August 18, 1965
(Two Americans have brought Mother photos of a former disciple who left for the United States:)
Do you remember C.? He has become a great guru there, with a group, and it seems he hypnotizes people…. And two Americans have come here (very nice people, one is a painter, the other is a sculptor); one was in C.’s clutches and it’s the other who saved him by keeping him, almost brutally, materially far from C. for three days – the third day, he was free (which does seem to prove that he has a hypnotic influence) – and by telling him, “We’re leaving for Pondicherry, you don’t need an intermediary between the Mother and you.” Because C. plays the great “intermediary” between Sri Aurobindo and the poor public.
(Mother looks at the photos)
Well, well, that’s just it! Oh, just look at this….
(Then she reads the letter that accompanies the photos)
“… Z and I met with him a few times. Since I saw in him a devilish evil, we have broken contact. I leave this now in your hands.”
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Z lives in the forest with his friend S., in a house built with logs. I saw the photos some time ago. The forest is a marvel.
But as for me, of course, I knew….
He asked for a visa as “preacher” (!) and it seems that in that case you are allowed to stay indefinitely; he no longer has to leave – that’s very good, I am very glad he is there! Because when people are caught, it was their destiny and they needed to be caught. And you can even reach the Goal through a devil as well as through an angel – better, sometimes! (Mother laughs)
But it was visible when he was here: a fantastic pride and ambition that were to end up like this. He has a nasty face, very nasty.
But still, the fact that he declares himself to be the Ashram’s “envoy” is troublesome.
Ah, but I immediately wrote to Dr. Sanyal, who passed on my answer to all the people he knew.
But this S. [an American], C.’s friend, is quite in a beatific adoration – that’s very good, it had to happen to him.
The Americans have so little discernment. They rush headlong at anything.
Absolutely no discernment.
He [C.] must have something, but I don’t feel anything! (Mother makes a gesture as thin as cigarette paper.) It’s something without force. But K., too, when she was in America, was quite under his thumb. And she said she had marvelous meditations with him! … But I wrote to K., because he gave her advice on her life and on what she should and should not do; so she wrote to ask me, “How much am I to believe?” I answered, “Nothing! “… He had forbidden her to come to the Ashram; he had told her that it wasn’t the place for her, that she was much too grown-up to come here! The Ashram is good for those who have nothing in them, who need to be kept well in hand, while someone with a capacity must live independently.
That’s how he catches them.
No, it’s very good! It’s comical.
If one has ambition, it is relatively quite easy to draw a [subtle] being to oneself, who naturally comes under very deceptive disguises, and then to believe oneself to be the incarnation of a great personality.
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But when people are sincere, it can’t last very long.
***
Soon afterwards
Yesterday I signed over 200 photos….
That’s not reasonable!
Ah, the world isn’t reasonable. It has never claimed to be, I think! … Not to mention all those who want me to sort out all their affairs and wash all their family’s dirty linen! Who ask for my advice on everything, everything they do, from their business to their daughter’s marriage. I don’t answer anymore, I say: “It’s not my business.” “Oh! How can that be?” “Consult the inner Guide.” (Mother laughs)
***
Satprem prepares to leave:
Is your health all right? The nights are better, aren’t they?
Yes, since you started making that cocoon, I haven’t been troubled anymore. But if you gave me a little consciousness, I would be glad!
No, if I saw you every night, I would tell you. But why don’t you come? I see you very rarely.
Yes, why? Why is that so?
I think for the last few nights I have been drawing closer to the place where you go. Because the last two nights, looking after things of that sort, I have had a strong feeling that I would find you soon. Very interesting things, but very intellectual, that’s the trouble!
I am myself more interested in action than in thought.
There are places (and, I must say, rather interesting ones, I am not saying they are without interest) where the exact expression of
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the ideas that must govern the world is being worked out. It’s in that direction, it’s there. The past two or three nights, I have been going to that place. I find it rather gray and dull, but anyway … it’s not without a certain savor. And several people have seen you somewhere there. There are kinds of large halls with immense corridors, and it’s very clear – the atmosphere is very clear. But it’s a painstaking work, oh, as if thousands of scribes were writing very quietly. And immense, immense – it is as vast as the earth.
If I go there, I will find you.
But am I NOTHING but that?
Oh, no! But it’s your active consciousness, mon petit, not your physical one: the consciousness which is conscious in your dreams…. Well, it’s much better than your excursions in the vital world, you know, much better. Because there, I had to intervene.
When I go and wander there, probably its aspect will change all of a sudden; there will be a hurricane of force and light (sweeping gesture), and then it will become interesting.
But it doesn’t particularly interest me!
I don’t know.
But it was imperative to get you out of the vital at all costs, because you were receiving blows there, it wasn’t good. It’s much better here. It’s luminous, very peaceful; it’s very vast, very vast, as if there were no partitions, no walls.
A glass prison.
That’s right.
(Ironically) But a large prison, not a small one!
It’s coming. Don’t be worried, it is coming.
Something more interesting: there are in the mantra the very precise vibrations of your consciousness. I have noticed that, it’s very good. Very precise and intense vibrations. So we will succeed. That is something.
We must be patient. I, for one, have been very patient. We must be patient.
It’s part of the necessary calm.
Because calm and peace are INDISPENSABLE for anything to be
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achieved. And patience is part of the necessary calm. The nerves are a bit impatient, and that’s very bad for them, very bad.
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