April 24, 2023

103 ^rd Anniversary of The Mother's final arrival in Pondicherry

(The Mother came to Pondicherry for the second time on 24^th April 1920 and stayed permanently)

The anniversary of my
return to Pondicherry...
was the tangible sign
of the sure victory
over the adverse forces

—Mother

Without him, I exist not;
without me, he is unmanifest.

—The Mother, 6 May 1957

The Mother came to India to meet Sri Aurobindo, and she remained in India to serve the Truth by taking Integral Yoga to the grassroot level, interpreting Sri Aurobindo's works to make it easy for the devotees to understand his philosophy of evolutionary metaphysics and setting up an Ashram to imbue the seekers with the divine presence and disseminate the teachings of Sri Aurobindo across the world.

Let's celebrate together the 103rd Anniversary of The Mother’s final arrival in Pondicherry , to mark a historical day which signifies the victory of Light over darkness, a day which became instrumental in integrating the yogic traditions of the East and the West, and make ourselves receptive for the spiritual transformation we are seeking.

Sri Aurobindo's words on The Mother

The more complete your faith, sincerity and surrender, the more will grace and protection be with you. And when the grace and protection of the Divine Mother are with you, what is there that can touch you or whom need you fear? A little of it even will carry you through all difficulties, obstacles and dangers; surrounded by its full presence you can go securely on your way because it is hers, careless of all menace, unaffected by any hostility however powerful, whether from this world or from worlds invisible. Its touch can turn difficulties into opportunities, failure into success and weakness into unfaltering strength. For the grace of the Divine Mother is the sanction of the Supreme and now or tomorrow its effect is sure, a thing decreed, inevitable and irresistible.

There is one divine Force which acts in the universe and in the individual and is also beyond the individual and the universe. The Mother stands for all three, but she is working here in the body to bring down something not yet expressed in this material world so as to transform life here - it is so that you should regard her as the Divine Shakti working here for that purpose. She is that in the body, but in her whole consciousness she is also identified with all the other aspects of the Divine Force.

—Sri Aurobindo

Offerings

To celebrate the anniversary of the Mother’s second and final arrival in Pondicherry on 24 April 1920 began with invocation for the divine Presence by Srila Basu early in the morning. The invocation included a musical rendering of Puja Lal’s Sanskrit poem welcoming the Mother to India.

In the evening, traditional march-past included singing of many songs, especially the recitation of the National Song, Vande Mataram near Sri Aurobindo’s Shrine, and kindling of the lamps of aspiration in the Samadhi lawn. Thereafter the Ashram Choir and Dr. Mithu Pal made an offering of devotional songs enlivening the four aspects of the Mother, and one especially directed to the Mother’s signature. Tara Didi recited passages appropriate to the theme of the devotional songs. At the culmination of the program, Prasad and a 24 April 2023 Card were distributed to all present.