I had been afraid of meeting her. It had taken me six long weeks to get to this point because I was afraid of her. In some of her photographs we see how formidable she can be. But above all, I was afraid that I would be disappointed in her, that she was merely a capable administrator who knew how to put people in their place and keep them happy there. In other words, that she was just a good lady running a good show — and I wanted none of that.
However, when I got to the passageway outside her room, I became aware of a powerful spiritual force in the air, like an electromagnetic field, a force field of tangible but peaceful power. My mind was clear and quiet, but it was also dazed, set back by this spiritual power emanating from her and from her room.
I was in a queue. I first saw her from the side. I watched others ahead of me kneel down before her and look into her eyes as she looked into theirs. Some people seemed unsettled by her gaze and did not stay long, almost as if they could tell that she could see deep into them and they didn’t like it.
As I looked at her, I did not see a fearsome person — I saw a little old lady hunched over in her chair, with her head leaning to one side. Somehow I could sense that this frail ninety-three-year-old lady was completely open, innocent and vulnerable. She had no defense mechanisms; she was protected by nothing except this tremendous spiritual power that was in her and around her. I felt like protecting her, this lady I had feared meeting!
When my time came, I cast a glance at her attendant, Champaklal. He flashed me a huge smile and my heart just lit up. I knelt down before her and gave her a little bouquet of flowers. When I looked into her eyes I was carried away. It was like looking into the clear, blue sky. And as I looked into that sky, my consciousness expanded and became larger and lighter; I could feel myself going out and out and up and up, into the sky of her consciousness. My whole body felt lighter and the dross in me seemed to melt away. I watched all this happening with quiet amazement, and when my mind wanted to understand, I kept saying to it, ‘No, no, now is not the time to think.’
And so I went, out and out and up and up, as far as I could go, and there were no borders back there, no horizons, no walls; I could see no end to the sky of her consciousness.
After about a minute, I became aware that as I was looking at her, so she was looking at me! At once I felt a stream of pure love flowing from her eyes into mine, and from there down into my heart, filling it like a chalice with the sweet nectar of her love. And the most beautiful thing was that it did not seem like an impersonal love; no, it was personal. I sensed that she knew me, knew me better than I knew myself, and that she liked what she saw.
She liked me, she liked me! And this meant everything to me, and it still does. She saw the goodness in me, the transcendental goodness, and because she could see it, I could see it too.
After some time, there was such an upwelling of emotion in me that my eyes glazed over and I was about to cry. But for some reason I didn’t want to cry, so I closed my eyes and bent my head down. Suddenly I felt her hand firmly on my head, firm but gentle. Interestingly, nothing special happened: no extra force, no sparks of light, just her hand on my head for about twenty seconds.
I can still feel it.
Then she took her hand away. I had composed myself and I looked up into her eyes again. She looked back at me and poured her love into me, poured and poured, and I knew that the best thing I could do was to receive that love. So I did that for maybe thirty seconds.
Then, suddenly, it struck me: ‘Bob, there are still a few people behind you in the queue! You’ve been here almost five minutes; maybe you’re holding up the show!’ So I prepared to leave. But when I looked into her eyes there was no sign that I should leave. It was as though, without words, she was saying, ‘This is why I live, I live to share this love, and I have all day for this.’
When I got that message I broke down; tears rolled down my cheeks, and I saw for the first time a little smile on her face. She held out to me a blessings packet and a little bouquet of flowers. I got up and walked out of the room like a man on the moon, released from the force of gravity.
That experience stayed with me for about three days, during which time life was full of meaning and I received many insights; my whole life seemed to come together. Above all, I had found someone who truly cared for me, someone I could trust, and she had showed me what it is possible for a human being to become if one manages to give up desire and ego and live for the Lord.
That is what is asked of us, that is what she managed to do; and I have been here ever since, hoping to be a little bit more like her.
And what I feel now in these troubled times is that we need to quietly carry on our work, knowing that there are forces at work behind the scenes, forces we cannot see. We must have faith that things will get better because Auroville and the Ashram are her creations, and we are her children and she will protect us. It is by keeping that faith that she can act in us. We need to be as positive as possible — no negative emotions — because this enables her Force and her Grace to work in us.”
(From an interview with Alan, editor of Auroville Today. Published in Auroville Today, August 2025, p. 4. Opening slightly revised by the author for accuracy.)
_________
About the Author: Bob Zwicker visited and eventually joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, in 1971 at the age of twenty-five. In 1973 he joined the Ashram Archives where he has been working ever since. His first big project was to prepare the seventeen volumes of the Mother’s Collected Works around Her Birth Centenary in 1978. He has also played a significant role in preparing the thirty-six volumes of Sri Aurobindo’s writings for the Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. In recognition of his invaluable contribution in the field of Aurobindonian studies, he was honored with the Sri Aurobindo Puraskar by Sri Aurobindo Samiti, Sri Aurobindo Bhavan, Kolkata, in August 2025.
Please give me the contact information for Bob i’d like to email him that I have read this. I was fortunate to work with Bob Zwicker in the Arciives in the 1970’s.
Such a beautiful, inspirational, and deeply moving story. Thank you for posting.
