Shobha Mitra was born in 1933. Musician, Composer and In-charge of the music section of the Ashram School, a teacher of vocal music in Last School, Auroville in the 1970s. She had learnt music from the likes of Dilip Kumar Roy and Sahana Devi and had kept the glorious legacy of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Music alive with her soul-touching compositions.

“She was chosen as an instrument to set up the Music Section in the Ashram and her journey of yoga was to be through music only. This was not easy to say the least. It was an arduous task that needed a deep surrender. How she was given the necessary strength and how the Mother prepared her — I would rather say chiseled her inch-by-inch with Her grace is an incredible story of high sincerity and surrender.

‘Music is the language of the soul’, says the Mother. Every year Shobha-di made us students of vocal music, write this quotation on the 1st page of our note book. These were not mere words but living seeds planted by Shobha-di in us at the tender age of 12, by the example she is, by the loving guidance she gave and continues to give — stressing always to go beyond skill and talent to express that something from deep within and offer it to the Divine.”

Shilpa Desai