The Mother's symbol - Auroville

Focus: Evolution 

No:3 February 2001 

Special File: “The Divine Mother” 

The One whom we adore as the Mother is the divine Conscious Force that dominates all 

existence, one and yet so many-sided that to follow her movement is impossible even for the 

quickest mind and for the freest and most vast intelligence. The Mother is the consciousness 

and force of the Supreme and far above all she creates. But something of her ways can be 

seen and felt through her embodiments and the more seizable because more defined and 

limited temperament and action of the goddess forms in whom she consents to be manifest to 

her creatures. 

1 

Sri Aurobindo, “The Mother”

CONTENTS 

Editorial: “The Year of the Divine Mother” Page 2 

The Mother’s Symbol : Page 3 

The Supreme Mahashakti : Page 5 

“The Virtues” : Page 6 

A file about ‘Gratitude’ : Page 7 

The Mother and the Purpose of Her Embodiment : Page 11 

The Mother in Previous Lifetimes : Page 12 

News from Auroville : Page 15 

i) The Auroville exhibition in Delhi : Page 15 

ii) Jasmuheen’s visit to Auroville : Page 20 

iii) The Birthday Week : Page 22 

Other expressions of spritual knowledge about the Divine Mother : Page 24 

2

LOE-CHU Team: Bhaga, Claire, Daniele, Kalyani, Namah, Olivier, Pascal 

EDITORIAL: THE YEAR OF THE DIVINE MOTHER 

(by Bhaga) 

November 1986: No 1 

February 1987: No 2 

[...] 

February 2001: No 3 

Yes, here is finally the third issue of “FOCUS: EVOLUTION”!... After quite a few years of 

interruption, the LOE-CHU (the Laboratory of Evolution-Centre for Human Unity) is happy to be able to 

start again sharing with you the research material which it has silently and patiently accumulated since 

1987. 

It was the impossible financial situation we were facing which had been one of our main reasons 

then for stopping our little Quarterly after only two issues. Well, the financial situation isn’t much better 

today, eleven years later, but if we wait until it is really better, we might never start again publishing 

“Focus: Evolution”!... So I, Bhaga, only ‘survivor’ of the old small team, proposed to those other Aurovilians 

who have joined the unit since then to try and resume what had been a really good start at the time. As 

you can see, they agreed, and here is the result of the concentrated collaboration of our now more 

numerous team, following the same overall structure as had been adopted for No 1 and 2 in the past. 

The first two issues, although miserable-looking and almost undecipherable because of the 

terrible quality of the cyclostyling, had been quite well received, not only in Auroville itself, but also at the 

various AVI Centres already existing in the rest of the world. Since 1985 when I had to take up the task 

of mothering those twin-units wanting to be born, I have always marvelled at the patience and encouraging 

indulgence with which people have accepted the poor quality of our material as far as the presentation 

was concerned, because they did notice and appreciate the real quality of the contents. 

We are certainly not yet a great-looking magazine, but at least you should find now no difficulty 

in reading the pages of this long-awaited third issue. As for the contents, we do hope that you will not be 

disappointed either. 

The theme I proposed to the rest of the team was the very same theme chosen already for an 

Exhibition on Auroville which had just been presented in Delhi. Our team had had a very active participation 

in preparing and then also presenting that Exhibition, and so had become even more familiar than before 

with that theme: The Divine Mother. This will be the topic of our “Special File”, as we call the main chunk 

of material, all on the same theme, which constitutes the focus and the bulk of each issue. In the present 

case, our theme includes such subjects as the various powers of the Divine Mother , represented in Her 

symbol; also, the flowers which express the vibration, the frequency so to say, of those various divine 

powers, in the vegetable kingdom; and the study, for example, of some of the known past emanations 

[partial incarnations] of the Divine Mother during previous periods of human history on Earth. 

Why the title of this issue’s editorial, “The Year of the Divine Mother”?... 

Here is an extract of a letter I wrote on 25th December 2000, before going to Delhi for the 

Exhibition: 

“An intriguing phenomenon: there seems to be a momentum building up, in various independent 

ways, towards a worldwide expression of the Divine Mother and of Her Action in the world (as represented 

by Her symbol). It has started this year already, through a study-group at Verite; and it seems to want to 

intensify next year as well: Auroville’s calendar for 2001, on Flowers and their inner significances; the 

New Year card prepared for donors at Matrimandir, precisely on Mother’s symbol; the book by Georges 

[an Aurovilian] on Mother and the beautiful little book by Claire [of our LOE-CHU team] on Mother 3000 

years ago as the Queen Tiyi, both those books due in January 2001; and then the focus on the Mother for 

the AVI yearly general meeting, in Russia this summer! All this, happening together without any previous 

concertation between the Aurovilians involved, seems to indicate strongly that the Divine Mother is somehow 

preparing something, and we with our Exhibition on the very same theme, are obviously a part of it!...” 

Mother indicated in her “Agenda” that the year 2000 would mark the real turning-point, the time 

when things would really start to change on Earth. Is this what we are witnessing since then, with the ever 

intensifying and accelerating pace that many of us in Auroville, and also other people around the world, 

feel Evolution is now taking, in their individual life as well as in the world events?... Is 2001 “The Year of 

the Divine Mother indeed”?... Our gratitude sings for Her anyway. 

3

The Mother’s symbol 

The 24 th of January 1958, The Mother describes Her symbol: 

“The central circle represents the Divine consciousness. 

The four petals represent the four powers of the Mother. 

The twelve petals represent the twelve powers of the Mother manifested for Her work”. 

From “The Mother”, by Sri Aurobindo : 

Four great Aspects of The Mother, four of Her leading Powers and Personalities have stood in 

front in Her guidance of this Universe and in Her dealings with the terrestrial play. One is Her 

personality of calm wideness and comprehending wisdom and tranquil benignity and 

inexhaustible compassion and sovereign and surpassing majesty and all ruling greatness. 

Another embodies Her power of splendid strength and irresistible passion, Her warrior mood, 

Her overwhelming will, Her impetuous swiftness and world shaking force. A third is vivid and 

sweet and wonderful with her deep secret of beauty and harmony and fine rhythm, Her intricate 

and subtle opulence, Her compelling attraction and captivating grace. The fourth is equipped 

with her close and profound capacity of intimate knowledge and careful flawless work and 

quiet and exact perfection in all things. Wisdom, Strength, Harmony, Perfection are their several 

attributes and it is these powers that they bring with them into the world, manifest in a human 

disguise in their Vibhutis and shall found in the divine degree of their ascension in those who 

can open their earthly nature to the direct and living influence of the Mother. To the four we give 

the four great names, Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati. 

Maheshwari 

“She is mighty and wise, tranquil and wonderful, great and calm, equal, patient and unalterable 

in Her will. 

To build our soul and our nature into the divine Truth is Her mission and Her labour.” 

4

Mahakali 

“Force and strength are Her peculiar power. There is in Her an overwhelming intensity, a mighty 

passion of force to achieve, a divine violence rushing to shatter every limit and obstacle. To 

knowledge she gives a conquering might, brings to beauty and harmony a high and mounting 

movement and imparts to the slow and difficult labour after perfection an impetus that multiplies 

the power and shortens the long way.” 

Mahalakshmi 

“Admitted to the heart she lifts wisdom to pinnacles of wonder and reveals to it the mystic 

secrets of the ecstasy that surpasses all knowledge, meets devotion with the passionate 

attraction of the Divine, teaches to strength and force the rhythm that keeps the might of 

their acts harmonious and in measure and casts on perfection the charm that makes it 

endure for ever.” 

Mahasaraswati 

“Always she holds in Her nature and can give to those whom She has chosen the intimate and 

precise knowledge, the subtlety and patience, the accuracy of intuitive mind and conscious 

hand and discerning eye of the perfect worker. This Power is the strong, the tireless, artisan 

and classifier of the worlds. 

All the work of the other Powers leans on Her for its completeness; for She assures the materiel 

foundation, elaborates the stuff of detail and erects and rivets the armour of the structure.” 

The twelve powers of The Mother manifested for Her work are: 

(Presented here with a short quote from Mother) 

Gratitude: The nobility of a being is measured by its capacity of gratitude. 

Humility: The greater beings are always the most simple and modest. 

Peace: Nowhere will you be able to find peace unless you have peace in your heart. 

Equanimity: Means self mastery over the vital movements, anger and sensitiveness and pride 

as well as desire and the rest. 

Sincerity: A sincere heart is worth all the extraordinary powers in the world. 

Aspiration: It is to the sincerity of your aspiration that the Love answers spontaneously. 

Courage: Courage is a sign of the soul’s nobility. But courage must be calm and master of 

itself, generous and benevolent. 

Progress: The reason why we are on earth. 

Receptivity: It is the capacity of admitting and retaining the Divine Workings. 

Perseverance: It is patience in action. Perseverance brakes down all obstacles. 

