15 December 1954 This talk is based upon Sri Aurobindo's Bases of Yoga, Chapter 3, “In Difficulty”. What is the meaning of “the mental witness”? The witness we have spoken about several times already, only here it is in the mind. There are witnesses everywhere. It is a capacity of the being to detach itself, to stand back and look at what is happening, as when one looks at something happening in the street or when one looks at others playing and does not himself play, one remain seated, looking at the others moving but does not move. That's how it is. In all the parts of the being there is one side which can do this: put itself at the back, remain

20 October 1954 This talk is based upon Sri Aurobindo's Bases of Yoga, Chapter 1,“Calm – Peace – Equality”. Sweet Mother, what is “the freedom of the Self”? It means that in the true inner being one feels perfectly free, and is free from everything. One has the feeling of a complete freedom free from all external influences, free from all lower impulses, free from all bondage of thoughts, habits...  (Silence) There, then. (To a child) Do you have a question? Here I did not understand: “not to stand back for any reason from her [the Mother's] solicitude”. What? For no reason to stand back from her solicitude? You do not understand that? Wh

29 September 1954 This talk is based upon Sri Aurobindo's Bases of Yoga, Chapter 1, “Calm – Peace – Equality”. “It is good for the physical to be more and more con- scious, but it should not be overpowered by these ordinary human reactions of which it becomes aware or badly affected or upset by them. A strong equality and mastery and detachment must come, in the nerves and body as in the mind, which will enable the phy- sical to know and contact these things without feeling any disturbance; it should know and be conscious and reject and throw away the pressure of the movements in the atmosphere, not merely feel them and suffer.”

-01_Series One (1932-1949).htm SERIES ONE (1932-1949) To a young disciple who joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1930 at the age of thirteen. After eight  years of study he took up work, first on  he construc- tion of Golconde (an Ashram residential quarters) as a carpentry supervisor and then in the Granary and Dining Room. In 1945 he became a teacher in the newly-opened Ashram school and presently works in the Reception Service. The disciple started writing to the Mother at the age of fifteen.                     When I sleep at noon I am not conscious; if there is any noise I don’t hear it. But at night when I sleep, I am sometimes conscious and can hear ne

* THE MOTHER - 1963

-36_Series Six (1961-1968).htm SERIES SIX (1961-1968)* To a disciple who joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1939 at the age of twenty-one. He worked first as an assistant to an Ashram secretary, then supervised the management of several guest-houses, and is presently a writer, lecturer and the editor of three journals. (The disciple wrote to the Mother about rumours be- ing spread against him.) My dear child,             For the last months you have been fast progressing spiritually, and I would like you to take all these attacks as an outward expression of the usual tests that the adverse forces make to fortify and intensify the sadhana. It is teaching you to have

-19_Series Two (1937-1941).htm SERIES TWO To a Frenchwoman who came to live at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1937, at the age of sixty-six. Nothing is inevitable. At every moment an intervention may come from a higher plane into the material one and alter the course of circumstances. But in this particular case there is a conflict between a very powerful mental construction founded on medical opinion and your faith in the divine Grace.       The power of this medical suggestion lies in the fact that it insinuates itself into the subconscious and acts on the body from there, undetected even by the conscious mind unless it is in the habit of scouring the subconscious with the vigilance of a

-32_Series Four (1942-1970).htm SERIES FOUR (1942-1070) To a disciple who joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1931 at the age of thirty-one. He worked in the Building Service until the mid-1940s and then became head of the Furniture Service, which he managed up to his passing in 1970. Sri Aurobindo, Mother,             Grant us your help in our endeavour to understand your teaching.  1942 * (Programme for a class conducted by the disciple) 1. Prayer             (Sri Aurobindo Mother — grant us your help in our endeavour to understand your teaching)             2. Reading of Sri Aurobindo’s book             3. A moment of silence             4. One

-20_Series Three (1938-1971).htm SERIES THREE * To a disciple who is identified in the text simply by his initial, R. Raised in Gurukul Kangri in Uttar Pradesh, the disciple joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in July 1938, at the age of twenty-one, and has remained ever since. He sought to serve the Mother especially through his work, and this concern is reflected in his letters, most of which deal directly with problems of work. During his fifty years in the Ashram, the disciple has served in many positions. The main ones, mentioned here because they are referred to in the correspondence, are: the preparation of fruit juices for Sri Aurobindo and the Mother; the a

-34_Series Five (1960-1973).htm SERIES FIVE (1960-1973) To a disciple who joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1944 at the age of eight. She worked for almost thirty years in the Ashram’s Department of Physical Education, becoming one of its first captains at the age of eleven. Sweet Mother, Are You with us during the collective meditation at the Playground? Certainly, I am always there. To benefit from it, what should we meditate on? And how? The method is always the same. Gather together the energies in you that are usually dispersed outside; concentrate your consciousness within, beneath the surface agitation, and establish, as far as possible