1. Mirra Alfassa, known to her followers as The Mother or La Mere, 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".
Mirra Alfassa identified him as "the dark Asiatic figure" of her visions, and called him Krishna.
In 1920, after living in Japan for four years, Mirra Alfassa returned to Pondicherry where she developed and managed the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
Mirra Alfassa was born in Paris in 1878 to Mathilde Ismalun, an Egyptian Jew, and Moise Maurice Alfassa, a Turkish Jew who migrated from Edirne via Egypt.
Mirra Alfassa was close to her grandmother Mira Ismalum, who was one of the first women to travel alone outside Egypt.
Mirra Alfassa learned to read at the age of seven and began school at the age of nine.
Mirra Alfassa recalled having had, at the age of 13 or 14, a dream or a vision of a luminous figure whom she call Krishna.
In 1893 after graduating from school, Mirra Alfassa joined Academie Julian to study art.
Some of Mirra Alfassa's paintings were accepted by the jury of Salon d'Automne and were exhibited in 1903,1904 and 1905.
Mirra Alfassa was an atheist during this time, yet was experiencing visions which she thought of not as mental formations but as spontaneous experiences.
Mirra Alfassa kept the experiences to herself but developed an urge to understand their significance.
Mirra Alfassa came across the book Raja yoga by Swami Vivekananda and Bhagavad Gita which offered explanations for her experiences.
Mirra Alfassa consequently travelled there twice more, in 1906 and 1907, and there practised and experimented with the teachings of Theon and Ware.
In 1908, Mirra Alfassa moved to 49 rue de Levis, Paris, living alone in a small apartment and involving herself in discussions with Buddhists and Cosmic movement circles.
In 1911, Mirra Alfassa married Paul Richard, who, after serving four years in the army, had become interested in philosophy and theology.
Mirra Alfassa's husband, Paul Richard, was an aspiring politician and had attempted to win election to the French senate from Pondicherry, which was then under French control.
Mirra Alfassa recognised Sri Aurobindo as a figure from her visions.
Mirra Alfassa moved to live near Sri Aurobindo in the guest house at Rue Francois Martin.
In November 1920, Mirra Alfassa to moved into Sri Aurobindo's house where she lived communally with other residents.
From 1924, Mirra Alfassa took over managing the household, which was gradually turned into an ashram.
Mirra Alfassa, now referred to as "The Mother", became a revered yoga teacher.
Mirra Alfassa considered this was a considerable movement away from usual life in the ashram, which was until then about practising total renunciation of the outside world.
Mirra Alfassa declared dual citizenship for India and France, which she tried to obtain but was unable to due to nationality law which had come into force and became an Indian citizen in 1954.
Mirra Alfassa had a profound effect on her, which developed into a close relationship in later years.
Mirra Alfassa started with just simple conversations and recitations, which later expanded into deeper discussions about integral yoga where she would read a passage from Sri Aurobindo's or her own writings and comment on them.
Mirra Alfassa stopped all her activities from 1959 onwards to devote herself completely towards yoga.
Mirra Alfassa had recorded their conversations, which later he gathered in a volume of 13 books called Mother's Agenda.
Mirra Alfassa died at 7:25 pm on 17 November 1973 at the age of 95.