Page 10 - All India Magazine Sep-2026

ing to Him, loving Him, of joining Him to your physical life, be-
ing close to Him and drawing Him close to you — that way it's
beautiful. Each time you say the Word, let it be an invocation,
let it be like the recitation of a word of love; then it's beautiful.
That's how I see it.
And so according to your mission in the world, you have
to find for yourself the right proportion between this work and
external, intellectual or organisational work; and then there
are the body's needs, which can be met in the same way, try-
ing to make it possible for the Lord to take delight in them. I
have seen this for trivial things: for example, making your bath
a pleasant experience, or caring for your hair, or whatever (of
course, it's been a long time since there have been any of those
stupid, petty ideas of personal pleasure), so that these things
aren't done indifferently, out of habit and necessity, but... with
a touch of beauty, a touch of charm and delight for the Lord.
The Mother: Conversation with a disciple, February 3, 1962

Success in Japa
I am sorry the old reaction to the japa has recurred. Perhaps
the mind is doing it too much as a means for a result. The japa
is usually successful only on one of two conditions, — if it is
repeated with a sense of its significance, a dwelling of some-
thing in the mind on the nature, power, beauty, attraction of
the Godhead it signifies and is to bring into the consciousness,
that is the mental way, — or if it comes up from the heart or
rings in it with a certain sense or feeling of bhakti making it
alive, that is the emotional way. Either the mind or the vital
has to give it support or sustenance. But if it makes the mind
dry and the vital restless, it must be missing that support and
sustenance. There is of course a third way, the reliance on the
power of the mantra or name in itself, but then one has to go

10 All India Magazine, September 2026