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This book contains the Darshan messages distributed at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram during the lifetimes of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.
The first message was issued on 21 February 1927, soon after the Ashram was formed; the last was issued on 24 April 1973, the year in which the Mother left her body. During Sri Aurobindo's lifetime, messages were given out only occasionally on the Darshan days; afterwards they were issued regularly.
Some of these messages were written expressly for the occasion by Sri Aurobindo or the Mother; other messages were passages chosen from their works.
About the Authors:
Born in Paris in 1878, the Mother studied painting at an art studio and became an accomplished artist. Primarily interested in inner development, she was associated with several groups of spiritual seekers in France.
In 1914 she journeyed to India to meet the Indian mystic Sri Aurobindo in Puducherry and settled there permanently in 1920. For nearly fifty years, she was the head of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, from its founding in 1926 until her passing in 1973. She also established a school, the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, in 1952, and an international township, Auroville, in 1968.
Sri Aurobindo was an Indian/Hindu nationalist, scholar, poet, mystic, evolutionary philosopher, yogi and guru. After a short political career in which he became one of leaders of the early movement for the freedom of India from British rule, Sri Aurobindo turned to the development and practice of a new spiritual path which he called the "integral yoga," the aim of which was to further the evolution of life on earth by establishing a high level of spiritual consciousness which he called the Supermind that would represent a divine life.
Sri Aurobindo wrote prolifically in English on his spiritual philosophy and practice, on social and political development, on Indian culture including extensive commentaries and translations of ancient Indian scriptures, on literature and poetry including the writing of much spiritual poetry.
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