Mother’s Birth Anniversary in Auroville
The Mother, Mirra Alfassa, 1878-1973, is the creative force behind the birth of Auroville. Every year, on the fourth week of February, Auroville celebrates two anniversaries. The Mother’s birth, February 21, and Auroville’s creation, February 28th.
On February 21, Auroville celebrates the birth anniversary of the Mother. There are still a number of Aurovilians who have met the Mother during her last years, 1970-73 who speak about their profound experiences of meeting the embodiment of love and wisdom. Many attribute their arrival and settling in Auroville to her gentle presence and encouragement.
Her birthday is celebrated by a dawn meditation in the Matrimandir Amphitheater. On February 21, 2023, the Amphitheater was decorated with beautiful flowers, and Aurovilians and guests greeted the magnificent sunrise with deep devotion and contemplation.
Readings from the Mother’s Writings, February 21, 2023
This year, the dawn meditation was accompanied by beautiful flower decorations and the Mother words on MahaLakshmi.
“…. Harmony and beauty of the mind and soul, harmony and beauty of the thoughts and feelings, harmony and beauty in every outward act and movement, harmony and beauty of the life and surroundings, this is the demand of Mahalakshmi…. Where love and beauty are not or are reluctant to be born, she does not come….”
Wisdom and Force are not the only manifestations of the supreme Mother; there is a subtler mystery of her nature and without it Wisdom and Force would be incomplete things and without it perfection would not be perfect. Above them is the miracle of eternal beauty, an unseizable secret of divine harmonies, the compelling magic of an irresistible universal charm and attraction that draws and holds things and forces and beings together and obliges them to meet and unite that a hidden Ananda may play from behind the veil and make of them its rhythms and its figures. This is the power of MAHALAKSHMI and there is no aspect of the Divine Shakti more attractive to the heart of embodied beings. Maheshwari can appear too calm and great and distant for the littleness of earthly nature to approach or contain her, Mahakali too swift and formidable for its weakness to bear; but all turn with joy and longing to Mahalakshmi. For she throws the spell of the intoxicating sweetness of the Divine: to be close to her is a profound happiness and to feel her within the heart is to make existence a rapture and a marvel; grace and charm and tenderness flow out from her like light from the sun and wherever she fixes her wonderful gaze or lets fall the loveliness of her smile, the soul is seized and made captive and plunged into the depths of an unfathomable bliss. Magnetic is the touch of her hands and their occult and delicate influence refines mind and life and body and where she presses her feet course miraculous streams of an entrancing Ananda.
And yet it is not easy to meet the demand of this enchanting Power or to keep her presence. Harmony and beauty of the mind and soul, harmony and beauty of the thoughts and feelings, harmony and beauty in every outward act and movement, harmony and beauty of the life and surroundings, this is the demand of Mahalakshmi. Where there is affinity to the rhythms of the secret world-bliss and response to the call of the All Beautiful and concord and unity and the glad flow of many lives turned towards the Divine, in that atmosphere she consents to abide. But all that is ugly and mean and base, all that is poor and sordid and squalid, all that is brutal and coarse repels her advent. Where love and beauty are not or are reluctant to be born, she does not come; where they are mixed and disfigured with baser things, she turns soon to depart or cares little to pour her riches. If she finds herself in men’s hearts surrounded with selfishness and hatred and jealousy and malignance and envy and strife, if treachery and greed and ingratitude are mixed in the sacred chalice, if grossness of passion and unrefined desire degrade devotion, in such hearts the gracious and beautiful Goddess will not linger. A divine disgust seizes upon her and she withdraws, for she is not one who insists or strives; or, veiling her face, she waits for this bitter and poisonous devil’s stuff to be rejected and disappear before she will found anew her happy influence. Ascetic bareness and harshness are not pleasing to her nor the suppression of the heart’s deeper emotions and the rigid repression of the soul’s and the life’s parts of beauty. For it is through love and beauty that she lays on men the yoke of the Divine. Life is turned in her supreme creations into a rich work of celestial art and all existence into a poem of sacred delight; the world’s riches are brought together and concerted for a supreme order and even the simplest and commonest things are made wonderful by her intuition of unity and the breath of her spirit. Admitted to the heart she lifts wisdom to pinnacles of wonder and reveals to it the mystic secrets of the ecstasy that surpasses all knowledge, meets devotion with the passionate attraction of the Divine, teaches to strength and force the rhythm that keeps the might of their acts harmonious and in measure and casts on perfection the charm that makes it endure for ever.
Sri Aurobindo – The Mother with Letters on The Mother: CWSA, Vol. 32, p. 20-22
Images of Flower Decorations on February 21, 2023
The Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry had Mother’s room open for Darshan for the first time since her birth anniversary in 2020. Devotees from Auroville and the entire region made the pilgrimage to the ashram to visit Mother’s room and the Samadhi, all beautifully decorated with white lilies, pink roses and carnations, and fragrant jasmine.
There are many writings about the Mother. For complete resources on the Mother, visit the Sri Aurobindo Ashram pages. We have a selected a few dates here:
As a child, born in France to Jewish parents, a Turkish father and Egyptian mother, young Mirra had profound spiritual experiences that gave her a sense of her future path. An accomplished painter at the age of 14, she exhibited paintings at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1903-05. She also learned how to play the organ, a talent that delighted her followers later in life.
She met Max and Alma Théon, theosophist leaders of Mouvement Cosmique in Algeria and contributed articles to the Mouvement’s journal Revue Cosmique in Paris. Later she lived in Algeria, exploring occult practices with Max and Madame Théon.
Mirra meets Sri Aurobindo on March 29, 1914, and in 1915 begins a journal with Sri Aurobindo and Paul Richard, her husband at the time. The journal was called Arya.
On April 24, 1920, Mirra Alfassa settles in Pondicherry at Sri Aurobindo’s Ashram, 6 years later, in 1926, Sri Aurobindo names her the head of the Ashram, taking over all duties from him.
In 1927, Mirra Alfassa become known as “the Mother”, a name given to her by Sri Aurobindo.
In 1960, the idea of Auroville begins to manifest, as the Sri Aurobindo Society is formed to help with Ashram management but also to develop the civic project of Auroville.
1968, February 28: The Mother, at 90 years of age, inaugurates Auroville, the international urban experiment twelve kilometers from the ashram. The Auroville Charter was handwritten by the Mother just weeks before the inauguration of the city.
More About the Mother
Mother’s Agenda 1951-1960
Mother dictated her contemplations to her disciple Satprem. The 13 volumes are available online, translate in nine languages.
Collected Works of the Mother
Mother’s writings and teaching collected throughout her life. The earliest of 17 volumes starts in 1912, Prayers and Meditations.
The Spiritual Significance of Flowers
Mother’s unique insights into the psychic nature of flowers. Since 1927, the Mother gave a “name” or a “significance” to some flowers.
SRI AUROBINDO’S ACTION FEBRUARY/MARCH Newsletter
A beatiful tribute to the spirit of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo can be found in the February/March issue of Sri Aurobindo’s Action. CLICK BELOW to read:
