Read the Mother's correspondence with Dyuman, Champaklal, Dilip Kumar Roy, Tara Patel, Ambu, Parichand, Jayantilal, Prithwi Singh, Indra Sen, Surendranath Jauhar, Maude Smith.
The Mother : correspondence
THEME/S
This book contains the Mother's correspondence with twelve disciples; eleven were members of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Each correspondence is presented in chronological order, with the question or comment of the disciple provided whenever possible. The names of the disciples have been given since they have all passed away. A brief life-sketch of each disciple appears at the beginning of his or her correspondence. Ten of these correspondences are entirely in English; two are largely in English, but have a small number of replies in French, which appear here in translation. Further details are provided in the Note on the Texts at the end of the book. The reader should note that the word “new” in the title of this book does not mean "published here for the first time”, but rather “not published in the Collected Works of the Mother and therefore new to most of its readers". The Collected Works was organised and published around 1978, at the time of the Mother's centenary. Forty years have passed since then, and a number of new correspondences have come to light, including those in this book. Most have been published in the Ashram's quarterly journal, Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, but since the Bulletin has a limited readership the correspondences will be new to most readers. The twelve correspondences in this book supplement those published in Collected Works Volumes 16 and 17.
Born on 19 June 1903, the Gujarati disciple Dyuman (Chunilal Desai) joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram on 11 July 1927 at the age of twenty-four. From the beginning he worked in the Dining Room, serving rice and purchasing food. In 1930 the Mother placed him in charge of the Dining Room, a position he held for more than sixty years. He also started Gloria Land, one of the largest Ashram farms. When the Ashram Trust was formed in 1954, the Mother appointed him as one of the five trustees; later he became the managing trustee of the Ashram. Active till the end, Dyuman passed away on 19 August 1992 at the age of eighty-nine.
Dyuman's correspondence deals largely with the management of the Dining Room from 1929 to 1937.
Dyuman's Correspondence >>
Born on 2 February 1902, the Gujarati disciple Champaklal Purani first met Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on 1 April 1921, when he was nineteen. Two years later he settled permanently with them in Pondicherry. From the beginning Champaklal worked closely with the Mother and assisted her for the next fifty years. He also served Sri Aurobindo as a personal attendant for about twenty-five years. During the last two decades of his life, he travelled extensively in India and abroad. He passed away on 9 May 1992 at the age of ninety.
Champaklal's correspondence with the Mother covers the period from 1930 to 1973.
Champaklal's Correspondence >>
Born on 22 January 1897 the Bengali disciple Dilip Kumar Roy joined the Ashram on 22 November 1928 at the age of thirty-one. When he came, he was already a renowned singer; the Mother left him free to sing and write during his thirty-three-year stay in the Ashram. He left the Ashram in 1951 and started an Ashram of his own in Pune, where he lived until his passing on 6 January 1980 at the age of eighty-two.
The Mother's letters to Dilip cover the period from 1931 to 1951.
Dilip's Correspondence >>
Born on 9 August 1912, the Gujarati disciple Tara Patel joined the Ashram on 21 November 1929 at the age of seventeen. The Mother called her "Little Star". She worked first in the Dining Room and then in the Mother's Kitchen and the Embroidery Department. She lived in the Ashram for eighty-two years, until her passing on 12 June 2012 at the age of ninety-nine.
Tara's correspondence with the Mother covers the period from 1932 to 1942.
Tara's Correspondence >>
Born on 14 June 1909, the Gujarati disciple Ambu (Ambalal Desai) came to live in the Ashram on 19 May 1928 at the age of eighteen. The Mother affectionately called him her "Baby". His main work was cleaning the Mother's kitchen vessels, but he also worked in the Granary, nursed invalids and collected flowers. Later he was the Ashram's hatha yoga teacher. Ambu lived in the Ashram for sixty-four years, until his passing on 18 April 1993 at the age of eighty-three.
Ambu's correspondence with the Mother covers the period from 1933 to 1941.
Ambu's Correspondence >>
Born on 30 October 1904, the Bengali disciple Parichand Kothari joined the Ashram on 11 November 1934 at the age of thirty. During the first few years, he worked as a gatekeeper, librarian and English teacher. Then in 1938 he began working in the garden of the Ashram's main building. For the next fifty years he was head of that garden and head also of the Ashram Garden Service. He lived in the Ashram for fifty-six years, until his passing on 27 August 1991 at the age of eighty-six.
