MirraAlfassa was the disciple of Sri Aurobindo and she was the one who founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the universal township,Auroville, in Pondicherry. The name MirraAlfassa is hardly known as she is known as ‘Mother’ to everyone.
Profile
MirraAlfassa was born on 21st February 1878 in Paris to a Turkish father and Egyptian mother. She was a brilliant girl, very interested in tennis, music and art. As a young girl she had occult experiences but never shared it as she feared her mother would think she had a problem. When she was thirteen she had a vision of radiant figure and named it Krishna. She became an artist and married Henri Morrisset and had a son in that marriage. This marriage did not last long. Her occult experiences continued but she called herself an atheist. Her introduction to eastern philosophy was through the book Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda and the Bhagavad Gita. To further her occult experiences she joined the group started by Max Theon and travelled to Algeria to meet him. Through this association she met Paul Richard whom she married. Paul had to go Pondicherry, a province of France in India. Mirra accompanied and it was 1914 that she met Sri Aurobindo. She immediately realised that this was the radiant figure she had visions of. She had to leave Pondicherry with her husband but on 24th April 1920, she with her husband came back to Pondicherry. She never left the place after that. Her husband travelled north of India and finally went back to England. They got divorced too. From then on she took on the work of Sri Aurobindo and founded the ashram and Auroville city. Mother left the body on 17th November 1973.
Philosophy Propounded
The philosophy propounded was not very different from the Advaita Vedanta but was tailor-made to the times and was called Integral Yoga. The aim “It is not merely to rise out of the ordinary ignorant world-consciousness into the divine consciousness, but to bring the supramental power of that divine consciousness down into the ignorance of mind, life and body, to transform them, to manifest the Divine here and create a divine life in Matter.”
Work Done to Spread the Philosophy
The ashram and Auroville are the main projects founded by Mother. The AurovilleTownship has citizens of all countries there, seeking peace and divine life. It is a self-sustainingtownship. The ashram runs a school. She has written few books which speak about the philosophy in English and French. She had great influence on the leaders of that time, the most luminous being Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India.
