Amal Kiran's Correspondence with The Mother

13 November 1933

Mother,

This morning I was told by Mr. Vigie that Nandini was staying upstairs in his house and that she was eager to see me. I went and there she was, in bed and unwell, and there was talk of sending for a doctor. I sat down and talked a little and expressed my impression that she had gone away from the Asram all of a sudden. But the story I hear from Nandini is quite another. It seems that last night she returned to the house to sleep and she was turned away by the girls. They said that the Mother had given orders that if Nandini came back she was not to be admitted but to be sent to Amrita.

I do not dare to judge your intentions, Mother, but when I was asked if that was a decent thing to do, I could not help agreeing that to refuse entrance to Nandini at night to her own room was rather bad, especially when it was clear that she had not left the house to go and stay elsewhere — in that case she would not have left all her belongings behind. Nobody would leave his or her clothes and go away, so I don’t know why it was understood that she wouldn’t return. It seems she had no other clothes except what was on her and it was a great shock to her to be turned away like that in the night. Was it really done according to your order, Mother?

The report is false — she has not been turned out of her rooms — and it seems to me that you have rather too readily accepted this suggestion. As she had moved away things without any previous notice and she was taking no trouble to let us know of her whereabouts, we had her door locked to be sure to meet her when she came back, if at all she came. She was told to go to Amrita who had the key and would open the door to her. She was, it seems, quite out of temper and it is probably why she did not understand what was told to her. It seems to me that, in future, it would be better if you reserved your judgment and your remarks about it to outsiders until you learn the truth about circumstances from Sri Aurobindo and myself.

13 November 1933