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

BODY, THE OCCULT AGENT The body has an individuality of its own. It is an organised formation and acts as a whole in each and all its parts. The human body is, par excellence, such a formation; for it is moved and controlled by the consciousness which overshadows or informs it, which is its master whose will it executes scrupulously. The body is an epitome of the world. It encases within its frame the whole world, particularly the earth—earth itself being an epitome of the world— on a miniature scale, the mikros reproducing all the features and characters of the makros. Such being the case, a wholly conscious body governed and inspired by the

SWEET HOLY TEARS1 The tears that the soul sheds are holy, are sweet; they come bidden by the Divine and are blessed by His Presence. They are like the dew from heaven. For they are pure, they are spontaneous, welling out of a heart of innocent freedom. The feeling is infinitely impersonal, completely egoless: there is only an intense movement of self-giving, total simple self-giving. Tears are the natural expression in one who needs help, who has the complete surrender and simplicity of a child, the abdication of all vanity. Such tears are beautiful in their nature and beneficent in character. They are therefore like dewdrops that belong to heaven as it were and come from t