Part One: Preliminaries
and Revelations of the
A brief
outline
Max Théon (né Louis-Maximilian Bimstein, 1848-1927), a
Polish Jewish, was a cabbalist and an occultist. Known under several names, I
will refer to him with the pseudonym he adopted while in
Recalling her experiences with Théon, the Mother told
Satprem the following:
He had assumed two names: one was an Arab name he had
adopted when he took refuge in
Sujata Nahar, the spiritual companion of Satprem, wrote
the following on Théon:
A diversity of subjects interested him—scientific or
artistic or sociological. He could always hold his own against the experts in
any line. With his refinement, his aristocratic bearing, he became a much
sought-after guest in
In the Agenda the Mother reports that Théon taught
Madame Blavatsky Kabbalah. In fact some of the ideas of Théon's cosmic
tradition were similar to those of Blavatsky. But while the latter did not
mention Théon, she grew vocally hostile towards The Hermetic Brotherhood of
Luxor, with which she severed all relationship in 1977. However, in his
hagiographic essay [3] on Théon, the spiritual philosopher and writer Pascal
Themanlys mentions Madame Blavatsky and Mirra Alfassa as Théon's pupils.
Moreover Théon’s esoteric philosophy, Theosophy and other interrelated systems
of thought shared essential concepts such as the seven planes of existence and
the foremost importance of evolution, as well as the cardinal tenet of a Higher
Self or reincarnating Soul, to be clearly distinguished from the
psycho-physical personality. Also, the magus Paulos Metamon, a Copt or a
Chaldean whom many believed was Théon’s father, was Blavatsky's first Master.
Whereas Paul Johnson [4] argues that the ‘mahatmas’ were adepts dramatized with
invented names and he presents Tuitit Bey as none other than Louis Maximilien
Bimstein, alias Max Théon.
Around the turn of the century the Théons founded the
Cosmic Movement. This was based on material referred to as the Cosmic
Tradition, which was channeled by Théon's wife, by then known as
Like Plato, Théon wished for a political system that
empowered the wise, and considered war “the greatest crime, because life is
sacred.” Despite this idealistic veneer, the Mother looked at him as a Vibhuti
of the Asura of Death. Although she was wary about Théon’s essential nature,
having observed similarities in his comprehensive cosmology in comparison to
that of Sri Aurobindo, although they had never met, she transmitted some of
Theon’s metaphysical concepts to the latter. Indeed, Sri Aurobindo’s and the
Mother’s path includes knowledge of intermediate worlds and interaction with
their occult forces, within the framework of their all-embracing Yoga.
Moreover, Sri Aurobindo adopted from the Mother what they will rename the
psychic being, the entity of which the Mother was first given hints from Théon. Even the Mother's first drawing (below,
right) of Sri Aurobindo's symbol is inspired from a drawing by Théon (below,
left). The final drawing of Sri Aurobindo’s symbol, executed by Pavitra on the
Mother’s instruction, is even more similar to that originated by Théon.
Théon had knowledge of a tradition much anterior to
that of the Vedas and the Cabala, the Chaldean tradition. This coincided with
the Mother’s own experience prior meeting Théon. She told Satprem:
He [Théon] said he had received initiation in India (he
knew a little Sanskrit and the Rig-Veda thoroughly), and then he formulated a
tradition which he called the ‘cosmic tradition’ and which he claimed to have
received—I don’t know how—from a tradition anterior to that of the Cabala and the
Vedas. But there were many things (Madame Théon was the clairvoyant one, and
she received visions; oh, she was wonderful!), many things that I myself had
seen and known before knowing them which were then substantiated.
So personally, I am convinced that there was indeed a
tradition anterior to both these traditions containing knowledge very close to
an integral knowledge. Certainly, there is a similarity in the experiences.
When I came here and told Sri Aurobindo certain things I knew from the occult
standpoint, he always said that it conformed to the Vedic tradition. And as for
certain occult practices, he told me that they were entirely tantric—and I knew
nothing at that time, absolutely nothing, neither the Vedas nor the Tantras.
So very probably there was a tradition anterior to
both. I have recollections (for me, these are always things I have LIVED), very clear, very distinct recollections of a time
that was certainly VERY anterior to the
Vedic times and to the Cabala, to the Chaldean tradition.
