Mirra Alfassa: Difference between revisions

| name   = Mirra Alfassa

| image     = Divine-mother (mirra alfassa).jpg

| pen_name =   The Mother

| institute   = [[Sri Aurobindo Ashram]]<br />[[Auroville]]<br />

| birth_name =Blanche Rachel Mirra Alfassa

| birth_date = 21 February 1878

| caption = Mirra Alfassa

| religion = [[Hinduism]]

| birth_place = [[Paris]], France

| death_date = {{death date and age|1973|11|17|1878|02|21|df=yes}}

| death_place = [[Pondicherry (city)|Pondicherry]], India

| resting_place   = [[Pondicherry (city)|Pondicherry]], India

| nationality = French, Indian

| works       = Prayers And Meditations, Words of Long Ago, On Thoughts and Aphorisms, Words of the Mother

| students   = [[Satprem]], [[Nolini Kanta Gupta]], [[Nirodbaran]], [[K. D. Sethna|Amal Kiran]], [[Pavitra]]

| signature     = Transparent-signature-Mirra-Alfassa.png

'''Mirra Alfassa''' (21 February 1878&nbsp;– 17 November 1973), known to her followers as '''The Mother''', was a spiritual [[guru]], and a collaborator of [[Sri Aurobindo]], who considered her to be of equal yogic stature to him and called her by the name "The Mother". She founded the [[Sri Aurobindo Ashram]] and established [[Auroville]] as a universal town; she was an influence and inspiration to many writers and spiritual personalities on the subject of [[Integral yoga|Integral Yoga]].

Mirra Alfassa (Mother) was born in Paris in 1878 to a Sephardic Jewish bourgeois family. In her youth, she traveled to Algeria to practice occultism along with [[Max Théon]]. After returning, while living in Paris, she guided a group of spiritual seekers. In 1914, she traveled to Pondicherry, India and met Sri Aurobindo and found in him "the dark Asiatic figure" of whom she had had visions and called him Krishna. During this first visit, she helped publish a French version of a  periodical Arya, which serialized most of Sri Aurobindo's post-political prose writings. During the First World war she was obliged to leave Pondicherry. After a 4-year stay in Japan, in 1920 she returned to Pondicherry for good. Gradually, as more and more people joined her and Sri Aurobindo, she organised and developed Sri Aurobindo Ashram. In 1943, she started a school in the ashram and in 1968 established Auroville, an experimental township dedicated to human unity and evolution. She died on 17 November 1973 in Pondicherry.

The experiences of the last thirty years of Mother life were captured in the 13-volume work ''[[The Agenda (Mother)|Mother's Agenda]]'' by [[Satprem]] who was one of her followers.

In 1893 after graduating from school, Mirra joined [[Académie Julian]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sriaurobindoashram.org/ashram/mother/index.php |title=The Mother |work=sriaurobindoashram.org |year=2013 |access-date=11 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109141542/http://www.sriaurobindoashram.org/ashram/mother/index.php |archive-date=9 November 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.fr/books?redir_esc=y&id=yebqAAAAMAAJ&dq=Mirra+Alfassa&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=Julian ''Mirra Alfassa, paintings and drawings'', P. 157-158]</ref> to study art. Her grandmother Mira introduced her to Henri Morisset, an ex-student of the Académie; they were married on 13 October 1897.{{sfn|Vrekhem|2004|pp=15–20}} Both were well off and worked as artists for the next ten years, during an era known for having many [[Impressionism|impressionist artists]]. Her son André was born on 23 August 1898. Some of Alfassa's paintings were accepted by the jury of [[Salon d'Automne]] and were exhibited in 1903, 1904 and 1905.{{sfn|Vrekhem|2004|pp=24}} She recalls herself being a complete [[atheist]] at this time, yet was experiencing various memories which she found were not mental formations but spontaneous experiences. She kept those experiences to herself and developed an urge to understand their significance. She came across the book [[Raja Yoga (book)|Raja yoga]] by [[Swami Vivekananda]], which provided some of the explanations she was looking for. Mirra also received a copy of the [[Bhagavad Gita]] in French, which helped her considerably in learning more about these experiences.{{sfn|Vrekhem|2004|pp=29}}

==== Max Théon and Alma Théon ====

[[File:Mother and Theon.jpg|thumb|

Mirra Alfassa in Theon's house at Tlemcen, Algeria (1906–1907)

During this time Mirra made the acquaintance of Louis Thémanlys who was the head of the [[Cosmic Movement]], a group started by Max Théon. Through reading a copy of [[Cosmic Review]], she attended Thémanlys's speeches and became active in the group. For the first time, on 14 July 1906, she journeyed alone to the Algerian city of [[Tlemcen]] to meet with Max Théon and his wife Alma Théon. She consequently travelled twice more, in 1906 and 1907, to their estate at Tlemcen and there practised and experimented with the teachings of Max Théon & Alma Théon.{{sfn|Vrekhem|2004|pp=37–67}}

