Incarnation and Evolution   The Mystery of Incarnation   Many years ago, the Mother wrote regarding life in the Asram: "In our daily practices we are endeavouring to express the great mystery of the Divine Incarnation."1 I pray that this message may be explained to me  —and that I be enabled to understand its meaning fully and clearly. It means that we act as we do because we take it as a fact that the Divine can manifest and is manifested in a human body. Is this a message which can be circulated to all the members of the Asram? Yes, they ought to know it. To outsiders? Not unless they are interested and seek the mea

Section One   The Mother: Individual, Universal, Transcendent   The Mother and the Purpose of Her Embodiment   Who Is the Mother?   Do you not refer to the Mother (our Mother) in your book ? Yes. Is she not the "Individual" Divine Mother who has embodied "the power of these two vaster ways of her existence"1  —Transcendent and Universal? Yes. Has she not descended here (amongst us) into the Darkness and Falsehood and Error and Death in her deep and great love for us? Yes. There are many who hold the view that she was human but now embodies the Divine Mother and her Prayers, they say, explain this view. But to my mental concept

 The Mother's Help in Difficulties   Difficulties and the Mother's Help   Not to be disturbed, to remain quiet and confident is the right attitude, but it is necessary also to receive the help of the Mother and not to shrink back for any reason from her solicitude. One ought not to indulge ideas of incapacity, inability to respond, dwelling too much on defects and failures and allowing the mind to be in pain and shame on their account; for these ideas and feelings become in the end weakening things. If there are difficulties, stumblings or failures, one has to look at them quietly and call in tranquilly and persistently the divine help for their removal,

Three Aspects of the Mother   Individual, Universal, Transcendent   I am or was under the impression that Mother is the Cosmic and Supracosmic Mahashakti. I don't quite understand the question. I have explained in The Mother that there are three aspects, transcendent, universal and individual, of the Mother. 31 May 1933   *     As I see it, there are two Shaktis in the world: the Cosmic Shakti and the individual Shakti  —our Mother. I believe it is difficult to remain in direct connection with the Cosmic Shakti, while the individual Shakti is always here before us. I would like to know more about these Shaktis. There is on

Part Three     Translations of Prayers of the Mother     Prayers and Méditations        Sri Aurobindo's translation of the Mother's prayer of December 28, 1928     Prayers and Méditations  1   November 28, 19132   Mother Divine, grant that today may bring to us a completer consecration to Thy Will, a more integral gift of ourselves to Thy work, a more total forgetfulness of self, a greater illumination, a purer love. Grant that in a communion growing ever deeper, more constant and entire, we may be united always more and more closely to Thee and become Thy servitors worthy of Thee. Remov

Difficulties of the Pathfinders   The Burden of Humanity   Mother spoke to me of the right attitude as one without tension and strain, one which is full of sunshine and as spontaneous as a flower opening to the light. This is all very well for beings like you and the Mother, who are Avatars, but how can we poor mortals take this vague prescription for guidance? And how to get this attitude if not through constant prayer, arduous meditation and a constant effort to reject wrong movements?   You say that this way is too difficult for you or the likes of you and it is only "avatars" like myself or the Mother that can do it. That

Sadhana through Work for the Mother   Finding the Mother's Force in Work and Action   Yesterday I worked with great vigour and after I saw Mother in the evening I felt that there was no physical tiredness at all and that I could work for twelve hours more. It is the Mother's energy that comes down into the vital and physical for those who are open. 12 February 1933   *     I told you that I could work peacefully at the Granary, but alas, I am unable to do so. As I sit quietly doing my work, X comes and starts talking about many things and creates a disturbance in me. I pray that you will help me. You must be able to find the Mother in work a

Note on the Texts     Note on the Texts   THE MOTHER WITH LETTERS ON THE MOTHER consists of two separate but related works: The Mother, a collection of short prose pieces on the Mother, and Letters on the Mother, a selection of letters by Sri Aurobindo in which he referred to the Mother in her transcendent, universal and individual aspects. In addition, the volume contains Sri Aurobindo's translations of selections from the Mother's Prayers and Méditations  as well as his translation of "Radha's Prayer" The Mother , the Letters and the translations are published in three separate parts.   PART ONE: THE MOTHER The Mother was first

Opening, Sincerity and the Mother's Grace   The Meaning of Opening   What is real opening? It is the receptivity to the Mother's presence and her forces. What is the right and perfect rule of opening? Aspiration, quietude, widening of oneself to receive, rejection of all that tries to shut you to the Divine. How shall I know that I am opening to the Mother and not to other forces? You have to be vigilant and see that there is no movement of disturbance, desire, ego. What are the signs of a real opening to the Mother? That shows itself at once  —when you feel the divine peace, equality, wideness, light, Ananda, Knowledg

The Mother and the Discipline in the Ashram   The Mother in Sole Charge of the Ashram   What your vital being seems to have kept all along is the "bargain" or the "mess" attitude in these matters. One gives some kind of commodity which he calls devotion or surrender and in return the Mother is under obligation to supply satisfaction for all demands and desires spiritual, mental, vital and physical, and, if she falls short in her task, she has broken her contract. The Asram is a sort of communal hotel or mess, the Mother is the hotel —keeper or mess —manager. One gives what one can or chooses to give, or it may be nothing at all except the aforesaid com