Mirra Alfassa
Mirra Alfassa, later Mirra Morisset and Mirra Richard(February 21, 1878 - November 17, 1973), also known asThe Mother, was the spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo.
She came to Sri Aurobindo's retreat on March 29, 1914 in Pondicherrt, India. Having to leave Pondicherry during World War I, she spent most of her time in Japan where she met the poet Rabindranath Tagore. Finally she returned to Pondicherry and settled there in 1920. After November 24, 1926, when Sri Aurobindo retired into seclusion, she founded his ashram (Sri Aurobindo Ashram), with a handful of disciples living around the Master. She became the leader of the community, a position she held until her death. The Trust she had registered after Sri Aurobindo's death in 1950 continues to look after the institution.
The experiences of the last thirty years of Alfassa's life were captured in the 13-volume work The Agenda. In those years she attempted the physical transformation of her body in order to become what she felt was the first of a new type of human individual by opening to the Supramental Truth Consciousness, a new power of spirit that Sri Aurobindo had allegedly discovered. Sri Aurobindo considered her an incarnation of the Mother Divine and called her by that name: the Mother. When asked why he called her the Mother, Sri Aurobindo wrote an essay The Mother by introduction to the Mother's person. That's how she came be known as The Mother.
Early life: Mirra (or Mira) Alfassa was born in Paris in 1878, of aTurkish Jewish father, Maurice, and an Egyptian Jewishmother, Mathilde. She had an elder brother named Matteo. The family migrated to France the year before she was born. For the first eight years of her life she lived at 62 boulevard Haussmann.Alfassa describes experiences she had as a child in Paris. She says that at age five she realised she did not belong in this world, and her sadhana (spiritual discipline) began then. She claims that she would lapse into bliss and go into a trance sometimes when she was placed in an easy chair or during a meal, much to the annoyance of her mother, who regarded this behaviour as a social embarrassment.Between eleven and thirteen, she claims, a series of psychic and spiritual experiences revealed to her the existence of God, and man's possibility of uniting with Him. At age 12 she was practicing occultism and claimed to be travelling out of her body.One of the experiences she claims she had, at the age of 13 for nearly a year every night, was of going out of her body and rising straight above the city:
I used to see myself clad in a magnificent golden robe...and as I rose higher, the robe would stretch...to form a kind of immense roof over the city. Then I would see men, women, children...coming out from every side; they would gather under the outspread robe, begging for help, telling their miseries... In reply, the robe... would extend towards each one of them individually, and as soon as they had touched it they were comforted or healed, and went back to their bodies happier and stronger... Nothing seemed more beautiful to me.... and all the activities of the day seemed dull and colourless... beside this activity of the night...
Mirra Alfassa, later Mirra Morisset and Mirra Richard(February 21, 1878 - November 17, 1973), also known asThe Mother, was the spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo.
She came to Sri Aurobindo's retreat on March 29, 1914 in Pondicherrt, India. Having to leave Pondicherry during World War I, she spent most of her time in Japan where she met the poet Rabindranath Tagore. Finally she returned to Pondicherry and settled there in 1920. After November 24, 1926, when Sri Aurobindo retired into seclusion, she founded his ashram (Sri Aurobindo Ashram), with a handful of disciples living around the Master. She became the leader of the community, a position she held until her death. The Trust she had registered after Sri Aurobindo's death in 1950 continues to look after the institution.
The experiences of the last thirty years of Alfassa's life were captured in the 13-volume work The Agenda. In those years she attempted the physical transformation of her body in order to become what she felt was the first of a new type of human individual by opening to the Supramental Truth Consciousness, a new power of spirit that Sri Aurobindo had allegedly discovered. Sri Aurobindo considered her an incarnation of the Mother Divine and called her by that name: the Mother. When asked why he called her the Mother, Sri Aurobindo wrote an essay The Mother by introduction to the Mother's person. That's how she came be known as The Mother.
