Page 11 - All India Magazine Jan-2026

established, oh!...
And it can be felt only when you are not turned in on
yourself, that is, when you DON'T FEEL YOURSELF FEEL-
ING IT. And that is the great difficulty, because as soon as
it comes, something wants to feel it, and then instantly you
fall back into the grating. And it cannot be felt: if you feel
yourself feeling it, it's already no longer the thing.
Oh, it's already spoilt.
The Mother: Conversation with a Disciple, October 13, 1965

Grimness of God
The mistake was an old obstinate suggestion returning
so as to bring about the old reactions which have to be got
over. It is your old error of the greatness and "grimness" of
God, Supramental etc. which was used to bring back the
wrong ideas and the gloom. All this talk about grimness
and sternness is sheer rot—you will excuse me for the ex-
pression, but there is no other that is adequate. The only
truth about it is that I am not demonstrative or expansive
in public—but I never was. Nevinson seeing me presiding
at the Surat Nationalist Conference—which was not a joke
and others were as serious as myself—spoke of me as that
most politically dangerous of men—"the man who never
smile s" which made people who knew me smile very much.
You seem to have somewhere in you a Nevinson impression
of me. Or perhaps you agree with X who wrote demanding
of me why I smile d only with the lips and complained that it
was not a satisfactory smile like the Mother's. All the same,
whatever I may have said to Y or Y may have said to you, I
have always given a large place to mirth and laughter and
my letters in that style are only the natural outflow of my
personality. I have never been "grim" in my life—that is the

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