The history of spirituality and the world preaches in great detail the lives, times and sayings of the Avatars. Their mission on earth is often discussed and the teachings left behind by Them for posterity are well preserved in order to transport the aspirants from Darkness to Light for the purpose of enlightening them. But while the spiritual family of the Avatar gains infinite reputation, yet, detailed information about His physical family is seldom documented and that too half-heartedly. Little is known about Luv and Kush—the sons of Lord Rama after their coronation on the throne of Ayodhya. Not much is known about Rahul, the son of Lord Buddha as well. The world seems to be least interested about them or the halo of the Avatar overshadows the existence of His children. And sometimes they prefer to remain anonymous, unsung; the cause being ambiguous. But we tend to forget that though the children of the Avatar may not necessarily inherit the spark of Divinity possessed by the Parent, but they were born through Him and that made them special as they too were blessed by the divine-touch of the Avatar in the form of their parent. In the garb of ordinary mortals, they work for the Avatar as His instrument, but the garb disallows others to peep into their inner true-self. Moreover, they allow themselves to be misled by their outer appearance only (the fact that appearance is always different from reality is understood by a few). Such has been the case of André Morisset, the Mother’s son.

The Mother’s father Maurice Moïse Alfassa (5 July1843—13 September 1918) who was born in the Turkish city of Adrianople was a banker; her mother Mathilde Alfassa née Ismalun (18 December 1857—9 December 1944) too hailed from a family of bankers. They were married in 1874 and had three children. Their first born—a boy— died early “from a vaccination against small pox” (Georges Van Vrekhem), their second son Matteo was born on 13 July 1876, followed by the Mother on 21 February 1878 at 10.15 am (though according to André, the time of birth was incorrect). She was named Blanche Rachel Mirra Alfassa.

A few words about Matteo would not be irrelevant. Born in 1876, he earned the title of Ancien éléve de l’ecole polytechnique from the famous Ecole Polytechnique, his first function being the aide commissaire in New Caledonia and later, he worked in Congo as the Lieutenant-Governor where he took part in the difficult construction of the Congo-Oceanic Railway line. He married Eva Brossé (b. 1883) in 1905 and had two daughters Simone and Janine and a son named Etienne. Etienne specialized in Railway Engineering. Matteo became the Governor of Congo in 1919 and Governor of French Equatorial Africa in 1934. He died on 12 August 1942. One of his granddaughters Nicole, who was in India as a student of the French Ecole des Sciences Politiques, had visited the Ashram to see the Mother in the 1950s.

Pournaprema, the Mother’s granddaughter, writes about her maternal grandparents: “It is indeed an unusual family! Her mother came from Egypt, her father came from Turkey and Douce Mére was born in France, and had an Indian name!... Therefore, she had many different places gathered together in her right from the beginning. And then her mother, who came from Egypt, was Jewish and her father, who came from Turkey, was Moslem. Generally, these two people did not intermarry, especially in those days… So, one could say that Douce Mére was born without race or religion, because neither her father nor her mother were believers, they were materialists and therefore Douce Mére was brought up free of all religious influence… Douce Mére’s mother used to tell us that she wanted to marry this gentleman because he had a large number of books! She thought that with such a library in the house, she would never get bored.” [1]

Mirra learnt to read at the age of seven and by the time she was eight, she had started painting and drawing and also learnt to sing and play the piano. At that age, she learnt tennis as well which, she claimed, was “a passion” for her. She started going to school when she was nine years of age in 1887 and passed her final school examination in 1893 and joined the Academie Julian, Paris. Though she was the youngest of the pupils, yet, whenever any dispute arose among the other students, she was approached as an arbiter. Since she was serious by nature and always remained busy with her work, the students called her “The Sphinx”. It was then that she was introduced to Henri Morisset, the renowned painter.

Henri Morriset, son of noted artist Edouard Morriset was born on 6 April 1870 in Paris and was quite well-known by the time he met Mirra. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts which was the most important painting school in Paris and had famous painters as its professors. “Successful study at that institution was a prerequisite for anybody who wanted to pursue a career in the arts world,” writes Georges Van Vrekhem in his biography of the Mother titled The Mother: The Story of Her Life, (p. 16). Before joining Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1889, he had studied at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Oecoratifs Julian for four years where he had Bouguereau and Robert Fleury (who was also a professor at the Academie Julian) as his teachers.

It is said that Henri and Mirra were introduced to each other by Mira Ismalun, Mirra’s maternal grandmother who knew Edouard Morisset for several years. But Pournaprema had informed the author: “The Mother and Henry Morisset met in Paris. They were going to the same Art School to study painting”.  Mira Ismalun (born on 18 December 1830; her father Said Pinto was an Egyptian with origin tracing to Spain; she married Matteo Ismalun in 1843—Elvire was their eldest daughter who was followed by Mathilde) lived in Egypt where she ordered portraits of the Egyptian princesses “to be done from photographs” and also supplied their wardrobes which she ordered “from the best dress makers in Paris”. Mirra and Henri got married on 13 October 1897 “in a civil ceremony in the town hall of the VIII th Arrondissement.” They settled at 15 Rue Lemercier where they lived till 1907.

