The Mother

Agenda

Volume 9

July 17, 1968

(Mother is running a temperature, breathing with difficulty and coughing. She hasn't eaten anything. She receives Satprem lying on her couch.)

It's the same thing going on....

Do you have news?

I have news of P.L. and of Msgr. R.... But won't it tire you?

No, no! It doesn't tire me.

There's a letter from Msgr. R. to you. It was sent through J. Here's what he writes J.:

“Let me first thank you – once again – for Satprem's book on Sri Aurobindo. I have finished reading it. This book has and will have a considerable influence on my life. Secondly, I thank you for the help you gave my dear P.L. He has come back transformed, purified, illuminated. Lastly, may I ask you to hand over to Mother the enclosed letter....”

What does he say?

“Mother, it is without the least reservation that I give you this name of Mother, to you who have given life back to my favorite son.... His stay at the Ashram has marked an essential stage. There has been in his inmost being a radical upheaval.... May I add that I myself feel your powerful and benevolent protection? I have the impression of being understood by you, and I feel I am the inheritor – along with your numerous sons, daughters and disciples – of the spiritual treasures accumulated each day by your fidelity to the mission entrusted to you. With my deep and intense gratitude, may you accept, Mother, the token of my respectful and filial piety.”

Do you have this man's photo?... No?

And P.L., what does he say?

It doesn't tire you? Shall I read it to you?... He answers my last letter, in which I had conveyed your message:

“I have tears in my eyes: a commotion of immense joy has shot through my whole being when I read your letter, and Mother's words which you repeat for me.... I cannot find words to describe my psychological state – I let you guess it. I feel so small, so insignificant before the horizons you make me glimpse. All this incites me to serious work, to the ‘abdication of the little personality’ so as to be worthy of HER. These feelings in my soul are very different from all my previous religious experiences....

(Mother nods her head in approval)

“...I feel all luminous, the Divine Grace is so powerful that at times I think my body is incapable of holding it; Mother's Presence is so real; the bliss is so serene, so tranquil.... The little ADVENTURE begun at the Samadhi becomes so worthy of being lived, the CONSCIOUSNESS has widened so much.... Darkness, fear, scruples, mortifications are so far away! A few weeks ago, I had a very painful dream: my body was being torn apart, the pain was excruciating; my feet, my hands, my head were being pulled apart.... Today, when I read your letter, I understood the meaning: I had to grow.... Just two words to inform you about my situation. As I told you, I found two currents in the Vatican, the first one quite raging against me; we thought that my assuming a new post would calm them down... but a few days later, they managed to demand a Collegiate examination (by a neurologist, who, I believe, had been ordered to declare me ‘ill,’ an endocrinologist, an expert in general medicine, and the Pope's physician] hence the cry of the child running to his mother: my telegram asking for Mother's protection. On Sunday the 7th, I had a dream: Mother came into a sort of huge warehouse, where I was lying on the ground, and told me, ‘Quick, get away and leave me your place.’ I flew away (without my body, which was still on the ground): it was my soul that went away, and, from on high, very high up, I saw Mother taking possession of my body, entering it, and staying put. Suddenly an army of doctors in white robes makes a beeline for my body (in which Mother is still hidden); no sooner have they surrounded and begun examining it than a terrible explosion sends them flying into the air....

(Mother laughs)

“...I woke up at the blast.... You must have received my telegram: ‘Perfect diagnosis.’ Thus the group that was trying to eliminate me from the Vatican is every day losing its strength and weapons, its intrigues neutralized. The other group, which is favorable to me, on the contrary sees my transformation with pleasure, and I am cautiously beginning to give it Aurobindo's message. I told you that Msgr. R. is enthusiastic. Now, knowing that Mother replied, ‘Oh, yes! It's good that way, he must stay and do his work. He must stay.... It's absolutely true that I am with trim,’ I am wholly at peace, full of desire to be ‘the instrument of this great divine work.’”

It's good. He is fine, this man.

(Mother goes on contemplating)

Then I have new questions from T.F.'s class.... The children have a very small thought, very small.

(Mother sends for the letter)

It's not very exciting, but anyway!

(Mother laughs, and Satprem reads)

“Is the will to progress sufficient to prevent the deterioration that stems from time? How can the physical being prevent this deterioration?”

That's just what the body's transformation is about! It's when the physical cells become not only conscious, but RECEPTIVE to the true Consciousness-Force, that is, when they allow the working of that higher Consciousness. That's the work of transformation.... Not so easy!

The other question: “How does the central Will and Light, which is nonmaterial, act on the gross matter of the cells?”

It's exactly like asking, “How does the Will act on Matter?...” The whole Life is like that! It should be explained to these children that their whole existence is the result of the action of the Will; that without the Will, Matter would be inert and motionless, and the fact that the vibration of the Will has an action on Matter is precisely what permits Life, otherwise there wouldn't be any Life.

If they want a scientific answer, the how, that's more difficult, but the FACT is there, it's a fact that can be seen every second.

(long silence)

Tell P. L. I appreciate very much and am with him. I find it's very good.

And the other [Msgr. R.]...?

Normally, your reply to him should be conveyed by J.

(Mother goes into a long contemplation)

I keep having the same impression.... You know, the beginning of something very important.