The Mother with Letters on the Mother

The Mother by Sri Aurobindo

The Mother with Letters on the Mother

The Mother with  letters on the Mother. These inspirational essays by Sri Aurobindo form a powerful statement of the true attitude to be taken by a sadhak of the integral Yoga: one of a complete and dynamic surrender to the Mother. They describe the triple movement of aspiration, rejection, and surrender, the conditions for a true faith and sincerity, the irresistible power of the Divine Mother’s grace, the need to reconquer the money-force for the Mother’s work, and the joy of a perfect instrumentality through selfless work, surmounting the demands of the ego. The final piece describes the four great powers and personalities of the Divine Mother.

SABCL volume contains Sri Aurobindo’s text of The Mother, with letters on his spiritual collaborator, the Mother; and translations of some of her “Prayers and Meditations”:

  • Part I, The Mother. THE MOTHER was first published in 1928. The main part of this book describing the four Shaktis etc. and the opening portion were written in 1927. The rest was originally written as letters. Since its first publication the book has gone into thirteen editions up to 1971.
  • Part II, Letters on the Mother. LETTERS OF SRI AUROBINDO ON THE MOTHER was first published in 1951. The letters included in this book were arranged under ten sections. These letters with additional material rearranged under eleven sections formed Part III of SRI AUROBINDO ON HIMSELF AND ON THE MOTHER published in 1953. In the present volume of the Centenary Edition this part has been further expanded by the inclusion of a large number of additional letters and the material has been rearranged under twelve sections.
  • Part III, Prayers and Meditations. This collection is not complete. It contains only the portions which Sri Aurobindo translated from the Mother’s PRIÈRES ET MÉDITATIONS written in French. These translations were first brought out in book-form in 1941 and reprinted in 1948, 1954, 1962, 1969 and 1971.


Book Details

Author: Sri Aurobindo

Print Length: 412 pages

Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Contributor: Krishna

Book format: PDFePubKindle

Language: English


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Contents

Part One. The Mother

Part Two. Letters on The Mother

  • The Mother and The Purpose of Her Embodiment
  • The Mother’s Presence
  • Aspects And Powers of The Mother
  • Lights And Visions of The Mother
  • Opening and Surrender to The Mother
  • Working of The Mother’s Force
  • True Relation with The Mother
  • Sadhana Through Work For The Mother
  • The Mother and The Working of The Ashram
  • Mother’s Help in Difficulties
  • Some Explanations
  • Interpretations of Some “Prayers” and “Conversations” of The Mother

Part Three. Translations From The Mother’s Prières et Méditations

Bibliographical Note


Sample

The Mother with Letters on the Mother

The Mother’s Personal and Universal Presence

You have written: “Always behave as if the Mother was looking at you; because she is, indeed, always present”. You explained to me that this does not mean that she was physically present everywhere because that was impossible. But when I asked the Mother about this, she said that she was personally present at all places. How to reconcile these contradictory statements?

If by physically you mean corporeally, in her visible tangible material body, it is obvious that it cannot be. When you asked Mother that question she did not understand you to mean that – said she could be present everywhere, and she meant, of se, in her consciousness. It is the consciousness and not the y that is the being, the person, the body is only a support and instrument for the action of the consciousness. Mother can be personally present in her consciousness. The universal presence, of course, is always there and the universal and personal are two aspects of the same being.

25-8-1936

* * *

You have said: “Always behave as if the Mother was looking at you; because she is, indeed, always present “. Does this mean that the Mother knows all our insignjficant thoughts at all times, or only when she concentrates?

It is said that the Mother is always present and looking at you. This does not mean that in her physical mind she is thinking of you always and seeing your thoughts. There is no need of that, since she is everywhere and acts everywhere out of her universal knowledge.

12-8-1933

* * *

In what sense is the Mother everywhere? Does she know all happenings in the physical plane?

Including what Llyod George had for breakfast today or what Roosevelt said to his wife about the servants? Why should the Mother “know” in the human way all happenings in the physical plane? Her business in her embodiment is to know the workings of the universal forces and use them for her works; for the rest she knows what she needs to know, sometimes with her inner self, sometimes with her physical mind. All knowledge is available in her universal self but she brings forward only what is needed to be brought forward so that the working is done.

13-8-1933

* * *

Someone said that the Mother sees all our physical movements. How does this happen?Are all our physical movements reflected on her mind and seen by her as images or do they occur in her consciousness at the same time as we do them? But would that not be very puzzling and cumbersome to her? Moreover, would it not be a very material kind of telepathy?

It would not be worthwhile. Mother can see what people are doing by images received by her in the subtle state which corresponds to sleep or concentration or by images or intimations received in the ordinary state; but much even of what comes to her automatically like that is unnecessary, and to be always receiving everything would be intolerably troublesome as it would the consciousness occupied with a million trivialities; so not happen. What is more important is to know their inner condition and it is this chiefly which comes to her.

29-6-1937

* * *

(Re. a certain incident that had recently occurred:) I was under the impression that Mother could at once know of such things. Some even say that she knows everything – all that is material or spiritual. Others maintain that she knows when the question of consciousness is involved, e.g. sex movements, etc., but not so much about material things.

Good Lord! You don’t expect her mind to be a factual encyclopaedia of all that is happening on all the planes and in all universes? Or even on this earth, e.g. what Lloyd George for dinner yesterday?

Questions of consciousness, of course, she always knows even with her outermost physical mind. Material facts she can know but is not bound to do it. What would be true to say, is that she can know if she concentrates or if her attention is called to it and she decides to know. I often know from her what has happened before it is reported by anyone. But she does not I care to do that on a general scale.

16-7-1935

* * *

This question of Mother’s knowledge became even more interesting for me today. She gave me the flower signifying “Discipline”. I began to wonder why this particular flower was given; at last I remembered that yesterday I had not observed the right discipline in the matter of taking food with X and Y.

In this respect the Mother is guided by her intuitions which tell her which flower is needed at the moment or helpful. Sometimes it is accompanied by a perception of a particular state of consciousness, sometimes by that of a material fact; but only the bare fact, usually e.g.– it would not specify that it was “that particular thing” that was done or how X or Y came in. Not that that is impossible, but it is unnecessary and does not happen unless needed.

16-7-1935

The Mother can know our thoughts, but can she know also the exact words in the thoughts?

If the mind of the person is very clear, yes; otherwise it may be only the substance that comes or a part of the thought or some general idea.

19-5-1933

* * *

What you write about X is true …. She does not realise that Mother knows all these things by other means and any information given to her only adds certain physical precisions to what she knows already.

How can she be open when she has such ideas against the Mother? They must necessarily shut her up to the Mother’s influence.

Mother has written to her that Y had said nothing and that she knew things about X independently of any information, from X’s inner being itself which comes to her constantly and tells her or shows her what is in the nature.

The Mother besides sees things in vision and receives the thoughts of the Sadhaks at Pranam and other times …. Only the Mother never acts on these supraphysical intimations unless there is a physical confirmation like the letter itself in this case. For nobody would understand her action – the Sadhaks living in the physical mind would state her action unfounded, and those affected would deny loudly – as many have done in the past – their secret thoughts, feelings and actions. I tell you all this in confidence so that you may understand what is the real basis of Mother´s letters to X.

10-9-1936