EWS #15: Battle of Dark and Light, the Deep State

Jan 12, 2019

Topics:

References:

Narad (00:00:52):

Welcome to our continuing series, Evenings with Sraddhalu. Today I have a big question for you because you spoke so clearly decisively about the darkness that prevails in the world today and previously you had made one comment about the Supermind, that I'll never forget, that it will use even waste materials such as plastics and regenerate them or use them for good. What in the current conditions of humanity not being ready for the Supramental, can the Supramental do today?

Sraddhalu (00:01:45):

It's the question which most starkly hits us. On the one hand, we have been told that the Supramental force is at work and on the other side we see only a steady decline of human civilization on a global scale only getting worse. And so the question often comes up is either the Supermind is not effective or it's a figment of imagination. And this is even the reason many people have lost hope. But the problem is because most people do not understand the nature of the Supermind and it's working. The idea people have is of a miraculous power that will somehow intervene miraculously and by miracle everything will happen and change. But that's not the process of evolution. Any greater power, including the mind came into human evolution, has to work through the earlier phase of development of evolution through the material which has been developed so far. And through the existing processes it can in the way along the way develop new processes out of the old. And that's one of the things that it is doing. One of the things which the Mother spoke of extensively in the Agenda, which Sri Aurobindo wrote about only a few months before he left his body, is this term that Sri Aurobindo coined, the mind of light, which is the Supermind entering the mental consciousness in the body and awakening in it, illuminating it until it is possible for the limited function of the reasoning mind to actually become effectively free of ignorance within its limited scope. And this mind of light itself can then take up successive levels of steps well before the full Supramental working is revealed in the human evolution.

Narad (00:04:02):

Mother has named a flower ‘Mind of light acting in matter’. That's right. How is it acting in matter?

Sraddhalu (00:04:11):

So the characteristic of this mind of light is that our mind as it is currently involved in the body, it's not a separate pure mind, it's mind bound in the physical consciousness is made sufficiently clear and operative filled with light, that it can be free of ignorance and error. It does not depend on an ascent into higher state of consciousness of intuition or even of the supermind. But its action here will make it capable of this and this Sri Aurobindo foresees as the immediate next evolutionary step. It's not a leap, but it's a step. And this when it works not only in the mind as embodied here, but even on matter directly, is one of the, is what that flower represents. This Sri Aurobindo developed in his own consciousness. It did not exist earlier in evolution. And when he left his body, he transmitted it into the Mother's consciousness and she held it and then through her imprinted it on humanity and in our consciousness also. To the extent that we are ready and working open to it, its action can assist our mind similarly to grow into the mind of light. But I am digressing, the theme was that the Supermind can build its own resources, awaken its own specific powers, and still it has to work through that. So the question which came up after our discussion last time with some friends was, but if Supermind is all powerful, why doesn't it just solve it? It has to work through the existing humanity and how many of humanity are really open to it. If Supermind is all powerful, conceive of it, let's say as an infinite ocean of knowledge, power, consciousness, and here's your little vehicle of receptacle of mind. And if that were to enter it, either it has to reduce itself to the size of your mind, in which case you can seize on it and warp it to your comfort or even misuse it, or it enters and pushes the borders of your mind and shatters it because you are incapable of containing it. So neither of these is going to be acceptable. It needs therefore to work on the human mind to start first turning the direction of the thinking. This has happened. Since 1956, we see the orientation of human thought becoming more universal. The values which every successive generation is living by is more inclusive of all humanity. Second, it has brought into those thoughts, at least in their higher turn, certain ideals which now seem reasonably close to realisation. But all of this remember is happening at the same time as on the other side, the forces of darkness are pushing rapidly. And this was the discussion we had last time.

Narad (00:07:24):

Now you're saying the mind of light. What about the supermind?

