20 November 1973

On 20 November 1973 at 8. 20 a.m., the Mother’s physical body, which was kept in state since the early hours of 18 November, was put to rest in the Samadhi. The description of the Mother’s last journey from the Meditation Hall to the Samadhi vault, which was published in the November-December (1973) issue of Mother India, the Ashram journal, is as follows:

“A casket was made of one-inch-thick rosewood and the inside was lined with a pure silver sheet and over this was a lining of felt and then white silk satin. On the lid of the casket was fixed a symbol of the Mother in pure gold.

At 8.00 a.m. on the 20th November, the Mother’s body was laid in the casket, which was then covered and sealed hermetically.

The casket was carried to the Samadhi and lowered into the chamber just above the vault in which Sri Aurobindo’s body had been laid in 1950. Nolini and André scattered some rose petals over the casket and concrete slabs were placed to cover the chamber. There was then a meditation for about ten minutes.

A running commentary on the event was given by All India Radio. After the meditation, wreaths and bouquets of flowers were laid on the Samadhi by the Government of Pondicherry, the French Consul and others…”

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Nolini Kanta Gupta’s Message for 17 November 1973

A few hours after the Mother left her physical body on 17 November 1973 at 7.25 p.m. Nolini Kanta Gupta had issued two statements.

 (1)

 “The Mother’s body belonged to the old creation. It was meant to be the pedestal of the New Body. It served its purpose well. The New Body will come.

     This is a test, how far we are faithful to Her, true to Her Consciousness.

     The revival of the body would have meant revival of the old troubles in the body. The body troubles were eliminated so far as could be done while in the body—farther was not possible. For a new mutation, a new procedure was needed. “Death” was the first stage in that process.”

                                                         (2)

“Sweet Mother,

      Your physical body belonged to the old creation because you wanted to be one with your children. You wanted this body to uphold the New Body you were building upon it, and it gave you the service you asked of it. You will come with your New Body.

     Your children’s, the world’s call and aspiration, love and consecration are laid at your feet in gratitude.”

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Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya’s Talk on the Last Days of the Mother 

Dear Friends, 

Being advised by my elders and with their blessings, as well as requested by my friends, brothers and sisters, I now present myself in front of you to say a few words about our Mother. 

I must tell you from the beginning that what I shall relate will be what I have seen and felt personally. I am sure, another person in my place would have seen and felt in a different way and I do not wish to go into a controversy about it. I shall be faithful to my own feelings and observations. 

After Mother left Her body on the 17th of November, I have met people in small groups and answered their questions. I have now an idea what pattern of questions people generally bring. I shall take up some of them and try to say all that I know. 

The first thing people ask is: “Please tell us something about the last days of Mother.” 

All of you know that at the beginning of April this year the Mother became unwell while She was giving blessings. We stopped it as well as the special interviews. She took to Her bed, She rested more and after a few days She became a little better. She wanted to see people again as usual, but immediately She understood that it was no longer possible. So She saw only a dozen people, who used to come to Her daily for work. She went on attending to it. 

It continued like that for some time but, to be exact, on the 20th of May, at about 9:30 p.m. when I had just gone out from Her room to the terrace after Champaklalji had come in, I was suddenly called to see what had happened to the Mother. I found Her extremely restless, a bit dejected and, I must say, annoyed with Herself. At least that was what I saw, what I felt. She said she didn’t have any control over Her body. From then, She completely stopped seeing people and almost all the time remained in Her bed with Her eyes closed. In the beginning, She refused to take any food or drink, but somehow we persuaded Her to take them. It kept going on in this way. 

According to the advice of Dr. Sanyal we were to give Her about 20 to 25 ozs. of food everyday. It consisted of a little vegetable soup, milk with some protein compound, a paste made of almonds, mushrooms, artichokes or things like that and some fruit juice at the end. She took them all right; and sometimes the quantity was just what the doctor had suggested, sometimes it was more, at other times less. All those who were in the courtyard below must have heard how we had to fight with Her to make Her eat a little. This continued for quite a long time. On the 10th of November, we noticed that a kind of hiccup had developed. 

Actually, we had seen this kind of hiccup about eight or ten days before, but that had lasted for a short while. This time, I noticed this hiccup coming soon after Her lunch, I think it was at 12:30 p.m. or so, and in the evening when She started taking Her dinner it was still there. Then the doctor examined Her and found that Her blood-pressure was very low, Her heart extremely weak and there was a frequent missing of beats. In fact, the heart started failing from that time. That day and on the following two days She took very little food. On the night of the 13th, at about 10 o’clock, She told me to lift Her shoulders up from the bed. From 10th November onward She remained absolutely in bed. After the doctor had examined Her he said we should not bring Her out of the bed any more. On the 13th night, at about 10 o’clock, She asked me to just lift up Her shoulders so that She might be for a little while in a sitting position. I did so. Afterwards, She told us to lift Her legs also a little. I did that, too. Then She said Her whole body must be lifted up from the bed. With Champaklalji on one side and I on the other, we lifted Her. I noticed that She was finding it very comfortable. But we could not hold Her in that position for long. After a few seconds we lowered Her. 

I must tell you that She had developed some bed-sores on Her back, on Her hips and on other parts of Her body. She was remaining constantly in one position, semi-reclined, leaning on the raised back of the bed. That habit She had formed probably from Her early youth or childhood. As She lay only in one position, we could not give relief to the parts concerned. And our lifting Her must have given Her some comfort. She asked that night, after every ten, fifteen or twenty minutes, to lift Her up. So the whole night, from 10 to 4 o’clock, every few minutes, Champaklalji and myself kept lifting Her up from the bed. At 4 o’clock She went to sleep. 

That day, the l4th, She was more or less normal. She took some food and the day passed quite well. Then at night She started telling me again to raise Her shoulders, Her legs and later Her whole body. We did that several times. Then She said, “Make me walk.” We were very hesitant, but as She insisted, we lifted Her up from the bed. She could not walk, staggered a little, almost collapsed. Seeing this, we put Her back in bed. We saw that Her face had become absolutely white and the lips blue. Then we decided that whatever She said, we must not take Her out from the bed again to walk. She took about twenty minutes to recover; She started saying, “Lift me up again, I shall walk.” We refused. She asked us why we were refusing. We said, “Mother, you are in such a weak condition that it will do you harm.” Then She said, “No, lift me up.” We did not. She began to plead, sometimes shout. All this continued until fifteen minutes past one. At that time we thought we would give Her some sedative, so that She might rest quietly. Then we gave Her Siquil as the doctor had prescribed. It took Her about 45 minutes to become quiet and She slept from 2 to 4 o’clock, but after getting up She started saying, “Pranab, lift me up and make me walk. My legs are getting paralysed; if you help me to walk again, they will become all right.” But we did not listen. After the first frightening experience, we had to remain quiet. She went on entreating till about 6 o’clock when She fell asleep. 

The 15th passed off quite well. She took more food than usual. At night again She began asking me to lift Her up. We lifted Her up, then She wanted us to help Her to walk, we refused to do that. We said, “Mother, you should not walk.” She immediately obeyed us. We had to lift Her up several times and the night passed smoothly. 

That was on the 15th. From that day She became absolutely obedient. Whatever we told Her She did; She ate the food we gave and She did whatever we suggested. The l6th also passed nicely. 

