(Mother was asked, "What is India?")

India is not the earth, rivers and mountains of this land, neither is it a collective name for the inhabitants of this country. India is a living being, as much living as, say, Shiva. All the countries have their own spirit and if politically you make any changes, they would be unreal. For example, although Austria has become a part of Germany, still they are quite separate and the spirit of Austria is in agony. India is a goddess just as Shiva is a God. If she likes, she can manifest in human form.

It is France that can connect Europe with India. There are great spiritual possibilities for France. She will play a big part in spite of her present bad condition. It is through France that the spiritual message will reach Europe. That is why I chose France for my birth although I am not French.

(A letter to a disciple, following the use of the atomic bomb in Japan.)

The atomic bomb is in itself the most wonderful achievement and the sign of a growing power of man over the material Nature. But what is to be regretted is that this material progress and mastery is not the result of and in keeping with a spiritual progress and mastery which alone has the power to contradict and counteract the terrible danger coming from these discoveries. We cannot and must not stop progress but we must achieve it in equilibrium between the inside and the outside.

(Mother wrote this note after hearing on the radio the declaration of the Viceroy to Indian leaders, announcing Britain's final transfer of power to a partitioned India.)

A proposal has been made for the solution of our difficulties in organizing Indian independence and it is being accepted with whatever bitterness or regret and searching's of the heart by Indian leaders.

But do you know why this proposal has been made to us? It is to prove to us the absurdity of our quarrels.

And do you know why we have to accept these proposals? It is to prove to us the absurdity of our quarrels.

Clearly, this is not a solution; it is a test, an ordeal which, it we live it out in all sincerity, will prove to us that it is not by cutting a country into small bits that we shall bring about its unity and its greatness; it is not by opposing interests against each other that we can win for it prosperity; it is not by setting one dogma against another that we can serve the spirit of Truth. In spite of all, India has a single soul and while we have to wait till we can speak of an India one and indivisible, our cry must be:

LET THE SOUL OF INDIA

LIVE FOREVER!