Below is the complete reference to the discussion on the “cuts” in the Savitri that RYD refers to (The Mother’s Agenda, July, 23, 1969, pp. 176-179):
And what news do you have?
Well, I have gone once to that subtle physical.
Aah!
You must have called me.
So then?
Then it’s all a bit chaotic, but anyway I saw Sri Aurobindo. I saw an image of him in which he told me (he was speaking in French, by the way), “Come, we need to do some physical exercises!” And it was as if he were taking me along for a walk ….
(Mother laughs)
Because there was a crowd there, oh, a crowd of people. And it was a Sri Aurobindo … not that he was younger, but he still looked very young. And he had …
He is particular there, you know; he is very particular, with a very particular form. I mean … In fact, he is in his own likeness, but he is ageless.
Yes, ageless.
He is ageless.
But he looked much more agile, if you like, and his skin had a golden red color, golden pinkish red.
Yes.
And a crowd of people.
Yes, I have noticed that … Was he dressed? … Because I have seen him hardly dressed, with a light, a sort of light (here, for instance [gesture]) hiding the lower part of the body: only a light was visible.
I didn’t notice, but it seemed to me that he was bare (or at least bare-chested).
Bare, that’s it, me too. I have always seen him bare, but he doesn’t look naked. And there’s a special color, that’s right. Oh, so, you went there for a stroll ….
But what disappointed me was that it was all very familiar.
But it is very familiar! It’s very familiar, extraordinarily so. With me too, it’s like that. Far more familiar than our physical life …. Oh, but then you did go there for real.
I mean I remember having seen Sri Aurobindo fifteen years ago: he came during my sleep and put his hand on my heart-there was such an emotion … in my sleep I wept and wept …. SOI thought that when I saw him again, I would have that same emotion ….
No!
But not in the least! He told me, Tome, we need to do some physical exercises”! And then it was as if he took me along for a walk.
Yes.
It seemed to be … “just like that.”
Yes, exactly, it shows you really did go there. It’s really “like that.” As for me, I find it more … familiar, more (what’s the word?) simple, you know, than our own life. Our physical life here seems … (Mother puffs up her cheeks). We make a lot of fuss about very little …. Oh then, you can be sure that you really went there!
But the place where I met him looked a little like your room downstairs ….
That’s right!
And it was full of a clutter of things, you know: piles of things here and there ….
That’s right.
And a crowd of people.
Exactly, it’s correct. People going and coming ….
Yes! There was even one amusing detail: among that pile of things that were there, there were books; then as he went by, Sri Aurobindo took one to see what was inside. But B. was there (you know, the Italian), and told him, “You mustn’t touch this without Mother’s permission”![i]
(Mother laughs heartily) Oh, this is priceless!
But didn’t you see Mridu?[ii]
No.
She’s there (huge gesture, laughing), just as she was! … I saw Purani, I saw Mridu, and the other day (I told you) I saw Amrita and Chandulal talking together. That whole place looks like downstairs, but it’s not downstairs. So it’s the place all right.
Very long ago (very long, a few years after Sri Aurobindo left), one night (because I was already seeing him), I saw him: I had gone to his place, and I found him sitting on a sort of bed … with a truss: three or four bandages like that on his body! (Mother laughs) So he called me and said (in English), “Look! Look what they’re doing with me! Look, they’re putting bandages all over me!” So I inquired – and found that they wanted to make cuts in his writings ….
[Bold, underline added]
Ooh!
I said, “Be careful! Here is what he thinks of your cuts.”[iii]
It’s like that, thoroughly familiar, but very expressive.
I’ve had hundreds of visions there, I have them almost every night, and it’s always nearly the same. But there’s a crowd! And all kinds of people ….
But does one work there? What does one do? What do all these people do?
According to what Sri Aurobindo told me, with those people he is preparing what will take place on the earth.
Last night (that was the first time), I was in a place (again in this subtle physical), a place as if atop a rather barren mountain, but where people met – there were even kinds of seats. And I was there to see … I don’t know who (now I forget), but they were “wise” and “well-known” people of India. It seemed (in my vision) that I was there permanently and that those people had come to see me. And they came from every side: all of India’s spiritual sects were represented, and everyone came, sat down, and told me … (laughing) the “virtues” of his creed. It was pricelessly funny! It was … I spent a good while, but I really had great fun! Some wore big turbans and were dressed in white, “very important” people who had had special seats brought for them, and they were quite … (Mother puffs herself up) they swaggered, they looked down on others from their lofty heights! Some were almost completely naked, some were … there were all sorts, and they were all in a big group like this (gesture in a circle). As for me, I was wearing a little white dress, like that, quite plain (the same shape as this one, but in white); I was sitting in a corner, having great fun – but I took up very little room! (Mother makes herself small) It was quite comical. Last night.
A big circle: one group, another group, a third group, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth group … and what fuss they made! It had to be seen.
But it’s the first time.
Sri Aurobindo wasn’t there – he was as he always is, a little more subtle within me: not with the same density. But not visible.
***
[i]Let us note that B. is a new, young disciple whose work is to keep that room downstairs clean.
[ii]Who was Sri Aurobindo’s cook, and round as a barrel; she left her body seven years earlier, in September 1962.
[iii]Numerous texts were nevertheless censored in the so-called “complete” edition of Sri Aurobindo’s works (the “Centenary Library”), in particular letters about the Ashram. As an illustration, we publish in addendum two of those censored letters, to make the intention plain.
