Mirra Alfassa (1878–1973,) known to her followers as “The Mother,” born Blanche Rachel Mirra Alfassa, was a French-born Indian spiritual guru, an occultist. She was a devotee and collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, who considered her to be of equal yogic stature to him.
Born in Paris bourgeoisie of an Egyptian-Jewish mother and a Turkish-Jewish father, Alfassa migrated to Pondicherry, India, in 1914 on the trail of the occult of Sri Aurobindo, a Hindu yogi, and mystic-philosopher. She and her followers started the Aurobindo Āśram to encourage the evolution of individual consciousness and advancing forms of collective life.
In 1968, after the death of Sri Aurobindo, “The Mother,” as Alfassa was now called, established another, more elaborate, project called Auroville—an expanded commune of 2,250 acres of fields and scrubland with enough room for a population of 50,000. Assisted by advisers such as Nolini Kanta Gupta, The Mother instituted the practice of not only meditative yoga, but also Karma yoga, an active yoga of work.
Auroville’s objective is to realize Sri Aurobindo’s vision of human unity. Its cycle paths, solar kitchens, reforestation schemes, water-pumping windmills, and museums have won international attention for its work in ecological restoration, and its realization of low-impact life strategies.
The Mother’s accumulated works run to numerous volumes, and include Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo (1972,) Flowers and Their Messages (1973,) The Mother on Herself (1977,) and Collected Works of the Mother (1978.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Mirra Alfassa
Humanity is not the last rung of the terrestrial creation. Evolution continues and man will be surpassed. It is for each individual to know whether he wants to participate in the advent of this new species.
—Mirra Alfassa
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