The Mother's Agenda, March 22, 1967:
I am beginning to be forced to wage war for the Truth against all the conceptions of the truth! And that's rather interesting.
For instance, there is here that old idea of
vegetarian food. Some people write to me indignantly that these "holy
rules" are being increasingly broken in the Ashram! Someone wrote to me
a first time, asking me to answer; I neglected to. So he wrote a second
time to tell me, "What can we do if you don't answer?" I answered
(they'll probably bite their tongues at my reply), I replied something
like this:
"Truth is not a dogma that one can learn once
and for all and impose as a rule. Truth is as infinite as the supreme
Lord and It manifests every instant for those who are sincere and
attentive."
I could have added other things but didn't, so as not to wage battle too openly!
The same day, that is, just today, I got another letter.... The
whole letter ranted and raved about all that's going on in the Ashram,
saying, "What! This place is worse than the world!" and so forth. (All
this in the name of "truth," naturally.) So (laughing) I answered:
"Were Truth to manifest in such a way as to be seen and
understood by all, they would be terrified by the enormity of their
ignorance and false interpretation."
I hit hard this time.
And it's going on.
Day after day it's like that, growing acute. Everyone is the
"defender of the Truth." One about food, another about money, another
about business, another about relationships ... - everyone has his
hobby-horse.
The wonderful thing is that till now not one has told me,
"Maybe my opinions aren't true?" - not one! "Maybe my way of seeing or
feeling isn't true?" - not one. They are all in full Truth!
It's very interesting.
The defenders of the truth are often worse than the enemies of the truth.
(Mother nods approvingly) But I can't say anything about that because I am the one responsible, I told them, "Cling to Truth."
No, they all make the same mistake: they confuse truth with the
old idea of virtue. They all make the same mistake as the moral error.
And above all, they want a truth expressed in a few very clear
and well-defined words, so they can say, "This is true." The old
calamity of religions: "This is true" - therefore the rest is
falsehood.
How many times ... how many times Sri Aurobindo
(and I myself) said, "When a thing is true, you can be sure that its
opposite is also true. When you have understood this, then you will
begin to understand."
This morning I was also bombarded with a
quotation from Sri Aurobindo (they came and bombarded me in the name of
Sri Aurobindo!), to tell me that in The Mother he wrote, "The divine Grace can act only in the Truth" - and I shouldn't forget that! (Mother laughs) There
is a quotation from Sri Aurobindo in which he says, "The divine Grace
will answer, but do not think it will answer in Falsehood...." An
admirable sentence. Only, they don't know: THEY are the possessors of
the Truth - Falsehood is for others!... And even intelligent people
(that's the strange thing, because it's so idiotic!), even people who,
anyway, have a brain, who understand, fall into the trap.
(silence)
Thanks to all this, I might say (not even
"because of" - THANKS TO all this), I have had these last three days a
vision - a concrete vision every second, showing how the supreme
Consciousness (which I personally find convenient to call the "supreme
Lord"), how EVERY SECOND it makes you do or say or see or know
ex-act-ly what is needed for everything to move on like this (round gesture expressing the innumerably ramified movement of universal forces), to move forward. It's not yet the direct, all-powerful, crushing Movement of direct Forces (gesture from above downward, like a sword of light): it's a movement like this (same round gesture), but
marvelous - marvelously subtle, ingenious, respectful of everything,
but everything; you know, a movement that makes use of everything to
lead towards the goal, even "errors" - which aren't errors because when
the Consciousness is there, the error isn't one committed by ignorance:
a thing is said or done because that's what needs to be said or needs
to be done - it may in appearance be even a blunder, yet it's ex-act-ly
what is needed for everything to move forward (same innumerable round gesture), move
forward luminously towards the desired goal. It's absolutely marvelous!
And seen in tiny little details and in the whole. It's this marvel of a
Consciousness that makes everyone do what must be done, puts everything
in its place, sorts out everything, and it's our idiocy, an absolutely
ignorant and stupid vision, that would have us believe in mistakes, in
errors, in ... Everyone is a problem to be resolved, so all those
problems interpenetrate, and it is the WHOLE that must be led towards
precisely this famous Truth (the true one). But I've spent, you know,
hours in admiration - a blissful admiration - at this marvel of
organization, with all the little things around you, all the little
people around you, all the little circumstances.... It's wonderful,
wonderful!
And then, this overweening mind which understands nothing and
asserts itself in its all-powerful knowledge, oh ... it's so comical!
(silence)
It is the maximum use of all possibilities and
all impossibilities, all capacities and all incapacities; a maximum use
in a maximum power and a maximum Compassion, and also ... a smile! A
smile, a sense of humor, oh! ... Such a benevolent irony, so full of
compassion, so wonderful.... And this overweening mind, a fantastic
phenomenon indeed: it spends its time judging what it doesn't know and
deciding on what it doesn't see!