The 17th morning passed very well. Every morning we gave Her a laxative. She took it without any objection that day. Her breakfast She took very well, lunch also. Then when Kumud and Champaklalji had left after Her lunch, I was with Her; I noticed that She was making some strange sounds, and sometimes lifting Her hands, but as She used to do this often in Her sleep, I did not pay much attention. I left at 2 o’clock, for Champaklalji and Kumud came. I reported to them what I had seen. When I came back at 5 o’clock, Champaklalji told me that he had seen the same thing, but sometimes the Mother had been shouting a little louder. I was with Her from 5 to 6:30. At 6:30 Champaklalji and Kumud came. While I was leaving, the Mother called me and said, “Lift me up.” Again from two sides Champaklalji and I caught hold of Her hand and lifted Her up. Then we lowered Her on the bed and I left. At that time Kumud as usual asked Her if She would take a few spoons of glucose water. The Mother said, “Lift me up.” Kumud lifted Her shoulders up. The Mother wanted that Her whole body should be lifted. So that was done. After She had been lowered on the bed, André came in. A few minutes later Kumud noticed that there was some sound coming from Her throat and the head was moving in a certain way which she did not like. She consulted Champaklalji and then sent for Dr. Sanyal and for me. 

I arrived at about five past seven and saw that Dr. Sanyal was already there examining Her. Dyumanbhai also had come. I went and felt the Mother’s pulse. It was still there, beating at long intervals. There was still some respiration. But slowly everything stopped. The doctor gave an external heart massage to Her. It had no effect. Then he declared that the Mother had left Her body. This was at 7:25 p.m. Then, being present and feeling my responsibility, I thought what I should do. At that time, there were present André, Champaklalji, Dr. Sanyal, Dyumanbhai, Kumud and myself. I talked with André and told him that I wanted to wait for some time and then take the Mother’s body down, place it in the Meditation Hall for people to see. We would keep the body in such a way that it was not disturbed, then we would decide what to do. André agreed to my proposal. He wanted to remain with us but as he was not well I suggested that he should go home and take rest and come back the next day. He left. We remained there and discussed what to do. 

Now we thought that if people immediately came to know about the Mother’s passing there would be a big rush, and the crowd would all clamour to see Her. There would be noise and shouting and a tremendous confusion. So we thought of keeping the event secret for some time. Also Dr. Sanyal said that we must not disturb the body in any way for several hours. So the Mother was left as She was and after 11 o’clock, when the gate of the Ashram was closed, we cleaned Her body with Eau de Cologne, put a nice dress on Her, arranged everything and then Dyumanbhai and I went down and called Nolinida. Nolinida came up, saw everything, and asked what we were going to do. I mentioned my plans to him. He said the Mother had once told him that if it looked to us that She had left Her body we should not be in a hurry, but see that Her body was properly kept, and then wait. I said, “We are just about to do the same. We have cleaned Her, otherwise ants and insects would have come. We have put on Her a new dress and we shall carry Her quietly, carefully downstairs and lay Her in the Meditation Hall. After some time we shall call people.” He agreed to our proposal. We came down—Dyumanbhai, Bulada, Nirodda, Kumud and myself—and arranged the place, with the bed there as you saw. At about 2 o’clock we brought the Mother’s body down, placed Her on the bed, arranged everything. Then I went out, called Mona, told him to come and see me with four other boys, five of my lieutenants, so to say. When they came I explained to them what to do: to call the photographers first, then to call the trustees, then all those who were very close to Her. I told them also to organise volunteers to look after the work that was coming. They went out and did their work wonderfully well. Then, from 3 o’clock the people who had been called started coming. While we were upstairs, we prepared some kind of statement that would go to the Press and to All India Radio so that no wrong information might go out as it had happened some time back. Our draft of the statement we got corrected by Nirodda and gave it to Udar to circulate. At 4:15 in the morning we opened the gate of the Ashram for people to come in and have a last Darshan. You know everything that happened afterwards. 

The next question people ask is: “Did the Mother give you any indication that She was going to leave Her body?” 

To this I would say, “No.” She fought and tried up to the end. She had a tremendous will and She was a great fighter and She fought and tried to do what She had taken upon Herself. She suffered a lot, there was much suffering. Once, a few years back, when She was suffering terribly, She sometimes said that perhaps death would not be so painful, death would perhaps be better. But She never said that She would like to leave Her body. And the explanation for Her suffering, I can give like this: because She resisted, because She fought, She suffered. If She had yielded to what we call natural laws, that is, decay, disintegration and death, there would not have been so much suffering for Her. But that She did not want; She tried, She fought and She suffered and showed us how suffering could be taken. 

Another question asked is: “Did the Mother say anything before leaving Her body?” 

To this also I say, “She said nothing.” In fact, for the last six months that She was confined to bed, She spoke very little. Most of the time She remained with Her eyes closed. At regular intervals we raised Her up from the bed, gave Her food and drink, cleaned Her, put a new dress upon Her… Whatever She said was mostly about Her body—that She was feeling pain, She was feeling cold, She wanted water or we must place Her in such a way that She did not have pain but could be comfortable. This is all that She said. She never said anything about our work, about the Ashram or about anybody. One thing She repeated to me often quite some time back, and to some other persons also. She said that all the work She was doing on Her body could be spoilt in two ways—one, this force She was pulling down on Her could be so strong, so great, that the body would not be able to tolerate it and the body might fail. That was a possibility. The second thing was that if ever She went into a deep trance and it looked to us that She had left her body, then if by mistake we put Her in the Samadhi, that would absolutely spoil Her work. And She gave instructions that we should give the body necessary protection, we should watch, and only when we were absolutely sure that She had left Her body we should put Her in the Samadhi. I think we have done as She wanted. 

About the first possibility that She mentioned, it is left to you to find out and draw your own conclusion. But it is quite certain that She did not want to leave Her body and She worked up to the end. After She had been seriously unwell since the 20th of May, when Dr. Bisht came for the first time to examine Her, She said that She was undergoing a process of transformation, something was happening to Her, she didn’t know what it was, She didn’t know what to do and She asked Dr. Bisht if he could help Her in any way. Naturally, Dr. Bisht, a scientific man, could not see the inner things, and he said, “Mother, to see and tell you what is happening, I must make a big .progress; then only I can give my answer to you.” The Mother immediately said, “Make a big progress!” So from that we can understand how eager She was to continue Her work of physical transformation. 

The next question comes: “Have you seen on Her body any sign of physical transformation?” 

Well, this is an inner process and with our human eyes it is not possible to see anything outwardly. Perhaps, a man with an extraordinarily high spiritual capacity could have seen; but for myself, I did not see anything. During all this time I appreciated how She was trying, and that invincible will of Hers I appreciated so much that I thought that unless one was doing one’s work effectively according to one’s plan one could not have this kind of will, this determination and strength. 

Then I am asked: “What did you feel when the Mother left Her body?” 

