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The Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Co-Creator of the Integral Yoga

Patrick Beldio

The Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram: Co-Creator of the Integral Yoga analyzes the contributions of the Mother (née Mirra Alfassa, 1878-1973) to the Integral Yoga that she and Sri Aurobindo (né Aurobindo Ghose, 1872-1950) co-created for his ashram. Scholars have ignored Mirra for Aurobindo, which prevents a full understanding of their spiritual practice. Scholars have also avoided examining work Aurobindo produced after they began their partnership in 1920 until his death in 1950, and privileged the written output in his journal Arya from 1914 to 1921. In this initial fertile period, he put forth his innovative teaching about what he called the “Supermind,” an emergent human faculty that he said would manifest a new humanity and a new earth through Mirra’s body. Mirra claimed that after his death in 1956 this manifestation happened as he foretold. Mirra’s work in the ashram from his death until hers in 1973 reveals important ways that she both fulfilled and changed Aurobindo’s initial vision. These developments are chiefly based on her experiences of mental dissolution while her body gained a new supramental form and consciousness.

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Lexington Books
Pages: 458 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-1-7936-2426-0 • Hardback • January 2025 • $145.00 • (£112.00)
978-1-7936-2427-7 • eBook • February 2025 • $60.00 • (£46.00)
Series: Explorations in Indic Traditions: Theological, Ethical, and Philosophical
Subjects: Religion / Theology, Religion / Comparative Religion, Religion / Eastern

Patrick Beldio is visiting assistant professor of the Theology/Religious Studies department at the University of Scranton.

Acknowledgements

Preface: The Divine Mother & The Men Who Revealed Her to Me

Introduction: State of the Field and My Comparative Theological Method

Part I: Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, and the New Being

Chapter 1: Divine Madness: Sri Aurobindo’s Intellectual and Spiritual Development

Chapter 2: Spiritual Dualité: Mirra Joins Aurobindo to Universalize Supermind

Chapter 3: The New Being: Mirra’s and Aurobindo’s Posthuman Ideal of Wholeness

Part II: The Four Personalities of Mahāśakti

Chapter 4: The Wisdom of Maheśvarī: Mental Annihilation and the Integral Yoga

Chapter 5: The Strength of Mahākalī: Progress through Opposition in the Integral Yoga

Chapter 6: The Harmony of Mahālakṣmī: The Yoke of Beauty and Love in the Integral Yoga

Chapter 7: The Perfection of Mahāsarasvatī: The Integral Yoga as a Descendant Path to God Realization

Conclusion: Divine Revelation Across Creation and History

Appendix 1: Timeline

Appendix 2: Two Periods of Mirra’s and Aurobindo’s Written and Creative Production

Bibliography

About the Author

Patrick Beldio’s creative and pioneering study, The Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram: Co-Creator of the Integral Yoga, examines the various ways that Mirra Alfassa helped to shape, and further develop, the Integral Yoga tradition inaugurated by Sri Aurobindo. Combining scholarly acumen with a disarmingly personal approach, the book breaks new ground in our understanding of the spiritual and philosophical contours of Integral Yoga and provides an urgently needed corrective to the tendency in scholarship to emphasize Aurobindo at the expense of the Mother.


— Swami Medhananda, UCLA and University of Southern California


In a work that is both structured by systematic scholarship and suffused with spiritual sensibility, Patrick Beldio explores the teachings and practices of Sri Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa. He highlights certain synergies with respect to their visions of the transfiguration of humanity and also delineates certain clarifications and amplifications developed by Mirra. Sketching the distinctiveness of Mirra’s search on yogic and aesthetic pathways, Beldio correlates it to some contemporary quests for truth in contexts of religious diversity. Through Beldio’s sagely guidance, the reader is directed towards landscapes of Integral Yoga animated by the power of the divine feminine.


— Ankur Barua, University of Cambridge


The Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram is a welcome and needed addition to the library of Aurobindo studies, as Patrick Beldio gently but insistently restores to Mother Mirra Alfassa her rightful place in the story of the integral yoga. We are shown too a panoramic view of the remarkable community of spiritual masters east and west to which Mirra and Aurobindo truly belong. Indeed, Beldio himself turns out to be not just an observer but a welcome participant — pilgrim, artist — in the spiritual awakening of our times.


— Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Harvard Divinity School


This original study offers significant new research and insights into an often-overlooked figure. As the first extensive academic exploration of Mirra Alfassa, The Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram rectifies her longstanding marginalisation in the field of Aurobindo Studies. Beldio highlights her critical role in formalising Aurobindo’s innovative "Integral Yoga" while also re-establishing her significance as a spiritual leader in her own right.


