PUBLISHERS' NOTE This collection of the Mother's Prayers and Meditations (Prières et Méditations) is not complete. It contains only a few of them — those that were translated by Sri Aurobindo from the original French. HOME

March 30, 1917 THERE is a sovereign royalty in taking no thought for oneself. To have needs is to assert a weakness; to claim something proves that we lack what we claim. To desire is to be impotent; it is to recognise our limitations and confess our incapacity to over- come them. If only from the point of view of a legitimate pride, man should be noble enough to renounce desire. How humiliating to ask something for oneself from life or from the Supreme Conscious- ness which animates it! How humiliating for us, how ignorant an offence against Her! For all is within our reach, only the egoistic limits of our being pre-. vent us from enjoying the whole universe as completely and concre

December 26, 1916 ALWAYS the word Thou makest me hear in the silence is sweet and encouraging, 0 Lord. But I see not in what this instrument is worthy of the grace Thou accordest to it or how it will have the capacity to realise what Thou attendest from it. All in it appears so small, weak and ordinary, so lacking in intensity and force and amplitude in comparison with what it should be to undertake this overwhelming role. But I know that what the mind thinks is of little importance. The mind itself knows it and, passive, it awaits the working out of Thy decree. Thou biddest me strive without cease, and I could wish to have the indomitable ardour that prevails over every dif

February 5, 1913 THY voice is heard as a melodious chant in the stillness of my heart, and is translated in my head by words which are inadequate and yet replete with Thee. And these words are addressed to the Earth and say to her:— "Poor sorrowful Earth, remember that I am present in you and lose not hope; each effort, each grief, each joy and each pang, each call of thy heart, each aspiration of thy soul, each renewal of thy seasons, all, all with- out exception, what seems to thee sorrowful and what seems to thee joyous, what seems to thee ugly and what seems to thee beautiful, all infallibly lead thee towards me, who am endless Peace, shadowless Light, perfect Harmony, Certitud

    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