SRI AUROBINDO

The Mother

with Letters on the Mother

Publisher’s Note

This volume consists of two different but related works of Sri Aurobindo: The Mother and Letters on the Mother. It also includes his translations of passages from the Mother’s Prayers and Meditations. These three constituents make up the three parts of the volume.

The Mother consists of six chapters, all of them written in 1927. The first chapter was originally written as a message, the second to fifth chapters as letters. The sixth and longest chapter was written for inclusion in a booklet that eventually comprised the message, the letters, and Chapter 6. This booklet was first published under the title The Mother in 1928. The present text has been checked against Sri Aurobindo’s manuscripts.

The letters on the Mother included in Part Two have been selected from the large body of letters that Sri Aurobindo wrote to disciples and others between 1927 and 1950. Most of his letters from this period are published in Letters on Yoga, volumes 28 – 31 of The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Others appear in volume 35, Letters on Himself and the Ashram, and volume 27, Letters on Poetry and Art. The letters chosen for inclusion in the present volume deal with the Mother in her individual, universal and transcendent aspects. They have been arranged in five sections. Many letters are preceded by the questions or comments that elicited Sri Aurobindo’s reply. The texts of the letters have been checked, whenever possible, against Sri Aurobindo’s manuscripts.

The translated extracts from the Mother’s Prières et Mèditations (Prayers and Meditations) included in Part Three comprise all the passages that Sri Aurobindo is known to have translated entirely on his own. His translation of “Radha’s Prayer” is also included in this part.