother heard the voice: "Do you want to be divine?... " And he refused.

No: narrowness of consciousness. He didn’t conceive of anything better than “helping others” – philanthropy That’s why he became a governor. When he came out of Polytechnique, he had a choice between different posts, and he deliberately chose that post in the colonies, because he wanted to “help backward races to progress” – all that nonsense! Anyway, he did ONE good thing in his life, my brother. He was in the Ministry of Colonies, and the minister was a friend of his, a little older (I don’t know what post my brother held, but anyhow, everything went through his hands). When the war broke out (I was here, it was the first of the World Wars), the British government asked the French to expel Sri Aurobindo and send him to Algeria – they didn’t want Sri Aurobindo to be in Pondicherry, they were afraid. But we came to know of it (Sri Aurobindo came to know of it), and I wrote to my brother, saying, “This must not be passed.” The expulsion order had gone to the Ministry of Colonies to be ratified, and he got the ratification paper in his hands – he put it at the bottom of his drawer. It disappeared completely, and we never heard of it again.

08. January 1969 – The Descent of the Superman Consciousness

Yes, that’s it. It’s the descent of the superman consciousness. I had the assurance of it afterwards. It was on the 1st of January after midnight. I woke up at 2 in the morning, surrounded by a consciousness, but so concrete, and NEW, in the sense that I had never experienced that. It lasted, quite concrete and present, for two or three hours, and then it spread out and went to find all those who could receive it. And at the same time I knew it was the consciousness of the superman, that is, the intermediary between man and the supramental being. It has given the body a sort of assurance, a sort of trust. That experience has made it steady, as it were, and if it keeps the true attitude, all the support is there to help it. A certain number of people (I asked afterwards) had the experience, they felt it (not as clearly), felt the presence of a new consciousness – lots of people. They told me (I asked them if they had felt something), they told me, “Oh, yes!” But each with... (Mother twists her fingers slightly) naturally his own special approach. (silence)

The curious thing (I’ve noticed it with others) is that when the Action is silent, it’s FAR MORE PRECISE than when it takes place through words. Words are received mentally, and there is always a slight distortion: a distortion of the content of those words. Whereas when the action is direct (Mother makes a gesture of inner communication), it’s very precise. I don’t want to give names, but I’ve had both examples these last few days. There was someone I was to see only a few days later, so then I put the Consciousness and Force on him, and the change took place, but very clearly and precisely; while to others I spoke of this experience, and they transcribed it: two transcriptions were read out to me, very different from each other (while I very nearly said the same thing), each transcription is different, and there is a slight distortion, different too, in each. I didn’t correct them because words themselves distort, so...

You see, when I speak, I give words a very precise meaning – very subtle and precise; the other person receives the sound of the word and gives it his own interpretation. But what can we do? This Consciousness takes on a different “color,” so to speak, in everyone. It’s the same thing with words: words have a similar, but nevertheless different meaning for each of those who utter them.... We would have to communicate like this (gesture of inner exchange): the direct experience.

15. January 1969 – Consciousness

The consciousness kept saying: “The individual is nothing, abdicate the individual, be sincere.

15. January 1969 – New Consciousness gives lessons to the body

There is in it a consciousness (something VERY precious) that gives lessons to the body, teaches it what it has to do, that is, the attitude it should have, the reaction it should have.... I had already told you a few times how difficult it is to find the procedure of the transformation when there’s no one to give you indications; and it’s the response, as it were: “he” comes and tells the body, “Have this attitude, do this, do that in that way.” So then the body is happy, it’s quite reassured, it can’t make a mistake anymore. Very interesting. It has come like a “mentor” – and PRACTICAL, wholly practical: “This is to be rejected; this is to be accepted; this is to be generalized; this”..., for all inner movements. And it even becomes very material, in the sense that with certain vibrations, it says, “This is to be encouraged”; with others, “This is to be channeled”; with yet others, “This is to be got rid of....” Small indications of that sort. Years ago, in one of the old Talks, when I spoke there, at the Playground, I said, “The superman will probably be first a being of power, so as to be able to defend himself.” That’s it, it’s that experience. It has come back as an experience. And it’s because it has come back as an experience that I remembered having said it. Yes, that’s right. Well, I’ve had the first experience for this body: it came like a rampart, it was awesome! An awesome power!

