Page 33 - All India Magazine Feb-2025

and then all of a sudden (gesture of inward plunge), and after a time
you ask yourself, "Well, well, where have I been?..." There are times
like that when you go into a sort of sleep. The first few times,
I thought I had lapsed into unconsciousness (although that has
rarely happened to me!), but anyway, I wondered what it meant.
Then I took a good look and I saw it was a necessary period of
assimilation. It's very necessary. It's in a sort of stillness of the
cells' consciousness that they assimilate the new force. So when
it comes, don't resist. Generally, it doesn't last very long: fifteen
minutes, twenty minutes. A period of assimilation. You know, the
atmosphere is charged, charged, increasingly charged. So if sud-
denly you feel something pulling, don't resist, let yourself go — it's
better not to be standing up!
The Mother: Conversation with a Disciple, November 15, 1965

Twelve year period
I have seen that the different stages of my development oc-
curred in twelve-year periods, though I don't recall the exact dates.
The first period, from the age of five (I can't start earlier than five!)
to about eighteen, dealt with consciousness. Then came all the
artistic and vital development, culminating in the occult develop-
ment with Théon (I met Théon around 1905 or '06, I think). Then
right around this time an intensive mental development began—
from 1908 to 1920, or a little before; but it was especially intense
before coming here in 1914.
And 1920 marked the beginning of full development. Not spiri-
tual development — that had been going on from the very start
— but action, the action with Sri Aurobindo. That was clearly from
1920 on; I had met Sri Aurobindo earlier, but it really began in 1920.
The Mother: Conversation with a Disciple, July 28, 1962

All India Magazine, February 2025 33