Sraddhalu (00:07:28):

So the supermind itself has to work through some secondary power. If it works directly, we would not be able to contain it. The Mother goes so far as to say if we saw the Supramental sun directly with our physical sight, we would see it as black because it is beyond the capacity for our consciousness to register. When in fact the Supramental descent took place in 1956, the manifestation, there were only four people, the Mother said, and the whole earth who sensed that something had happened. And she said the reason for that, you would've expected all these great sadhaks sitting around her, all these children who have been exposed to her every single day, they would've felt something and she expected that. And she said when she opened her eyes, everybody was, someone sleeping, someone rolling their mats. And it is as if nothing had happened, why? Because we are incapable of responding to it in its direct action. But it has to work through this dull substance by indirect means. And what it is doing first is awakening the mind to its own higher sensitivities. But that's the process. However much you speed it up, it's still too slow compared to the pushback from the darkness, which is strangling earth's evolution and even compelling a decline of civilization values. And so the question is, which will happen faster? Will we be extinguished by this darkness first or will we awaken enough to push back

Narad (00:09:07):

We being mankind?

Sraddhalu (00:09:09):

Humanity as a whole, but always there are individuals who are more awake, more aware, more sensitive centres of light, little communities which are pockets of light. And that's why the conclusion of last discussion we had was even if this thing which Mother warned about as a darkness of civilization has to happen, there will still be pockets of light which will be protecting the higher ideals through this passage of darkness. And the passage of darkness itself can be made shorter if we are sufficiently ready for it. None of this goes against the recognition that the Supermind is working rapidly, but in its working, it has to have receptive instruments and then willing instruments. If you recall, the first requirement the Mother formulated for being a member of Auroville is you have to be a willing servitor of the Divine, truth, I believe, or the Divine. Now, yes, Divine consciousness. So you have to be first. You can be a servitor, you can be aware of it. Let's say you're sensitive to it and maybe you serve momentarily, indirectly, unknowingly. But to be a willing servitor, you should be actually ready to let go of what you are and the things which you cherish most. Now, how many are really willing to do that? I had a very interesting lecture which I attended of a great spiritual teacher today by the name of Llewellyn Vaughan Lee. And it was in a lecture which he gave in a meeting that I was part of. And he'd shared with us an experience that was given to him because his work is in the United States and he said he was shown, he went out of his body and he saw the whole North American continent in terms of consciousness filled with darkness. And they were a few points of light. Most of them were on the east coast and on the west coast in the middle where large swaths of darkness with a few points. And then he described what that meant and he said there were little points of light, sometimes two or three people meeting together in prayer or in a spiritual quest. And the point of light he said, was people who were dedicating themselves to the Divine only for the sake of the Divine.

And this requirement is very interesting. I then found the Mother describing something similar. When she said that there are many people who turn to the Divine, for what,’ I need money, solve my problem, I have health problem, get cured, my children are going through some exam, they need jobs’. The largest number of people who come to the ashram even today for New Year for example, or on darshan days is for what they can get for their material comforts or for their life comforts. And that's not yet a spiritual turn. How many would accept to say, I'm ready to dedicate myself entirely to the Divine, including losing everything I have if necessary for that. It doesn't mean you have to lose it, but would you be ready to give it all up for that if it's so required? And that number will always be a handful even among the people who come here. And it's those people who will count as effective instruments for the Divine or even for the supermind to work in the circumstances, ready, sensitive, willing and willing totally. The moment you say, I'm willing to serve the Divine, but I need these things in return, bargaining, you have a contradiction of terms. You will still be used as an effective instrument partially, but it cannot be the action that is required for the supermind. The supermind is all inclusive. And so your commitment to it should be also total well as far as you're able to be. So the point is in the present transition, we do not have enough people who can be effective instruments, who being instruments then can be placed in suitable circumstances where they can impact the current, let's say power structures, financial structures or even others, fears of human life that they can make a huge difference. And so such people are very few, necessarily. In terms of the pushback, which the darkness is giving, the pushback from the people who are dedicated to the light is so much smaller. I mentioned last time that the bulk of those who have turned to spirituality are in an ascetic withdrawal waiting for the dark passage to pass, in a few hundred years we will come through. Some even say, well, we are in the Kali yuga, what do you expect? So when the yuga transitions a million years down, well, it'll all be good. We just have to wait it out. You're not pushing back. So in the lack of effective instruments, in the lack of committed instruments, then obviously this side is well, less effective.

