India - the Mother

April 29, 1961

(Mother reads out her reply to a disciple who asked whether a religion could be founded on Sri Aurobindo's teachings.)

... "Men are such fools that they can change anything at all into a religion, so great is their need for a fixed framework for their narrow thought and limited action. They do not feel secure unless they can affirm,

"This is true and that is not.' But such an affirmation becomes impossible for anyone who has read and understood what Sri Aurobindo wrote. Religion and yoga are not situated on the same plane of the being, and spiritual life can exist in its purity only if it is free from all mental dogma."¹⁷

(Mother explains the principle behind idol worship.)

All this is based on the old idea that whatever the image—which we disdainfully call an "idol"—whatever the external form of the deity, the presence of the thing represented is always there. And there is always someone—whether a priest or an initiate, a sadhu or a sannyasi—someone who has the power and (usually this is the priest's work) who draws the Force and the Presence down into it. And it's true, it's quite real: the Force and the Presence are THERE; and that (not the form of wood or stone or metal) is what you worship, it's that Presence.

Europeans don't have the inner sense at all. To them, everything is like this (gesture), a surface—not even that, a thin layer on the surface. There's nothing behind, so they can't feel. But it's an absolutely real fact that the Presence is there, I can vouch for it. People have given me little things in metal, wood or ivory, representing various gods; all I have to do is to take one in my hand for the god to be there. I have a few of Ganesh (I have been given several), and when I take one in my hand and look at it for a minute, he is there.... Then there is a Narayana which comes from the Himalayas, from Badrinath.

I use them both as paperweights for my handkerchiefs! And no one touches them except me—I pick them up, take a fresh handkerchief, and put them back again.... We are on the best of terms, very friendly. So to me, you see, all this is quite true.... It has always been like that for me, always. And I have never, never had the religious sense at all—you know, what people call this kind of ... what they have in religions, especially in Europe. I see only the English word for it: "awe," like a kind of terror. That always made me laugh! But I have always felt what's behind, the presences behind....

But I rarely had an experience in churches. Rather the opposite: I very often had the very painful experience of the human effort to find higher solace, a divine compassion ... falling into very bad hands—very often....

I don't know why, but I have had this kind of experience so very often: either a hostile force lurking behind and swallowing up everything, or else man—ruthless man abusing the Power.

In fact, I have seen this all over the world. I have never been on very good terms with religions, neither in Europe, nor Africa, nor Japan, nor even here....

When I was told that the Divine was within—the teaching of the Gita, but in words understandable to a Westerner¹⁸— that there was an inner Presence and one carried the Divine within oneself, oh! ... What a revelation! In a few minutes, I suddenly understood all, all. Understood everything. It brought the contact instantly.

Mother's Agenda: April 29, 1961