My experience of Satprem

A cover of white synthetic fur was spread over the rest of Her silhouette.

Several fans rumbled on in the warm air and the endless line we formed contributed to increase the heat. Small plates of camphor sat on the floor in every corner and one could smell the scent of the cologne Mother used. We learned that Mother’s heart had stopped beating the evening before, at 7.25 pm. And that the “closest disciples”, along with André, had decided to first prepare Mother’s body, then to inform the Ashram inmates and bring it down to the “Meditation Hall” so everyone could be invited from 4 am onwards. Nolini had drafted a message to explain that Mother had prepared the next body in the true subtle physical plane and that Her consciousness had now left “the old body” which had completed its work and entered “the new body”. But the fact that Mother’s body was right there, exposed, with this suddenness, almost a hurry, remained incomprehensible. It corresponded to none of the markers She had placed on the Path She had trod, well and far ahead of us all. And yet, the whole atmosphere was as if seized with calm, at once imperative and devoid of all drama.

All could feel this; there was no room for drama.

We could not understand.

But we could at the least be faithful to Her smile, to Her atmosphere which was ever imbued with a live water of progress, aspiration and advance… Several times, on the 18 th and 19 th , I went back into the line – as many of us did.

It was thus, on the 18 th , towards evening, that I then proceeded, almost without thinking, towards the Promenade and entered the tennis-ground and came near

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