Goodness-Goodwill: Modest in appearance it does not make a noise and is always ready to 

be useful 

Generosity: (No short text was found on this as yet.) 

5

THE SUPREME MAHASHAKTI (Contributed by Kalyani) 

The secret name of the Supreme Mahashakti signifies 

Love, Bliss, Ananda 

Creative and Formative Knowledge-Power Chit- Tapas 

Support, Covering, Pervasion Sat 

For the Supreme is Ananda unifying Consciousness and Existence in the single Power (Shakti) 

of these things. 

All is created by the Supreme Goddess, the Supreme and Original Mahashakti, all proceeds 

from her, all lives by her, all lives in her, even as she lives in all. All wisdom and knowledge are 

her wisdom and knowledge; all power is her power, all will and force her will and force, all action 

is her action, all movement her movement. All beings are portions of her power of existence. 

Seven times seven are the planes of the Supreme Goddess, the steps of ascent and descent 

of the Divine Transcendent and Universal Adya-shakti. 

Above are the thrice seven supreme planes of Sat-Chit-Ananda, in between are the seven 

planes of the Divine Truth and Vastness Mahad Brahma, below are the thrice seven steps of 

the ascent and descent into this evolutionary world of the earth-existence. 

These three gradations are successively Supermind or Satyam Ritam Brihat,Truth-Mind, with 

its seven Suns; Life with its seven Lotuses; Earth with its seven Jewel-Centres. 

The seven Lotuses are the seven cakras of the Tantric tradition, descending and ascending 

from Mind (Sahasradala, Ajna, Visuddha, Anahata) that take up Life through Life in Force 

(Manipura, Swadhisthana) down to Life involved in Matter (Muladhara). 

All these Life-Centres are in themselves centres of Truth in Life even as the seven Suns are 

each a flaming heart of Truth in luminous Divine-Existence: but these lotuses have been veiled, 

closed, shut into their own occult energies by the Ignorance. Hence the obscurity, falsehood. 

death,suffering of our existence. 

The Jewel-Centres of the Earth Mother are seven luminous jewel-hearts of Truth in 

Substance, but they have been imprisoned in darkness, fossilised in immobility. veiled, closed, 

shut into their own occult energies by the hardness, darkness and inertia of the material 

Inconscience. 

To liberate all these powers by the luminous and flaming descent of the Suns of the Supermind 

and the release of the eighth Sun of Truth hidden in the Earth. in the darkness of the Inconscience, 

in the cavern of Vala and his Panis, this is the first step towards the restoration of the Earth- 

Mother to her own divinity and the earth-existence to its native light, truth, life and bliss of 

immaculate Ananda. 

6

The Virtues 

(A tale for young and old) (Contributed by Bhaga) 

Once upon a time there was a splendid palace, in the heart of which lay a secret sanctuary, 

whose threshold no being had ever crossed. Furthermore, even its outermost galleries were 

almost inaccessible to mortals, for the palace stood on a very high cloud, and very few, in any 

age, could find the way to it. 

It was the palace of Truth. 

One day a festival was held there, not for men but for very different beings, gods and goddesses 

great and small, who on earth are honoured by the name of Virtues. 

The vestibule of the palace was a great hall, where the walls, the floor, the ceiling, luminous in 

themselves, were resplendent with a myriad glittering fires. 

It was the Hall of Intelligence. Near to the ground, the light was very soft and had a beautiful 

deep sapphire hue, but it became gradually clearer towards the ceiling, from which girandoles 

of diamonds hung like chandeliers, their myriad facets shooting dazzling rays. 

The Virtues came separately, but soon formed congenial groups, full of joy to find themselves 

for once at least together, for they are usually so widely scattered throughout the world and the 

worlds, so isolated amid so many alien beings. 

Sincerity reigned over the festival. She was dressed in a transparent robe, like clear water, and 

held in her hand a cube of purest crystal, through which things can be seen as they really are, 

far different from what they usually seem, for there their image is reflected without distortion. 

Near to her, like two faithful guardians, stood Humility, at once respectful and proud, and Courage, 

lofty-browed, clear eyed, his lips firm and smiling, with a calm and resolute air. 

Close beside Courage, her hand in his, stood a woman, completely veiled, of whom nothing 

could be seen but her searching eyes, shining through her veils. It was Prudence. 

Among them all, coming and going from one to another and yet seeming always to remain near 

to each one, Charity, at once vigilant and calm, active and yet discrete, left behind her as she 

passed through the groups a trail of soft white light. The light that she spreads and softens 

comes to her, through a radiance so subtle that it is invisible to most eyes, from her closest 

friend, her inseparable companion, her twin sister, Justice. 

And around Charity thronged a shining escort, Kindness, Patience, Gentleness, Solicitude, 

and many others. 

All of them are there, or so at least they think. 

But then suddenly, at the golden threshold, a newcomer appears. 

With great reluctance the guards, set to watch the gates, have agreed to admit her. Never 

before had they seen her, and there was nothing in her appearance to impress them. 

She was indeed very young and slight, and the white dress which she wore was very simple, 

almost poor. She takes a few steps forward with a shy, embarrassed air. Then, apparently ill at 

ease to find herself in such a large and brilliant company, she pauses, not knowing towards 

whom she should go. 

After a brief exchange with her companions, Prudence steps forward at their request and goes 

towards the stranger. Then, after clearing her throat, as people do when they are embarrassed, 

to give herself a moment to reflect, she turns to her and says: 

“We who are gathered here and who all know each other by our names and our merits, are 

surprised at your coming, for you appear to be a stranger to us, or at least we do not seem to 

have ever seen you before. Would you be so kind as to tell us who you are?” 

Then the newcomer replied with a sigh: 

“Alas! I am not surprised that I appear to be a stranger in this palace, for I am so rarely invited 

anywhere. 

“My name is Gratitude.” 

7 

The Mother, 1904

Nous voulons exprimer notre Gratitude à la Mère Divine. 

We want to express our Gratitude to the Divine Mother. 

* 

A file about Gratitude 

(By Namah) 

Extracts from Mother on Gratitude 

La compassion et la gratitude sont des vertus essentiellement psychiques. Elles 

n’apparaissent dans la conscience qu’avec la participation de l’être psychique à la vie 

active. Le vital et le mental les sentent comme des faiblesses parce qu’elles mettent 

un frein à la libre expression de leurs impulsions basées sur le pouvoir de la force. 

Comme toujours, le mental, lorsqu’il n’est pas suffisamment éduqué, est le complice 

de l’être vital et l’esclave de la nature physique dont il ne connaît pas bien les lois, 

écrasantes par leur mécanisme semi-conscient. Quand le mental s’éveille à la 

conscience des premiers mouvements psychiques, il les déforme dans son ignorance 

et change la compassion en pitié ou au mieux en charité, et la gratitude en la volonté 

de récompenser, suivie peu à peu par la capacité de reconnaître et d’admirer. 

Ce n’est que lorsque la conscience psychique est toute puissante dans l’être, que 

la compassion pour tout ce qui a besoin d’être aidé, dans quelque domaine que ce 

soit, et la gratitude pour tout ce qui se manifeste, sous quelque forme que se soit, la 

présence et la grâce divines s’expriment dans leur pureté initiale et lumineuse, sans 

mélanger à la compassion aucun vestige de condescendance, et à la gratitude aucun 

sens d’infériorité. 

Compassion and gratitude are essentially psychic virtues. They appear in the 

consciousness only when the psychic being takes part in active life. 

The vital and the physical experience them as weakness, for they curb the free 

expression of their impulses, which are based on the power of strength. 

As always, the mind, when insufficiently educated, is the accomplice of the vital 

being and the slave of the physical nature, whose laws, so overpowering in their halfconscious 

mechanism, it does not fully understand. When the mind awakens to the 

awarness of the first psychic movement, it distorts them in its ignorance and changes 

compassion into pity or at best into charity, and gratitude into the wish to repay, followed, 

little by little, by the capacity to recognize and admire. 

It is only when the psychic consciousness is all-powerful in the being that compassion 

for all that needs help, whatever domain, and gratitude for all manifests the divine 

presence and grace, in whatever form, are expressed in all their original and luminous 

purity, without mixing compassion with any trace of condescension or gratitude with 

any sense of inferiority. 

A Sense of Gratitude 

That kind of sense of gratitude that the Divine exists; that feeling of a marvelling 

thankfulness which truly fills you with a sublime joy at the fact that the Divine exists, 

8

that there is something in the universe which is the Divine, that is not just the monstruosity 

we see, that there is the Divine, the Divine exists. And each time that the least thing 

puts you either directly or indirectly in contact with this sublime Reality of divine existence, 

the heart is filled with so intense, so marvelous a joy, with a gratitude that has a more 

delightful taste than anything else at all. 

