April 17, 1965
You said there had been a step forward. Is there something new?
I had always said that there were two points on which the future hadn’t been revealed to me. First, what the first form of supramental life on earth would be exactly, that is to say, the stage that will follow man as he is – just as there was a stage that followed the animal (and which, in fact, disappeared), what is the stage that will follow man, and will perhaps be destined to disappear, too? Then the other point, which was more personal: could the transformation of this body go far enough to allow an indefinite prolongation, or would the work on the cells be somehow partly wasted?
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I can’t say I have answers, but in both directions there has been some opening, as it were. The feeling that I was in front of a wall and it’s opening up, I am allowed to proceed. Well, the conclusions aren’t there yet, but in both directions we have actually taken a step forward because it’s open – there isn’t a wall any longer, it’s open.
Especially that feeling of being stuck has gone away.
The first discoveries aren’t worth telling because they aren’t precise or concrete or definitive enough. There is just this sense of relief: instead of standing in front of something that blocks your way, phew! you can breathe and walk on.
The consequences will be for later.
(long silence)
The transition between the two appears really possible only through the entry – the conscious and willed entry – of a supramentalized consciousness into a body that we could call an “improved physical body,” in other words, the human physical body as it is now, but improved: the improvement produced, for instance, by a TRUE physical training, not in its present exaggerated form but in its true sense. It’s something I have seen fairly clearly: in an evolution (physical training is developing very fast nowadays, it’s not even half a century since it started), in evolution, that physical training will bring an improvement, that is, a suppleness, a balance, an endurance, and a harmony; these are the four qualities – suppleness (plasticity), balance between the various parts of the being, endurance, and harmony of the body – that will make it a more supple instrument for the supramentalized consciousness.
So the transition: a conscious and willed utilization by a supramentalized consciousness of a body prepared in that way. This body must be brought to the peak of its development and of the utilization of the cells in order to be … yes, consciously impregnated with the supreme forces (which is being done here [in Mother] at the moment), and this to the utmost of its capacities. And if the consciousness that inhabits that body, that animates that body, has the required qualities in sufficient amount, it should normally be able to utilize that body to the utmost of its capacity of transformation, with the result that the waste caused by the death of decomposing cells should be reduced to a minimum – to what extent?… That’s precisely what still belongs to the unknown.
That would correspond to what Sri Aurobindo called the prolongation of life at will, for an indefinite length of time.
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But as things are at present, it would seem there is a transitional period in which the consciousness has to switch from this body to another, better prepared body – better prepared outwardly, physically (not inwardly); “outwardly,” I mean, having acquired certain aptitudes through the present development, which this body doesn’t have, of the four qualities – which it doesn’t have in sufficient amount and completeness. That is to say, those four qualities must be in perfect accord and in sufficient amount to be able to bear the work of transformation.
I don’t know if I can make myself understood….
Yes, but you are talking about “switching” to a new body?
In that case, one would have to switch to a new body. But a switching (from the occult point of view, that’s a known thing), a switching not to a body to be born, but to an already formed body. It would take place through a sort of identification of the psychic personality of the body to be changed with the other, receiving body – but that, the fusions of psychic personalities, it’s possible, (laughing) I know the procedure! But it requires the abolition of the ego – yes, the abolition of the ego is certainly necessary; but if the abolition of the ego is sufficient in the supramentalized individuality (can I use the word individuality? I don’t know … it’s neither “personality” nor “individuality”), in the supramentalized being, if the abolition of the ego is done, completed, that being has the power to completely neutralize the presence of the ego in the other being. And then, through that neutralization, the shrinking that always comes from a reincarnation would be canceled – that’s the dreadful thing, you see, that time lost in the shrinking into a new being! While through that conscious passage – willed and conscious – from one body to the other, the being whose ego no longer exists has an almost total power to abolish the other ego.
All that occult mechanism needs to be developed, but for the consciousness it’s almost rational.
That would be the procedure.
The conditions for the almost indefinite prolongation of the life of the body are known, or almost known (they are more than sensed – they are known), and they are learned through the work that must be done to counteract the EXTREME FRAGILITY of the physical balance of the body undergoing the transformation. It’s a study every minute, as it were, almost every second. This is the extremely difficult part. It is difficult because of all the reasons I have already
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explained, because of the intrusion of forces that are in a state of imbalance and have to be, as they come along, brought back to the new state of balance. [[This is the whole problem of the selection of evolutionary samples that the Ashram represented. ]] That’s where you find the sign of the unknown.
Voilà. It’s there.
But it’s not blocked anymore. The path is open, one can see – one can see.
It will come.
But the transition which is really hard to perceive is the transition from the animal creation (which is perpetuated, of course) to the supramental formation; that transition hasn’t taken place yet. The passage from that creation to the supramental creation of a body – that’s what we don’t know. It is the passage from one to the other: how? It still is a somewhat more difficult problem than the passage from animal to man, you understand, because the process of human creation is refined, but it is the same … Oh!
(The conversation is cut short by the doctor’s entry)
… While here, it is a new form of creation.
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