PART THREE ADITI Aditi for protection: the builder of Karma Yogins; the ageless, the Consort of Truth; manifold her strength; she our sure refuge encompasses the Vast: perfect is her ministry. (Yajur Veda, 21.5.) Page – 499 The Mother CHAPTER 36 HER LONELY STRENGTH I The long period of visible collaboration between the Mother and Sri Aurobindo had ended in the early hours of the morning of 5 December 1950, and a new era instinct with ambiguities and also uncertainties had begun. But what had at first seemed to us an immitigable disaster or reversal assumed a slightly different

CHAPTER 14 SECOND COMING I It will be seen from what has been set forth in the earlier chapters that, on the one hand, Mirra was reaching the end of the Japanese interlude, having arrived at a new poise of purposive purity and serenity and puissance; and, on the other hand, Sri Aurobindo was approaching the end of the great Arya phase of his career, "tying up his bundle ... teeming with the catch of the Infinite", awaiting the right time to open it and call into existence his Deva Sangha. He had a few ardent young men with him, Nolini, Amrita, Moni, Bejoy Nag. But the Deva Sangha, the Ashram, was yet to be born. The Arya itself was magisterially drawing toward

CHAPTER 13 TEA, FLOWERS, AND FLU I Once in the course of her stay in Japan, Mirra had an illness, extremely painful at first, though it didn't fail to provide some rich compensations as well. It was in January 1919 in Tokyo when the terrible influenza epidemic was raging all over Japan. After the attack, the patient usually died on the third day; if luckily he didn't, at the end of seven days he was completely cured, though exhausted and enfeebled. People succumbed to the epidemic in such large numbers that they couldn't be individually cremated . There was panic everywhere, and people were gripped by a fear of vast proportions, no wonder - because the

LIST OF REFERENCES WORKS CITED The following books, journals and compilations have been referred to in the present edition. Their abbreviations, used in the references listed below, are given here in bold type in parentheses. Collected Works of the Mother, cent. ed., vol. 1 to 17 (MO ) Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library, vol. 1 to 29 (SA ) Savitri , Sri Aurobindo, revised edition, 1993 (Savitri) Service Letter monthly newsletter appearing since 1972 (Service) Champaklal Speaks, ed. M.P. Pandit, 1975 (Champaklal) The Flame of Truth, ed. V.K. Gokak and V.M. Reddy, 1968 (Flame) The Mother - Past, Present and Future, K.D. Sethna, 1977 (PPF) The Mother

-65_A Chronology of the Mother^s Life.htm A CHRONOLOGY OF THE MOTHER'S LIFE Her embodiment is a chance for the earth-consciousness to receive the Supramental into it and to undergo first the transformation necessary for that to be possible. Sri Aurobindo 1830 Dec 18 Birth of Mira Ismalun (nee Pinto), the Mother's maternal grand-mother, in Egypt. Died in 1909. 1843 Jul 5 Birth of Moise Maurice Alfassa, the Mother's father, in Adrianople (Edirne), Turkey. Died in 1918. 1857 Aug 26 Birth of Mathilde Ismalun, the Mother's mother, in Alexandria, Egypt. She often told little Mirra, 'You are born to realise the highest Ideal' and taught her 'the discipline and the necessi

CHAPTER 50 WINGS OF EXPANSION I Of the Mother's invisible ministry for the earth and man from the occult and spiritual planes, we know nothing - or hardly anything - whatsoever. The playground classes were on a different footing: people could see her, hear her, meditate with her, receive her blessings and even feel the force of her occasional ineluctable silences. Some daily went up to her to report and to receive instructions, most had their daily Balcony darshan in the morning, and there were also the four special Darshans during the year. There were her rare outings too, like the visits to the Island at Ariyankuppam wooded with casuarina trees or to h

CHAPTER 42 THE NEXT FUTURE I The Great Secret,1 subtitled "Six Monologues and a Conclusion", was conceived and written by the Mother with the collaboration of Nolini, Pavitra, Andre and Pranab. The Mother visualised a situation of extreme limit, as it were on the edge of time. A ship carrying six famous men indifferent spheres of life, and an unknown young man, who are all on their way to attend a World Conference on Human Progress, is wrecked in mid-ocean, and these seven "brought together, apparently by chance", take refuge in a lifeboat. The six famous men are the Statesman, the Writer, the Scientist, the Artist, the Industrialist and the Athlete. The Un

CHAPTER 9 DIVINE MAN-MAKING A couple of issues of the Arya had come out by mid-September 1914, but the War in Europe only raged the more furiously. Mirra was of Course busy with a hundred details relating to the new Society, the Arya (the English and French) and her own great sadhana for the earth. Her early morning meditations, the musings of her soul, and her dialogues with the Divine continued without a break, and the deeper poise and purpose of her being prevailed over the surface shadows and disturbances. On 30 September 1914, Mirra records an uplifting experience with Vedic as well as futurist intimations. "The realisation has appeared in all

CHAPTER 37 MOTHER ON EDUCATION I In her series of essays on education, the Mother discourses on its divers aspects - physical, vital, mental, psychic and spiritual - which together constitute the unified spectrum. Integral education is the inclusive white ray which, when seen through a prism, reveals the rainbow-colours. The Mother's book On Education thus embodies a complete vision, but it is also a step by step presentation. The first of the six essays, "The Science of Living: To Know Oneself is to Control Oneself",1 is rather more than a mere introduction to the series. Surely the science (or art) of living is much more than what passes for educa

CHAPTER 8 LAUNCHING THE ARYA I The decision to launch the Arya and its French counterpart, was taken by Sri Aurobindo and the Richards probably on 1 June 1914, and the prospectus (with specimen pages) was ready by mid-June to facilitate the enrolment of subscribers. It was decided that the first issue should come out on Sri Aurobindo's forty-second birthday, 15 August. All the three names - Sri Aurobindo Ghose, Paul and Mirra Richard - were to appear on the cover-page as Editors, and the journals were to be published from 41, Rue François Martin, Pondicherry. Writing to Motilal Roy in July, Sri Aurobindo expressed the fear that, if pronounced revoluti