Sri Aurobindo once said, “My life is not on the surface for men to see.” Although this applies to the Mother as well, we may yet mention a few significant dates and features of her life. Mirra Alfassa was born in Paris on 21 February 1878. Even as a child, she had unusual dreams, visions and spiritual experiences, a constant feeling that she had a certain work, a mission to fulfil upon earth. She was a brilliant student and acquired a great mastery in painting and music. In the early years of the 20th century, she went to Algeria and gained a profound knowledge of occultism.

But the call of the Supreme was always uppermost in her life, and in Paris she became the centre of a group of ardent seekers and idealists. While pursuing a deep inner spiritual life, the Mother had frequent visions in which she was guided by spiritual personages, many of whom she met physically later in life. One in particular she called Krishna, the Lord of the Gita. When she came to Puducherry on 29 March 1914, and met Sri Aurobindo, she immediately recognised in him the Krishna of her vision and knew that her place and her work were with him in India. The next day she recorded in her Prayers and Meditations: “It matters little that there are thousands of beings plunged in the densest ignorance. He whom we saw yesterday is on earth: His presence is enough to prove that a day will come when darkness shall be transformed into light, and Thy reign shall be indeed established upon earth.”

She collaborated with Sri Aurobindo in starting the monthly Arya. But, after a few months, due to the exigencies of the First World War she had to go back to France. In 1916, she sailed for Japan and finally returned to Puducherry in 1920, never to leave again.

In 1926, Sri Aurobindo decided to withdraw into seclusion for more concentrated yogic work, entrusting the Mother with the responsibility of the inner and outer life of the small group of sadhaks who had gathered around them. Thus was born the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. From the very beginning, the task of giving a concrete shape to Sri Aurobindo’s vision was entrusted to the Mother. The creation of a new world, a new humanity, and a new society, expressing and embodying the new consciousness, was the work undertaken by her. By the very nature of things, it is a collective ideal that calls for a collective effort so that it may be realised in the terms of an integral human perfection.

The Ashram and its International Centre of Education, founded and built by the Mother, were the first step towards the fulfilment of this goal. Sri Aurobindo Society and Auroville are further steps in broadening the base of this endeavour to establish harmony between soul and body, spirit and nature, and heaven and earth, in the collective life of humanity.

The Mother left her body in November 1973, but her consciousness and presence are there as concretely as ever, and her creations continue to grow under her constant guidance and inspiration.

I am French by birth and early education, I am Indian by choice and predilection. In my consciousness there is no antagonism between the two, on the contrary, they combine very well and complete one another. I know also that I can be of service to both equally, for my only aim in life is to give a concrete form to Sri Aurobindo’s great teaching and in his teaching he reveals that all the nations are essentially one and meant to express the Divine Unity upon earth through an organised and harmonious diversity.

-The Mother

Never forget that you are not alone. The Divine is with you helping and guiding you. He is the companion who never fails, the friend whose love comforts and strengthens.

Have faith and He will do everything for you.

-The Mother