Early life: Mirra (or Mira) Alfassa was born in Paris in 1878, of aTurkish Jewish father, Maurice, and an Egyptian Jewishmother, Mathilde. She had an elder brother named Matteo. The family migrated to France the year before she was born. For the first eight years of her life she lived at 62 boulevard Haussmann.Alfassa describes experiences she had as a child in Paris. She says that at age five she realised she did not belong in this world, and her sadhana (spiritual discipline) began then. She claims that she would lapse into bliss and go into a trance sometimes when she was placed in an easy chair or during a meal, much to the annoyance of her mother, who regarded this behaviour as a social embarrassment.Between eleven and thirteen, she claims, a series of psychic and spiritual experiences revealed to her the existence of God, and man's possibility of uniting with Him. At age 12 she was practicing occultism and claimed to be travelling out of her body.One of the experiences she claims she had, at the age of 13 for nearly a year every night, was of going out of her body and rising straight above the city:
I used to see myself clad in a magnificent golden robe...and as I rose higher, the robe would stretch...to form a kind of immense roof over the city. Then I would see men, women, children...coming out from every side; they would gather under the outspread robe, begging for help, telling their miseries... In reply, the robe... would extend towards each one of them individually, and as soon as they had touched it they were comforted or healed, and went back to their bodies happier and stronger... Nothing seemed more beautiful to me.... and all the activities of the day seemed dull and colourless... beside this activity of the night...
At age 14 Alfassa was sent to a studio to learn art, and a year later she wrote as a school essay a mystical treatise named The Path of Later On (Alfassa 1893). In 1893 she travelled to Italy with her mother. While at the Doge's Palace in Venice she claims to have recalled a scene from a past lifewhere she was strangled and thrown out into the canal (The Mother - Some dates). (Later, for instance in Agenda, she would describe other incarnations, but she alternately describes these past lives as emanations.) At 16 she joined the Ecole des Beaux Arts where she acquired the nickname "the Sphinx", and later exhibited at the Paris Salon.
"The Mother" of the Ashram
On the 24 November 1926 (Siddhi Day) Sri Aurobindo reported himself to have had an important realisation which would open the path for bringing down the Supramental consciousness on earth.
This was also the official founding of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. At the time there were no more than 24 disciples in the Ashram (ibid pp. 233–4).
In December of that year, Sri Aurobindo decided to withdraw from public view. At this point he identified Alfassa with the Divine Mother, and instructed his followers to do the same. He informed his disciples that henceforth Alfassa would take full charge of the ashram and he would live in retirement. Alfassa later said that Sri Aurobindo had not consulted her prior to the declaration nor did he inform her of his intention, but that she had heard the news for the first time along with the disciples.
Sri Aurobindo considered Alfassa to be an Avatar (incarnation) of the Supreme Shakti. In 1927 he wrote:
The One whom we adore as the Mother is the divine Conscious Force that dominates all existence, one and yet many-sided that to follow her movement is impossible even for the quickest mind and for the freest and most vast intelligence.
The Mother
Sri Aurobindo's letters and instructions to his disciples taught the path of spiritual surrender through devotion to Alfassa; a form of Bhakti Yoga.
In 1927, Sri Aurobindo and Alfassa moved to Rue François Martin, where they stayed for the remainder of their lives (The Mother - Some dates).
In the early years, Alfassa appeared on the ashram balcony to initiate the day with her blessings. She would also meet the heads of the various departments of the growing ashram every morning, and then the sadhaks individually. Once again, in the evening at 5:30 PM, she conducted meditation and met each sadhak once more.
In 1938 Margaret Woodrow Wilson, the daughter of US President Woodrow Wilson, came to the Ashram and chose to remain there for the rest of her life.
Henry Ford had also heard of Alfassa and wanted to meet her. On the eve of his departure, World War II broke out and prevented his coming to India.
