41 The Kundalini The Cosmologist was also a Cosmographer. Not only did Sri Aurobindo say that there were no gaps between the planes but he also explained that each plane is "in communication with various worlds that belong to it." He gave a graphic description of how the being is organized. "There are in fact two systems simultaneously active in the organisation of the being and its parts: one is concentric, a series of rings or sheaths with the psychic1 at the centre; another is vertical, an ascension and descent, like a flight of steps, a series of superimposed planes with the supermind over mind as the crucial nodus of the transition beyond the huma

26 Nandanam In the 1970s we, Satprem and I, lived for a few years in Nandanam. Nandan in Indian parlance means a heavenly garden where gods have a perfectly happy time. We not being gods did not have a 'perfectly' happy time. It was rather turbulent.1 But no matter. The orchard was indeed a pleasure to behold. A very large property with a big furnished bungalow, it had a small pond at the entrance. Inside were two wells at some distance from each other. There were stands of coconut palms, breeze or wind playing soft or loud music on their fronds. Big, old tamarind trees drew patterns of lace against the evening sky. Cashew bushes full of juicy fruits. Satprem told me

15 Pondicherry We spoke of a wedge when India broke free of the land-mass Gondwanaland and joined the Eurasian mass. A glance at the map of the Deccan does give us an impression of a triangle, which tapers to a point at Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin). The point is the meeting ground of three seas. It is washed by the Bay of Bengal from the east, and by the Arabian Sea from the west; mingling with them is the Indian Ocean. Bordering the Arabian Sea are the Malabar and Konkan coasts. The western coast extends from the Cape almost in a straight line towards the north up to the Gulf of Khambat, where Mahi, Narmada and Tapti rivers end their overland journey. Along the Bay

50 Pondicherry Elections Well, the Richards were in Pondicherry. In 1910 Paul Richard had come to French India for electioneering. He was a friend of Paul Bluysen's, a candidate. Mother told us that after becoming a lawyer, Richard entered politics. "He was a first-class orator who fired his audiences with enthusiasm." That is why Bluysen sent him to Pondicherry to canvass for him. "And since Richard was interested in occultism and spirituality, he took this opportunity to seek a 'Master,' a yogi." Instead of launching himself in politics, the first thing Richard did upon arrival was to make known that he was seeking a yogi. Mother went on, "Someo

MOTHER'S CHRONICLES - Book Six - Mother's Chronicles book six MIRRA IN SOUTH INDIA SUJATA NAHAR INSTITUT DE RECHERCHES ÉVOLUTIVES, Paris, THE MOTHER'S INSTITUTE OF RESEARCH, NEW DELHI, & MIRA ADITI, MYSORE Already published: Book One:MIRRA Book Two:MIRRA THE ARTIST Book Three:MIRRA THE OCCULTIST Book Four:MIRRA-SRI AUROBINDO Book Five:MIRRA MEETS THE REVOLUTIONARY To be published: Book Seven: MIRRA IN JAPAN Book Eight: MIRRA THE MOTHER The publication of this book

32 Two Beautiful Hours "I spent two very beautiful hours exploring India's ancient philosophical ideas with an interlocutor of exceptional intelligence," wrote Madame Alexandra David-Neel to her husband Philippe Neel in a letter dated 27 November 1911. We have already met her a few times.1 The reader perhaps knows that she had set out from Europe in August 1911 promising her understanding husband Philippe Neel that she would be back with him within eighteen months. In actuality it became fourteen years, for it was in May 1925 that the couple saw each other again. During those fourteen years Alexandra had covered thousands of kilometres through the F

34 This World Do you remember Sri Aurobindo saying that he could have remained in the Brahman Consciousness eternally? But "I came out as I got the command from above." Before parting from Lele at Nagpur, he told him of "a mantra that had arisen in my heart." Lele had begun to give instructions but suddenly stopped and "asked me if I could rely absolutely on Him who had given me the Mantra." Sri Aurobindo said he could. So Lele handed him over "to the Divine within me...." He returned to Calcutta. A month or two later Lele came there. But in the meantime Sri Aurobindo had "received the command from within that a human Curu was not necessary for me." The Divine

48 The Guest House "He already knew the war would break out," Mother explained to Satprem in 1962. Sri Aurobindo was talking with Richard, "about the world, Yoga, the future ... he already knew the war would break out. This was 1914, war broke out in August, and he already knew it towards the end of March or early April." In actual fact, it was on 23 January 1913 that it had been intimated to Sri Aurobindo that "War is preparing" and the message added "& the Turkish chances seem small____" Sri Aurobindo had taken a keen interest in Turkey then; for reasons I have not been able to piece together. Mirra accompanied Paul Richard to Pondicherry. He cam

14 The Deccan From time immemorial geographical India was culturally one. Because "The Vedic Rishis and their successors made it their chief work to found a spiritual basis of Indian life and to effect the spiritual and cultural unity of the many races and peoples of the peninsula." So, to be sure, one met with a multiplicity of regional tongues and a profuse variety of dialects. But one language, Sanskrit, was understood all over the great subcontinent. It is therefore not surprising that several thousand years after the Vedic Age, a saint-poet from the deep South, Tiruvalluvar, would echo all those concepts in his Kural. Full of worldly wisdom, Tirukkural is a c

2 Mirra Was Born Free "Sri Aurobindo saw with more clarity," said Mother to Satprem while explaining a certain situation. "It was even the first thing he told the boys around him when I came in 1914— he had seen me but once—he told them that I, Mirra (he at once called me by my first name) 'was born free.' " He also told the boys that he had "never seen anywhere a self-surrender so absolute and unreserved." Mirra had met Sri Aurobindo on 29 March, at 3:30 in the afternoon, at the Guest House to which Sri Aurobindo had moved with the boys a few months earlier. We have promptings more insistent than that of reason. Mirra was prompted by what—