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WRITINGS BY THE MOTHER
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

The Divine's dose

15 November 1967

One has the feeling that unless something like a miracle happens, in the sense in which man understands miracles, well, it will take many centuries.

But did you ever expect that it would not take time?

Yes, evidently.

But I never thought--I never thought that it could come quickly. First of all, one has only to try, as I do, on one's own body, see the difference between matter as it is, the constitution as it is, and then... what one may conceive of a divine existence--that is to say, divine, which is not at every second tied to the obscurity of a half inconscient matter... How long will it take? How long has it taken to change the stone into the plant, the plant into the animal, the animal...? We do not know, but in the way things move... Now that they have become so clever in calculating, when do they think the earth was formed? How many millions and millions of years? And all that to arrive at where we are now.

Naturally, the more it moves, the more it goes quickly, it is understood, but quickly... quickly?

If the process has to be "natural", it will take an eternity.

No! It is not a question of being "natural". Nature has arranged things progressively to manifest the consciousness; that is to say, the whole work has been to prepare the Inconscient in such a way that it may become conscious. Naturally, now the consciousness is there, at least in a large measure; hence it goes much quicker; that is to say, the bulk of the work is done. But [old p. 85]still, as I have said, [new p. 85]when one sees the degree to which it is tied to inconscience, to a half-vague consciousness, and sees that men who do not know still feel the "fatality", the "destiny"--what they call "Nature" and all that dominates and rules--well, for the last change to be done, all that must become fully conscious, and not only in the mental way--that is not sufficient--but in the divine way! So, much remains to be done.

This is just what I see every day with this poor little body, and then, all that surrounds it (gesture of a crowding all around), all this substance as it is, oh!... nothing but illness and misery and disorder. Oh! All that has nothing in common with the Divine. An unconscious mass.

Do you mean to say: Unless something comes down and by force changes it?

Yes.

But Sri Aurobindo says (I read it two days ago, I do not know where he has written it, for it was only a quotation) that if the divine Consciousness, the divine Power, the divine Love, the Truth manifested itself too rapidly upon the earth, the earth would be dissolved! She would not be able to bear it... brrf!

I am translating, but the idea is that.

But perhaps not the highest divine dose, but a small divine dose!

(Mother laughs) The smaller dose is always there. It is always there, a small dose; there is even a somewhat strong dose, and if one looks at That, one is full of wonder. But it is just because of That that one still sees... how things are.

Well, there is not a day when it has not been noticed that one dose, not a full dose but just a little dose, an infinitesimal [old p. 86]drop of That, can cure you in a minute--"it can": it does cure you, not "it can"; you are all the while in that state, poised, and [new p. 86]the least failing means disorder and the end; and just one drop of That... it becomes light and progress. The two extremes. The two extremes are side by side.

It is an observation that one makes at least several times a day.

But naturally, if this instrument was made to observe, to explain, to describe, it could say wonderful things, but, well... I think--I do not know, but it seems to be the first time that the instrument, instead of being made in order to bring the "Good Tidings", the "Revelation", to give the signal, has been made to... to try to realise--to do the work, the obscure task. And so it observes, but it does not get into an ecstatic joy of observation, and it is compelled at every minute to see, in spite of that, how much work still remains to be done.... And so, as regards itself it can rejoice only when the work has been done--but what does that mean, the "work done"?... Something that is established. This divine Presence, this divine Consciousness, this divine Truth manifests itself like this, in a flash, and then... everything goes on in its usual trot--there is a change, but an imperceptible change. Well, for it (the body), this is all right, and I think it is that which sustains its courage and gives it a kind of smiling peace in spite of all that is so little satisfactory with regard to the result; but this cannot satisfy it, it will be satisfied only... when the thing will be done, that is to say, when what is now a revelation--dazzling but short-lived--will be an established fact, when truly there will be divine bodies, divine beings dealing with the world in a divine way; then, then only it will say, "Yes, that is it", but not before. Well, that, I do not believe that it can be immediately.

Collected Works of The Mother, First Edition, Volume 11, pp. 84-86