The Mother and Her Mission

 

I am French by birth and elementary by education. I am Indian by my will and interest.”
                                                                                                              -Mother

She also famously said: “This body doesn’t want anything to be said about it.”

In general, his (Sri Aurobindo’s) teaching used to be: not to speak, not to declare, to achieve.
Meera or Mirra was very fast in studies. At a young age, she had a good command over the language. One of her essays, written at the age of thirteen, is still preserved in the ashram’s archives along with the teacher’s comments.

In those days, France was the highest in the world in terms of culture, decency and beauty. Born in France, Mother was not French. Her ancestors came from Egypt and she had a very close relationship with the royal family there. Arab and Turk blood flowed in her veins. Mother’s father, Maurice Alfassa, was an upper middle class banker and mother, Matilda, was a cultured, discipline-loving and modern woman of thought at the time. They had two children, the eldest boy, Mateo, who later held governorships in Africa and then some high positions in France, and the younger girl, Meera, who later became famous as Mother.

Mother always laid great emphasis on physical work because most of the yogis and sadhaks in India have been neglecting the body and treating it as a web. Those who considered it to be a Dev Mandir or a means of religion, they also considered getting rid of it as the ultimate speed, but Mother did not agree with this. She gave equal importance to tree planting as much as to reading, music or writing books. She tells a hermitage: “The main reason for your difficulty is that you are still stuck in the thought that some things in life are high and some are low. This is not right. is true or false. If you can unite your consciousness with the Divine Consciousness and bring it here, then whatever you think, feel, all this will become illumined and true.”

On February 2, 1914, the Mother wrote: “O Nath! I would like to be the love that fills all emptiness, that quells all suffering, all sorrow and pain.” On March 23rd at 3:30, the Mother came to meet Sri Aurobindo at the house of ‘Ryu François Matén’ and at the very first sight she knew that he was the Krishna of her dreams.

Thoughts about Bharat Mata

We chant Bharat Mata but how many of us know what India is? Mother had said on this subject, “The rivers, mountains, forests and cities of this country are not India, the names of crores of people here are not even India. If Indians leave this country and settle elsewhere, that place will not be India.” Mother India is a Goddess of the rank of Shiva, Vishnu etc. And this country can be called her body. In this age India has been chosen as the spiritual master. And she should play this role. In this connection there is a message from the Mother.

“O India, the land of light and spiritual knowledge! Awake to the goal of your true life in the world, show the path of unity and harmony.”

 

“When you see a lack of coordination, don’t go looking for reasons for it, look within yourself. If you can’t think of a good thing about someone, don’t think about it. You always have to prove yourself right. Curiosity is the main reason for increasing the anger.” In another of her messages, the Mother said: “May the glory of India’s past be born again in the accomplishment of her imminent future with the help and blessings of her living soul.”
Sri Aurobindo has told us that the truth is not to leave the world and run away. We have to live in it and transform it. It has to be made transcendental so that the Lord may appear here, in this material world.

Mother’s Thoughts on Partition

The “Aahan” was written by Mother at the time when India was divided in two and rivers of blood were flowing in the country. Mother never accepted the Partition of India. She said about it in his message dated 3.6.1947: “It is clear that this is not a solution. It is a kind of test, a test of fire, which, if we accept it with all sincerity and If we put it in our life, it will show us by proving that we cannot establish unity in a country by breaking it into pieces, we cannot make it great; We cannot make it prosperous by pitting different conflicting interests against each other; We cannot serve the truth by presenting one sect in opposition to another.India has only one soul. And till such a stage does not come that we can speak about India, then we should feel that the soul of India should be Chiranjeevi!”

“O our Mother, O soul force of India! O Mother, You have never, even in the days of most dark depression, even when Your children have ignored Your voice, served other lords and rejected You, You didn’t leave his side.” Once someone said to Mother: “Such a boy says that his parents always travel in the first class of the train.” It was a minor issue, but the Mother said with seriousness: “When a child wants to impress you by telling stories of the prosperity of his family, you should not remain silent. You should explain to him that here, in the ashram, worldly possessions have no value.

No, the value is only of that property which is capable of the Divine.

Invocation

“O our mother, O soul force of India! O mother, You have never, even in the days of most dark depression, even when Your children have ignored Your voice, served other lords and rejected You, You didn’t leave his side.” Once someone said to Mother: “Such a boy says that his parents always travel in the first class of the train.” It was a minor issue, but the Mother said with seriousness: “When a child wants to impress you by telling stories of the prosperity of his family, you should not remain silent. You should explain to him that here, in the ashram, worldly possessions have no value. No, the value is only of the wealth that has been dedicated to the Divine, that by living in big houses, traveling in the first class or lavishing money, you do not become great. By being honest, truthful, obedient and grateful. Only your glory may increase.”

