February 28, 1968
(The entire Ashram has gone to Auroville to attend its
inauguration. Mother reads out her message, which is
broadcast live to Auroville through All India Radio:)
“Greetings from Auroville to all men of good will.
“Are invited to Auroville all those who thirst for
progress and aspire to a higher and truer life.”
(Then Mother reads out the Charter)
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Auroville’s Charter
1. Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole.
But to live in Auroville one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.
2. Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.
3. Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.
4. Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity.
(then the microphone is switched off
… silence)
So now, till 11:30 we have a nice quiet time like princes and kings! It doesn’t often happen. If you have something to tell me, I am listening.
Maybe you are the one who has something to say?
No, no! That’s enough! (Mother laughs)
I’ve spent all my days and all my nights quieting the atmosphere, it had taken such proportions…. You know, those movements which start whirling like that, like the wind in a cyclone or at sea, and it goes on whirling faster and faster, more and more strongly, forcefully. Then people fall ill, they get worn out, they can’t do anything anymore. For the past three days I’ve spent my time calming and calming the atmosphere. Luckily they came to me (it wasn’t to “me,” naturally), they felt there was something stable here that could stop this disorder, otherwise … But it was very difficult because of the really large number of additions from outside: on the 21st, at the Darshan, they were more than four thousand people down in the street, and there are all those who came to be here today and tomorrow, so it must mean five or six thousand people – to feed, accommodate … a whole work.
Then they asked me, naturally, that it shouldn’t rain, but that it shouldn’t be sunny either! (Mother laughs) So it was a bit difficult,
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but a short while ago, Z came to tell me that Auroville’s area was clouded, without sunshine…. All these little entities are quite obliging, but they’re asked impossible things! I get requests, “Ah, I need rain,” and at the same time, “Oh, no, I don’t want rain”; “Ah, I need sunshine,” and “Oh, no, I don’t want sunshine….” How can they manage it!
Are you happy?
Happy? What does that mean?
Are things moving?
I don’t know. I think they’re moving all right over there.
Two days ago Z said to me, “Oh, it has been a good lesson: now we are convinced that the Westerners’ way isn’t better than ours.” Because they kept thinking, all of them, that the materialistic way brought about better realizations – so now they are convinced.
I told you that the Soviet consul is enthusiastic! He saw the Charter – in English first (in English, there is Divine’s Consciousness, with the apostrophe[[In the final English version, the apostrophe was removed: "... To live in Auroville one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness." ]]). He said, “It’s a pity, it evokes the idea of God.” And S., who had been there, said, “It’s not that at all! There’s nothing religious in all this affair. We’ll show you the French.” Then he read conscience divine [divine consciousness], and he was satisfied. He said, “This is just what we want to realize, and without these words it would be officially recognized and supported by the Soviet government.” Then they asked him to translate it into Russian, but finally what’s being read out in Auroville isn’t his translation, it’s the one by T. She has just come, and words don’t frighten her. But I sent him my permission: I had it explained to him that words were just a more or less clumsy transcription not only of the idea, but of what is above the idea – the principle; that it didn’t matter much whether these or those words were used (each one uses the words that suit him best), and that, therefore, I allowed him to use the words that would be acceptable to his government. The Soviet consul said yes, he was very glad. He said, "When the Soviet government officially supports something, it’s serious." – It’s true, I know it, they are very generous. So I hope it will have a favorable result. And you see, it’s just
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what I wanted: in America, for a long time they have been enthusiastic - which is good, but perhaps they don’t understand so well; the Russians, in their nature, are mystic, and as that has been oppressed, suppressed, naturally it has gained a lot of force. And now it tends to want to burst.
But if both together support Auroville, we won’t have any more financial hassles!
It has been coming little by little, little by little. I told you what Sri Aurobindo revealed to me about India’s condition, which was the symbolic representation of the present condition of mankind; and that’s why, Sri Aurobindo told me, that’s why Auroville has been created.’ Then I understood. Since then, it has become very clear – “clear,” I mean he seems to have made it spread and people seem to begin to understand.
So there.
* * *
ADDENDUM
(From a conversation between Mother and a disciple
about Auroville.)
One needs to have an absolutely transparent sincerity. Lack of sincerity is at present the cause of difficulties.