But now, there is only a very small number of people in
the West who know that it isn’t merely subjective or imaginative (the result of
a more or less unbridled imagination), and that it corresponds to a universal
truth. [5]
Max Theon, drawn by Mirra
Théon: “the
new creation on earth and the glorified body”
Although he did
not use this term, Théon “knew of the Supermind’s existence”. The Mother told
Satprem:
Théon knew something about it, and he called it 'the
new world' or 'the new creation on earth and the glorified body' (I don't
remember his exact terminology); but he knew of the Supermind's existence—it
had been revealed to him and he announced its coming. He said it would be
reached THROUGH the discovery of the God
within. [6]
She made further comments as follows, while at the same
time stressing the limits of Théon’s real nature:
The other tradition—Théon said it was the origin of
both the Kabbala and the Vedas—also held the same concept of divine life and a
divine world as Sri Aurobindo: that the summit of evolution would be the
divinization of everything objectified, along with an unbroken progression from
that moment on. (As things are now, one goes forward and then backwards, then
forward and backwards again; but in this divine world, retrogression won't be
necessary: there will be a continuous ascent.) This concept was held in that
ancient tradition—Theon spoke to me very clearly of it, and Sri Aurobindo
hadn't yet written anything when I met Théon. Théon had written all kinds of
things—not philosophy, but stories, fantastic stories! Yet this same knowledge
was behind them, and when asked about the source of this knowledge he used to
say that it antedated both the Kabbala and the Vedas (he was well-versed in the
Rig-veda).
But Théon had no idea of the path of bhakti, [7] none whatsoever.
The idea of surrender
to the Divine was absolutely alien to him. Yet he did have the idea of the
Divine Presence here (Mother indicates
the heart center), of the immanent Divine and of union with That. And he
said that by uniting with That and letting That transform the being one could
arrive at the divine creation and the transformation of the earth.
Théon was the first one to give me the idea that the
earth is symbolic, representative—symbolic of concentrated universal action
allowing divine forces to incarnate and work concretely. I learned all this
from him. [8]
In an important conversation in the Agenda, reproduced at the end of this
piece, after mentioning Théon’s and his wife Alma’s awareness of the Supermind,
the Mother reports how the latter showed her how to go out of twelve different
bodies; thus passing through twelve corresponding subtle worlds, by means of a
voluntary process, until reaching the supramental. Théon called this last
stage, in which the body lies in a cataleptic state, ‘the Formless’. The
previous stage is that of total unity,—perfect unity and identity,—experienced
as “an almost immaculate white light, yet with something of a golden-rose in
it”, which is the essence of Love. The Mother added that the words and the
classification by Théon differed from that of Sri Aurobindo, but the experience
is substantially the same.
Théon had warned the Mother not to go beyond the last
domain for he believed that she would not be able to come back. But one day,
feeling that she wanted to cross over, the Mother found herself “in the
presence of the 'principle,' a principle of the human form”, which no one had
seen before, standing “between the world of forms and the Formless”. This
happened around 1904; but afterwards she saw it again several other times.
When, years later, she reported this event to Sri Aurobindo, he commented, “It
is surely the prototype of the supramental form.” The Mother further observed,
“…once the border has been crossed, there is no more 'ascent' and 'descent';
you have the feeling of rising up only at the very start, while leaving the
terrestrial consciousness and emerging into the higher mind. But once you have
gone beyond that, there's no notion of rising; there's a sense, instead, of a
sort of inner transformation.” The
reverse process requires re-entering and re-descending through all those same
bodies, which produces friction.
The real work with Sri Aurobindo began when the Mother
returned from
All this leads back to the years with Théon. “And it
was only when I descended into the Inconscient that I found the Divine
Presence—there, in the midst of Darkness” the Mother stated. However, she
recalled that she had already had this experience when Théon wanted her to find
the Mantra of Life. Descending “into the total, unindividualized—that is,
general—Inconscient (at the time)”, she found herself “in front of something
like a vault or a grotto … and when it opened, I saw a Being of iridescent light
reclining with his head on his hand, fast asleep. All the light around him was
iridescent. When I told Théon what I was seeing, he said it was 'the immanent
God in the depths of the Inconscient,' who through his radiations was slowly
waking the Inconscient to Consciousness.” When the Mother looked at the Being
“he woke up and opened his eyes, expressing the beginning of conscious, wakeful
action.” The Mother experienced the descent into the very bottom of the
Inconscient many more times, always “finding there the Divine Consciousness,
the Divine Presence, under one form or another.” But as the Mother specified,
the descent into the Inconscient “can be the process only when you are ALREADY conscious and identified; then YOU DRAW DOWN the Force (as Sri Aurobindo says, 'one makes it
descend') in order to transform. Then, with this action of transformation, one
pushes [the Force into the depths, like a drill]. The Rishis' description of
what happens next is absolutely true: a formidable battle at each step. And it
would seem impossible to wage that battle without having first experienced the
junction above.”