There is nothing which gives you a joy equal to that of gratitude. One hears a bird 

sing, sees a lovely flower, looks at a little child, observes an act of generosity, reads a 

beautiful sentence, looks at the setting sun, no matter what, suddenly this comes upon 

you, this kind of emotion-indeed so deep, so intense-that the world manifests the Divine, 

that there is something behind the world which is the Divine. 

THE FLOWERS AND THEIR MEANINGS 

There are four flowers which correspond to the gratitude. The Mother gave them 

the names of Gratitude, Detailed Gratitude, Integral Gratitude and Mental Gratitude. 

Gratitude 

It is you who open all the closed doors and allow the saving Gace to enter. 

(Ipomoea carnea: large pale lavender-pink to light mauve flower with deeper mauve 

throat; shrub or heavy creeper.) 

Detailed Gratitude 

The gratitude that awakens in us all the details of the Divine Grace. 

(Merremia quinquefolia: clusters of small white funnelform flowers; seasonal creeper.) 

Integral Gratitude 

The whole being offers itself to the Lord in absolute trust. 

(Operculina turpethum: pure white funnel-shaped flower with prominent light green 

calyx; heavy creeper.) 

Mental Gratitude 

The gratefulness of the mind for what makes it progress. 

(Merremia tuberosa: yellow morning-glory, medium-sized bright yellow flower; heavy 

creeper.) 

From “Questions and Answers” 

“ Now I know why the darkness always returns to you even I have driven it away. It is 

because the sense of Gratitude has not yet awaked in you.” 23/05/1935 

“ Lord, Supreme Truth 

We aspire to know you and serve you 

Help us to become your worthy children 

And for this make us conscious of your constant blessings 

So that Gratitude may fill our heart and gouvern our lives.” 

* 

9

From “Mother’s Agenda” 

“The best thing we can do to express our Gratitude is to overcome all egoism in ourselves 

and make a constant effort towards this transformation. Human egoism refuses to 

abdicate on the grounds that others are not transformed. But that is the strong hold of 

bad will, for each one’s duty is to transform himself regardless of what others may do. 

If men knew that this tranformation, the abolition of egoism is the only way to gain 

constant peace and delight, they would consent to make the necessary effort. This, 

then, is the conviction that must awaken in them. Every one should repeatedly be told: 

abolish your ego and peace will reign in you. 

The Divine help always responds to a sincere aspiration.” 

* 

“And yet, of all movements, the one that gives perhaps the most joy – and unalloyed 

joy, untainted by that egoism – is spontaneous gratitude. 

It is something very special. It isn’t love, it isn’t self-offering…. It’s a very FULL joy. Very 

full. 

It is a very special vibration unlike anything other than itself. It is something that widens 

you, that fills you – that is so fervent! 

It is certainly, of all the movements within the reach of human consciousness, the one 

that draws you the most out of your ego. 

And when it can be a gratitude without motive, that vibration (basically, the vibration of 

what exists towards the Cause of existence)… then a great many barriers vanish 

instantly. 

[Mother contemplates that vibration of gratitude for a long time] 

When you can enter that vibration in its purity, you realize immediately that it has the 

same quality as the vibration of Love: It is directionless. It isn’t something going from 

one thing to another, it doesn’t go from here to there (gesture from low to high) or there 

to here… it is (round gesture) simultaneous and total. 

I mean it isn’t something that needs the two poles in order to exist; it doesn’t go from 

one pole to the other or from the other to the one: it’s a vibration which in its purity is the 

same as the vibration of Love, which doesn’t go from here to there or from there to here 

– the two poles of existence. 

It exists in itself for its own delight of being. (And what I am saying spoils it a lot.) 

Like Love. 

Men have repeated ad nauseam that nothing exists without those two poles, that those 

two poles are the cause of existence and everything revolves around them (Mother 

shakes her head), but that’s not the way it is. This means that man, in his ordinary 

outward consciousness, cannot understand anything beyond that. There we are. That 

we know. But in its essence [Mother again shakes her head]. Love is not like that. 

Ultimately, gratitude is only a very slightly colored hue of the essential Vibration of 

Love.” 

10 

Agenda 21.12.63

A poem offering by Namah 

Gratitude 

Un parfum inoui se manifeste, empli d’une douce tendresse. 

Une humilité vibrante de vérité venant de la source des cieux, 

Surprend majestueusement 

L’égo résistant frappé de la puissante flamme 

Et le désinvestit de son pouvoir absolu. 

Il a perdu la face devant la sublime candeur de sa sincérité 

Et de sa simplicité. 

Quelque chose est passé et navigue. 

Soulevée d’une extase, 

La vision du cœur ne peut plus s’obscurcir : Gratitude 

Se dégage et danse 

Enveloppe sa promesse 

Et foudroie dans sa Grâce magique 

Tout ce qui ne peut plus être en sa présence. 

La folie du Seigneur ne s’arrête plus. 

Il déverse l’enivrant parfum aux sonorités magiques, 

Nectar dans le calice : Gratitude 

Aux doigts d’or, 

Aux mains tendres d’Amour, dans l’aurore naissante 

Brûle et soulève vers son Bien-aimé l’aspiration intense. 

Gratitude, tu te dévoiles 

Et ondoies sous le souffle de lumière qui émane de Toi. 

Cette présence de lumière qui emplit l’oeil du cœur 

Coule la paix dans le moule de l’équanimité, 

Surprenante magie de sa manifestation 

Où la réceptivité mature rayonne de courage. 

Conquérante du Divin Amour, 

Gratitude, ton audace nous comble. 

Chevauchant générosité et bonté, 

Tu portes à sa gloire le progrès de l’Ame, 

Embrase-nous de ton feu 

Gratitude, oh ! Gratitude, 

Tu es les ailes mêmes du Divin Contentement. 

Gratitude à Gratitude, l’être se fond, 

Gratitude à Gratitude, ton murmure silencieux 

De l’Amour Divin s’éperle dans notre intime lieu 

Et fait de nous irrévocablement le serviteur 

De Son Oeuvre d’Amour. 

Seigneur, puissent les mots révéler leur essence. 

11

THE MOTHER 

AND THE PURPOSE OF HER EMBODIMENT 

Questions put to Sri Aurobindo 

A : Yes. 

A : Yes. 

WHO IS THE MOTHER? 

Q: Do you not refer to the Mother (our Mother) in your book, “The Mother”? 

Q: Is she not the “Individual” Divine Mother who has embodied “the power of these 

two vaster ways of her existence” -- Transcendent and Universal? 

Q: Has she not descended here (amongst us) into the Darkness and Falsehood 

and Error and Death in her deep and great love for us ? 

A : Yes. 

17-8-1938 

* 

Q: There are many who hold the view that she was human but now embodies the 

Divine Mother and her “Prayers”., they say, explain this view. But, to my jnental 

conception, to my psychic feeling, she is the Diviine Mother who has consented to 

put on her the cloak of obscurity and sufering and ignorance so that she can 

effectively lead us -- human beings -- to Knowledge and Bliss and Ananda and to 

the supreme Lord. 

A : The Divine puts on an appearance of humanity, assumes the outward human nature in 

order to tread the path and show it to human beings, but does not cease to be the Divine. It is 

a manifestation that takes place, a manifestation of a growing divine consciousness, not 

human turning into divine. The Mother was inwardly above the human even in childhood, so 

the view held by “many” is erroneous. 

* 

Q: Can it happen that one who is open to Sri Aurobindo is not open to the Mother? Is 

it that whoever is open to the Mother is open to Sri Aurobindo ? 

A: The Mother-proposition is true. If one is open to Sri Aurobindo and not to the Mother it 

means that one is not really open to Sri Aurobindo. 

The Mother’s consciousness and mine are the same, the one Divine Consciousness in two, 

because that is necessary for the play. Nothing can be done without her knowledge and 

force, without her consciousness. 

* 

Q: Very often Sri Aurobindo says one should allow the Mother’s force to govern. 

Does it mean that there is a difference between the two forces? 

* 

A: There is one force only, the Mother’s force – or, if you like to put it like that, the Mother is 

Sri Aurobindo’s Force. 

12

The Mother 

in 

Previous Lifetimes 

A file by Claire 

Mother as a child Queen Tiyi 

Mother has had clear memories of a number of previous lifetimes. Claire 

has begun researching all of them, starting with the Egyptian ones. 

Here are some relevant extracts from her just released, beautifully 

illustrated little book, 

“Akhetaton & Auroville”. 

Towards the Sun 

Vers le Soleil 

13

THE MOTHER OF 

AKHENATON 

(3000 years ago, in Egypt, the Pharaoh 

Akhenaton and his wife Nefertiti created a 

beautiful utopian city, called Akhetaton. Here 

are some extracts of the research about the 

connection between the cities Akhetaton & 

Auroville through time and evolution:) 

“Answering a question I had asked her (about 

Akhenaton), the Mother had clearly let us 

understand that she had been Akhenaton’s 

mother, the queen Tiyi… She revealed it also 

to Satprem in the Agenda. She had added that 

Akhenaton’s revolution aimed at revealing to 

the humanity of that time the unity of the Divine 

with its manifestation. As the Mother pointed 

out, that attempt was premature – men were 

not ready for it – but it had to be expressed in 

order to keep on living on the mental plane”. 

