19 Apropos of Savitri When I was preparing Savitri for our International University Centre's one-volume edition in 1954 I was very careful about the collection of Sri Aurobindo's letters to me, which was to accompany it at the end. I made several alterations in the arrangement — some actually at the page-proof stage. Not unexpectedly the Press felt bothered, but it did not put any hitch in my way. The Mother was kept in touch with all the goings-on. Once I seemed to overstep the limit. After a letter of 1936 had been printed I made to new reading of two words from Sri Aurobindo's manuscript. The letter as it stood in print read: "Savitri is represented in the p

21 The Mother's Attitudes and Actions To ensure the success of the Mother's workings on our behalf we were called upon to accept implicitly her advice, however difficult or unpractical it might look, and not wonder whether she had truly her finger on the pulse of changing day-to-day reality. A particular episode in this connection has got impressed indelibly on my mind. A couple put before the mother a difficult life-situation. Her instructions were accepted without argument, but in the course of time various unexpected circumstances, seeming to show a path out of the impasse, arose and made them think of new possibilities. They wrote to the Mothe

5 The Exercise of Divine Power According to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the Divine Power which is all the time present in the world as well as beyond the world and especially the Divine Power as embodied by them for a new manifestation could do a lot of impossible-looking things. I know from my own experience how it could get us over the supposed necessity of acting in conformity with Nature's "laws" operative in the physical world and the living body. Once I had a fall very badly hurting my left knee and resulting in a large collection of water over the joint. I went through a whole night of acute pain. My inner appeals to Sri Aurobindo and the Mo

OUR LIGHT AND DELIGHT Recollections of Life with The Mother 1 The Mother and Sri Aurobindo "The Mother is not a disciple of Sri Aurobindo. She has had the same realisation and experience as myself. "The Mother's sadhana started when she was very young. When she was twelve or thirteen, every evening many teachers came to her and taught her various spiritual disciplines. Among them was a dark Asiatic figure. When we first met, she immediately recognised me as the dark Asiatic figure whom she used to see a long time ago. That she should come here and work with me for a common goal was, as it were

10 The Mother's Blessings — Soul and Body — St. Augustine and the Early Christians — A New Disciple's Birth — A Great Moment — Then and Now Life with the Mother, life away from the Mother, life again with her — this briefly was my lot from the end of 1927 to the beginning of 1954. And running through that threefold movement of time was the basic theme: life in the Mother. I say "basic" in a double sense: the support underlying all and the support not always showing itself through all the overlay. As I had appealed to the Mother never to let go her hold on me, no matter how much I might appear to deviate from the path, there w

The Mother and The Lord of Falsehood A Reader's Letter and the Author's Answer The Letter I was going through the article "Our light and Delight", No. 18 and was astounded by the statement that the mother assumed and form of the Lord of Falsehood in order to misguide Hitler and make him launch an attack on Stalin's Russia. This seems incredible. I have not heard of this before and surely it is not the way the Mother worked for achieving results. Did she really say at any time that she had assumed this form? The Answer I am sorry I have disturbed you. But what I have written about is factual. Both U

4 The Mother and My Last Darshan of Sri Aurobindo I had come from Bombay with my wife Sehra and some friends on a visit for the Darshan of November 24 in 1950. Sri Aurobindo was reported to have been unwell. But he gave a long Darshan, with a short break after some hours. He kept himself in a tolerable condition in the following days — until the late evening of December 2 when the Ashram's Sports-demonstration was over. His condition worsened on the 3rd; and when the Mother returned from the Playground she found him running a temperature. The same night I was scheduled to leave for Bombay. The Mother had previously informed me that she would see me bef

2 Some Ways of the Mother's Working All of us have enchanting memories of the Mother's sweetness and understanding — a divine enfolding of us and entry into the most sensitive chambers of our hearts. But the Mother was no ordinary spiritual Guru. The Supramental Divine acts from a level which can often leave us agape at its unclassifiable originality. A very unusual feature at times was the Mother's reception of physical facts reported by the sadhaks. Physical facts so impress and obsess us that we find any disrespect to them, or brushing away of them, a very disturbing if not incomprehensible matter. I have heard Champaklal say to me that these things me

9 The Mother's Compliments and Criticisms The Mother, although capable of being a "supreme Diplomat" (a phrase from Savitri) when the Divine Guidance required it, could be quite uninhibited both in the tenderness of Mahalakshmi's Grace and in the severity of Mahakali's Grace — both the movements being straightforward acts for the soul's good and having behind them the Grace of Maheshwari's wisdom and the Grace of Mahasaraswati's skill in works. We must realise that the same soul, for its good, could receive in clear-cut terms at different times the unqualified compliment and the unconditional criticism. It would be wrong to go e

16 Spiritual Life in the Mother's Light In the spiritual life, even more than in other fields since the possibilities and the pitfalls are greater here, a proper assessment of oneself is salutary and helpful. Two generations ago Tagore said that although India was lying in the dust the very dust in which she lay was holy. Obviously it was in his mind that this dust had been trod by the feet of Rishis and Saints and Avatars. Sri Aurobindo's comment is reported to have been that whatever might be the case the dust could not be the proper thing for a man to lie in and that man had not been created to adopt a prone posture. Indeed, if the Rishis and Saints and