23 Neglected Childhood It must have been sometime in 1933 that I saw my father reading a book several times. He then passed it on to me, saying, "Read it." It was a Bengali book written by Rabindranath Tagore, and entitled: Aurobindo Ghose. That was my first acquaintance with Sri Aurobindo, if my memory serves me right, for I was only running eight, and we were living in Santiniketan. I can't say that I understood all I read (I), but I did understand that Rabindranath was addressing Aurobindo Ghose as a Rishi. The childish impression persisted for long years in my life, and I took him as I found him: a Rishi. It never occurred to me that before becoming

13 His Large Sympathies Rajnarain, who had grown very fond of his son-in-law, wrote a set of four sonnets expressing his fervent hope that the latter would learn from the West without losing his own Indian identity. We quote a part of the first sonnet. "Go, son belov'd! as pilgrim bold to lands Beyond the stormy ocean's wide domain, — Where Commerce, Art and Science freely rain On freeman blessings rare with liberal hands.... Thy freedom I esteem though thy excess I check oft. Go, but still as ours remain. Be not like apes who change their manners, dress And language, of their trip becoming vain.

17 The Being of Irised Light Mother took it for granted that "we all know, of course, that the Divine Presence is there in the depths of the Inconscient." But do we? Well, anyway, as it happens, Mother had SEEN the Divine in the Inconscient. It was in the 1920s. "After I returned from Japan, and we began to work together," Mother recounted to Satprem, "Sri Aurobindo had already brought down the supramental light into the mental world and was trying to transform the Mind. 'It's strange,' he told me, 'it is an endless work! Nothing seems to get done — everything is done and then has to be constantly done all over again.' "Then I gave him m

12 The Valley of the False Glimmer It was not only the crown of twelve pearls over Mirra's head that Madame Theon saw. Her seeing included, among others, those two Guardian Angels who always hovered near Mirra —and even upbore her and gently set her down on the flint stones in Fontainebleau when, as she was racing ahead of the other children, she had sailed into the air and fallen from a height of about three metres. And not a scratch to show for it! Mirra related to the Théons many of her personal experiences. That of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice was one. She had gone there with her mother. In the Dungeon she had relived a scene fro

19 Mirra Learns to Discourse They landed in France. We presume that Max Theon proceeded to rejoin his wife who had gone to Italy. As for Mirra, at a guess, she went to her new apartments in Paris' 17th arrondissement. This was on 49 Rue de Levis, a multistoreyed building. Her flat was on the fifth floor. Her divorce from Henri Morisset was finally decreed in March 1908. Mirra went out to all kinds of occult reunions, séances and all. And being a thorough 'materialist' she was equally keen on studying human nature; so she went to the theatre. Once, long ago, Mother was asked by a young chap, "How do you know the character of a per

27 Val de Grâce "When Richard finished his work," Mother continued her narrative, "he returned with a poor photograph of Sri Aurobindo, and a completely superficial impression of him; yet with the feeling that Sri Aurobindo KNEW. He hadn't at all understood the man; he didn't sense it was an Avatar; but he sensed he had the knowledge. Besides, I think, he always held that opinion, because he used to say that from an intellectual standpoint Sri Aurobindo was a unique giant, but that from a spiritual standpoint he didn't have many realizations! Nonsense of that kind — similar to Romain Rolland's." Mother exchanged a glance of understanding with Satprem. "Well

7 Judaism What exactly did Mother mean by Théon's 'Jewish background? To understand it in some measure let us refresh our memory about Judaism. Judaism is one of the oldest extant religions of mankind. The history of the Jews is one of strife and persecution. Judaism's main persecutors have been its two daughters: Christianity and Mohammedanism. These quarrelsome sisters do not forget to equally quarrel among themselves. Concerning the persecution of the Jews, Sri Aurobindo spoke of a "Cabalistic prophecy," according to which "when the Jews will be persecuted and driven to Jerusalem, then the Golden Age shall come." He also pointed out that "the contribu

15 At the Threshold of the Formless Weeks and months went by after the Morissets' return from Algeria. The year 1907 was well in its stride. Mirra was twenty-nine years old. Her ten years of intimate mingling with artists was drawing to its close —she had seen the boundaries of their world. After living ten years with Henri, it became amply evident to her that their parting of the ways had come. She returned to Tlemcen for the second year running. "18 July 1907 —Mirra came," Teresa noted in her diary. Quite unexpectedly, on this second visit, Mirra was on the verge of discovering a secret. Mother disclosed this to Satprem when

26 Peril Stalks Let us rejoin our trekkers. "We walked, then when we reached some place at lunchtime and were hungry, we ate there. When we reached some place and it was time to sleep, we slept there, then we went on —it was quite an adventure. We didn't even know the route, we had some kind of maps. Well then, one time, far away from any town, any village, on a mountain road, we arrived at lunchtime at a sort of inn —something resembling an inn —standing all alone. It was miles from anywhere. We entered. An old man and an old woman were there . . . they looked most peculiar. They were very brisk, very alert, they had a peculiar air. Then we asked if we could

25 Hohlenberg And what was Mirra doing in France? To begin with, she attended all sorts of 'spiritual meetings,' and met many people. One of them was Alexandra David-Neel, who became famous for her Tibetan exploits afterwards. We shall come to her later. Mirra also wrote articles for the group 'Idea,' and she taught some of its members how to consciously go out of their bodies. "I knew somebody in France who used to come and see me every evening so that I might show him some unknown realm or take him for a ramble in the vital or the mental world, and I would in fact take him there," said Mother. "At times there were other people also, at times the pers