This is a programme for you for this year. I want this year to be a year of decisive progress for you. And then, do you see this? (Mother gives me a card. ³) I have written something for you.

Une prière à répéter le matin et le soir,
suivie de quelques minutes de concentration

A prayer to be repeated morning and evening
followed by a few minutes of concentration

Read the prayer that is written at the bottom:

Comme une flamme qui brûle silencieusement . . .
mon amour va vers Toi

Like a flame that burns in silence . . .
my love goes to Thee

Do you see this flame? It is the flame of aspiration. It is dynamic and it rises and rises . . . It is the psychic flame.

Do you see how beautiful it is? And now it will be the programme for you. Every day when you get up in the morning and at night before you go to sleep, take this card and keep it in front of you and read the prayer at the bottom. Then concentrate for five minutes or more.

Concentrate on the flame and not on anything else. You must not think of a thousand other things — your ego, your vanity, your little activities which have no value. Instead, concentrate only on the flame until you can concentrate sincerely. No vital vibrations or impulses should enter into you. You have to wear an armour of purity so that nothing can enter from outside. You have to remain pure and throw far away from you all that comes from outside to disturb you. Pay no attention to it, but look straight at the flame with a fixed and determined gaze. Gradually, you will see that everything around you will disappear, and you will see nothing but the flame.

Or else you can concentrate on the flame, and repeat Ma . . . Ma . . . Ma . . . Ma . . . until you can manage to concentrate only on one point and all the rest disappears from the consciousness. Then you can identify yourself with the flame — the flame that is a portion of the Eternal Flame — Agni or the Soul. It is the flame of aspiration, the flame that purifies everything, the forerunner that marches straight ahead in front of everything.

It is Agni. It is this that burns all the imperfections, the movements of the ego and the ignorance. It is this that is our aspiration, our purification, this that lifts us above our littleness and makes us rise into the full illumination of the Supreme. Into this flame we can pour all our imperfections, our littlenesses and the movements of our ego. As long as we pour into it all our imperfections it grows brighter. There is no end, just as there is no end to aspiration. As long as we aspire, it burns.

But Mother, what does this flame represent?

It is Agni, it is that which aspires, purifies and transforms.

It is the sun, it is that which burns up all that delays or disturbs or pulls downwards. It is that which guides you straight, which indicates the good and rejects the bad. It is the most destructive flame in the world — all that comes to bar its way, it destroys. It is the flame of Divine Love. It is that which makes you sincere and straight and gives you the ardour for progress. Tapas and perseverance are its qualities.

It is the beneficial flame without which you can advance no further. With this flame, the divine help begins. When you are conscious of this flame, no harm can come to you.

19 January 1961