November 24 is a very significant day, especially for the devotees of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, as it marks the anniversary of the Siddhi Day – ‘The Day of Victory’ – the descent of the Sri Krishna Consciousness or the Overmental Consciousness into the physical, which took place in the year 1926. This was the first decisive step towards the Supramental Manifestation which took place later in 1956.
About this event Sri Aurobindo later wrote in a letter:“The 24th November [1926] was the descent of Krishna into the physical…. The descent of Krishna would mean the descent of the Overmind Godhead preparing, though not itself actually, the descent of Supermind and Ananda. Krishna is the Anandamaya; he supports the evolution through the Overmind leading it towards his Ananda.”
November 24, 1926, is also the day when the Sri Aurobindo Ashram came into being. It is therefore the planting of the seed which has now grown into a huge and mighty banyan tree with a presence all over the world.
And this is what the Mother once explained to the children when she was asked why She and Sri Aurobindo created the Ashram at Puducherry:
“My child, that is why the Ashram was created! … Because, in France, I was always asking myself: How can one find the time to find oneself ? How can one even find the time to understand how to become free? So then I thought: a place where material needs will be sufficiently provided for, so that if one truly wants to become free, one can do so. And the Ashram was founded on this idea, not on any other—a place where people would have enough to live on so as to have time to think of the True Thing.”
The Mother, On Thoughts and Aphorisms, CWM volume 10, page 198.