India - the Mother

July 23, 1960

(Mother narrates a vision she has had the preceding night.)

Something interesting happened last night, exactly between ten and eleven. I was in some kind of vehicle I didn't see the vehicle, but I was in it. Someone in front of me was driving, and I could only see his back; I didn't bother about who it was : he was simply the person meant to drive.

And then, it was as if the doors of destruction had been flung open. Floods—floods as vast as an ocean—were rushing down onto something ... was it the earth? It was like a formidable current pouring down at a mad speed, with a power nothing could stop. It was brackish water—not transparent, but brackish. And it was imperative to reach a certain spot BEFORE the water did. Because if the water reached ahead of me, nothing could be done anymore. Whereas if I got there first (I say "I," but it was not "I" like this, with this body), if I got to the other side before the water, there was complete safety; and from this safe position, I would be able, I would have a chance to help those who had stayed behind.

This vehicle (I saw it, felt it by its movement) was going faster than the flood—a formidable flood, but the vehicle had even greater speed. It was so wonderful. From one place to the next, there were some especially difficult and dangerous spots, but I always got there before the water, just before the water came and barred the way. And we kept speeding and speeding along. Then, with a final effort (there was no effort really, but a will), with a final push, we made it to the other side—and the water came just behind, rushing down at a fantastic speed. We had made it....

Right at the end, there was a place where the water had to turn in order to run down—that was the Great Passage. If you got caught in that, it was all over. You had to reach that spot and cross over before the water came. That was the spot where you could get across....

Once on the other side, without even a rise in ground level (I don't know why), it was immediately safe. The current went on and on, waves after waves after waves, as far as the eye could see, but it was channelled here at the Great Turning; and as soon as it flowed past this point, the inundation was total, it spread out over something—the earth. The current turned—it turned down—but I was already on the other side. And underneath, it was all over, the water rushed down everywhere. Only, as soon as you were on the other side, it could not touch you—the water could not cross over, it was stopped by something invisible, and it turned down....

But there was a kind of conscious will in this onrush, and I had to reach the Great Passage before this conscious will. This water had a likeness to physical things, but there was a consciousness, a conscious will, and I had to ... it was like a battle between the will I represented and that will. Only when I reached the Great Turning did I see the will that impelled this water....

At the time, I didn't know what it all meant. Then this morning, I thought, "It must have something to do with the world situation."

It had all the dimensions of something almost ... the earth seemed small in comparison, you understand. It was similar to what happens here when water is unleashed on earth, during floods for instance, but on a much larger scale....

[Satprem:] Does it mean war:

I don't feel war.... Logically, according to reason, war seems inescapable. Again this morning, when I looked at this vision, I asked myself, "Will there be war?"—I don't feel it that way. But it may be worse.¹³

It didn't seem human, you understand.

I remember wandering about one night some time ago [in a subtle world]. I had gone out of India, and when I returned to India, I found huge elephants settled EVERYWHERE—enormous elephants. At that time I was not at all aware that the Communists in India had adopted the elephant as their symbol; I only learned that later.... These elephants were like huge mammoths, and they seemed to be settling down with all the power of a tremendous inertia. That was the impression: something heavy in an inert and very tamasic way, unmoving. I did not like this occupation. When I came back [into my body], I had a rather painful feeling, and for several days I wondered whether it meant war. Then by chance, in a conversation, I learned that the Communists had chosen the elephant as their symbol....

But the vision of the flood was very, very impersonal. They were forces. A feeling that floodgates had been opened, of something that had been checked, held back or prevented, and suddenly ... The vehicle and the forward movement are the sadhana, undoubtedly. I understood that the speed of sadhana was greater than the speed of the forces of destruction. And it ended in certain victory, there is not a shadow of doubt. This feeling of POWER once I was settled there [on the "other side"], a power sufficient to help others.

Those were universal forces. I can't say it means war....

A cataclysm?

Ah, that, we've already had some. From many quarters, people are proclaiming that in 1962, there will be ... Some people have even foreseen the end of the earth, but that's stupid! For the earth was built for a certain purpose, and until things are accomplished, it will not disappear.

But there may be some ... changes.

Mother's Agenda: July 23, 1960