Mirra Alfassa | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Mirra Alfassa | |
| Personal | |
| Born | Blanche Rachel Mirra Alfassa 21 February 1878 Paris, France |
| Died | 17 November 1973 (aged 95) Pondicherry, India |
| Resting place | Pondicherry, India |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Nationality |
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| Spouse | Henri Morriset (1870–1956) |
| Notable work(s) | Prayers And Meditations, Words of Long Ago, On Thoughts and Aphorisms, Words of the Mother |
| Pen name | The Mother |
| Signature |  |
| Organization | |
| Institute | Sri Aurobindo Ashram Auroville |
| Religious career | |
Students | |
Mirra Alfassa (21 February 1878 – 17 November 1973), known to her followers as The Mother or La Mère, was a French-Indian spiritual guru, occultist and yoga teacher, and a collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, who considered her to be of equal yogic stature to him and called her by the name "The Mother". She founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and established the town of Auroville; she was influential on the subject of Integral Yoga.
Alfassa was born in Paris in 1878 to a bourgeois Sephardi Jewish family from Turkey. In her youth, she traveled to Algeria to practice occultism along with the occultist Max Théon. After returning to Paris, Alfassa guided a group of spiritual seekers. In 1914, she traveled to Pondicherry, India, and met Sri Aurobindo. She identified him as "the dark Asiatic figure" of her visions, and called him Krishna. During this first visit, she helped publish a French version of the periodical Arya, which serialised most of Sri Aurobindo's post-political prose writings.
In 1920, after living in Japan for four years, Alfassa returned to Pondicherry where she developed and managed the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. In 1943, she started a school in the ashram, and in 1968 she established Auroville, an experimental township dedicated to human unity and evolution. She died in Pondicherry in 1973.
A 13-volume biography, Mother's Agenda, written by Satprem (one Alfassa's followers) was published in 1979.