July 12, 1918 SUDDENLY, before Thee, all my pride fell. I understood how futile it was in Thy Presence to wish to surmount oneself, and I wept, wept abundantly and without constraint the sweetest tears of my life. Tears sweet and beneficent, tears that opened my heart without constraint before Thee and melted in one miraculous moment all the remaining obstacles that could separate me from Thee! And now, although I weep no longer, I feel so near, so near to Thee that my whole being quivers with joy. Let me stammer out my homage: I have cried too with the joy of a child, "0 supreme and only Confidant, Thou who knowest beforehand all we can say to Thee

January 24, 1914 O THOU who art the sole reality of our being, 0 sublime Master of love. Redeemer of life, let me have no longer any other consciousness than of Thee at every instant and in each being. When I do not live solely with Thy life, I agonise, I sink slowly towards extinction; for Thou art my only reason for existence, my one goal, my single support. I am like a timid bird not yet sure of its wings and hesitating to take its flight; let me soar to reach definitive identity with Thee. Page - 26 February 1, 1914 I TURN towards Thee who art everywhere and within all and outside all, intimate essence of all and remote from all, centre of condensation fo

November 2, 1912 ALTHOUGH my whole being is in theory consecrated to Thee, 0 Sublime Master, who art the life, the light and the love in all things, I still find it hard to carry out this consecration in detail. It has taken me several weeks to learn that the reason for this written meditation, its justification, lies in the very fact of addressing it daily to Thee. In this way I shall put into material shape each day a little of the conversation I have so often with Thee; I shall make my confession to Thee as well as it may be; not because I think I can tell Thee anything— for Thou art Thyself everything, but our artificial and exterior way of seeing and understanding is, if it may be

  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