Chapter 7January 19, 1972

Last time I told you I was looking for the twelve attributes (Mother takes out a sheet of paper). Here they are, someone found this.

Sincerity, Humility, Gratitude, Perseverance

Aspiration, Receptivity, Progress, Courage

Goodness, Generosity, Equanimity, Peace The first eight concern the attitude towards the Divine, and the last four towards humanity.

And we also found a text from Sri Aurobindo (with a colored chart of the twelve petals):

Centre and four powers, white. The twelve all of different color in three groups: top group red, passing to orange towards yellow. Next group, yellow passing through green towards blue. And third group, blue passing through violet towards red. If white is not convenient, the center may be gold (powder).

The center is gold.

But what did you need these twelve attributes for?

They’re going to build twelve rooms around the Matrimandir, at ground level, and R. wanted each room to have a name: one of the twelve attributes of the Mother, and the corresponding color.13

* * * A little later:

Nirod is reading me his correspondence with Sri Aurobindo. Strangely enough, there are all sorts of things that I said much, much later, I had no idea he had written them! Exactly the same things. I found that very interesting.

13It may interest the reader to know that according to Sri Aurobindo, these colors generally have the following significances, though the exact meaning may vary “with the field, the combinations, the character and shades of the color, the play of forces”: red = physical; orange = supramental in the physical; yellow = thinking mind; green = life; blue = higher mind; violet = divine compassion or grace; gold = divine Truth; white = the light of the Mother, or the Divine