India - the Mother

June 15, 1963

It's clear that wherever there is a receptivity, the Force acts, there's no doubt.

(Mother comments on the visit Jawaharlal Nehru paid to her two days earlier, on June 13. Nehru had already met Mother twice in 1955, accompanied the second time by his daughter Indira Gandhi.)

With that visit, which we could call presidential, naturally there was a lot of hullabaloo here: everybody was excited (most people were, at any rate). The visit was, so to speak, forced on me, in the sense that I didn't want to see him—I didn't feel I was in such a state that the visit could have a capital importance. Some people had high hopes in this visit (here and there, even in Switzerland, even in America), they thought I would be able to do something. From an external point of view, it was an illusion, naturally....

He may have felt something—they are very thick-skinned, you know, necessarily so: overworked people, full of self-conceit, naturally, convinced that they know everything and can do everything (and unfortunately, they can do a lot), so the whole of life is organized so as to BLOCK all inner receptivity....

He was supposed to stay two or three minutes—he stayed fifteen minutes. I didn't say anything. Somebody who was there spoke. And towards the end, I could see (I had given him a comfortable armchair), I could see he wanted to get out of his armchair, as if to say, "Now I must go." So I simply told him, "You need a little rest"—you should have seen the man's face: immediately everything relaxed. All the while, his fingers were fidgety like this (Mother drums her fingers on the chair's armrest), two fingers of his hand moving non-stop, even though I kept putting Peace and Quietness on him, but still his fingers went on moving, because he was always active inside. And when I told him that, something relaxed in his face and the fingers stopped. But it was very late and everybody was waiting, so after a little while I let him go. It was very interesting: I simply told him, "You need a little rest"—everything stopped.

But mentally, you know ... (Mother makes a gesture: completely obtuse). There is a prince of Kashmir [Karan Singh] who came here once, a young man; he went to England, and there he wrote a thesis on Sri Aurobindo's political life, Sri Aurobindo, Prophet of Indian Nationalism, with a preface by Jawaharlal Nehru. I read the preface, but afterwards, the day after I saw Nehru—it's awful! Understands nothing, he understands nothing, nothing, absolutely obtuse. It's very kind, but written by someone who understands nothing.... I'll tell you the thing: between my first and second visits here [in 1914 and 1920], while I was away in Japan and Gandhi was starting his campaign, he sent a telegram, then a messenger, to Sri Aurobindo here, asking him to be president of the Congress—to which Sri Aurobindo answered "No."

Those people never forgave him.

Yes, he [Nehru] never understood why Sri Aurobindo did not resume his political life.

No. And then, you see, he takes Gandhi's asceticism for spiritual life—always the same mistake! There's no way to pull them out of it. Unfortunately, the entire world has caught the same idea.

Then when there was that Cripps affair, I believe it was Nehru (or Gandhi, I don't remember which of the two) who said, "He has withdrawn from political life, why is he meddling! It's none of his business." They never forgave him. That is to say, completely obtuse, unable to understand that one can have a knowledge higher than practical knowledge.

There you are.

Do you see new threats hanging over India?

The Chinese? I don't know. There's a lot of talk about them....

But the Chinese are fairly receptive, despite their Communism. They are receptive to an idea of human goodwill, in the sense that they think their political organization is the best from a human point of view, and therefore they would like the whole world to adopt it—there is a sincerity in their conviction, they believe it's the best way of life. They are not entirely ill-willed. And they are very intelligent.

At any rate, they had the power to do whatever they liked [last October, at India's defenceless northern borders], yet they did nothing.

Yes, that was extraordinary!

(Mother smiles) Not quite extraordinary. But anyway, it's proof of a certain receptivity.

They'd rather have a mental and political domination than wage war. They aren't bent on slaughtering people, you understand....

And Nehru, you see (that's what Pavitra³⁰ told me yesterday, he went to the town hall to listen to Nehru's speech), Nehru is an out-and-out social democrat who believes that the ideal organization for mankind, instead of only an "elite" being able to progress, is that the entire masses should progress (as if they wanted to! ... But anyway). It's an idea—everyone has his own ideas. But then it seems that when the Chinese attacked, it was a violent blow to his conviction: he thought it impossible that the Chinese would do such a thing (!) He was very deeply affected.³¹

Mother's Agenda: June 15, 1963