India - the Mother

October 30, 1962

I met a Chinese a few years ago, a man with a spiritual life. He came to meet me and talked for an hour about China. It made me understand China externally as if I had been born and lived my whole life there. I saw they were people who have attained the summit of the intellect, and with a creative power—inventors. He told me, "No people in the world could understand Sri Aurobindo intellectually as well as the Chinese." And it was luminously true. An intellectual understanding up above, all the way up.

When it comes to doing a yoga, it's another story ... That must be a purely individual question. The Chinese don't have the same spiritual intensity you find rooted in the depths of the Indian nature—it's something completely different. Here, spiritual life is something real, concrete, tangible—totally real. For the Chinese, it takes place up there, at the top of the head.

They're not going to come here, are they?

I hope not!

They are people with no sensitivity.... They are still ice-cold. Difficult.

But they might come into contact with Sri Aurobindo's thought—not their troops!! I don't know whether the new Chinese are much interested in philosophy ... It's better they don't come!

Mother's Agenda: October 30, 1962