— Alex Wolfers, University of Cambridge


The Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Co-Creator of the Integral Yoga

Cover Image
Hardback
eBook
Summary
Summary
  • The Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram: Co-Creator of the Integral Yoga analyzes the contributions of the Mother (née Mirra Alfassa, 1878-1973) to the Integral Yoga that she and Sri Aurobindo (né Aurobindo Ghose, 1872-1950) co-created for his ashram. Scholars have ignored Mirra for Aurobindo, which prevents a full understanding of their spiritual practice. Scholars have also avoided examining work Aurobindo produced after they began their partnership in 1920 until his death in 1950, and privileged the written output in his journal Arya from 1914 to 1921. In this initial fertile period, he put forth his innovative teaching about what he called the “Supermind,” an emergent human faculty that he said would manifest a new humanity and a new earth through Mirra’s body. Mirra claimed that after his death in 1956 this manifestation happened as he foretold. Mirra’s work in the ashram from his death until hers in 1973 reveals important ways that she both fulfilled and changed Aurobindo’s initial vision. These developments are chiefly based on her experiences of mental dissolution while her body gained a new supramental form and consciousness.

Details
Details
  • Lexington Books
    Pages: 458 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
    978-1-7936-2426-0 • Hardback • January 2025 • $145.00 • (£112.00)
    978-1-7936-2427-7 • eBook • February 2025 • $60.00 • (£46.00)
    Series: Explorations in Indic Traditions: Theological, Ethical, and Philosophical
    Subjects: Religion / Theology, Religion / Comparative Religion, Religion / Eastern
Author
Author
  • Patrick Beldio is visiting assistant professor of the Theology/Religious Studies department at the University of Scranton.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Acknowledgements

    Preface: The Divine Mother & The Men Who Revealed Her to Me

    Introduction: State of the Field and My Comparative Theological Method

    Part I: Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, and the New Being

    Chapter 1: Divine Madness: Sri Aurobindo’s Intellectual and Spiritual Development

    Chapter 2: Spiritual Dualité: Mirra Joins Aurobindo to Universalize Supermind

    Chapter 3: The New Being: Mirra’s and Aurobindo’s Posthuman Ideal of Wholeness

    Part II: The Four Personalities of Mahāśakti

    Chapter 4: The Wisdom of Maheśvarī: Mental Annihilation and the Integral Yoga

    Chapter 5: The Strength of Mahākalī: Progress through Opposition in the Integral Yoga

    Chapter 6: The Harmony of Mahālakṣmī: The Yoke of Beauty and Love in the Integral Yoga

    Chapter 7: The Perfection of Mahāsarasvatī: The Integral Yoga as a Descendant Path to God Realization

    Conclusion: Divine Revelation Across Creation and History

    Appendix 1: Timeline

    Appendix 2: Two Periods of Mirra’s and Aurobindo’s Written and Creative Production

    Bibliography

    About the Author

Reviews
Reviews
  • Patrick Beldio’s creative and pioneering study, The Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram: Co-Creator of the Integral Yoga, examines the various ways that Mirra Alfassa helped to shape, and further develop, the Integral Yoga tradition inaugurated by Sri Aurobindo. Combining scholarly acumen with a disarmingly personal approach, the book breaks new ground in our understanding of the spiritual and philosophical contours of Integral Yoga and provides an urgently needed corrective to the tendency in scholarship to emphasize Aurobindo at the expense of the Mother.


    — Swami Medhananda, UCLA and University of Southern California


    In a work that is both structured by systematic scholarship and suffused with spiritual sensibility, Patrick Beldio explores the teachings and practices of Sri Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa. He highlights certain synergies with respect to their visions of the transfiguration of humanity and also delineates certain clarifications and amplifications developed by Mirra. Sketching the distinctiveness of Mirra’s search on yogic and aesthetic pathways, Beldio correlates it to some contemporary quests for truth in contexts of religious diversity. Through Beldio’s sagely guidance, the reader is directed towards landscapes of Integral Yoga animated by the power of the divine feminine.


    — Ankur Barua, University of Cambridge


    The Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram is a welcome and needed addition to the library of Aurobindo studies, as Patrick Beldio gently but insistently restores to Mother Mirra Alfassa her rightful place in the story of the integral yoga. We are shown too a panoramic view of the remarkable community of spiritual masters east and west to which Mirra and Aurobindo truly belong. Indeed, Beldio himself turns out to be not just an observer but a welcome participant — pilgrim, artist — in the spiritual awakening of our times.


    — Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Harvard Divinity School


    This original study offers significant new research and insights into an often-overlooked figure. As the first extensive academic exploration of Mirra Alfassa, The Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram rectifies her longstanding marginalisation in the field of Aurobindo Studies. Beldio highlights her critical role in formalising Aurobindo’s innovative "Integral Yoga" while also re-establishing her significance as a spiritual leader in her own right.


    — Alex Wolfers, University of Cambridge


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