May 2, 1970The Mother
Agenda
Volume 11
May 2, 1970
I have something for you... (Mother points to a written note).
It was two or three days ago, it came imperatively like that, in connection with some business. They have gatherings in Auroville, at “Aspiration”; I think it's meditations, or something of the sort, I don't know. One of them came and put my photo; so another rushed to his room and came back with a cross!... And he said, “Well, if you put a photo of Mother, I'll put my cross.” They told me that story. They told me, because the one who put the cross had come to see me with the others (they come once a week, a few of them, four or five), but I didn't know. He came and sat in front of me.... I found him a rather inquisitorial air (I didn't know anything, you understand), and after they left I asked who he was. Then they told me he is a Catholic, and they told me the story.1
Afterwards there came a whole series of things. But I must say there's literally an invasion there (at different places in Auroville) because it's not watched over, some plots of land are free, and at the center especially, some people have settled there, and there are constantly people who come and settle without asking for permission. So there was a thought to have a “badge” for those who are really Aurovilians (Mother shows a specimen of badge). For a few days already they've been thinking of organizing that: during the first year they will have a sort of identity card, and afterwards, if things are fine at the end of the year, you're given the badge.
But what came to me is this (Mother points to her notes). It's not over... (Sujata prepares to bring a lamp for Mother to read). I don't need light, I don't see clearly anymore.
(Satprem reads)
“Auroville is for those who want to live a life essentially [religious] but who renounce all forms of religions whether they be ancient, modern, new or future....2
Mother, excuse me, but why didn't you put “spiritual” instead of “religious”?
I am not sure yet.
It struck me as strange!
Yes, I saw that!... Maybe it's better to put “spiritual.” I'll see.
“...It is only in experience that there can be knowledge of the Truth.
“No one ought to speak of the Divine unless he has had experience of the Divine....
That's the important point.
“...Get the experience of the Divine, then alone will you have the right to speak of it....
You understand, we could put “spiritual,” but...
“...The objective study of religions will be a part of the historical study of the development of human consciousness....
I place religions below, in the mental realm.
Well yes, exactly!
In the mental realm, and it was a “subject of study.”
Strangely, two days ago it came to me almost like an experience: religion is the mental world.
Yes, yes! It's a mentalization, an attempt to mentalize... what far exceeds the mind.
“...Religions make up part of the history of mankind and it is in this guise that they will be studied at Auroville – not as beliefs to which one ought or ought not to fasten, but as part of a process in the development of human consciousness which should lead man towards his superior realisation.”
So then, “Programme”... (Mother laughs):
Programme
Research through experience of the Supreme Truth. A life divine but NO RELIGIONS.
That's fine!
Oh, very fine!... It's only the word “religious” there, it bothers me.
Then we'll take it out!
Because you do say, “No religions.”
No, I took “religious” in the other sense, but it will always create a confusion.
It has taken on such a false meaning.
Yes. I'll explain: I did not want to put “spiritual,” first because in French, the word spirituel has a different meaning [i.e., witty], and then because people living a “spiritual” life reject Matter, while we do not want to reject Matter. So that would be false.
I admit that “religious” isn't a good word, because it immediately... I used “religious” in the sense of “a life essentially occupied with the discovery or the search of the Divine.” There are no words in French, and it's not “spiritual.”
“Divine”?
We have to find a word – we could put this:
“Auroville is for those who want to live a life divine...”
Yes, “a life essentially divine,” yes. “Divine,” that's vast, Mother.
(silence)
Is that all?... There was so much, I didn't note everything.... It was day before yesterday, I think, the whole day was taken up like that in the experience, and I felt it was the revelation of Auroville's true goal, and that THIS was what had to be told, and THIS is what... will select the people, the Aurovilians. The true Aurovilians are those who want to make the search and discovery of the divine. But, as I said, not through mystic means: it's in life.
That too should be said.
(Mother writes)
“Our research will not be a search effected by mystic means. It is in life that we wish to find the divine.”3
(after writing her note,
Mother runs her hand over her eyes)
It's a very strange thing: as the... Lets see, there are two ways of putting it. One is: as the natural sight and hearing decrease, the others grow. But I think its much truer to put it the other way round: as the... what shall we call that hearing and sight?
“True”? Or “superior,” in any case.
Superior. Let's say “superior,” because “true,” they may not be the supreme truth.... As the superior hearing and sight develop, the material sight and hearing fade away.
All manners of speaking seem to me... not quite true.
With certain people or a certain kind of occupation, for instance, my experience is that the... let's call it the “next way,” dominates: the next way of seeing, the next way of hearing. And then, any intrusion of the old way instantly decreases the perception. Which means that the ordinary sight is as if behind a veil, and then the veil grows thicker. But if the circumstances, the people or the work allow me to go more completely into the new consciousness, the perception grows clearer and clearer.
The body has understood that, it has been led to understand: it isn't worried about the decreasing sight or hearing, and it notices, it realizes that the more this way, the ordinary way, fades away, recedes, the more the other one increases – provided I make no effort to retain the ordinary way. If I naturally let go, then that's how it is.
Any effort to retain the old way has become... it brings about a discomfort, an almost intolerable discomfort. Whereas a trusting acceptance of the conditions gives a sort of... yes, I don't know, it can't be called “well-being,” it's... a trusting peace.
But now, it's no longer just sight and hearing: it's everything. Speaking becomes increasingly difficult.... Eating is very difficult: it's a mixture of something going on quite easily, without your noticing it, or else a struggle against a GREAT difficulty. It's only now, because I want to say it, that I observe it and try to express it, otherwise there is no mental activity.
Those things have imposed themselves.
(Mother plunges in)
Shall we put a title to these notes on Auroville?... For instance, “Auroville's Stand on Religions”?
What about “We Want the Truth”?... I use the word because no one in the world would dare to say, “We don't want the truth”! (laughter)
For most people, that's how it is: “What WE want is the truth”! (laughter)
I showed R. the “Programme” (laughing), and his hair stood on end: “But... but people can't tolerate this now!” – Ah...
So then, Aurovilians must want the Truth WHATEVER IT MAY BE.... They call “Truth” what they want, while they must want the truth whatever it may be.
(Mother writes her last note on Auroville)
We want the Truth.
For most men, it is what they want that they label truth.
Aurovilians must want the Truth whatever it may be.
I put “Truth” with a capital “T.” (Mother laughs) Because, to tell the truth, that's not the word. It is: “We want THE DIVINE.” But then they instantly start arguing! So it's better to put “Truth.”
1 A few months later (October 21), Mother gave Satprem this note written to a French disciple, which seems to fit well with the story she has just recounted: “I am told that you intend to distribute a reproduction of the portrait you did of me. It would be better not to introduce in this gathering anything personal that might suggest the atmosphere of a nascent religion.”
2 The next time, Mother omitted the words “forms of” and simply left “all religions.”
3 Let us note that Mother wrote “divine” with a small “d.” Later she added this sentence: “And it is through this discovery that life can really be transformed.”