The
Mother
The
Mother (Madame Mirra Alfassa, 21.2.1878 - 17.11.1973) was born and
educated in France. An accomplished painter and musician, she began
to have psychic and spiritual experiences at a very early age. In
1906 and 1907 the Mother voyaged to Tlemcen, Algeria, where she
studied occultism with Max Theon.
In 1914, she met
Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry, and recognized him as the "Divine
Master" whom she had met in her dreams. In her spiritual diary (published
as Prayers and Meditations) the next day, she wrote:
"It
matters not if there are hundreds of beings plunged in densest ignorance.
He whom we saw yesterday is on earth; his presence is enough to
prove that a day will come when dark- ness shall be transformed
into light, when Thy reign shall be indeed established upon earth."
After spending nearly four years in Japan the Mother returned to
Pondicherry in April, 1920 to stay for good. When Sri Aurobindo
withdrew from outer activities for exclusive concentration on his
work (November 24, 1926) he entrusted to the Mother the guidance
of the disciples who had gathered around him. This was the beginning
of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Auroville, the City of Dawn 10 kilometers
outside of Pondicherry, was founded by the Mother in 1968.
The Mother, on
her 90th birthday, summarized her life and work in this way:
"The
reminiscences will be short. I came to India to meet Sri Aurobindo.
I remained in India to live with Sri Aurobindo. When he left his
body, I continued to live here in order to do his work which is,
by serving the Truth and enlightening mankind, to hasten the rule
of the Divine's love upon earth."
On Yoga
"What
do you want the Yoga for? To get power? To attain to peace and calm?
To serve humanity? None of these motives is sufficient to show that
you are meant for the Path.
The question you
are to answer is this: Do you want the Yoga for the sake of the
Divine? Is the Divine the supreme fact of your life, so much so
that it is simply impossible for you to do without it? Do you feel
that your very raison d'etre is the Divine and without it there
is no meaning in your existence? If so, then only can it be said
that you have a call for the Path.
This is the first
thing necessary - aspiration for the Divine.
The next thing
you have to do is to tend it, to keep it always alert and awake
and living. And for that what is required is concentration - concentration
upon the Divine with a view to an integral and absolute consecration
to its Will and Purpose.
Concentrate in
the heart. Enter into it; go within and deep and far, as far as
you can. Gather all the strings of your consciousness that are spread
abroad, roll them up and take a plunge and sink down.
A fire is burning
there, in the deep quietude of the heart. It is the divinity in
you - your true being. Hear its voice, follow its dictates."
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Sri
Aurobindo
Sri
Aurobindo, yogi, poet, philosopher, social and political leader,
was born in Calcutta on August 15, 1872. From age 7 to 21, he was
educated in England, first at St. Paul's school, London and then
at King's College, Cambridge. Returning to India in 1893, he spent
15 years in Baroda State Service as an administrator and professor,
during which period he made a deep study of India's cultural heritage
and political condition.
After the partition
of Bengal in 1905, Sri Aurobindo quit his post in Baroda and went
to Calcutta, where he became one of the leaders of the nationalist
movement. As the editor of the newspaper Bande Mataram he boldly
put forward the idea of complete independence for India. Arrested
3 times for sedition or treason, he was released each time for lack
of evidence. During his one year's undertrial imprisonment he spent
most of his time in the practice of Yoga and had a series of decisive
spiritual experiences.
In 1910, retiring
from active politics in response to an inner call to devote himself
exclusively to Yoga, Sri Aurobindo withdrew to Pondicherry. There
he devoted his last forty years to the path of spiritual attainment,
not as an end in itself, but as a preparation and a base for the
advent of the next phase in terrestrial evolution beyond Mind -
the SupramentaI Being. For all those who will follow, he has mapped
out a more complete method, the Purna yoga, or Yoga of Integral
Perfection, which aims at a spiritual realization that would transform
human nature and divinize earthly life.
Sri Aurobindo left
his body on the 5th December 1950.
On Yoga
"There
is an ascending evolution in nature which goes from the stone to
the plant, from the plant to the animal, from animal to man. Because
man is, for the moment, the last rung at the summit of the ascending
evolution, he considers himself as the final stage in this ascension
and believes there can be nothing on earth superior to him. In that
he is mistaken. In his physical nature he is yet almost wholly an
animal, a thinking and speaking animal, but still an animal in his
material habits and instincts. Undoubtedly, nature cannot be satisfied
with such an imperfect result; she endeavors to bring out a being
who will be to man what man is to the animal, a being who will remain
a man in its external form, and yet whose consciousness will rise
far above the mental and its slavery to ignorance."
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"There
are two powers that alone can effect in their conjunction the great
and difficult thing which is the aim of our endeavour, a fixed and
unfailing aspiration that calls from below and a supreme Grace from
above that answers."
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"The
only question is what is to be the chief power in your seeking,
a vital demand or a psychic aspiration manifesting through the heart
and communicating itself to the mental and vital and physical consciousness.
The latter is the greatest power and makes the shortest way - and
besides one has to come that way sooner or later."
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