India
(Mother to Satprem, 1958:) “There are places that are favorable for occult experiences. Benares is one of these places, the atmosphere there is filled with vibrations of occult forces, and if one has the slightest capacity, it spontaneously develops there, in the same way that a spiritual aspiration develops very strongly and spontaneously as soon as one lands in India. These are Graces. Graces, because it is the destiny of the country, it has been so throughout its history, and because India has always been turned much more towards the heights and the inner depths than towards the outer world. Now, it is in the process of losing all that and wallowing in the mud, but that's another story ... it was like that and it is still like that. And in fact, when you returned from Rameswaram with your robes, I saw with much satisfaction that there was still a GREAT dignity and a GREAT sincerity in this endeavor of the Sannyasis towards the higher life and in the self-giving of a certain number of people to realize this higher life. When you returned, it had become a very concrete and a very real thing that immediately commanded respect. Before, I had seen only a copy, an imitation, an hypocrisy, a pretention – nothing that was really lived. But then, I saw that it was true, that it was lived, that it was real and that it was still India's great heritage. I don't believe it is very prevalent now, but in any case, it is still there, and as I told you, it commands respect. ”[1]
(Serge Brelin:) “How many travellers, when they walked upon the soil of India for the first time, haven't felt themselves immediately at home, as if they were coming back after a long absence? How many of them, when wandering aimlessly in the cities of India, carried by the multitude, haven't felt themselves melt into a very gentle and very ancient rhythm, which was like the heart of their hearts? How many seekers, how many wanderers, in quest of a true sense to their life, haven't turned towards her as towards a mother, for they felt that she possessed the answer that could at last appease their anguish and quench their thirst? As if the atmosphere of the whole country, from the Himalayas to Kanyakumari, was full of an ineffable ‘something’ that gives to human existence a vibrant and warm and loving depth, at last full of meaning.
... Indeed, one can feel that, behind the present appearances so contrary to the beauty of its sculptures and temples, and at times so revolting, there vibrates a sacred and mighty Presence.”[2]
- (Shyam Sundar, 1970:) “Mother has told Pradyot that the protection of India lies in the descent of the Force from above.
So, Mother, all comes back to Yoga.
(Mother:) India is the holder of Yogic knowledges, but this knowledge had been covered by materialism. Sri Aurobindo has awakened it; now it only remains to spread it.”[3]
(Sri Aurobindo, 1910:) “Europe is now discovering this soul-force, though it does not believe in it wholly and has not the inclination to rely and act on that faith. But at the root of India's education, culture, glory, strength is this soul-force. Every time people thought the end of the Indian people was imminent, from its hidden source the soul-force has flooded and revitalised the dying race, created adequate and ancillary strength. That source has not dried yet, that marvellous, deathless power is still at play.”[4]
- (Interviewer:) “During that tour of India's roads, did anything special happen to you? Did you see any particular sign? Were you struck by a particular incident? ...
(Satprem:) I don't know. Yes... something struck me.
In the course of all my travels, I went to the Ganges, toward the source of the Ganges – not right at the source, but high enough up the Ganges, high up the Ganges. And as always in my life, I loved rocks. I like stones. I like rocks. For me rocks have a life of their own.
And I had picked up a rock in the Ganges that I found quite beautiful. I had kept that rock with me. And on my return journey, one day I was given shelter near a railway station. A nice man who was – I don't know, something to do with railways, maybe a ticket collector or something; at any rate, he had a little job with the railways. He lived next to the tracks with his wife, two or three children, and his old mother was also there. And they gave me shelter.
And, I don't know why, I pulled out my rock.
And the old mother kept looking at that rock. She kept looking at it; I don't know why.
Spontaneously I took the rock and gave it to her. And I said to her, “I got it in the Ganges.”
Whereupon that... old woman put the rock before her on the floor and placed her forehead on it. It was so simple, so moving to see the... love with which that woman put her forehead on that rock from the Ganges.
I don't know, that touched me very much.”[5]
- (Question from “The Illustrated Weekly of India”, 1965:) “If you were asked to sum up, just in one sentence, your vision of India, what would be your answer?
(Mother:) India’s true destiny is to be the Guru of the world.”[6]
- (Questions from an Education Commission of the Government of India, 1965:) “1. In view of the present and the future of national and international living, what is it that India should aim at in education?
(Mother:) Prepare her children for the rejection of falsehood and the manifestation of Truth.
- 2. By what steps could the country proceed to realise this high aim? How can a beginning in that direction be made?
Make matter ready to manifest the Spirit.
- 3. What is India’s true genius and what is her destiny?
To teach to the world that matter is false and impotent unless it becomes the manifestation of the Spirit.”[7]
(Mother, 1965:) “It's predestined.
There aren't two like this one; it is true that there aren't two countries alike, but the others are all sorts of different things on the same plane, while this is found only here.
It's something you breathe in with the country's atmosphere.
I had this experience very, very strongly. When I left here [in 1915], as I got farther away, I felt as if emptied of something, and once in the Mediterranean, I wasn't able to bear it any longer: I fell ill. And even in Japan, which outwardly is a marvelous country – marvelously beautiful and harmonious (it WAS, I don't know what it is nowadays), and outwardly it was a joy every minute, a breathtaking joy, so strong was the expression of beauty – yet I felt empty, empty, empty, I absolutely lacked ... (Mother opens her mouth as though suffocating) ... I lacked the important Thing. And I found it again only when I came back here.”[8]
- ↑ Mother's Agenda 1951-1960, 22 November 1958
- ↑ At the feet of Mother India: A selection of poems, writings and speeches illustrated with photographs, Editions Auroville Press International, 1997, p.9
- ↑ En Route (On the Path): The Mother's Correspondence with Shyam Sundar, p.149
- ↑ Bengali Writings Translated into English, p.250, “Our Hope”
- ↑ Satprem, My Burning Heart: Interview by Frédéric de Towarnicky, p.75
- ↑ Agenda, 7 August 1965
- ↑ On Education, p.250
- ↑ Mother's Agenda 1965, 29 September 1965
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