October 31, 1970
(Mother tries to read with difficulty a few lines from Savitri
specially written for her in large characters.)
It’s a curious phenomenon: it’s F. who writes this, and she doesn’t understand well: for her it’s just words – and I can’t read!
Yes, I understand. It’s the consciousness she put into it.
***
(Then Mother listens to a few letters of Sri Aurobindo.)
(Question:) X asked me if in the course of rebirths a woman
can become a man, and a man a woman. He thought of
certain feminine traits in him that could be explained thus.
I would also like to know if there is in the psychic being
itself something like sex?
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(Answer:) Not sex exactly, but what might be called the
masculine and feminine principle. It is a difficult question
[whether sex is altered in rebirth]. There are certain lines
the reincarnation follows and so far as my experience
goes and general experience goes, one follows usually a
single line. But the alteration of sex cannot be declared
impossible. There may be some who do alternate. The
presence of feminine traits in a male does not necessar
ily indicate a past feminine birth – they may come in the
general play of forces and their formations. There are
besides qualities common to both sexes. Also a fragment
of the psychological personality may have been associated
with a birth not ones own. One can say of a certain per
son of the past, "that was not myself, but a fragment of my
psychological personality was present in him." Rebirth is
a complex affair and not so simple in its mechanism as in
the popular idea.
11 January 1936
Letters on Yoga, 22.447-448
He says it’s "fragments"?
Yes, that there may be fragments.
That’s my experience. For instance, I have a fragment from Murat. And I found again the whole experience of that fragment [[Murat’s victory, galloping at the head of armies. See Agenda III of 30 June 1962 and Agenda VII of 3 November 1966. ]] – but that was all, there was only that.
It [Sri Aurobindo's explanation] must be correct, it fits with my own experience.
The psychic, that’s true, has masculine and feminine tendencies, but it’s not "man" or "woman": the psychic is sexless.
And as he says, it’s quite a complex affair; there are all possibilities. There’s nothing one can declare to be impossible.
(silence)
Now I want to hear your chapter.
(Satprem starts reading half a dozen pages of the sixth chapter:
"The Tearing of Limits," then must stop as he still has
a sore throat.)
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Mother, I can’t go on, it’s too long for me.
You’re tired. The next time.
Its very good … very good.
It makes me go out completely…. I lose all contact, it’s strange. It’s the second time it has done this to me. Everything disappears: I go into a formation of that, and it’s the only thing left. A very odd phenomenon. The whole world disappears. And when you stopped, it was as if I suddenly FELL from somewhere. It’s strange.
Very interesting.
I feel I am entering what will replace the mind. An atmosphere that will replace the mind, the atmosphere of the new creation…. I had it very strongly last time, but it was the first time – I was utterly nonplused, I thought it depended on my condition. But today I listened quite as usual, and all of a sudden, without my even noticing it, I was transported into an atmosphere … an atmosphere of comprehension. And when you stopped ([laughing] gesture of falling to the ground) … Strange.
It’s like a world being built.
It’s very interesting.
I understand ELSEWHERE, you understand? It’s no longer the same thing. I understand elsewhere. And "understand," it’s wonderfully clear and expressive. Strange! It’s interesting. I had forgotten it had happened last time, and exactly the same thing recurred. It’s very interesting.
Is it half of the chapter?
Hardly: a third.
Oh, it’s quite, quite an experience.
Because the mind isn’t there, it’s … In reality, it’s the psychic understanding of things.
Oh, it’s interesting.
(Laughing) When you stopped, I seemed to fall back into something – something usual – and to come from another world. It belongs to another world.
It’s very, very interesting.
(long silence
Mother’s breathing is hoarse
[[Curiously, while Satprem read, Mothers breathing was normal throughout. ]] )
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Do you think it will be finished for February?
I think I’ll have finished next month.
Oh!
It’s going very fast. But maybe I’ll have to revise afterwards just
the same.
Why? Oh, NO!
What I read you here is just as I wrote it. [[Satprem actually reads his manuscript for the first time when he reads it out to Mother. ]]
I for one find it perfectly fine, perfectly fine. Ah no, you mustn’t change it.
I mustn’t?
No, it’s something exceptional. It’s something that seems to come like this (gesture of descent as a whole).
Ah, that’s true, I feel it’s given me.
Yes, yes, it’s ready-made. You mustn’t touch it.
Yes, I tend to feel it’s "ready-made," that’s true.
(Mother remains silent,
shaking her head)
Ah, no, that would humanize it – you mustn’t.
Yes.
It’s not human. You mustn’t humanize it, even, even if the outward being thinks certain things … [need to be modified or clarified or developed]. Because I know, I know where I go. No.
At night, I go there, and sometimes some things happen that are as if reflected on all that goes on during the [following] day.
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It’s very strong, it’s really a new world under preparation. It’s very strong.
(silence)
I’ll be very interested to see the end, your last chapter.
(Mother remains "gazing" for a long time)
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