Works of Sri Aurobindo

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-43_June 4_1969.htm

June 4, 1969

There’s a letter from PL. He writes:

" … My work is the same, there are difficulties in accepting

 my ideas. I am regarded as a ‘crank’ (I think so, though no

 one has talked to me about it, for there is a force protecting

 me). Yet, things at the Vatican, at the center of the Church,

 are changing. The struggle of the new forces against the tra

ditional ones is now very strong. If the Pope accepts (his

 entourage is against it) to go to Geneva on June 10 and take

 part in the Assembly of Protestant Churches, and asserts

 there that we are not ‘the only ones to possess the truth,’ I

 believe that will be a great step forward. But will he have the

 courage to accept that other religious movements too are

seeking? Or will he remain rooted in the assertion that ‘extra

 ecclesia non est salus,’ [["No salvation outside the Church." ]] that the only depository of the Truth,

 the exclusive owner (!) of salvation is the Catholic Church? …

For the time being, I am on the list of those accompanying

him. Mother’s assistance will have to be strong on that

 day …"

(after a silence)

Religions are an old thing …. Don’t you have that sensation?

Oh, absolutely.

Old, very old.

I even feel they’re finished.

Yes.

(silence)

My impression is that the next Church to be demolished is the Intellect.

(Mother laughs) Yes!

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(Mother goes into

 a contemplation)

***

(Soon afterwards, Satprem proposes to publish in "Notes on

 the Way" the text of the last conversation, of May 31,

 about the glorified body "Visible to all.")

Aren’t people going to believe that we’ve gone mad)?! No?

You think we can publish that? …

I feel we can.

You might ask Nolini? As for me …

(silence)

After you left [last time], I looked a good deal, the whole day long …. There is the sense that it [the glorified body] would be a wonderful solution. When you said it, something all of a sudden became concrete. [[As a matter of fact, at the end of the previous conversation, Mother remained "gazing" for a very long time with an expression that had to be seen to be believed, and Satprem felt something like a cataract of luminous power coming down. ]] But with no personal sense in it …. The body doesn’t in the least, in the least, have either the ambition or the desire or even the aspiration to become that [the glorified body], but there was only a sort of joy at the possibility that "that" may be – that THAT MAY BE – with anyone, anywhere, anyhow: that that may be. And I looked very, very attentively: not for a minute did it have the idea, "It should be this" (Mother pinches the skin of her hand), you understand? It was, "May that incarnation, that manifestation BE" – not with the choice of one person or another, one place or another, no, none of that was there: it was the THING IN ITSELF which was a wonderful solution. And that’s all.

Then the consciousness started observing: if there is nothing in this body even "aspiring" to be that, it shows that’s not its work. Then came this extraordinary Smile (I don’t know how to explain), like that, which passed by and said … (to put it in a quite childish manner), "That’s not your business!" And that’s all. And it was over, I didn’t concern myself with it anymore. "Not your business," in the sense, "It’s none of your concern; whether it’s like this or like that, it’s not your business." That’s all.

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But what has become its business, in such an intense, intense manner that it’s almost inexpressible, is "You, You, You, You that no word can express: the Divine, to use a word. That’s all. For everything: eating – the Divine; sleeping – the Divine; suffering – the Divine … like this (Mother turns her two hands upward). With a sort of steadiness, of stillness – there is a great unification in the cells.

(silence)

This Consciousness … for instance if someone writes and puts a question to me, through this Consciousness I instantly get the answer; and when I write it down, it’s this Consciousness that speaks. These last few days I have written a number of answers, and all of them so far AHEAD of all that has been said up till now … The answers are so far ahead of the state of consciousness of the people who put a question that … And that happens spontaneously, effortlessly, just like that (Mother lets her pen flow).

(silence)

Its sense of an individual, that is, separate existence would appear to be closely, indissolubly linked to suffering (I am talking about physical suffering, nothing moral – physical suffering). So then, if the body has one aspiration, that is to melt … to melt not into the whole, but to melt into … into the something we call the Divine, and which is everything – the true whole instead of the false whole. But I can’t explain.

The body clearly mustn’t be preoccupied with anything; it mustn’t be preoccupied with anything, neither this way nor that, neither with progress nor with dissolution – not preoccupied with anything. The state (not the state it aspires to, it’s not that, because it doesn’t have any "aspiration"), the state that seems to be … willed for it (I don’t know how to explain) is – peace, a receptive peace, that’s all.

(long silence)

Can’t speak, words are idiotic.

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