Actually, I was holding Her when She left Her body. It looked to me as if a candle was slowly extinguishing. She was very peaceful, extremely peaceful, and when Dr. Sanyal declared that She had left Her body, truly speaking I did not feel any want. Since that time I have felt that my heart is never empty and I feel no want. Another thing, what relieved me much, was that, having seen Her suffering so much, when the end came, to tell the truth, I was quite pleased and thought that at least the suffering had stopped. Her sufferings had to be seen to be believed. Those who were there have seen how She suffered. When that ended, at least for myself I felt that at last She had come out of this agony. And really, I, like many others, don’t feel that She has gone physically. After seeing the message signed by Nolinida, all of us know that She promised to him that if ever She left Her body She would not withdraw Her consciousness. This thing which came now, I think She had prepared me enough for it from quite a long time back. Long before, say, in the year 1948, when Sri Aurobindo was still living, She told me, “I am not willing to go, I will not go, and this time there will be no tragedy; but if it so happens that I leave my body, then put my body under the Service Tree.” At that time there was a kind of brick-made platform on which there were some fern trees. She said to lay Her body there. And when Sri Aurobindo had passed away, She ordered Udar to make two chambers in the Samadhi vault, one upon the other. Then several times She said how She was working, how She was finding resistance and how sometimes She was finding the work difficult; and lately, say, after 15th August 1972, I felt that perhaps what has happened was going to happen. I could not tell anybody and everybody, but to my close associates I said what I was feeling. Afterwards, I felt strongly that it was going to happen, I was counteracting this idea, saying that it should not happen. But behind everything the idea was there. So I was fully prepared from almost the beginning and as I told you that I did not feel any want inside me when She left Her body, so I did not feel any difference. 

Then I have been asked: “What do you think were the causes that made Her leave Her body?” 

It is a very delicate question, very difficult to answer also, but I would say that the physical laws still held tight and they could not be brought under control. That was on one side. One the other side, our insincerity, our unfaithfulness, our deceptions, our treachery. With all these we were throwing lots of mud upon Her and She had to fight on two fronts. On one side She had to fight the onset of decay and old age and on the other She was fighting against this dirt that we were constantly throwing upon Her. But more the failing body I hold responsible for what happened. Often I have seen that she was trying to counteract these forces but when She saw that She could not concentrate much, She could not talk much, She could not write much, She could not see people, She could not do as She wanted, because the body was failing, and the dirt and dust that we were throwing upon Her was increasing, increasing and increasing, I felt and I have seen also some kind of despair and I think these two things were fully responsible. If She had been in good health and if She had possessed a strong body I am sure She would have fought the other side out; but if the heart went wrong, if the kidneys went wrong, if there was trouble in the teeth and gums and other body-areas and if She was losing control over Her body-functionings, She couldn’t do much. So these two factors come to my mind when I am asked what were the causes that made Her leave Her body. But I still think She had not decided—nobody can convince me that She had decided and therefore She left. I think this happened because it could not be otherwise. I am absolutely sure that if She had not the conviction that She would bring the Supramental Transformation in Her present body, She would not have been able to do all the Great Work that She has done. This conviction has made it possible to establish this Truth firmly in the earth- consciousness. For the moment perhaps what has happened is just a postponement of the work that She was doing on Her own body. 

Then I am asked: “Will she come back again in the same body?” 

To this I say—my feeling is—“No.” If she is to come back, there was no necessity of leaving the body. And the body itself was worn out—all the organs worn out by age; and to come inside such a body and to cure all that and to bring back health and youth, I think—it is my feeling—that is not possible. 

Then I am asked: “Will She come back in a new body amongst us?” 

To this I must say, “Certainly.” Throughout the ages, from the beginning of creation, She has come several times, many, many times, to help us progress, to help us go forward, and I think and I am sure, and all of you will agree with me when I say this, that She will come again in the future to lead us further. 

Then somebody has asked me: “Before, whenever we were in trouble, we wrote to Her and She helped us. Now what should we do?” 

To this I must say what She used to tell us constantly. She was telling, “I am installed in all of your hearts. Just be quiet, try to hear what I say inside you and act according to the directions I give. But for that you must be very very sincere and you must allow only the right type of vibration in you.” I think there can be no other solution than this. 

And the last question that I am often asked is: “Do you think we shall be able to go through on the path She has laid down for us?” 

To this I must say: “Yes, if we have a strong aspiration, a strong will, and the maximum of sincerity. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo came to us and They have shown us our goal. They have brought down the necessary powers into this world so that this goal may be reached. They have given instructions, which if we follow, we are sure to go forward, and They have given all their support and blessings to us. So, being the Mother’s children, I don’t see why we should not be able to go through. Truly speaking, the Truth and the Power, the Truth that They have established upon earth and the Power They have brought down for the implementation of that Truth, are spread throughout the length and breadth of our country and the whole world, and I am sure that wherever there will be sufficient sincerity, sufficient aspiration, this Truth will work itself out, and this Truth will be realised. But staying in the Ashram, we are in a more privileged position. We have seen Them, we have heard Them, we were personally guided by Them and I am sure that it would be easier for us to walk on Their path here in the Ashram where They have created a suitable atmosphere. I think two things are absolutely necessary. We can already feel there are people who want to see us disintegrated, they would be very happy if we are all demolished. To them we can give a fitting answer if we remain strictly on the path of Truth. This will enable us to get the maximum protection from the Mother and Sri Aurobindo and there is no power on earth that can harm us in any way. The second thing that we must do is to remain strongly united, forgetting “I” and “Mine” and replacing them by “We” and “Ours”.

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Udar Pinto’s Talk on the Mother’s Mahasamadhi 

I have come at the invitation of Seyril and others to give a talk but I have come not to talk to you but with you and to find out things together. 

First let us see what happened to the Mother on the 17th November and the events leading up to it. Pranab has given a talk at the Playground on this and as you were not allowed to attend I asked him to give me a typescript of his talk and he said he would but evidently forgot to do so. Pranab spoke largely of things that happened on the surface. He made it quite clear himself that he would speak only of what he saw and give his own impressions of it. So he talked of the Mother’s physical condition, of how She first retired on the 2nd April, 1973, and then started seeing some people again and finally stopped seeing anyone from the 21st May. Then the Mother became very withdrawn and was only concerned, if at all, with elementary things like food, walking, etc. All these matters are not so important to talk of now and, as Pranab’s talk will appear in print, all can read it some time. But it is important to look at his conclusions. 

To begin with, I feel he made an omission which is very significant for me. He did not do this deliberately but it is nonetheless meaningful. He explained how the Mother, being quite withdrawn and fighting constantly from within for the physical transformation, was quite unaware of anything else happening around Her. Yet, on the morning of 15th August, I understand, She suddenly asked what date it was and when informed of it and asked if She would give Darshan that day, She agreed. So one can see how alive was Her consciousness to things that really are important. She was not occupied with elementary bodily needs. 

Another point—and this is of the utmost importance—is Pranab’s conclusion that although the Mother fought to the very end for the transformation of Her present physical body, it was the natural process of death that finally prevailed. 

On this point I would like to dwell. The Mother had always foreseen the possibility that She might have to leave Her body. This is clear in some of the things She has said as they appeared in the Bulletin. And also Sri Aurobindo has written of this clearly in The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth, in the chapter of “The Divine Body” and the next one. He has shown two possibilities. One is of transforming the present human body into a Superhuman body—a body still human but a super one. The other relates to a Supramental body. The Superhuman body would be a big step towards the Supramental body. But the Supramental body would be realised by a new process—not by that of birth and growth as now but by some sort of materialization into the physical from a subtle stuff, a kind of projection. The process has yet to be established and so is not yet known. 

Now my own feeling is that the Mother first tried for Her body to become super-human almost up to the very end but at last She decided to give up the attempt and made the second choice. I base this feeling on what Pranab said of the Mother’s last moments: how She who had evidently and visibly been fighting for transformation suddenly became quiet and peaceful for sometime before the end. This, I feel, is the moment She took Her momentous decision. I myself cannot accept that what happened to the Mother was not the result of Her decision. It is quite contrary to all I knew of Her from personal intimate knowledge. You know that for many years together with Pranab we used to have our lunch with the Mother and, with Pavitra added, we had dinner with Her. At these times She told us many things—sometimes at dinner She spoke for an hour or two. Thus there are many things I know personally of what the Mother said. So I can affirm from this knowledge that She left Her body by Her own decision and not by the usual process of nature. 