Georges Van Vrekhem, in his biography of the Mother, writes: “Henri and Mirra seem to have been rather well-off, maybe with some help from father Edouard. In Rue Lemercier they rented an apartment on the first floor, connected by a footbridge with their glass-topped studio in the ‘fairly large’ garden.” [2]

Pournaprema adds: “While she was married to Henri, she used to go on holidays to Beaugency, on the banks of the Loire, where they had a country house. It was a lovely place, and here they practised painting.” [3]

In 1898, Henri was invited to Pau (a town in southern France) to paint a series of murals in the Church of Saint James the Great. There he painted The Vocation of James the Fisherman, Saint James Preaching to the Masses, The Martyrdom of Saint James and The Apotheosis of Saint James. The last one represented a scene from the Battle of Clavijo fought between the Muslim Moors and the Spanish Christians in 844 AD. Mirra later said: “It was I who painted the slain and the struggling Moors, because I couldn’t climb up. One had to climb high on a ladder to paint. That was too difficult, so I did the things at the bottom.” [4]

Mirra could not climb up the ladder because she was pregnant at that time. On 23 August 1898, her son André was born. Much later Mirra, who had by that time, become the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, told Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya, her closest confidant that when André was born, she felt as if she did not want much for him and all she wanted him to become was a ‘true human being’. André, in Greek, means ‘man’. Therefore, she gave him the name ‘André.’ “André-da did not disappoint Mother, he became indeed a true human being,” remembers Pranab. [5]

The Mother later had said that as a young boy, whenever André fell ill, she never summoned a doctor and cured him by her own spiritual powers. And André probably, from his early childhood, knew who his mother actually was. A devoted son, he always opposed the elder members of his family whenever any criticism about his mother reached his ear; he made his protest quite vocal even at a tender age. Pranab remembers: “He would loudly affirm that people did not know what they were talking about, that his mother was a seeker of Truth and she was always sincere in whatever she did.” The Mother too recalls: “Whenever any harsh opinion was expressed by in-laws, little André used to defend me.” Once during dinner, a member of the Morisset family had criticized her; little André promptly proclaimed: “Ma mére est la vérité (My mother is truth).”

After the birth of the child, Mirra suffered from a ‘floating kidney’ due to which she was bed-ridden for five months. She utilized the time by reading hundreds of books and developing her occult faculties. Georges Van Vrekhem writes: “One of her exercises consisted in extending her occult body in such a way that she could perceive what was going on in adjacent rooms. In this way she even managed to be invisibly present in the studio.” [6]

Mirra too, at a later age said: “Between the age of eighteen and twenty, I attained a conscious and constant union with the divine Presence and I had done it all alone, with absolutely nobody to help me, not even books. When I found one—a little later I got hold of Vivekananda’s Raja Yoga— it seemed to me such a wonderful thing, you see, that somebody could explain something to me! This made me gain in a few months what would perhaps have taken me years to do.” [7]

André stayed with his grandfather, his two aunts (Henri’s sisters) named Blanche and Henriette and a nurse at Beaugency. Mirra was on excellent terms with the Morisset sisters and she often went to their house where she played tennis. Pournaprema remembers: “They were very cultured and sweet person.” [8] In due course of time, André was enrolled to Lycee Chaptal School.  

At the age of eighty, André shared his childhood memories: “Beaugency is still in my mind for the garden which was at the back of the house and separated from it by a small courtyard. I also have a recollection of my foster sister, Geneviéve; but what struck me the most were the visits which mother and father paid to us in their motor car. It was a Richard Brazier and had not to bear a number plate because it could not do more than thirty kilometers per hour. I cannot remember if I took this fact as a big advantage or, on the contrary, the sign of an irretrievable inferiority. My parents used to carry with them a couple of bicycles “just in case”. As a matter of fact, on the first hundred-and-fifty kilometers trip to Beaugency, the steering gear broke after fifty kilometers, at Etampes, and the car stopped inside a bakery. They stayed there overnight, used the cycles to visit the place and left the next day, the car having been repaired by the local blacksmith.” [9]

André also remembered his parents’ flat and their painters’ studio which he considered to be the “most wonderful place in the world.” In his reminiscences, he said:

