A Celebration Of Faith Amid The Darkness

Pages from the life of Mirra Alfassa who arrived in Pondicherry in April 1920 and became famous as the Mother of the Aurobindo Ashram

- Manoj Das

“It matters little that there are thousands of beings plunged in the densest ignorance. He whom we saw yesterday is on earth; his presence is enough to prove that a day will come when darkness shall be transformed into light,” Mirra Alfassa wrote in her diary dated March 30, 1914. She was a seeker from France who, guided by some inner conviction, had arrived at Pondicherry, then a French colony, to meet Sri Aurobindo. Subsequently renowned as the Mother, she was a spiritual child prodigy who, even before she learnt the alphabet, wondered if humanity was the highest the earth could evolve or if the mystery of evolution was yet to manifest something more sensible and perfect that would justify its experiment with species over millennia.

Mystic experience

She had gone through several phases of her quest, including delving deep into occultism through the help of probably the greatest practitioners of that lore, Max and Alma Theon of Algeria. She had several mystic experiences, but they were all to prove to be preparations for her meeting with Sri Aurobindo.