Sraddhalu (00:14:50):

That's the reason why we have the same invasion taking place right now. Even in the ashram school, the children are facing the full onslaught of the darkness and they do not have the equipment to deal with it. The teachers do not have the equipment to assist the children to deal with it. And it's happening. The corruption is happening equally here. In Auroville in the schools, the same process. I was very disturbed about 10 years ago when somebody who was in the educational system for a few years was leaving Auroville. And when she left, she said to me, I spoke to some of the children who are idle in the afternoon, no school parents are busy at work and some of them were being attracted by a particular person who was teaching them witchcraft. And I said, where do you get that? And she said, well, that's what the students told me. And she described in detail what they were actually doing in that gathering. And nobody knew. I said, well, why don't we inform the people? She said, I tried but nobody believes it. And that's all. But this kind of stuff is happening everywhere and we are unable to because we did not push back. We waited for the children to somehow acquire the right culture, the right ideas, while on the other side they're being drilled with the wrong ideas. Did we counter it? I mentioned this last time, but it's worth repeating. Many of our spaces in the Asham and Auroville, the people in authority are proudly saying things like the greatness of our school is that the children can pass right through it and know nothing about Sri Aurobindo, because we don't impose. But I don't think that's the greatness. I think that is a huge failure of what the Mother and Sri Aurobindo wanted to create in this space. In spite of that, the supermind will work through this and triumph. And so we come to this other idea. Anything thrown at the supermind is a part of the wholeness of the supermind and it can use it to fulfil itself, but it still means it takes time. So as of 1956, because of the descent of the supermind, the eventual awakening of the new consciousness and the eventual transition into the new world is inevitable. It is destined, it is certain, the question is only of the nature of the transition, how long, how painful or how rapid and how easy. And that's where we are at today. I mentioned last time the grip on the world of this organised resistance of which we have referred to as the cabal, which are power structures which include politics and finance particularly. And also now the media which are gripping the human mind and blocking the evolution.

Sri Aurobindo has a very interesting description of this. I wanted to read this out. In the ideal of human unity, he takes great pains to chart out the passage of this human unification and the difficulties that it has to face, the options, possibilities of diversion and so on. He describes the two forms in which the whole thing could happen. He says, "A centralised world state would signify the triumph of the idea of mechanical unity or rather of uniformity. It would inevitably mean the undue depression of an indispensable element in the vigour of human life and progress, the free life of the individual, the free variation of the peoples. It must end if it becomes permanent and fulfils all its tendencies, either in a death in life, a stagnation, or by the resurgence of some new saving but revolutionary force or principle which would shatter the whole fabric into pieces". So literally, and this is the trend which we described last time, this attempt to control everything and bring the whole world into a one world state, which is centralised in its working, it'll lead to this life which is death for humanity. And on the other side, if there is sufficient reaction from the Divine presence within the hearts of people, then it would push back and there will be this revolution or the shattering of the whole structure and then obviously, a breaking out into some kind of chaotic passage once again. And he says, "It could be kept in being only if humanity agreed to allow all the rest of its life to be regularised for it, for the sake of peace and stability and took refuge for its individual freedom in the spiritual life as happened once under the Roman empire. And this is the key reference. You see what we are heading for on a global scale is not different from what had happened earlier in smaller empires. And the Roman Empire is the reference here. It completely suffocated the free life of individuals as well as collectives that came under the Roman empire,

Narad (00:20:32):

Suppression and freedom, all

Sraddhalu (00:20:33):

And on the other side, the centre of this whole, let's say octopus of power became the most debauch in its values and in its lifestyle. And at the same time, the people under that oppression, they turn to spirituality as a way of escape. We had exactly the same thing happening in India during the Islamic rule that came in not in the immediate first waves, but once it settled and entrenched itself in parts, large parts of North India. We find the most intense spiritual bhakti traditions sprouting up all over the country. And it's as if people took refuge in that individualistic spirituality to get away from what would otherwise be a terrifying oppression and darkness. Now that is the other possibility that could also happen, but again, that's not what we want either. The things to prevent this would be to have local peoples, as plural, to be free and individual people to be free. Both of these are being steadily being eliminated. And there's another passage where he describes what that is like how from the central control it starts trying to control every little detail. And the moment there is an opposition to this, the top tries to eliminate the opposition and to the extent that it'll even suppress the free speech, the right to free speech will also be suppressed. Now if I could find this passage, it's amazing because it describes what is currently happening.