Insincerity is in all men. There are perhaps a hundred totally sincere men on earth. Man’s very nature is what makes him insincere. It’s very complicated, for he is constantly cheating with himself, hiding the truth from himself, finding excuses for himself. Yoga is the way to become sincere in all the parts of one’s being.
It is difficult to be sincere, but one can at least be mentally sincere – this is what one can demand from Aurovilians.
The Force is there, present as never before; what prevents it from descending and being felt is men’s insincerity. The world is steeped in falsehood, all relationships between men have so far been based only on falsehood and deceit. Diplomacy between nations is based on falsehood. They claim they want peace and on the other hand arm themselves. A transparent sincerity in man and between nations will alone permit the coming of a transformed world.
Auroville is the first attempt in the experiment. A new world will
[1. See conversation of February 3, 1968. ]
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be born if men consent to strive for transformation and the search for sincerity – it can be done. It took millennia to evolve from animal to man; today man, thanks to his mind, can accelerate things and will a transformation towards a man who will be God.
This transformation with the help of the mind, through self-analysis, is a first stage; afterwards, vital impulses must be transformed – which is far more difficult; then, most of all, the physical: each cell of our body will have to become conscious. It is the work I am doing here. It will allow the conquest of death. It’s another story; that will be future mankind, perhaps in centuries, perhaps sooner. It will depend on men, on peoples.
Auroville is the first step towards this goal.
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March
March 2, 1968
(Regarding Auroville’s Charter.)
Everybody wants to change my messages! …
Change your messages!
Yes.
Why?
(Mother laughs) Because everyone finds the words aren’t the ones he wants…. There has been quite a to-do with the Communists and the Soviet consul, a very intelligent man, it seems, who has read Sri Aurobindo, is quite interested, wants to be useful … and he says, “What can I do with ‘divine consciousness’![["To live in Auroville one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness." ]] (Mother laughs) In our country the word ‘divine’ is banned.” He was told, “This has nothing to do with God” (a ban on God I quite understand, you see, because you can put whatever you like in the word), but he said, “I can’t.” They sent a Russian translation, which luckily came after the ceremony; it was the translation of their own thought, not at all of my text! So we answered them it had come too late. It’s T. who did the translation, but she refused to read it out [at the inauguration], because, she said, it was “too heavy a responsibility”! (Mother laughs) They are all like that. Finally it was read out by S. But then, we have a Communist architect, a Russian, who has been working a great deal for Auroville, on the models and so on (a young man, he is very nice), and yesterday he came with a prayer: whether he could change the word “divine.” I asked him, “What are you offering me?” He said, “The universal consciousness.” Then I answered (laughing), “You are making it shrink terribly!” He was bothered: what’s to be done? I told him, “Listen, I’ll make a concession for you; if you like, we’ll say ‘perfect consciousness,’ that’s harmless.” So he was happy, I wrote “perfect consciousness” on his paper, and he left with it!
But here, the group of … (what shall we call them?) Y.’s disciples, the “forward” group, don’t at all like “divine consciousness,” and
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the woman who translated it into German (not a direct disciple of Y.’s but one of M.’s) went to M. to ask for his help (moral help, probably), and the best they could find was “highest consciousness”…. So I asked, “Where is your ‘high’? Where is your ‘low’?”
They didn’t ask me anything, they are too sure of themselves. But their text was read out in Auroville, and some people who heard it and know German asked me, “How come?” … That’s how I found out. “How come in the German version they translated ‘divine consciousness’ by ‘highest consciousness’?”
So everyone is sticking his oar in!
But we’re going to prepare a little brochure with the message and all these translations – into Japanese, Hebrew, Arabic, etc. It will all be photographed, and then we’ll restore the German text. Oh, the Russian text …
But as a “city of peace,” it’s amusing! (Laughing) It’s promising! I don’t care. What I find quite petty is when they don’t tell me and do it on the sly. To hope I won’t know is childishness, and the tendency to hide things from me isn’t very-nice.
But on the whole, it went off well.
We have an Auroville flag which is quite pretty, it was brought there; there were only two flags (other countries had banderoles), but there were the Ashram’s flag and Auroville’s. It’s this color (Mother points to an orange hibiscus on her table).
As to the young delegates, it was somewhat mixed: those who came spontaneously from their country or were recruited by UNESCO were quite decent; but then, in Delhi, they were recruited almost through propaganda (many came from the embassies there), and that was … some were dubious. Some smoke, one even got so drunk that … But still, when they were assembled together, they behaved decently. And one of them – a Czechoslovak – no longer wants to go! In any case he said he would wait as long as necessary, but that before going he wanted to see me.
