“What Thou Willest, What Thou Willest”—that had been the single Mantra for the Mother throughout her life. She was born in it. She worked in it. She withdrew in it. She withdrew into it, into “What Thou Willest, What Thou Willest.” She withdrew, but not to go away. She withdrew to fulfil the Lord’s Will in another way. She made her will one with the Will of the Lord. But what is the Will of the Lord? The Birth of the New World, Manifestation of the Divine upon Earth—that is the Lord’s Will.

The Lord wills. The executive She implements it. His is the samkalpa. Hers is the kriya. Both together, samkalpa and kriya, form the divine action, daivi karya. In that action is the glory of this evolutionary Earth.

When the Mother was young she already knew what she had come here to do, to go by “What Thou Willest, What Thou Willest.” Throughout her life, when she was engaged in a thousand activities of the day, she founded them all in its efficacy. For her it was the Conqueror’s Sword. No weapon could cleave it. The sunlight of her soul was “What Thou Willest, Lord, What Thou Willest; Ce Que Tu Veux, Seigneur, Ce Que Tu Veux.” And therefore there was no fear in her. Her spirit had the power to change Nature’s doom. Her mind could contain the whole world. Her heart was moved by the passions of the gods. She was celestial beauty walking on the earth.

But to make the Mantra dynamically operative, the Mother had to do triple sadhana. She had to kindle the yogic fire, she had to acquire siddhis in the inner world, she had to carry in her psychic being the psychic being of the earth. The Lord had given her this work, the work of the Supramental Descent and Transformation.

But to do this difficult work she had to gather the Divine Force in her soul. Whatever had to be done was to be done towards it. This involved her acquiring the occult siddhis, and the siddhis of surrender, and the siddhis of the spirit one with the supreme Spirit. Her biography is a celebration of these siddhis. The glory and the marvel to come are in it.

The occult, the psychic, and the spiritual disciplines practised by the Mother are integrally fulfilled in “What Thou Willest, What Thou Willest”, the Mantra of Transformation: Indeed, the Mother comes down in order to bring down the Supramental which in turn makes her manifestation complete. Then only other powers of the Mahashakti can become operative here. In it is the birth of the new world, the appearance of the divine superman.

The Mother was aware long ago about her mission, at the tender age itself; but she was in search of the light that would guide her on the way. She was already an initiate. But the path had to be taken. She came to India and met Sri Aurobindo, on 29 March 1914. Things got settled.

The Mother had started doing yoga already at the age of 4. She used to sit in a small chair and meditate. A brilliant light would descend over her head. She knew that she was here to do some tremendously great work. Of it she was conscious at the age of 3 itself. In fact the beginning was made in her mother’s womb. Before she was born, she had decided the place of her birth and her parents. So flaming was her psychic being!

Hardly was she 12 when she started practising occultism. This was a necessary preparation for her future work. Between 11 and 13, the Mother became aware of the possibility of the divine life upon earth. When 13, she used to go out of her body and rise above the house, above the city; men and women and children would come and touch her robe. The Man of Sorrows would encourage her to do so.

At the age of 25, in 1903, the Mother came in contact with a group in Paris, a group practising occultism. It was as though the whole thing was preordained. Soon she was in Algeria, in the autumn of 1905 when she met Théon and his wife Alma who was herself a great occultist. A new phase began in the Mother’s life. Théon used to say: “The righteous will shine like stars, but those who have guided others towards the truth will shine like suns forever.” According to him the present creation is the seventh and the last. It is based on the qualities of equilibrium and progress. Six times the creation was dissolved earlier. There were six pralayas. But Sri Aurobindo told the Mother that with the descent of the supermind it will not happen anymore.

Théon had a remarkable intuition about the coming down of the supermind and about the new race of supermen. But he knew that he was not meant to succeed, that he had come only to prepare the way in a certain way. The Mother learned under him to exteriorise herself. She could go out of the body and move to different places in the occult world. In fact, she would successively leave body after body 12 times, all the way up to the limit of manifestation. She had absolutely no fear and she could explore these regions in detail.

On one occasion the Mother found the Mantra of Life. Théon was watching her during the process. The Mantra was sealed in a case, with the Mother’s name written on it in Sanskrit. She started describing its character to Théon. Théon got interested in it and wanted her to break the seal. But she refused. She was prompted by something in her not to do so. Théon became violent and cut her life cord malevolently. But she returned, by exercising her will. She said that she had something on earth to do and hence she would not go away in such a manner. She always had the Divine’s Protection, in all the circumstances. We all know how
Sri Aurobindo protected her against a hostile force in 1938, resulting in an accident to himself. Later, the Mother found the Mantra of Life again and gave it to Sri Aurobindo. If Théon was the Asura of Death, then his interest in the Mantra of Life is understandable. It seems he wanted to marry the Mother which, of course, she promptly refused. Just imagine what would have befallen had she consented! What she had to learn from Death she learnt.

