The Mother

[The "Prayers" of the Mother, originally written in French, were subsequently published under the title Prières et Méditations. Some of them, translated by Sri Aurobindo in English, are included in Part Three of this volume.]

[Conversations is a record of the Mother's talks in English with a small group of disciples in 1929.]

"Prayers and Meditations"

Q: In some of the Mother's Prayers which are addressed to "divin Maître" I find the words: "avec notre divine Mère". How can the Mother and "divine Maître" have a "divine Mère"? It is as if the Mother was not the "divine Mère" and there was some other Mother and the "divin Maître" was not the Transcendent and had also a "divine Mère"! Or is it that all these are addressed to something impersonal?

A: The Prayers are mostly written in an identification with the earth-consciousness. It is the Mother in the lower nature addressing the Mother in the higher nature, the Mother herself carrying on the Sadhana of the earth-consciousness for the transformation praying to herself above from whom the forces of transformation come. This continues till the identification of the earth-consciousness and the higher consciousness is effected. The word "notre" is general, I believe, referring to all born into the earth-consciousness―it does not mean the Mother of the "Divin Maître" and myself. It is the Divine who is always referred to as Divin Maître and Seigneur. There is the Mother who is carrying on the Sadhana and the Divine Mother, both being one but in different poises, and both turn to the Seigneur or Divine Master. This kind of prayer from the Divine to the Divine you will find also in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

21-8-1936

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¹The experience you have described is Vedic in the real sense, though not one which would easily be recognised by the modern systems of Yoga which call themselves Yogic. It is the union of the "Earth" of the Veda and Purana with the divine Principle, an earth which is said to be above our earth, that is to say, the physical being and consciousness of which the world and the body are only images. But the modern Yogas hardly recognise the possibility of a material union with the Divine.

31-12-1915

Q: There are some Prayers of the Mother of 1914 in which she speaks of transformation and manifestation. Since at that time she was not here, does this not mean that she had these ideas long before she came here?

A: The Mother had been spiritually conscious from her youth, even from her childhood, upward and she had done Sadhana and had developed this knowledge very long before she came to India.

23-12-1933

Q: Nothing is more important than: "Ta splendeur veut rayonner" as the Mother says in her Prayer of the 16th June 1914. All ideas of perfection for oneself or being an instrument seem flat and insipid when considered from the standpoint of the vast universal movement of consciousness.

A: It is correct. Perfection for oneself is not the true ideal. Sadhana and instrumentation are only useful as a means for the "rayonnement".

30-4-1936

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Q: In her Prayer of the 17th May 1914, the Mother says, "Telles furent les deux phrases que j'écrivis hier par une sorte de nécessité absolute. La première, comme si la puissance de la prière ne serait complète que si elle était tracée sur le papier."

Is it true that a prayer is not sufficiently powerful when it is kept unexpressed by speech or writing, and that its expression is necessary to make it completely powerful?

A: It was not meant as a general rule―it was only a necessity felt with regard to that particular prayer and that experience. It all depends on the person, the condition, the need of the moment or of that stage or phase of the consciousness. These things in spiritual experience are always plastic and variable. In some conditions or in one phase or at one moment expression may be needed to bring out the effectuating force of the prayer or the stability of the experience; in another condition or phase or at another moment it may be the opposite, expression would rather disperse the force or break the stability.

21-6-1936

Q: The Mother's Prayer of the 12th December 1914, begins with: "Il faut à chaque instant savoir tout perdre pour tout gagner..."

The Isha Upanishad also says: "tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā." Do not these two statements refer to the same truth?

A: Yes, certainly. It is essentially the same truth put in different ways. It might be put in a negative form―"if we cling to things as they are in their imperfection in the Ignorance, we cannot have them in their truth and perfection in the Divine Light, Harmony and Ananda."

16-8-1935

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Q: In one of her Prayers the Mother says: "The joy contained in activity is superseded by a greater joy in withdrawal from activity." This implies that withdrawal from activity is preferable to activity.

A: Do you think the Mother has a rigid mind like you people and was laying down a hard and fast rule, for all time and all people and all conditions? It refers to a certain stage when the consciousness is sometimes in activity and when not in activity is withdrawn in itself. Afterwards comes a stage when the Sachchidananda condition is there in work also. There is a still further stage when both are as it were one, but that is the supramental. The two states are the silent Brahman and the active Brahman and they can alternate (1st stage), coexist (2nd stage), fuse (3rd stage). If you reach even the first stage then you can think of applying Mother's dictum, but why misapply it now?

Q: Is it possible to have the highest Sachchidananda realisation in work?

