My Savitri work with the Mother

06 January 1960

She also remembered to send me the message of the Epiphany Day—the 6th January. I was charmed by the passage from The Life Divine by Sri Aurobindo:

To be or become something, to bring something into being is the whole labour of the force of Nature; to know, feel, do are subordinate energies that have a value because they help the being in its partial self realisation to express what it is and help it too in its urge to express the still more not yet realised that it has to be.

Miss Doris Tomlinson had already returned from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. She gave me an attractive card from the Mother. It displayed a reproduction of a boy's portrait by Murillo. The Mother had written on the card:

To My dear little child
with love and blessings

Doris gave me news of the Ashram and the Mother. Despite her longing to stay on, she had to come back because of her ill-health. She inquired how I was and how I got on with my studies. My answer was: "Now everything seems all right."

The lowering sky threatened snow—a cold wind swept over my body. The iciness in the air made me shiver uncontrollably. I drew my coat close about me and entered the Palace Hotel in Marble Arch for my accommodation. It was reputable and run by two English ladies. Though the name was high sounding, the place in fact was small, cosy and comfortable. It had central heating which suited me fine. The ladies were kind enough to give me a special rate because I was a student.

After bidding adios to Mrs. English, Mrs. Snowdon and Miss Jarret at Mercury House, I went to the Palace Hotel, which was not far from LTC, the London Training Centre, where I had already started going. Mercury House was pretty far from LTC and I had to change two tube-trains. Often when I got too late to catch the tube-train, I rushed and ran disregarding my 3-inch high-heel shoes and the heavy coat. Now it really gives me a nightmare to think of those shoes and my running in them!