Narad (00:22:19):

This is a hundred years ago, hundred years since he wrote it!

Sraddhalu (00:22:25):

Yes. Here it is. "A similar process in the world state will end up in the taking up and the regulation of the whole life of the peoples into its hands. It may even end by abolishing national individuality and turning the divisions that it has created into mere departmental groupings, provinces and districts of the one common state". Now when you read Sri Aurobindo saying this a hundred years ago, people will say he's crazy, it cannot happen. So he's even answering that, "Such an eventuality may seem now a fantastic dream or an unrealisable idea, but it is one which under certain circumstances, under certain conditions that are no means beyond the scope of ultimate possibility may well become feasible. And even after a certain point is reached inevitable". If you see the discourse of the last four years, particularly much more in the last two years, there is an attempt to censor top down by the governments using the centralised media. For example, Google, Twitter, Facebook. Now, these are all gigantic centralised companies under the guise of being private. They can claim to do anything with your freedom. Well, you agreed to enter into an agreement with them so they can impose any condition they like. They can say, we will not allow you to discuss such and such things because it's a private entity you have to accept or move off to who? there is no one else. It's a monopoly. So it's like a public utility, basically on a global scale. But by putting it in the private space, it looks like the government is not interfering. But in fact it's the same agenda because the government orders Google to eliminate this. Now what is scary is in the elections the way they're able to manipulate public opinion and there are studies which they've been doing on how to manipulate thoughts of large groups of people. They've been using this to the extent that in fact this was used extensively in the last few elections of the last 10 years about wherever they had controls for India. The government actually said you should not interfere. And in response they said, oh yes, this time we will make sure not to allow contradictory ideas. So what does it mean? They eliminate any discussion, any access to ideas which are not convenient to what they decide is right or wrong. And this is scary. The US government for example, has an executive order that allows them to order these companies to monitor any citizen, to promote any idea, to remove any idea and to not have the right to even say publicly that they've been ordered by the government to do it. It's scary. So they have become effectively gigantic arms of control for the whole of humanity. If you consider that Facebook actually is the one platform which has a monopoly, effectively Google also, then you realise where this is really heading for. But it's being done through the private agency apparently, but behind is the deep state that controls these companies. So we are very much heading for this where privacy is being suppressed. And now I want to read to you, this is a public statement made just a few weeks ago by Angela Merkel, the premier of Germany. And I will read from this article and the quote is "Nation states", she says, "must today be prepared to give up their sovereignty".

And the writer of the article says, "no, this wasn't something Adolf Hitler said many decades ago. This is what German chancellor Angela Merkel told attendees at an event by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin". And she says, and then just to soften it, she says, "in an orderly fashion, of course", she joked and she says, "there were politicians who believed that they could decide when these agreements are no longer valid because they're representing the people, but the people are individuals who are living in a country. They're not a group who define themselves as the German people", she stressed. Merkel had previously accused critics of the UN global compact for safety and orderly migration of not being patriotic, saying that is not patriotism because patriotism is when you include others in German interests and accept win-win situations. And similarly, Macron, the French president, came out with a statement a few months ago. He said patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism because nationalism is treason and all of this is now public discourse by the people who can actually push it down people's throats,

Narad (00:27:44):

Both Sri Aurobindo and Mother have expressed very clearly that each country has something special to give to the world. Exactly. And they want to kill this.

Sraddhalu (00:27:56):

