April 16, 1969The Mother
Agenda
Volume 10
April 16, 1969
(Mother listens to a few pieces of pop music brought to her by François B., an enthusiastic visitor)
It's very amusing! (Mother laughs)
It's the vital in full revolt against the mind, but it's magnificent! They reject the whole mind. It's interesting, very- interesting!
You get the feeling that if they pushed a little farther on (gesture of piercing above), they would catch something.
(François B.:) Mother, a few groups have pushed much farther on. This one [the Rolling Stones] is the most vital of all the groups. But there are others, more open, less rough. They are really ready to recognize you, but they don't know.
It's clearly a complete rejection of all mental rules, and that's the first step needed to go beyond. There are two or three minutes when suddenly – hop! (gesture of piercing through) you feel it contacts something above.
Is there something else?
(F.B.:) A lot more!
(Laughing) You can give me another piece or two!
(“music”)
(Mother laughs, greatly amused) It strikes me as a band of children freed from any mental yoke! Very amusing.
It's all right.
(F.B.:) I'd like to have you hear something else, another kind. But from the same generation. Something gentler.
All right... But it's very amusing! There is behind this a mental form that looks like the I-couldn't- care-less of the perpetual Smile! It's strange .... I mean, that which smiles at the whole life and all its forms, but as if seen and felt by children.
(“Music” of a sober kind)
These are more anxious!
(F.B.:) Another piece, if you like?
I think it'll do! (Mother laughs)
(F.B.:) There's a group which sings something rather humorous, and at the end they say, “O Mother, tell me more, tell me more....” It's fantastic! Because the inspiration is so pure, and they really ask, “O Mother, tell me more....”
(Mother laughs)
And these are “Commercial” things, I mean they're there in the public .... Do you think the time has come to contact them?
(Mother has not heard the question)
It's an open door. They must step through the door and go into the future (gesture of piercing above), towards... what has not yet manifested.
(F.B.:) Can we help them?
It opens a lot of doors. All habits, the whole past civilization is as if walled in by mental rules; this music (gesture of breaking through) sends them flying! It strikes me as a band of children crying for something-and the open door.
They must step through it, they must go farther – there are now possibilities that weren't there before, and this [the pop music people] is precisely all that wants to open up so as to receive those possibilities. So a few in the front must be the first to go through and receive what's on the other side.
There.
It's good.
(Satprem:) He would like to put them in touch with the Ashram...?
All aren't ready.
(F.B.:) I don't want to tell them to come here ...
No.
... but I want to tell them that something is taking place here which is in relation with what they don't have.
Yes. (Laughing) They've broken the walls to go through to the other side! It's true.
(F.B.:) But, Mother, it's the problem of this whole generation ....
Yes.
(F.B.:) And I think we can perhaps give them the information we have. At least show them, give them things to read ...
Reading is still too mental!
But we could also, if you think it can be done, form a little group, or maybe just one individual, or two or three, to go and see them.
That's right.
And speak their language, but to show them there is something else.
Yes, that's right.
Mother, I am – I was – deep in this “Pop” world, and to come here, all I had to do was... to decide to come. And all I've been able to see or learn since I came here is great joys and confirmations of the aspiration I had before. But there are many like me, who go round in circles and rebel ...
Yes.
And if they are told, “There's this,” they're ready to change their action completely ....
Good.
And to become very pure and devoted.
It's good. So you must take up that mission.
(Mother lays her hand on FB.s head)
It's good.
I'll do all I can.
(To Satprem:) Oh, you know, I asked this Consciousness what was needed to receive it without distorting it, and it answered me (Mother reads out a note):
“One must be able to stand in the light of the Supreme Consciousness without casting a shadow.”
(Satprem:) Without casting a shadow, yes.
That's what it replied.
(F.B.:) That is, forgetting oneself completely?
(Satprem:) Being totally transparent.
But that's all the way up! (Mother laughs)
(To Satprem:) He's leaving for Bombay to do some good work.
(F.B.:) I hope so.
It's very interesting (Mother points to her note): there was the experience of the Consciousness, the light of the Consciousness ....
Very well, here (Mother gives François B. a “blessings packet”), it's to keep in your pocket, always. It's a good means of communication, in the sense that if you hold this and concentrate, I KNOW and I answer. There.
(All this time, F.B.'s wife and their forty-day-old baby were quietly sitting in a corner. Mother looks at the baby.)
Oh, we shouldn't wake this up!... Adorable! Look at this, if it isn't lovely...
(the baby moves its fingers, the three leave)
(To Satprem:) Do you want “patience”?
Yes, Mother!
(Mother holds out a garland of flowers, then continues)
They reject the ordinary control, absolutely, and some are fully in the pleasure of upsetting everything, but now and then you feel something... (gesture of piercing through): “Oh, I'd like... I'd like something else.” And that will be ready to receive the new consciousness.
This boy is nice, he has stuff.