Tanmaya, Sri Aurobindo ashram 

Agenda 5.6.65: 

The Mother: I. is Amenhotep. 

Satprem: Amenhotep IV… took the name of 

Akhenaton. 

The Mother: That’s the one.” 

Agenda 10.5.67: 

“Some two years ago, I had a vision about U.’s son – He struck me as someone I knew very 

well, but I didn’t know who. Then, the same day in the afternoon, I had a vision. A vision of 

ancient Egypt… So I knew the child was Amenhotep… And I know I was his Mother.” 

Agenda 14.3.52: 

Since the beginning of the earth, wherever and whenever there was the possibility of manifesting 

a ray of consciousness, I was there. 

Agenda 30.6.62: 

“It was always through emanations* while now with this present incarnation of the Mahashakti**, 

It’s as Sri Aurobindo writes in Savitri – the Supreme tells Savitri that a day will come when the 

earth is ready and ‘ The Mighty Mother shall take birth’. 

Savitri book XI canto 1: 

“ But when the hour of the Divine draws near, 

The Mighty Mother shall take birth in Time 

And God be born into the human clay 

In forms made ready by your human lives. 

Then shall the Truth supreme be given to men.” 

*EMANATIONS, = for example the egyptian queen Tiyi, Mother of Akhenaton, the woman-pharaoh 

Hatshepsout, Elisabeth the 1 st of England, Joan of Arc, Catherine II of Russia, etc… 

**This present incarnation of the Mahashakti = the Mother speaks about herself. 

14

Bonjour, Delhi! 

“Il est cinq heures... 

Delhi... s’eveille... 

Il est cinq heures... 

Je n’ai pas sommeil... “ 

News from Auroville 

The Auroville exhibition in Delhi , 15th-21st January 2001 

(Seen through an article by Bhaga) 

Here I am waking up early morning in cold Delhi, far away from the warmth of South 

India’s Tamil Nadu, far from the soft beaches of the Coromandel Coast , and far from Auroville, 

the international township which is growing since 1968 near Pondicherry and which I miss, for 

it is my home since 1972... 

So, I am somehow in exile. But still, my heart is singing a happy French tune, actually 

about Paris, but this morning dedicated quite spontaneously to Delhi. My “exile” is only temporary, 

and I am not alone here: we are a group of eleven Aurovilians who have all come, ready to face 

the rigors of Delhi’s winter, in order to bring here something of Auroville, of that Auroville which, 

as The Mother, its founder, was saying, is “The City the Earth needs”. 

We have been here for exactly a week now. Since the 15th of January, we have invaded 

the beautiful Art Gallery of the India Habitat Centre, at the very heart of Delhi’s social and 

cultural life. Our Exhibition on “Auroville - The City the Earth needs” spreads across three 

different but adjoining spaces, in order to really give an idea of what Auroville is, through three 

complementary modes of expression: 

- an Aurovilian artist’s rendering (in the Exhibition Hall), in the form of twelve showcases, 

themselves of striking beauty, in which one discovers objects, texts, paintings, photographs, all 

from Auroville and of extreme beauty too; 

- an informative and colourful set-up (outdoors in the open courtyard) presenting the many 

aspects of Auroville’s integrated “research-in-life”; 

- a series of three talks given on three of the evenings (in the Conference Room). 

The first space offers a silent, meditative atmosphere, while the two others offer the 

needed opportunities for dialogues with the Aurovilians present. All three modes of expression 

together form the Exhibition “Auroville - The City the Earth needs”. Only such a multi-facetted 

exhibition could express the incredibly rich diversity one can witness in Auroville, a veritable 

“living laboratory for Human Unity” in which more than fifteen hundred people from over thirty 

countries have already settled, and others continue to join all the time. 

Why do we hope to succeed when in the past other large scale attempts at the same 

elusive Unity have all failed? Do we imagine ourselves to be so much better than everyone 

else?... 

Not in the least. But an irresistible evolutive movement carries our world always forward 

over the vast expanses of Time. We see ourselves as voluntary “guinea-pigs” for the cosmic 

force of Evolution which is inviting now all of us human beings to outgrow the limitations of our 

present mental consciousness and to gradually discover our own infinite, truly divine potential. 

As the great Seer and Yogi Sri Aurobindo revealed as long back as 1914, 

“Man is a transitional being, he is not final... Evolution is going on...” 

16

Sri Aurobindo was joined in Pondicherry by a spiritual collaborator of equal stature, the 

very remarquable French lady he designated as ‘The Mother’. She had also discovered on her 

own that Evolution was preparing for a new step, and that it was possible to consciously 

hasten the process, for the benefit of the whole terrestrial situation. Thanks to the tremendous 

work done, the world unknowing, by those two spiritual giants together, the evolutive Power 

which could take Evolution on Earth beyond this ending mental era, into the next, “supramental” 

era, is now activated in Matter itself and influencing everyone and everything on the planet. We 

humans, who have been the main species representing and expressing to its fullest the Mental 

Power, have now the posssibility to outgrow our ordinary human nature and to consciously 

evolve further. 

What would it be like to evolve further?... The following few lines by Sri Aurobindo give 

us a most powerfully evocative and inspiring answer: 

“If mankind could but see though in a glimpse of fleeting experience what infinite enjoyments, 

what perfect forces, what luminous reaches of spontaneous knowledge, what wide calms of 

our being lie waiting for us in the tracts which our animal evolution has not yet conquered, they 

would leave all and never rest till they had gained these treasures.” 

Spirituality as we have known it before has been aimed at escaping from Life. The 

eternal Spirit in us must now rediscover Its real Purpose: not at all escaping from Life, but on 

the contrary transforming Life, right here on Earth, into the ”Life Divine” which it is meant to 

gradually become as Evolution leads us ever forward. 

Of course no one, just by his or her effort, however great, could accomplish the deep 

and all-rounded transformation of one’s nature which is to take place. But this needs not be a 

cause of worry, for the way in which such a transformation will happen is actually not so much 

a matter of personal effort, as of faith and trust in the Divine Power which guides this world and 

its ongoing evolution. If we open ourselves to the higher and truer Consciousness-Force now 

at work upon Earth, all the necessary changes will gradually be effected in our being, in the 

right way and at the right pace for our individual nature, by the loving Wisdom of what in India 

is known as “the Divine Mother”: the feminine, motherly aspect of the Divine. The only things 

needed on our side are a sincere call for help, an ever renewed willingness to change... and a 

great deal of patience, for obviously such a great transformation cannot happen in one day. If 

it were to happen too fast, we simply couldn’t bear it. 

So, the entire process of this gradual transformation is meant to happen in a way 

somewhat similar to the blooming of a flower. No strenuous efforts, no impatience will make it 

happen faster - they would actually have the contrary effect. Our own blooming, just like that of 

the flower, is nothing but a natural process which, at this point in Evolution, Humanity at large 

is at last getting ready for. More and more individuals here and there upon Earth are now 

sensing this wonderful New Possibility. In spite of the apparent chaos in which the world as we 

have known it seems to desintegrate more and more, those people are able to intuitively feel 

that, at the same time, a New World is being born. Anyone who has a deep longing for such a 

New World can already “plug into it“ , so to say, at any moment of their lives, with results which 

seem amazing and “miraculous” for the old way of functioning, but which are just normal in this 

New Way of functioning which we are all invited now to learn. 

For there is one main difference between us and the flowers: we human beings can be 

conscious of our own “blooming” process and participate consciously in it. And this, not only 

individually wherever we happen to live, but even collectively if we can find a place dedicated to 

this purpose . 

This is exactly what Auroville is for: it is a first place, a first “living laboratory” in which 

the human beings interested can come and live together, and little by little become, hopefully, 

a first example of the kind of new society and new city which will necessarily emerge if most of 

the participants are consciously trying to open themselves to the terrestrial action of the new, 

17

Supramental Consciousness. It will of course take a long time for such a collective result to 

fully happen, but at least a start can be made, and many progressive steps can be taken in that 

direction. Auroville and its present “voluntary guinea-pigs” are trying their best to do just that. 

This is why, since 1966 already, when Auroville was but a project, and several times after that, 

UNESCO has hailed its creation and recommended it to its Member-States through unanimous 

Resolutions, for it is becoming quite obvious that human nature needs indeed to change if 

Humanity is to solve its present problems. 

