Sri Aurobindo reached Pondicherry on April 4, 1910. He was then 38 years old.
From 1910, Sri Aurobindo had lived for several years with a few followers.
For four years it was a lonely and solitary journey. Sri Aurobindo’s sadhana and work were still waiting for the coming of the one who was to be his true collaborator,the Mother.
She came from France in 1914. On March 29, a young French woman, Mirra Richard, arrived in Pondicherry with her husband Paul Richard and met Sri Aurobindo. Mirra was far along on her spiritual path and had already been inwardly in contact with a person whom she called Krishna and who had been guiding her.
When Mirra saw Sri Aurobindo she recognized him as the Krishna of her vision and knew that her place and work were with him in India
On August l5, 1914, the monthlyAryawas launched.
Through theArya, Sri Aurobindo presented to the world his great spiritual vision and the path to attain it. Nearly all the major works of Sri Aurobindo which were published later in book form—The Life Divine,The Synthesis of Yoga,The Human Cycle,The Ideal of Human Unity,On the Veda,The Upanishads,Essays on the Gita,The Foundations of Indian Culture,The Future Poetry—all of them first came out serially in theArya.
In 1915, with the outbreak of the First World War, the Richards had to go back to France. Mirra went to Japan in 1916 and returned to Pondicherry in 24 April 1920, never to leave.
Mrinalini passed away on December 17, 1918, in Calcutta, before she could come to Pondicherry.
