This volume consists primarily of brief written statements by the Mother about Sri Aurobindo, herself, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Auroville, India, and nations other than India. Written over a period of nearly sixty years (1914 - 1973), the statements have been compiled from her public messages, private notes, and correspondence with disciples. The majority (about sixty per cent) were written in English; the rest were written in French and appear here in translation. The volume also contains a number of conversations, most of them in the part on Auroville. All but one were spoken in French and appear here in translation. There are also several reports of comments by the Mother. These reports were noted down by disciples and later approved by her for publication. All of them were spoken in English. They are identified by the symbol S placed at the end. The volume is arranged by theme in six parts, each part having a number of sections. Within the sections, dated pieces are placed in chronological order, undated ones where they best fit in thematically. Readers should note that most of these statements were given to particular individuals under particular circumstances. The advice in them, therefore, may not apply to everyone.

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O our Mother, O Soul of India, Mother who hast never forsaken thy children even in the days of darkest depression, even when they turned away from thy voice, served other masters and denied thee, now when they have arisen and the light is on thy face in this dawn of thy liberation, in this great hour we salute thee.

Guide us so that the horizon of freedom opening before us may be also a horizon of true greatness and of thy true life in the community of the nations. Guide us so that we may be always on the side of great ideals and show to men thy true visage, as a leader in the ways of the spirit and a friend and helper of all the peoples. #372 What is India? India is not the earth, rivers and mountains of this land, neither is it a collective name for the inhabitants of this country. India is a living being, as much living as, say, Shiva. India is a goddess as Shiva is a god. If she likes, she can manifest in human form.*

It is one of the greatest weapons of the Asura at work when you are taught to shun beauty. It has been the ruin of India. The Divine manifests in the psychic as love, in the mind as India knowledge, in the vital as power and in the physical as beauty.

If you discard beauty it means that you are depriving the Divine of this manifestation in the material and you hand over that part to the Asura.