September 17, 1969
I’ve written something for Auroville ….
"The earth needs a place where people can live sheltered from all national rivalries, all social conventions, all contradictory moralities and antagonistic religions. A place where, freed from all those slaveries of the past, human beings will be able to wholly dedicate themselves to the discovery and practice of the Divine Consciousness that wants to manifest.
"Auroville wants to be that place, and offers itself to all those who aspire to live tomorrow’s truth."
Now things are in the habit of coming like this (Mother brings down her two arms), and they keep pestering me until I’ve written!
Once I write, it’s over.
Then the President [[On the 14" morning, India's President Giri met Mother. On that occasion, Mother told him, "Let us all work for the greatness of India." ]] went there [to Auroville], in the afternoon, at the time of leaving, he said, "It is a work of God…" He felt something.
We’ll see. Maybe we’ll get somewhere – "maybe" surely.
***
I saw P.L. before he left, he looked a bit … Did he tell you anything?
I saw him at length and told him what you said. He looked quite
reassured and appeased. I told him you wanted him to stay quiet,
not to mix with those refractory and other groups, to stay quiet
and not to draw "their" attention. He looked quite reassured.
He was very concentrated, like someone who feels he is leaving for something important.
But I looked: he has all his hair! Aren’t they tonsured anymore?
I don’t know … I think it’s falling into disuse.
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He even has lots of hair! (Mother laughs)
Ah, I misled you. You asked me a question (twice, in fact) whether
the Pope had to be elected from among cardinals. But in fact,
here is no law saying that the Pope must necessarily be elected
from among cardinals.
Ah!
He’s elected by the cardinals, but not necessarily from among
themselves, there’s no such law: they may choose an outsider In
fact, in the thirteenth century, a well-known Pope, Celestine V,
was elected from among mendicant monks.
Ooh! …
And five months after he was nominated, he abdicated – caus
ing a scandal unique in the history of the Church-and his
successor had him imprisoned straight away. Later on, by the
way, he was canonized …. But in actual fact, since then the
cardinals have always elected the Pope from among themselves.
They’re too scared!
But there’s no law. They can even elect a layman, and in that
case, rapidly give him priesthood, then nominate him bishop,
archbishop, and so on ….
But they aren’t free at all.
Not at all, they’re in a prison. The example of Celestine V is quite
symbolic. But P.L. told me one thing (which struck him very
much, besides): the first act of this Pope, when he was nomi
nated, was to go and bow before the grave of Celestine V, the only
Pope who abdicated.
Well, well! …
I saw a photo of the Pope doing a full pranam [prostration] on the Mount of Olives, at a place where Christ stood ….
But I told you that I met him twice: once before his nomination and once after. We spoke, and those conversations were really interesting. The second time, before leaving, he asked me, "What
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will you tell your disciples?" (I told you that.) Which shows he …
I remember, I was struck by my own answer. I told him, "I will say that we were in communion in our same love for the Supreme." [[See Agenda V of December 2, 1964. ]]
Strange … We’ll see.
PL. tells me he is a very anxious man: he spends sleepless nights
cudgeling his brains; he is impelled to carry out reforms, then
at the last minute he’ll go back on his decision. Two or three
times he made a decision to take a step forward, and every time
he took a step backward. In fact, he is surrounded, imprisoned
by very powerful people. He must be in torment, this man.
We’ll see.
What do you bring?
There’s something that’s not at all part of my role here near you,
but I think it’s urgent and I should tell you about it. It’s about G.
Ah!
Yes, he is struggling with death. He came to see me and explained
everything. For two years he’s been fighting against heart attacks.
He has never told anyone about it, he has immense trust in the
Grace. He told me, "I’ve had wonderful experiences in which I
called Mother, Mother came, and in a moment the danger was
repulsed." (That recurred several times.) He told me, for instance
, that he read the February Bulletin a hundred times over and
found in it an immense help, precisely where you speak of the
descending Presence that makes everything disappear as if it
were unreal. But anyway, he has reached a point where his body
has become very weak. So he’s written a letter to you:
(extracts from the letter in English)
"Since about two years my health is not normal. Not only in
abnormal condition but it is so serious that struggle is going
between life and death. It began with a little pain in chest and
an uneasiness in the heart. After some time it slowly affected the
whole body so much that many a time I feel as it will collapse
just now. At such moments I only call Mother and Her Grace
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and as soon as I do it everything becomes all right and quite
normal.I never consulted any doctor or tried any treatment.
Even I did not let the people around me ever know about it, as I
believe, from my childhood, that such attacks should not be
brought in words …. Sometimes, things happened very inexpli
cable, as more than two times I felt some force entering in my
body to bring its end at once. But as I was always ready to face
it with the call for the Grace every time it was forced to leave me
enveloping with Grace. One night (mostly attacks come at night)
I saw a woman aged forty or forty-five with dreadful face decla
ring, ‘I am Death and have come to take you. Now you cannot
escape.’ But I do not know how it happened that I got up and
sat in my bed, challenging her with the Call of Mother and Her
Grace. On this, the woman laughed making her face at me and
to my surprise I heard her laugh with my physical ears and saw
her with my physical eyes. But Mother, she disappeared in no
time as soon as Grace’s presence was there and I found myself
again in full strength, surrounded with Grace and Grace only.
In this struggle I also have the experience of my real ‘I’ in the
heart of the Mother with infinite strength. I found Mother’s Pre
sence – no, Mother Herself – hours and hours with me (behind or
front). Also I saw Mother in Her quite young body, so much
different that for a moment I could not recognize Mother but
Mother took me in Her Lap with immense Love … …
(after a long silence)
This woman, did he see her with open or closed eyes?
With wide open eyes.
Then it’s in the subtle physical. Did she look like someone he knows?
I don’t know.
(Mother goes into a
long contemplation)
I’ll see …. We’ll try …. In a few days, ask him to come and see you to tell you how he feels.
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