The model which Sri Aurobindo sees as the only way forward for a practical human unity is this, what he describes as a loose federation, not even an organised federation. Because the moment you have an organised federation, it'll tend towards flattening and uniformity. Whereas the whole purpose of the diversity of humanity, for nature, for the Divine is to in fact nourish each other from the diversity. Not to flatten it out, but what we are seeing is the trend. It began with the second world war, but exactly the policies which were at that time intended by the Nazi, I would say mentality or the power behind Nazi-ism for Europe is exactly what is standing now behind the EU in the way it is structured and now extending to the whole world through these global entities. So the globalism is the threat today, which it's as if we've been taught to think that this is the only way forward. We are not even prepared to think that there could be a different option. I had a discussion recently and we were at this UN climate summit in Poland and with a group of people and they all said, in this world of globalisation, how can you ever say that every country should have its own independence? The idea has been seeped in you see how far it's gone. So if you do not push back, if you do not speak of what Sri Aurobindo has already written about and warned off with such clarity and also seriousness for its implications, if you do not push back, how do you expect the young people to even think in these directions? So it's a big task ahead for us. The Mother had intended that Sri Aurobindo's writings should be made widely accessible and that has not happened. She had certain texts, for example, Sri Aurobindo's message on the 15th of August, 1947 where he described his four dreams, five dreams. She said it should reach everybody and every Indian at least should have, should be able to read it. Then there is this compilation, which is ideal child, she had wanted it to be given to every child. Now, okay, you may or may not give to a hundred percent, but at least you can start with those who are within reach with similar ideas, with a similar aspirations. At least make it available to them. That has not happened. So we have failed as followers, disciples of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. We have not been able to do what they wanted us to do in this sense, separately of course what we have to do internally, but even what we have to do externally should have been much more. So I want to also point out that although I spoke of this darkness, there has always been historically, the other side also. The light has been working, it has worked through various means and many of the spiritual spiritually influenced institutions, also individuals who have idealism, et cetera, they're all in place equally. And there is a fine balance right now between these two, which will tilt, which will go forward, that is really what is hanging in the balance.

Narad (00:31:35):

How do we begin as a small group to effectuate this?

Sraddhalu (00:31:44):

Sri Aurobindo describes how the events of the first world war and even the Second World War had their seeds not in the leaders born to lead those wars, but in the thinkers a few generations before who planted the seed ideas which led to those wars. So the key starting point is to plant the seed ideas to get people now to start thinking differently, to start questioning certain assumptions which are being given to us in the public discourse. So if among ourselves we sit together and read what Sri Aurobindo has to say and see its relevance in the current context, not merely as a theoretical discussion and discuss what it means and then bring those ideas that emerge in those discussions into the public space. That would be the way by which we would begin this. And in a sense, I think this whole discussion that you'll be broadcasting is part of that.

Narad (00:32:51):

We do have that part of the media that can go out to people.

Sraddhalu (00:32:57):

The beauty of today, the tools given, and these are tools created by the Supermind. That's how I would say it. The internet. In the very structure and framework of the internet, it is typically the way the Supermind works everywhere equally as a peer network structure bypassing all power structures, reaching every individual straight into their hands on their mobile phone. Nobody can prevent it unless you shut it down entirely, which also is possible, which may even happen at some point. But while it's on, you have the ability to reach out everywhere instantly. And we have to use this means. The Mother had anticipated this also and at that time, of course the internet didn't exist, but she described it. This is amazing. So in the fifties while she's talking to children, once in a while there would be some intelligent question which she would be yearning for. Most people, she said, they were just not curious enough, not interested. She was very disappointed with that. But once in a while there would be questions and she would take the opportunity of even a small question to speak of associated things. And there are two things which I remember particularly. She's looking at the future. The first was when she was speaking of art and she said the present paintings are very crude and the subtle worlds, the colours are much more rich and even translucent and glowing in a sense. And the present paints cannot capture that. But she said a means will be found to represent those things even in the physical material. And we are actually seeing that today, not only in the kinds of paints which have some of that translucency, but on the computer screen in particular and much more so. And we are on the brink of this revolution through what will be called, what is called virtual reality. Virtual reality, where you put on these well goggles so that you can see in 3-D and all the colours created there are actually being projected into your sight from computer screens which are capable of a much wider range of the colours, much closer to the subtle physicals.

Narad (00:35:22):

What is the retina display?

