The Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram & Her Quotes

To know the Mother is to know the Divine. To let Her Force work in you is to evolve. Her sweetness invades our nerves when we call Her into our being.
Mother was the very incarnation of the Transcendent Adiparashakti. Sri Aurobindo said Mother was an Avatar and an incarnation of the Divine Transcendent Shakti.

Divine Child:
The Mother was born in Paris on 21 February 1878. Mira, as the child was named, was the daughter of an Egyptian mother Mathilde Ismaloun and a Turkish father Maurice Alfassa.
Mira was an exceptional child. Her being an exception was not known to her until later in life when she met Max Theon, her teacher in occultism and Madame Theon.
Little did Mira’s mother or Mira know that she was a Divine child meant to preside over the affairs of the world and to try an evolutionary experiment in her own body to evolve the first member of the next species, which Sri Aurobindo called Supramental Man.
Mira was a Divine Being and she was attended by several beings in times of need. She had special divine attention at all times of her life.
Her early life was set on a search for the Divine and that was the one thing she was interested in. Her later life was dedicated to the ideals of Sri Aurobindo.

Search for Guru:
Around age 20, her ‘search’ was intense and yet she did not know what she was searching for. She met an Indian in Paris who sensed her deep aspiration. He suggested she read the Bhagavad Gita and she obtained a copy of it in French and she understood the substance of it. What normally takes decades of tapasya for rishis, she was able to realise in a few short months while in the middle of Parisian life.
In her frantic search for the Spirit, the only guidance she had was her daily meditation. Even at a young age, she was in contact with her inner soul and was guided by it in her daily life.
In her meditations she saw several spiritual figures, all of whom offered her help of one type or another. Among them she saw a dark Asiatic figure whom she called to herself ‘Krishna’. Krishna guided her inner journey. Later in Pondicherry when she met Sri Aurobindo, she recognised him at first sight, “It is He, my Krishna”.
She married Henry Morisset and had a son. They divorced and she later married Paul Richard, a politician. Between 1911 and 1913 she gave many talks to various groups of spiritual seekers in Paris.

Visit to India:
Paul Richard, who was seeking election to the French Senate from Pondicherry, visited the French colony to organise electoral support. During that visit he met Sri Aurobindo too. During his next visit to Pondicherry, Mother accompanied him. Mother was 36 at that time. On 29 March 1914, she met Sri Aurobindo. At once she recognised him as the master who for many years had inwardly been guiding her spiritual development. Sri Aurobindo, while engaged in a conversation was conferring on her the boon of Akhandamounam, Eternal Slience. He was transferring it to her casually without her asking for it.
After staying in India for eleven months, she was obliged to return to France because of the First World War. Mother spent a year in France and four years in Japan before she returned to Sri Aurobindo on 24 April 1920.
From 1920 she started organizing Sri Aurobindo Ashram efficiently. At the time the Mother rejoined Sri Aurobindo, a small group of disciples had gathered around him. After her coming the number of disciples increased. Eventually this informal grouping took shape as an ashram or spiritual community. She had to start with lessons in keeping material things and books in proper order and proceed up to the full Integral Yoga.

Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram:
It was in November 1926 that she was officially made Mother of the Ashram. Under her guidance, which extended over nearly fifty years, the Ashram has grown into a many-faceted community which at present consists of about 1500 persons. The Mother also founded the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in 1951 and the international township Auroville in 1968.
On 17 November 1973, at the age of 95 the Mother left her body.

What an Ordinary Man get from Mother?

At the first stage of civilisation what changes is behaviour. In the second stage of culture it is character that changes. Below that remains the consciousness of Man, untouched and unchanged. Only when this changes from pettiness to nobility, from falsehood to truth, can human life turn into Life Divine.
Falsehood is found in several forms. They are poverty, illness, mental pain, human impurity, imperfection, disharmony, etc. If the ordinary man relates to Mother, Her Truth and Power reduce these forms of untruth and finally abolish them.
All that Man is called upon to do is to totally surrender himself to the Divine. In practice, this is done by meditation, selfless work and an adoration of the Divine in one’s prayers.
Mother says she does not represent a philosophy, a religion or a sect. She says she is a Force of action, a creative force that can new-create.
Mother had a special rapport with flowers. She has given names to 800 flowers basing herself on their spiritual significance. She says flowers have feelings of pride, vanity and sensitivity.
Mother said India would become the Guru of the World. India is the country where spirituality is developed to its heights.
Almost all Chief Ministers, Governors, Presidents, Vice Presidents and all the Prime Ministers have come to Mother seeking Her blessings.

Mother’s Quotes:

• The best way to express one’s gratitude to the Divine is to feel simply happy.
• At each moment of our life, in all circumstances the grace is there helping us to surmount all difficulties.
• There is no greater courage than that of recognising one’s own mistakes.
• There is no greater victory than that of controlling oneself.
• If man surrenders totally to the Divine he identifies himself with the Divine.
• Let us do our best in all circumstances, leaving the result to the Divine’s decision.
• Open yourself more and more to the Divine’s force and your work will progress steadily towards perfection.
• Only those who are already very sincere know that they are not completely sincere.
• All sincere prayers are granted, but it may take some time to realise materially.
• Let us progress ourselves, it is the best way of making the others progress.
• It is always a mistake to complain about the circumstances of our life, for they are the outward expression of what we are ourselves.
• It is our lack of faith that creates our limitations.
• There is no greater courage than to be always truthful.
• Whenever there is any difficulty we must always remember that we are here exclusively to accomplish the Divine’s will.
• Whatever is the difficulty if we keep truly quiet the solution will come.
• In each human being there is a beast crouching ready to manifest at the slightest unwatchfulness. The only remedy is a constant vigilance.
• The Truth is in you – but you must want it, in order to realise it.
• The power of the human intelligence is without bounds, it increases by concentration that is the secret.
• The resistance with which we meet in the accomplishment of our work is proportionate to its importance.

References:
Life and Teachings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother by Karmayogi
Second Edition January 2000
Publishers: The Mother’s Service Society, Pondicherry – 605011.
Sri Annayin Manthirangal by The Mother
Third Edition 2003
Publishers: Sri Aurobindo Society, Pondicherry
http://sriaurobindoashram.org.in/