(While choosing a text to study with a young Indian teacher who wanted to improve her French, the French teacher asked Mother for her opinion o La Peste by Albert Camus.)

Reading certain things can be good for Europeans who have a rather thick skin, to arouse in them a feeling of true compassion; but here in India it is not necessary. And it is not good to give an even darker picture of a life that is already dark enough in itself.

(Mother suggested Recherche d'une église by Jules Romains, and sent her own copy for the French teacher to look at. The teacher was “shocked” by certain chapters of the book and reported her feelings to Mother in rather strong terms. Mother replied:)

Recherche d'une église was the book of my choice. Jules Romains is a great writer and his French is of the highest order. When I mentioned cuts,¹ it was because certain passages are not

¹In a preceding latter Mother had written: With certain cuts, some of Jules Romain’s books would also be good, especially Recherche d’une église.”

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quite suitable for a young woman's mind. But it would have been easy to make these cuts, and the rest is very good.

(The French teacher continued her search for texts and suggested La France d'aujourd'hui by Marc Blancpain.)

I have just been looking at the book, with interest. This time, it is very good.

May 1960

Finding a Programme of Work

(The French teacher outlined a study course on the history of civilisation for one of her students, a young Indian teacher, and submitted the project to Mother.)

Yes, this work would be of interest, but only if it is based on Sri Aurobindo's The Human Cycle (it has been published in the Bulletin). For in this book, not only are all the problems of human evolution posed, they are also solved. Each time that Sri Aurobindo mentions a civilisation or a country, the corresponding historical facts could be studied, and this work would be really interesting.

September 1960

In one French class for Indian teachers, several students wanted to read the works of contemporary authors, because the language in them is more up-to-date than in classical writings. What does Mother think?

What I know of modern authors has taken away any wish I

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might have had to read more of them.

Why step deliberately into the mire? What is to be gained by it? The knowledge that the Western world is wallowing in the mud? It is hardly necessary. Selected passages, carefully selected, seem to be the solution.

May 1963

(Concerning a young teacher who had to learn French intensively in order to be able to teach in French and had at the same time to keep up with a rather heavy time-table in the school.)

I fully agree. X should have the time to learn French thoroughly and her hours of work and teaching should be organised in such a way that she has the time to continue her lessons with you, until she feels that they are no longer necessary.

September 1966

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