She had now to move from the dense occult to the bright psychic-spiritual. The occult training had served its purpose. By occultism one can explore the inner worlds, know the working of the forces of Nature in the material formulation of this complex creation. But behind the inner worlds stands the psychic being, the leader to take the aspirant soul to the Divine. In fact without the psychic being coming forward, the collective work of Physical Transformation is impossible. The Mother was now led towards this.

For the Mother another phase of life began in 1912, with her prayers to the Lord. These are in fact deep meditative communions with him, ushering in a new era in the spiritual annals. She calls these prayers as her confessions to the sublime Master. But more than revelations of her intimate relationship with him, they are also meant for those who aspire for an utter consecration to the Divine. “I shall be Thou,”—that is the identity she seeks, her first and foremost concern. In it all knowledge comes. In it begins the true sadhana.
But with this identity, with this knowledge, what is it exactly that the Mother expected to happen, what did she want to achieve?

Her concern is always the Earth. She would like to build an enduring foundation for her terrestrial work. Heavens have been conquered, but earth is still to be made. In “I shall be Thou” she sees the solution. In it she is born to new life; in it the work of new creation has to commence. In it she has found the pearl of great price. Integral manifestation is the one single issue for her. The Lord has willed it; she must get ready to execute it.

That immense work of integral manifestation begins with the Mother meeting
Sri Aurobindo on the epoch-making 29 March 1914. She writes in her diary that his presence is enough to prove that a day will come when darkness shall be transformed into light. And when asked about this meeting, reciprocally, Sri Aurobindo writes that in her he saw surrender to the Divine to the last bit of the physical possible.The work begins.

Later, the Mother told something significant. When she met Sri Aurobindo she was in deep prayerful concentration. In it she saw things in the supermind; she was seeing things that were to be but somehow were not manifesting. She told it to Sri Aurobindo and asked him if they would manifest. He just said, “Yes.” And immediately she saw that the supramental had touched the earth and was beginning to be realized!

The supermind had touched the earth on 29 March 1914. The yogic effort was now directed to fix it permanently in the earth’s physical. The Mother’s total surrender to the Lord was the only means to achieve the miracle. The change had already occurred. The Mother writes:

29 March 1914: O Thou whom we must know, understand, realise, absolute Consciousness, eternal Law, Thou who guidest and illuminest us, who movest and inspirest us, grant that these weak souls may be strengthened and those who fear be reassured. To Thee I entrust them, even as I entrust to Thee our entire destiny.

30 March 1914: He whom we saw yesterday is on earth; his presence is enough to prove that a day will come when darkness shall be transformed into light, and Thy reign shall indeed be established upon earth.

1 April 1914: I feel we have entered the very heart of Thy sanctuary and grown aware of Thy very will. A great joy, a deep peace reign in me… now all is changed: a new stage has begun.

2 April 1914: … the new period opening now before us… a period of expansion rather than of concentration. It is in the activity of each moment that we must serve Thee and identify ourselves with Thee rather than in deep and silent contemplation or in meditation…

3 April 1914: It seems to me that I am being born to a new life… I know that I must now definitively give myself up and be like an absolutely blank page on which Thy thought, Thy will, O Lord, can be inscribed freely… Oh, to belong to Thee without any darkness, without any restriction!

In the Prayers and Meditations there are a few themes which constantly recur. Her one concern is the Soul of the Earth. She invokes peace and entrusts herself to the Will of the Lord. She says: “May Thy peace reign over all.” Whatever has to be done can be done only in that benign peace. Peace is the foundation for all enduring work.

The Mother met Sri Aurobindo and a resplendent change took place in her, a transformative change. It was the direct contact with him that had brought it about. She says she was born to a new life. Sri Aurobindo saw that surrender to the Divine to the last bit of the physical is possible and it is that surrender which shall be the key to the work of manifestation.

Then a great thing happened, just within six months of the 29 March meeting. In her diary she wrote on 25 September 1914 as follows:
A new Light shall break upon the earth,
A new world shall be born,
And the things that were promised shall be fulfilled.

The promise was fulfilled on 29 February 1956:

The supermind descended, making the earth’s subtle-physical its operating station. About it the Mother told that this was not just a descent; it was a manifestation. She even said that the work Sri Aurobindo had given to her at the time of his passing away was completed. The seed was already cast on 5 December 1950 at 1.26 am on Tuesday, in the Death’s “tremendous hour”. From now onward the Purusha Yoga of Sri Aurobindo turned into the full Shakti Yoga of the Mother. In terms of yogic logic one had to follow the other.

