WRITINGS BY THE MOTHER
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

Surrender

... Now, when I start looking like this (Mother closes her eyes), two things are there at the same time: this smile, this joy, this laughter are there, and such peace! Such full, luminous, total peace, in which there are no more conflicts, no more contradictions. There are no more conflicts. It is one single luminous harmony--and yet everything we call error, suffering, misery, everything is there. It eliminates nothing. It is another way of seeing.

(Long silence)

There can be no doubt that if you sincerely want to get out of it, it is not so difficult after all: you have nothing to do, you only have to allow the Lord to do everything. And He does everything. He does everything. It is so wonderful, so wonderful!

He takes anything, even what we call a very ordinary intelligence and he simply teaches you to put this intelligence aside, to rest: "There, be quiet, don't stir, don't bother me, I don't need you." Then a door opens--you don't even feel that you have to open it; it is wide open, you are taken over to the other side. All that is done by Someone else, not you. And then the other way becomes impossible.

All this... oh, this tremendous labour of the mind striving to understand, toiling and giving itself headaches!... It is absolutely useless, absolutely useless, no use at all, it merely increases the confusion.

You are faced with a so-called problem: what should you say, what should you do, how should you act? There is nothing to do, nothing, you only have to say to the Lord, "There, You see, it is like that"--that's all. And then you stay very quiet. And then quite spontaneously, without thinking about it, without [new p. 151]reflection, without calculation, nothing, nothing, without the slightest effort--you do what has to be done. That is to say, the Lord does it, it is no longer you. He does it, He [old p. 153]arranges the circumstances, He arranges the people, He puts the words into your mouth or your pen--He does everything, everything, everything, everything; you have nothing more to do but to allow yourself to live blissfully.

I am more and more convinced that people do not really want it.

But clearing the ground is difficult, the work of clearing the ground beforehand.

But you don't even need to do it! He does it for you.

But they are constantly breaking in: the old consciousness, the old thoughts....

Yes, they try to come in again, by habit. You only have to say, "Lord, You see, You see, You see, it is like that"--that's all. "Lord, You see, You see this, You see that, You see this fool" --and it is all over immediately. And it changes automatically, my child, without the slightest effort. Simply to be sincere, that is to say, to truly want everything to be right. You are perfectly conscious that you can do nothing about it, that you have no capacity. I feel more and more that this amalgam of matter, like this, of cells, all that, is pitiful. It is pitiful! I do not know whether there are certain states in which people feel powerful, wonderful, luminous, capable; but for me it is because they do not really know what they are like! When you really see how you are made--it is really nothing, nothing. But it is capable of everything, provided... provided that you allow the Lord to act. But there is always something that wants to do it by itself; that's the trouble, otherwise...

No, you may be full of an excellent goodwill and then you [new p. 152] want to do it. That's what complicates everything. Or else you don't have faith, you believe that the Lord will not be able to do it and that you must do it yourself, because He does not [old p. 154]know! (Mother laughs.) This, this kind of stupidity is very common. "How can He see things? We live in a world of Falsehood, how can He see Falsehood and see..." But He sees the thing as it is! Exactly!

I am not speaking of people of no intelligence, I am speaking of people who are intelligent and who try--there is a kind of conviction, like that, somewhere, even in people who know that we live in a world of Ignorance and Falsehood and that there is a Lord who is All-Truth. They say, "Precisely because He is All-Truth, He does not understand. (Mother laughs.) He does not understand our falsehood, I must deal with it myself." That is very strong, very common.

Ah! we make complications for nothing.

There is something I have often wondered about: when one prays to the Lord, when one wants to make Him understand that something is wrong, I always have the impression that one must concentrate very hard and that after all one is calling to something far away. Is that right? Or is it really...

That depends on us!

Now I can feel Him everywhere, all the time, all the time... even a physical contact--it is subtle physical, but physical--in things, in the air, in people, in... like this. (Mother presses her hands to her face.) And then, it is not far to go, all I have to do is this (Mother turns her hands slightly inwards), one second of concentration--He is there! He is there, He is everywhere. He is far away only when we think He is far away.

Naturally, when we begin to think of all the zones, all the planes of universal consciousness and that it is at the very end, at the very end, right at the very end, then it becomes very far away, [new p. 153]very, very far! (Mother laughs.) But when we think that He is everywhere, that He is everything and that it is only our perception that prevents us from seeing Him and feeling Him [old p. 155]and that we only have to do this (Mother turns her hands inwards); it is a movement like this and like that (Mother turns her hands alternately inwards and outwards), it becomes very concrete: you do this (outward movement), everything becomes artificial, hard, dry, false, untrue, artificial; you do this (inward movement), everything becomes wide, tranquil, luminous, peaceful, vast, joyful. And it is simply this, that (Mother turns her hands alternately inwards and outwards). How? Where? It cannot be described, it is only, only a movement of consciousness, nothing else. A movement of consciousness. And the difference between the true consciousness and the false consciousness becomes more and more precise, and at the same time, thin--you don't have to do "great things" to come out of it. Before that, one has the impression that one is living inside something and that a great interiorisation, concentration, absorption, is needed to get out of it; but now the impression is of something one accepts (Mother screens her face with her hand), something like a thin little peel that is very hard--very hard but malleable, very, very dry, very thin, very thin, something like putting on a mask; and then one does this (gesture), and it disappears.

One can foresee the time when it will not be necessary to be aware of the mask; it will be so thin that one will be able to see, to feel, to act through it with no need to put the mask on again. That is what has just begun.

But this Presence in all things.... It is a vibration, but it is a vibration that contains everything--a vibration which contains a kind of infinite power, infinite delight and infinite peace, of vastness, vastness, vastness; there are no limits.... But it is only a vibration, it does not... Oh, Lord! it cannot be thought, so it cannot be said. If you think, as soon as you think, the whole muddle begins again. That is why one cannot speak.

No, He is very far away because you think He is very far [new p. 154]away. Even, you know, if you think He is there, like this (gesture close to her face) touching you... if you could feel--it is not like the touch of a person, it is not like that. It is not something [old p. 156]alien, external, which comes in from outside. It is not that.... It is everywhere.

Then you feel--everywhere, everywhere, everywhere: inside, outside, everywhere, everywhere--Him, nothing but Him --Him, His vibration.

No, you must stop that (the head), until you stop that, you cannot see the True Thing--you look for comparisons, you say, "It is like this, it is like that." Oh!

(Silence)

And how often, how often the impression... there is no form--there is a form and there is no form, it cannot be put into words. And the impression of a look and there are no eyes--there are no eyes, but there is a look--a look and a smile, and there is no mouth, there is no face! And yet there is a smile, there is a look and (Mother laughs) one cannot help saying, "Yes, O Lord, I am stupid!" But He laughs, one laughs, one is happy.

One cannot! It cannot be explained. It cannot be put into words. One cannot say anything. Whatever one says is nothing, nothing.

12 October 1962

Collected Works of The Mother, First Edition, Volume10, pp. 152-56