“In Paris, my parents leased a flat on the first storey of the house, a fairly large garden at the back of it and a big studio in the garden. The studio had a glass roof high enough for a foot-bridge to link the flat and the studio at first storey level. An inside staircase climbed from the studio ground level to the foot-bridge. It was therefore possible to reach the studio from the outside either through the hall of the house and the garden or by climbing to the first floor of the house and getting into the flat, crossing a small drawing room and catching the foot-bridge. It was in this drawing room that Mother introduced me to Madame Fraya who was to become a very renowned seer. She appeared to me a very pretty lady with a very big hat and a pleasant way of talking.” [10]     

A few words about Madam Fraya won’t be irrelevant. She was born as Valentine Dencausse in 1871 and was “probably the most famous chiromancer in Paris during the first half of the twentieth century… She would use a person’s hand and handwriting to predict his/her future, but she admitted to not following the principles of traditional chiromancy, and just making use of her instinctual knowledge. Her clients included important French artists and politicians of the time, such as the Princess of Saxe-Meninge (sister of Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany) to whom she reportedly predicted World War I, and the defeat of Germany in it. She was subsequently called into the French Ministry of War, where she assured the government that the marching German troops would not reach Paris (they were in fact stopped at the First Battle of the Marne). The abilities displayed by Valentine Dencausse were studied by prominent scientists such as Alfred Binct, Eugine Osty, and Albert von Schrenck-Notzing.” She died in 1954. [Source: www.wikipedia.org .]

During Mirra’s stay at 15 Rue Lemercier, André was taken to Lausanne (in Switzerland) to meet Mira Ismalun. Mathilde Alfassa introduced André to his great-grandmother who addressed him: “Bonjour, mon petit André, tu me trouves bien vieille, n’estce pas? (“Good morning, my little André, you find me very old, do you not?”). Young André replied “with all truth” in his voice:” Oh! oui!”(Oh! Yes!”). [11]

Meanwhile, Mirra continued her practice of occultism. She also formed a small group of seekers called Idea who would meet every week or fortnight and discuss some subjects and exchange ideas and “try to find solutions which could be of use to the group as a whole.” André remembers:

“This atelier [of the flat Mirra and Henri had leased in Paris] was in the garden and was connected to the flat on the first floor by a sort of wooden gangway, a very pretty one too, which went from the top of the atelier directly to the flat. I was five or six years old then and as I used to sleep in a room adjoining the entrance to the gangway, I’d be itching to know what was going on in the atelier. These meetings would be held in the evenings when I was already in bed and supposed to be asleep. Well one day, I don’t know why, but I wasn’t managing to fall asleep, so I got up in my night shirt, crossed the gangway and found myself inside the studio, at the top of the staircase. I was fairly well hidden by its railings, and so I stood there looking at the people down below who were busy discussing. All of a sudden someone noticed me, pointed me out to the Mother and said, “Hey! look who is there!” So, I bolted like a rabbit back to my room, hurried into my bed and tried to fall asleep.

Later on, I don’t really know if the Mother came to see me right then or the morning after, my recollection is a bit vague since I was half asleep, but she did come and she said to me, ‘Oh! You know…you don’t need to get up in order to find out what’s happening in there. If you’re interested, just get out of your body and come.’ Ah! This seemed to me quite stunning. She then explained to me a little bit about how the human being was not bound to the physical body, that there were parts in him which could get free, and especially, that he could very well go for a walk or go and see what was happening elsewhere. Of course I didn’t fully understand all this, but nevertheless it must have left a mark deep enough for me to remember it after seventy years…” [12]

In March 1908, Mirra divorced Henri Morriset and left their flat at Rue Lemercier and went to live alone on the fifth floor of 49 Rue du Levis which was not quite far off from her former residence. The apartment was owned by Jeanne Lombard, the sister of Wanda’s mother. “Jeanne was a friend of Mother and at a time envisaged leaving France with her. They may have lived together for sometime,” informs Janine. [13] It is not known why their marriage ended but the following lines from the Mother’s drama Towards the Future might explain the reason to some extent: “I always dreamt of a great love that would be shared, free from all animal activity, something that could physically represent the great love which is at the origin of the worlds. This dream accounts for my marriage. But the experience has not been a very one. I have loved deeply, with great sincerity and intensity, but my love has not met with the response it hoped for.” André continued to stay with his grandfather and aunts at Beaugency. Nothing much is known about Henri Morisset except that he had a successful career and was honoured in 1912 with a membership in the Legion of Honour. And due to his earlier works at the Church of Saint James the Great, his name was included in the French dictionary of artists Benezit.

