Page 12 - All India Magazine Sep-2026

Fruits of Japa
I don't know what is the fruit of the japa and what is simply the
fruit of a sedimentation: I can't tell. I know that when I am doing my
japa, there is a rather concentrated force, but I don't know if that
comes from the japa or, quite simply, from the fact that I concen-
trate. I can't tell.
Oh, you mean the words of the japa — those words have
only the power given by the generations that have repeated
them.
(silence)
There is one sound which, to me, has an extraordinary pow-
er — extraordinary and universal (that's the important point):
it doesn't depend on the language you speak, it doesn't de-
pend on the education you were given, it doesn't depend on
the atmosphere you breathe. And that sound, without knowing
anything, I used to say it when I was a child (you know how in
French we say, "Oh!"; well, I used to say "OM," without know-
ing anything!). And indeed, I made all kinds of experiments with
that sound — it's fantastic, even, fantastic! It's unbelievable.
So then, if around this you build something that corre-
sponds to your own aspiration — certain sounds or words that
for you evoke a soul state — then it's very good.
All that is traditional benefits from the power of tradition,
that goes without saying, but it's necessarily very limited —
personally, it gives me the feeling of something shriveled and
withered, as if all the juice it could contain had been squeezed
out (!) Except if, spontaneously, the sounds correspond to a
soul state in you.
The Mother: Conversation with a disciple, September 23, 1964

12 All India Magazine, September 2026