Now the question arises: “Why didn’t the Mother choose the second alternative in the first place but, instead, and for so long, the painful part of transforming Her present body?” I feel it was because the way of transformation, if once achieved by Her, would open the path to others to follow—those who were prepared to do so, whereas the other way of projecting a Supramental body is still unknown and that means it would be very delaying and so She deliberately chose a path easier for those of us who want to follow Her. This entailed a terrible and unbelievable physical suffering for Her body and this was Her Great Sacrifice for us for which we must be eternally grateful. The path of transformation is itself quite long. First, the physical cells have to stop decaying. Each cell, of which the body is built up, has an inbuilt principle of growth and then of decay—senility. The first step is to stop this decay and the second to establish again a regrowth. The whole process would take two to three hundred years, the Mother once explained to me, but even such a period would be quite short for so tremendous a change. The first step is itself very difficult and that is what She set out to do. But the task was formidable as the Mother had not only to contend with the established laws of nature but also with all the weaknesses and follies of all of us. We did not help Her at all but rather hindered Her with our troubles and problems and, worst of all, our quarrels. Our filth and dirt we threw upon Her and, as our Mother, She took everything upon Herself from Her children, blind and stupid though we were. 

A very striking passage from Savitri makes very clear the Mother’s work for the transformation. There Narad speaks about Savitri to the Queen whose daughter she is. I shall recite the passage to you: 

A day may come when she must stand unhelped

On a dangerous brink of the world’s doom and hers,

Carrying the world’s future on her lonely breast,

Carrying the human hope in a heart left sole

To conquer or fail on a last desperate verge.

Alone with death and close to extinction’s edge,

Her single greatness in that last dire scene,

She must cross alone a perilous bridge in Time

And reach an apex of world-destiny

Where all is won or all is lost for man.

In that tremendous silence lone and lost

Of a deciding hour in the world’s fate,

In her soul’s climbing beyond mortal time

When she stands sole with Death or sole with God

Apart upon a silent desperate brink,

Alone with her self and death and destiny

As on some verge between Time and Timelessness

When being must end or life rebuild its base,

Alone she must conquer or alone must fall.

No human aid can reach her in that hour,

No armoured God stand shining at her side.

Cry not to heaven, for she alone can save.

For this the silent Force came missioned down;

In her the conscious Will took human shape:

She only can save herself and save the world.

O queen, stand back from that stupendous scene,

Come not between her and her hour of Fate.

Her hour must come and none can intervene:

Think not to turn her from her heaven-sent task,

Strive not to save her from her own high will.

Thou hast no place in that tremendous strife;

Thy love and longing are not arbiters there,

Leave the world’s fate and her to God’s sole guard.

Even if he seems to leave her to her lone strength,

Even though all falters and falls and sees an end

And the heart fails and only are death and night,

God-given her strength can battle against doom

Even on a brink where Death alone seems close

And no human strength can hinder or can help.

Think not to intercede with the hidden Will,

Intrude not twixt her spirit and its force

But leave her to her mighty self and Fate. 

Here I should like you to mark the words: “Even though… the heart fails.” As you know, the cause of the Mother’s passing is officially declared to have been heart-failure. 

Now rather than dwell too long on what has happened let us see what we have to do. This, you will all agree with me, is much more important. So I shall stop at this stage and invite questions on the first part before going on to the next. All right? Questions, please. 

Question: Can it be said that, by the Mother’s not transforming Her present body, there is a setback for man? 

Answer: I do not feel it so. Because we did not collaborate, the Mother had to take the other alternative. So there is no setback. It is only that we have to wait for the new process to be developed. 

Question: Should we now stop trying for physical transformation ourselves? 

Answer: I do not see it that way. The Mother has constantly stressed the limitless possibilities that exist. She has said that it is a habit of the human mind to pose two alternatives—this or that—but the spiritual view is global and sees endless possibilities. In this view there is no reason why someone should not now succeed in transforming a human body to a Superhuman one. The Mother has opened a pathway for us to follow, by Her great work. The Divine may take someone to His end. 

Question: Why did not Mother announce Her decision? 

Answer: It is not the way of Sri Aurobindo or the Mother to make announcements. The Mother has given messages to this effect: “No words—Acts”, “Don’t announce. Realise”, etc. Sri Aurobindo also did not announce to us His decision to leave His body though He had told the Mother about it. He said that He had to pass through the experience of death to be able to work on this side. That is why all the medical treatment given to him was quite ineffective against His decision. 

Now let us come to what we have to do. But first let us see what we should not do though this way seems a negative approach. 

The Mother has given several warnings on what we should avoid and I remember many things She said. But I will, for this meeting, reduce it to three serious warnings. 

First, the Mother warned us against trying to see and judge things and happenings by the mind. This is what we continue to do—even here at this meeting. We should rather go deep within ourselves, right to the Soul or Spirit, and try to understand, or rather experience, from there. Let this be our constant aspiration. 

The second warning is that we should avoid strictly the dangerous tendency of turning all of Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s work into a religion. This tendency is pretty strong now. Also, talking of the formation of priest sects, the Mother often pointed out to me how priest sects were already in formation here for arranging flowers on the Samadhi, for sweeping around the Samadhi, etc. 

The third and most serious warning, in my view, is that some of us will try to become Gurus. I remember once Pranab and I, while taking food with the Mother, were making, by way of a joke, a list of “Guru types” in the Ashram. The Mother saw us laughing and asked us to tell Her what we were doing. We were caught and had to tell Her. She laughed. Later She said to me, “And what about you, Udar?” I said, “Mother, please save me from this pit. It is not in my nature to become a guru but please see that I do not ever fall into such a pit.” The Mother answered, “Yes, Udar, it is not in your nature but I warn you that if ever you do fall into such a temptation then wherever you are I will come and break your head.” “Mother,” I prayed, “please do so. I will deserve to have my head broken.” This warning also may go unheeded by some. 

Now, as to what we should do, I feel that first we should try to establish a harmony in our working together, all of us, in the Ashram, in Auroville and between the Ashram and Auroville and all else. But the harmony should not be attempted on the level of ideas however noble. See the example of the United Nations Organisation. It will never succeed at that level. Nor will it succeed for long at the level of the heart which, Sri Aurobindo says, is the seat of conflicting passions—love but also hate and jealousy. It is only on the basis of the Spirit that it will succeed, for the very characteristic of the Spirit is its universality. The Spirit is like an ocean where no one can say that this is my drop and that is yours. 

So we must try from that basis, but we must try with all sincerity. This is most important, as the Mother has so often stressed the paramount need of a pure sincerity as a first step towards spiritual growth. But how to get this sincerity which must be very pure—how to get it in ourselves and in others? It can only be if each one of us takes it up as a great work in our Yoga Sadhana. I am reminded of an occasion when I took to the Mother a very high officer of the Ministry of Finance who asked Her, “How are we to remove corruption from the country?” The Mother replied, “There is only one way, by example.” The man was rather disappointed by what he considered perhaps a platitude. Maybe he expected a Mantra or something like that. But then, several months later, he came back and I took him to the Mother again, and once more he asked the same question and still the Mother gave an identical reply. But She added, “When there is something false I want to change in the Ashram, I work on it in myself first.” This gave me a great shock—to know that our Divine Mother should work on something false within Herself! The shock made me go deep within myself and then an understanding came. It came in a form suitable to my own scientific background though to another it might have come differently. 

