MEDITATION In Colour Dhanavanti Dedicated to The Mother Dhanavanti joined the ashram of Sri Aurobindo as a child in 1943, when the Mother opened the school of the ashram. She has been living there since then. She took to drawing and painting in 1956. Nature was a constant source of joy and inspiration - flowers, land­scapes, birds, animals all had their charm. But what she loved most is the human being - the human body so full of grace and strength, the human face with its ever changing expressions. Portraits were her favourites and sketching from life - to catch in a few lines the various moods and modes of life, the movement and the

SRI AUROBINDO AND THE MOTHER AS I SAW THEM   V. chidanandam     About the year 1920 a good-humoured joke of Sri Aurobindo, — one of his many —, used to be current in his circle. A certain person wanted to publish a magazine and sought Sri Aurobindo's advice. Sri Aurobindo was reported to have said to him, "What is it you want to publish? your ignorance?" This I remembered when I was debating within myself whether to write this article or not. Finally, I have decided to write this knowing full well that I am publishing my ignorance. Two reasons weighed with me in coming to the decision.     First, I thought I must publish the authentic words of the Master, whom I consider t

HOW I CAME TO SRI AUROBINDO   GANAPATRAM   How did I come to Sri Aurobindo ?     It is a long story. Very early in my boyhood, even before I was ten, I had a special inclination towards God and godly life. My father encouraged this tendency in me. Sometime later I was possessed with a strong feeling that it was not possible to live without God. I read whatever literature on the subject I could lay my hands upon and in the course of this study I picked up something about Pranayama. Natu­rally I could not practise it in front of the elders and so I started doing Pranayama secretly at night when all had gone to sleep. I must have been fifteen then. One nig

PART II SOME PERSPECTIVES OF THE SAVITRI UPAKHYANA The story of Savitri narrated by Rishi Markandeya to Yudhishthira appears as a minor episode or upakhyana in seven cantos of the Book of the Forest in the Mahabharata (Pativrata Mahatmya, Chapters 293-299, Vana Parva, Gita Press, Gorakhpur). The immediate purpose of the narration seems to be the alleviation of grief of the eldest of the Pandavas, afflicted as he was by the sad helpless plight of his brothers and more so by the plight of their common wife Draupadi. This virtuous daughter of Drupada, the king of Panchala Desh, was born in the purity of a sacrificial flame and was radiant and beautifu