Talk | Twelve Soul Qualities: Building Courage | Chitra Kolluru

Date: September 20, 2026

Venue: Ulsoor Bhavan, Sri Aurobindo Society, Bengaluru

Recording coming soon!

BhāratShakti in collaboration with Ulsoor Bhavan of Sri Aurobindo Society, Bengaluru, is facilitating a series of talks for Ulsoor Bhavan’s community members through their facilitator based in Bengaluru, Ms. Chitra Kolluru. The theme for the talks was finalized in discussion with Ulsoor Bhavan as ‘the Twelves Soul Qualities from the Mother’s Symbol”.

Following the first three talks on Equality, Sincerity and Aspiration associated with each of the Divine Mother’s Aspects of Mahasaraswati, Maheshwari and Mahalakshmi, the fourth one in the series on ‘Courage’ was organised on September 20^th; this time again on a hybrid mode with participants joining both online and in person at the Bhavan.

The session opened by invoking the Divine Mother’s presence in her various forms – Transcendental Mother, Cosmic Energy and Eternal Peace through a Vedic Hymn. Ms. Chitra Kolluru then started by diving straight into the origin of Courage – the Mahakali Soul Force. Through the words of Sri Aurobindo she described this aspect of the Mother that is full of Divine Violence and tempestuous action born out of a deep compassion for the world and for her children.

Ms. Kolluru then went about describing the very many forms and types of courage – courage for adventure, the courage to take on battle, the courage to stand calm in the face of danger, the courage to take on something unfamiliar and the courage for change in the world and in one’s life, all in the light of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

Ms. Chitra presented reference from the Bhagvad Gita and the Record of Yoga throwing light on ancient knowledge, philosophy and spiritual teachings where courage, emerging from a higher knowledge and a life of self-discipline is inseparable and enabling of with societal well-being and progress. It is when these attributes and faculties are renounced at large from society, there is an inevitable downfall that begins.

Through Sri Aurobindo’s poems oozing the veera-rasa such as Invitation and Vidula, Ms. Kolluru allowed the audience to actually immerse in the spirit of valour, strength and adventure. Acknowledging the reality of fear in life, she shared what the Mother had to say about fear and how harbouring it was like giving the difficult situation a silent consent.

Ms. Chitra closed with the final milestone on courage which on the spiritual path was the courage to surrender, to give it all on the feet of that Divine that births in our heart and shows up through experience who he is.

The session was attended by about 6 people online and 20 people in person. An important question that followed was a deep dive on how one can call surrender an act of courage and what that meant. By going deeper into types of surrender, namely passive and active surrender, Ms. Kolluru could present a more elaborate perspective for the participants’ reflection.