Publisher's Note

This volume contains the talks given by the Mother to the students, teachers and sadhaks of the Ashram in her "Wednesday Classes" of 1955. The classes generally began with a reading from one of her writings or her French translations of Sri Aurobindo's works. She then commented or answered questions on the texts or on other subjects.

The talks of January 5 to May 11 are based upon Bases of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo, the talk of May 18 upon "TheProblem of Woman", an essay by the Mother, the talks of May 25 and June 1 upon "The Suprarational Beauty", Chapter 14 ofThe Human Cycle by Sri Aurobindo, the talks of September 14 to October 20 upon "The Great Secret", a drama arranged and partly written by the Mother, and the talks of October 19 to December 28 upon "The Four Aids" and "Self-Consecration", two chapters of The Synthesis of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo.

The talks, given in French, were tape-recorded at the time. Texts and translations of portions of these talks were first published in various issues of the quarterly Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education; the complete talks are published here for the first time.

This is Volume Seven of the Collected Works of the Mother.