If, say, I wanted to remove corruption, then I would have to find some stain that is surely there of this corruption within myself and to work hard to remove it. This would set up a certain vibration. Now, at this point, there may be some eyebrows raised when I say vibrations, yet it is very scientific. All power is transmitted and becomes effective through waves which are vibrations. Sound, light, electricity are transmitted by waves. We have also cosmic waves, etc. There are an infinite number of such waves which are vibrations with a wave length and frequency and amplitude. So if I created a wave with a particular length and frequency attuned to the phenomenon called corruption, this wave would naturally go round the world. Wherever it met a similar phenomenon it would work on it also. If such a wave with a sufficiently large amplitude could be made broadcast it would attack corruption wherever it existed even without the people concerned wanting to be uncorrupt. It may even kill a person if his resistance was too strong. 

When I put this view before the Mother, She said, “Ah, Udar! at last you have understood.” 

So it is how we have to strive for a strong and pure sincerity. 

There again, we can open ourselves to the new force that is now acting in the world and with that strength take up some work or project which is based on the Truth, and we shall have unimaginable support and force behind us. But it must be based on the Truth as it is a Truth-Conscious force and not an unconscious one like, say, nuclear energy—a very powerful material force which can be properly used or misused by man. 

This new force came into effective action from 1970. I remember that at about 4 o’clock in the morning I felt a tremendous force in me. I wanted to sing and shout with exuberance. I felt I could shake the house to its foundations. When I told this to the Mother later in the day, She said, “Ah, so you felt it too! It came down at midnight. You received a slightly delayed action of it.” Then it was that the Mother said that the time might now come to tell India and the world of this new force so that those who received the message could open to it and do marvellous things to change the world. The Mother said we should go out at once and She proposed the organisation of “Sri Aurobindo’s Action” because, the Mother said, it was Sri Aurobindo Himself in Action that is this great force. 

Question: Was not the fact of the Mother leaving Her body a form of insincerity? 

Answer: Insincerity to what? The Mother always obeyed the Divine Will. “Not my will but Thy Will be done” was Her constant prayer and aspiration. So when She obeyed the Divine Will and left Her body, is that an act of insincerity? We should ourselves now follow the Mother’s supreme example and surrender ourselves to the Divine Will always. 

Question: Was the Mother’s retirement a preparation for this event? 

Answer: Yes, I think so. She prepared us well. If She had left Her body while in full activity—say, when playing tennis or something like that—it would have been a great shock. But our sweet compassionate Mother thought of Her children always and prepared us in a gradual way for Her leaving. 

Question: Is not Pranab’s refusal to allow Aurovillians to attend his talk an act of insincerity? 

Answer: How am I to judge? I have told Pranab I want to discuss this with him one day. So let us see what happens. We must know all sides. 

Question: How did you feel when Sri Aurobindo left His body? 

Answer: I was by His side when it happened and I knew that He was leaving His body. So I kept very calm and objective as I kept reminding myself that I was standing at a great moment of history. Because I was so calm—the only one then perhaps besides Dyuman—Dr. Sanyal said that I should look after all arrangements and the Mother gave me charge of them all. I remember it all so clearly—how it was decided to put His body next day in the Samadhi. We had worked night and day to get everything ready. Then it was found that there was no sign at all of decomposition, and the Mother said we should wait till we had a sign from Him. So it continued from the 5th to the 9th. Then the doctors who had examined His body twice a day said they had found signs and so the body should be put in the Samadhi. I objected strongly, since, though a layman, I knew that the most definite sign would be the smell and of that there was no evidence at all. But the Mother showed me how the Golden Light had faded from His face and that was the sign from Him that guided Her. So I had to accept. Even when, on the evening of the 9th, I lifted His body with my own hands to place it in the box, I was covered with the liquid that had come out and normally it would be a very foul-smelling liquid but in His case it was a liquid with a wonderful perfume which I carried on me for two days. Even His mattress, which was soaked with it, had this wonderful perfume in it for months. You can ask Mona [Udar’s wife and the Manager of Golconde] if she is here. The mattress was kept at Golconde. 

I may here bring in St. Francis Xavier in connection with Sri Aurobindo. I have seen and touched the body of Francis Xavier that has been kept in Goa for several centuries. It was of flesh and bone and not a wax image. But it was of a bluish colour and the body seemed shrunken though all the features were clearly delineated. In Sri Aurobindo’s body I saw a similar bluish colour coming. That is why the Mother said the Golden Light had left His body. Also the giving out of so much liquid would naturally make the body shrink. From all this I conclude—and it is only my own private view, with which I have no concurrence from others—that His body is also intact in spite of all the doctors have said and is still today in the condition in which St. Francis Xavier’s is after about 400 years. 

Question: Is it not a fact that Sri Aurobindo’s leaving His body was expected? You say He did not announce it. 

Answer: Expected by whom? How then was everyone in such a state of shock? This I saw myself. It is not hearsay. 

Question: How did you feel about the Mother’s leaving Her body? 

Answer: For me it was a shock. I will admit that I had not expected it. Also, I was not at Her side as at Sri Aurobindo’s and so I did not see it coming. Thus it was a shock. But fortunately I had immediate work to do, to send telegrams to the President of India, the Prime Minister and others, and so I recovered quite quickly. I, with many, was told of Her leaving only at 3 a.m. on the morning of the 18th. Later the shock was gone and I even began to feel joy. Especially after the Mother’s body was laid in the Samadhi I felt a very great joy. I felt She was now free to do Her great work for the whole world, no longer tied to Her body. 

Question: Did you feel relief or release? 

Answer: Both. Relief to know that the Mother was no longer suffering but release because of the great joy of which I have spoken. That joy continues, not only with me but with so many others. 

So now we have to take this force and this joy and make a real progress. We have a marvellous opportunity. That reminds me of Dr. Bisht. He was another doctor who had looked after the Mother but he was in Delhi. He came down flying to see the Mother, and attended to Her physically. Then the Mother said something about his pronouncing on the way Her inner being was working towards the transformation of Her outer body. Dr. Bisht said, “Mother, to be able to do that I must make a great progress.” “Then make a great progress,” the Mother said, “what is stopping you?” 

So what is stopping us in the great opportunity that the Mother has placed before all of us? Let us take up the challenge and go forward—ever forward—in Her Light and Love and Strength. 

Now, to end, I will recite, if you like, Sri Aurobindo’s poem “A God’s Labour”. I remember the Mother saying that when She first read this poem She went to Sri Aurobindo and said, “What have you done? You have exposed all my secrets to the whole world!” He smiled. Yes, this is Her poem, written by Sri Aurobindo about Her and for Her—so let us end on that—all right? 

All: Yes, Yes. 

* 

Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the Mother’s Passing Away 

Question: There is justification for the Ashram’s existence only if it continues to be, even after the Mother’s passing away, a centre or a laboratory for the Supramental descent, bringing about a Supramental change of human nature. 

To achieve this object, Sri Aurobindo tells us, the Divine Mother’s Presence and Power are necessary. The Mother has left Her body. If Presence means physical presence, the Mother will have to come in a New Body. 

Is there any other way? 

Or is the Mother’s physical presence unnecessary because the Supermind manifested in 1956 and is working more and more powerfully? 