The Mother commented that the Divine in the Inconscient
may be a relatively quick realization, eventually made accessible through the
Divine within; but as for its transformation, that is another matter
altogether. Relating her own experience to what Sri Aurobindo and Madame Théon
told her, the Mother describes the process of transformation as involving a
progressive ascent to the summit of consciousness, by way of leaving the
various sheaths and the corresponding worlds (this is what she meant by going
out of the body) until the Supermind is reached. There is no high, and no low
she says: the moment the union is achieved, the Supermind is recognized in the
utmost Inconscient as well. Yet, the permanent transformation of the physical
nature is achieved only by re-descending through all the planes and levels of
the being with a supramentalised consciousness.
It is noteworthy that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother
never entered samadhi intended as an unconscious trance-like state [9]. Trance,
says the Mother, is not needed as it is the sign of non-individualisation,
where consciousness is not fully awake. As Théon explained it, people go into
trance only when the links with certain intermediary zones are either missing
or undeveloped. In the case of the Mother’s experience during her time with
Théon, the body was in a trance, “but the part having the experience doesn't AT
ALL feel deprived or lacking in anything. The experience comes with a fullness
of life, consciousness, independence, individuality.”
As RY Deshpande has commented, this is a case of the
Asura at the service of the Divine… But what an Asura! Paradoxically, all that
is left of Théon’s knowledge of “the original Tradition”, anterior to the
Cabala and the Vedas, lives in the Mother’s legacy. As Théon had told her, “the
new world” (the Supermind) “would be reached through the discovery of the God
within.”
Excerpt from
the Conversation in Mother’s Agenda on 7 November 1961
(Regarding
Satprem's letter to Mother on the Veda)
This has confronted me with a problem....
You are asking about the process, aren't you?
Yes.
My impression from the Veda is not the same as yours.
You say that when they reached the heights they went into trance and then tried
the other method. When I read the Veda ... at least what Sri Aurobindo
translates for us, because otherwise I have no direct knowledge...
But they say nothing about this.
I know my own experience and I can speak of it in
detail; and according to what Sri Aurobindo told me, it was the same for
him—although he NEVER wrote of it
anywhere. But since it has been my experience, I naturally feel that it's the
simplest method.
There is also what Théon and Madame Théon used to say.
They never spoke of 'Supermind,' but they said the same thing as the Vedas,
that the world of Truth must incarnate on earth and create a new world. They
even picked up the old phrase from the Gospels, 'new heavens and a new earth,'
[10] which is the same thing the Vedas speak of. Madame Théon had this
experience and she gave me the indication (she didn't actually teach me) of how
it was to be done. She would go out of her body and become conscious in the
vital world (there were many intermediary states, too, if one cared to explore
them). After the vital came the mental: you consciously went out of the vital
body, you left it behind (you could see it) and you entered the mental world.
Then you left the mental body and entered into.... They used different words,
another classification (I don't remember it), but even so, the experience was
identical. And like that, she successively left twelve different bodies, one
after another. She was extremely 'developed,' you see—individualized,
organized. She could leave one body and enter the consciousness of the next
plane, fully experience the surroundings and all that was there, describe it
... and so on, twelve times.
I learned to do the same thing, and with great
dexterity; I could halt on any plane, do what I had to do there, move around
freely, see, observe, and then speak about what I had seen. And my last stage,
which Théon called 'pathétisme,' [11]
a very barbaric but very expressive word, bordered on the Formless—he sometimes
used the Jewish terminology, calling the Supreme 'The Formless.' (From this
last stage one passed to the Formless—there was no further body to leave
behind, one was beyond all possible forms, even all thought forms.) In this
domain [the last stage before the Formless] one experienced total unity—unity
in something that was the essence of Love; Love was a manifestation more...
'dense,' he would always say (there were all sorts of different 'densities');
and Love was a denser expression of That, the sense of perfect Unity—perfect
unity, identity—with no longer any forms corresponding to those of the lower
worlds. It was a Light! ... An almost immaculate white light, yet with
something of a golden-rose in it (words are crude). This Light and this Experience
were truly wonderful, inexpressible in words.
