The other day when X came, as soon as he entered (he was standing there), this atmosphere came, from here up to there [Mother makes a semi-circular gesture in front of herself], surrounded me like a wall. It was thick, it was luminous, and then, it was forceful! To me it was visible, it was very material, as though a rampart, nearly of this thickness [gesture indicating about forty centimetres], and it remained there all the time he was there.
So, it is very consciously active.
It is as though a projection of power. And it has now become a habitual thing.
There is within it a consciousness—a very precious thing—which gives lessons to the body, teaching it what it must do, that is to say, the attitude it must have, the reaction it must have.… I have already told you many a time that it is very difficult to find the process of transformation when there is no one to give you any indications; well, it was as though the reply; it came to tell the body: “Take this attitude, do this in this way, do that in that way”, and so the body is satisfied, it is completely reassured, it can no longer be mistaken.
It is very interesting.
It came as a “mentor”, it was practical, quite practical: “This thing must be rejected, that must be accepted; this must be made general, that… ”; all the inner movements. And it even becomes very material in the sense that it says with regard to some vibrations: “This you must encourage”, to others: “That must be canalised”, to others again: “This must be removed.” Little indications like that.
[Silence]
In one of the old talks I had said (when I was speaking there in 155the Playground), I had said: Surely the superman will be at first a being of power, so that he may defend himself.”fn“… It would seem that the most conclusive and obvious aspect [of the supramental] and the one which will probably be the first to manifest—probably—will be the aspect of Power, rather than the aspect of Joy or of Truth. For a new race to be founded on earth, it would necessarily have to be protected from other earthly elements in order to be able to survive; and power is protection—not an artificial power, external and false, but the true strength, the triumphant Will. It is therefore not impossible to think that the supramental action, even before being an action of harmonisation, illumination, joy and beauty, might be an action of power, to serve as a protection. Naturally, for this action of power to be truly effective, it would have to be founded on Knowledge and Truth and Love and Harmony; but these things could manifest, visibly, little by little, when the ground, so to say, has been prepared by the action of a sovereign Will and Power.” (18 December 1957) It is that, it is that experience, it came back as an experience; and it is because it came back as an experience that I remembered that I had said it.
Yes, first Power.
Yes, exactly so. Well, I have first had the experience for this body: it came like a rampart, and it was mighty! It was a mighty power! Altogether out of proportion to the apparent action.
It is very interesting.
And also this is why, now that I see the experience, I see that the result is much more precise, concrete, because the mind and the vital are not there. Because that takes their place—and with all this quiet assurance of knowing, which comes at the same time. It is interesting.
[Silence]
You have something to say?
156In the same way. Only, those who are not accustomed to observing themselves objectively will notice it less, that is all. It will pass as though through cotton, as it always does so. But otherwise it is the same.
I do hope that it will make one think correctly.
Yes, it is a guide.
Well, it is a consciousness.
For me, the Consciousness limits itself to special activities, for special cases, but it is always the Consciousness; just as in the human consciousness it limits itself almost to nothing, so also in certain states of being, in certain activities, it limits itself to a certain way of being in order to fulfil Its action: and I have very much asked It: “If I could be guided at every minute”, because that gains time enormously, does it not?—instead of having to study, to observe, to… Well, now I find that it has happened like that.
[Silence]
There is a very marked change in those who have been touched on the first of January: it is particularly… indeed a precision and a certitude that has entered into their way of thinking.
It was there [Mother looks at the region of the heart]. It is curious, as though I was given the charge of putting it into contact with all those who come near me.