Life Sketch of The Mother

The Mother (Madam Mirra Alfassa, 1878-1973) was born on 21st February, 1878 and educated in France. An accomplished painter and musician, she began to have psychic and spiritual experiences at a very early age. In 1912 a small group of Truth-seekers used to meet regularly at the Mother’s house in Paris with the object of knowing and mastering themselves.

In 1914 she came to India and met Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry. In the same year she collaborated with him to publish an English journal, Arya and its French counter-part Revue de Grande Syntheses. The object of this journal was “a systematic study of the highest problems of existence….” and “the formation of a vast synthesis of Knowledge….”

She left Pondicherry for France on February 22, 1915, and she returned to Pondicherry on 24th April, 1920 never to leave again.

When on 24th November, 1926 Sri Aurobindo withdrew from outer activities for exclusive concentration on his inner work, he entrusted to the Mother the guidance to the disciples who had gathered around him. This was the beginning of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. The International Centre of Education was founded by the Mother in 1951, and Auroville, the City of Dawn was inaugurated in 1968.

Besides the Prayers and Meditations and some short stories most of the Mother’s works are collections of her talks and letters. They deal with many aspects of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga, bringing out the inner truth behind existence and the realities hidden in our mundane day-to-day life, and provide invaluable guidance on the path of self-perfection.