Auroville centres of India

( Mother first reads out for All India Radio the text of her "reminiscences" of her life in India: see the conversation of  January 27 . ) Then I’ve written something else…. They wanted to prepare a sort of brochure on Auroville to distribute to the press, the government, etc., on the 28th, 1  and before that, there is in Delhi in two or three days a conference of all nations (“all nations” is an exaggeration, but anyway they say “all nations”). Z is going there, and she wants to take with her all the papers on Auroville. They have prepared texts—always lengthy, interminable: speeches and more speeches. So then I asked, I concentrated to know what had to be said. And all of a sudden, Sri Aurobindo gave me a revelation. That was something interesting. I concentrated to know the why the how and so on, and all of a sudden Sri Aurobindo said… ( Mother reads out a note: ) “India has become… It was the vision of the thing, and it instantly translated into French words. ...

Hymn to Durga Mother Durga! Rider on the lion, giver of all strength, Mother, beloved of Siva! We, born from thy parts of Power, we the youth of India, are seated here in thy temple. Listen, O Mother, descend upon earth, make thyself manifest in this land of India. Mother Durga! From age to age, in life after life, we come down into the human body, do thy work and return to the Home of Delight. Now too we are born, dedicated to thy work. Listen, O Mother, descend upon earth, come to our help. Mother Durga! Rider on the lion, trident in hand, thy body of beauty armour-clad, Mother, giver of victory, India awaits thee, eager to see the gracious form of thine. Listen, O Mother, descend upon earth, make thyself manifest in this land of India. Mother Durga! Giver of force and love and knowledge, terrible art thou in thy own self of might, Mother beautiful and fierce. In the battle of life, in India’s battle, we are warriors commissioned by thee; Mother, give to our heart and...

Areal view of India's Capital  Future city Auroville in the making near Pondicherry, India An Auroville community

The Four Austerities and the Four Liberations- I To pursue an integral education that leads to the supramental realisation, four austerities are necessary, and with them four liberations. Austerity is usually confused with self-mortification, and when someone speaks of austerities, we think of the discipline of the ascetic who, in order to avoid the arduous task of spiritualising the physical, vital and mental life, declares it incapable of transformation and casts it away ruthlessly as a useless encumbrance, as a bondage and an impediment to all spiritual progress, in any case as something incorrigible, as a load that has to be borne more or less cheerfully until Nature, or divine Grace, delivers you from it by death. At best, life on earth is a field for progress and one should take advantage of it as best one can in order to reach as soon as possible the degree of perfection which will put an end to the ordeal by making it unnecessary. For us the problem...

"India of the ages is not dead nor has she spoken her last creative word; she lives and has still something to do for herself and the human peoples. And that which must seek now to awake is not an anglicised oriental people, docile pupil of the West and doomed to repeat the cycle of the Occident's success and failure, but still the ancient immemorable Shakti recovering her deepest self, lifting her head higher towards the supreme source of light and strength and turning to discover the complete meaning and a vaster form of her Dharma."