-57_I Had the Darshan Like Hanuman (K.Raman).htm 11 "I Had the Darshan Like Hanuman" K. Raman I think it was the last Balcony Darshan facing the East up in the top of the Ashram building, Pondicherry. I do not remember exactly the year, may be it could be 1973. Those days the workers of Auroville were always given an opportunity and taken to the Mother's Darshan. If my memory goes well, there were lots of people waiting and standing on the road looking up: something is going to happen. There was a great silence expecting the Mother to come out to the Balcony. That day a little shower from the sky could not disturb the crowd's aspiration. Yes, there was the Mother in the Balcony a

-28_You Are Doing a Useful Work (Syamala).htm 22 "You Are Doing a Useful Work..." Syamala I think, from my childhood, both Sri Aurobindo and Mother indirectly influenced my life —without my being conscious of it at that time. Whenever my life was at some crossroads, always some force pushed me in a direction of its choosing, at times against my own will. This is how I came to Sri Aurobindo. And when I came, I didn't even know of the Mother. When I first went to Her, in 1967, I didn't know that one was expected to take flowers. An Ashramite friend said, "You have to take a flower." I said, "My heart is the flower." But she herself went to the Ashram garden and brought a beautiful flower—'Aspirat

-10_My Future Was Sanctioned and Sealed by Her (Ananda Reddy).htm 5 My Future Was Sanctioned and Sealed by Her Ananda Reddy My association with Auroville began with the Foundation Ceremony on 28th February 1968 with my participation in it representing Liberia. In fact when I held the flag of Liberia I didn't even know where it was! However, that was perhaps the seed sown in me. Around that time, if I remember correctly Roger and a couple of others had come to the Ashram school, which I had joined in 1958, and spoken to the students about the plans of building the Matrimandir—the soul of the city to be. He then invited the students to submit some drawings for the Matrimandir. And, quite

-33_You Have Come, I Am Happy (Dayanand).htm 3 "You Have Come, I Am Happy" An Interview with Dayanand Dayanand: My contact with the Mother started in 1953, when I came here as a student of the Post Graduate Course in Ecology in the Botany department of Annamalai University. My professor Dr. T.C.N. Singh had brought us here, so that he could place the entire team who were working on "The Effect of Music on Plants" before the Mother. She used to encourage that experiment. The first time I saw Her in 1953 was in the playground where activities were going on. We stood in a line and I bowed down at Her Feet. She straight away gave me the Hymn to the Mother Durga, which was the first book I receive

-41_A Very Powerful Being Came Down and Tied Auroville to the Ground (Kailas).htm 11 "A Very Powerful Being Came Down and Tied Auroville to the Ground" Kailas I was in contact with the Deputy Director General of UNESCO and Mother wanted me to work for Auroville through UNESCO in which he was very helpful; he was about to retire in 1970. He had come to Delhi and I felt that I should go and see him though I didn't know what particular work I was supposed to do. So, I wrote to the Mother—Mother, I have a feeling that I should go and see him, but I don't know what I would do—Mother wrote, "This is quite all right." I went to Delhi with a completely blank mind. Nanda, one of the devot

-06_Growing up with the Mother (Aster Patel).htm 1 Growing up... with the Mother Aster Patel It is a very precious moment in Auroville, that brings us together... to be in the Mother's Presence. Knowing the Mother during the early years of Auroville was a rare privilege. But, for me... I don't quite know where to begin! One could share something of the years of growing up with Her in the Ashram— and later participating in Auroville. In a sense, I was practically born in the Ashram! I started to come here with my parents as a little child of six or seven. That's a time in the life of the Ashram which I think is not known to a lot of people here. For me nothing has been more precious than tho

-47_Meeting with the Mother - A Remembrance from Childhood (Dr. Beena R. Nayak).htm PART III 1 Meeting with the Mother: A Remembrance from Childhood Dr. Beena R. Nayak All can be done if the god-touch is A hope stole in that hardly dared to be Amid the Night's forlorn indifference. As if solicited in an alien world With timid and hazardous instinctive grace, Orphaned and driven out to seek a home, An errant marvel with no place to live, Into a far-off nook of heaven there came A slow miraculous gesture's dim appeal. The persistent thrill of a transfiguring touch Persuaded the inert black quietude And beauty and wonder disturbed the

-55_That Touch I Could Never Forget - A Remembrance from Childhood (Ardhendu).htm 9 "That Touch I Could Never Forget" A Remembrance from Childhood Ardhendu I am Ardhendu. I live in Aspiration and I am in Auroville since 1970, when I was just ten years old. I would like to start with a quotation from Sri Aurobindo which is about Mother; "The one whom we adore as the Mother is the divine conscious force that dominates all existence." This is actually my mantra or....everything. I begin the day with this prayer and end the day with it. It's a continuous process. And in the middle of the day also, anytime when I feel that I need to take the name of the Mother, I use this—the same thi

-53_Like the Sun Casting Its Rays upon All Things Alike (Vijay).htm 7 Like the Sun Casting Its Rays upon All Things Alike Vijay By the time I arrived at the Ashram in 1967 the Mother had already withdrawn since several years to Her high room. As all the time thousands wished to visit Her, newcomers to the Ashram—especially if they were a nobody like me—were allowed but a very short time with Her on our birthdays. In those times I had still the mental idea that a real guru had to be Indian, so I was studying only Sri Aurobindo's books and thought of Her as some wise old lady, whose main point was that She had lived close to Him for so many years. So when my birthday came I went to see

-42_It is the Faith in the Divine that Cures (Jitendra J. Shroff).htm 12 It is the Faith in the Divine that Cures Jitendra J. Shroff In 1940, I was making hard preparation for matriculation examination. Whenever I felt strain, I naturally used to sit quietly before Sri Aurobindo's photo, which gave me peace and freshness. This photo signed by Sri Aurobindo,—brought earlier by my elder brother and kept in our drawing room,—always •attracted me. You know that when Sri Aurobindo signed He used to put His force into it. You may also be knowing that to have Sri Aurobindo's Darshan, a photo of the aspirant had to be sent through a sadhak and only on Sri Aurobindo's approval one could come for the