Mirra Alfassa
Sign in to saveAlso known as The Mother, Mirra Morisset, Mirra Richard
Spiritual Leader, occultist and collaborator of Sri Aurobindo (1878–1973)
Key facts
- Born
- Blanche Rachel Mirra Alfassa , 21 February 1878, Paris , France
- Died
- 17 November 1973 (1973-11-17) (aged 95), Pondicherry , India
- Resting place
- Pondicherry , India
- Nationality
- French (1878–1954) Indian (1954–1973)
- Spouse
- Henri Morriset (1870–1956)
- Notable work s
- Prayers And Meditations, Words of Long Ago, On Thoughts and Aphorisms, Words of the Mother
- Pen name
- The Mother
- Religion
- Judaism
- Institute
- Sri Aurobindo Ashram , Auroville
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Gender
- female
- Citizenship
- India
- Place of birth
- 9th arrondissement of Paris
- Place of death
- Pondicherry
- Occupation
- painter
- Educated at
- Académie Julian
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Religion
- Hinduism
- Student of
- Max Théon
- Field of work
- work of art
- Image
- Divine-mother (mirra alfassa).jpg
Show 6 more facts
- date of birth
- 1878-02-21
- date of death
- 1973-11-17
- Commons category
- Mirra Alfassa
- name in native language
- Mirra Alfassa
- ethnic group
- Sephardi Jews
- birth name
- Blanche Rachel Mirra Alfassa
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
Mirra Alfassa (21 February 1878 – 17 November 1973), known to her followers as The Mother or La Mère, was a French-Indian spiritual guru, occultist and yoga teacher, and a collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, who considered her to be of equal yogic stature to him and called her by the name "The Mother" or "Shri Maa".
Alfassa was born in Paris in 1878 to a bourgeois Sephardi Jewish family from Turkey. In her youth, she traveled to Algeria to practice occultism along with the occultist Max Théon. After returning to Paris, Alfassa guided a group of spiritual seekers. In 1914, she traveled to Pondicherry, India, and met Sri Aurobindo. She identified him as "the dark Asiatic figure" of her visions, and called him Krishna. During this first visit, she helped publish a French version of the periodical Arya, which serialised most of Sri Aurobindo's post-political prose writings.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mirra Alfassa” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.