Who is the Mother? Sri Aurobindo has declared in no uncertain terms: "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."

Sri Aurobindo came to tell us, that man is only a transitional being, living in a mental consciousness but, with the possibility of acquiring a new consciousness, the Truth-consciousness and capable of living a life perfectly harmonious, good and beautiful, happy and conscious. Modern society has discovered new principle of survival , progress but the aim of that progress, remarks Sri Aurobindo, it has never discovered, for the normal society, treats man essentially as a physical, vital and mental being. But only in its inward turn towards spiritualism, the search for the soul, is there a hope. to achieve your purpose".

The future of the earth depends upon the change in consciousness. "The only hope for the future depends is in a change of man's consciousness and the change is bound to come. But it is left to men to decide if they will collaborate for this change or if it will have to be enforced upon them by the power of crashing circumstances. So , wake up and collaborate".

The Mother was born as Mirra Alfassa, in Paris on 21st February 1878. Her father, Maurice Alfassa, was a wealthy Turkish banker from Adrianopolis and her mother, Mathilda Ismaloun, came from Cairo. A year before her birth, her parents settled in France, France which was then the fountain-head of Western culture.

Concerning her early spiritual life, the Mother has written: "Between 11 and 13 a series of psychic and spiritual experiences revealed to me not only the existence of God but man's possibility of uniting with Him, of realizing Him integrally in consciousness and action, of manifesting Him upon earth in a life divine."

Mirra took an interest in everything but was specially fond of music and painting. At the age of sixteen she joined one of the biggest studios in Paris to learn drawing and painting. She grew up in Paris, the metropolis of the great painters of Impressionism. It was the time of Matisse, Manet, Cezanne, and Mirra lived and moved in this rich and creative cultural milieu.

She had completed her studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and some of her paintings had been exhibited at the Salon. She had also become a gifted musician.

In her late twenties the Mother voyaged to Tlemcen, Algeria, where she studied occultism for two years with a Polish adept, Max Theon, and his wife. Returning to Paris in 1906, she founded her first group of spiritual seekers. She gave many talks to various groups in Paris between 1911 and 1913. At the age of thirty-six the Mother journeyed to Pondicherry, India, to meet Sri Aurobindo. She saw him on 29 March 1914 and at once recognised him as the one who for many years had inwardly been guiding her spiritual development. Staying for eleven months, she was obliged to return to France because of the First World War. She lived in France for about a year and then in Japan for almost four years.

On 24 April 1920 she returned to Pondicherry to resume her collaboration with Sri Aurobindo, and remained here for the rest of her life. At that time a small group of disciples had gathered around Sri Aurobindo. The increase of disciples led to the founding of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram on the 24th Nov, 1926. From the beginning Sri Aurobindo entrusted the Mother with full material and spiritual charge of the Ashram. After almost 50 years of work at every level, the Mother left her body on 17th November 1973, at the age of ninety five. The Divine Mother, in her great love for humanity has taken a human body for only so could we, her children, approach her and follow her in the path of the Supramental Yoga.

She once said : "I belong to no nation, no civilisation, no society, no race, but to the Divine. I obey no master, no ruler, no law, no social convention, but the Divine. To Him I have surrendered all, will, life and self; for Him I am ready to give all my blood, drop by drop, if such is His Will, with complete joy; and nothing in His service can be sacrifice, for all is perfect delight."

Today, Sri Aurobindo Ashram is known as a great centre of spiritual endeavour. People from all over the world come to Pondicherry , in South India, to bathe in an atmosphere full of peace, light and joy, to live a life of sadhana and yoga, to see how spirituality can embrace and perfect life. And the word they hear the most in the Ashram is "Mother". Everything is Her creation, everything draws inspiration from Her and moves towards Her.