Answer: The Mother’s physical presence on the earth was an indispensable condition for the descent of the Supramental and for its manifestation in the earth-consciousness. The Supramental manifestation on the earth took place in 1956 and has been working more and more powerfully. A careful study of “Notes on the Way” which have appeared in the issues of the Bulletin from 1965 to 1973, will show how the Supramental has been working and how it is fixed in the earth-consciousness. This ensures the continuance of the work for the Supramental change of human nature, and therefore the continuance of the Ashram as a centre or laboratory for the growth and fulfilment of this work. 

If the Mother’s physical presence had been still indispensable for the continuance of this work, She would not have left Her body. Besides, Her leaving the body does not mean that She is not with us. Her Presence is actively there and is working dynamically behind the visible phenomenon. 

The New Body will come as a certain climax of the working of the Supramental manifestation, and as a sign of the complete victory of Spirit over Matter.

**************

M. P. Pandit’s Talk on the Mother’s Withdrawal 

It was last week that a friend spoke to me of certain mental perplexities that had been created by what happened on the 17th of November, and she desired that I should come at the earliest and share my faith and certitude with you all. Somehow it could not be done earlier, but I have been thinking of all friends here and desiring to put certain facts before you. After all, any event has to be seen in the proper perspective of all that has gone behind it, of the immediate circumstances, no doubt, but also, of the horizons it opens up. 

I have to take you back to a casual encounter that I had on the footpath of the main Ashram building some ten years ago. As I was passing, a lady who has grown up here since her very childhood stopped me, and I don’t know what made her ask, “Do you think that the mission of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother will be successful this time?” Spontaneously I replied to her: “What do you mean? It has already succeeded.” She was pleasantly surprised to hear me talk that way, and I explained; this explanation I shall elaborate. 

Those of you who have read the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother know that their main objective has been to bring down the Consciousness of the Truth-World—what they call the Supramental Consciousness and Power—on earth. They declared, a hundred times, that their object was to manifest the Truth-Consciousness on earth, fix it on the earth as an operative principle, and enable it to gradually transform human life into a divine life. They pointed out that no other power except the Truth-Power, the Truth-Will, could do it. For thousands of years man has tried to perfect himself, his life and his environment, but has not been able to succeed for the simple reason that every power that he marshalled and put into action happened to be an inferior power—not a power of Truth but a power that derived only indirectly from Truth. 

In the long course of evolution there have been previous manifestations to bring down from the supernal heights the highest power conceivable at those times, at each evolutionary juncture, and establish it on earth. We know that Rama came to evoke and set in motion the law of the sāttvika mind, the enlightened mind. He was followed ages later by Krishna who manifested the overmind-consciousness and, through it, the delight-consciousness of the Lord. Ages had to elapse before the next step had to be taken; and that was to bring down the Vijñāna, the Truth-Consciousness, the Supermind, the Supramental Power, on earth, not as an individual siddhi, which the Vedic sages had done thousands of years ago, but for the entire collectivity—something that could operate as a fixed power on earth, not as an individual realization valid only for the particular individual. 

This object got clarified in Sri Aurobindo only after he came to Pondicherry. He first formulated it, spelt it out, in the Arya. Before the Mother joined him here, the Mother also had spoken of the Divine Consciousness in her Prayers and Meditations. The Mother has never spoken in terms of philosophy, she plainly put it: it is the Divine Consciousness that has to manifest and transform life. So both and she, in the manifesto that was printed in the Arya, announced that to make a new age possible, to make a perfect life possible, to make a perfect man possible, a new consciousness that has been hitherto unmanifest has to be brought down and made active on earth. It was with that object that the Mother joined him in 1920 and Sri Aurobindo accepted those who felt called upon to accept his ideal and strive for it. You all know how the Ashram came to be started in 1926, on that day, November 24th, when the overmind-consciousness (originally brought down by Krishna) descended into the physical body of Sri Aurobindo and he felt the need to retire completely to prepare for the next step, to concentrate all his energies and faculties on the next step: to bring down the Truth-Consciousness. 

There are letters from 1926 onwards—he kept up having contact through correspondence from 1926 till 1938, the year he had the unfortunate accident—he carried on correspondence, wrote detailed replies, for eight hours per day during nights; somewhere in 1934 or so he says that he is catching the tail of the Supermind. Later he speaks somewhere that it comes and goes; the Mother also has said somewhere that she had seen the Supramental Light coming in to Sri Aurobindo, staying there for a while, and then withdrawing. As years went by, their efforts continued. They did not consider anything that happened in the world as irrelevant to their purpose. They paid full attention to cataclysmic events like World War II, the political movements and revolutions in India, as part of the cosmic plan. And they strove. 

A situation arose in 1950 or thereabouts when Sri Aurobindo found that the earth conditions were still resistant to the descent of the Supramental Force. If the Supramental Force were to come down at that stage, things would break. We have a hymn in the Veda which speaks of the unbaked jar: unless the jar is baked enough, brought to sufficient consistency and strength, it cannot hold the descent of God; the Rishis speak in symbolic terms. Sri Aurobindo found that physical Matter was not yet ready to hold the descent. It was then that he took a decision, for the genesis of which I have to take you back to the years somewhere between 1923 and 1926. In one of the evening conversations (I do not remember if this particular one has been published) Sri Aurobindo was asked, “Have you conquered death?” He replied, “Even if I take a cup of poison it cannot kill me.” “That means that you can’t die?” someone asked. He answered, “There are only three conditions under which I would leave my body: one, successful completion of my mission; two, it being shown to me that it is not to be this time; three, accident.” Well, by 1950 he saw, it was shown to him, that the final descent was not to be in his body. He took a decision to withdraw. 

He had cured innumerable people of so many diseases by his spiritual power, but when disease attacked him in 1950 he refused to cure himself. When one of his attendants asked him, “Sir, why don’t you cure it?”, he said, “You will not understand.” He had taken the decision to withdraw, but simultaneously—characteristic of his heroism—he decided to make a purposeful sacrifice of his body. As the hour was approaching, he was seen pulling the Power down and down. The Power came down and he laid down his life. That was his sacrifice. No other material vehicle could have received the descent that came that day. And as it penetrated, as it got fixed in his body, simultaneously the Mind of Light got formed in the Mother; she had an equally developed ādhār. The Mind of Light, as you all know, is the physical mind being taken control of and suffused with the Supramental Consciousness. That was in 1950. 

Those of you who were not here at that period can have no idea of the gloom that settled over the Ashram community, of the shock that all friends and well-wishers all over the world received—totally an unexpected event. But there was the Mother. She assumed control. She radiated the confidence, the faith, the cheer, that revived everyone; and she conveyed the assurance of Sri Aurobindo that he would not leave the earth atmosphere till the Truth-Consciousness was established on earth. 

Thereafter, heroically, stoically, the Mother continued the work. And somewhere before 1956 she was confident that that year would see the manifestation of the Supramental Consciousness on earth—not in one body or in two bodies, but generally on earth. She said in the New Year Message that year: 

The greatest victories are the least noisy.

The manifestation of a new world is not proclaimed by beat of drum. 

But events took her and everyone by surprise. All were sitting for meditation after the Wednesday class, it was the 29th of February. You all have read how, that day, the Mother came face to face with a door and, as prophesied in Savitri, she broke open the “dual door” and let in the stream of Truth-Consciousness which flooded the earth. The Mother said privately to some that when she had opened her eyes she had expected that by the sheer impact of the descent all the people in the playground would be flat, but, she saw, all were packing their bags to go. However, as she said once, she was never disappointed because she never depended on humanity for success in her work. She slaved for humanity, but she did not expect the slightest return. I have seen her at very close quarters, she has never, never complained. She has sympathized, she has tried to help, but never complained of lack of response, lack of support, from anybody. That happened in 1956. 

