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—

37 All Life is Yoga It was going to turn out to be an incredible 'spiritual adventure.' Because it was the 'Yoga for the Earth.' Not an atom was to be neglected. Sri Aurobindo's motto was 'All Life is Yoga,' and he lived up to it. His was the Upanishadic view, which did not assert the unreality of our present existence but only its incompleteness and inferiority. So what Sri Aurobindo had to do was to get to the bottom of things: where did things go wrong? Why did they go wrong? He began by observing life. Not only of man, to be sure. No creature great or small was beyond the pale of observation of this Scientist of Yoga. He observed, studied, analyzed. He ob

-31_French Government^s Headache.htm 28 French Government's Headache "Without too much trouble"? Let us see. Bharati appreciated the "keen sense of justice on the part of certain French magistrates." We shall meet one of them by and by. Nolini went further: "In fact," he said, "the French Government had not been against us, indeed they helped us as far as they could. We were looked upon as their guests and as political refugees, it was a matter of honour for them to give us their protection. And where it is a question of honour, the French as a race are willing to risk anything," he said in the 1950s. "But at the same time, they had their friendship, the entente cordiale,

-57_Mirra^s Prayers.htm 54 Mirra's Prayers Mirra continued to confide her thoughts to her diary, which we know as the Prayers and Meditations of The Mother. Shall we have a look at some of those pages between her arrival at Pondicherry and Sri Aurobindo's birthday? "Pondicherry, March 29, 1914." It was a Sunday. "O Thou whom we must know, understand, realise, absolute Consciousness, eternal Law, Thou who guides and enlightens us, who determinest and inspirest, grant that these weak souls may be strengthened and those who are fearful may be reassured. To Thee I confide them, in the same way as I confide to Thee the destinies of all of us." Then Mirra met Sri Aurobindo.

13 Statecraft Earth's little Wedge became the great Mother of a mighty civilization. Worldwide there grew pockets of human development. The nomadic, hunting Palaeolithic people, using rude stone implements, gave way to the Neolithic people with greater skill, who used polished, improved implements.' An astonishingly long stride took place between the former and the latter. Neolithic tribes learned the art of agriculture, to domesticate animals, to make, paint and decorate potteries, to construct boats and go out to sea. In India, Neolithic people could spin cotton and wool, and weave cloth. Like their counterparts in other regions of the world, with whom they

Prologue : Once upon a time, long, long ago, before I or you were born, before our parents or grandparents were born, even before their grandparents were born, some thousands of years ago, the Vindhya mountain was upset one day. And why was he so upset? "Why," he asked the Sun and the Moon, "why do you not go around me? Aren't I a greater Mountain than the Meru?" The Sun thought to himself, "Oh, these old fellows! Look at his pride! Comparing himself with the golden Mahameru. Really!" Instead of answering politely, the Sun went on his daily business of going round the mountain Meru. That surely made Vindhya angry "Ah, old! Am I! I shall show you who is old!" He too sent