India - the Mother

November 17, 1962

(Mother relates a vision she had just before China launched its attack on India.)

Quite recently, just before the present conflict broke out, I went to a realm in the vital world which is right above the earth, like a platform (not a mountain top, but a spot where you get an overall view, like the bridge of a ship, for instance, where the captain stands ; it was a place like that in the vital world, overlooking all terrestrial life). I went there—it was rather dark, very dark in fact.... From there you saw everything like that, in a circle. And no sooner did I arrive than a storm broke out—a terrible storm. I kept watching, and then I saw in this direction (Mother points northward), I saw two flashes of lightning, not quite simultaneous. The first one (I was looking north, I was quite conscious of looking north), the first one came from the east, it struck like a terrific bolt; and just a moment after, very soon after, another came from the west. The two didn't come together, but they fell on the same spot. It was pitch dark (everything was dark, the earth too was dark, you couldn't see a thing), and suddenly those two flashes of lightning lit up the area where they fell, making a dreadful din, and (the field of vision was confined to that area; all the rest was in darkness) ... it burst into flames! Everything was set ablaze. In the lightning flashes you could see the tops of monuments, houses, all sorts of things, and then everything burst into flames : a dreadful conflagration.

... I kept absolutely still; everything was still, calm, motionless.... And then I stopped everything, like this (Mother remains as still as a statue, fists clenched). And very soon afterwards (I can't say exactly because time there isn't the same as here), very soon afterwards, everything stopped....¹⁹ The storm's only purpose was to cause the two thunderbolts, and it stopped after they fell on the earth. And then the flames ... the whole area was set ablaze (it was like a huge city, but it wasn't a city: it was certainly symbolic of a country): vroom! It burst into flames; some flames were leaping up very, very high. But I simply did this, stopped everything (Mother remains motionless, eyes closed, fists clenched), and then looked out once again—everything had returned to order....

I believe they began fighting up there two or three days after it happened.

[Satprem Was it India that was struck?]

Yes, of course, it was India.

... And then there have been certain political problems.²⁰ All this made for a bit of work, which turned out rather well. But it's always mixed, never the full thing; there's always a result, but not THE result.... In the present conditions on earth, I think "the" result is impossible: it would be a miracle that would upset too many things. The consequences would be worse than ...

I don't know, I have the feeling that humanity isn't ready for peace and needs to be shaken up.

Yes, unfortunately it's not ready.
They're falling into a stupor.

They're falling into a stupor, lulling themselves with their non-violence, their petty morality.... Humanity isn't ready.

It's a pity.

Because it can put things back thousands of years.... For there are moments when things converge, and in this history it is rare to have a MOMENT: it stretches over long, long, almost indefinite periods of time. So to get a MOMENT that becomes something actual in terrestrial life (Mother drives her fist into the Earth) is very difficult. And if that moment is passed by, is missed

(After a long silence) But strangely enough, ever since these people began fighting up there [on the Himalayan border], the earth has been more receptive.

Yet people have fought before—people have fought everywhere, haven't they? Since the last [world] war they have never stopped fighting in one place or another: in Africa, in Asia, just everywhere. They've been constantly fighting. There was always something, constantly. This whole Algerian affair ... frightful things went on there:²¹ and all the trouble in the Congo and so forth—fighting everywhere. But ... I don't know why (it's not that I wasn't concerned with those events, they were in my consciousness), but this time two things have happened: a greater Power has descended (very concretely so, almost tangible), a great Power has descended, has been sent purposely; and also a certain receptivity—everywhere, even in the Chinese (I don't mean it is local : it's in all parts of the world). Is there, materially, some anxiety at the idea that ...? If a new world war starts, clearly it's going to be something unspeakable, frightful, frightful—whole civilizations will be engulfed. It will put a stop to life on earth in a terrible way. Is that what made people ... what has awakened some aspiration? Possibly. There's clearly a greater receptivity. I see this from the fact that whenever the Will spreads out (Mother makes a gesture of emanation), well, it has a more concrete effect, and more immediate.

The other conflicts were really very superficial, like diseases —skin diseases!... That was the impression : a very localized disease (anyone can catch it, but it's still very localized). While here, this conflict [between China and India] seems to have FUNDAMENTALLY disrupted something—profoundly. Is it because people THINK it may have a global consequence?... I don't know. Or is it really the first sign of something very ... very momentous?...

Have you read Sri Aurobindo's last letters on China?²²

Oh, yes—he himself read them to me! (Mother laughs.)

But everything Sri Aurobindo said has always come true. You know he also said (but it was in jest, he didn't write it) ... about India's reuniting with Pakistan, he told me : "Ten years. It will take ten years." The ten years passed and nothing happened—OFFICIALLY nothing happened. But the truth is (I learned it from government people), Pakistan did make overtures for a reunion, asking for a union to be re-established (they would have kept some sort of autonomy, but the two countries would have UNITED, it would have been a UNION), and it was Nehru who refused.

How foolish of him!

So Sri Aurobindo had seen it.

He had seen that it was so. After ten years, when that man who headed Pakistan died, they found themselves in great difficulty and unable to organize themselves;²³ so they sent somebody (not officially, of course, unofficially) to ask India to re-establish a union on certain bases—but they refused, the Indians refused. It was a repetition of the same blunder as when Cripps came to make his proposal and Sri Aurobindo sent a message saying, "Accept whatever the conditions, otherwise it will be worse later on." That's what Sri Aurobindo told them. Gandhi was there and he replied, "Why is that man meddling? He should be concerned only with spiritual life."²⁴

They have conscientiously ruined the country.

Yes.

Yes, as much as they could.... They have acted in an absolutely stupid way all along. Out of ambition, vanity, all sorts of things, but especially out of stupidity and a total lack of understanding—a blind vision, going no farther than their noses.

Mother's Agenda: November 17, 1962