Parichand's correspondence with the Mother is arranged in two parts, "Sadhana and Life" and "Gardening Work"; it covers the period from 1936 to 1961.
Parichand's Correspondence >>
Born on 21 June 1913, the Gujarati disciple Jayantilal Parekh joined the Ashram on 28 December 1938 at the age of twenty-five. A talented artist, he made hundreds of paintings and drawings under the Mother's guidance during his first decade in the Ashram. Then for most of the next fifty years he worked at the Ashram Press. In the early 1970s he organised the publication of the thirty-volume Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library, and in 1973 he founded the Ashram Archives and Research Library. He lived for sixty years in the Ashram, until his passing on 26 January 1999 at the age of eighty-five.
Jayantilal's correspondence with the Mother covers the period from 1936 to 1970.
Jayantilal's Correspondence >>
Born in Bengal on 3 June 1898, Prithwi Singh Nahar, for many years a householder disciple, joined the Ashram on 27 May 1938 at the age of thirty-nine. During the next few years all seven of his children came to live in the Ashram. Prithwi Singh worked at first in the Ashram Library. Then in the 1940s, seeing the need to coordinate the sales of the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, he started the Ashram Publication Department and remained its head for nearly forty years. During this time he also did transcription, proofreading, indexing and translation work. He lived in the Ashram for thirty-seven years, passing away on 13 April 1976 at the age of seventy-seven.
Prithwi Singh's correspondence with the Mother covers the period from 1938 to 1967.
(Before joining the Ashram in May 1938, the disciple had to wind up his affairs in Bengal. In order to pay off some debts, he decided to sell a diamond necklace of his late wife. Then he thought of offering this necklace to the Mother. Unable to decide what to do, he wrote to the Mother for advice.)
Prithwi's Correspondence >>
Born on 13 May 1903 in the Jhelum District of Punjab, now in Pakistan, Indra Sen joined the Ashram in 1945 at the age of forty-two. For many years he was a university professor in New Delhi. As his first work, the Mother asked him to water flower-pots in the Ashram courtyard. Then she placed him in the newly-formed Ashram Press, where he worked for ten years. Later she arranged for him to teach a course in Integral Psychology in the Ashram school. He also established an Ashram centre in North India and helped to set up two Ashram orchards there. His final years were spent in the Ashram. He passed away on 16 March 1994 at the age of ninety.
Indra Sen's correspondence with the Mother deals mainly with the running of the Ashram Press during the years from 1945 to 1947. At the end are several questions about education raised by him in 1965.
Indra Sen's Correspondence >>
Born on 13 August 1903 in the Jhelum District of Punjab, now in Pakistan, Surendranath Jauhar first met the Mother in December 1939 at the age of thirty-six. Though he continued to live in New Delhi, he visited the Ashram regularly. Many of his family members came to live in the Ashram. In 1956, with the Mother's blessings, Surendranath founded the Delhi Branch of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and its school, the Mother's School in Delhi. During the last thirty years of his life, Surendranath developed the Delhi Ashram and its school and also established a centre near Nainital in the Himalayas. He passed away on 2 September 1986 at the age of eighty-three.
Surendranath's correspondence with the Mother covers the period from 1951 to 1972.
Surendranath's Correspondence >>
Born on 17 May 1910 in the United States, the disciple Maude Smith joined the Ashram on 25 March 1953 at the age of forty-two. At first she worked in the Ashram Library and then for the quarterly journal World Union. In 1965 the Mother placed her in charge of the Ashram Book Stock. Around this time she also became manager of the quarterly journal Equals One. Maude lived in the Ashram for forty-eight years, until her passing on 30 December 1991 at the age of eighty-one.
Maude's correspondence with the Mother covers the years from 1955 to 1970.
Maude's Correspondence >>
Born on 21 August 1905 in Chittagong, East Bengal (now Bangladesh), Pradyot Bhattacharya joined the Ashram on 11 August 1943 at the age of thirty-eight. He had been an electrical engineer by profession; the Mother appointed him as chairman of the newly-formed Technical Coordinating Committee (T. C. C.), which supervised the maintenance of the Ashram's buildings and properties. In 1970 he became chairman of Sri Aurobindo's Action and in 1972 the Mother appointed him as an Ashram trustee. He lived in the Ashram for forty-one years, until his passing on 22 November 1984 at the age of seventy-nine.
Pradyot's correspondence with the Mother covers the period from 1963 to 1972.
Pradyot's Correspondence >>
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