Well, one time I was there (Théon used to warn against
going beyond this domain, because he said you wouldn't come back), but there I
was, wanting to pass over to the other side, when—in a quite unexpected and
astounding way—I found myself in the presence of the 'principle,' a principle
of the human form. It didn't resemble man as we are used to seeing him, but it
was an upright form, standing just on the border between the world of forms and
the Formless, like a kind of standard. [12]. At that time nobody had ever
spoken to me about it and Madame Théon had never seen it—no one had ever seen
or said anything. But I felt I was on the verge of discovering a secret.
Afterwards, when I met Sri Aurobindo and talked to him
about it, he told me, 'It is surely the prototype of the supramental form.' I
saw it several times again, later on, and this proved to be true.
But naturally, you understand, once the border has been
crossed, there is no more 'ascent' and 'descent'; you have the feeling of
rising up only at the very start, while leaving the terrestrial consciousness
and emerging into the higher mind. But once you have gone beyond that, there's
no notion of rising; there's a sense, instead, of a sort of inner
transformation.
And from there I would re-descend, re-entering my
bodies one after another—there is a real feeling of re-entry; it actually
produces friction.
When one is on that highest height, the body is in a
cataleptic state.
I think I made this experiment in 1904, so when I
arrived here it was all a work accomplished and a well-known domain; and when
the question of finding the Supermind came up, I had only to resume an
experience I was used to—I had learned to repeat it at will, through successive
exteriorizations. It was a voluntary process.
When I returned from
Then a strange thing happened. When we were in the Vital,
my body suddenly became young again, as it had been when I was eighteen years
old! ... There was a young man named Pearson, a disciple of Tagore, who had
lived with me in
This lasted for a few months. Then we descended into
the Physical—and all the trouble began. [14] But we didn't stay in the Physical,
we descended into the Subconscient and from the Subconscient to the
Inconscient. That was how we worked. And it was only when I descended into the
Inconscient that I found the Divine Presence—there, in the midst of Darkness.
It wasn't the first time; when I was working with Théon
at Tlemcen (the second time I was there), I descended into the total,
unindividualized—that is, general—Inconscient (it was the time he wanted me to
find the Mantra of Life). And there I suddenly found myself in front of
something like a vault or a grotto (of course, it was only something 'like'
that), and when it opened, I saw a Being of iridescent light reclining with his
head on his hand, fast asleep. All the light around him was iridescent. When I
told Théon what I was seeing, he said it was 'the immanent God in the depths of
the Inconscient,' who through his radiations was slowly waking the Inconscient
to Consciousness.
But then a rather remarkable phenomenon occurred: when
I looked at him, he woke up and opened his eyes, expressing the beginning of
conscious, wakeful action.
I have experienced the descent into the Inconscient
many times (you remember, once you were there the day it happened—it had to do
with divine Love [15]; this experience of descending to the very bottom of the
Inconscient and finding there the Divine Consciousness, the Divine Presence,
under one form or another. It has happened quite frequently.
But I can't say that my process is to descend there
first, as you write. Rather, this can be the process only when you are ALREADY conscious and identified; then YOU DRAW DOWN the Force (as Sri Aurobindo says, 'one makes it
descend') in order to transform. Then, with this action of transformation, one
pushes [the Force into the depths, like a drill]. The Rishis' description of
what happens next is absolutely true: a formidable battle at each step. And it
would seem impossible to wage that battle without having first experienced the
junction above.
That is my experience—I don't say there can't be
others. I don't know.
One can realize the Divine in the Inconscient rather
quickly (in fact, I think it can happen just as soon as one has found the
Divine within). But does this give the power to TRANSFORM DIRECTLY? Does the direct junction between the supreme
Consciousness and the Inconscient (because that is the experience) give the
power to transform the Inconscient just like that, without any intermediary? I
don't think so. I simply haven't had that experience. Could all these things
I've been describing be happening now if I didn't have all those experiences
behind me? I don't know, I can't say.
One thing is certain—as soon as one goes beyond the
terrestrial atmosphere, beyond the higher mind's 'highest' region, the
sensation of 'high' and 'low' totally vanishes. There are no longer movements
of ascent and descent, but (Mother turns her hand over) something like inner
reversals.
I think the problem arises only when you try to see and
understand with the mental consciousness, even with the higher mind.