Sraddhalu (00:35:25):

Oh, that's only the high resolution screen. So this is one thing. And then the second thing, which is what I'm coming to here in context of the Internet, she said, for the future of money, this present way of transferring coins and notes, that is obsolete. I'm paraphrasing, but she said it's not the way it'll happen in the future but in the future. And then she's looking at it and she's describing this scene because she's seeing it, but how to describe to somebody who has no technology. She says, a method will be found that at the point of every transaction, you'll be able to make the transaction and the number will be deducted in one centralised place and they'll find a way to link every place with that. Now when you actually go with your mobile phone or you make a transaction, which is digital, what's really happening, there's no exchange of physical money. It's numbers being deducted in your bank account, transferred to another account, all on some central computer. You don't even care, somewhere in the world it could be sitting on the other side of the earth, but the means of connecting it, she said a method will be found to connect. It's amazing. And she was seeing all these things and the future of money, finally she said, it would come back to a barter system, some way of exchange, which is the most reasonable. Even for Auroville, she wanted the Auroville economy to be a cashless society.

Narad (00:36:56):

Yes, within Auroville, she said no money to be exchanged.

Sraddhalu (00:37:01):

And then she said as a concession to human well stupidity or slowness or refusal to change. She said as a concession there can be a transitional period, an intermediate period where there will be money, but you must move out of it as quickly as possible. And the wisdom of that of course is now becoming more and more apparent. But it's still a challenge because people should be willing and this is the problem we face everywhere. So otherwise it is as she said, through crashing circumstances that the change is compelled and that's what also is happening. So for example, in Auroville, recently the government of India passed this new taxation system, which is centralised GST, and the result was internally within Auroville transactions, suddenly there was taxation. And that means if I'm sitting next to you and I share something which I've created, each time we exchange something, we have to end up paying tax to some other entity, which seems so crazy. If we were sitting as one family, would any transaction of sharing between us be taxed? No. So it was one of the trigger points which started an introspection to see can we get rid of this whole money based transaction to get out of the GST system entirely, at least within Auroville. So it's an opportunity. If we catch it, then we can make that leap. Otherwise we pay a heavy price for refusing to move into the future.

Narad (00:38:39):

What other ways do you see the action of this Supramental on earth today? I could tell the story about your teacher, Panditji. Yes, please. Mary Helen wrote to him. She had this experience and she saw, Sri Aurobindo, but he was very small, only two feet high. And Panditji said that is because he's working in matter and growing in matter. Could you elaborate? She also saw Mother one day in this extraordinary dream, conscious dream and there's a building and there's a huge carpet and Mother says on the other side of this carpet is the new world. And she said, if you just fold fold it properly, I will show you how to do it and the new world will be there

Sraddhalu (00:40:03):

When we, and this completes that part of the discussion, how the Supermind uses, even the delay, anything you throw at it, it'll use in some way to become stronger. So what it'll do, every step that you may offer to delay or to oppose it. It'll use it either to enrich, to diversify, to make more strong and so on. So even these things which we are struggling with as an opposition and the attack will lead to greater strengthening, greater resilience and so on eventually in the new consciousness. In the new world. Again, I'm reminded of an example the Mother gave when she was speaking of the atom bombs being exploded, she said that it was contrary to nature. Nature has spent billions of years to assemble the material to bring them to a stability of the atom and to break that, to reverse that is going against nature's intention. And remember, the way the atom is held in nature's working is by building a habit in her energy flow. And each time you reverse it, the habit of nature's power holding the atom is weakening. So the effect of the atomic explosions is not only because the radiation and still finer subtle physical radiations expand all way into our solar system and beyond. They affect everything but that in physical matter there is a weakening of the bond in the atoms because you're breaking nature's habit. And then she thinks about it and then she says, but perhaps the Supermind will use it to make for a more fluid and rich creation. You see, anything you do will be used in some way eventually to make for something more rich, more complete.

Narad (00:42:06):

Aurobindo Basu told me there would be no seventh destruction. And Mother said this also, but he said there will be continued to be local skirmishes and wars. War is a big part of this cabal thinking.

Sraddhalu (00:42:24):

You have to see how the whole cabal controls the world. It's done primarily through the control of finance and the way it works is in the banking system, a bank is allowed to create money out of thin air. Literally. Let's say you go for a loan, what does the bank do? They don't have the money. They put a number in your account and then that's effectively the loan given to you upon which they will take interest. So a bank profits every time you take a loan, when it starts with zero or just for the sake of appearances, they have some limited fund. Let's say they have a hundred rupees and they can lend 10 times more. So you can lend a hundred rupees to 10 different entities while you hold a hundred rupees. But for each it is a number put in their account on which they're drawing interest. Now this is the mechanism, it's like magic. You wave your wand and there is virtual money upon which the world is being run. I briefly mentioned last time that the virtual money is actually now more than six times. The quantum of real money and the real money which is printed itself is an exaggerated sum compared to what is backed by which used to be the gold.