A: Certainly it is realisable in work. Good Lord! How could the integral Yoga exist if it were not?

Q: The Mother says in her "Prayers" that experience is willed by the Divine. Am I then to suppose that dearth or abundance of experiences is in any given case willed by the Divine?

A: To say so has no value unless you realise all things as coming from the Divine. One who has realised as the Mother had realised in the midst of terrible sufferings and difficulties that even these came from the Divine and were preparing her for her work can make a spiritual use of such an attitude. For others it may lead to wrong conclusions.

10-5-1934

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Q: The Mother, in her Prayer of the 4th August 1914, says: "Les hommes, poussés par le conflit des forces, accomplissent un sublime sacrifice...." Apparently she refers to the great war; but, as a result of that war has any "pure lumière" filled the hearts of men or the "Force Divine" spread on earth or something beneficial come out from that chaos, as she mentions? Since the nations are once more preparing for war and are in a state of constant conflict, there seems to be no indication of any change in the inner condition of men. People all over the world including even the Indians seem to be wanting another war and hardly anyone seems to require Peace, Light or Love.

A: There has been a change for the worse―the descent of the vital world into the human. On the other hand except in the "possessed" nations there is a greater longing for peace and feeling that such things ought not to happen. India did not get any real touch of the war. However what the Mother was thinking of was an opening to the spiritual truth. That has at least tried to come. There is a widespread dissatisfaction with the old material civilisation, a seeking for some deeper light and truth―only unfortunately it is being taken advantage of by the old religions and only a very small minority is consciously searching for the new Light.

9-6-1936

Q: You said that after the great war there has been "the descent of the vital world into the human". But did not the vital world already descend on earth―in Matter―even before the human beings came? What other vital world remained yet to descend into the human? And how is it that it decided to come down just at present―to prevent the higher Light from coming down in the human world?

A: When there is a pressure on the vital world due to the preparing

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Descent from above, that world usually precipitates something of itself into the human. The vital world is very large and far exceeds the human in extent. But usually it dominates by influence not by descent. Of course the effort of this part of the vital world is always to maintain humanity under its sway and prevent the higher Light.

9-6-1936

Q: If, as you say, there has been a change for the worse due to the descent of the vital world, would it not make the supramental descent in the earth-consciousness impossible or postpone its coming to some distant future instead of "here and now"? And since the possessed nations are endowed with all the possible material power, there seems to be little hope of any movement of peace being successful.

A: The vital descent cannot prevent the supramental―still less can the possessed nations do it by their material power, since the supramental descent is primarily a spiritual fact which will bear its necessary outward consequences. What previous vital descents have done is to falsify the Light that came down as in the history of Christianity where it took possession of the teaching and distorted it and deprived it of any widespread fulfilment. But the supermind is by definition a Light that cannot be distorted if it comes in its own right and by its own presence. It is only when it holds itself back and allows inferior Powers of consciousness to use a diminished and already deflected Truth that the knowledge can be seized by the vital Forces and made to serve their own purpose.

12-6-1936

Q: In her Prayer of the 16th August 1914, the Mother refers to "chacun des grands êtres Asouriques qui ont résolu d'être Tes serviteurs...."

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How was it that the Asuras determined to be the servants of the Divine? Was it to exploit the Divine or a "coup de diplomatie"?

A: It was in reference to Asuras who had taken birth in human bodies―a thing they usually avoid if they can, for they prefer to possess human beings without taking birth―with the claim that they wanted to regenerate themselves by serving the Divine and doing his work. It did not succeed very well.

15-6-1936

Q: Is there really an internal progress in the universe―"marche interne d'univers", as the Mother says? Except in a few individuals there is hardly any progress in mankind. Internally and externally the universe seems to be moving in the same circle always without making any essential progress.

A: "Univers" in French usually means not the whole universe but the "world"―the earth. There must be a progress in the earth-consciousness, otherwise there could have been no evolution. The evolution of mankind may go by circles or spirals, but there is all the time an opening of more and more complete possibilities till the possibility of the evolution of a higher race becomes valid.

1-9-1936

Q: In a book named "Eveillez-vous" (translated from English), there are some ideas―like those about the Advent, the hostile beings, etc.―similar to our own. There is also a phrase in the book, "La Paix règnera sur terre", which also occurs in the Mother's "Prayers". Has the author not copied this phrase from the Mother's "Prayers" (unpublished)?

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A: Not necessarily, as the phrase can easily come to one who has read the Bible and the English are very biblical. The idea of the hostile beings also is not new, in fact it is as old as the Veda. The expectation of the Advent is also pretty widespread, as according to the old prophecies it must be when the Advent is due.

16-9-1935