Now there is, alas, another main difference between human beings and flowers: we are 

much more complex beings, and many parts of our present human nature might not at all be 

interested to change!... The only way we can really convince those recalcitrant parts in us to let 

go of their dear habits, is to help them discover what a wonderful new way of living is in store for 

them too if they learn this new way of functioning. The best is to give them a first taste of it, by 

allowing the inmost and central part of our being - what is usually called our soul - to take the 

lead in our life. It is the most important and the most urgent thing for us to do. This is why the 

Mother put this as the very first point in her message, “To be a true Aurovilian”: 

“The first necessity is the inner discovery in order to know what one truly is behind social, 

moral, cultural, racial and hereditary appearances. 

At the centre there is a being free, vast and knowing, who awaits our discovery and who ought 

to become the active centre of our being and our life in Auroville.” 

For that inner discovery, “meditation “ as it is usually understood and practiced is not 

really needed, but rather a simple concentration of our consciousness in our heart-centre, 

which is the seat of our “Soul-Being” or “Psychic Being”, as Sri Aurobindo and The Mother call 

it. An additional way to establish the contact with that “Psychic Being” in ourselves - so important 

because it is the only part in us which is still consciously divine - is to develop in our nature the 

qualities which are actually the expression of that secret divine nature already existing in us. 

Those divine qualities which we can help develop in ourselves are of course the very 

powers through which the Divine Mother Herself acts in the world and leads the world on its 

evolutive path of progressive, infinite Perfection. This overall Divine Action is represented through 

the circular symbol of the Divine Mother: at the centre the Divine Consciousness, then around 

it and emanating from it, the four main Powers of the Mother, upon the interplay of which 

everything existing in the Universe is based; in the words of Sri Aurobindo: 

“Four great aspects of of the Mother, four of her leading Powers and Personalities have stood 

in front in her guidance of this Universe and in her dealings with the terrestrial play. One is her 

personality of calm wideness and comprehending wisdom and tranquil benignity and 

inexhaustible compassion and sovereign and surpassing majesty and all-ruling greatness. 

Another embodies her power of splendid strength and irresistible passion, her warrior mood, 

her overwhelming will, her impetuous swiftness and world-shaking force. A third is vivid and 

sweet and wonderful with her deep secret of beauty and harmony and fine rythm, her intricate 

and subtle opulence, her compelling attraction and captivating grace. The fourth is equipped 

with her close and profound capacity of intimate knowledge and careful flawless work and 

quiet and exact perfection in all things. Wisdom, Strength, Harmony, Perfection are their several 

attributes and it is these powers that they bring with them into the world, manifest in human 

disguise in their Vibhutis, and shall found in the divine degree of their ascension in those who 

can open their earthly nature to the direct and living influence of the Mother. To the four we give 

the four great names, Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati.” 

On the symbol of the Divine Mother, around those Four main Powers, represented as 

four “petals” growing out of the Centre, there are twelve more petals, representing the twelve 

qualities which emanate from those Four. They are: Sincerity, Humility, Gratitude, Perseverance, 

18

Aspiration, Receptivity, Progress, Courage, Goodness, Generosity, Equanimity, Peace. 

These are qualities which any human being can choose to develop in his or her own 

nature. The first eight concern the attitude towards the Divine, and the last four towards humanity. 

Of course this is the kind of qualities which in Auroville first of all we should all learn to 

develop. When in our team of Aurovilians preparing the Exhibition we were wondering how 

best to convey to other people, in Delhi or elsewhere, the essence of what Auroville is actually 

about, and in which way Auroville is “The City the Earth needs”, the architect-designer among 

us came up with this sudden inspiration: to focus on the Twelve Qualities of the Divine Mother. 

This concept was immediately adopted, and we all started presenting whatever aspect 

of this Exhibition we were individually responsible for, around the expression of those Twelve 

Qualities. 

Besides the beautiful objects or photographs of Aurovilians and scenes of Auroville life 

which we felt could illustrate one Quality or the other, one obvious other way to evoke those 

Twelve Qualities was through the flowers which correspond to each of them and express their 

specific “vibration” at the level of the Vegetable Kingdom. 

The final result of our work must have been surprising for the Delhiites who came and 

saw our Exhibition: it was probably the very first time that they found not only the expected 

pictures of people, places, etc., along with the texts presenting Auroville, but also pictures - 

and large ones at that - of beautiful flowers. Each flower was identified, not by its botanical or 

common name, but by its “inner name”, so to say, the name of the inner Quality which it 

expresses: Sincerity... Humility... Courage... Peace... This unusual element had actually quite 

an impact on those who came. In their surprise, they asked questions, and discovered - most 

of them with great interest - the existence of that whole world of the Inner Significances of 

Flowers, and of the vibrational positive “contagion” their presence around us can produce in 

our own being, especially if we open ourselves consciously to that influence. When one knows 

that flowers in general are the outer expression of what corresponds to the Soul in Nature, one 

starts realizing why they indeed can help us powerfully to come in contact with our own soul. 

Even the groups of school children who also came to see our exhibition reacted extremely 

positively when they were explained how those Twelve DivineQualities are there, in seed form 

so to say, in each human being, whatever his or her age. They understood perfectly well how 

each of us is responsible for helping those wonderful seeds to grow within us. Then through us 

they will manifest themselves more and more in the world as well. No one can prevent us from 

growing such a Magic Garden of luminous and sweet-scented flowers within ourselves. In that 

simple but very effective way, each of us, even when still a child, can participate in the Action of 

the Divine Mother in the world, and help transform the world into the beautiful and happy place 

it is meant to become. 

The Twelve Qualities and their floral counterparts enabled us to convey also to people 

another quite important fact: the essential relevance of our diversity. When we are trying to 

realize Human Unity, we shouldn’t fall into the trap of trying to achieve it through ironing out all 

the differences between us and just uniformizing everyone. The utter diversity which is there 

amongst human beings (and in everything else as well) must absolutely be respected, for it is 

the expression of the Divine as much as the underlying Unity which is also there. This universal 

principle of “Unity in Diversity” reveals itself, of course, in the symbol of the Divine Mother itself: 

it is through the diversity of the Four, and then of the Twelve Powers, that the central Oneness 

of the Divine Consciousness manifests Itself in the Universe and in all that exists in it. And 

conversely, it is the central Oneness which constantly harmonises the overall Action of all Its 

own utterly diverse Powers in the Universe. 

Whether we know it or not, even in our very imperfect present condition, we are an 

integral part of that cosmic, innumerably diversified, harmonised Oneness. Each of us plays 

a unique role in it, as he or she embodies a unique blend of more or less developed qualities. 

The same is true on a vaster scale for the various cultures which have developed all over the 

planet: by the specific qualities which each culture has somehow “specialised” into, that culture 

19

contributes something unique to our human collective cultural richness. Instead of competing 

with each other for supremacy, all those cultures should see that they actually complement 

each other and they should learn to collaborate instead of trying to destroy each other. It is to 

help things go in that direction that one of the four zones in the growing township of Auroville is 

called the “International Zone”. What is that Zone for? Auroville as a whole is international of 

course, but then it is a complete mixture of everything, while in that area, all the main cultures 

of the world will be represented in their own distinctive originality through separate pavilions. 

But all those Cultures of the world, grouped continent-wise, will not be there to compete with 

each other as usual, but on the contrary to realize their actual complementarity. All together 

they will represent the incredibly rich Unity in Diversity of the emerging Human Culture, to 

which each of them will be indispensable for each will be consciously contributing something 

truly unique. 

This theme of the Twelve Qualities of the Divine Mother was a great way to present to 

the public not only the essential aims of Auroville - Evolution and Human Unity -, but even also 

the very physical building, called the ‘Matrimandir’, which stands in the central area of the 

future township and is the Soul of Auroville. That building, by its structure and shape, actually 

materialises in volume and space the symbol of that Divine Mother of whom it is the Shrine. 

The term ‘Mandir’, in this case, is not to be taken in its usual religious sense. No ceremonies 

there, and no priests either. The Inner Chamber of the Matrimandir is simply a place of silence, 

quiet and beauty where one can go and sit whenever one feels the inner need to do so; there 

is no obligation whatsoever for anyone to go there, but it is a most helpful space for learning 

how to concentrate within and ‘find one’s consciousness’. This brings us back to that first 

point in “To be a true Aurovilian”, quoted above. The inner discovery of which Mother speaks is 

only the first step in the long process of transformation of our nature, but we can be confident 

that for the other steps as well we can be greatly helped by the Matrimandir, this very special 

place which some Aurovilians call jokingly ‘the Transformer’!... 

Whatever the way some inner progress might be effectuated within us, either by sitting 

in Matrimandir’s Inner Chamber or by any other means, that inner progress must translate 

itself externally too, by a change in our behaviour, in our way of reacting to outer circumstances 

and events. When the aim of our spiritual endeavour is the transformation of our nature, our 

outer life becomes the touch-stone of our inner life. Well, in Delhi as much as in Auroville, we 

all did our best to examplify in our daily actions those very Qualities that we were also presenting 

in our Exhibition. The circumstances gave us ample scope especially for showing Equanimity 

(so many unexpected situations cropping up all the time) and Courage (oh! the wheather was 

so cold!...); and we have become quite popular with everyone, not just for the beautiful and 

elevating aspects of our Exhibition (including the magnificent flower bouquets some of us had 

the precious talent to create), but also because of the slices of cheese, the biscuits, the flower 

syrups and the bio-dynamised water - all from Auroville itself - which some others in our group 

had had the good idea to bring along, and kept giving out with a warm smile to the people who 

came. This probably examplified in the eyes of all those delighted visitors yet another one of 

those Qualities, which is always particularly appreciated: Generosity. 

