Sadhana through Work for the Mother   Finding the Mother's Force in Work and Action   Yesterday I worked with great vigour and after I saw Mother in the evening I felt that there was no physical tiredness at all and that I could work for twelve hours more. It is the Mother's energy that comes down into the vital and physical for those who are open. 12 February 1933   *     I told you that I could work peacefully at the Granary, but alas, I am unable to do so. As I sit quietly doing my work, X comes and starts talking about many things and creates a disturbance in me. I pray that you will help me. You must be able to find the Mother in work a

Note on the Texts     Note on the Texts   THE MOTHER WITH LETTERS ON THE MOTHER consists of two separate but related works: The Mother, a collection of short prose pieces on the Mother, and Letters on the Mother, a selection of letters by Sri Aurobindo in which he referred to the Mother in her transcendent, universal and individual aspects. In addition, the volume contains Sri Aurobindo's translations of selections from the Mother's Prayers and Méditations  as well as his translation of "Radha's Prayer" The Mother , the Letters and the translations are published in three separate parts.   PART ONE: THE MOTHER The Mother was first

Opening, Sincerity and the Mother's Grace   The Meaning of Opening   What is real opening? It is the receptivity to the Mother's presence and her forces. What is the right and perfect rule of opening? Aspiration, quietude, widening of oneself to receive, rejection of all that tries to shut you to the Divine. How shall I know that I am opening to the Mother and not to other forces? You have to be vigilant and see that there is no movement of disturbance, desire, ego. What are the signs of a real opening to the Mother? That shows itself at once  —when you feel the divine peace, equality, wideness, light, Ananda, Knowledg

The Mother and the Discipline in the Ashram   The Mother in Sole Charge of the Ashram   What your vital being seems to have kept all along is the "bargain" or the "mess" attitude in these matters. One gives some kind of commodity which he calls devotion or surrender and in return the Mother is under obligation to supply satisfaction for all demands and desires spiritual, mental, vital and physical, and, if she falls short in her task, she has broken her contract. The Asram is a sort of communal hotel or mess, the Mother is the hotel —keeper or mess —manager. One gives what one can or chooses to give, or it may be nothing at all except the aforesaid com

  Radha's Prayer   Radha's Prayer 1   O Thou whom at first sight I knew for the Lord of my being and my God, receive my offering. Thine are all my thoughts, all my emotions, all the sentiments of my heart, all my sensations, all the movements of my life, each cell of my body, each drop of my blood. I am absolutely and altogether Thine, Thine without reserve. What Thou wilt of me, that I shall be. Whether Thou choosest for me life or death, happiness or sorrow, pleasure or suffering, all that comes to me from Thee will be welcome. Each one of Thy gifts will be always for me a gift divine bringing with it the supreme Felicity. 13 January 1932

The Mother's Lights   Lights and the Mother   Yesterday when the Mother came down in the evening to give Darshan, I saw her face shining with crimson light like the sun when it rises in the morning. What is the meaning of crimson light? Crimson light indicates the manifestation of love in the material atmosphere. 5 July 1933   *     When I write to the Mother I often see flashes of light which are tiny, round and of different colours  —white, gold, green, blue and yellow. What are they? When you write, you put yourself probably in contact with the Mother's forces  —these lights of different colours are the play of her forces. 14 October

The Mother: Some Events in Her Life   The Mother's Year of Birth   I asked Mother last night to kindly let me know the correct year of her birth. I am waiting to hear from her. I don't see why. 22 February 1934   *     The reason why I want to know the year of the Mother's birth is, for the moment, only a certain curiosity, though there may be something deeper behind. Curiosity is hardly a proper motive  —people ask these things because they want to gossip about the Mother as about all things and in the same spirit. It is this constant action from the lower human motives of the ordinary consciousness which keeps people from living wi

The Mother and Sri Aurobindo in Dreams, Visions and Experiences   Visions, Dreams and Experiences of Their Unity   From the intimations frequently received from the play of lights seen in visions, I am having a deep feeling that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are the same though we see them in different bodies. Is my feeling right? Yes. 25 April 1933   *     In the centre of the flower "The Supramental manifestation upon earth", I saw both the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. I saw only their faces and they were in the same figure and at the same time. What does this signify? It is our joint or united presence

Section Five   On Three Works of the Mother   On Prières et Méditations de la Mère   General Comments on the Mother's Prieres1   There are some prayers of the Mother written before she came here in 1914 in which there are ideas of transformation and manifestation. Did she have these ideas long before she came here? The Mother had been spiritually conscious from her youth, even from her childhood, upward and she had done sadhana and developed this knowledge very long before she came to India. 23 December 1933   *     In some of the Mother's prayers which are addressed to "divin   Maitre"

Section Four   The Mother in the Life of the Ashram   The Mother and the Sadhana in the Ashram   The Mother Does the Sadhana   In what way does the Mother do the sadhana for the sadhaks? The sadhana is done by the Mother according to the truth and necessity of each nature and of each plane of Nature. It is not one fixed process. 13 September 1933   *     I heard from someone: "The Mother has chosen only those who have got capacity to do this Yoga, but they will reach the goal only if the vital gets transformed. If not, they will realise in the next birth." Is it so? The M