Thank you, Bob Zwicker. This is the sort of report that helps those of us not privileged to have met The Mother in person.
Being able to tell of what you experienced and what you saw when entering the Mother’s eyes is deeply profound and as such also an experience for the reader.
I hope you are going to write about your other meetings with the Mother, but thank you for this one !
Reading this testimony from Bob Zwicker, recounting his encounter with Mother, gives a glimpse of what she was and what she was doing in 1971, in the form of a personal experience tailored to what he was capable of receiving!
I can’t help but reread certain interviews with Satprem, published in the Agenda of Supramental Action on Earth, those concerning the years 1971, 1972, and 1973.
Those were the terrible years when, from his soul, the Mother of Worlds made the condition of our bodies.
He was afraid of it before the encounter and was overwhelmed by the Force of Love during this Moment, which lasted a few days.
Few people knew the nature of his undertaking, and those close to him, or even those further afield, had—and this is understandable after reading this remarkable document—great difficulty aligning themselves with his formidable Action, which was further reinforced by the Presence of Sri Aurobindo! Yes, this small, seemingly frail body contained so much misery, all in the name of transformation. It offered possibilities so that men and women could participate in an evolution with an active supramental Consciousness-Force. It is 2026; times are difficult on a global and terrestrial scale. And yet, like the Mother’s supposedly frail body, the body of the world, subjected to intense turbulence, seems so fragile, even imploding, yet with formidable possibilities gestating within it! Thus, all this is merely surface turmoil. Deep down, an evolutionary push, initiated with the strength of the soul and even more so, during the beginning of a decade—the 1970s—invites us to offer ourselves, to give everything, even the physical, somewhat rebellious to its action, hence the conflicts with frightening force of arms. The Mother of Worlds is present on this Earth, which has become her domain, her garden, where Beauty will overcome the world’s resistance. What is magnificent is that, after reading this document, we know that a seemingly fragile body was capable of igniting worlds and beings, opening doors and windows oriented towards the Midday of the Future. These, to this day, are already igniting the coming Dawns, so near, if we are able to hear “awaken and will.” The twilight horrors, those of an end of an era, were defeated following the incarnation of a Rishi returned from Vedic times: Sri Aurobindo, and that of the Mother of Worlds, who was at his side from 1920 to 1950. She continued her terrible work until November 17, 1973. This, after reading Bob Zwicher’s testimony, is what compels my humble writing, to give myself further, even to the point of calling upon all the Disciples, since they must be Actors no longer in a Legend but in a History that overturns our own little stories. Christian Couyssat.
Thank you so much for the post.
Felt like I was in Bob’s place..
Thank you Mother.
Very moving.
I first reached the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1973, after traveling three months overland. The experience was immediate and direct, like landing on the moon and recognising it as my natural habitat. Mother had just left the body; things seemed suspended, yet every atom radiated her presence. Plunged into this new strange world, I remember a tall young American man, fully concentrated within, radiating a calm, steady loyalty to the path. That reassuring presence was Bob Zwicker.
Over the years, because of my research and publication work, whenever in doubt I consulted Bob. Thus, I came to know him as a solid representative of the free spirit of in-depth investigation that is the legacy of Jayantilal Parekh’s, a delicate painter and the founder of the Ashram’s Archives. To Jayantilal we own the publication of volume 1 of the SABCL, Bande Mataram, Sri Aurobindo’s early political writings, which a strong representation tried by all means to prevent. Bob is imbibed with that spirit and is only natural that Jayantilal’s living space got transferred to him, calmly continuing the work.
For years, weekly, Bob and his friend Lilu (she will author Mother’s book on flowers) came cycling to Auroville and Matrimandir; a symbol of the deep truth linking both, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the town for human unity. That spirit lives forever.
Let’s say that we must now embody, through the body of the Earth, those who worked alongside the Mother of Worlds within an ashram that was the site of a Transformation. From 1973 to 2026, other generations will unfold in this Ashram that the Earth has become, here and now, with the Mother of Worlds still at work alongside Sri Aurobindo, active, very active.
Everything is turmoil and chaos for those clinging to a highly materialistic or pseudo-spiritualistic egotistical consciousness.
An evolutionary leap is possible, since we must no longer cling to tumultuous appearances, but to the Wonder of wonders, which, despite its best efforts (and more often than not, it doesn’t matter), is trying to infiltrate our all-too-human bodies.
During an interview recounted in the Agenda of Supramental Action on Earth, Satprem, naive, asked Mere why this Force of Love within her wasn’t more fully incarnated. She replied, “But my dear, everything would be flattened,” transcribed from memory; this was in 1966. Thus, ever onward, to thank them and offer ourselves body and soul is one of the highest ways to love them again and again, until we are completely satisfied. Christian.
And on April 24, 1920, the Mother of Worlds, returning from Japan, merged into Sri Aurobindo for a momentous Action. And on April 24, 2026, beyond their appearances, they act, the supreme Shakti united even in its so-called material foundations, for a final Action underway… To undo this materialism which, over the last centuries, has become the Gospel of Death. Let us receive them through the Body of the Earth, since it can no longer be any other way! Onward, always forward, will be my last words on this site, which is a glimmer within the darkness, a darkness that is only temporary.