Eighteen months later, in July 1977, Satprem and I ascended the steps leading to the Central Court building in L’Ile de la Cité in Paris, in order to register the statutes of the “Institut de Recherches Evolutives,” whose purpose was to publish and distribute Mother’s Agenda worldwide. The day before, a prominent Paris attorney had confirmed that the copyrights of the Agenda were Satprem’s legal property, thus opening the way to its publication independent of the Ashram’s good offices. Several publication attempts within the Ashram had previously failed because Satprem maintained that such arrangements would jeopardize the validity and integrity of the publication.
From then on, the work of The Agenda would be in the hands of four associates of Satprem’s: Micheline, Anne, Robert, and me. A handful of other friends in France and in India would lend their occasional but enthusiastic support.
There was a great feeling of shared delight in our original little group. We had found a gold-laden ship at the bottom of the sea and we were bringing the ingots one by one to the surface. The very material in this marvelous Agenda revived our energies and filled our days with sparkling life. Although each person had very specific and challenging tasks to accomplish, we were united by the birth of The Agenda. Future plans were infinite. Publication in other languages, creation of other “Institutes” around the world, “laboratories of evolution” bringing together those who were eager to embark on their own evolution in the light of the teachings of the Agenda.
It was thus the extended moment of a felicitous dream that could somehow effortlessly become real, almost as though by accident.
The first volume of The Agenda came out in its beautiful red jacket for Mother’s centenary, in February 1978. By then, the earlier threats concerning Satprem had materialized into a full-fledge expulsion from the Ashram, and he was compelled to find a new residence in the Nilgiris Mountains. This now became the main center for all the Agenda activity.
Subsequently, in the course of a few years of intense, concentrated work, the thirteen volumes of The Agenda in French were published. Translations into several other languages — Hindi, English, Italian, German, Spanish — were begun.
Those first years were for me an opportunity to settle into my new existence. I had waited all my life for a chance to give myself wholeheartedly to a work that had real meaning. And I did not spare myself! It was a monumental task to transcribe hundreds of hours of conversation, taped on non-professional recorders, into printed matter which reflected accurately the nuances of Mother’s message. But the faith and commitment of our little group could have moved mountains. Often ingenuity made up for the dearth of available resources.
Over time, in order to respond to the challenge of a growing task and its expanded geographical setting, our little group gained new members: Keya, Roger, Boni, Davide, Nicole, Michel, Patrice. Satprem also counted on the support of personal relations of his own in the literary and political circles of New Delhi and Paris.
Satprem seemed to be everywhere at once. Nothing escaped his attention and assiduity. With far greater experience than we in publishing, he supervised every detail of the production, but he also knew instinctively how to teach us, trust us, and develop our fragile confidence. His encouragements and trust were the mainspring of our daily actions. On the other hand, everyone had the utmost faith in his judgment and vision for all matters concerning the Agenda’s material destiny.
And yet there was a serious flaw in this idyllic picture. A problem which concerned his relations with what must be called the “Enemy.”
For despite a set of trustworthy and devoted friends, some of whom would have no doubt given everything to support and protect him, and despite the move to this magnificent and protected environment in the Nilgiris Mountains, Satprem felt constantly pursued, hounded by a pack of invisible foes. A word picked out in a letter, a fleeting image caught in a dream was enough to set in motion a whole train of catastrophic and despondent fears: the “adverse forces” were looming in the shadows, ready to pounce at the least fault and to destroy the Work in progress…
The ensuing crisis of confidence would typically last a few hours or a few days, during which everyone held his breath. Then all would return to normal. The clouds vanished as suddenly as they had arrived, and the sun reappeared.
On the occasion of these “setbacks,” a newcomer to the group would soon learn to assume and take into account the “occult reality” of the work in which he was taking part. To publish this Agenda would in itself represent a stupendous victory over the forces of ignorance in the world, symbolized in the first place by the current administrators of the Ashram. In Satprem’s view, his mission was to rescue this Treasure from the grip of all those who would seek to bury it anew. As the principal point man against these forces, it was normal and logical that he should be repeatedly attacked in his inner world, even if these apprehensions would never materialize in his outer life.
Thus, our group, functioning under Satprem’s leadership, lived under the constant threat of an “imminent court case” which the Ashram Trustees were at least in theory about to launch in order to take over the publishing rights of the Agenda. Or perhaps the Trustees would send some henchmen to steal the manuscripts? Or else, since we were in India, it would not be unreasonable to imagine Tantric manipulations. For out of sheer necessity we had become expert in occult sciences. Every shrub was the hiding place of an Asura or his stooges, and the conviction of our cut-and-dried imprecations and anathemas were on a par with their puerility.
Here, it might be appropriate to say a few words about the Ashram and to clear up some misunderstandings by putting its existence and development back on its true foundation. In 1954, during a Questions and Answers session at the Playground, a child had this conclusion to offer to Mother: “Mother, you are wasting your time with all these people in the Ashram now.” And Mother replied: “But, you see, from an occult point of view, this Ashram is a sample. From an external point of view, you can say that, in the world, there are people far superior to you, and I would not contradict you, but from an occult point of view, as I said, it is a sample.” Then later on, she added: “To tell the truth, I think you have it so easy here that you don’t go to much trouble at all! Are there many among you who feel really an URGENT need to find their psychic being? To know who they really are? What they must do and why they are here? For you, it’s just life as usual.” (25/8/54)
“Life as usual” would not improve over time, as she confided to Satprem a few years later: “There are many — many — who think I will die and they must organise themselves so as not to be completely destitute when I leave. I know all this… Some people… oh, they would almost wish I would go now, because it’s a pressure on them. They tell me quite frankly: ‘As long as you are here, we are obliged to do the yoga. And we do not want to do the yoga; we want to live in peace. So after you are gone, we won’t have to think about the yoga’!” (22/4/61)
Of course, Satprem could only be profoundly distressed by Mother’s comments. He who had nurtured a life-long rebellion against any form of institutional organization, saw in this Ashram adrift the justification and realization of his worst suspicions, a nightmare come true.
And yet reality has contradicted all his negative forebodings, all the “threats” he sensed in the air after Mother’s departure. In some fifteen years of very close proximity, I personally never witnessed a single case of physical violence from members of the Ashram against Satprem, not the slightest hint of a court case — and even Tantrism does not seem to have affected an inborn good heath, for today, at 83, Satprem is as fit as a fiddle [see note at the end of this text].
As to the question of publishing rights of the Agenda, which legally belong half to Mother (as the interviewee), or her beneficiaries, and to Satprem (as the interviewer), it is fitting to note that neither the Ashram Trustees nor Mother’s family ever undertook any legal action, at least to demand a share of the royalties.