The Forces behind Destruction (HH 241)

War and Destruction are inevitable aspects of life as it is now constituted. Of course man should move beyond this towards an Age of Harmony and Peace. But this cannot happen by a wishful thinking or through government laws. Man must change radically for this hoped for miracle of our collective existence. Here we understand one aspect of this terrible law through which we still have to evolve, hopefully to be replaced by the greater law of harmony and peace.

Words of the Mother

(Mother reads a passage from “Essays on the Gita,” which she wants to publish in the next Bulletin:)

“No real peace can be till the heart of man deserves peace; the law of Vishnu cannot prevail till the debt to Rudra is paid. To turn aside then and preach to a still unevolved mankind the law of love and oneness? Teachers of the law of love and oneness there must be, for by that way must come the ultimate salvation. But not till the Time-Spirit in man is ready, can the inner and ultimate prevail over the outer and immediate reality. Christ and Buddha have come and gone, but it is Rudra who still holds the world in the hollow of his hand. And meanwhile the fierce forward labour of mankind tormented and oppressed by the powers that are profiteers of egoistic force and their servants cries for the sword of the Hero of the struggle and the word of its prophet.”

Sri Aurobindo: Essays on the Gita, XIII.372

It is the exact portrait of the situation.

Last time I said how close the thing was, and then … (gesture like a ground swell) immediately the exact opposite rises: everyone goes awry, some are sick, others are nasty, yet others are furious … oh! And everything grates and cries and … Every time that something draws near, “Ah, here it is, we have caught the thing,” immediately, vrrrm!

Very well.

We haven’t paid our debt yet, as Sri Aurobindo says.

What can we do? … Go on. Be more enduring than the opposition. More enduring. Sri Aurobindo said, “Victory belongs to the most enduring.” That’s obvious.

We only have to last.

August 25, 1965

* * *

(A little later, the conversation turns to the events of February 11, when the Ashram was attacked by rioters and several buildings were looted and set on fire.)

On the evening of the attack, on the 11th, a little after seven in the evening, I had for the first time, in a concrete, total way, the physical – physical – earth consciousness. It was a STATE of consciousness that was given to me, the state of consciousness of the earth. The physical, bodily consciousness no longer existed: it was the PHYSICAL earth consciousness. And that physical earth consciousness was concentrated, its attention was concentrated on this little point of Pondicherry. Tiny little point of Pondicherry. And then, it was all seen as if from … not exactly from very high up, but as if it were a tiny little thing (microscopic gesture), yet with an accuracy for details, for the smallest element. And that physical earth consciousness was the consciousness of the PHYSICAL TRUTH of the earth – the physical Truth-Consciousness of the earth; to be precise, the quality of the vibration of Truth in the physical earth consciousness.

And the vision, the perception (it was like a perception, you know) wasn’t exactly from very far because it had the accuracy of a microscope, but all was … an object of observation. At that moment, all the fires were starting, then hundreds of brickbats (not stones: brickbats) were bombarding all the windows and doors (all our windows, all the doors have been smashed in), which means infernal din: a pack of several hundred people, all drunk, bellowing, and shouts all over the place. So that bombardment of stones and those flames leaping up to the sky – the whole sky was red – it was all seen … I was simply seated at my table; when the attack started, I was having my dinner, and a little before it started, that experience came, that consciousness: I wasn’t this body anymore, I was the earth – the physical truth-consciousness of the earth, to be exact – with a PEACE, a STILLNESS unknown to the physical…. And it all seemed like an absolute Falsehood, without any element of truth behind it. Yet at the same time, I had a microscopic perception (but absolutely precise and exact) of all the points of falsehood IN THE ASHRAM’S ATMOSPHERE that established the contact.

So if that consciousness that was there had been collective, if it had been possible to receive it collectively, NOTHING WOULD HAVE BEEN TOUCHED: the stones would have been thrown, but wouldn’t have hit anyone. That’s how it would have been. For instance, a stone (a brickbat) was flung and hit my window; it fell on the roof there (even causing a water leak that had to be plugged), and I saw … that very minute, I saw in the consciousness of the people present the exact vibration of Falsehood that had allowed the stone to hit there. And AT THE SAME TIME, simultaneously (it can’t be said, but it was simultaneous), everywhere, all over the town and especially over the Ashram here, I saw all the points, the exact vibration of Falsehood in everyone or everything that made the contact possible.

The experience began a little after 7, 7:10, and it lasted till 1 in the morning.

