Grounding The Spiritual In The Historical: A Review Of Peter Heehs' 'The Mother'

The Mother : A Life of Sri Aurobindo's Spiritual Collaborator. Peter Heehs. Fourth Estate India; HarperCollins Publishers. Pages 352. Rs 486.

Mirra Alfassa (1878-1973), known to the world as The Mother, stands as a defining figure in the landscape of 20^th-century spirituality.

As the spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo and the visionary-materialiser of the international community of Auroville, her life story is frequently shrouded in the devotional reverence of her followers, or completely ignored by the mainstream historians, even of religion, making a critical, historical assessment a formidable challenge.

The recently published, The Mother: A Life of Sri Aurobindo's Spiritual Collaborator, emerges as a landmark work of historical scholarship that navigates this treacherous terrain mostly successfully.

Central to this is its capacity to demystify without diminishing.

The author, Peter Heehs, meticulously grounds The Mother's extraordinary life in a verifiable historical context, moving beyond the simplistic binaries of hagiography and cynical debunking.

Archival Rigour and Contextualisation

The strength of this biography lies in its meticulous use of archival research to situate Mirra Alfassa initially within her European cultural, intellectual, and occult milieu. He presents a detailed picture of a young woman deeply engaged with the currents of fin-de-siècle Paris, a world far removed from the ashram she would later lead.

Her involvement in the art world is documented through her 1905 art criticism published in Les Tendances Nouvelles under the pseudonym ‘M. Almyre’, where she offers a balanced critique of contemporary painters.

Her engagement with early feminist thought is evidenced by her participation between 1911 and 1912 in the Union de Pensée Féminine (Union for Feminine Thought), a group dedicated to exploring the particularity of 'feminine thought' as a complement to the masculine.

Heehs charts her entry into the world of occultism, not as a divinely guided inevitability, but as a specific historical encounter.

He details her association with Max Théon and his 'Cosmic Movement', a pivotal influence in her formative years. Heehs' critical methodology is on full display here; through archival investigation, he debunks Théon's fabricated, exotic biography, revealing his real identity as Max Bimstein, a figure with a minor criminal record.

He analyzes the syncretic nature of Théon's 'Cosmic Philosophy', tracing its origins to Judaism, Kabbalah, Gnosticism, and Christianity, thereby grounding Mirra's early occult training in a specific, historically situated European tradition.

Heehs argues that it was during her three-year association with this movement that Mirra 'absorbed a number of Cosmic ideas that derived from earlier traditions', which she would later carry to India, where Sri Aurobindo would transform them into elements of his own yogic system.

A Human-Centric Narrative

The result of this methodology is a textured, human-centric account of Mirra's development.

Heehs presents a narrative of gradual evolution, where a complex personality is shaped by her environment, her relationships, and her own intellectual and spiritual seeking. Her spiritual journey begins not with an innate divinity, but with a rejection of the remote, all-powerful God of Christian Bible, followed by an intellectual awakening to the concept of the 'God within' after hearing a lecture by Gyanendra Nath Chakraborti at a theosophical society in 1900.

Her path is one of exploration, marked by distinct phases of learning and influence. This approach systematically demystifies its subject. By grounding Mirra in a specific, verifiable historical context, Heehs consciously shifts the narrative from the sacred and pre-ordained to the secular and contingent.

He begins with the verifiable historical person, Mirra Alfassa, a product of a specific European time and place. His documentation of her engagement with secular art, feminism, and a historically situated occult movement frames her spiritual evolution not as a divine inevitability but as a human process of seeking and development.

His scholarly approach is therefore not just a different way of telling the story; it is a fundamental challenge to the hagiographical premise, replacing the sacred with the historical as the primary explanatory framework.

This is a work of significant and undeniable value. As a historical document, it provides an unparalleled, deeply researched account of The Mother's life, particularly her formative years in Europe.

By meticulously situating her within the artistic, intellectual, and occult currents of her time, Heehs makes her accessible to a secular, academic readership in a way that was not previously possible.

His critical methodology, while controversial, succeeds in constructing a compelling narrative of a human being's journey towards a profound spiritual realisation, stripping away layers of myth to reveal the complex, developing personality beneath.

The Shakti in Action - Leadership and Creation

The definitive turning point occurred on November 24, 1926. Following a powerful spiritual descent, Sri Aurobindo declared his retirement from public life and announced to the community: 'Mirra is my Shakti. She has taken charge of the new creation. You will get everything from her'.

Heehs frames this as the moment her public, world-shaping work began in earnest, formalising the dynamic of the withdrawn, consciousness-focused Purusha (Sri Aurobindo) and the active, manifestational Prakriti, or Shakti (The Mother). He also makes it absolutely clear in no uncertain terms that their relationship was not physical but a purely spiritual collaboration.

This spiritual mandate evolves into concrete, lasting institutions: the 'organization of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, the creation of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, the foundation of Auroville'. These were not mere side projects; they were the physical embodiment of the 'new creation'.

