{"id":6288,"date":"2013-07-13T02:06:51","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T02:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=6288"},"modified":"2013-07-13T02:06:51","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T02:06:51","slug":"98-december-25-1968-vol-09-volume-09","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/03-agenda\/09-volume-09\/98-december-25-1968-vol-09-volume-09","title":{"rendered":"-98_December 25_1968.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><H3>December 25, 1968<\/H3><\/p>\n<p><i>I met X. <\/i>[[A Tantric whom Satprem followed in the past. ]]<\/p>\n<p><P>Oh!<\/p>\n<p><i>Yes, by chance. I didn&#8217;t intend to see him, then I forgot he was<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;here<br \/>\n  and walked by his street. And he was on his doorstep. I<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;didn&#8217;t turn back, I went and saw him.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><P>What did he tell you?<\/p>\n<p><i>Kind &#8230; But I had the feeling that what had been there in the<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;past<br \/>\n  was no longer there&#8230;. I always had the impression of a<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;blue light around him (that was my impression in the past), but<\/i><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><font size=\"2\">Page 353<\/font><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><i>&nbsp;I didn&#8217;t have that sensation of power or force&#8230;.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><P>Maybe it was something you had put there? I did wonder&#8230;. Because the impression I had of him THROUGH YOU was far better than he is, far superior to what he is. So I wondered if that power didn&#8217;t come AT THAT TIME because it was necessary to pull you out of your difficulties.<br \/>\n<P>And I carried out two or three &#8220;tests&#8221; with him. For example, he boasted he could get me all the money I needed; so I told him, &#8220;I need; make it come.&#8221; (He spoke of &#8220;lakhs and lakhs, crores of rupees.&#8221;[[One lakh = one hundred thousand; one crore = ten million. ]]) I said, &#8220;Very well, I need this much, make it come.&#8221; &#8211; It never came&#8230;. You understand, I felt he had boasted of having powers. He had been living there (still is) in the midst of quite a primitive population that was wonderstruck by the least expression of power; he was used to being regarded as quite a &#8220;powerful and superior being,&#8221; and as soon as he came into contact with us and with people accustomed to Sri Aurobindo&#8217;s visions and to being in another world than this purely vital world, he found himself quite at sea&#8230;. He stayed away for three years, I think, or two years. He&#8217;s coming for his birthday (I&#8217;ll see him on the 29th), but the last times I gave him meditation, it was &#8230; well, there are lots and lots of people like that in India. He has a power that only acts in a very ordinary vital. And nothing really superior.<br \/>\n<P>And as regards the quality of vision, there was quite a curious story. K.&#8217;s mother had come here with a married daughter who had just lost her son (a young man who died suddenly). They came here, she was quite unhappy, and when she came to see me, I saw her son in her own atmosphere. I told her, &#8220;Your son is with you. If you have the true attitude, you can come into contact with him and feel his presence there.&#8221; She left from here, went to see X, and as they always do, asked him what he knew about her son. X told her authoritatively, &#8220;Your son has gone into a shepherd&#8230;.&#8221; So naturally, she&#8217;s lost all confidence in me, because I don&#8217;t tell her things with a dogmatic authority, while he spoke like that, with assurance; so she felt sure he was right! &#8230; There may be a small part of her son that went into a shepherd (!), I have no idea; as for me, what I saw was the psychic part. But she&#8217;s lost all confidence, she&#8217;s never come to see me again. So that&#8217;s troublesome. It proves he&#8217;s quite shut inside himself and inside his own conception.<br \/>\n<P>Never mind&#8230;..<br \/>\n<P align=\"center\"><font size=\"2\">Page 354<\/font><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><P>Didn&#8217;t he ask you if you were continuing your pujas?<\/p>\n<p><i>No, nothing. He understood it was over.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><P align=\"right\"><i>(silence)<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>And then &#8230; You know that from every side I&#8217;ve been trying to<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;get Sri Aurobindo published [in France], in particular <\/i>The<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;Human Cycle<i>. At last I got a letter from a certain J. B., who<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;writes: &#8220;For a long time now, a publisher (F.) has been asking<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;me to create a collection in his publishing house. I thought of<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;a few books, mostly foreign ones, grouped around a title such<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;as &#8216;Towards the spiritual mutation&#8217; and focused on the present<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;researches, individual and clumsy, often dangerous, but sincere  <\/i>\n  <\/p>\n<p><i>and undertaken in a spirit quite different from that of the<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;former generation, the spirit of a certain youth I am in contact  <\/i>\n  <\/p>\n<p><i>with. The idea is to show these &#8216;young people&#8217; that their attempts<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;and aspirations are legitimate, even if they have discovered<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;them through drugs, since in many cases drugs alone have<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;been able to unmoor them from the Cartesian rationalist<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;bedrock, to put before them experiences that, at least, are  <\/i>\n  <\/p>\n<p><i>positive, and to offer them directions and models. In other<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;words, the aspect of amateurism and exoticism found in Z<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;[another publisher] would be replaced here by a practical and<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;technical side, wide open to all spiritual researches, whatever<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;they may be, to all duly controlled &#8216;metapsychical &#8216;experiments,<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;serious