My First Poem Next year, 2011, will mark fifty years since I met Mother and was given my initiation by Her.  When I first arrived  in the Ashram I was drawn to the Samadhi and the Service Tree, but perhaps even more so to the small meditation room at the top of the stairs and to the right after you enter the Ashram gate. It was in this small room where there is an old photograph of Sri Aurobindo. "I would kneel before it and often prostrate myself before One who was my guide and Lord." One day I asked Arabinda Basu why this room was so special to me and why the photograph was so important. "He replied simply, 'Because the Presence is there'. " There are two ev

Sri Aurobindo Integral Yoga Retreat: July 2010 by Narad Imagine, if you will, a time in your life when all worries, concerns, obligations, fears, challenges, etc. were gone, almost instantaneously, because you were in the presence of something so pure, so beautiful, and filled with such love and light, that no negativity, no hostile entity could enter into that force-field of absolute power, peace and calm, that atmosphere of purity and consecration. "This was the experience of many at this year's retreat in South Carolina." It was the Presence of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother felt each day as Their blessings and Grace filled the rooms and our h

Return From the Ashram March - April 2004 Suddenly all went dark and I no longer could feel within, the Presence. There descended on me the sorrow of the world and I felt the pain our "human" species inflicts upon its kind, the death of children, torture, humiliation and the Inconsolable grief of wives and mothers. All life seemed a vortex drawing down the soul, swallowing up goodness, nobility, honour and truth. And in this black hole I foundered and watched arise in me thoughts and actions and desires that I once had believed were conquered, and I realized the power of these malignant forces attempting to stay the descending light. Th

Homage To Sri Aurobindo  Centenary of Sri Aurobindo's Arrival in Pondicherry April 4, 1910 - April 4, 2010   31 MARCH 2010 A program of music, poetry recitations and flowers honouring the centenary of Sri Aurobindo's arrival in Pondicherry   Photo Gallery SACRED LOVE  Georgi Sviridov Thou, O sacred love!  Divine in human form Guide us Lord, to Light. Thou, O sacred love!   To THEE... The Mother   " To Thee who hast been the material envelope of our Master, to Thee our infinite gratitude. Before Thee who hast done so much for us, who hast worked, struggled, suffered, hoped, endured so mu

Om and The Om Choir The voice that chants to the creator Fire, The symbolled OM, the great assenting Word, Savitri In 1961 the Mother gave Narad the adesh to bring down a New Music. These were Her words: "You must bring down a New Music" This is the aspiration of the OM Choir now in its 12th year. We gather as a group soul, a sacred body, to open ourselves to be instruments for the descent of the New Music, a music that has the power of effectuation through OM, which the Mother has called, "The signature of the Lord.

Sri Aurobindo on OM Volume 12 - The Word has its seed-sounds - suggesting the eternal syllable of the Veda, AUM. A note on the Chhandogya Upanishad "OM is the syllable (the Imperishable); one should follow after it as the upward song (movement); for with OM one sings (goes) upwards; "The Chhandogya,... is to be a work in the right and perfect way of devoting oneself to the Brahman; its subject is the Brahman, but the Brahman as symbolised in the OM, the sacred syllable of the Veda, not therefore, the pure state of existence only, but that existence in a

OM Chanting From: My Treasures - by Shobha Mitra Published in Ananda Sagar - Vol. 275 - January 2010 In one of the 1st December programmes the Mother selected four of us to recite Sri Aurobindo's poem "The Ascent and The Descent". She would direct us individually after coming back from the Tennis Ground. One day, being deeply moved by her formidable voice, I asked the Mother, "Mother, teach me how to chant 'OM' ". The Mother became quite upright, closed Her eyes and started chanting 'OM'. My

Page-17 The Power of Words It seems unnecessary to draw your attention to the quantity of useless words that are uttered each day; this evil is well known to all, although very few people think of remedying it. But... in the course of the day, we often have the opportunity of expressing a helpful wish by pronouncing one word or another, provided that we know how to put the appropriate thought behind the words. ... we can, when pronouncing a word, force ourselves to reflect upon its exact meaning, its true import, in order to ma