The Mother's Loving Guidance to Her Disciples
— Chitra Sen
| Price: Rs 375 Pages: 266 Dimensions (in cms): 14x22 ISBN: 978-93-85391-48-4 | Soft Cover | |
| Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research Trust, Pondicherry | ||
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Items in cart: 1 Value: Rs 750 |
About The Mother's Loving Guidance to Her Disciples
The author has woven a detailed history of the early days of the Ashram with charming accounts of how the Mother guided her disciples in their work and spiritual growth through her daily loving touch. Much of the material here is well known, drawn from Sri Aurobindo’s letters and from reminiscences written by older members of the Ashram, but the author has skilfully gathered the diverse source material into a narrative that describes how life was organised by the Mother. We see how people were drawn into a particular work that eventually developed into a regular service. Creative avenues of expression receive a special emphasis – dance, music, photography, art, skilled handiwork – the Mother encouraged all such avenues for the spiritual development of the sadhaks.
REVIEW
It is always good, from time to time, to dip into the river of Mother’s light and loving guidance and draw inspiration to execute our responsibilities in our work. Chitradi’s book, The Mother’s Loving Guidance to Her Disciples, gives us that opportunity. Through her narration of the experiences of several disciples, Chitradi has chronicled the growth of the Ashram departments that began under the Mother’s direct guidance.
In 1926, when Sri Aurobindo withdrew from the outer activities of the community here to concentrate on his inner work, he gave the Mother the responsibility of spiritually and materially guiding the lives of the people already gathered here. There followed a growth of activities in different aspects of life: “The Kitchen and Dining room, the Workshop, the Electric service, the Building service concerned with the repair and maintenance of the buildings, the Garden service concerned with growing flowers and fruits and vegetables; [t]he Sanitary service, the Domestic service, the Laundry, Granary and Bakery—to name the first departments of the Ashram.” [p. 2]
Sri Aurobindo wrote: “We have undertaken a work which includes life and action and the physical world. In what I am trying to do, the spiritual realisation is the first necessity, but it cannot be complete without an outer realisation also in life, in man, in this world. Spiritual consciousness within but also spiritual life without.” [CWSA 32: 578] Chitradi writes that the entire material structure of the Ashram is “a spontaneous flowering in the material world. It is the Mahasaraswati aspect of the Mother which made this miracle happen.” [p. 2]
Looking through the contents of this book, we come to know some of the aspects of this development. Mother as a musician, playing her own music on the organ and encouraging Sunilda to take up his work as composer is one and Mother’s accomplishments as an artist naturally led to the flowering of the Ashram artists under her guidance. Mother also showed a teacher a simple way to teach the children how to draw. The chapter on the Ashram kitchen is an amazing narrative that must be read through till the end to appreciate it. There are a few other sides of Ashram life that developed under her guidance: the performing arts, photography, and the Annual Day celebration are all described here in detail.
When I came to the chapter “Dance: An Expression of Genuine Feeling” written by Amitadi, I was thrilled. I was carried back to my experience with dance under Amitadi and the Mother. I loved dancing and learned whatever was taught here. We skimmed through the various dance styles, including folk dances of different countries, and even modern dance. But some of us wanted to learn Bharatnatyam more thoroughly. We expressed our wish to our teacher Anuben, who communicated it to the Mother, whose response was to explain why she was not so keen for us to be fixed to any one style; she wanted our bodies to be supple and flexible in order to express a greater harmony and beauty. We accepted what she said but did not quite understand what she expected. Mother, being Mother, remembered our wish, and when a disciple who was a dancer came here, the Mother requested her to teach us Bharatnatyam.
The story of my experience does not end here. Because dancing is an important activity in our school I would like to finish my narration. Amitadi was our teacher for many subjects – English, French, Botany – but she was also our captain and taught dancing and dramatics. One year she was organising the 1st December programme and one of the items was a dance to the Mother’s organ music “Aspiration of the Body for the Divine”. Amitadi asked me to innovate dance movements depicting the role of psychic aspiration and then she left me to fend for myself.
Good heavens! I was at a loss. To whatever I composed she said, “Not good enough.” I worked, sweated, wept, and then fell ill. Desperate, I wrote to the Mother. “Mother, I have to dance the role of psychic aspiration to your music. I have never danced to it and I don’t know what to do. Only ten days are left before the 1st December.” The next day the Mother sent me her answer: “Do not torment yourself. Open yourself to the harmony and it will express itself through your dance.”
Gone were my sadness and my worries. I let myself be carried away by her music. I did not bother about anybody’s opinion; I just danced away. On the final day I was in a totally different state of joy and concentration. I opened myself to the music and let it lead my body. I was supple and thus could dance with graceful movements I never thought myself capable of, extending my body movements to the very end of her musical phrases and responding to the chords. Amitadi was finally very happy—“You got it,” she told me. I understood then what the Mother meant that day when she told us she did not want our body expression to be fixed in one style but be capable of expressing greater harmony and beauty.
In this book readers will discover and delight in many reminiscences like mine, examples of how the Mother guided her disciples with loving care. The departments continued to grow and flourish, and art found expression in many ways. Chitradi brings to life how the Mother awakened in us a simple aesthetic awareness and perception of beauty in everyday living. In one of her messages, the Mother said that “[o]n the physical plane the Divine expresses himself through beauty.” (CWM 15: 6) The great value of a book such as this lies in its ability to inspire us to rededicate our lives to the joys of beauty and perfection in service to a higher truth, one of the paths in our Yoga.