Audience (00:43:44):

Maybe before it was 12 and a half times. Today it's 30 times, 30 times. If the bank has a thousand, they can lend 12,000. That's right. It could be higher now because the money is here so you don't need that much money to give it to people because they put it back in the bank. So fewer banks, that ratio is higher. So that's why they don't want too many banks. So if there are only five banks, all the money goes there only so they can give out whatever they want. Money stays there, I take it out and put somebody takes it, puts it in the bank again.

Sraddhalu (00:44:19):

So I borrow from the bank and I pay you, which you put back in the same bank. So within the banking system, money has not moved. But now I'm in debt for no reason. That's the magic.

Audience (00:44:31):

What's at the base of all this? Is it the gold reserves or what?

Sraddhalu (00:44:34):

At the base of all this is virtual money, backed with zero. It used to be gold reserves, it used to.

Audience (00:44:44):

For example, the government of India cannot print currency as much as they want earlier. The rule used to be that only for so much gold can you print and every rupee note has to have a gold line in it.

Sraddhalu (00:44:55):

That's right. So through a series of steps in the last a hundred years, the entire global financial system has been disconnected from any physical asset and it is now entirely numbers which can be created on demand by the central banks. So at the lower level, the banks have to borrow from this higher banks, but the higher banks can create it out of zero out of nothing. So the mechanism really what it does is it enslaves humanity into a dependence and you have to keep running to stay on the same spot, paying interest all the time. And then by tweaking the interest rate by 0.5% higher or lower, they basically control how much you are squeezed at the level of the common man. So every time they push up interest rates, you're squeezing money out of the system and compelling people to work that much harder to remain on the same spot, just to be comfortable. And then if they find it's happening too much, there's a danger of revolt. They release the squeeze slightly to allow you a little bit of breathing air. So behind the whole thing, primarily the control system is the money. Through the money then they can buy political power, they can buy the media and pretty much anything there was in fact there have been very interesting exposes by people who are part of the system. And I would recommend for you to see a series of four interviews which were given by one such insider and his name is Ronald Bernard. You can just Google the term revelations of Ronald Bernard. And he describes how he was at the top of this whole pyramid of finance, the world there, the values of the people who control this system, et cetera. And one of the things we find which have come out through a series of exposures, there's a book called ''Confessions of An Economic Hitman', and this was a man who was hired by the world bank to make sure that the people who took loans from the World Bank could not pay back the loans by interfering in their processes to ensure that they missed, they skipped the loan event and got into deeper debt, which is the mechanism for enslaving humanity.

So this whole business of Auroville being free of money has very deep implications. And because the Mother foresaw all these tendencies, the mechanism to insulate yourself from this is precisely to get out of that. They call it Babylonian money magic system because you create magic, you create money out of thin air and it's a mechanism that goes back to the money lenders of Babylon. In the western tradition, at least. In India, the culture has always been, and all of us will hear from our grandparents that never take a loan, never be in debt. Of course you may do that provisionally in case of emergency, but otherwise build your resources, spend only as much as you can afford and so on. This was the sage advice going back thousands of years of a sustainable economy. The modern culture teaches you, while you're a student, you want to start a new business. Well first you take a loan from a bank. In other words you get indebted. It got so bad in the US and now it's coming into India. If you want to have a college education, you have to have this massive loan so that at the end of the education you are in such a heavy debt, you need 10 years to pay back your college education loan. And so either you don't go to college which serves those interests very well also, or you are enslaved for the next 10 years during which time just to have your own independent house you have to borrow for, which makes you a bigger slave for the rest of your life. And this has to break. This is one of the keys by which the top level control is there. You will remember Sri Aurobindo writing about the three things which the Asura seized, money, sex, and power. These are three things which the spiritual turn rejected as debasing, inferior or corrupting influences. And obviously the result was the Asura seized on these. And you'll see how the three things are very closely related and one is there, the other two tend to be always associated with it. And this is the case when you will hear those interviews with Ronald Bernard. What happens at the top level is the kind of lives they lead and the kind of powers and the perversions associated with those power centres. They ensure that only a person who accepts those perverse values will come into their system and that's how they maintain their power and control over each other so that they maintain their oligarchy. So to say.

