Prayers and Meditations

Origin, Significance, Index of 313 prayers

… Like Savitri, the Prayers and Meditations has the same intensity of vibration and rhythm, the same origin, the same intuition, in fact, the same revelation with the power to transform. All that I have spoken about Savitri applies also for Prayers and Meditations; only His [Sri Aurobindo’s] is in English, in beautiful poetry, whereas mine is in French, and in prose. They are my experiences, descriptions of my experiences, of my sadhana….

… Not only the body, but even the substance is the same. It is the same consciousness with the same power of manifestation — descriptions of the journey of the soul to the Supreme. The same substance in two identical approaches, in two different forms. In fact, the same vision — the Truth to be realised….

The Mother

In some of the Mother's Prayers which are addressed to "divin Maître" I find the words: "avec notre divine Mère". How can the Mother and "divin Maître" have a "divine Mère"? It is as if the Mother was not the "divine Mère" and there was some other Mother and the "divin Maître" was not the Transcendent and had also a "divine Mère"! Or is it that all these are addressed to something impersonal?

The Prayers are mostly written in an identification with the earth-consciousness. It is Mother in the lower nature addressing the Mother in the higher nature, the Mother herself carrying on the Sadhana of the earth-consciousness for the transformation, praying to herself above from whom the forces of transformation come. This continues till the identification of the earth-consciousness and the higher consciousness is effected. The word "notre" is general, I believe, referring to all born into the earth-consciousness—it does not mean the Mother of the "Divin Maître" and myself. It is the Divine who is always referred to as Divin Maître and Seigneur. There is the Mother who is carrying on the Sadhana and the Divine Mother, both being one but in different poises, and both turn to the Seigneur or Divine Master. This kind of prayer from the Divine to the Divine you will find also in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

Sri Aurobindo

I have said that the Divine does the Sadhana first for the world and then gives what is brought down to others. There can be no Sadhana without realisations and experiences. The Prayers are a record of Mother's experiences.

Sri Aurobindo

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There are some Prayers of the Mother of 1914 in which she speaks of transformation and manifestation. Since at that time she was not here, does this not mean that she had these ideas long before she came here?

The Mother had been spiritually conscious from her youth, even from her childhood upward and she had done Sadhana and had developed this knowledge very long before she came to India.

Sri Aurobindo > The Mother > Pg. 384

There are many who hold the view that she was human but now embodies the Divine Mother and her "Prayers", they say, explain this view. But, to my mental conception, to my psychic being, she is the Divine Mother who has consented to put on her the cloak of obscurity and suffering and ignorance so that she can effectively lead us—human beings—to Knowledge and Bliss and Ananda and to the Supreme Lord.

The Divine puts on an appearance of humanity, assumes the outward human nature in order to tread the path and show it to human beings, but does not cease to be the Divine. It is a manifestation that takes place, a manifestation of a growing divine consciousness, not human turning into divine. The Mother was inwardly above the human even in childhood, so the view held by "many" is erroneous.

I also conceive that the Mother's "Prayers" are meant to show us—the aspiring psychic—how to pray to the Divine.

Yes

Sri Aurobindo > The Mother > Pg. 48

Sri Aurobindo on 'Prayers and Meditations' >>

ORIGIN & SIGNIFICANCE

Prayers and Meditations consists of extracts from the Mother’s spiritual diaries. Most of them are from the period 1912 to 1917. The 313 prayers were selected by the Mother for publication. They were originally written in French and then later translated in English. A few prayers were translated by Sri Aurobindo whilst some translations were revised by Him during publication.

This book comprises extracts from a diary written during years of intensive yogic discipline. It may serve as a spiritual guide to three principal categories of seekers: those who have undertaken self-mastery, those who want to find the road leading to the Divine, those who aspire to consecrate themselves more and more to the Divine Work.