14 Satan Mother was deploring the lack of mental qualities in the Ashram children. "These children don't understand Sri Aurobindo's irony," she told Satprem. "Happily, on this point of humour, there was a meeting of Sri Aurobindo's mind and mine," she said. "They read prosaically," she moved her palm in the air in a gesture of superficiality. "Strangely enough, it's the same phenomenon when they read Anatole France.1 And Anatole France, read without understanding his irony, is abominably commonplace. "They don't grasp the irony. "Sri Aurobindo had it. He understood the irony of Anatole France so well, he had this same thing —so subtle, so refined." 1

10 What Happened at Tlemcen That was Mother's story to the children. Naturally enough, her stories covered wider grounds when she could talk freely to Satprem. She retold him the stories about the Lord of the Snow, about the musical toad, and other tales of Tlemcen. Towards late afternoon Mirra went walking with Theon to explore the neighbour hood. But when one day he took her to visit the ancient marabout's tomb, he put her in an embarrassing situation and had his little revenge on her. "We used to go for walks in the nearby countryside to see the tombs," said Mother to Satprem. "It was entirely a Muslim country, and the Muslim tombs ar

To pull her out of that tomb was somehow our ambition. Sujata — Satprem April 30, 1984 A Word With You, Please! Welcome, friends! Once more I invite you to share in the exploits of Mother. I could whet your appetite for adventure by hinting at some of the strange episodes to come, but I shall refrain. I imagine that you have already met me. But just in case this is our first meeting, let me add that it was as a nine-year-old child that I met Mother for the first time and have loved her ever since. It was with my father Prithwi Singh Nahar and my brother Abhay that I went to Sri Aurobindo and Mother.

5 Pralaya "I was taught the history of occult traditions by Theon," said Mother. In the Cosmic Tradition, as developed by him, "there were many things —Madame Theon was the clairvoyant and it was she who got the visions, she was excellent—but many things, which I myself had seen and known before meeting them, were then corroborated." One such confirmation pertained to the original Tradition which had separated into two branches, the Vedic and the Cabalistic. "I have memories-these are always lived things for me — very clear memories, very precise, of a time which was assuredly MUCH prior to the Vedic times and to the Cabalistic or the Chaldean traditions."

11 The Hidden Meaning Between her various adventures, Mirra was discovering a host of other things. She was already proving in practice what Sri Aurobindo was to write later. "The theory of traditional knowledge is perfectly rational and verifiable by inner experiences, and it imposes itself if we admit the supraphysical and do not cabin ourselves in the acceptation of material being as the only reality." Under the able tutorship of Max Théon, Mirra the apt pupil was learning. She learned how to go in and out of the supraphysical worlds at will. She learned the art of materialization and dematerialization. She even learned how to move objects fr

6 The Earthly Paradise While 'the last fierce spasm of the dying past' is shaking the nations, let us take a glance backward at Earth's maidenhood. And for that our best recourse is Mother. Mother, who had lived everywhere and in all times, had an assortment of inscribed tablets in her Memory's halls. Everything there was well documented and docketed. No cobwebs hung in any corner or recess where the tablets were neatly stacked. And there we find one tablet, untouched by time, which pertains to the earthly Paradise. One morning in 1961, Satprem asked, "Is it true, Mother, that an earthly Paradise existed?" "From a historical viewpoint," she

Epilogue That fateful year 1914 had begun. The dark clouds were gathering over Europe. But . . . "A star stood in the east —the morning star— and a coming brightness smote the heavens. Out of the light a still voice came advancing, swelling, widening, until it filled all space. 'Look forth,' it said, 'upon the groaning earth, with all its cold, and pain, and cruelty, and death. Look forth, and fear not; but when the worn-out faiths of nations shall totter like old men, turn eastward, and behold the light that lighteth every man; for there is nothing dark it doth not lighten; there is nothing hard it cannot melt; there is nothing lost it will not save."1

Prologue "The direct power of mind-force or life-force upon matter can be extended to an almost illimitable degree," wrote Sri Aurobindo on 24 October 1938 to Prithwi Singh Nahar. "It must be remembered that Energy is fundamentally one in all the planes, only taking more and more dense forms, so there is nothing a priori impossible in mind-energy or life-energy acting directly on material energy and substance; if they do they can make a material object do things or rather can do things with a material object which would be to that object in its ordinary poise or 'law' unhabitual and therefore apparently impossible." Then in the same letter speaking about the 'orig

33 The Revolutionary A public propaganda to convert the whole nation to the idea of independence was a later acquisition in Sri Aurobindo's armoury. He had started out with a secret revolutionary propaganda and organization of which the central object was the preparation of an armed insurrection. "We wanted," he said, "to give battle after awakening the spirit of the race through guerilla warfare.... My idea was for an open armed revolution in the whole of India." It was in 1901 that Sri Aurobindo made his first move by sending Jatin Banerji "as his lieutenant to Bengal with a programme of preparation and action which he thought might occupy a period of 30

48 A Seed Force It was "in that condition of Nirvanic silence that I went first to Poona and then to Bombay." Lele went with him. They visited together the Parvati hill, where Sri Aurobindo had that experience at the 'Hill-Top Temple.' During his visit at Poona, supposedly a private one, "citizens thronged to see him whenever he appeared," reports the Bande Mataram. On 12 January Sri Aurobindo was invited by Professor Ramamurti, the 'Indian Hercules,' to witness his extraordinary feats of strength. Sri Aurobindo thanked the Professor for his performance, invited him to Bengal, and requested the audience to develop their physical faculties so as to serve the coun