I am telling you this because, as soon as I got your
letter, I replied with what I'll read to you now; then I was immediately faced
with something I couldn't formulate, the kind of thing that gives you the
feeling of the unknown (all I knew was my own experience). So I did the usual
thing—became 'blank,' turned towards the Truth; and I questioned Sri
Aurobindo—and beyond—asking, if there were something to be known, that it be
told to me. Then I dropped it, I paid no more attention. And only as I was
coming here today was I told—I can't really use the word 'told,' but anyway,
what was communicated to me concerning your question was that the difference
between the two processes [the Rishis' and the present one] is purely
subjective, depending upon the way the experience is registered. I don't know
if I can make myself clear.... There is 'something' which is the experience and
which will be the Realization; and what appears to be a different, if not
opposite, process is simply a subjective mental notation of one SINGLE experience. Do you follow?
That's what I was told.
Now I'm going to read you my reply—it's the first
reaction (when something comes, I stay immobile; then an initial reaction comes
from above my head, but it's only like the first answering chord, and if I
remain attentive, other things follow; what I have just told you is what
followed). My immediate written response is based upon my own experience as
well as upon what Madame Théon told me and what Sri Aurobindo told me. (Mother reads:)
'It is by rising to the summit of consciousness through
a progressive ascent...' (that's what I meant just now by 'leaving the body,'
but without going into details), 'that one unites with the Supermind. But as
soon as the union is achieved, one knows and one sees that the Supermind exists
in the heart of the Inconscient as well. When one is in that state, there is
neither high nor low. But GENERALLY,' (I
emphasized this to make it clear that I am not making an absolute assertion)
'it is by REDESCENDING through the levels
of the being with a supramentalized consciousness that one can accomplish the
permanent transformation of physical nature.' (This can be experienced in all
sorts of ways, but what WE want and what
Sri Aurobindo spoke of is a change that will never be revoked, that will
persist, that will be as durable as the present terrestrial conditions. That is
why I put 'permanent.') 'There is no proof that the Rishis used another method,
although, to effect this transformation (if they ever did) they must
necessarily have fought their way through the powers of inconscience and
obscurity.'
Yes, the Rishis give an absolutely living description
of what you experience—and experience continually—as soon as you descend into
the Subconscient: all these battles with the beings who conceal the Light and
so on. I experienced these things continually at Tlemcen and again with Sri
Aurobindo when we were doing the Work—it's raging quite merrily even now!
As soon as you go down there, that's what happens—you
have to fight against all that is unwilling to change, all that dominates the
world and does not want to change. …
What I mean is that it's not necessarily in trance, in
another world, that one gets the supramental consciousness.... No.
It's something the Rishis realized with eyes wide open,
in day to-day life, if I understand rightly. I don't know how they did it....
But I myself have never had it in trance, and neither
did Sri Aurobindo - neither of us ever had trances! I mean the kind of trance
where contact with the body is lost. That's what he always said, and one of the
first things I told him when we met was, 'Well, everybody talks about trance
and samadhi and all those things, but I have never had them! I have never lost
consciousness.' 'Ah,' he replied, 'it's exactly the same for me!'
It depends upon the level of development, that's what
Théon used to say: 'One goes into trance only when certain links are missing.'
He saw people as made up of innumerable small 'bridges,' with intermediary
zones. 'If you have an intermediary zone that is undeveloped,' he said, 'a zone
where you are not conscious because it's not individualized, then you will be
in trance when you cross it.' Trance is the sign of non-individualization—the
consciousness is not awake and so your body goes into trance. But if your
consciousness is wide awake you can sit, keeping full contact with things, and
have the total experience. I could go out of my body with no need of trance,
except when Théon wanted me to do a particular work. That was a different
business—the vital force (not the consciousness, the vital force) had to go out
for that work, so the body had to go into trance. But even then.... For
instance, very often when I am 'called' and go to do something in response, my
body does become still, but it's not in trance; I can be sitting and, even in
the middle of a gesture, suddenly become immobile for a few seconds. [16] But I
was doing another type of work with Théon—dangerous work, at that—and it would
last for an hour. Then all the body's vital energy would go out, all of it, as
it does when you die (in fact, that's how I came to experience death).
But it isn't necessary to have all those experiences,
not at all—Sri Aurobindo never did. (Théon didn't have experiences, either; he
had only the knowledge—he made use of Madame Théon's experiences.) Sri
Aurobindo told me he had never really entered the unconsciousness of
Samadhi—for him, these domains were conscious; he would sit on his bed or in
his armchair and have all the experiences.
