YOUTH IS THE REAL ESSENCE OF LIFE Youth is the real essence of life. Without youth any life is a life without dreams. Youthfulness originates and activates the dream of life. There are a few health complications which are now the causes of concern among the young people. The complications are not of a severe type, so are therefore usually neglected in their early stages. When identified at a later stage lots of factory made high-concentrated medicines are taken for the cure. The high-density medicines leave the whole system weak and vulnerable, it supresses complication but does not cure it. Sometimes the side effects are so severe that it makes

Sl.No NAME OF THE WEEDS 1 ABELMOSCHUS ESCULENTUS Ladies finger, Okra, Bhindi, Tori, Bendakayi, 2 ALTERNANTHERA SESSILIS Gudrisag, Matsyaksi, Ponnannkannikkirai, Tangle mat, 3 AMARANTHUS SPINOSUS Prickly amaranth, Tanduliya,Kanta chaulai, Mulluk-kirai, Kantanoutya, 4 4. BACOPA MONNIERI Thyme leaved gratiola, Neer brahmi, Brahmisag, Saraswati, Brahmi, Piramiyapundu, 5 5. BASELLA ALBA VAR. RUBRA Indian spinach, Poi, Lalbachlu, Vasalakkirai(sivappu), 6 6. BAUHINIA VARIEGATA Butterfly tree, Orchid tree, Kanchnar, Kovidar,Sigappu m

    MY WORLD:  THE MOTHER Shanti doshi  I came to Pondicherry on the 17th November 1930. I was 13 at that time. But there is a story behind it.   My father first came to the Ashram in 1927; he settled here 2 years later. He left the family without intimation and all the children were in great straits. We used to write to him describing our plight. But he was not opening our letters; he used to pass them on to the Mother. One day, however, an uncle of ours wrote to him mentioning the dis­tress of the family. Finding the handwriting unfamiliar he opened the letter and was greatly upset by its contents. He informed the Mother and asked her what he was to do in the circumstances. T

Symbolic Names Symbolic Names of Rooms in the Ashram Main Building The symbolic names of rooms in the Ashram main building seem to have been given by the Mother during the years 1928-1932. The period when the names were given can be determined by the change of function of the room called "Communion with the Divine". This room was used by the Mother to distribute soup to the disciples from 1928 to 1931. It became the Reception Room in 1932, after the Mother fell ill in October 1931 and the soup distribution was stopped. The names given to the rooms on the first floor of the New Secretariat - "La Reserve" (Green Room or the Mother's Boudoir) and "Occultis

The Mother's Rooms on the Second Floor The Mother's Room The Mother did not have a room of her own [until 1953]. She used to rest in a hall [the Salon] adjoining Sri Aurobindo's rooms. But it was a sort of public hall. People were constantly coming in and going out, so the Mother was never left in peace. But being the Divine Mother, she never uttered a word against it. She was accustomed to putting up with all kinds of discomfort, disturbance and inconvenience. But this caused great pain to Dyuman. He began thinking of how to have a separate room for the Mother. One day she felt indisposed and returned from the Playground

Preface Sri Aurobindo and the Mother stayed for over half a century in a block of four houses that came to be known as the Ashram main building at Pondicherry. It was the centre of life in the Ashram when they were physically present and will remain so even in their physical absence. Hundreds of people go inside daily to breathe the serene atmosphere and come out spiritually charged. On special occasions, long queues are formed and visitors wait patiently to get a glimpse of their rooms. The building has become a means of contact with their subtle-physical presence. It is this reverence for the House of the Lord that has inspired this book on the Ashram main building.

Sri Aurobindo Ashram The Story of the Main Building First edition 2008 Rs 550 ISBN 978-81-7058-892-4 © Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 2008 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department, Pondicherry 605 002 Web http://www.sabda.in Printed at: Sudarshan Graphics 27 Neelakanta Mehta Street, T. Nagar, Chennai 600 017 PRINTED IN INDIA Front cover painting by Jayantilal Parekh, 1939 Back cover painting by Krishnalal Bhatt, 1948

The Story of the Samadhi The Samadhi A visitor to the Ashram building today would admire the perfect arrangement of the pillars and the Service Tree in relation to the Samadhi. The tree gives shade to the Samadhi and the courtyard around it and the pillars support the tree. The pillars also provide the supports for the cloth canopy above the Samadhi. The crossbeams around it give vantage on the east for people to stand and concentrate while leaving enough space on the other three sides to kneel down comfortably. The visitor would naturally assume that the Samadhi came first, the tree next and the pillars last. It was not so. The tree cam

Earliest Plans and Photographs Earliest Ground Floor Plan of the Ashram Main Building The earliest ground floor plan that we have of the entire Ashram main building is dated 17 June 1931. Drawn by Chandulal, the Ashram engineer, it represents an already advanced stage of construction. The Old Secretariat has been demolished and the Balcony block and the rooms on the ground floor connecting it to the Meditation House have been built. Page-28 Old Secretariat The ground and first floor plans of the Old Secretariat were drawn in July 1929, before it was demoli

Subject Index labels on photographs sent to her son .... 69, 71, 73 letters to her son Andre .... 21, 25 Sri Aurobindo meditation with Pavitra .... 78 change in the sadhana from the vital to the physical level .... 21 moving to the Library House .... 2, 6-7, 10 glass case for preserving his body in 1950, possibility of .... 110-111 moving to the Meditation House .... 21, 24-25 moving to the Library House .... 2, 6-7, 10 path to the Prosperity Stores in 1929 and 1932 .... 166-169 moving to the Meditation House .... 21, 24-25 rooms of, passage from Old Secretariat