There is a striking continuity between this later role and her earlier articulations on feminine thought. Between 1911 and 1912, she had argued that the unique qualities of women were 'profound intuition and practical deduction' and that their role was to 'draw practical conclusions from these phenomena' rather than speculate on metaphysics.

Her work as the builder of the Ashram, the school, and a new city is the ultimate expression of this philosophy. She was literally building the physical world based on the spiritual vision developed in partnership with Sri Aurobindo, fulfilling a holistic orientation she had held more than a decade prior.

Confronting the Material World - Finances and Politics

Heehs provides a balanced account that does not shy away from the practical difficulties and controversies that attended this institution-building. He documents the financial scrutiny from government officials, including Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Influenced by reports that The Mother 'controlled everything autocratically' and 'gave no account' of funds; they viewed the Ashram as a public institution that ought to have publicly audited books.

Heehs presents this clash of paradigms without taking sides, explaining the secular state's demand for transparency while also clarifying The Mother's long-standing financial philosophy.

She 'did not believe in investment, and, when money came in, she spent it immediately on the maintenance and development of the community'. He points out that despite a negative propaganda of her living a lavish autocratic life in reality 'her personal needs were few.' The costly gifts that came from the devotees, she gave away or, in the case of jewellery, sold when the need arose, as in the case of financing the University for which in 1952 she sold her jewellery. He laments, 'still, the impression that she lived in luxury and drove a hard bargain persisted'.

This is the important strength of this biography. It makes as much as possible an objective study which the devotees may not find appeals to their taste. But this biography actually answers more convincingly the questions raised outside the devotional ecosystem.

The biography also chronicles the external hostility the community faced, such as the 1965 mob attack during anti-Hindi agitations, which 'plundered the ashram’s fair-price shop, set fire to its post office and clinic, and stoned other buildings'. By including these details, he portrays the Ashram as an entity existing within the turbulent political and social realities of post-colonial India, constantly navigating the friction between its internal, trust-based spiritual economy and the demands of the external world.

Lingering Euro-Centrism: the Case of 'Psychic Being' and 'Glorified Body'

One finds what may be considered a tendency to make the roots of 'The Mother' as much possible de-Indianised and European. The most compelling evidence for this argument is Heehs's analysis of the concept of the "psychic being" (être psychique). He identifies this as 'the Mother’s main contribution to the theory and practice of integral yoga'.

Heehs wears the hat of an intellectual archaeologist, digging the term's lineage. To him, Mother first encountered it in the Theons' publications, the Revue Cosmique and Tradition Cosmique, and that the idea itself has deeper roots in Western traditions like 'Pythagoreanism, Orphism, Gnosticism and Hermeticism'.

He then claims how this Western concept was integrated into an Indian philosophical framework. Sri Aurobindo incorporated the idea into his 'evolutionary Vedantism', with Heehs noting that the concept has 'no exact equivalent in Indian philosophy'.

In a footnote Heehs does note that Sri Aurobindo proposed the Sanskrit term caitya puruṣa (CWSA 28:62), and then adds that this was 'a term used first in medieval Sanskrit literature, centuries after the Upanishads and other classic Vedantic texts were written.' Curiously he omits the fact that Sri Aurobindo associates this 'caitya puruṣa' with the hidden Purusha, who 'is in the mystic heart, — the secret heart-cave hrrdaye guhāyām, as the Upanishads put it', thus providing a clear Upanishadic continuity.

Thus, in tracing a terminological link, Heehs inadvertently minimises the profound experiential and textual basis for the psychic being within the Hindu tradition itself. The very characteristics that define the psychic being in Integral Yoga—its nature as an indwelling divine entity, its role as an inner guide, and its function as an evolutionary agent—find powerful and explicit precedents in the sacred texts of India, precedents that Sri Aurobindo not only knew but had experientially verified.

Another assertion of Heehs is that the corps glorieux or 'glorious body' is 'primarily a Christian concept based on a verse in Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians'. This is also a problematic and biased oversimplification. The esoteric tradition of Jewish Kabbalah offers a direct counter-narrative.

The Zohar, a foundational mystical text, posits that humanity's original state in the Garden of Eden was not one of physical flesh but of celestial light. The spiritual goal of restoration, Tikkun olam, explicitly 'involves, for humans, the restoration of their clothing, the garment or 'skin' of light.' This restored state is defined as "a glorified body that expresses the non-dual nature of the soul and the divine." This establishes a robust, non-Christian lineage for the concept that is central to the tradition's narrative of creation, fall, and redemption.

But more importantly the 'glorious body' was actually discovered by Mirra Alfassa herself. She clearly wrote that 'at that time nobody had ever spoken to her about it and Madame Theon had never seen it—no one had ever seen or said anything.' She felt that she 'was on the verge of discovering a secret'.

The fact that she later discussed this vision with Sri Aurobindo, who identified it as 'surely the prototype of the supramental form', serves as a subsequent validation of a pre-existing experience, not as its source. His identification gave her a conceptual framework for what she had already seen, but the seeing itself was her own not a borrowed concept.