But one can see – one can clearly see how the Force and the Grace work through everything.
Yes.
Because, really, if there had only been these elements left to
themselves, well, there was nothing but confusion. One can see
that it’s working… it works making use of anything!
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No, it turns even the worst things to advantage! That’s what is interesting.
(silence)
I’ve heard some unpleasant remarks on “=1″ from people
who are quite outside the whole thing.[["= 1" is an "Aurovilian" review. ]] First they told me it
was very intellectual, very nebulous…
Oh, yes!
And that they evidently push themselves forward and claim all
the "credit."
But that’s mostly the problem!
And the third thing they told me is that Sri Aurobindo’s name
is barely mentioned at the end, like that, by chance.
Yes. Here, have you seen their issue? (Mother takes out a copy) The format is very good, very good – she enjoyed herself to her heart’s content. It’s very well presented.
Yes, it’s a pity. All this is perverted talent.
Perverted: my foremost impression is one of perversion. But just this (Mother points to the cover) is terribly aggressive. Instead of aspiration blossoming out (Mother opens her arms upward) …
It’s like the blade of a guillotine.
You see, the aspiration of flowers blossoms out; with Nature, it rises and widens as much as it can to receive. This (Mother points to the review “= I”) is like a knife. It’s quite symbolic. I’ve never said anything. But it’s done with much taste. It’s the mind that has become perverted. (Mother leafs through the issue) All this is aggressive, it all has an aggressive nature.
* * *
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Soon afterwards
Yesterday (I can’t say “yesterday morning”), I came back from there [the music room] after seeing seventy-eight people…. It was 3 o’clock: the time when, usually, I resume my work after taking my bath – so didn’t have lunch. Well, the so-called lunch has long gone to the winds.
(silence)
For three things one should be on one’s guard. One is the collective suggestion of “disease” – “disease” is something that doubtless exists, in the sense that there are obviously adverse forces at work trying to disorganize and delay the work; but, for the individual, those so-called diseases … Outwardly they are based on the idea (they call it “knowledge”), on the knowledge of microbes, germs and so on, but that’s taking things upside down, heels over head, because those microbes and germs and all those things are EFFECTS, not causes.
It’s the effect of a combination of three things: bad will (at the worst, a refusal to follow the movement), a more or less total bad will; an ignorance of the laws and their consequences, that is, the causes and effects (a complete ignorance); and, of course, a form of inertia – it’s all a form of inertia, but the greatest form of inertia is the incapacity to receive and respond. These three things combined are what creates diseases and so on, and the final effect – death. That is, the disintegration of created harmony.
But from the collective point of view, the point of view of collective influence, it’s the other way around; in other words, that’s what is taken to be the “cause” of disorders: instead of being the effect, it’s the cause – which is absurd.
And then, from the point of view of the transformation of the cells and the organism, this collective influence is a state like a bath in which you are plunged, and when people wanted to escape from it, they would cut themselves off: they tried to isolate themselves. The result is that they would leave the material zone, because it’s impossible to be like this (gesture as in a shell), like something without any connection with the whole. So they would renounce life.
In the relationship with the whole, there are roughly three … we might call them “means of defense,” or attitudes one can take. The attitude of isolation, which can’t be total unless you withdraw, and which is only very relatively effective. The attitude of attack: a power fighting and repulsing adversaries (that has a big drawback which is that if you use forces on the same plane, they are ineffective,
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or very relatively effective; and if it’s supreme forces, then … the effect is rather catastrophic: it would amount to destroying in order to conquer, which is certainly not the Supreme’s intention). And finally, there is the way of the contagion of the higher Force, but that implies what expresses itself here as time. That is the attitude which has been adopted. But it implies time – which is why ages go by.
The result is certain, with the least amount of damage. But that least amount is still quite considerable.
And for the human consciousness, it takes long. But as you remarked just before, it’s pretty. It feels like something going like this (gesture like a tide spreading out), very slowly for the human consciousness, certainly, but quite implacable towards resistances, and so sov-er-eign-ly sure of its victory…. That’s pretty. And with the least amount of damage, undeniably. Not to mention that what looks like “damage” may only be, seen in the whole, a means of higher realization.
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