To conclude, here is Sri Aurobindo’s advice to a disciple that brings our focus back to the central idea that “All life is Yoga”: Remind yourself always it is Mother’s work you are doing and if you do it as well as you can, remembering her, the Mother’s Grace will be with you.
(CWSA 32: 433)
—Krishna Dundur
Krishna Dundur completed her studies at SAICE in 1965 and the Mother gave her work as
a teacher. She continues to teach here with great pleasure. It was her privilege to have had Sri
Aurobindo’s Darshan and to have participated in the work of building the Samadhi.
Reviewed in February 2025
In 1926, when Sri Aurobindo withdrew from the outer activities of the community here to concentrate on his inner work, he gave the Mother the responsibility of spiritually and materially guiding the lives of the people already gathered here. There followed a growth of activities in different aspects of life: “The Kitchen and Dining room, the Workshop, the Electric service, the Building service concerned with the repair and maintenance of the buildings, the Garden service concerned with growing flowers and fruits and vegetables; [t]he Sanitary service, the Domestic service, the Laundry, Granary and Bakery—to name the first departments of the Ashram.” [p. 2]
Sri Aurobindo wrote: “We have undertaken a work which includes life and action and the physical world. In what I am trying to do, the spiritual realisation is the first necessity, but it cannot be complete without an outer realisation also in life, in man, in this world. Spiritual consciousness within but also spiritual life without.” [CWSA 32: 578] Chitradi writes that the entire material structure of the Ashram is “a spontaneous flowering in the material world. It is the Mahasaraswati aspect of the Mother which made this miracle happen.” [p. 2]
Looking through the contents of this book, we come to know some of the aspects of this development. Mother as a musician, playing her own music on the organ and encouraging Sunilda to take up his work as composer is one and Mother’s accomplishments as an artist naturally led to the flowering of the Ashram artists under her guidance. Mother also showed a teacher a simple way to teach the children how to draw. The chapter on the Ashram kitchen is an amazing narrative that must be read through till the end to appreciate it. There are a few other sides of Ashram life that developed under her guidance: the performing arts, photography, and the Annual Day celebration are all described here in detail.
When I came to the chapter “Dance: An Expression of Genuine Feeling” written by Amitadi, I was thrilled. I was carried back to my experience with dance under Amitadi and the Mother. I loved dancing and learned whatever was taught here. We skimmed through the various dance styles, including folk dances of different countries, and even modern dance. But some of us wanted to learn Bharatnatyam more thoroughly. We expressed our wish to our teacher Anuben, who communicated it to the Mother, whose response was to explain why she was not so keen for us to be fixed to any one style; she wanted our bodies to be supple and flexible in order to express a greater harmony and beauty. We accepted what she said but did not quite understand what she expected. Mother, being Mother, remembered our wish, and when a disciple who was a dancer came here, the Mother requested her to teach us Bharatnatyam.
The story of my experience does not end here. Because dancing is an important activity in our school I would like to finish my narration. Amitadi was our teacher for many subjects – English, French, Botany – but she was also our captain and taught dancing and dramatics. One year she was organising the 1st December programme and one of the items was a dance to the Mother’s organ music “Aspiration of the Body for the Divine”. Amitadi asked me to innovate dance movements depicting the role of psychic aspiration and then she left me to fend for myself.
Good heavens! I was at a loss. To whatever I composed she said, “Not good enough.” I worked, sweated, wept, and then fell ill. Desperate, I wrote to the Mother. “Mother, I have to dance the role of psychic aspiration to your music. I have never danced to it and I don’t know what to do. Only ten days are left before the 1st December.” The next day the Mother sent me her answer: “Do not torment yourself. Open yourself to the harmony and it will express itself through your dance.”
Gone were my sadness and my worries. I let myself be carried away by her music. I did not bother about anybody’s opinion; I just danced away. On the final day I was in a totally different state of joy and concentration. I opened myself to the music and let it lead my body. I was supple and thus could dance with graceful movements I never thought myself capable of, extending my body movements to the very end of her musical phrases and responding to the chords. Amitadi was finally very happy—“You got it,” she told me. I understood then what the Mother meant that day when she told us she did not want our body expression to be fixed in one style but be capable of expressing greater harmony and beauty.
In this book readers will discover and delight in many reminiscences like mine, examples of how the Mother guided her disciples with loving care. The departments continued to grow and flourish, and art found expression in many ways. Chitradi brings to life how the Mother awakened in us a simple aesthetic awareness and perception of beauty in everyday living. In one of her messages, the Mother said that “[o]n the physical plane the Divine expresses himself through beauty.” (CWM 15: 6) The great value of a book such as this lies in its ability to inspire us to rededicate our lives to the joys of beauty and perfection in service to a higher truth, one of the paths in our Yoga.
To conclude, here is Sri Aurobindo’s advice to a disciple that brings our focus back to the central idea that “All life is Yoga”: Remind yourself always it is Mother’s work you are doing and if you do it as well as you can, remembering her, the Mother’s Grace will be with you.
(CWSA 32: 433)
—Krishna Dundur
Krishna Dundur completed her studies at SAICE in 1965 and the Mother gave her work as
a teacher. She continues to teach here with great pleasure. It was her privilege to have had Sri
Aurobindo’s Darshan and to have participated in the work of building the Samadhi.
Reviewed in February 2025
