Sri Aurobindo       Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta on 15 August 1872. At the age of seven he was taken to England for his education. There he studied at St. Paul's School, London, and at King's College, Cambridge. Returning to India in 1893, he worked for the next thirteen years in the Princely State of Baroda in the service of the Maharaja and as a professor in the state's college.   In 1906 Sri Aurobindo quit his post in Baroda and went to Calcutta, where he became one of the leaders of the Indian nationalist movement. As editor of the newspaper Bande Mataram, he boldly put forward the idea of complete independence from Britain. Arrested th

  Chapter 4   Living for the Divine     We are united towards the same goal and for the same accomplishment — for a work, unique and new, that the Divine Grace has given us to accomplish. I hope that more and more you will understand the exceptional importance of this work and that you will feel in yourselves the sublime joy that the accomplishment will give you. The divine force is with you — feel its presence more and more and be careful never to betray it. Feel, wish, act, that you may be new beings for the realisation of a new world, and for this my blessings shall always be with you.    The Mother   Some give their soul to the Divine,

-001_Publisher^s Note   Publisher's Note       "Flowers speak to us when we know how to listen to them," the Mother said. "It is a subtle and fragrant language." As if to provide a key to this language, she identified the significances of almost nine hundred flowers. In this book, these flowers and their meanings are presented in the light of her vision and experience.   The book consists of two separately bound parts. Part 1, the text and photographs, is arranged thematically on the basis of the Mother's flower-significances. In each of the twelve chapters, flowers of related significance are grouped together; these groups are then placed in a sequence that develops the theme of t

-048_Bases of Spiritual Life   Chapter 6   Bases of Spiritual Life     The earliest preoccupation of man in his awakened thoughts and, as it seems, his inevitable and ultimate preoccupation ... is also the highest which his thought can envisage. It manifests itself in the divination of Godhead, the impulse towards perfection, the search after pure Truth and unmixed Bliss, the sense of a secret immortality. The ancient dawns of human knowledge have left us their witness to this constant aspiration; today we see a humanity satiated but not satisfied by victorious analysis of the externalities of Nature preparing to return to its primeval longings. The earliest formula of Wisdom promises

        The Spiritual Significance of Flowers           The Mother             The Spiritual Significance of Flowers   Part 1 Text and Photographs                 Sri Aurobindo Ashram Pondicherry, India                   First edition 2000 © Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 2000 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department Pondicherry, India Printed in Singapore at Ho Printing ISBN 81-7058-609-7  

    The Mother       The Mother was born Mirra Alfassa on 21 February 1878 in Paris. A student at the Academie Julian, she became an accomplished artist. Gifted from an early age with a capacity for spiritual and occult experience, she went to Tlemcen, Algeria, in 1906 and 1907 to study occultism with the adept Max Theon and his wife. Between 1911 and 1913 she gave a number of talks to various groups of seekers in Paris and began to record her deepening communion with the Divine in the diary later published as Prayers and Meditations.   In 1914 the Mother voyaged to Pondicherry, South India, to meet the Indian mystic Sri Aurobindo. After a stay of eleven

  Chapter 5   Road to the Divine     Reveal, who know, the road that I must tread ...    Sri Aurobindo   What I call "being on the path" is being in a state of consciousness in which only union with the Divine has any value — this union is the only thing worth living, the sole object of aspiration. Everything else has lost all value and is not worth seeking, so there is no longer any question of renouncing it because it is no longer an object of desire. As long as union with the Divine is not the thing for which one lives, one is not yet on the path.    The Mother   It is true that the path is very long, but for one who follows it with since

  Chapter 2   The Divine     The Divine is that from which all comes, in which all lives, and to return to the truth of the Divine now clouded over by Ignorance is the soul's aim in life. In its supreme Truth, the Divine is absolute and infinite peace, consciousness, existence, power and Ananda.    Sri Aurobindo   The Divine has three aspects for us:   1. It is the Cosmic Self and Spirit that is in and behind all things and beings, from which and in which all is manifested in the universe — although it is now a manifestation in the Ignorance.   2. It is the Spirit and Master of our own being within us whom we have to serve and learn to express his

  Chapter 3   The New Creation     The really new thing is that a new world is born, born, born. It is not the old one transforming itself, it is a new world that is born. And we are right in the midst of this period of transition where the two are entangled — where the old still persists all-powerful, entirely dominating the ordinary consciousness, but where the new one is quietly slipping in, still very modest, unnoticed — unnoticed to the extent that outwardly it doesn't disturb anything very much for the time being, and in the consciousness of most people it is even quite imperceptible. And yet it is working, it is growing — until the time comes when it

  Chapter 8   Power     Power means strength and force, Shakti, which enables one to face all that can happen and to stand and overcome, also to carry out what the Divine Will proposes. It can include many things, power over men, events, circumstances, means etc. But all this not of the mental or vital kind, but by an action through unity of consciousness with the Divine and with all things and all beings. It is not an individual strength depending on certain personal capacities, but the Divine Power using the individual as an instrument.    Sri Aurobindo   Force is the essential Shakti; Energy is the working drive of the Force, its active dynamism; Power is the