May 26, 1971The Mother
Agenda
Volume 12
May 26, 1971
(Mother had asked a young Indian disciple, M., a mathematics teacher in the School, to read the English translation of “Supermanhood” and to give his opinion.)
Well then?
(M.:) My first reaction was this: I found the book very poetic, very lovely – I mean the French.
It's good, isn't it?
Yes. The English seemed less poetic to me. It's a translation, but it didn't give me the same impression as the French.
So, what's to be done? Another translation?
I don't know, Mother, I am unable to say. I can't say if it's a good translation or a bad one, but when I read it, I felt it was a translation. And it was less poetic – the French is much more poetic.
All right.... Can it be used or not?
I think it can be used.
If it doesn't distort the thought.
No, it didn't seem to me to distort the thought.
(To Satprem:) What do you say?
I feel the essence is missing.
(Mother laughs) Yes, exactly!
Do you know the thought that came to me? In America the young D. is going to start a translation for America. Couldn't it be used here as well?
It's American. Here they speak English. There's a difference, oh!...
But if the Power is there, it won't make any difference.
No, it has to be English.
But then who?... Because in my opinion no translation at all is better than one that doesn't convey the Force in it. Better nothing at all.
(silence)
(Satprem to M.:) Did you feel the Force in it?
(M.:) Well, I'm not really capable of speaking about these things, but I can say that when I read the French, it seemed to me that it wasn't addressed to the intellect, to the heart perhaps, I don't know – it's for an aspirant.
Yes.
(M:) Even an ordinary reader will not grasp it: it has to be an aspirant. I could understand the English better because it's addressed to the intellect. But... I'm not at all capable of judging.
(To Satprem:) Who translated your article [on Bangladesh]?
Z, Mother.1
Ah, that's right.
(M.:) That I found very good, because I read the English version first and I thought it was the original.
Z knows how to translate.
(Satprem:) She knows how to seize the Force and bring it out – that's what counts.
She should have translated your book!... Only, she's busy and writes herself.... I am going to ask her. Only, the other one is going to be devastated! (laughter)
But I asked T. [the English translator] the sentences she objected to, and I told her, “I am very sorry, but I see you haven't understood the book in the least!” She knows it.
(Satprem:) T. said some rather terrible things about my book....
Ah? (Mother laughs merrily)
I was quite upset.
What did she say?
She told me she found certain things “repulsive.”
She found them what?
“Repulsive.”
Ohh!
So I tried to explain to her, “Look, I don't know, the book literally fell on me....
(Mother laughs)
It landed on me.” Then she said with a kind of forcefulness that affected me very much, “Oh, yes I know, it's very easy to mistake what comes from the subconscient for an inspiration.”
Oh!
She said it in such a tone that I was plunged into a dreadful doubt.
Bah! Bah!
She wrote me about it, at any rate, saying that she didn't feel the Presence in the book – she wrote, “The Presence is missing in this book.”
She knows better than I do.
But anyway, in those conditions, it isn't possible for the Force to pass through.
That's right, it can't be used.
(To M.:) Anything else you would like to say?
(M.:) I didn't read it with a very critical mind, Mother, but one reaction I did have, I can say frankly: I felt that what Satprem says is natural and it should be kept simple. It reminded me of a similar analogy as when I do a mathematical problem that I find extremely difficult, but once I've found the solution, I always think, “But it was so simple! All you had to do was draw this line and everything comes out!” I found the book a little like that.
(Mother nods her head)
But then I would like to ask one thing which I didn't find in the book: there is no express mention of the guru. Could a person do that all alone, without a guru?
(after a silence)
It's possible. But, you see, I can only give my own experience – I can only say it's possible. But in what conditions, I don't know.
(Satprem to M.:) In a book you can't openly speak of a guru, telling the readers, “You must follow such and such a person.” You can only make them feel something and turn them toward it, but you can't very well tell them, “You know, you have to follow such and such a person.”
Yes, of course!
You can't, you see.
(M.:) Well, I mention this because, reading the book, I felt, “If someone starts following this path without a guru, he may find himself in trouble....” But it's a book that inspires you to follow the path.
(silence)
I don't know, I can't say because I can only speak from personal experience – that has no value.
(M.:) But it seemed to me it was your experience, especially toward the end of the book.
(Laughing) So I am responsible!
(Satprem:) Well, someone has to be responsible for it!
(Mother laughs)
(M.:) The chapters following “The Sociology of the Superman”: “Afterwards” and “The Conquest of Death,” etc., vividly evoked for me what you say in “Notes on the Way.”
(Mother smiles) Yes, that's the yoga of the body.
(M.:) But you alone are doing that, so....
You think so? (laughter)
(Satprem:) I think so, yes! (laughter)
I must say that if it comes to you like that, as a necessity, that's all right, but one should not seek to do it.... It's not very pleasant!
(silence)
(Turning to M. :) So, when you'd like to see me, say so.
(M. laughing:) That's very difficult!
I see an average of a hundred people a day – on average.
(M.:) Yes, that's why it's becoming difficult to ask you, Mother.
But that doesn't matter – just one.
(M.:) That's how it becomes a hundred! (general laughter)
Obviously.... Well, it doesn't matter, I am glad to see you.
(M. goes out,
Mother sits absorbed a long time)
So how are you, mon petit!... Better?2
I hope so, with your grace.
(silence)
There's a whole part of me that must disappear.
Yes, but I thought it was gone.... It's quite curious. For me, it's not at all you.
Yes.
I thought it was gone. I have the impression of someone driven out and who has come back. But it doesn't matter.... You just have to... you know, like this (Mother clenches her fists), refuse to budge. That's all.
It's not you.
(long silence)
I would rather not say that.... You know, I could say two things. One is that you truly have something to do, and it is in the process of crystallizing – you shouldn't listen to the rubbish of people who don't understand a thing. And the other is that there's a whole part of your nature that was not your luminous nature (atavism, education, a lot of things), which is so much out of the way, so overcome that I thought it had vanished altogether. I was surprised when I was told it had come to bother you again. That's... that's not Satprem.
Yes, I know.
So cling to Satprem.
No, I prefer to cling to you!
Cling as much as you can – as much as you can.
One feels the Grace alone can do something like that.
Mon petit....
(Mother clasps Satprem's hands
long silence)
There's something I feel very deeply.... (silence) Words... words (Mother shakes her head).... But to say it as simply as possible, I could say, “The Lord loves Satprem.” And that's something profound, profound, profound.... The Lord loves Satprem. That's all.
(Satprem puts his forehead on Mother's knees)
1 The translation of Satprem's article appearing in this book under the date May 15, 1971 has been done specially for the Agenda.
2 Satprem had informed Mother that he felt he was in the blackest hole of his life and that everything was as it used to be before, as if the seventeen years in the Ashram had never existed.