Guidance on Painting My dear Gracious Mother, After a long time I have done this flower which you gave this morning.   It is very well done. SRI AUROBINDO   Mother, How do you find the flower today?   It is well done. SRI AUROBINDO   Mother, Today I have not drawn a flower, instead I have drawn this picture. Will it do?   It is very good indeed. SRI AUROBINDO   Mother, How do you find the flowers today? Will they be useful to you? These flowers are done for you. Page-61 They are very well done and will certainly be of use to Mother; Mother will be glad to have any more you can do like

Introduction Kamalaben was born in Jadeshwar, Gujarat, on 11 February 1915. Her father was Kashibhai and her mother was Raiba. She had two brothers, Maheshbhai and Jagadishbhai, and one sister, Yashodaben, who got married to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's son. Kamalaben was the youngest. They all came to Pondicherry and stayed for a few years; then all of them went back except Kamalaben and Kashibhai who stayed on in the Ashram. According to Champaklal, Sri Aurobindo once said, "Kashibhai wants to go to heaven with the members of his family." Kamalaben lost her mother when she was one year old. Her grandmother wanted to bring her up, but she was very dear to her father, who took her to Ka

Birthday Messages to Kamala Bonne Fete a Kamala   11.2.36   Kamala In faith and confidence and joy on the quiet and sunlit path towards the home of Light and Ananda. SRI AUROBINDO 11.2.38   Kamala My blessings on Kamala for the year of her life that begins today. SRI AUROBINDO   Let this year bring to you a steady increase of faith and devotion. With love and blessings. THE MOTHER   11.2.41   My blessings on your birthday. May you grow in spirit with this new year of life. SRI AUROBINDO   Page-13 My love and blessings to my dear child on the occasion of her birthday. Let your psychic bein

Preface This book is a collection of Kamalaben's corresponsdence with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. It takes us into the past and revives the memory and the atmosphere of those golden days. It is difficult to write about Kamalaben without remembering Champaklal because her association with him grew from her childhood days. I had the privilege of first knowing them quite a few years ago. Later, I got close to them during the publication of some books on Champaklal. Kamalaben came to the Ashram at the young age of thirteen on 20 February 1928. She had the rare opportunity of spending her time in the service of Divine Mother and later on she served Champaklal till his last moment. She hard

Guidance in Daily Activities   These are a few selected questions and answers for guidance in daily activities from 1931 to 1939.   Dear Father, I am awaiting a reply from you. Please give me an answer.   There is no use in going to Gujarat for learning English. You can learn it here, if you want, much better than you could at any school. 7.9.31 SRI AUROBINDO   My dear Mother, I want to make a sari. In the sari I want to make the flower of Obedience. Please, choose the colour, shades and design and give me a sample which I can send to Bombay. Jagadish will send the silk threads. I have got fifteen rupees which Jagadish has

Introspection Mother, Before joining the Ashram, I used to pray to Lord Krishna but when I heard about you and Sri Aurobindo, I started adoring both of you. There was an intense urge to come here. Many times, I had a Darshan of Sri Aurobindo in my dreams when I was in Gujarat. I always prayed to Sri Aurobindo, "O Lord, take me in your refuge." Once Sri Aurobindo came in my dream and told me that I would be there within fifteen days and it happened so. Mother, I was worshipping Radha and Lord Krishna from my childhood and called them my Mother and Father. When I came here and had your Darshan I felt that I had a real Darshan of Radha and Lord Krishna. Afterwards 1 realized that Lord

29 Yoga, Religion and Morality WHILE stressing the imperative need of Yogic education and of a radical change in the aims, methods and structure of education in the light of Yoga, it is necessary to point out that by Yoga—which is only one of the systems of Yoga—and that Yoga does not mean either religion or morality. Yoga is not a body of beliefs, dogmas or revelations which are to be believed in without verification. Yoga is an advancing Science, with its spirit of research, with its methods of experimentation and methods of verification and advance of knowledge. The knowledge that Yoga delivers at a certain stage is surpassable by a f

27 Vedic Ideals of Education and their Contemporary Relevance I. OUR CONTEMPORARY SEARCH THE contemporary moment of human history is riddled with a number of dilemmas, and we find it extremely difficult to resolve them. We erect the ideal of truth, and our quest ends in probabilities filled with mixtures of truth and error; we erect the ideal of liberty; and our experiments oblige us to strangulate it in the interests of equality; we erect the ideal of equality and we find ourselves obliged to abandon it in the interests of liberty; we erect the ideals of peace and unity but we seem to be

30 Yoga, Science, Religion and Philosophy WE may begin with a preliminary elucidation of the three terms: science, religion and philosophy. Science may be defined as a quest of knowledge, which lays a special emphasis on detailed processes in order to arrive at utmost precision, and the distinguishing methods of this quest are those of impartial observation, experimentation by working on falsifiable hypothesis, verification in the light of crucial instances and establishment of conclusions which are repeatable and which are also modifiable in the light of advancing quest. Religion may also be looked upon as quest of knowledge, bu

Xu Fancheng Chinese: 徐梵澄 Pondicherry in fact has played a prominent role in cultural exchanges between India and China in modern times. This is due to the influence of the Chinese scholar, who lived in Pondicherry for 27 years. His name was Xu Fancheng, also called the "Modern Xuanzang". Xu Fancheng was born in Changsha, Hunan province, on 26th October 1909. As a child he studied classical Chinese. In 1929 he went to Germany to study the History of Art at Heidelberg University. He also practiced wood engraving there and became the first Chinese artist of the new style wood engraving. He came back to China in 1932, and encouraged b