In 1908, Mirra moved to 49 rue de Lévis, Paris, living alone in a small apartment and involving herself in discussions with Buddhists and Cosmic movement circles. During this time she also made the acquaintance of [[Alexandra David-Néel|Madame David Néel]].{{sfn|Vrekhem|2004|pp=73–75}} Mirra married Paul Richard in 1911 who after serving four years in the army had involved himself in philosophy & theology. He had come to know Mirra when he was in discussions with Max Théon. Vrekhem, a biographer of Mirra, mentions that Richard was undergoing a legal problem in inheriting children from his first marriage to a Dutch woman, and had asked Mirra for help which she had accepted by marrying him.{{sfn|Vrekhem|2004|pp=84}}

With time many influenced by the Arya Magazine and others who had heard about Sri Aurobindo started to come to his residence either permanently to reside or to practise Sri Aurobindo's yoga. Mirra was initially not totally accepted by the other household members and was considered an outsider. Sri Aurobindo considered her to be of equal yogic stature and started calling her "The Mother", and she was known to the whole community as such from then on. Around 1924 onwards Mother was starting to organise the day-to-day functioning of the household and slowly the house was turning into an [[ashram]] with many followers flowing in every day.{{sfn|Vrekhem|2004|pp=228–248}} After 1926 Sri Aurobindo started to retire from regular activities and put his complete focus towards yogic practises. The community had grown to 85 members by then and the group had slowly turned into a spiritual ashram.

On 24 November 1926, later declared as Siddhi Day (Victory Day) and still celebrated by [[Sri Aurobindo Ashram]],{{sfn|Vrekhem|2004|pp=250–251}} Mother and Sri Aurobindo declared that [[Integral yoga|overmind]] consciousness had manifested directly in physical consciousness, allowing the possibility for human consciousness to be directly aware and be in the overmind consciousness.{{refn|group=note| A detailed description of the Overmind is provided in Book I ch.28, and Book II ch.26, of Aurobindo's philosophical opus ''[[The Life Divine]]''}}

By 1937 the ashram residents had grown to more than 150, so there was a need for an expansion of buildings and facilities, helped by Diwan Hyder Ali, the Nizam of Hyderabad who had made a grant to the ashram for further expansion. Under the guidance of Mother, [[Antonin Raymond]], the chief architect, assisted by Franticek Sammer and [[George Nakashima]], constructed a dormitory building. By this time the second world war erupted delaying the construction but was finally completed after ten years and was named Golconde.{{sfn|Vrekhem|2004|pp=303–305}} 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.<ref>Nirodbaran 1972, Karmayogi{{expand citation|date=June 2020}}</ref>

== School in ashram and the day Sri Aurobindo left his body ==

[[File:Themotherspainting.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Mother's painting: ‘Divine Consciousness Emerging from the Inconscient’, 1920–1925]]

Sri Aurobindo left his body on 5 December 1950. This was a very difficult experience for Mother.{{sfn|Vrekhem|2004|pp=353–354}} All the activities in the ashram were suspended for twelve days, after which Mother had to decide the future course of the ashram. Mother decided to take up the entire work of the ashram and also to continue the integral yoga internally. The years from 1950 to 1958 were the years where she was mostly seen by her disciples.{{sfn|Vrekhem|2004|pp=385}}

On 15 August 1954 [[French India|French Pondicherry]] became a [[union territory of India]]. Mother declared dual citizenship for India and France.{{sfn|Vrekhem|2004|pp=408–409}} [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] visited the ashram on 16 January 1955 and met with Mother. This meeting cleared many doubts he had about the ashram. During his second visit to the ashram on 29 September 1955, his daughter [[Indira Gandhi]] accompanied him. Mother had a profound effect on her, which developed into a close relationship in later years.{{sfn|Vrekhem|2004|pp=412–413}} Mother continued to teach French after the passing away of Sri Aurobindo. She started with just simple conversations and recitations, which later expanded into deeper discussions about integral yoga where she would read a passage from Sri Aurobindo's or her own writings and comment on them. These sessions grew into a seven-volume book called Questions and Answers. {{sfn|Vrekhem|2004|pp=414}}

Mother had published an article titled "The Dream" in which she suggested a place on earth that no nation could claim as its sole property, for all humanity with no distinction.{{sfn|Vrekhem|2004|pp=547–549}} In 1964 it was finally decided to build this city. On 28 February 1968 they drew up a charter for the city, Auroville, meaning City of the Dawn (derived from the French word aurore), a model universal township where one of the aims would be to bring about human unity. The city still exists and continues to grow (although not in terms of permanent residents as recorded by census). {{sfn|Vrekhem|2004|pp=559–562}} Today Auroville is managed by a foundation set up by the Indian government.

== References ==

'''Citations'''

'''Bibliography'''

* {{citation |first=Peter |last=Heehs |title=The Lives of Sri Aurobindo |publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2008| isbn=978-0-231-14098-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EZTFrMZFOvcC}}

* {{citation |first=Georges Van|last=Vrekhem |title=the Mother the story of her life|year=2004|publisher=Rupa & Co |isbn=8129105934 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8hgG8aweqncC&q=The+Mother:+The+Story+of+Her+Life}}

*{{citation  |title=Encyclopedia of Hinduism |year=2007 |editor1-first=Constance |editor1-last=Jones |editor2-first=James D. |editor2-last=Ryan |publisher= Facts on File Inc |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8160-5458-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=saJNuAAACAAJ}}