Works of Sri Aurobindo

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-62_September 3_1969.htm

September 3, 1969

For two days, I’ve had a sort of retrospective vision of the horrors of life … as though seen with the new Consciousness. And the odd thing is that you wonder how it was possible to go through all those horrors ….

It began with a sort of thoroughly repellant perception of people’s condition from the standpoint of consciousness – of the darkness and of this so narrow sort of egocentric vision. That was the beginning, and then the Consciousness seemed to be telling me, "Oh, but don’t worry, it’s much better than it was before!" (Mother laughs) And it showed me everything like that (gesture as in a film), oh! … it was so frightful that I wondered how it could have existed.

The state of mind of the people who burned Joan of Arc, for instance.

Charming …

(long silence)

This coming month, it seems there is going to be a real invasion of the Ashram …. Some people are coming (the healer, the druid, etc.), then Indira wants to come, then there is the education minister who’s gone askew and expressed a sense of horror at the Ashram – she asks him to come! … So we’ll have an invasion this month of September.

(long silence)

(Mother laughs) … Today, in relation to someone, I had quite an amusing experience …. You know, on the earth there were first those huge, hideous beasts (I don’t know their names, anyway, real monsters, those that had pachyderm skins). Then I had the vision (as though I were there) of a first bear, but much bigger than a bear (much bigger than today’s bears), and with a BEAUTIFUL silky fur (Mother caresses the fur). It was sitting-sitting by a lake, in a sort of … almost of contemplation, very peaceful, with the impression of a great strength, but a very peaceful strength, not a combative one. And those great beasts, like …

Dinosaurs?

Yes, all those beasts came from every side and looked at that

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(Mother stares wide-eyed), almost with respect and admiration; it was very odd, like something marvelous they had never seen …. You know, it was extraordinary, and so, so vivid, so real! And God knows I didn’t think about it – I saw. I looked at that, and the sort of admiration of those beasts for this extraordinary animal …. A silky fur (Mother feels it), very silky, a thick fur – a heavy, thick fur, golden brown. And it was a female. She sat like that, peaceful, as if conscious of her superiority!

Very amusing.

And then, I realized that there ALREADY was an atom of consciousness there – a consciousness that was to become the psychic being. That’s what made her so peaceful and so … self-assured. And that was to evolve into man’s consciousness. That’s what was really interesting.

It was much, much bigger than a bear as we know them, but because of that [the peaceful air], all the others were around like that, they came from every side and stared with wide admiring eyes! It was really amusing.

I just saw that this morning in relation to someone for whom this is the first incarnation (!) And all those stories … you know, the theosophical stories, I’ve always thought they were cock-and-bull stories, but that was … not a thought, nothing at all: the person was here, seated next to me, and she went into a very deep meditation; I looked (she had her head here [near Mother's knees]), I looked, and suddenly I lost all contact with the present life, and I found myself there and saw that. And I saw it for a long while, not in a flash: a long while, several minutes. And I saw it moving: it was living, it wasn’t a picture – I saw them move, come, arrive from every side of the lake, or crossing the lake! … And it was like a big mass, with a beautiful fur shining in the sunlight – it was as lovely as can be!

And already there was an atom of consciousness.

Interesting.

Basically, it’s the whole mental path which is ghastly and rotten.

Yes, yes!

Yes, especially this unconscious cruelty, oh! …

(Mother goes into a long

 contemplation, then opens

 her eyes and speaks in English:)

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The day when you come is the only day when I can sit quietly

 here-the other days it’s a constant, constant, constant …

I have nothing to say.

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