Inclusion
(Mother to Shyam Sundar:) “According to my experience, one should not try to destroy or eliminate. One should concentrate all one's effort on building up and strengthening the true consciousness and it is this consciousness that will automatically do the work of unifying the being.
In this way, everything that has to be transformed will be transformed quite naturally without clash or damage.”[1]
(Udar Pinto:) “There was once someone very close to the Mother who had been a very sweet person at one time but had become, for some reason, unbearably difficult. Unbearable to all of us, but the Mother did bear everything; and to us who saw this, it was extremely distressing. Then I broke down. I could not take it any more. I felt that somehow or other I must take a drastic step to save the Mother from the pain She had to endure. I did not care for the consequences to myself. The Mother came to know of my desperate decision and took me up about it. She did not scold me at all; rather She understood the motive behind it. But She showed me how foolish was my idea. She asked me if I did not know how sweet the person had been before and then the change had come. She told me why there had been the change. It was because the person became possessed by an Asura, not just any Asura but the most powerful one, whom the Mother called ‘Le Seigneur des Nations’ (‘The Lord of Nations’). It was that Asura's mission to destroy the world. I asked the Mother how She could tolerate such an Asura in the Ashram. Surely She had the power to drive him away? The Mother said that he was in the Ashram because She wanted it so. In this way She could save the world, by taking the suffering on Herself. That was a great sacrifice of Hers for the world but She did not want to speak about it. Now only can I tell of it. Then the Mother went on to explain that if one killed the possessed person, one would only kill the body of a being who was really very sweet. One could not touch the Asura at all. All one would succeed in doing would be to spoil some other sweet innocent person as the Asura would promptly go on to possess him or her. And finally the Mother explained that the Asura would continue to remain in the Ashram till ultimately he was destroyed or dissolved or perhaps converted. This has happened to some of the other very powerful Asuras.”[2]
- (Shobha Mitra, 1953:) “Mother, how does one reject depression from one's being?
(Mother:) Depression?
- Yes, Mother. When I come to you, I see people spend such a long time with you. They receive so many flowers from you. And when I see all this, I think I am totally unworthy. I feel I will not be able to do your Sadhana. I am not fit for it!
(Mother remains silent for some time, as if She were thinking of something.) To some people, I give a lot of flowers because they have some difficulty, to some people I give more time because of work. This is entirely related to work. Then, there are some people that I keep near me because if they were to remain outside my presence, they would become devils! (After this, the Mother looked into my eyes for some time without uttering a word. Mother's look was most significant.)”[3]
(Janina, 1957:) “Now, it is interesting that Nahar told me first thing that there are also bad people in the Ashram and that I have to be careful. Mother is keeping them as they belong to life and their bad will cannot oppose Her.”[4]
(Mother to Satprem, 1960:) “I have experienced all kinds of things in life, but I have always felt a sort of light – so INTANGIBLE, so perfectly pure (not in the moral sense, but pure light!) – and it could go anywhere, mix everywhere without ever really getting mixed with anything. I felt this flame as a young child – a white flame. And NEVER have I felt disgust, contempt, recoil, the sense of being dirtied – by anything or anyone. There was always this flame – white, white, so white that nothing could make it other than white. And I started feeling it long ago in the past (now my approach is entirely different – it comes straight from above, and I have other reasons for seeing the Purity in everything). But it came back when I met Z (because of the contact with him) – and I felt nothing negative, absolutely nothing. Afterwards, people said, “Oh, how he used to be this, how he used to be that! ... And now look at him! See what he's become! ...” Someone even used the word ‘rotten’ – that made me smile. Because, you see, that doesn't exist for me.
What I saw is this world, this realm where people are like that, they live that, for it's necessary to get out from below and this is a way – it's a way, the only way. It was the only way for the vital formation and the vital creation to enter into the material world, into inert matter. An intellectualized vital, a vital of ideas, an ‘artist’; it even fringes upon or has the first drops of Poetry – this Poetry which upon its peaks goes beyond the mind and becomes an expression of the Spirit. Well, when these first drops fall on earth, it stirs up mud.
And I wondered why people are so rigid and severe, why they condemn others (but one day I'll understand this as well). I say this because very often I run into these two states of mind in my activities (the grave and serious mind which sees hypocrisy and vice, and the religious and yogic mind which sees the illusion that prevents you from nearing the Divine) – and without being openly criticized, I'm criticized ... I'll tell you about this one day …
- (Satprem:) You're criticized?
Yes, but naturally without daring to criticize me openly. But I'm aware of it. On the one hand, they see it as a kind of looseness on my part (oh, not only for that – many things!). And on the other hand, you know well enough; it applies to other things, slightly different areas, it's not exactly the same, but in this area they're also severe. I'm even told that there are some people who shouldn't be in the Ashram.
My reply is that the whole world should be in the Ashram!
But as I cannot contain the whole world, I have to contain at least one representative of each type.
They also find I give too much time and too much force (and maybe too much attention) to people and things that should be regarded with more severity. That never bothered me much. It doesn't matter, they can say what they like.”[5]
(Janina, 1957:) “My patients always tell me a lot about the Ashram and themselves. In a way a nurse gets a chance to get to know people and conditions better than many other people. It is sometimes difficult to believe that Mother accepts all human nature – very human nature – to be cleansed here. You can see people eaten up by desires, some who cheat – like taking extra rations and selling them to have money for a rickshaw or the cinema(!). Some do business for the Ashram and it is not always completely clean. There are people who discuss ‘problems’: yoga, politics, gossip. I have learned never to let a thought of judgment or criticism enter into me in connection with it, because in the middle of it, permeating it all, vibrates and radiates and is continuously doing the work of Transformation – the Supreme. Every single person is being scrubbed and chiselled and cleansed and taught – often with humour.”[6]
(Janina, 1957:) “I continue my conversation with Her: “Thou art playing with me, and playing. I know now Thy masks. Thou shalt not deceive me any more.” And it really helps. My heart becomes light, a joy comes to me and I can smile. I tear down all the masks and there She is in all Her glory. So I smile at Her and prostrate myself before Her in each of them.”[7]
- ↑ En Route (On the Path): The Mother's Correspondence with Shyam Sundar, p.44
- ↑ “Udar Remembers”, The Golden Bridge (compilation), Auropublications, August 1978, p.94
- ↑ Shobha Mitra, Living in the Presence, p.25
- ↑ Janina Stroka, A Captive of Her Love, p.9
- ↑ Mother's Agenda 1951-1960, 8 November 1960
- ↑ Janina Stroka, A Captive of Her Love, p.51
- ↑ Ibid., p.53
See also