The Mother
French-born spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, co-founder of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, founder (in 1968) of Auroville — the international experimental township in Tamil Nadu intended as a living laboratory for human unity — and the woman known throughout the Aurobindo lineage simply as The Mother. Born Mirra Alfassa in 1878 in Paris to Sephardic Jewish parents from Egypt and Turkey, she pursued painting, music, and esoteric studies (including a deep relationship with the Theonic and Cosmic teachings of Max Théon), met Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry in 1914, and from 1920 collaborated with him in the development of Integral Yoga and the supramental work. After Aurobindo's withdrawal in 1926 she became the Ashram's primary teacher and organizer; after his passing in 1950 she carried the work forward for another twenty-three years until her own death in 1973. The vast Mother's Agenda — thirteen volumes of conversations with her disciple Satprem covering 1951-1973 — preserves the most detailed first-person record of late twentieth-century yogic experience available in any tradition.
117
quotes in library
Quotes by The Mother
117 quotes“Aspire toward the highest. Surrender what is below. Trust the unfolding.”
aspirationWords of the Mother
“The supramental is not just a higher mind.”
supramentalMother's Agenda
“It is a new principle of consciousness, beyond the mind altogether.”
supramentalMother's Agenda
“To bring it down into the body is the work Sri Aurobindo and I undertook together.”
supramentalMother's Agenda
“It is a long work. It cannot be rushed.”
supramentalMother's Agenda
“It involves the whole evolution of the human species.”
supramentalMother's Agenda
“You must learn to listen to the silent voice within.”
listeningWords of the Mother
“It speaks more truly than the chatter of the mind.”
voiceWords of the Mother
“Be still and listen.”
stillnessWords of the Mother
“Most of the time, you do not need words.”
wordsWords of the Mother
“You need presence.”
presenceWords of the Mother
“In the presence of the Divine, words become superfluous.”
divineWords of the Mother
“Be a child before the Divine.”
childPrayers and Meditations
“A child does not pretend to know.”
childPrayers and Meditations
“A child trusts. A child opens. A child receives.”
childPrayers and Meditations
“Be that.”
childPrayers and Meditations
“Education is not just for children.”
educationOn Education
“Education continues throughout life.”
educationOn Education
“At every age, there is something new to learn.”
ageOn Education
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