Blessed are those

Introduction

With Gratitude

We Are All Blessed. The remembrances published as 'Darshan' in 2005-06 are succeeded by the present collection of remembrances in 2014-15 and are titled "Blessed are those ..." The Title has been taken from the Mother's message for 1971 "Blessed are those who take a leap towards the Future". The Mother also wrote that 1971 is "A sweet year".

Remembering the Mother and Sri Aurobindo is always sweet. As dawn is succeeded by a greater dawn, each remembrance becomes sweeter and sweeter. Absorbing the influences of the centenary of the first meeting of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo (1914-2014) ,and going towards the 60^th anniversary of the first Manifestation of Supermind (1956-2016), and heralding Golden Jubilee of the Inauguration of Auroville (1968 -2018 ), we are on the threshold of greater times to come.

Part I of this book is a collection of reminiscences, mostly from the Residents of Auroville and the rest from those deeply connected with it. Part II has remembrances of the early sadhaks of the Ashram who directly worked with the Mother. For them doing Auroville work is doing the Mother's yoga. We salute also all the unsung heroes who dedicated their works silently. Part III is dedicated to the remembrances of pioneers in Auroville mostly collected from publications, their true significance is explained by a quote from Nolini Kanta Gupta at the beginning of this part. And we conclude with a chapter projecting the essence of the Yoga of our Masters i.e., their work for bringing down the Supermind and their Vision of the Future. There is an interesting narration on supermind as experienced by Dr. Michael Miovic when meditated in the inner chamber of Matrimandir in 1997, the 125^th birth anniversary year of Sri Aurobindo.

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After 1973, it is left to us to ask, aspire, strive, know, experience and attain that stage of yoga towards spiritual progress. Though we could not record the talks, Rama Narayana and Buvanasundari have written and given their sharing with joy. Sunandaben, Anu Purani, Shoba Mitra were actively participating in Auroville from earlier times and are inspiration for early birds. We also remember with joy Sunandaben sharing her sweet moments with Mother with Arulvazhi children and Muthulakshmi taking notes. Our elder brother, Richard Pearson is there too and Kailasben with prayer on all our behalf.

In "The Virtues" tale, the Mother mentions "Gratitude" as the youngest virtue. We human beings have to cultivate that virtue more and more. Our heartfelt grateful thanks to all participants.

Our thanks go to Dr. Beena R.Nayak, who was the initiator, organizer and conductor during the first phase of the Remembrances meetings and for her continued support thereafter, to Patricia for collecting and providing the original recordings, to Rajasoundari for transcribing most of the audio recordings and making typed copies of some published works, assisting in all other connected works with devotion and to the staff of Savitribhavan led by Shraddhavan for their continued and committed support.

We thank Jothi Charles for reviewing all the transcripts and typed text and editing wherever essential. We appreciate his suggestions for titles, shortening of some articles and profiles and for transcribing Dr. Kireet Joshi's interview. We thank R. Ganesh, M. Manimaran, M. Velmurugan and M. Muthukumari. We thank Kamban offset printers for typesetting and printing.

On 6-11-06, Dr. Prema Nandakumar wrote about "Darshan", "..An appropriate title for it gives us Darshan of the Mother and also explains the core elements of the Aurobindonian Darsana. It is not easy to accept a way of life that takes you away completely from the familiar, but launching oneself on an ocean towards an unknown destination is the mark of a hero. I salute all of - heroic precursors of a marvelous Dawn...

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But when the Mother is our leader, we should not worry. With affection, Prema" This time we are privileged to have her foreword for this venture, which is a remembrance by itself. "What marvellous splendour! Now we have only to learn to live the new life."

Varadharajan and Syamala

Prarthna, Auroville

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