March 29, 2023

110 th Anniversary of The Mother's first arrival in Pondicherry and first meeting with Sri Aurobindo

(The Mother came to Pondicherry for the first time on 29 th March 1914)

When I came here for the first time, I felt the atmosphere of Sri Aurobindo, felt it materially at a distance of ten miles, ten nautical miles, not kilometres. It was very sudden, very concrete, an atmosphere pure, luminous, light, light that lifts you up.

As soon as I saw Sri Aurobindo I recognised in him the well-known being whom I used to call Krishna.... And this is enough to explain why I am fully convinced that my place and my work are near him, in India.

—The Mother (CWM, Vol. XIII)

The Mother returned home after her first arrival in 1914 and came back to settle in Pondicherry permanently on 24 th April 1920 .

Offerings

The Mother’s first arrival in Pondicherry on 29 March 1914 was observed in the Ashram with an Invocation for the divine led Presence by Srila Basu, who was accompanied by Jayanthy Ramachandran on the Tanpura and joined by the Ashram choir. Invocation also included a musical rendering of Puja Lal’s Sanskrit poem welcoming the Mother to India.

In the evening, Dr. Mithu Pal, accompanied by Srila on the Tanpura, made a musical offering on the twelve essentials characterized by the twelve petals in the Mother’s symbol. The musical offering was interspersed with readings by Jayanthy, who read passages from Savitri, from narration of Mother’s first meeting with Sri Aurobindo in the words of the Mother, Sri Aurobindo’s writing on the, and the Mother’s prayer dated 30 March 1914.