Cheerfulness   ONE afternoon, in a large town in a rainy country, I saw seven or eight vehicles full of children. That morning they had been taken into the country to play in the fields, but the bad weather had made them return home early in the rain.   And yet they were singing, laughing and waving merrily to the passers-by.   They had kept their cheerfulness in this gloomy weather. If one of them had felt sad, the songs of the others would have cheered him. And for the people hurrying by, who heard the children's laughter, it seemed that the sky had brightened for a moment.   ⁂   Amir was a prince of Khorasan, and he lived in a grand style. When he set out

Order   MEN in ancient India had a very poetic idea about the earth and the world — an idea intended to express order.         The land inhabited by men was called Jambu Dvipa and it was surrounded by a sea of salt. Then came a ring of land and then a sea of milk. Another ring of land, and a sea of butter. More land, and a sea of curds. Land again, and a sea of wine. More land, and after that a sea of sugar. Still more land, and at last, the seventh and final ring of pure water: the sweet, the sweetest of all seas!         If you look at a map of the world like the ones we now use in schools, you will not find the sea of sugar, or the sea of milk, or the others. Nor did the Indian

Right Judgment   CHOOSE a good straight stick and dip it halfway into some water: the stick will appear to be bent in the middle. But that is an illusion, and if you were to think that the stick was actually bent, your judgment would be wrong. Pull out the stick and you will see that in fact it is still straight.         On the other hand, it is possible for a stick that is actually bent in the middle to appear straight if it is carefully placed in a particular way in the water.         Well, men are often like sticks. If you look at them from a certain angle, you may not see them as straight as they are, and sometimes too, they may have a deceptive appearance and seem

    THE MOTHER     Tales of All Times           SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM PONDICHERRY First Edition 1951 Fifth Edition 1980  Eighth Impression 2003           Rs. 40.00 ISBN 81-7058-026-9   © Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1951, 1980 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department  Pondicherry - 605 002 Website: http:// sabda. sriaurobindoashram.org          Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry  PRINTED IN INDIA

Self-control   A WILD horse can be tamed but one never puts a bridle on a tiger. Why is that? Because in the tiger there is a wicked, cruel and incorrigible force, so that we cannot expect anything good from him and have to destroy him to prevent him from doing harm.   But the wild horse, on the other hand, however unmanageable and skittish he may be to begin with, can be controlled with a little effort and patience. In time he learns to obey and even to love us, and in the end he will of his own accord offer his mouth to the bit that is given to him.   In men too there are rebellious and unmanageable desires and impulses, but these things are rarely uncontrollable like th

The Conquest of Knowledge         THE great Rishi, Bhrigu, shining in splendour, sat on the summit of Mount Kailas, and Bharadwadja questioned him:    "Who made the world?   How wide is the sky?         Who gave birth to water? To fire? To the wind?   To the earth?   What is life?   What is good?         What is there beyond the world?"       And so on. Great were the questions and great must be the Rishi who could answer them all!         But Bharadwadja mind was the mind of a man who asks and asks ever and again, and never knows enough.         The child is the supreme questioner, he is always asking, "W

Glossary of Philosophical and Psychological Terms   The definitions given below are based upon the writings of Sri Aurobindo.       Aditi — the Divine Mother; the Divine Consciousness; the indivisible consciousness, force and Ananda of the Supreme.   Agni — fire; the God of Fire; the flame of aspiration, will, tapasya, purification, transformation.   Ananda — delight, beatitude, bliss.   Anandamaya — full of Ananda.   Avatar — divine incarnation; the Divine manifest in a human appearance.   aspiration — the call of the being for higher things, for the Divine, for all that be-longs to the higher or di

INTRODUCTION   WORDS OF SRI AUROBINDO AND THE MOTHER   Love and Aspiration in Plants   The movement of love is not limited to human beings and it is perhaps less distorted in other worlds than in the human. Look at the flowers and trees. When the sun sets and all becomes silent, sit down for a moment and put yourself into communion with Nature: you will feel rising from the earth, from below the roots of the trees and mounting upward and coursing through their fibres up to the highest outstretching branches, the aspiration of an intense love and longing,—a longing for something that brings light and gives happiness, for the light that

The Mother: A Life Sketch   The Mother was born in Paris on 21 February 1878. Mirra, as the child was named, was the daughter of Maurice Alfassa, a banker, and his wife Mathilde. Her early education was given at home and at a private school. Later she attended an art studio in Paris belonging to the Academie Julian. She became an accomplished artist and some of her works were exhibited at the Paris Salon. She was also a talented pianist and writer.   Concerning her early spiritual life the Mother has written: "Between eleven and thirteen a series of psychic and spiritual experiences revealed to me not only the existence of God but man's possibility of uniting with him

The Symbolism of Colour   What is it in a flower which makes it take and reflect a certain colour?   The scientists say that it is the composition of its atoms but I say that it is the nature of its aspiration. The Mother * When we study the messages given by the Mother to flowers we find that certain colours correspond to certain planes of consciousness, certain levels of the being. This becomes still clearer when we read the explanation Sri Aurobindo gives to colours seen in visions. Colour alone does not always determine the message of a flower. The shape and size of the flower, its intensity of fragrance can often be as important. Even the time and