Attempted physical transformation
Sri Aurobindo said that in Alfassa he found surrender to the Divine down to physical body itself, thecells of the body (not merely the mind and emotions), the likes of which could not be found in any human being.
In 1950 Sri Aurobindo died. Alfassa related that, upon his death, she came to stand beside the bed on which he lay, "and -- in a way altogether concrete -- concrete with such a strong sensation as to make one think that it could be seen -- all this supramental force which was in him passed from his body into mine".
After Sri Aurobindo's passing, Alfassa fully took up her promise to Sri Aurobindo to attempt the physical transformation. On 29 February 1956 ("Golden Day") she announced an experience in which she had a vast cosmic golden form and broke open the golden door that separated the Universe from the Divine, allowing the Supramental force to stream down to Earth in an uninterrupted flow. She later (24 April) announced "The manifestation of the Supramental upon earth is no more a promise but a living fact".
From 1960 till her death in 1973, Alfassa had a number of near-weekly meetings with one of her closest disciples, Satprem. There she discussed her progress in her physical transformation, world events and her effect on world events, the new workings of the supramental consciousness in the world, her earlier life's experiences including her spiritual experiences, the changes and spiritualisation in the functioning of her physical body, her visions of the new race, and many other topics. These conversations were kept and were published in French and English in the 13-volume set known as The Agenda.
In 1961 a friend of John F. Kennedy took interest in Alfassa and examined in depth the philosophy and yoga of Sri Aurobindo. He met Alfassa and asked her what were the external signs by which one could discern the attainment of the Supramental consciousness in a person. Alfassa explained to him the conditions that would reveal the attainment of the Supramental consciousness and told him that of the three, equality, was the most significant. The visitor arranged for Kennedy to visit Alfassa, but it could not take place.
In 1962, at the age of 84, she was forced by an illness to withdraw from close physical contact with disciples, although she continued to give public Darshans four times a year, at which a few thousand devotees gathered and received her Grace. But she continued her inner work, concerning the transformation of the physical and cellular consciousness.
In her discussions, she is alleged to have had a number of formidable spiritual experiences in the 1950s through the 1970s. Her experiences are supposed to have intensified through the later 1960s and 70s.
In later years she met with other renowned individuals, including the king of Nepal. She had a significant meeting with the Dalai Lama who had recently escaped from Chinese occupation of Tibet.
Concurrent with her work on the inner transformation, she worked on the outer as well. In 1956 she established the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Delhi Branch, together with Surendranath Jauhar and Alfassa's International School. In 1967 plans were made and some land acquired to found a universal city of spiritual seekers in Gujarat, which she named Ompuri. This project, like earlier plans of 1957, did not go any further. But in 1968, Alfassa, working with architect Roger Anger, began Auroville as a 'more external extension' of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram (Mirapuri - Biography).
Alfassa died on 17 November 1973; three days later her body was placed in the Samadhi, the vault in the courtyard of the Ashram where Sri Aurobindo's body was placed in 1950.
"The Mother" of the Ashram
On the 24 November 1926 (Siddhi Day) Sri Aurobindo reported himself to have had an important realisation which would open the path for bringing down the Supramental consciousness on earth.
This was also the official founding of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. At the time there were no more than 24 disciples in the Ashram (ibid pp. 233–4).
In December of that year, Sri Aurobindo decided to withdraw from public view. At this point he identified Alfassa with the Divine Mother, and instructed his followers to do the same. He informed his disciples that henceforth Alfassa would take full charge of the ashram and he would live in retirement. Alfassa later said that Sri Aurobindo had not consulted her prior to the declaration nor did he inform her of his intention, but that she had heard the news for the first time along with the disciples.
Sri Aurobindo considered Alfassa to be an Avatar (incarnation) of the Supreme Shakti. In 1927 he wrote:
The One whom we adore as the Mother is the divine Conscious Force that dominates all existence, one and yet many-sided that to follow her movement is impossible even for the quickest mind and for the freest and most vast intelligence.
