The Mother

“The Being we worship as the Mother is a divine Conscious Power that rules over everything that exists—one and the same, yet so infinitely diverse that even the most living mind, the most free and broad intelligence, cannot follow the movement of it. The Mother is consciousness and power of the Highest—and she dwells far above all that she creates. But some of her paths can be seen and felt in her embodiments, and even in more accessible ones—since they are more limited and determinate—in the temperament and actions of the divine forms of the Goddess, through which she chooses to manifest herself to her creations.” (Sri Aurobindo)

Sri Aurobindo’s work “The Mother” consists of six chapters. All chapters were written in 1927. The first chapter was originally written as a message; the second through the fifth were written as letters to disciples. The sixth, the longest chapter, was written specifically for publication in a booklet, which also included other parts— the message, the letters, and the Sixth Chapter. This booklet was published under the title “The Mother” in 1928. The current text was prepared and verified using Sri Aurobindo’s manuscripts.

At the center of Sri Aurobindo’s unique worldview is the assertion that world evolution is a gradual self-manifestation, a self-discovery of the Godhead hidden in Nature as a result of a preceding involution. Rising step by step from stone to plant, from plant to animal, and from animal to human, evolution does not stop at humanity: by realizing its inner truth, its secret divinity, it presses on toward the creation of a more perfect, “divine” species that will surpass the human to a much greater degree than the human surpasses the animal. Human beings are only a transitional mental being whose vocation is to reach a higher “supramental” level of consciousness—Consciousness-Truth—and bring it down into the world, transforming their entire being and all their life into a direct expression of the Truth.”