It seems he met Y and was captivated by her “ideas” (!) R. was alarmed. So I told him, “It doesn't matter!” That's why I've encouraged him to go to Bombay, so he would free himself from that [i.e., from YJ. He was constantly talking about Equals One, Equals One...1 Mentally, they're defenseless.
Yes, there are many like that, who are “Captivated”... by nothing.
Yes.
But it's an open door, really.
This (pointing to her note), mon petit, it was magnificent; it means this Consciousness is working and working... working and teaching – night and day it's teaching the body From that point of view, it's marvelous. And it goes about like that (gesture everywhere). So naturally, some people imagine that all their fancies are the result of this Consciousness ....
One day, I received someone here (it was R., in fact), and the body asked this Consciousness, like that, it asked, “How, how to make sure there is no mixture of all the lower movements with this light?” Then (I was sitting here), there came down a sort of column wide like this (gesture of about five feet), here (gesture in front of Mother), like a column of light. But it came down IN THE ROOM, mon petit! It wasn't “elsewhere” – it was here. To such a point that I saw it with my own eyes. A light... indefinable, dazzling, but... I don't know, so tranquil! I can't say, I don't know how to explain... so steady, so tranquil. Dazzling. And without any vibrations. And its color... indefinable, in the sense that it was neither white nor golden nor... It was... as if EVERYTHING were there. It can't be described. Wonderful. Then this Consciousness took my
consciousness and went like this (gesture in a circle starting from Mother on her left, going through the column
of light, then returning to Mother on her right).... I felt it [the column of light, when Mother's consciousness went through it]. I felt it, but I didn't see anything [i.e., no shadow]. I didn't see anything, I only saw a slight movement, but... It was like a slight movement, but it was the same light.2 Then it went through the column, and came back [into Mother]. And then it took RA consciousness (same gesture in a circle starting from R., taking her consciousness through the
column, and coming back to R.), it went through, and there was an outline [while crossing through the column of light], an outline, and in the place of the head, it was blue, it had become blue [i.e., a shadow in the light]. That was R.'s effect: an outline. Then it said something to me (wordlessly, but it was instantly translated into words, in English):
“When you stand in the light of the Supreme Consciousness you must not make a shadow.”
And with that experience, it was so real and intense!... It said, “That's the condition – the condition.” Then, half an hour later, it said it to me in French; it was translated into French.
I gave the text to the person. It can't be published as it is, because it requires a whole explanation (and I think it's better not to publish it, I don't know). It requires a whole explanation. Or else, we could put:
“To be able to receive the new consciousness without deforming it...
Then the text:
“...One must be able to stand in the light of the Supreme Consciousness without casting a shadow.”
Words... if one hasn't had the experience, words are... They don't have what the experience gave – that power. It was so intense, you know! Since then, the body has been constantly “thinking”
of that: “Don't cast a shadow, don't cast a shadow....” And the transformation of the body's consciousness is taking place at a tremendous speed.
But my eyes were open, I wasn't in trance, I was talking with R. I saw it like that: it took my consciousness... (same gesture in a circle).
Did it envelop you or...?
No: it [the column of light] was in front of me, like that, between me and R. In front of me, like a layer. Between me and the window. And then, my consciousness was as if seized and taken through it (same gesture). I looked and didn't see anything [i.e. any shadow or trace], but I felt. I felt: there was a slight quiver [while going through]. Then, to give a demonstration, it took R.'s consciousness inside the column, and there was an outline of the head: the outline was seen, just an outline; overall it had become somewhat gray, but not dark at all. And at the place of the head, it was more blue; it was blue, opaque: the head, the shape of a head, like that – an outline. So I wholly understood what it meant: “When you stand in the light of the Supreme Consciousness, you must not make a shadow.”
It was an experience given TO THE BODY – L tell you, my eyes were open. I felt the consciousness... (same gesture in a circle). It can't be described, can't be expressed.
Since then, the body has been full of an intensity of vibration, of aspiration, of... And a tremendous will to get rid of all possible falsehood, all of it.
(silence)
It remained for a long time. It remained for at least a quarter of an hour – a long time. And I felt like doing this (Mother rubs her eyes as if in disbelief). It's the first time the physical body has had an experience of that sort, with the eyes wide open. I saw it come down, come down like that, settle down and stay there. And all the cells seemed to be thirsting and thirsting for that – it was wonderful! Inexpressible.
No shadow, that is, no ego.
Yes, it's precisely that. It means no ego.
(silence)
And I understood. I understood to what extent it was a grace – truly a wonderful grace – to have taken away my mind and vital. Naturally, it could be done only because the psychic was in full possession of the body, otherwise... (Mother laughs, showing that otherwise she would have disconnected from her
body). Which means the process isn't to be recommended: it was quite radical. But it was wonderful. And I found something in Savitri... something in the fifth Canto (I translated it yesterday and kept it to show you).... Here:
(Mother takes a roll of sheets and reads:)
This knowledge first he had of time-born men,
Admitted through a curtain of bright mind
That hangs between our thought and absolute sight,
He found the occult cave, the mystic door
Near to the well of vision in the soul,
And entered where the Wings of Glory brood
In the sunlit space where all is for ever known.
