More Answers from the Mother

Note on the Text

Of the six correspondences in this volume, four were first published in whole or in part in the Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, a bi-lingual quarterly in French and English; the remaining two were first brought out in 1990 in the first edition of this volume. Two of these correspondences were written in English; four were written wholly or partly in French. The original translations of the material in French were revised for publication in 1990. This second edition (2003) contains the same texts as the first edition. The correspondences were first published together in French in 1997 under the title Quelques réponses de la Mère - 2.

Details on the individual series follow.

Series One. Original in French. Part of the text first appeared in English translation in Breath of Grace (Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust: Pondicherry, 1973), pages 207 – 353. A larger portion of the text was later serialised in quarterly issues of the Bulletin from November 1981 to November 1986; that text, with certain omissions and the addition of some new material, is published in this volume.

Series Two. Original in French. The English translation of the text was first published in 1990 in the first edition of this volume.

Series Three. Original in English, with the exception of the reply of 19 June 1939 and the phrase translated as “they are always biased” in the reply beginning “Be careful about”, dated “About 1965”. Approximately one-third of the text was published in the Bulletin issues of February, April and August 1987. The full text came out in 1988 as a book entitled Guidance in Work: Correspondence with a Disciple, published by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry. The same text with the omission of six replies by Sri Aurobindo, is reproduced here.

Series Four. Original mainly in French; the first eleven entries (up to

Page 409

and including the entry of 18 June 1946) were written in English, the remaining entries in French. The text was published in 1990 in the first edition of this volume.

Series Five. Original mainly in French; four entries are in English, those of 24 May 1963, 2 April 1967, 26 July 1969 and 27 July 1969; the word “successful” in the entry of 30 January 1972 is also in English. Most of the text was first published in the Bulletin issues of April and August 1988. That text, with the addition of a few new entries, is reproduced here.

Series Six. Original in English. Most of the letters in the first half of the text (up to “Letters on behalf of Others”) were first published in Mother and I (Dipti Publications: Pondicherry, 1984), pages 69–79. A more complete text was first published in the Bulletin issues of November 1987 and February 1988. That text, with the addition of a few new entries, is reproduced here.

Page 410