It might still take a long time before we, the Aurovilians already present in this ‘living 

laboratory’, will be sufficiently transformed to truly manifest the Twelve Qualities of the Divine 

Mother. But Auroville in itself is already anyway ‘The City the Earth Needs’, for by its very 

existence it is a constant reminder for all human beings, wherever they live, that Evolution is 

inviting us to change. And, for those who are interested in being part of a new society in the 

making, Auroville is an open invitation to join in that collective Adventure. 

If our Exhibition conveys even that much only to those who see it, it will have served its 

essential purpose. 

It is with that heart-warming thought that I now face the new day which is starting upon 

Delhi. It is time to get up. Good morning, dear Delhi... A few more days enjoying our visit to 

you, presenting Auroville to you and establishing contacts for further association in the future, 

20

either here or in Auroville; and then our little group, tired but happy, will start on its way back to 

Auroville, “the City the Earth needs”... 

JASMUHEEN’S VISIT TO AUROVILLE (by Bhaga) 

[Jasmuheen, from Australia, has become a world-famous phenomenon, as a 

person who doesn’t eat material food anymore but draws all her bodily 

nourishment from Prana. In other words, as the title of her main book puts it, 

she is “Living on Light”. 

Twice already she intended to come to Auroville. This time it worked out and 

she was able to spend almost a week here with her husband Jeff. Jem, another 

‘Living on Light’ person, also shared his experience with us during the 

workshop in a very pleasant and interesting manner.] 

Thanks to the ‘Jasmuheen bomb’ which just exploded in our midst, a good part of the 

Auroville population is abuzz with what Jasmuheen’s presence, after her books and videos, 

has suddenly made very real to us: the exciting possibility of ‘living on light’. 

From head to toe, Jasmuheen is smiling and lovely, and radiating with youthfulness. 

She literally charmed us for two hours and two days in the Quiet Healing Centre with her 

delightful voice and even more delightful laughter. And what she had to say was extremely 

interesting indeed. 

I didn’t personally learn much from the general 

things she explained about what I call ‘The New Spirituality’, for while this New Spirituality, 

thanks to the action of the Supramental upon Earth and as foreseen by Mother, has now 

become almost commonplace in Humanity’s changing collective mind, - it originated in fact 

from Sri Aurobindo and Mother nearly a century ago. Having extensively studied their books, 

these are points I know well; these are the very points which I myself repeatedly explain with 

ever renewed joy to the groups of guests being introduced to Auroville, and it is with great joy 

too that they hear all this good news from me. 

However, even knowing it all myself, it has been a pleasure for me to see someone else 

bring all that home so beautifully into the minds, hearts and bodies of so many of my fellow 

Aurovilians, who obviously needed urgently to have those things explained to them too. I would 

have been even happier had they discovered it all directly in Sri Aurobindo and Mother, but 

apparently it had to be through Jasmuheen that those simple and joyous truths were to be 

revealed to those Aurovilians. In all fairness and sincere appreciation, I want to express here 

my admiration and gratitude to Jasmuheen for the great job she has done - not only regarding 

those ‘generalities’, but of course also, more precisely, regarding the ‘Living on Light’ adventure, 

which is her main topic and well-known ‘speciality’. 

After having had such a convincing example before our very eyes during those days at 

Quiet, quite a few Aurovilians might be envisaging to try out the now famous 21 Day ‘process’ 

Jasmuheen has herself used. 

I could understand them, but myself I would not do it. Why? 

Because there remains an important question: if ‘living on light‘, for example, can be 

achieved in such a relatively easy and quick manner (just follow the ‘recipe’, as Jasmuheen 

calls it; the hardships that come afterwards, socially and otherwise, are unavoidable whatever 

the method used), how come Sri Aurobindo and Mother didn’t use that recipe, nor any other 

recipe, be it from the Ascended Masters, the Kriya Yoga, the Siddha Yoga, or any other existing 

system, for achieving the long fought-for Transformation of their body? 

The answer is simple: the kind of Transformation they wanted to make possible - not for 

themselves but as a permanent new rung in terrestrial evolution’s ladder - was not to depend 

on any recipe, for that would be yet another limitation, WHILE THE RESULT REQUIRED IS A 

21

DIVINELY CONSCIOUS BODY, FREE FROM ANY LIMITATION. What we need is not to 

emprison our body-consciousness in yet another programmation, however wonderful it may 

seem compared to its present downright crippling ‘normal’ conditioning. What we need is the 

total freedom of a body fully conscious again of its own divinity. Because such is the really 

needed result, no ‘recipe’ could do the job; that’s why Sri Aurobindo and Mother had to follow 

the much longer and much more difficult process of the ‘Yoga of the Cells’. 

Now what is meant exactly by that? 

Many people mistakenly believe the ‘Yoga of the Cells’ to mean that one does the Yoga, 

not just at the mental level, vital level and emotional level and generally at the level of the body, 

but even at the cellular level too. This is indeed already quite an achievement to be able to do 

that, but it is not unheard of. If this were the only thing achieved by Sri Aurobindo and Mother, 

that wouldn’t be such a new or revolutionary thing, nor one so important for Evolution. But this 

wrong understanding is present, alas, even in some otherwise very good books about Sri 

Aurobindo and Mother, so one has to be careful and read ‘Mother’s Agenda’ directly (or at least 

‘The Mind of the Cells’ by Satprem) to find out the actual amazing meaning of that expression. 

What is meant exactly by Mother when she starts speaking (only after 1956) of the 

‘Yoga of the Cells’, is an entirely new, truly extraordinary and life-changing event: it is THE 

CELLS THEMSELVES STARTING TO DO THEIR OWN YOGA, independently of what Mother’s 

central consciousness may be doing. THAT is the process specifically needed, for THAT only 

will bring about the real change necessary at the body level, which is an AWAKENING OF THE 

CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE CELLS THEMSELVES. It is the cells themselves who, along with 

the other parts of our being, will then go, CONSCIOUSLY AND WILLINGLY AND BY THEIR 

OWN CHOICE, first through the psychic and spiritual preliminary transformations, and then 

finally the supramental transformation, which will complete the process and make its results 

permanent, a veritable new nature for our entire being. 

This real meaning of the expression ’Yoga of the Cells’ reveals to us why there can be 

no shortcut to this process if the result we want is the real ‘Life Divine’ announced, prepared 

and also initiated by Sri Aurobindo and Mother. For that, our cells too must, in all freedom of 

choice, grow consciously divine. 

Of course, what genuine and inspiring people like 

Jasmuheen have to offer is part of the general spiritual awakening of Humanity also announced 

since 1914. This ‘spiritual revolution’ is quite important in itself, for it is the first step towards the 

Supramental Transformation (Sri Aurobindo and Mother emphasise here that this counts for 

the human beings who will have prepared themselves for it), and towards the emergence one 

day of the New Species, directly and naturally Supramental, which will be the new rung in 

terrestrial Evolution. 

We have seen the need of explaining what the ‘Yoga of the Cells’ truly is. But what is 

meant exactly by ‘Supramental’, what is the plane it originates from, what is its real nature and 

action? These are things that usually are not understood either. People generally assume that 

the Supramental is simply whatever is above our ordinary mental consciousness. Not aware 

enough of the many degrees and levels present in supra—physical reality, they tend to call 

everything ‘the Universal Mind’ or whatever, and to put everything ‘spiritual’ in that big bag, not 

realising that what Sri Aurobindo named the ‘Supramental Consciousness-Force’is something 

quite specific, different from the spiritual planes reached and explored by traditional spirituality. 

Therefore, before one adopts the techniques for spiritual growth which those persons, in their 

goodwill, may be proposing to us, one has to make sure for oneself that those means will really 

contribute to the specific result we are pursuing here in Auroville. The recipes, if used at all, 

may need to be somehow adapted so that they will not hinder the real change which is to 

happen in ourselves. 

Our body-cells, for example, are so used to remain passive and to simply obey our 

central will, that this blind obedience may become an obstacle to their further evolution as 

awakened cells, conscious of their own divine nature. The necessity for the cells to rediscover 

their freedom was such an important point that in Mother herself the central Will - which in her 

22

case was of course a Will of the highest possible kind - was not allowed, after 1956, to take the 

decisions. The cells were to be left alone, so as to be able to make constantly their own choice 

- for this was the only way they could truly grow in consciousness and participate actively in 

their own transformation. Mother’s central consciousness observed and encouraged only - 

and, luckily for us all, described what was happening and some of the fascinating results to her 

confidant Satprem twice a week: that’s how we have now for our own guidance on that same 

evolutive path this invaluable document which ‘Mother’s Agenda’ is. 

