In February 1968, on a bright day that felt like an awakening, 5,000 people from 124 nations gathered around a lone banyan tree in a dusty corner of Tamil Nadu. They had come to listen to an elderly woman read four sentences she had written in her own hand; All India Radio transmitted her words live from her room in nearby Pondicherry. Mirra Alfassa, whom Indian yogi Sri Aurobindo called “the Mother,” offered them not land or property or promises of wealth.