(Savitri, I.V.74)
(then Satprem reads out Mother's translation)
D'abord, il eut cette connaissance des hommes nés dans le temps.
Admis à travers le rideau d'un mental brillant
Qui est suspendu entre notre pensée et la vision absolue,
Il trouva la cave occulte, la porte mystique
Près du puits de vision dans l'âme,
Et entra là où les Ailes de Gloire couvent
Dans l'espace ensoleillé où tout est pour toujours connu.
Not too great, the translation!
Oh, but it is, Mother.
That's the best I found, but it's not too great.
(silence,
Mother looks at another sheet)
And at one place he says:
He shore the cord of mind that ties the earth-heart
And cast away the yoke of Matter's law.
The body's rules bound not the spirit's powers ....
(I.V.74)
You see, he says the heartbeats stop ....
(Mother looks for the passage, which Satprem reads out:)
When life had stopped its beats, death broke not in ....
That's it! And he says that the mind also stops.
(Satprem reads)
He dared to live when breath and thought were still.
That's it.
Thus could he step into that magic place
Which few can even glimpse with hurried glance ....
When I read it, I didn't know he had spoken of that experience of the abolition of the mind – he did speak of it, and he says the heartbeats have stopped, but that one isn't dead. That's it.
I don't know, when I read it, I suddenly felt he was describing the transition from ordinary life to a supramental life.
I don't know why, but I very strongly said to myself that I absolutely had to show you this.
(Satprem reads out the translation)
Indifférent au doute et à la croyance, Avide du seul choc nu du réel
Il trancha la corde du mental qui lie le coeur de la terre
Et rejeta le joug de la loi de la Matière.
Les règles du corps ne liaient plus le pouvoir de l'esprit:
Quand la vie arrêta ses battements, la mort n'intervint pas;
Il osa vivre quand le souffle et la pensée s'arrêtèrent.
Ainsi, il put entrer dans cet endroit magique
Que peu peuvent seulement apercevoir d'un coup d'œil hâtif
Soulevés pour un moment des travaux laborieux du mental
Et de la pauvreté de la vision terrestre de la Nature.
Tout ce que les Dieux ont appris est là, connu spontanément.
I don't know if the translation is very great, but it's the best I could do. (I am slowly translating the whole of Savitri – it'll take ten years!) You remember, we had translated a good deal of it, but it was the end of Savitri; this is the beginning.
But the abolition of the mind, isn't it the same as the complete tranquillity of the mind?
No.
It's not the same thing.
No.
What can be done to abolish the mind?
No, I don't think it should be done. I think what's necessary is this absolute tranquillity so That may go through without being distorted. The abolition [in Mother] was done because the body wanted to attempt the process of transformation of the cells, and it was already quite old, you see, so things had to go fast. It was for the movement to be swift. But of course, I can see it's risky...
This experience [of the column of light] came so spontaneously, effortlessly, without concentration or anything; and to the very body it was visible like this (gesture, eyes wide open). I couldn't see the window anymore, that table there I couldn't see anymore; I couldn't see: it was here, like this, here (gesture between Mother and the window). As if it were PHYSICALLY here, you understand.
The body is learning very, very small details, very small things, all the time, all the time, night and day.
But just a year ago, I wouldn't have been able to listen to that music. Now... (Mother smiles, amused)... It's strange.
And I didn't just hear: I saw the people, the things, the future, where it was headed – all, all of it together, just like this (gesture of looking): I was only slightly attentive.
But it's strangely fragile at the same time, that's the curious thing. There's a sense of having gone out of all ordinary laws, and... it's hanging in suspense, like that. Something which is seeking to be established.
And extremely sensitive to what comes (the two things at the same time), extremely sensitive to what comes from others, and at the same time, with a sort of extraordinary power to enter into them and work there. As if a whole kind of limits were... (Mother slips the fingers of one hand through the fingers of the other) done away with.
It's strange.
Oh! (Mother looks at the clock) It's very late and we haven't done anything .... Did you have something? No. How are you?
Fine.
Your nights?
All right. I'm going to resume work.
Not too much.
Not too much, you should take the opportunity to... Can you feel this Consciousness? No?
When I concentrate... I don't know, I find there's something solid.
Yes.
It's changing things. Strangely, they seem to be just the same,
and they become very different.
In Canada, lots of people have made contact with this Consciousness. I receive surprising letters.
(Satprem gets up to leave)
I'm not giving you anything to eat-that's disgusting!
No, no! I have all I need.
You really don't need...?
No, no, I need nothing except ...
Ah, I wasn't looking at it from that angle! (Mother laughs)
The body still needs to eat, though here too, it seems... There are all kinds of things ....
Well, everything still seems to be called into question.
1 “=1,” the review edited by Y.
2 The “slight movement” is Mother's consciousness going through the column of light, which means that Mother's consciousness had the same color or the same light as the column's.