I personally believe that things don’t happen by chance, and that the visit of Jasmuheen 

to Auroville means an opportunity for us to learn from her, but probably also for her to learn 

from us - or at least from Sri Aurobindo and Mother. During her workshop, Jasmuheen described 

a little what she has learnt over the years from the various spiritual paths she has been led to 

discover, reluctantly at that time, when she still believed that the path she followed then was the 

only ‘really true’ one. She explained how, after that, she started appreciating all paths as equally 

valid. Now she knows, and is happy to know, that we share with her and other people like her 

a very important peculiarity: our deep insistence on a spirituality which will transform life, instead 

of trying to escape from life. 

Jasmuheen happened to be visiting Auroville precisely during the time of the year 

when we celebrate Mother’s birthday anniversary. May this ‘coincidence’ be for her the 

opportunity perhaps to learn more about Sri Aurobindo and Mother, about who they were and 

about how they have not only announced but initiated the wonderful new step in Evolution 

which we are witnessing now: the birth of a New World upon this planet. May our new friend 

Jasmuheen realise then that Sri Aurobindo and Mother have gone so far, pioneering for all of 

us this New Species in the making, that they are still ahead of us all for probably quite some 

time to come. This doesn’t mean that anyone should adore them - it is the last thing they would 

want; but this does mean that believing oneself to be somehow equal to them, would only show 

one’s ignorance of what they have accomplished for us all. It would also show one’s ignorance 

of the vast difference there is between the Supramental and the previously known (and 

comparatively easier to reach) other degrees of spiritual consciousness. 

If it is in such a spirit of free learning from each other as equals that Jasmuheen has 

come here, it will be with unmixed joy and sweetness of heart that her visit to Auroville will be 

remembered by all those who have met her. This will make us look forward to further exchanges 

of experiential knowledge with her and her friends ‘living on light’. This first time working together 

has been already for many of us quite a delightful experience. I, for one, say with gratitude for 

all the love received (and for the hilarious jokes too..!): 

“Goodbye, dear Jasmuheen! And please come again!” 

THE BIRTHDAY WEEK 

For the “Birthday Week”, (21 st – 28 th February 2001), the Delhi Exhibition Team, again with the 

LOE-CHU, put together a simple but beautiful decoration of the SAWCHU building, based 

again on Mother’s Symbol, as an “Offering to the Divine Mother”. 

During that week, a long prepared seminar on “Money in Auroville”, very well attended, used 

several times the space for its meetings. On the 28 th evening, all those in Auroville who participate 

in the “Circles Experiment” of Financial Sharing, were invited to celebrate together the 1 st 

anniversary of the experiment. 

Here is from Sri Aurobindo little book, “The Mother”, the chapter about “Money”: 

“Money is the visible sign of a universal force, and this force in its manifestation on earth works 

on the vital and physical planes and is indispensable to the fullness of the outer life. In its origin 

and its true action it belongs to the Divine. But like other powers of the Divine it is delegated 

here and in the ignorance of the lower Nature can be usurped for the uses of the ego or held by 

Asuric influences and perverted to their purpose. This is indeed one of the three forces— 

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power, wealth, sex—that have the strongest attraction for the human ego and the Asura and 

are most generally misheld and misused by those who retain them. The seekers or keepers of 

wealth are more often possessed rather than its possessors; few escape entirely a certain 

distorting influence stamped on it by its long seizure and perversion by the Asura. For this 

reason most spiritual disciplines insist on a complete self-control, detachment and renunciation 

of all bondage to wealth and of all personal and egoistic desire for its possession. Some even 

put a ban on money and riches and proclaim poverty and bareness of life as the only spiritual 

condition. But this is an error; it leaves the power in the hands of the hostile forces. To reconquer 

it for the Divine to whom it belongs and use it divinely for the divine life is the supramental way 

for the Sadhaka. 

You must neither turn with an ascetic shrinking from the money power, the means it gives and 

the objects it brings, nor cherish a rajasic attachment to them or a spirit of enslaving selfindulgence 

in their gratifications. Regard wealth simply as a power to be won back for the 

Mother and placed at her service. 

All wealth belongs to the Divine and those who hold it are trustees, not possessors. It is with 

them today, tomorrow it may be elsewhere. All depends on the way they discharge their trust 

while it is with them, in what spirit, with what consciousness in their use of it, to what purpose. 

In your personal use of money look on all you have or get or bring as the Mother’s. Make no 

demand but accept what you receive from her and use it for the purposes for which it is given 

to you. Be entirely selfless, entirely scrupulous, exact, careful in detail, a good trustee; always 

consider that it is her possessions and not your own that you are handling. On the other hand, 

what you receive for her, lay religiously before her; turn nothing to your own or anybody else’s 

purpose. 

Do not look up to men because of their riches or allow yourself to be impressed by the show, 

the power or the influence. When you ask for the Mother, you must feel that it is she who is 

demanding through you a very little of what belongs to her and the man from whom you ask will 

be judged by his response. 

If you are free from the money-taint but without any ascetic withdrawal, you will have a greater 

power to command the money for the divine work. Equality of mind, absence of demand and 

the full dedication of all you possess and receive and all your power of acquisition to the Divine 

Shakti and her work are the signs of this freedom. Any perturbation of mind with regard to 

money and its use, any claim, any grudging is a sure index of some imperfection or bondage. 

The ideal Sadhaka in this kind is one who if required to live poorly can so live and no sense of 

want will affect him or interfere with the full inner play of the divine consciousness, and if he is 

required to live richly, can so live and never for a moment fall into desire or attachment to his 

wealth or to the things that he uses or servitude to self-indulgence or a weak bondage to the 

habits that the possession of riches creates. The divine Will is all for him and the divine Ananda. 

In the supramental creation the money-force has to be restored to the Divine Power and used 

for a true and beautiful and harmonious equipment and ordering of a new divinised vital and 

physical existence in whatever way the Divine Mother herself decides in her creative vision. 

But first it must be conquered back for her and those will be strongest for the conquest who are 

in this part of their nature strong and large and free from ego and surrendered without any 

claim or withholding or hesitation, pure and powerful channels for the Supreme Puissance”. 

24

THE ‘BRIDGING’ WORK OF THE LOE-CHU. 

“Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. 

Taking advantage of all discoveries, from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards 

future realisations.” 

(The Mother, 28.2.68, ‘Charter of Auroville’) 

The LOE-CHU aims at being a bridge between Auroville and the rest of the world for all topics 

relevant to Research about Evolution and Human Unity. We would like, for each such topic taken as a 

theme in ‘FOCUS: EVOLUTION’, to present not only texts by Sri Aurobindo or Mother, which provide 

already in themselves a most comprehensive (actually all-inclusive) framework, but also texts or summaries 

of texts from other sources, so that the various emerging convergences or complementarities widen or 

make more accurate our overall understanding of that topic. 

In that way, we hope that those already familiar with Sri Aurobindo and Mother, will discover the 

most valuable aspects of the existing other sources of spiritual and scientific knowledge, whether ancient 

or modern, while conversely those familiar only with those other sources, will discover the evolutive vision 

and work of Sri Aurobindo and Mother, which in many cases sheds new light on the topic studied, and 

offers the needed overall framework in which every element finds its place and meaning. 

We are beginning this ‘bridging’ work with the theme we have chosen for this February 2001 

issue: ‘The Divine Mother’. 

*** 

OTHER EXPRESSIONS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ‘THE DIVINE MOTHER’. 

by Bhaga 

In many ancient cultures the Divine Being was seen as a Mother rather than as a Father figure. It is 

mostly in the relatively more recent period of our history that the Father aspect has become overwhelmingly 

predominant, particularly because the Western culture, with its Judeo-Christian religions, has become 

somehow the World culture influencing everyone and every corner of the planet. 

Still, in spite of that - and partly as a reaction to that - there is at the moment in the collective mind of 

Humanity a strong resurgence of the emphasis on the feminine aspect of the Divine. This fact is a part of 

the overall awakening of our species to its forgotten spiritual knowledge. Of course our lingering mental 

consciousness, with it inveterate divisive perception, gives us a tendency to make of that resurgence yet 

another duality and another pretext to oppose the two aspects; but the New, Supramental Consciousness 

now also at work upon Earth has its effects too: for more and more people it becomes obvious that those 

two aspects of the Divine, the fatherly and the motherly aspects, are actually one, and should not be seen 

as antagonistic at all. If the present extreme predominance of the Father aspect needs indeed to be 

corrected, by allowing the Mother aspect to grow again in our consciousnesses, yet we don’t need to 

overdo it and find ourselves swinging again to the other extreme like a wild pendulum. It is a balance, a 

harmonised equilibrium of the two aspects which is required, for that only will reflect the true reality of the 

nature of the Divine. 

