The Mother

Causes of the Mother's Illness

The Mother has had a very severe attack and she must absolutely husband her forces in view of the strain the 24th November will mean for her. It is quite out of the question for her to begin seeing everybody and receiving them meanwhile―a single morning of that kind of thing would exhaust her altogether. You must remember that for her a physical contact of this kind with others is not a mere social or domestic meeting with a few superficial movements which make no great difference one way or the other. It means for her an interchange, a pouring out of her forces and a receiving of things good, bad and mixed from them which often involves a great labour of adjustment and elimination and in many cases, though not in all, a severe strain on the body. If it had been only a question of two or three people, it would have been a different matter; but there is the whole Ashram here ready to enforce each, one his claim the moment she opens her doors. You surely do not want to put all that upon her before she has recovered her health and strength! In the interests of the work itself―the Mother has never cared in the least for her body or her health for its own sake and that indifference has been one reason, though only an outward one, for the damage done―I must insist on her going slowly in the resumption of the work and doing only so much at first as her health can bear.

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It seems to me that all who care for her ought to feel in the way I do.

12-11-1931

I had hoped to write shortly, but I have not been able to do so. Therefore, for the moment, since I have promised you this letter in the morning, I can only repeat, on the other matter, that I have not said that you in any degree or the Sadhaks generally were the cause of the Mother's illness. To another who wrote something of the kind from the same personal standpoint, I replied that the Mother's illness was due to a struggle with universal forces which far overpassed the scope of any individual or group of individuals. What I wrote about the strain thrown on the Mother by the physical contact was in connection with her resumption of work―and it concerns the conditions under which the work can best be done, so that these forces may not in future have the advantage. Conditions have been particularly arduous in the past owing to the perhaps inevitable development of things, for which I do not hold anyone responsible; but now that the Sadhana has come down to the most material plane on which blows can still be given by the adverse forces, it is necessary to make a change which can best be done by a change in the inner attitude of the Sadhaks; for that alone now can make―until the decisive descent of the supramental Light and Force―the external conditions easier. But of this I cannot write at the tail-end of a letter.

16-11-1931

I have not yet said anything about the Mother's illness because to do so would have needed a long consideration of what those who are at the centre of a work like this have to be, what they have to take upon themselves of human or terrestrial nature and its limitations and how much they have to bear of the difficulties of transformation. All that is not only difficult in itself for the

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mind to understand but difficult for me to write in such a way as to bring it home to those who have not our consciousness or our experience. I suppose it has to be written but I have not yet found the necessary form or the necessary leisure.

19-11-1931

It is much easier for the Sadhak by faith in the Mother to get free from illness than for the Mother to keep free―because the Mother by the very nature of her work had to identify herself with the Sadhaks, to support all their difficulties, to receive into herself all the poison in their nature, to take up besides all the difficulties of the universal earth-Nature, including the possibility of death and disease in order to fight them out. If she had not done that, not a single Sadhak would have been able to practise this Yoga. The Divine has to put on humanity in order that the human being may rise to the Divine. It is a simple truth, but nobody in the Ashram seems able to understand that the Divine can do that and yet remain different from them―can still remain the Divine.

8-5-1933

Q: People in the Ashram believe that their difficulties and illnesses are taken by the Mother on herself and therefore she has sometimes to suffer. But at that rate there would be too much onrush of these things on her from many Sadhaks. An idea comes to me of taking upon myself some of these difficulties and illnesses so that I can also suffer with her pleasantly?

A: Pleasantly? It would be anything but pleasant either for you or for us.

It is rather a crude statement of a fact. The Mother in order to do her work had to take all the Sadhaks inside her personal being and consciousness; thus personally (not merely impersonally)

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taken inside, all the disturbances and difficulties in them including illnesses could throw themselves upon her in a way that could not have happened if she had not renounced the self-protection of separateness. Not only illnesses of others could translate themselves into attacks on her body―these she could generally throw off as soon as she knew from what quarter and why it came―but their inner difficulties, revolts, outbursts of anger and hatred against her could have the same and a worse effect. That was the only danger for her (because inner difficulties are easily surmountable), but matter and the body are the weak point or crucial point of our Yoga, since this province has never been conquered by the spiritual Power, the old Yogas having either left it alone or used on it only a detail mental and vital force, not the general spiritual force. It was the reason why after a serious illness caused by a terribly bad state of the Ashram atmosphere, I had to insist on her partial retirement so as to minimise the most concrete part of the pressure upon her. Naturally, the full conquest of the physical would revolutionise matters, but as yet it is the struggle.

31-3-1934

Q: Is it not inevitable that in the process of conversion and transformation all these resistances, disturbances, revolts should arise in every Sadhak? Could they be eliminated by anyone from the very beginning of his Sadhana so that there would be less of these things for the Mother to take upon her own self?

A: The nature of the terrestrial consciousness and of humanity being what it is, these things were to some extent inevitable. It is only a very few who escape with the slighter adverse movements only. But after a time these things should disappear. It does so disappear in individuals―but there seems to be a great difficulty in getting it to disappear from the atmosphere of the Ashram―somebody or other always takes it up and from him it tries to spread to others. It is, of course, because there is behind it one of

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the principles of life according to the Ignorance―a deeply rooted tendency of vital Nature. But it is the very aim of Sadhana to overcome that and substitute a truer and diviner vital Force.

1-4-1934

What you saw is correct, but if the attitude of the Sadhak is the true psychic attitude, then the Mother has not to suffer; she can act on them without anything falling on her.

22-1-1937

It is due to the impurities of the Sadhaks thrown on the Mother.

There seems to be no remedy possible before the physical change. If the Mother puts an inner wall between her and the Sadhaks, it would not happen, but then they would be unable to receive anything from her. If all were more careful to come to her with their deepest and highest consciousness, then there would be less chance of these things happening.

The danger of helping others is the danger of taking upon oneself their difficulties. If one can keep oneself separate and help, this does not occur. But the tendency in helping is to take the person partially or completely into one's larger self. This is what the Mother has had to do with the Sadhaks and the reason why she has sometimes to suffer―for one cannot always be on guard against any backwash when one is absorbed or in action. There is also the difficulty that the persons helped get the habit of drawing and pulling on your forces instead of leaving it to you to give just what you can and ought to give. And many other smaller possibilities one who helps others has to face.

29-1-1935

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There are many who did that in the past. I don't know that he does it now. But all bad thoughts upon the Mother or throwing of impurities on her may affect her body as she has taken the Sadhaks into her consciousness nor can she send these things back to them as it might hurt them.

17-3-1936

There is not the slightest necessity for the Mother drawing impurities into herself―any more than for the Sadhak inviting impurity to come into himself. Impurity has to be thrown away, not drawn in.

18-3-1936

The idea of unburdening desires, imperfections, impurities, illnesses on the Mother so that she may bear the results instead of the Sadhaks is a curious one. I suppose it is an imitation of the Christian ideal of a Christ suffering on the cross for the sake of humanity. But it has nothing to do with the Yoga of transformation.

1-11-1936