There were a few landmark events which took place before 29 February 1956. Of course, the most important was the withdrawal of Sri Aurobindo in 1950. There were difficulties also, serious difficulties of the physical nature. As far as supramentalisation of the mental and the vital were concerned, this was accomplished long ago. But regarding the body consciousness, the supermind could be brought into it only for a while. It was coming and going. Sri Aurobindo recorded this in his poetic compositios of the time. But things were becoming serious, in fact “ominous” as he says.

In 1948 or so, the Mother felt like leaving the body. It seems, one of them had to go if the physical transformation were to become a possibility. When she told this to Sri Aurobindo, he spoke in a firm voice: “No, this can never be. If necessary for this transformation I might go; you will have to fulfil our Yoga of Supramental Descent and Transformation.”

It is entirely beyond us to be au fait with the occult mystery of Sri Aurobindo’s leaving the body. It was about 1 o’clock past mid-night on 5 December 1950. The Mother was standing by the side of his bed. They were looking into each other’s eyes for a long time, for a long time. Then Sri Aurobindo signaled with his eyes, Nirodbaran told me, and the Mother went to her room. It would have been impossible for him to leave his body in her presence, she standing there. How could he? But she by now knew that he was withdrawing. She went to her room. Then it happened at 1.26 am. The Mother stood at Sri Aurobindo’s bed for about half an hour, with his body charged with the supramental Light and Force.

Sri Aurobindo withdrew. But there was a danger—the Mother too would do so immediately. Her psychic being was one with his and that would have followed it at once. That would have been sort of spontaneous, and she had to make a very special effort not to allow that to happen. She told Pranab, her personal attendant, not to leave her alone even for a small moment. The physical support to her was provided by him.

When Sri Aurobindo left his body the Mother rushed to his room and stood by his bed. In that tremendous hour the supramental Light and Force flowed into her uninterruptedly. She even felt the friction of the passage. What he had established in him was passed on to her.
One definite result of the withdrawal was that the Mind of Light got fixed in her. The Mind of Light—that was the parting gift the Mother received from Sri Aurobindo. She was 72. Long ago the Silent Mind was the first gift the Mother had received from Sri Aurobindo, after the meeting on 29 March 1914, at 4.30 pm. She was then 36.

But what is this Mind of Light? It is the mind of the physical, the body’s mind, receiving the supramental. Unless that is established, complete transformation down to the physical is out of the question. The physical’s mind must open to the supramental. Sri Aurobindo saw the necessity of this Mind of Light governing what he called the Intermediate Race. With it is the possibility of the appearance of the Supramental Race proper.

The Mother says that Sri Aurobindo “attempted all” and “achieved all”. But if he had achieved all, then what was exactly left for her to do? And didn’t Sri Aurobindo also say that she would have to carry on their work of Supramental Descent and Transformation? Is there a contradiction between these two statements? But we have to recognize also that there is the work of the Purusha and there is the work of the Shakti. Without the work of the Purusha, the work of the Shakti cannot begin. So in the “achieved all”, what is implied is the work of the Purusha; it is that which is fully accomplished. Now the work of the Shakti has to begin. Sri Aurobindo has done his job. The Mother must attend to her task. The foundational Nature has to get ready to receive the higher Light and Force. That marks another phase of the long journey towards transformation.

That was the difficult journey the Mother had to undertake, the tremendous work given to her by Sri Aurobindo. And she did it. In it what was promised got fulfilled. “A new Light breaks upon the earth, a new world is born,”—she declared on 24 April 1956.

The event had taken place earlier on 29 February 1956. Since then things remained no more the same. Supramental Manifestation—and not just the Descent—took place in the earth’s subtle physical. The Mother even said that, what Sri Aurobindo had asked her to do that she had accomplished, that she was now free to go. But what did exactly happen on 29 February 1956? The Mother says:

“This evening the Divine Presence, concrete and material, was there present amongst you. I had a form of living gold, bigger than the universe, and I was facing a huge and massive golden door which separated the world from the Divine.”

“As I looked at the door, I knew and willed, in a single movement of consciousness, that the time has come, and lifting with both hands a mighty golden hammer I struck one blow, one single blow on the door and the door was shattered to pieces.”

“Then the Supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow.”

She also declared: “A new world is born, born, born.” It was not the old world transformed, but it was a new world that had taken birth. Her task was done and we cannot say that she was overstaying after 1956. She was preparing us to receive the Grace.

“After the descent of the Supermind, how long,” once the Mother had asked Sri Aurobindo, “do you think the process of transformation will take?” Sri Aurobindo looked up and told her: “Perhaps 300 years.” Later the Mother added: “He said 300 years, but you know there is something like Grace—anything can take place.” Oh! How wonderful! She was now occupied with it, in her will one with the supreme Will, she invoking the Grace.

