Separate posts are HERE
Note on Punctuation
… Three dots indicate a brief pause in the Mother’s speech. (A fourth dot is added when the pause comes at the end of a sentence.)
[…] Three dots within square brackets indicate an omission by the editors of some part of the text.
General Notes
This book contains a selection of the Mother’s conversations during the years 1929-31 and 1950-58. Covering a wide range of subjects in considerable depth, they give us a glimpse of her vision of existence. It is an inspiring vision of the future evolution of humanity and the promise of a divine life on earth.
The conversations belong to two distinct groups. During the first period, from 1929 to 1931, the Mother spoke informally with a small group of Ashramites who met her every week, answering questions about life and Yoga. During the second, from 1950 to 1958, she spoke to a larger audience, the Ashramites and students who attended her evening classes at the Ashram playground. The Mother often began by reading out to the class a passage from a work by Sri Aurobindo or herself. She then commented on the passage or invited questions on it. The conversations of 1929-31 were spoken in English; those of the 1950s were spoken in French and appear here in English translation.
The compilation was made by Georges Van Vrekhem. Details about the book are given in the Note on the Texts. There is also a Glossary for those who are not familiar with the terms used by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.
Scope of Selection of Texts
The texts making up this compilation have been taken from Volumes 3 to 9 of the Collected Works of the Mother, which together comprise nearly 3,000 pages of material. The book includes selections from the Mother’s early conversations (1929-31) and her conversations at the Ashram playground (1950-58). It does not include other conversations published in the Collected Works: the oral commentaries on Sri Aurobindo’s Thoughts and Aphorisms in Volume 10, the Agenda conversations published during the Mother’s lifetime in Volume 11, the talks on education in Volume 12, the talks on Auroville in Volume 13, and the miscellaneous talks in Volume 15.
Original Language of the Texts
The conversations from 1929 to 1931 were in English; those from 1950 to 1958 were in French. The French texts comprise about eighty- five per cent of the material. Thus most of the texts in this book are English translations of talks originally given in French.