Now the point I want to make is that with the manifestation, the flooding manifestation, of the Truth-Consciousness on earth on the night of February 29th, 1956, the declared objective of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother to bring down on earth the power of Supramental Consciousness so as to make it form a part of the earth, attainable by anybody who strives for it, was accomplished. Still, the Mother did not announce it. A few days thereafter news got around and, as in confidence, it was passed from one person to another. And when I told the Mother, “Mother has not said anything but the word is going around that the Supramental Consciousness has descended”, she didn’t express any surprise but said, “Ah!” It was about then that for distribution on the 29th of March an Ashram artist’s painting, “The Golden Purusha”, was printed with a passage from Prayers and Meditations: 

The Lord has willed and Thou dost execute:

A new light shall break upon the earth,

A new world shall be born,

And the things that were announced shall be fulfilled. 

Copies had arrived from the press; there were four or five of us present; she took the sheets and, along with other changes in her own hand—I still have my copy as a memento in my room—she turned the future into the present tense: 

Lord, Thou hast willed, and I execute:

A new light breaks upon the earth,

A new world is born.

The things that were promised are fulfilled. 

That was her answer to our implied question whether it was true. That was a milestone in the evolutionary journey of the earth, the achievement of the prime objective, for which Sri Aurobindo and the Mother had taken birth. 

Thereafter it was a question of working it out, of working out the consequences. The main thing was done; she herself explained that once the Supramental Consciousness was established on earth, thereafter it was a question of extension—larger and larger extension so as to acclimatize the earth to the vibrations of the Supramental Consciousness. This work she has been doing since 1956, for the last seventeen years, with many changes taking place in the earth atmosphere. 

That very year one could see the repercussions of the descent of the Supramental Consciousness, the Supramental Force, in the international situation. I had recently occasion to meet a senior statesman in India and he told me how from various pieces of information and his own deductions he had anticipated the Suez Canal crisis, the invasion by Britain and France, on the 9th of November, 1956. But certain things happened and the invasion took place on the 2nd of November. He was very much intrigued. So when he came here, while reporting things to the Mother he asked, “I have never been known to be misled in my calculations; why is that this time things have taken me by surprise?” The Mother smiled and told him, “True, you have taken all things into calculation except one important thing.” Then he asked the Mother what it was. She said, “You have not taken into account the new Force that has come.” Immediately he woke up to the new situation. 

Since 1956 no situation that could easily have led previously to a general war has been allowed to develop into a world war situation because of this presence of the Supramental Force of harmony, of unity. A world war, a third world war is impossible. There may be local skirmishes, local battles, on other people’s territories, but a world war is impossible. The very basis of the forces of violence and war has been struck with the establishment of the original Truth of union, harmony, love. A new set-up has been created which enables us to confidently expect the world to move towards One World. This is but one consequence, there are many more. The manifestation of the Supermind has had many results, some are to be stabilised on a collective scale, some to be worked out individually, but all have to be organised. 

There is the question of the perfection of the mind, an infallible knowledge; attainment of power which keeps pace with that knowledge; there is the change of human nature into divine nature after which alone the process of transformation is possible; there is the consequence of physical or terrestrial immortality. Now all these, mind you are consequences of some central achievement, which have to be worked out slowly, gradually. The Mother said she had once asked Sri Aurobindo, “After the descent of the Supermind how long do you think the process of transformation will take?” Sri Aurobindo looked up and told her, “Perhaps three hundred years.” Now it doesn’t exactly mean three hundred years, it gives an idea of the long period of time that is required. The Mother, while she was recalling this, added, “He said three hundred years, but you know there is something like Grace—anything can take place.” But in her own mind she had no illusions; born fighter that she was, she always set about things with the faith that the things would surely be done. 

For her there was no question of changing her human nature into divine nature, which for us is a lifetime programme. She didn’t have this question because she had already, during the course of the last fifty or sixty years, seen her human system — I wouldn’t say nature — taking on the divine nature. The process of physical transformation, she has explained, means taking up each cell, persuading it to change, coaxing it to change, exposing it to the Force of change; and where it resists, it has a repercussion in the body as a pain which no medicine can cure—one has to endure. There are millions of cells in each body, that was a laborious and a patient process which she was undergoing. Nobody seriously expected that the entire process of transformation could be telescoped within a few years, barring, of course, a miracle; but the Mother’s way was never to work in miracles or to make her time-table in terms of miracles. 

Side by side with her effort from here, from below, of the transformation of the various cells in her body step by step, work was going on from above. Sri Aurobindo, according to his promise, had been working. A new body was under formation, the supramental body, in which she was to take her embodiment as the end-result of the transformation of this body. The body was being prepared. She gave in “Notes on the Way” descriptions of this body, described how it looked. And about a year ago she told someone, “I am trying to fuse this material body into that body but I have not been able to get the clue.” She said, “Nobody on earth has tried this, the secret is not given to me.” On that point, she said, there was no help from above. She was searching. 

Thereafter—if I would be right in taking you into confidence—one day it flashed to me that as soon as that luminous body was ready the Mother would just walk into it without dying; “without dying” means not necessarily keeping the body, but without the gap in consciousness; keeping up the continuity of the personality she would just cross into that luminous body. It just flashed, and the way it came I thought it was something more than just an idea; I noted it down in my diary. I looked it up the other day, it was dated the 24th of July 1973. I did not think it wise to speak of it to people except in my closest circle, which I did. And thereafter one of the friends from here came to me and asked, “Why is it that for the first time I could detect a different note in your talk the other day in answer to questions regarding Mother?” I did not know what to reply but I told him the way in which my mind was working. 

Then on the morning of 17th November at about nine o’clock, a particular friend of mine—he has a certain grounding in occult experience, occult knowledge, and normally when we meet we exchange notes—told me, “I have seen the Mother’s body of light.” I got interested. He said, “The new body is full of light but it is not yet dense enough to function in earth conditions. It is there, and as I was looking at it I got the feeling that the Mother would enter this body the moment it became dense enough to stand and function in the earth atmosphere, seen or unseen. But there is no question of revival of the material body.” And he added, “Those who are capable of seeing the Mother’s halo, aura, they will be able to see that luminous body.” It confirmed what I had perceived some four months earlier; I told him as much. 

That evening at 7-25 p.m., as you all know, the Mother withdrew from her body. They say the cause was heart failure, but let me tell you the heart failure was not the cause, the heart failure was the result of her withdrawal. She had decided; the moment things were ready she walked into that body. 

She has not passed away, she has just changed her body. Not changed in the manner of the Gita—soul changing bodies—but consciously; keeping the full personality she has gone into that body. And, as it was revealed to me on that day, she will function in that body, work through those instruments who are open to her, expedite the remaining work—the working out of the consequences—but her activity will not be confined to the Ashram or to Auroville; for her the whole world is her ashram. As I was led to put it on radio the next day, “The sea of Love that is the Mother swells into an ocean”: not a perception, not an idea, not an image, but an experience. 

