Works of Sri Aurobindo

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February 25, 1967

(Mother gives Satprem a rose the color of fire.)

Do you think Nature will ever invent something better than this?… I don’t think so.

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It’s beautiful, this Nature! I find this more beautiful than animals. From the point of view of consciousness, it’s obviously more limited; a plant doesn’t have the consciousness an animal has – they have this aspiration towards the light, but the consciousness isn’t precise. But from the point of view of material organization it’s incomparable. Take a tree like this one (the coconut tree under Mother’s window), I see it all the time, this tree, it’s wonderful! And how it struggles, how it works, how it produces ….

From the point of view of beauty, I mean material harmony, the Mind has spoilt things a lot, quite a lot (at least that’s my impression).

How will things be?… Because nothing I have seen has, from the point of view of form, the richness, variety, unexpectedness, beauty of color and form that this rose has. I have seen things, I have seen supramental realizations – from the point of view of consciousness, they are infinitely superior, without a doubt, but from the point of view of form …

They are yet to be born. Those forms are going to be born.

Let us hope so. Let’s really hope so.

They are bound to.

Let’s hope so, really.

From the point of view of consciousness, with the beings I saw, [[In the experience of the “supramental ship.” See Agenda 1, February 3, 1958. ]] for instance, when they wanted to be clothed somehow, they did it through willpower; from the point of view of consciousness, that’s certainly incomparable, there’s no possible comparison, but …

Of course, one can clothe oneself in a marvelous way.

Yes, like a flower. The consciousness can change all the colors

 according to the moment.

Oh, that would be lovely. If one could become a lovely rose! …

Well, that’s an idea! (Mother laughs)

(Mother goes into a contemplation)

We may say that all experiences tend towards a single revelation

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 - that consciousness alone exists. And that it is the decision or choice (words are inaccurate), a decision of the consciousness that causes the form – all the forms, from the most subtle to the most material ones; and the material world, the apparent fixity of the material world stems from a distortion or a darkening of the consciousness, which has lost the sense of its all-powerfulness.

This distortion has been still more pronounced since the advent of the mind, which in its working has so much taken the place of consciousness that it has so to speak substituted itself for consciousness, and that the mind, in its ordinary working, cannot be distinguished from consciousness – it doesn’t know what consciousness is, and so … (Mother makes a gesture expressing a shrinking or hardening).

It’s becoming very, very precise, very clear, very visible in the developed human mind. For the functioning of the body, for example, the difference between the action and perception of the consciousness and the action and perception of the mind. And in our world as it’s still organized, the mind is more (oh, as an impression this is very interesting), much more concrete – “concrete” in the way of what we are used (wrongly used) to calling “real” – and set. It’s not translucent, not fluid; it’s not plastic, not fluid: it’s mental, concrete. And then, the mind needs acquired knowledge and all the contacts with the outside…. Let’s take a disorder in the body’s functioning (which may come for all kinds of reasons that are very interesting to observe, but anyway, we can’t speak of everything at the same time). The disorder is there and is expressed through a sense of discomfort; the way the consciousness reacts and acts and the way the mind reacts and acts are entirely, absolutely different (we can’t say opposite, but absolutely different). Then there is the weakness (I am talking about the sensation of the body itself), the weakness arising from old habit. It’s not a lack of faith, the body knows in an almost absolute way that there is only one salvation, one savior: THE Consciousness. But there is a weakness that causes a sort of slackening, a letting go to habit, and that’s where an intensity of faith is needed – but an energy in the faith – in order not to yield. This goes on in a very small sphere, you understand, it’s a question … not even of minutes – of seconds. And if there is a letting go, it means illness; while the other way [of the consciousness] means, little by little, progressively, the unreality of the disorder.

But it means an intensity of faith which, compared to the present state of mankind, may be regarded as miraculous.

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And the acceptance of illness is the acceptance of the usual end, which is generally called “death” (that doesn’t mean anything), but anyway, it means that the aggregate is unable to be transformed and is dissolved.

These are things [those "seconds"] that happen very often, and without any relationship whatever to outer circumstances. Which means that if one were all alone – all alone, still, in meditation – it would be more radical and definitive. But it’s mixed in with the movement of life, outer circumstances, and those outer circumstances make it necessary that it should go more or less unnoticed. So the result is less complete, only partial, and so it recurs again and again, it’s repeated…. It stretches over a considerable time.

(silence)

All this has a meaning, really a meaning, only if we reach the end.

The end is consciousness reassuming its power.

But even if the effect isn’t total or general, I mean for the whole earth, even on one point it will still have tre-men-dous effect.

There, we must be patient.

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March