On Conversations with the Mother   Comments on Specific Conversations1   The Mother asks: "What do you want the Yoga for? To get power?" [p. 1] Does "power" here mean the power to communicate one's own experience to others? Power is a general term  —it is not confined to a power to communicate. The most usual form of power is control over things, persons, events, forces. "What is required is concentration  —concentration upon the Divine with a view to an integral and absolute consecration to its Will and Purpose" [p. 1]. Is the Divine's Will different from its Purpose? The two words have not the same meaning.

The Mother, the Divine and the Lower Nature   The Consciousness and Force of the Divine   Please explain to me what is meant by the Divine Mother. The Divine Mother is the Consciousness and Force of the Divine  —which is the Mother of all things. 24 June 1933   *     You have written in The Mother that the Mother is the consciousness and force of the Ishwara, but here my experience is that the Ishwara is the consciousness and force of the Supreme Mother. Could you please make it clear to me? The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Divine  —or, it may be said, she is the Divine in its consciousness —force. The Ishwara as L

Incarnation and Evolution   The Mystery of Incarnation   Many years ago, the Mother wrote regarding life in the Asram: "In our daily practices we are endeavouring to express the great mystery of the Divine Incarnation."1 I pray that this message may be explained to me  —and that I be enabled to understand its meaning fully and clearly. It means that we act as we do because we take it as a fact that the Divine can manifest and is manifested in a human body. Is this a message which can be circulated to all the members of the Asram? Yes, they ought to know it. To outsiders? Not unless they are interested and seek the mea

Section One   The Mother: Individual, Universal, Transcendent   The Mother and the Purpose of Her Embodiment   Who Is the Mother?   Do you not refer to the Mother (our Mother) in your book ? Yes. Is she not the "Individual" Divine Mother who has embodied "the power of these two vaster ways of her existence"1  —Transcendent and Universal? Yes. Has she not descended here (amongst us) into the Darkness and Falsehood and Error and Death in her deep and great love for us? Yes. There are many who hold the view that she was human but now embodies the Divine Mother and her Prayers, they say, explain this view. But to my mental concept

 The Mother's Help in Difficulties   Difficulties and the Mother's Help   Not to be disturbed, to remain quiet and confident is the right attitude, but it is necessary also to receive the help of the Mother and not to shrink back for any reason from her solicitude. One ought not to indulge ideas of incapacity, inability to respond, dwelling too much on defects and failures and allowing the mind to be in pain and shame on their account; for these ideas and feelings become in the end weakening things. If there are difficulties, stumblings or failures, one has to look at them quietly and call in tranquilly and persistently the divine help for their removal,

Three Aspects of the Mother   Individual, Universal, Transcendent   I am or was under the impression that Mother is the Cosmic and Supracosmic Mahashakti. I don't quite understand the question. I have explained in The Mother that there are three aspects, transcendent, universal and individual, of the Mother. 31 May 1933   *     As I see it, there are two Shaktis in the world: the Cosmic Shakti and the individual Shakti  —our Mother. I believe it is difficult to remain in direct connection with the Cosmic Shakti, while the individual Shakti is always here before us. I would like to know more about these Shaktis. There is on

Part Three     Translations of Prayers of the Mother     Prayers and Méditations        Sri Aurobindo's translation of the Mother's prayer of December 28, 1928     Prayers and Méditations  1   November 28, 19132   Mother Divine, grant that today may bring to us a completer consecration to Thy Will, a more integral gift of ourselves to Thy work, a more total forgetfulness of self, a greater illumination, a purer love. Grant that in a communion growing ever deeper, more constant and entire, we may be united always more and more closely to Thee and become Thy servitors worthy of Thee. Remov

Difficulties of the Pathfinders   The Burden of Humanity   Mother spoke to me of the right attitude as one without tension and strain, one which is full of sunshine and as spontaneous as a flower opening to the light. This is all very well for beings like you and the Mother, who are Avatars, but how can we poor mortals take this vague prescription for guidance? And how to get this attitude if not through constant prayer, arduous meditation and a constant effort to reject wrong movements?   You say that this way is too difficult for you or the likes of you and it is only "avatars" like myself or the Mother that can do it. That

Sadhana through Work for the Mother   Finding the Mother's Force in Work and Action   Yesterday I worked with great vigour and after I saw Mother in the evening I felt that there was no physical tiredness at all and that I could work for twelve hours more. It is the Mother's energy that comes down into the vital and physical for those who are open. 12 February 1933   *     I told you that I could work peacefully at the Granary, but alas, I am unable to do so. As I sit quietly doing my work, X comes and starts talking about many things and creates a disturbance in me. I pray that you will help me. You must be able to find the Mother in work a

Note on the Texts     Note on the Texts   THE MOTHER WITH LETTERS ON THE MOTHER consists of two separate but related works: The Mother, a collection of short prose pieces on the Mother, and Letters on the Mother, a selection of letters by Sri Aurobindo in which he referred to the Mother in her transcendent, universal and individual aspects. In addition, the volume contains Sri Aurobindo's translations of selections from the Mother's Prayers and Méditations  as well as his translation of "Radha's Prayer" The Mother , the Letters and the translations are published in three separate parts.   PART ONE: THE MOTHER The Mother was first