She is visvadravyvati, containing the universal plenitudes. She is uruvyacha, the matrix in which all have taken birth, the widely expanded. She is dharayatksitim, coextensive with all that is manifest. She is dévi, the luminous divine Goddess as the giver of benedictions. Taking mortal birth, she toils to receive from the Supreme the Boon for the Soul of the Earth. The Supramental manifestation has taken place and now more and more of it shall be in its great and luminous sequel, in its assured rhythm and movement. It is for that that she works. But if there is to be a divine destiny for the Earth, it must be because of the Earth’s free choice. The Mother respects that free choice and she works that it develops in glowing freedom of the Truth and the Right and the Vast. Earth has hesitation because of the inconscient past and it is that which must be removed. Therefore the Mother’s occult and yogic sadhana got focused towards it. She has to work with the physical, to make the mind of the physical, the mind of the body’s cells ready to receive the supramental Light and Force, ready to receive the divine Grace.

It looks paradoxical that, in the last year of her physical presence, here upon earth, the Mother should say that “the more we advance on the way, the more the need of the Divine Presence becomes imperative and indispensable.” It is not that she realised this imperative on 21 February 1973. It is the very physical that realised it on this day. It means, the physical was making a direct response for the Divine Presence in it. Marvellous, indeed! How marvellous!

In the meanwhile, the Mother obtained the consent for collaboration from the material Nature. That was a great advance in the evolutionary process. Nature saw the distinct possibility and gained confidence in the work, as if she knew that this time she will not be duped, hoodwinked again; she discarded her earlier frustrating reservations. The Mother experienced the Divine acting in the body, the Divine alone. In fact the Divine had become the body, with the power of omniscience and omnipotence operating in it. She was busy with the formation of the new body. She was trying to fuse this material body with that new supramental body. The Mother would simply walk into that body, walk without dying. This happened on 17 November 1973. She walked into the New Body.

So, there was no question of the physical transformation being “put off for the present”, as some perceive. But the key was discovered. The complete psychicisation of the cellular consciousness was the assurance of immortality of the physical itself. A golden light, transparent and benevolent, very strong, very powerful filled the body’s cells. It is said in the Veda that the body of Agni is made of gold, hiranya-tanu. The Mother in the psychic’s materialization did it as a part of the evolutionary process.

Did the Mother take the decision to leave the body and did she then leave it on 17 November 1973? “It cannot be so,” says Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya. “Nobody can convince me that she had decided and therefore she left the body. I am absolutely sure that if she had not the conviction that she would bring about the supramental transformation in her present body, she would not have been able to do the work that she has done. This conviction has made it possible to establish this truth firmly in the earth consciousness.”

But the Mother’s main work was to bring down the supramental consciousness in the material world, so that the physical transformation of the body could take place.

She did it. Now it is this supramental consciousness which will go on acting supramentally; it will bring about the transformative change. That is the absolute certainty of the expected result. That is the significance of the Mother’s passing away, justifying also the significance of Sri Aurobindo’s passing away. For the work of transformation he had to go, and it was she who had to do it. The Mother’s failure would have implied the failure of Sri Aurobindo’s move. That would have meant their failure. They would have come and done all in vain.

If we have to mark a few important stages in the process of physical transformation, we could briefly put these as follows: Sri Aurobindo’s descent into death, 1950; supramental manifestation in the earth’s subtle physical, 1956; realisation of the surhomme (overman) consciousness, 1958; consent for collaboration from the material Nature, 1958; the descent of the surhomme (overman) consciousness in 1969; the psychic being itself getting materialized, 1970; supramental body, 1972. It is the psychic being which will materialize itself and become the supramental being, she told on 1 July 1970. It is precisely the psychic being which survives death; so, if it materializes itself, it means the abolition of death. That is the central importance of the psychic being. Whatever is not in accordance with the Truth that disappears. Materialisation of the psychic being gives continuity to evolution. In the material world immortality thus means the materialization of the psychic being. The New Body makes it possible. Perhaps that is the process. Now it is the New Body which will do whatever is to be done. It is not an inert lump of matter, but is charged with luminous dynamism of the Truth-Force itself. It is going to exert pressure upon the physical in the evolutionary process.

Sometimes people ask if the Mother really succeeded in her work. Did she complete it? It is said that she did not achieve all that she was to achieve. They even say that her work of physical transformation has been postponed. But the statement, that the work has been postponed, is an incomplete statement. These people must also tell us when the “postponed” work will be resumed. But granting that the work of physical transformation has been postponed in the Will of the Lord, then that becomes yet another, greater achievement for the Mother, that now whatever has to happen will happen in the Will of the Lord. Isn’t that outstanding?

The Supramental Presence is a sufficient, is a necessary and sufficient basis for that to happen. That surely is a greater gain than perhaps the transformation itself—the working of the Will of the Supreme in this Creation. What prevails is: “What Thou Willest, What Thou Willest” even in the physical. It is in it that that all is achieved, achieved by the Mother.