Naturally, it's preferable to be in a comfortable
position (it's a question of security). If you venture to do these kinds of
things standing up, for instance, as I have seen them done, it's dangerous. But
if one is quietly stretched out, there is no need for trance.
Besides, according to what I've been told (not
physically), I believe that the Rishis practised going into trance. But I
suppose they wanted to achieve what Sri Aurobindo speaks of: a PHYSICAL transformation of the physical body permitting one to LIVE this consciousness instead of the ordinary
consciousness. Did they ever do it? ... I don't know. The Veda simply recounts
what the forefathers have done. But who are these forefathers?
But surely this supramental consciousness is something
to be found in the body? [17] When one has these experiences, like the ones
I've had in the subtle physical, for example, the body is certainly in
trance—but the part having the experience doesn't AT ALL feel deprived or lacking in anything. The experience
comes with a fullness of life, consciousness, independence, individuality. It's
not like going out in trance to accomplish a work and feeling linked to the
body—it's not that: the body no longer exists nor has any reason to! It's
simply not there. And it's a nuisance to go back into it - 'what is this
useless burden!' you wonder. As a result, if this experience becomes permanent,
you live in a world that's just as concrete, just as real and just as TANGIBLE
as our physical world, with the same qualities of duration, permanence and
stability.
It's very difficult to express, because as soon as we
notice it....
While having this experience, you are free (as I said,
the body no longer exists, it has even no reason to exist, and you don't think
of it), and you have just as concrete an OBJECTIVE functioning—even more so! It is more concrete because
you have a MUCH CLEARER and more tangible
perception of knowledge than ordinary physical perception; our ordinary way of
understanding always seems so hazy in comparison. It's not the same phenomenon
as going off into trance and being linked to the body, depending upon it for
expression, and so forth.
But a certain work [of adaptation] is required to
express this experience, and the first impression upon returning is that
there's no way to do it. It simply doesn't correspond to anything. [18]
[1] Mother’s Agenda, November 4, 1958
[2] Mother's Chronicles, book three—Mirra the Occultist, Institut de Recherches Évolutives, Paris
[3] Prophecy and Meditation in the Light of the Kabbalah, Ansgar Edtion, 2002, p. 4
[4] The Masters Revealed: Madame Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge, SUNY Press
[5] Mother’s Agenda, November 4, 1958
[6] Mother’s Agenda, November 5, 1961
[7] Devotion, love for the Divine
[8] Mother’s Agenda, August 2, 1961
[9] Although samadhi is commonly interpreted as [unconscious] yogic trance, there are countless denominations of samadhi. Even the meaning of the same Sanskrit terms varies according to the different traditions. Sri Aurobindo himself wrote about the Baghavadgita’s samadhishta, as well about a divine, waking samadhi whose description evokes that of the sahaja nirvikalpa samadi or ‘natural state’. The latter is Ramana Maharshi’s definition for the Advaitin Self-realisation, the summit of Yoga: abiding oneness with the Self, “one without a second”, whether in the waking, sleeping or dreaming state. Hence the alternative term of turiya, “the Fourth”. Mata Amritanandamayi and other Advaitins refer to the same state—Self-realisation!—as sahaja samadhi.
[10] II Peter 3.13
[11] A word coined by Théon, which might roughly translate as ‘the sublime’.
[12] By 'standard,' Mother means a sort of model or archetype.
[13] Pearson
came to
[14] In January 1925, mother had an inflammation of the knee. On May 25 of the same year, Sri Aurobindo noted in a letter, 'The condition here is not very good. I am at present fighting the difficulties on the physical plane.' (Cited by AB Purani, Life of Sri Aurobindo, p. 203.) Note that in 1925 the Nazi Party was founded.
[15] We aren't sure, but this may refer to the experience of July 12, 1960, or to that of November 5, 1958, 'the almighty spring' (in fact, they are probably one and the same experience) which gave rise to the 1959 New Year Message: 'At the very bottom of the Inconscient, most hard and rigid and narrow and stifling, I struck upon an almighty spring that cast me up forthwith into a formless, limitless Vast, vibrating with the seeds of a new world.'
[16] Seconds that could last for half an hour!
[17] Mother does not reply directly to this question (although she would probably have answered in the affirmative, since the point is indeed to LIVE this supramental consciousness), but she does reply directly to what is BEHIND Satprem's question—that is, this fundamental, deep-rooted assumption that physical life is the sole, concrete reality.
[18] This
conversation was interrupted before Mother could conclude.