The Mother

Agenda

Volume 5

September 30, 1964

W has come back from his “Tantric course” – after having fallen ill! It seems X gave him a new mantra, which must be repeated in three periods of several lakhs each, and he told him, “So far, none of those to whom I have given this mantra have been able to reach the end.” And he warned him, “You will be attacked in your thought, your feelings and your body.” Sure enough, W got a fever, a sort of discomfort all over, and all kinds of suggestions that sprang up from below. I must say it left me pensive.... To go and do battle with the adverse forces in their own domain, to provoke them, is indeed a peculiar method.... I told W (and in any case I'll see to it that the other two periods don't go the same way) that I would keep those gentlemen at a distance.

To go and seek them out in their own place, on their own ground, and fight them seems to me...

But they are the guardians of a certain power, so if you want that power, you have to go and fight them, don't you?

It had rather seemed to me that they should be kept at a distance.

With Théon, the adverse forces and hostile beings were often mentioned, they occupied a big place in self-development and in action. As for Sri Aurobindo, he used to say that that notion was useful mostly from the psychological and personal standpoint, because struggling with difficulties is easier when you see them as coming from “outside,” as an attack from outside, than if you think they are part of your own nature. Not that he denied their existence, far from it, but the path depends a lot on the attitude you take and on the mental construction you have, naturally.

Sri Aurobindo insisted rather on Oneness: he used to say that even what we consider to be the worst adversaries are still a form of the Supreme, which, deliberately or not, consciously or not, helps in the general transformation. This seems to me vaster, deeper, more comprehensive.

And I tried to base action on this rather than on constant battle with opposing forces. Because, granted this idea, it makes sense that if you make the necessary progress, if you have the divine knowledge and consciousness, the very purpose of those forces disappears, and consequently they can't stay.

On the practical level, I have seen obvious examples of this; it was even my great argument with Durga (I told you, didn't I, that she used to come at the time of the pujas and that, two years ago, she “surrendered”), that was my great argument, I said to her, “But the purpose of your existence in this form – in this form of combative action – would disappear if through identification you obtained the powers that render those forces unnecessary.” And it's after I told her these things that she surrendered to the supreme Will; she said, “I shall do what the Supreme wants me to do.”

It was a very interesting result indeed.

But if we look at it from another point of view, I had noticed – or rather WE [Mother and Satprem] had noticed – that X's presence or contact always brought conflicts, difficulties, a sort of struggle with Nature (personal or surrounding Nature). But judging by the effect of his mantras, that would correspond to his line of action; and because of what he is himself, his line of action is located in a relatively very material domain: the physical, the immediate vital and the physical mind – not the higher, speculative or intellectual mind, no: the physical mind, the one that has an action on Matter, then the vital with all the vital's entities (he always mentions them, and he also gives the ways of mastering them, of overcoming them), and then the physical. And when people around him complained about headaches or difficulties, as he once said to me (he himself said it to me, it was downstairs, I remember), “I put them in contact with the nonhabitual Nature.” Therefore, it's part of his mode of action. And it struck me, I remember, it struck me, because several times when I felt a pressure, a discomfort, something unpleasant, I asked myself, “Is it because the body's cells aren't accustomed to the force that's acting?” So I would do a work of opening, of broadening, and indeed it always succeeded: the discomfort always stopped.

Sri Aurobindo said that all the Tantrics start from below; they start right down below, and so right down below, that's how things must be, obviously. While with him, you went from above downward, so that you dominated the situation. But if you start right down below, it's obvious that, right down below, that's how things are: anything that's a little stronger or a little vaster or a little truer or a little purer than ordinary Nature brings about a reaction, a revolt, a contradiction and a struggle.

I prefer the other method. Though probably it isn't within everyone's reach.

(silence)

W told me that over there, during one of his moments of struggle, as he really didn't feel well at night, “someone” came up to him and ran her hand over his head, and he felt quite well, it put him right again. So he asked X (as for me, I had gone to him consciously, because I received an S.O.S. from him and I went there consciously and brought him relief), but he told X what had happened, and... (laughing) X answered him, “It's a goddess”! I laughed and said to him, “What does he call a goddess?...” Probably whatever isn't in a body is a goddess!

But in this case, it had taken place consciously, I had gone to him consciously, you see, to bring him relief. I asked him, “Didn't you see who it was?” He said, “No, I only saw part of an arm and a sari.”

I didn't insist.

*
*   *

Soon afterwards

It is like the beginning of a new phase.

Previously, the whole action always used to come from here (radiating gesture above the head), in the highest, vastest and purest Light; but for a few days now, whenever something or other goes wrong, when, for instance, people don't do what they should or their reactions are wrong, or when there are difficulties in circumstances, anyway when things “grate” and Disorder gets worse, now there comes into me a sort of Power, a VERY MATERIAL Power, which goes like this (gesture of pummeling), which goes at things and pushes terribly hard – oh, what a pressure it makes!... And it comes without my willing it, it goes without my knowing it.

Naturally, the inner Power is put into action (that Power which obviously is always increasing), but it never used to be exerted in that way, in detail, on tiny things of that sort, like someone's wrong attitude or an action that doesn't conform to the Truth, anyway lots of things... pitiable things, which I used to watch: I would smile, put the Truth-Light on them (gesture from above), and would leave them. But now, it's not that way: “that” comes, and it's like something that comes and says to people, things, circumstances and individuals (in an imperative tone): “You shall do what the Lord wills – you shall do what He wills. And beware! you shall do what He wills.” (Mother laughs)

It makes me laugh, but it must be having some effect!

It is very material, it's in the subtle physical. And it always takes that form; it doesn't say, “You should do this” or “You should do that,” or “You shouldn't do this”... – nothing like that: “You SHALL do what the Lord wills,” just like that, “You SHALL do... and, you know, you shall do it, so beware!”

It is a strong Light, with what looks like precise little details (which probably must be translated as details of action, I don't know): they are like lines that make little marks like this (gesture). It's a formation.

It's a force that isn't ordinary in the material world.

You remember, I had that in the past (a few months or years ago), I told you, it was something that would suddenly make me bang my fist... it was so terrible that I felt as if everything would be smashed – it's the same thing, but now organized for a definite aim: it comes fully ready, then it acts, and when it's finished, it goes. It comes, and sometimes it stays long enough: it insists and insists, as though it were pummeling the resistance; and then suddenly it stops, it's finished, it's gone. It comes into the consciousness spontaneously, it goes out of it spontaneously, and I am like a witness. Just a witness who is used as a link – an electric plug.

It goes towards the person (I see it with the inner vision, you understand) or towards the circumstances or towards the event, and it pummels it without letting go of it: “You will do what the Lord wills, it will be as the Lord wills.”

I put it into words, but...

And it's completely outside – outside – human feelings, human thoughts, human perceptions, which means it can go to someone very close, very intimate, just as it can go to someone very remote; it can go to someone full of goodwill just as it can go to someone full of ill will – with perfect impartiality. It's very interesting, there are no nuances in its action, no nuances. There may be a dosage, but the dosage seems to be measured according to the resistance. But no nuances, which means that, for its action, everyone and everything is IDENTICAL – absolutely identical; there aren't those “for” and those “against,” that doesn't exist anymore; there's only something that isn't as it ought to be: it isn't as it ought to be – bang! (Mother laughs)

It came again just yesterday.

Generally, I have to be resting or at any rate quiet for it to come (or maybe for me to perceive it).

Voilà, mon petit.