psychedelic experiments (I have T. Leary in mind, for<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;instance), new theologies&#8230; Naturally, there would be room, a<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;major place, for the Oriental endeavor. In sum, it would involve<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;all researches and attempts to crack open that sort of corset<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;within which the Western mind has been going in circles for<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;such a long time. That does not in the least rule out, on the<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;contrary, certain scientific works &#8211; of pure science &#8211; in which,<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;out of intrinsic necessity, this Cartesianism has already been<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>singularly shaken. Of course, all that would make for quite an<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;ill-assorted backdrop for Sri Aurobindo&#8217;s thought, a backdrop<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;you will regard as unworthy of it&#8230;. The planned Collection <\/i>\n  <\/p>\n<p><i>might be called &#8216;Spiritual Adventures&#8217;&#8230;.&quot;<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><P>We can try.<\/p>\n<p><i>In the middle of all that? <\/i><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><font size=\"2\">Page 355<\/font><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><P>It doesn&#8217;t matter. We can try.<br \/>\n<P>Because it can touch people, you understand, that&#8217;s what is important. We can try.<br \/>\n<P align=\"center\">* * *<\/p>\n<p><i>Finally there&#8217;s a letter from P.L. &#8220;&#8230; My stay in Spain was<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;prolonged more than I had thought&#8230;. Tell Sweet Mother that<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;I am continuing my struggle and my effort, that she follows <\/i>\n  <\/p>\n<p><i>me everywhere and her protection is my support. I will tell you<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;about my experience. I went to spend a weekend by the sea<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;where I have a very pretty tiny apartment&#8230;. There I meditate<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;and go through all the teachings of Mother again by immers<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>ing myself in <\/i>The Life Divine<i> and the <\/i>Questions and Answers<i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;I lighted an incense stick. Suddenly my whole body broke into<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;a profuse sweat, and an atrocious struggle began. If I could use<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;religious terms from before my Ashramite experiences, I would<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;say that all of St. Anthony&#8217;s temptations fell on me to destroy<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;and shatter me spiritually. First, a disarray, a very deep<br \/>\n  distress<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;of helplessness: What use is my life? What am I doing? Why do<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>I live? My efforts are useless&#8230;. Then there was the attraction<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;of woman, which came to ridicule my continence&#8230;. Every<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>thing was called into question: whys and more whys made my<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;head burst. After that came the invasion of power: Why did<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;you renounce the hope of becoming a bishop? Glory would have<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;come to you&#8230;. Then the desire for money&#8230;. Everything in a<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>macabre and at the same time attractive carrousel. Finally,<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;total solitude &#8230; abandoned by all, all having gone away: my<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;friends, my connections in the Vatican, my family, all of you.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;How much time went by? I do not know. Nevertheless I think<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;I heard a very small voice &#8230; (but I was so weak that I cannot<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;say if it was true) telling me, &#8216;Do not weep, I am with you. If I<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;am with you, others are superfluous, and if you are without<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;me, others won&#8217;t be able to help you&#8230;.&#8217; I remained in a void<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;&#8230; the whole night passed. In the morning, the sunshine,<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;everything was so beautiful! When I returned to the Rome<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>&nbsp;house, I was told I was transformed! So there.&quot;<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><P>I did say that to him [&#8220;I am with you&#8221;].<br \/>\n<P>Occultly, those people are very skilled.<br \/>\n<P>For at least two days in a row, I felt he was in a great difficulty.<br \/>\n<P>I thought it was the &#8220;others&#8221; causing him difficulties&#8230;.<br \/>\n<P align=\"center\"><font size=\"2\">Page 356<\/font><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><P>I didn&#8217;t say it with those words [&#8220;I am with you&#8221;] because I never say &#8220;I am,&#8221; but the consciousness was like this: &#8220;The Lord is with you.&#8221; Only, I can&#8217;t say it with words, because for them, as soon as you speak about &#8220;God,&#8221; their whole religion comes back. It was the FACT of consciousness that I put on him. But you can tell him that it&#8217;s exactly what I wanted to say to him. It took that expression in him because, in him, I represent &#8230; the other side of life.<br \/>\n<P>It&#8217;s good, it&#8217;s exactly what I wanted to make him feel.<P align=\"center\"><br \/>\n<font size=\"2\">Page<br \/>\n357<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"right\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December 25, 1968 I met X. [[A Tantric whom Satprem followed in the past. ]] Oh! Yes, by chance. I didn&#8217;t intend to see him,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[144],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-09-volume-09","wpcat-144-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}