At I in the morning, I had to do another work, because one of our boys, T. (that boy has the makings of a hero), almost single-handedly saved the clinic, but it cost him a fractured skull. At the time, they thought he was done for. They brought me the news, and when the news came I saw, I felt all of a sudden the other experience recede, and then that I was becoming the universal Mother with all the power of the universal Mother. And then, that T. became quite small, like this (gesture of something tiny in the hollow of the hand), and I held him in my hands – but he was all luminous, all luminous – I rocked him in my hands, telling him, “My child, my little child, my dear child …,” like this, and for several hours.

That’s what saved him, I think. Because his skull was fractured, it had caved in; it had stopped just short of damaging the brain – the caved-in piece was inside, they had to operate, cut open, and remove it. It had stopped just short of the brain. So he will pull through. And I know that that’s what saved him.

But the other experience had lasted from 7 to 1 in the morning, till this work had to be done. And NOT A SINGLE THOUGHT in the head, not a single thought – nothing, complete Silence. It went on like that till the morning.

Afterwards, my ordinary consciousness as you know it came back, but with a perception of movements that had become very clear – perception of movements in the atmosphere, of formations of thought, of vital possibilities…. All that has become very clear.

And with the consciousness absolutely certain, because there have been other details…. Three days earlier, Kali was in a fury because things weren’t as they ought to be on the earth, and especially among the people whose mission it is to prepare the new world. She was … she really was in a fury. She saw all the blunders everywhere, and it made such a powerful vibration in the atmosphere, as though she wanted to begin her Dance; as for me, I kept telling her, “Calm down, calm down….” On the morning of the 11th, she was here and she kept going on about this, that, about the blunders in the government, in the town, in the Ashram, in this and that – she saw everything. I tried to calm her down, but really without success. Finally, when I saw there was no way, I said to the Lord, “Look after her and do what needs to be done, I beg You” – I handed over the responsibility to Him. And then, the same evening the attack started, and I saw it was her dancing.

So I thought, “We really had something to learn!” And I saw, I had that experience and I KNOW now (I know it in a certain, absolute and unforgettable way) which is the vibration of Truth in the Physical, in which state the Physical must be so as to respond to the Truth – so as to BE the Truth. Now I know. So that I, too, have learned my lesson. But everyone has learned something, and I hope it won’t be forgotten.

And this morning (this is rather interesting), I received a letter from R. telling me, “That evening I had an extraordinary experience, but now it’s beginning to appear like an impossibility, like something unreal….” The exact moment when the experience came over me (of course, when he received the news of the attack, his first reaction was that of human fear, with the hands becoming cold and so on, but he sat down, he braced himself, he called me), and then he felt a Peace come down from above, something he had never felt before, which swept through his whole being, took hold of him entirely and lasted for … I don’t know, I think he said till eleven at night – it lasted a long time. He had experienced a little bit of it from time to time, but it had never been like that: it came down into him, it seized hold of him entirely. And he says, “I could move about: it was THERE, it didn’t budge, it was inside me.” So I thought, “At last someone who felt! There has been at least one who felt.”

But at the time, I saw so clearly in which people the vibration responded to the vibrations of Falsehood: that sort of movement which is like a tremor in Matter. So I know the people. But I must say there is around me someone, one person who had the true physical vibration (I had known it for a long time, but now I’ve had concrete proof: it’s P.), and no one can understand, no one can know it, but I knew it: physically, not a single response, like this (immutable gesture). So I told him to look after the defense and organize everything.

No one can know it, the mind cannot understand those things (while I had known it for so many years), because people see only outer things, the outer form, outer movements and reactions, but they don’t see the inner possibility. Well, anyway, I immediately told him to look after the defense (besides, he hadn’t asked me, he had started looking after it), and I told everybody, “Do what he tells you to do.” He organized everything. You know, it’s something which is like this (gesture with closed fists, unshakable), which PHYSICALLY DOES NOT BUDGE. Mentally, it’s nothing, it’s easy.

It is like a physical magnet for the true physical vibrations. It doesn’t go through the mind or through intelligence or even through the vital: it’s physically a sort of magnet that attracts physical Truth….

Feb 11, 1965

* * *

You know, the true Vibration would have cured everything. But as things are …

Well, the only way to react against all that is just to attract that Peace. Now I have caught hold of it. If you tune in …

* * *

(Mother first reads a note relating to the events of February 11:)
Behind all the destructions – the big destructions of Nature – earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, cyclones, floods, etc., or the human destructions – wars, revolutions, riots – there is always Kali’s power and upon earth Kali works for the hastening of the terrestrial progress.

Whatever is Divine not only in its essence but also in its realisation is above these destructions and cannot be touched by them.

In all cases the extent of the damage gives the measure of the imperfection and must be taken as a lesson for indispensable progress.

March 10, 1965