In fact here yet another biography of 'Mother' which appeared in 2024, by scholar of religion, Prof. Patrick Beldio (The Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram: Co-Creator of the Integral Yoga, 2024, Bloomsbury) provides a more nuanced and satisfactory model for understanding Mirra Alfassa's experience than the linear-influence model.

Beldio does not attempt to trace a single line of transmission from Christian theology or Kabbalah to Mirra. Instead, he situates her experience within a broader, cross-cultural phenomenological category of higher mystical states. He draws parallels between her 'domain of Love' and the state of vijnana described by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, and equates it with Sri Aurobindo's concept of the Supermind, thus concluding her experience as 'independently discovered in a completely different cultural and religious cultural context'.

Importance and Complementarity

Heehs's work provides the historical integrity and intellectual coherence that ground the phenomenon that is 'The Mother' in material reality. By situating her within her time and critically examining the development of her life and thought, he makes her accessible to a world beyond the circle of believers and provides an indispensable account of her human yet spiritual journey.

At the same time, the very strengths of the historical-critical method also constitute its inherent limitations when applied to a life whose primary significance, for its subject and her followers, lies in the spiritual and the transcendent. Heehs's 'alpha' approach, by its nature, cannot fully capture the 'omega' reality.

So Heehs's work needs a complementary source. And that comes from K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar (1908-1999). He had written the biography of Sri Aurobindo whose draft Sri Aurobindo himself went through and made the needed edits and corrections.

In 1978, Iyengar published the biography of the Mother: 'On the Mother: The Chronicle of a Manifestation and Ministry.' K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar's approach to the life of The Mother is defined by a conscious and explicit act of surrender to the subject's spiritual magnitude.

He begins his work not with a historian's statement of purpose, but with a devotee's expression of awe, questioning the very feasibility of his task. To write a 'Life of the Mother', he suggests, would be akin to 'attempting a history of Infinity or a biography of Eternity'.

His methodology is a principled rejection of the conventional biographical craft. Citing the warnings from both Sri Aurobindo and The Mother against an obsessive focus on 'so-called dates, facts and outer circumstances' or 'gossipy biographical odds and ends', Iyengar declares his primary duty is to illuminate the 'all-important inner history, the unfolding of the Divine Manifestation and the saga of the Divine Ministry'.

This is not an evasion of historical rigour but a deliberate choice rooted in a specific epistemology of shraddha of a sadhaka, one that privileges spiritual truth over material fact.

The narrative itself is conceptualised as a yogic journey. Iyengar describes his own writing process as a spiritual ordeal, a 'steep arduous climb' against 'distraction, fatigue, impatience, dizziness, doubt'.

By framing his authorial labour in these terms, he positions the biography as an act of sadhana, and the text becomes a testament to that discipline, a form of homage rather than a piece of analysis.

The creation of the text is thus presented as a spiritual struggle, reliant on 'Grace' to overcome 'hostile forces'.

This act of seeking and receiving blessings for the project from The Mother herself, via Nolini Kanta Gupta, further solidifies the book's status as a sanctioned work within a spiritual lineage, intended not merely to report on a phenomenon but to be a conduit for it. Its purpose is to transmit the spiritual force, the  Shakti, of its subject, making it a primary source for the experience of discipleship.

Iyengar's On the Mother is thus more than a biography; it is a primary document that captures the spiritual power, the dynamics of inner reality, and the divine narrative that inspired a global movement giving profound meaning to thousands of lives. It allows the reader to understand The Mother as her innermost circle of followers did, not as a historical subject but as a living spiritual presence.

Heehs's The Mother: A Life, on the other hand, provides the historical integrity and intellectual coherence that ground this movement in material reality. By situating her within her time and critically examining the development of her life and thought, he makes her accessible to a world beyond the circle of believers and provides an indispensable account of her human journey.

The books, while on the surface seem to move in the opposing directions, antagonistic to each other, in reality they are complementary.

Their complementarity illustrates a vital principle for the study of religion and spirituality: that inner truth experienced and the outer objective evidence are not adversaries but necessary partners, like intertwined strands of the DNA molecule, in the pursuit of a deeper understanding. Together, they create a sacred whole. The result shall be for the reader more profound and more complete and hence more helpful.

While Peter Heehs has crafted a magnificent, scholarly, and respectful biography of The Mother that sets a new benchmark for the field, it is not without its shortcomings.

A notable omission is the lack of any reference to Iyengar's significant work. More fundamentally, the book exhibits a persistent scholarly tendency to minimize the inherent Hindu and Indian character of the Sri Aurobindo-Mother phenomenon.

Although it is difficult to ascertain whether this reductionism is intentional, its presence is undeniable. Nevertheless, this critique should not be conflated with charges of sensationalism and malice thrown at this author for his earlier book, which this reviewer considers mostly unfounded.