Growing up with the Mother

Introduction

My heart leaped up with joy when in September 1959 the Mother told me that I could start corresponding with Her. “You can send me your notebook with your questions,” She said, “and I will answer them.” I at once sent Her a notebook with questions from The Life Divine. My questions began from the point where the Mother had left off explaining the book in December 1958 during our Wednesday classes at the Playground.

In January 1960 I started another notebook, this one with questions on Thoughts and Aphorisms from the point where the Mother had stopped discussing the book in the Group A^2
2: Group A was the physical education group of which I was the captain. classes, which were being held every Friday at the Playground. These were later published as a book entitled On Thoughts and Aphorisms.

In July 1960 I started a third notebook with questions on education. The Mother’s replies to my questions aroused a lot of interest among the teachers, but soon the Mother became so busy that my notebook often remained in Her room for weeks before She could answer. There were long gaps in our correspondence, especially between 1962 and 1969.

In 1969 the Mother reduced the number of people She was seeing and again had time for me. All of us felt the absence of the Mother’s direct physical contact and guidance in our day-to-day activities. Since we could not speak to Her personally about our problems, I started sending Her questions on the difficulties that we faced in the school and the Playground. This led to an interesting collection of questions and answers on education. Whenever the Mother answered my questions, I would type out two copies and send one to Her. The other copy would often circulate amongst my friends, captains and teachers, some of whom started giving me questions to ask the Mother. Most of these questions were based on the experiment conducted at our Centre of Education in Pondicherry and are characteristic of the research work in the Ashram. Though the Mother’s replies deal specifically with the type of education She envisaged, they will be of general interest to all educationists. These questions and answers show how much importance the Mother gave to the inner development of the child along with his physical, emotional and mental development. And for both inner and outer growth, She created ample opportunities, and Herself guided us with unfailing patience, encouragement and love towards a conscious and constant progress.

The Mother with my notebooks in front of Her on 12.1.1960