Janine writes about her grandfather and her grand-aunts: “Henri Morisset died on 15 November 1956…André kept the best relations with them and probably had to support them all financially. At that time the art of painting has undergone a considerable change, with the arrival of Picasso, Matisse and others. Henri Morisset who was well known and appreciated before the 1st World War lost all notoriety.” [14]

At the age of eleven, André met his future wife Wanda Wilczynska at a Christmas Tree Party arranged for children. Wanda was five years of age then; she was born in Noumea (New Caledoina). Janine adds: “Wanda was residing with her family in a house near Mathilde’s apartment in Montomorency.” [15] While returning home, André told the people around him: “Wanda is a very sweet girl, when I will be a grown up person, I will marry her.” [16]

Three years after Mirra divorced Henri Morisset she married, on 5 May 1911, Paul Richard (1874-1968) who was a friend of Matteo and settled at 9 Rue du Val de Grace. It is said that she had met him a couple of years earlier in Montmorency at the residence of the Morisset sisters, which is contradicted by Janine who states: “The Morisset sisters never lived in Montomorency but many years later in Enghien-les-Bains.” [17] Like Mirra, Paul Richard too was deeply interested in occultism and following Mirra’s divorce in March 1908, they came quite close to each other. She also studied Law with Paul who obtained his degree in Law in July 1908 from Academie de Lille. Later he joined the Paris Court of Appeals as a barrister and eventually entered politics in February 1910. However, his main interest was in occultism and spirituality. André, who was aged thirteen when his mother remarried, remembers: “They [Paul and Mirra] came to live at rue du Val de Grace and I used to go and have lunch with them every Sunday. After lunch, specially when the weather was bad, we went to the studio, Paul Richard stretched on a couch, lit his pipe, and they started working. That is, my mother wrote in her own handwriting what he dictated. I could not help but notice that Mother was rectifying most of Paul’s dictation. This small house, at the back of a garden, or more precisely of a fairly large courtyard, with a few trees, stretching in front of a big apartment house, was strikingly cosy and very comfortable.” [18]

It should be kept in mind that Mirra was actually Paul Richard’s Guru. All the knowledge of occultism that he had acquired was from Mirra. Georges Van Vrekhem writes: “Everything he came to know about occultism and spirituality he had from her, and the books he wrote were based on her inspiration. She would accompany him to Pondicherry and to Japan, each time paying for the passage from the money she had left. Outwardly she would be the cultured, intelligent, refined Madame Mirra Richard, while inwardly she would be battling for Richard’s soul, having to swallow the venom of his antagonism and to weather the fury of his Asuric revolt. The Mother sometimes described their relationship as “infernal” and “diabolical”. [19]

The Mother too remarked later: “The books he wrote [The Living Ether and The Gods]—especially the first one, The Living Ether—were in fact based on my knowledge. He put my knowledge into French, and beautiful French at that. I would tell him my experiences and he would write them down. Later he wrote The Gods. This was incomplete, one-sided.”

In 1914, Mirra and Paul Richard came to Pondicherry where on 29 March at 3.30 in the afternoon, she met Sri Aurobindo at 41 Rue Francois Martin. Immediately she recognized him as the “Krishna” whom she had seen in her visions. Later she recounted the experience of the first meeting: “Something in me wanted to meet Sri Aurobindo all alone the first time. Richard went to him in the morning and I had an appointment in the afternoon. He was living in the old Guest House. I climbed the staircase and he was standing there, waiting for me at the top of the stairs: exactly my vision! Dressed the same way, in the same position, in profile, his head held high. He turned his head towards me and I saw in his eyes that it was He.”

On the very next day, Mirra wrote in her diary:” It matters little that there are thousands of beings plunged in the densest ignorance. He whom we saw yesterday is on Earth; his presence is enough to prove that a day will come when darkness shall be transformed into light, and Thy reign shall indeed be established upon Earth.” [20]

The Richards left Pondicherry on 22 February 1915 and arrived in Paris on 18 March; eleven days later, they travelled to Lunel where Paul Richard was summoned as a reservist. After he was freed from military service due to medical reasons, the Richards settled at Marsillargues. Andre used to stay with them during his school holidays in July and August. It was then that he heard of Sri Aurobindo and his Integral Yoga. He also learnt to play chess with Paul Richard during that period.

Here are two portraits of the Mother with Child André

[1] Pournaprema: A Unique Little Girl, pp. 4-5

[2] Georges Van Vrekhem, The Mother: The Story of Her Life, p. 21

[3] A Unique Little Girl, p. 18

[4] The Mother—Paintings and Drawings, p. 160

[5] Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya, I Remember, p. 248

[6] The Mother: The Story of Her Life, p. 23

[7] Glimpses of the Mother’s Life, Vol. I, p. 54

[8] Personal communication to the author.

[9] Mother India, January 1983, pp. 36-37

[10] Ibid., p. 37

[11] Ibid.

[12] A Unique Little Girl, p. 27

[13]Personal communication to the author.

[14] Personal communication to the author.

[15] Personal communication to the author.

[16] Personal communication to the author by Pournaprema.

[17] Personal communication to the author.

[18] Mother India, January 1983, p. 37

[19] The Mother: The Story of Her Life, p. 85

[20] The Mother, Prayers and Meditations.