Narad (00:50:16):

In the ashram, an ashramite has all his medical cared for, he gets his, he has a place to stay, he can work, but only six hours a day is necessary, supposedly. In Auroville there have been attempts, a friend of mine tried through the food industry, solar kitchen to break the money problem and Portus has tried this also, but each have failed.

Sraddhalu (00:50:59):

So far, rather than saying failed, we can say they're partially successful. So in the ashram, the Mother from the beginning created the structure which has zero money exchange internally, which was perfect as long as the needs of the community were relatively simple and the values were pretty much oriented to the spiritual objective. What has happened over time is life has become more complex, outside in the world. That complexity has now of course invaded the community. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it's a good thing. Even in some ways it means everybody in the ashram also needs a mobile phone, but the ashram doesn't provide for it. Even earlier, now I go back, let's say 30 years, when I was relatively, I was in my teenage, we had this problem, my teachers in the school would complain. So and so person in the administration of the ashram is not allowing me to have an extra cup of milk. I'm so sick, I need it. What do you do then because of some petty person, it even used to happen that in the dining room somebody asked for extra food and somebody in power would come and snatch the plate and say, you cannot take extra. That is petty and it has happened. Well, I was present when similar things happened.

Narad (00:52:34):

I saw, yes.

Sraddhalu (00:52:37):

So mother created a space which could work as long as it was built on goodwill and the community feeling the moment that got compromised, you had these problems. The result was, and I was very much in the system when it started happening. In the late eighties, many ashramites began to feel the need to have external money support to bypass these limitations. I'm coming to today when practically every human being needs a mobile phone. Okay, you can't live without it. You may say, why do ashramites need a mobile phone? You have a telephone at your desk, but you need it in your house if nothing else. But you do need it. That's the reality today. And the ashram will not provide it. Where do you get it from? So what has happened, unfortunately because the community framework that Mother created did not keep up with the times or didn't know how to keep up, what values to accept, what not to accept. The practical result was every ashramite needs to have some access to funds and a bank account. And then you are back into that whole thing. And the framework that Mother created is now almost like a superstructure, not having too much practical value other than giving you a house to stay in, some basic medical facilities and food support. That's it for the rest of it. You cannot live the life where you can say, I own nothing. I possess nothing. Everything is owned by the Mother given to me. That is what she wanted. Literally, you have to have no connection at all with anything else other than with her. That is no more possible practically only because of this. Now it's a difficult transition. I don't have a simple solution. When television came in, in a big way, would you accept for an ashramite to have a television in his house? Do you accept for a computer to be in the house? And today, for some of us at least, it's like it's essential. You cannot live without it. It's the nature of the work you do even and the kind of access you have to the world, to knowledge and so on. But would it make sense then for the ashram to provide computers, for every ashramite to ask for it? I don't know. I don't have an answer, but it's just to show you that the framework could not really adapt.

Narad (00:54:53):

But Mother was aware of this also. And I have a personal example of a friend who received some money for, they had some farmland. She would receive like 30,000 rupees every six months or so, and offer it to mother. Mother would say, you keep it. Because if you give it, they will swallow you. That's very strong.

Sraddhalu (00:55:23):

And sometimes the Mother would give money to people in the ashram and some of them would accumulate and at the end of the year on their birthday, they would give it all back. And she said, no, that's not why I'm giving it to you. I want to see how you use it. And she was interested to see where their interests went, what they consider to be a priority and so on. And those days she gave two rupees. That was a lot of money. You could buy a lot, some would buy food, some would buy books, some would spend on other things. So we are in a very interesting transition. I would still hope that we can take this framework of the ashram back to that base where we could still say everything I have is hers and nothing of my own. And it would mean reviewing what we need, what we consider essential.

Narad (00:56:19):

Thank you so much. Namaste.