The Mother did not want the school in the ashram to be followed by outside schools. She said: “There’s one thing I want to emphasise. Don’t try to follow what’s going on in universities outside. Don’t try to stuff some statistics and information into students… Completing the course should not be your aim. You should plan the program in such a way that the students should get time to learn the subject they want to learn. They should get enough time for exercise.

“Instead of completing it, you can do it in six years, but it will be better for them. They will be able to assimilate more of the environment here and their progress will be all-round progress instead of being in one direction.”

Resurgence of Women

Once, Pandit Pt. Satavalekar, the great scholar of the Vedas, had come to the Ashram. Where in many ashrams the freedom of girls and the mingling of boys and girls are seen with increased suspicion, this 63-year-old youth was shocked to see this. He said: “This is a picture of the Vedic society as a whole. In the ideal Vedic society, no one will focus on whether such a person is male or female, there will be a union of souls and these male-female differences will be left behind. For it is said: Tvam woman tvam pumanasi, tvam kumar ut var kumari. I do not say that there will be no ejaculations in this but Mother is making efforts in that direction. India has abandoned its ancient tradition by giving a low place to women. Here Vishnu was considered as a quadrilateral, but Durga was an octagon. Mother here is the same. Bringing the thing. The revival of women will really turn India’s face.” The second big mistake is that people think that it is impossible to change human nature. This dog’s tail will remain crooked even after burying it for twelve years, but this is also wrong. If you try with sincerity, your nature can definitely change animals are too

“There is a garden in Paris called the ‘Garden of Plants’ where plants as well as animals are kept. A huge magnificent lion had just been found by the gardeners, certainly kept in a cage. And it was filled with anger. The cage had a door behind which he could hide and he hid there exactly when the onlookers came to see him.

And one day she went to the cage and started talking to it (animals are sensitive to conversation, they actually listen). I started speaking to the lion in a very sweet language. I said: “Oh, you are so beautiful! How sad that you are hiding yourself like this! How much we want to see you….” Yes, so he heard. Then, slowly he gazed at me, then he extended his neck to see me better, then he pulled out his paw, and finally he stuck the tip of his nose with a rod as if saying, “Finally There is one person who understands me!”

Elements of Mind Education

The Mother said that there should be five main elements in the education of the mind. Firstly, the capacity for concentration, the capacity for expansion, expansion and prosperity, the ability to gather thoughts around a central idea. Fourthly, the restraint of thoughts, think what you want to think, and fifthly, the ability to make the mind quiet and silent, so that you can catch the inspiration coming from above. Auroville will give pave the way for a simple healthy life.

Auroville was born not to fulfill one’s ambition, but to fulfill a growing functional need. There is no external yardstick of qualifications to get admission in Auroville. All those who would be fond of Auroville’s ideals and actions—whether they are old or children, illiterate or “scholars”—will be able to come here.

Auroville wants to promote simple, healthy living. The work will be done for the pleasure it brings and
as a gift to the society. Every person in this society will give his services with ease. Therefore, money will not be a sign of success or a means of gaining authority over others.

We cannot expect that everyone will have the same needs. What is a luxury for one man may be a necessity for another. In Auroville, there will be a system of getting education throughout life and without any pressure, there will be an environment of student-oriented education, not teacher-oriented. Here too the spirit of self-surrender will be the key to success.

There will be no organised religion because everyone in Auroville will discover his highest potential, that is, everyone will develop his own religion. Auroville is a growth centre where the bound solid root forms will be washed away. The work of man is not done by principles in the higher consciousness. There needs to be direct experience.

Each person will judge and judge for himself. He will control himself in the most flexible possibilities of the community. But if a person becomes completely disoriented or obstructs the work of the community, then he will be treated and expelled from Auroville.

It is impossible to say anything about the death of the Mother. Therefore, on that occasion, ie, quoting the circular given in November 1973:

In April this year, Shri Mataji had taken a very important decision, she did not tell what it was – this was her method. Her outdoor schedule made a big difference. She almost stopped outside work and from May 21, the interaction with people has stopped completely. Those who looked after her bodily work were the only exception.

It was clear to us that she was working for physical transformation, but we didn’t know what the consequences would be. The doctors who inspected him did not find any sign of any particular ailment.