The Mother
Sri Aurobindo's letters and instructions to his disciples taught the path of spiritual surrender through devotion to Alfassa; a form of Bhakti Yoga.
In 1927, Sri Aurobindo and Alfassa moved to Rue François Martin, where they stayed for the remainder of their lives (The Mother - Some dates).
In the early years, Alfassa appeared on the ashram balcony to initiate the day with her blessings. She would also meet the heads of the various departments of the growing ashram every morning, and then the sadhaks individually. Once again, in the evening at 5:30 PM, she conducted meditation and met each sadhak once more.
In 1938 Margaret Woodrow Wilson, the daughter of US President Woodrow Wilson, came to the Ashram and chose to remain there for the rest of her life.
Henry Ford had also heard of Alfassa and wanted to meet her. On the eve of his departure, World War II broke out and prevented his coming to India.
Attempted physical transformation
Sri Aurobindo said that in Alfassa he found surrender to the Divine down to physical body itself, thecells of the body (not merely the mind and emotions), the likes of which could not be found in any human being.
In 1950 Sri Aurobindo died. Alfassa related that, upon his death, she came to stand beside the bed on which he lay, "and -- in a way altogether concrete -- concrete with such a strong sensation as to make one think that it could be seen -- all this supramental force which was in him passed from his body into mine".
After Sri Aurobindo's passing, Alfassa fully took up her promise to Sri Aurobindo to attempt the physical transformation. On 29 February 1956 ("Golden Day") she announced an experience in which she had a vast cosmic golden form and broke open the golden door that separated the Universe from the Divine, allowing the Supramental force to stream down to Earth in an uninterrupted flow. She later (24 April) announced "The manifestation of the Supramental upon earth is no more a promise but a living fact".
From 1960 till her death in 1973, Alfassa had a number of near-weekly meetings with one of her closest disciples, Satprem. There she discussed her progress in her physical transformation, world events and her effect on world events, the new workings of the supramental consciousness in the world, her earlier life's experiences including her spiritual experiences, the changes and spiritualisation in the functioning of her physical body, her visions of the new race, and many other topics. These conversations were kept and were published in French and English in the 13-volume set known as The Agenda.
In 1961 a friend of John F. Kennedy took interest in Alfassa and examined in depth the philosophy and yoga of Sri Aurobindo. He met Alfassa and asked her what were the external signs by which one could discern the attainment of the Supramental consciousness in a person. Alfassa explained to him the conditions that would reveal the attainment of the Supramental consciousness and told him that of the three, equality, was the most significant. The visitor arranged for Kennedy to visit Alfassa, but it could not take place.
In 1962, at the age of 84, she was forced by an illness to withdraw from close physical contact with disciples, although she continued to give public Darshans four times a year, at which a few thousand devotees gathered and received her Grace. But she continued her inner work, concerning the transformation of the physical and cellular consciousness.
In her discussions, she is alleged to have had a number of formidable spiritual experiences in the 1950s through the 1970s. Her experiences are supposed to have intensified through the later 1960s and 70s.
In later years she met with other renowned individuals, including the king of Nepal. She had a significant meeting with the Dalai Lama who had recently escaped from Chinese occupation of Tibet.
Concurrent with her work on the inner transformation, she worked on the outer as well. In 1956 she established the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Delhi Branch, together with Surendranath Jauhar and Alfassa's International School. In 1967 plans were made and some land acquired to found a universal city of spiritual seekers in Gujarat, which she named Ompuri. This project, like earlier plans of 1957, did not go any further. But in 1968, Alfassa, working with architect Roger Anger, began Auroville as a 'more external extension' of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram (Mirapuri - Biography).
Alfassa died on 17 November 1973; three days later her body was placed in the Samadhi, the vault in the courtyard of the Ashram where Sri Aurobindo's body was placed in 1950.