Quite out of proportion with the apparent action. Very interesting. And that’s also why (now that I see this experience), I see that the result is far more precise and concrete, because the mind and the vital aren’t there. Because it [this new consciousness] is taking their place. And with this whole tranquil assurance of knowledge that comes at the same time. It’s interesting. In the same way. Only, those who haven’t made it a habit to observe themselves objectively will notice it less, that’s all. It will go through cotton wool, as it were, as it always does. But otherwise it’s in the same way. I do hope it will make people THINK correctly... Consciousness; just as it’s almost completely limited in the human consciousness, so too in certain states of being, certain activities, it limits itself to a certain way of being so as to accomplish His action. And that’s something I had asked for a lot: “May I be guided every minute,” because it saves a huge amount of time, of course, instead of having to study, to observe, to... – one knows. Well, now I realize it has happened like that. (silence)

There is a very pronounced change in those who were touched on the 1st of January: there is especially... as I said, a precision and a certainty that have entered their way of thinking. It was here (Mother looks in the region of the heart). It’s strange, I seem to be asked to put it in contact with all those who come near me. Since it came, I’ve been seeing people’s eyes more clearly – in the past too, I used to see their eyes, but it was their psychological state, while now I see the expression of the eyes, and it’s so interesting!

22. January 1969 – About Tirupathi

You know that the doctor went for an outing to a temple in the South, the temple of Tirupathi, and it has given me an opportunity to make contact... These are people who receive crores of rupees every year, they have a huge organization and feed thousands of people every day (from a physical point of view, it takes up a lot of space), and according to what the doctor told me, it’s impeccably clean, wonderful. He himself was surprised. There are several hundred guest houses to lodge people, well, a big affair. So then, everything is based on a god they call “Tirupathi,” I think, and this god gives you whatever you ask him – that’s a widespread belief. They have a statue of him (I had the photo in my hands today), with the god blindfolded. He has four hands opened like this – four hands that give, two on each side – and blindfolded. And it is said, “You see the god and ask him; and without looking at you, he gives you automatically.”

In other words, a god who doesn’t see faults, doesn’t see virtue, doesn’t see... anything: he receives requests, and gives. It’s curious. These last few days, I’ve been able to make contact, because I had people there. Today I saw his photo and found it rather interesting (Mother feels the air with her fingers).... No justice, no discernment, no... simply, you ask, and you get. So if you’ve asked something true, you get something true; if you’ve asked something false, you sink into falsehood. As an idea it’s VERY interesting. I think it’s the most important religious center in India: it’s on a hilltop, they have an army of trucks carrying people up every day Curious, isn’t it? And everybody comes, even government people, even scientists, everybody... It’s the need to ask for help from something more powerful than you are. And this faith: whatever you ask, anything, you get. I don’t know if it’s always realized in the details, but there’s the principle. Is there really a force? There is a force. Maybe it’s to demonstrate that with faith, trust, and a sort of inner certitude, you BRING THINGS ABOUT. And this idea: he doesn’t look at your merit or anything (Mother opens her hands) – you ask, and you get.

29. January 1969 – About Europe

But going by the echoes from Europe, you get a sense of a huge balloon swelling and swelling more and more (economically, financially, mechanically) and about to burst-it has to burst... into something else. And the Mind is part of this balloon. Yes, yes, it’s the Mind that seems to have swollen as much as it can, almost to bursting. It’s exactly that. I was wondering about this: Will it take... a complete bankruptcy of the Mind for people to understand?...

Will it burst to end in a zero? So I am constantly asked for messages (not articles because I no longer write any), but Y wants me to see her and to “note down” what I will tell her. But I know very well that everything I will say will be completely distorted. One would like to be able to... keep a little quiet. And they take it all so seriously! They think it’s so important.... Constantly, the only thing I feel like saying to all these people is, SOMETHING ELSE... SOMETHING ELSE...