Is Philanthropy Enough? A LETTER OF 1947 I have no doubt you are sincere in your desire to bring sunshine into other people's lives. This desire arises from something deep in our nature, but the form it usually takes is not true to the arch-image within. To outgrow our narrow personality and our self-absorbed consciousness is indeed a great aim; but we have to do this with the purpose of expressing no longer the mere human ego but the supreme Divine: we have to manifest in the world the ultimate Being instead of the lower limited "I". Now, the ordinary form this high intention dwelling in the recesses of our soul assumes is philanthropy -

11 In the Year of the Greatest Difficulty On the evening of December 31, 1954, the Mother announced that the coming year — with perhaps two more months added — would be a very crucial one, the year of the greatest difficulty because a great outburst of the Divine was preparing and the hostile forces would give battle with the utmost ferocity to stop it. A sort of last-ditch fight was anticipated. The Mother said it would affect individuals and collectivities alike. She warned us to be on guard and to hold out at all costs. I must, however confess that I passed nearly the whole of 1955 very enjoyably by choosing as my special cross the most difficult poet

12 The Most Difficult Year and Chamanla's Interview I have already written about the crucial year 1955 and recounted how the Mother saved my sister-in-law Mina from the consequences of a terrible accident. Now I may put on record a peculiar situation which arose apropos of the talk the Mother had given about that year at the Playground on December 31, 1954. The situation is partly connected with a much-publicised interview the journalist Chamanlal had with the Mother in February the same year.¹ Chamanlal reported, among other things, the Mother as saying that 1957 would be a very significant year. India would start playing a glorious spiritual r

SUPPLEMENT The Birth Centenary of The Mother The Mother's Birth Centenary, which fell on February 21, 1978, was celebrated in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry by nearly 9000 people from all over the world. But what marked the occasion unforgettably was not only the enthusiastic concourse of her disciples and admirers and the happy hushful visit to the room in which had been spent the last years of the most extraordinary being who had assumed a woman's form in terrestrial history. The distinguishing feature was also the powerful sense of that form still permeating the atmosphere and the rare inner experience that overwhelm

8 "The Seal of Solomon", Tagore's Visit to the Ashram, Soup-Distribution, "Prosperity" Meetings, Yogic Fulfilment In the preceding chapter I announced that I would write what I had gathered, from the Mother herself and from some disciples who had been close to her, about Paul Richard's role in her life. But I have changed my mind in view of the fact that for reasons of her own the Mother always wanted to keep his name in limbo. In passing, I shall touch only on two topics. First, I shall repeat the story which I have told elsewhere and which I promised in my last article to relate in connection with Richard and the subject of gambling. Then

15 Some Famous People Admired by the Mother The mother never hesitated to admire quite openly whoever impressed her as of extraordinary merit. Right from my early years in the Ashram — from 16 December 1927 onwards — I heard her speak enthusiastically of Ysayë. To her he was the greatest violinist possible. I had never come across his name before she uttered it. I do not see why, since, as I later learnt. Eugène Ysayë, born in Belgium at Liège in 1858, studied not only at the Liège Conservatoire but also at Paris and from 1918 to 1922 conducted the Cincinnati Orchestra, made several tours of Great Britain, the last in 1923, eight years before he die

6 The Mother, Sri Aurobindo and the Procession of the Avatars (a) "When anyone writes about me, all the hair on my head stands up. Don't think I am merely being modest. I know where I come from and who I am. But it is the Truth that is important. Stress on the Person seems so much to narrow it." This is what the Mother told me when I was on a visit to Pondicherry from Bombay. It referred to an article I had written on her in a Bombay newspaper. Having learned my lesson, I took the proper measures when I projected an article for her eightieth birthday in 1958. I announced my plan to her. She opened her eyes wide. At once I added: "Yes,

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