January 1934 Is there any hint that the projection from the mind into the vital has been rather invited and encouraged by myself? It came by being preoccupied too much with the difficulties of the nature. It is always better to dwell on the good side of things in yourself — I do not mean in an egoistic way, but with faith and cheerful confidence, calling down the positive experience of which the nature is already capable so that a constant positive growth can help in the rejection of all that has to be rejected. But in fact one gets often projected into the vital difficulties at an early stage and then instead of going from the mind into the psychic (thr

September 1935 What is happening really, Sir ? Have you stirred sleeping snakes and monsters that are rushing up now ? Excuse me, they were not sleeping at all; they are simply coming into light. Now I hear that Y is leaving you to go to Roman Maharshi What next? You are astonished? Really, you seem to be living like a cherub chubby and innocent with his head in the clouds ignorant of the wickedness of men. I thought by this time the revolts of Y were common knowledge. Not only that, he is hurling abuses, threats, most offensive words at you! In his "periods" he was doing that all the time privately among his friends. Now it is publ

Nirodbaran's Correspondence with SRI AUROBINDO THE COMPLETE SET THE MOTHER - 1950 SRI AUROBINDO - 1950 PUBLISHER'S NOTE The most important letters of this correspondence were first published in Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo (First Series, 1954; Second Series, 1959; Combined Edition, 1969) and were arranged according to the subject-matter. In 1972 and 1974 additional letters (humorous ones for the most part) were published in Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo (Part III) and Sri Aurobindo's Humour. Nearly half of the matter her is being published for the first time. Part of this new edition — enlarged still further

1936 R asks me to send you these medical reports of G. Reports no use unless the medical hieroglyphics are interpreted. Today P came for her eyes. All on a sudden she burst into sobs — God knows why! God doesn't. P is a sort of weeping machine — touch a spring even unintentionally and it starts off. January 2, 1936 I am sending the 4 reports — 3 on urine and 1 on blood. The first ones will give you an idea of the progress of the disease up to the present stage of cure. You will see that blood-urea has come down to normal. Albumin — an abnormal product in the urine — is present indicating heart-failure in the absence of any kidne

March 1936 I was called by R to the dying case opposite our house. The case seems hopeless. . . It seems R is willing to take it up if he is guarded by André or Valle. I wonder if it would be wise, as the chances are next to nil.. . R saw Mother and told her he thought the case hopeless. She told him to drop it. In fact she had not wanted him to take up the case, but it seems they impressed one "officier de santé" who came to fetch him. (Since have heard the classic lamentations with a note from R of the departure of the patient to his destination). Please have a look at the typescript on Thompson. It will be kept to a limited company. I am sure

First published 1988 © Sri Mira    MRINALINI DEVI   A Talk on the Occasion of Her Birth Centenary   The title of my talk today may have sprung upon you a pleasant surprise. You may have heard her name as if in a dream and forgotten it as something of no consequence. A few eminent people have even asked me, "Is there anything really to say about her?" It is always the man who counts with us and the woman who helps the man from behind passes into oblivion. Moreover, the spell of Sri Aurobindo's supramental consciousness under which we had been living led us to forget that before he became the superman he had come on earth a human being like us and had a wife whose name was M

POSTSCRIPT This book published in 1972 ends on a highly expectant note. The lines quoted from Sri Aurobindo's poem, "A God's Labour", written in 1935-36 give us the definite hope that Sri Aurobindo's dream would be realised: the Mother's body would be transformed into a "raiment of gold and blue". Indeed after Sri Aurobindo had left his body,' the work went on apace. A number of sadhaks had the experience of participating in the work of transformation by changes felt in their own body. The Mother wrote at length and spoke about it quite often. So we were living in the bright hope that it was just a question of time. The Mother would complete a hundred years or even more and woul

TALKS Those who have read Talks with Sri Aurobindo or Evening Talks must have realised that Sri Aurobindo was not a world-averse Yogi lost in rapturous silence of the Brahman like the Maharshi, nor talked, when he did, mostly of spiritual matters as did Ramakrishna. In fact our talks covered a vast range of subjects, they had almost a global dimension. We wondered at his enormous knowledge in so many fields. Considering the shortness of the period during which he lived in strenuous contact with the external world, one would be tempted to ask how much of this knowledge was the outcome of his practical worldly experience and how much a result of Yoga? In a letter to me he had said, "

THE RECOVERY December and January had rolled on smoothly. We were now looking forward to the removal of the splints. Dr. Rao on his weekly visits was pressing his case for the removal and was laughed at by all of us till he promised not to raise the issue again, only to break his word the next time. About the first week of February, some disquieting symptoms appeared. There was pain in the knee-joint and a mild swelling of the leg. We were very much perturbed by this unexpected intrusion. The specialist, informed about it, replied that such minor complications were not rare in fracture cases and would soon clear up. Now Rao got his chance: he argued that the unduly long immobil

SAVITRI Savitri is the supreme revelation of Sri Aurobindo's vision. THE MOTHER It is my task in this chapter to give a factual account of the long process that led to Savitri in its final form. As the grand epic has captured many hearts all over the world by its supernal beauty I thought that they would be much interested in the history of its growth, development and final emergence – the birth of the Golden Child. But I own that it is a formidable task. Though I had the unique good fortune to see Sri Aurobindo working on the epic in its entire revised version, and had some small share in being its scribe, to try in retrospect to reconstruct the imposing edifice fr