It must be noted that the concept of a ‘Divine Mother’ in the old days of Humanity was often a frightening 

one, as cruel as Life itself can seem to be when one has lost the key to its evolutive purpose and 

meaning. 

But the ancient perception of the ‘Divine Mother’ could also, in a generally more benign manner, be 

associated with the Earth: our Mother was the Earth-Mother, Matter, seen as the Black Virgin and at the 

same time as the obscure womb, the Matrix which had given us birth in this physical world. In those 

remote times, we humans still had a much closer contact with Nature and were able to perceive the 

existence around the planet of what is called in English ‘ley lines’. It is not surprising that in many special 

spots of those ley lines, have been found statues of a Black Virgin, and shrines around them. Well, in 

Europe - and France particularly - most of those special spots are also those upon which have been built 

later many churches (and even cathedrals) dedicated to ‘Our Lady’, the Virgin Mary, in the context this 

time of Christianity. The older structures and statues were simply obliterated as much as possible, and 

the new ones erected in their stead, but very often the two ‘levels’ have actually coexisted along the 

centuries, one visible and consciously venerated, the other one occulted, but still present and active in 

the collective subconsciousness of the peoples there. 

Humanity has somehow expressed in this way its own gradual awakening to the existence of a supracosmic, 

luminous, supremely divine and loving Mother, beyond the first, lower, obscure manifestation of this 

25

same Mother, as we were able to perceive Her in Matter or in Life at the beginning of our process of 

Evolution. 

Sri Aurobindo has been asked what was the significance of the fact that his own date of birth, the 15th of 

August, happened to be the Christian day celebrating the ‘Assomption’ of the Virgin Mary, that is, the 

divinisation of her body , said to have ascended on that day into Heaven. Sri Aurobindo’s reply was that 

his own birth on this same date was of course no coincidence, as the ‘Assomption’ actually symbolised 

and announced the very work he had come to do: the divinisation of Matter, through the awakening of 

Matter itself to its own divine nature, thanks to the action of the Supramental Power, the Truth- 

Consciousness. now at work directly upon Earth. 

Besides the material we have from Sri Aurobindo and Mother and from the Christian concepts about this, 

it is interesting to note that in the material from Edgar Cayce too, one finds very similar points being 

explained. 

Edgar Cayce [ to be pronounced ‘Kaycee’] was an American contemporary of Sri Aurobindo and Mother, 

who became famous for his capacity, while in trance, to diagnose what was wrong with a patient, and 

recommend the proper treatment. As what was wrong stemmed sometimes from a problem having occurred 

not in the current lifetime of the person, but in some previous incarnation of that same soul, Edgar Cayce, 

at a time when the notion of reincarnation was virtually unknown in the West, found himself describing 

while in trance the many periods of human history in which this or that patient had lived before, often in 

countries or continents long forgotten since. When all the separate descriptions of times and places were 

gradually pieced together, a fascinating tapestry of vastly unknown human history revealed itself to the 

astonished Cayce, his family and his friends, and later to the many researchers who started consulting 

this enormous amount of trance material. 

This material has come to be called ‘ the readings’, for Edgar Cayce’s consciousness was actually going 

to what is known as the ‘Akashic Records’ and reading the Records concerning the question put to him. 

As he was in his waking state a simple, uneducated man and a devout Christian, totally dedicated to the 

Bible, the poor Edgar Cayce had for many years a very hard time reconciling the strange things he was 

saying while in trance, with the often limited and limiting beliefs of his Church. He did remain, though, a 

very active and very appreciated Sunday School teacher whenever he could still spare some time for that 

in spite of being overwhelmed with an ever-increasing number of requests for ‘Readings’. But while 

remaining a Church member, he also came to fully trust and integrate in his own life the much vaster and 

deeper meaning of Jesus’s life, as well as of our own existences in general, which he now had discovered. 

What had been shown and explained to him through the trance-state, his soul had come to recognise 

unmistakably as the Truth, and he surrendered his life to it. 

The ‘Readings’ go way back to Creation itself, and to the very first beginnings of the long 

adventure of Evolution into which our spirits have engaged themselves in order to become conscious snd 

perfect co-creators with ‘God’. This term is often replaced by ‘the Creative Forces’, or else ‘All that is’; 

when the word ‘God’ is used, it might be as ‘God the Father’, but also sometimes as ‘the Father-Mother 

God’ - which makes it quite clear that the Divine Being is both at the same time. 

So, as we have just seen, the ‘Father-Mother’ nature of the Divine as described by Sri Aurobindo 

and Mother is found also in the ‘Readings’. Another specific point related to that comes up too, which 

confirms also something else Sri Aurobindo and Mother have been explaining: the fact that incarnations 

of the dual Divine Being upon Earth for helping the process of Evolution, happen most often as twin souls, 

who have existed since the beginning, and who take birth, one in a masculine, the other in a feminine 

body, during the same historical period, so as to be able to work together. In their outer consciousness 

the two may not be aware of who they are, if it is not necessary that they be aware of that for their 

evolutive work. Their relationship as humans may not be that of a couple either, but still they they will be 

both there to do that work at that time. 

Here is the very similar way in which Sri Aurobindo described the relationship between he and 

the Mother in answer to questions from disciples regarding some inner experiences: 

“The Mother and myself stand for the same Power in two forms - so the perception in the dream was 

perfectly logical. Ishwara-Shakti, Purusha-Prakriti are only the two sides of the one Divine (Brahman).” 

“It is a very common experience, that of the identity between myself and the Mother (the 

perception that we are one), expressed in the fusing of the two images.” 

According to the following ‘Reading’, the incarnation of the dual Divine Being as Jesus 

26

[the Master] and his mother Mary was another ‘twin-soul’ incarnation: 

“You see, in the beginning, Mary was the twin soul of the Master in the entrance into the Earth 

[plane]! 

(...)They were one soul as far as the Earth is concerned.” 

It is interesting to note that the Catholic Church has recognised recently the divinity of 

the Virgin Mary, previously considered and honored only as the human mother of Jesus-Christ. 

Another observation, regarding again the Virgin Mary as a manifestation of the Divine 

Mother: in the marial apparitions around the 

world, as also generally in the statues which are 

made of the Holy Virgin, a crown of twelve stars 

can be seen above the head of Mary. These 

twelve stars or pearls seem to be a 

characteristic sign, visible to the inner eye 

only, but revealing the presence of the Divine 

Mother, either in the apparition, or in a 

human being who is an incarnation of the Divine 

Mother. 

This was explained to Mother, actually about 

herself, by Alma Theon, the remarkably gifted 

wife of the master occultist Max Theon, 

when Mother as a young adult was studying 

occultism with them. In some passing remarks 

recorded in ‘Mother’s Agenda’, Mother tells 

Satprem how this crown of twelve pearls seen 

above her own head had been for the 

clairvoyant Alma the unmistakable proof that 

this very special Mirra Alfassa was the 

incarnation of the Divine Mother. Alma had 

mentioned also as another sign the 

characteristic pure white light which was there as 

well around Mother, and which Mother herself 

told Satprem was the light known in India as 

that of Maheshwari. 

Our Lady as she appeared at Medjurgordje 

France is a country which has always been especially devoted to the cult of the Holy Virgin - that is, infact, 

the Divine Mother France is a country which has always been especially devoted to the cult of the Holy 

Virgin -that is, in fact, the Divine Mother. In the two most magnificent cathedrals dedicated to ‘Our Lady’, 

one in Chartres and the other one in Paris, there are resplendent, huge, stained-glass round windows... 

which have exactly the same basic structure as the symbol of the Divine Mother drawn by Mother herself, 

and shown on the front-page of this publication: the center, the four petals around it, and the twelve outer 

petals around the four. 

All these details give us an idea of the extent to which the Divine Mother has been present in our human 

consciousness, and still is, even in religions which do not speak of her openly in those terms. 

The fact that more and more persons in the world today, again recognise the existence of the Divine 

Mother and relate to her in their own life, is a very important and positive sign. Her Divine Grace, her 

motherly Love for us are now directly at work on Earth and in Matter itself as the Supramental Power, the 

irresistible Power of the Truth-Consciousness. As Sri Aurobindo has said repeatedly and most emphatically, 

if we entrust ourselves fully to Her, She will carry us safely through this whole process of further Evolution 

which is already started, and is of such a magnitude that no human being could possibly accomplish it by 

his or her own effort alone. She, and only She, can do it all for us - for She has been, since ever, the very 

Force behind Evolution itself, and the very Love and Delight we have been longing for. 

27

Bulletin of the Laboratory of Evolution- Center for Human Unity 

Auroville - 605101 T.N India 

Email: bhaga@auroville.org.in 

Desktop publishing: AVNEWS 

28

The Mother's symbol - Auroville

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