The Mother

The Mother's Personal and Universal Presence

Q: You have written: "Always behave as if the Mother was looking at you; because she is, indeed, always present." You explained to me that this does not mean that she was physically present everywhere because that was impossible. But when I asked the Mother about this, she said that she was personally present at all places. How to reconcile these contradictory statements?

A: If by physically you mean corporeally, in her visible tangible material body, it is obvious that it cannot be. When you asked Mother that question she did not understand you to mean that―she said she could be present everywhere, and she meant, of course, in her consciousness. It is the consciousness and not the body that is the being, the person, the body is only a support and instrument for the action of the consciousness. Mother can be personally present in her consciousness. The universal presence, of course, is always there and the universal and personal are two aspects of the same being.

25-8-1936

Q: You have said: "Always behave as if the Mother was looking at you; because she is, indeed, always present." Does this mean that the Mother knows all

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our insignificant thoughts at all times, or only when she concentrates?

A: It is said that the Mother is always present and looking at you. This does not mean that in her physical mind she is thinking of you always and seeing your thoughts. There is no need of that, since she is everywhere and acts everywhere out of her universal knowledge.

12-8-1933

Q: In what sense is the Mother everywhere? Does she know all happenings in the physical plane?

A: Including what Llyod George had for breakfast today or what Roosevelt said to his wife about the servants? Why should the Mother "know" in the human way all happenings in the physical plane? Her business in her embodiment is to know the workings of the universal forces and use them for her works; for the rest she knows what she needs to know, sometimes with her inner self, sometimes with her physical mind. All knowledge is available in her universal self, but she brings forward only what is needed to be brought forward so that the working is done.

13-8-1933

Q: Someone said that the Mother sees all our physical movements. How does this happen? Are all our physical movements reflected on her mind and seen by her as images or do they occur in her consciousness at the same time as we do them? But would that not be very puzzling and cumbersome to her? Moreover, would it not be a very material kind of telepathy?

A: It would not be worthwhile. Mother can see what people are doing by images received by her in the subtle state which

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corresponds to sleep or concentration or by images or intimations received in the ordinary state; but much even of what comes to her automatically like that is unnecessary, and to be always receiving everything would be intolerably troublesome as it would keep the consciousness occupied with a million trivialities; so that does not happen. What is more important is to know their inner condition and it is this chiefly which comes to her.

29-6-1937

Q: (Re. a certain incident that had recently occurred:) I was under the impression that Mother could at once know of such things. Some even say that she knows everything―all that is material or spiritual. Others maintain that she knows when the question of consciousness is involved, e.g. sex movements, etc., but not so much about material things.

A: Good Lord! You don't expect her mind to be a factual encyclopaedia of all that is happening on all the planes and in all the universes? Or even on this earth, e.g. what Lloyd George had for dinner yesterday?

Questions of consciousness, of course, she always knows even with her outermost physical mind. Material facts she can know but is not bound to do it. What would be true to say, is that she can know if she concentrates or if her attention is called to it and she decides to know. I often know from her what has happened before it is reported by anyone. But she does not I care to do that on a general scale.

16-7-1935

Q: This question of Mother's knowledge became even more interesting for me today. She gave me the flower signifying "Discipline". I began to wonder why this particular flower was given; at last I remembered that

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yesterday I had not observed the right discipline in the matter of taking food with X and Y.

A: In this respect the Mother is guided by her intuitions which tell her which flower is needed at the moment or helpful. Sometimes it is accompanied by a perception of a particular state of consciousness, sometimes by that of a material fact; but only the bare fact, usually e.g.―it would not specify that it was "that particular thing" that was done or how X or Y came in. Not that that is impossible, but it is unnecessary and does not happen unless needed.

16-7-1935

Q: The Mother can know our thoughts, but can she know also the exact words in the thoughts?

A: If the mind of the person is very clear, yes; otherwise it may be only the substance that comes or a part of the thought or some general idea.

19-5-1933

What you write about X is true.... She does not realise that Mother knows all these things by other means and any information given to her only adds certain physical precisions to what she knows already.

How can she be open when she has such ideas against the Mother? They must necessarily shut her up to the Mother's influence.

Mother has written to her that Y had said nothing and that she knew things about X independently of any information, from X's inner being itself which comes to her constantly and tells her or shows her what is in the nature.

The Mother besides sees things in vision and receives the thoughts of the Sadhaks at Pranam and other times.... Only the

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Mother never acts on these supraphysical intimations unless there is physical confirmation like the letter itself in this case. For nobody would understand her action―the Sadhaks living in the physical mind would state her action unfounded, and those affected would deny loudly―as many have done in the past―their secret thoughts, feelings and actions. I tell you all this in confidence so that you may understand what is the real basis of Mother's letters to X.

10-9-1936