I am sure all of you feel her Presence. You can’t feel the presence of a dead person as you feel hers. Do you feel any panic in the Ashram atmosphere? Can you imagine two thousand people who have lost their leader breathing this peace, this calm? Is there grief? Of course there is a certain pang of physical separation, but she is there. Thousands of visitors who came afterwards have told us, “We were sad, we were grief-struck, we did not know what to do. We took whatever was available without thinking of the timings—plane, train, bus, car.” They arrived and they said that within half an hour or one hour of their arrival their grief was completely taken away. They felt that it was worth coming, that she is here, she is not gone; “she is here” does not mean she is in the Ashram only but she is on earth. 

Sri Aurobindo is there, the Mother has assured us, in the subtle-physical world in his supramental body waiting for the conditions under which alone he can manifest on earth; we do not know when. That body cannot function on earth till the earth substance has been changed. The Mother’s body, the body that she has assumed, is nearer the earth. She is going to be the bridge between Sri Aurobindo’s supramental body in the subtle-physical world and this material world. In Savitri Sri Aurobindo says of the Mother: 

She is the golden bridge, the wonderful fire. 

Well, she is the bridge; she is the bridge for all that is to come from above, for all of us who are loyal to her and who owe it to her to devote every minute of our lives to the achievement of her ideal, to the perfection that she has desired of us. The only way in which we can repay our debt of gratitude to her for what she has done for us is to let her live in us, to let her manifest in our selves: each in his own way. 

She is there looming over the whole world. And for those of us who have openness to her, who have love for her, who have devotion for her, these act like magnets to which her consciousness, her love, her force, comes pouring down in floods. Keep that connection. Have a loving thought for her; think of her with love. Cheerfully, gratefully, joyfully, keep yourself at the disposal of the Mother’s Consciousness. For her there is no death. 

I remember how on the Mother’s birthday, the 21st of February, 1973, when I met her, in the course of a few words that I had with her, I said on a spontaneous impulse, “If by taking my life thy physical life can be prolonged by a day, please take it.” She in-drew for a moment, held my hand and said, “Life is eternal.” 

She lived in eternity. She did not and does not live only in earthly space and time. There was always a different dimension to her life and function. She once told someone—one of the workers like me—“If I say something now please don’t quote it against me half an hour hence because within that half an hour I will have gone five hundred miles ahead.” That was years ago. That way she did give us a glimpse into her real personality. I was watching one day as someone was talking to her, and she said, “But don’t you see that only the part that belongs to this universe is here!” You know what she meant, there is no need for me to emphasize her supernatural aspects to you all. You all have faith in her, believe in her, but I am mentioning this as something which you would love to know, it’s not to prove anything to you. 

The Mother was a spiritual pragmatist par excellence: I claim to be a spiritual rationalist. I would accept nothing unless it meets the demands of common sense, as much of common sense as I am gifted with. And I assure you, after thirty-five years of stay and service at the Mother’s feet, I am proud to tell you that she never, never asked me to accept anything only on faith. If I asked anything—not only I but anyone—she would explain as to a child; she would suspend everything and as if we had the whole of eternity before us, she would start explaining. She never denied an explanation either of her actions or of her words. 

There is no problem for one who understands the Mother, who has understood her personality. The teaching is great, the masters have been great, there is no question of success or failure, it is a discharge of their mission, the mission with which they were sent here: they have done it. For seventeen years things have been spreading out all over the world, and that will continue. Each one of us, however, has a responsibility to keep up the great Ideal of perfection of life, transformation of human life into a divine life, embodiment of the Truth-Consciousness in however small a degree in the most developed part of us. More I do not say at this moment. 

Questions 

Q: In “Notes on the Way” and other sources the Mother often spoke of her body and the possibility of the physical transformation; now it has been said that her body was of the old creation and was never meant to be the transformed body. This has created quite a bit of confusion… 

A: Well,— excuse me for interrupting you—I know what you mean. It was some years ago, before 1958, when the Mother was still going to the playground and holding classes: she said that a body born in the normal way (what is normal at present) would have a normal end; second, a body born in the normal sexual way could not become supramental proper. A supramental body will have to come from above. What can be done with the human body is that it can be brought up to the level of the Superman, but not the Supramental Being straight away. The stage of complete supramentalization is far, far ahead. 

The word “transformation” has a big content, even physical immortality is not central to it; it is only a consequence of complete transformation. Sri Aurobindo gave very little importance to this immortality. He said all that is needed is conquest over death, freedom to keep or shed the body when one wants to change. 

The Mother knew very well that in the normal process the complete transformation of the body was problematic. But she had always put forth an unknown factor: Grace, the Supreme’s Will which brooks no opposition, which doesn’t care for our laws, processes; so that proviso was always there. 

Her horoscopes had spoken of the subject living up to a hundred years, but at the end of a hundred years no death was indicated, it was left to the choice of the person. Not one but many astrologers have told me—not now, but long before—that her horoscope extended up to a hundred years and thereafter it was left to her choice. That was our normal expectation. It she took a different decision it is because the body would not respond, would not support further working. She saw no use in continuing in this body. She went on preparing the other body during the last six or seven months in which she was in-drawn; she was always attending to that, staying in this body till she could enter the other body. 

There are interpretations and interpretations; each one has to accept what feels true—not sounds true—to him. You can’t hold her in a formula. There has been no parallel to the Mother in the spiritual history of mankind. She is unique, you can’t apply any comparison. What she spoke was scripture, what she did was supreme law. 

She has prepared us, even when she was in the physical body, to face the situation. She is there guiding, leading us. All these little controversies pale into insignificance before the grandeur of her personality, the splendid horizons opened by her for man. She has set man on the highway to God. 

You will see, I tell you you will see, her work being expedited now. She will work more effectively now in her luminous body than she was allowed to in her material physical body. I do not speak of the Ashram so much as an institution, but of Auroville, of the future of man, her work in the world—progression towards one mind, one life, one world. The forces of harmony, the radiations of love: you will see how they gather, how they are marshalled. A great change will come over the world by being precipitated by her from there. 

Q: If we cannot reach the supramental body, those of us who are born in the usual way, what then is the function and what is the goal of humanity? 

A: To arrive at our highest possible perfection. By arriving at our highest perfection we are opening the possibility of the intermediate race, the race of superman. That intermediate race, the superman, will prepare the field in which the supramental beings will manifest. How they will take birth is a secret that Nature or Supernature has not yet revealed to us. 

You have to take it that the time is not come for what has not been done today by the Mother: earth conditions are not ready. Her body was a reflex of the whole earth. All the resistances and difficulties in physical matter were projected in her physical body and she had to tackle each cell in a representative manner. That was why all the difficulty, that was why the decision. Do you mean to say that if she had wanted individual transformation she could not have done it? She had only to ask for it, she could do it by a miracle, but she would not. She herself told me once in another context when I had asked her a question about some recalcitrant natures in others, recalcitrant habits in myself, that she did not favour changes by miracles effected from outside. She wanted us to change in a natural way of evolution. She did not believe in doing things through miracles. 

For us to arrive at the highest possible state of perfection means: first, psychicization—to bring the psychic being within ourselves to the front of our nature, let it govern all our movements of body, life and mind; then, extension, cosmicization, universalization of our consciousness—so that the beats of the heart of the world can be felt in us; thereafter, spiritualization—above the mind, all the manifest levels of consciousness have to be scaled and normalised in us. After these three are done to their maximum,—psychicization, universalization and spiritualization—after all these three processes are complete, then only can you say man has arrived at the highest possible perfection normally open to him. Thereafter arises the prospect of supramentalization and its farther consequence of transformation.