Amal-Kiran - Poet and Critic

Sixty Years of Unbroken Friendship

My Acquaintance with Amal

I WROTE to Sri Aurobindo in 1937: "Some people look down upon the sadhaks here, saying that they would count for nothing in the world outside." He replied in his usual calm, unruffled manner: "The quality of the sadhaks is so low? I should say there is a considerable amount of ability and capacity in the Ashram. Only the standard demanded is higher than outside even in spiritual matters. There are half a dozen people here perhaps who live in the Brahman Consciousness - outside they would make a big noise and be considered as great yogis; here their condition is not known and in the yoga it is regarded not as Siddhi, but only as a beginning."

Even if we leave aside yogic attainments, the Ashram could easily boast of quite a few people who could be considered in cultural and literary fields equal of any of the greats in those spheres outside.

To name a few: Nolini, Pavitra, Amrita, Anilbaran, Dilip Kumar Roy, Sahana Devi, Amal Kiran, Nishikanto. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have hinted that in their past lives some of these sadhaks had been great historical figures, and now in this life they have been drawn to Yoga to fulfil the ultimate object of human life, viz. the realisation of the Divine, and more. Their cultural achievement is the result of the practice of yoga under the guidance and inspiration of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Except for a few of them, their names are not known outside as yet, because they have not sought worldly recognition as their main purpose in life.

From among these, I shall select one who is celebrating his 90th birthday - Amal Kiran - and whose cultural and intellectual achievements have been outstanding in a number of fields, apart from those of a remarkable spiritual and psychic embodiment.

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A poet of rare height, a man of vast knowledge, intuitive perception, exceptional calm, and a charm hard to resist, he follows in his Master's footsteps.

He has been physically disabled from childhood by infantile paralysis in one leg. But he has no regrets. Rather, he considers this has been God's blessing to him, for it has enabled him to plunge into the oceans of the mind, and thus acquire a vast body of knowledge at an early ageso much so that Sri Aurobindo jokingly remarked: "He has learned too much. He must start unlearning now."

With such an extraordinary man, I find myself an ignoramus by comparison. We came into contact with each other some time in 1934, after which our acquaintance grew into an intimacy nurtured by the Guru's quiet encouragement and inner solicitude. This contact gave me the opportunity to sec Amal in various situations, and what I came to admire in him most was his freedom from vanity, largeness of spirit and an inborn equanimity.

I remember quite clearly our first meeting. I had just settled in the Ashram and, as a doctor, happened to be in charge of the Ashram Dispensary. Amal was already an Ashramite of long standing, I used to see him sitting in what is now the Reading Room, known at that time as the Library, chatting with Premanand, the Librarian. One day I dropped into the Library, Premanand introduced me to Amal. There was hardly any talk except a gracious laugh. Amal and Premanand would be sitting in the Library chatting while Pranam was going on and I would often wonder why he wasn't attending the Pranam. I learnt later that because of his physical defect he could not take part in the meditation, and while waiting for his turn for Pranam, he was utilising his time in teaching Premanand metrical scansion of poetry. Scansion happened to be Premanand's passionate hobby.

When his turn came for Pranam, Amal would slowly walk to the Meditation Hall with the aid of his stick and do his pranam to the Mother who would be waiting for him. Since he and Purani were the last ones for doing pranam they had the privilege of helping the Mother put on her sandals, Purani on one foot and

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Amal on the other. After that the Mother would get up, go up the stairs and disappear from our sight.

Amal was living at that time in the Guest House on the first floor, where the windows opened onto the western and northern sides and gave a good view of the sky. He was given the room precisely because he had asked for one from which he "could see the stars". This, in addition, was the very room used by Sri Aurobindo when he and the Mother lived in the Guest House, Mother in the adjoining room. In those days the floor of Sri Aurobindo's room bore the wear-marks of his constant walking hour upon hour. (The floor has since been redone and the famous floor bricks carefully removed and distributed to various places in the Ashram.) Premanand lived downstairs in the same house.

A word or two on Premanand by way of digression, especially Sri Aurobindo's humour at his expense. He was very regular in his habits, always neat and clean, and kept a smiling face. But he had some peculiar and amusing traits. He was meticulous and fastidious to the nth degree. He would spend a lot of time making his bed after getting up in the morning, folding the bedcover neatly, putting up the mosquito net and smoothing out all folds and creases, tucking in the perfectly white bed sheet tight and smooth, which reminds me of Champaklal's making of Sri Aurobindo's bed. He claimed he had to go through this long routine, otherwise he would not get a good night's sleep. He never lay on his bed during me day. As a librarian, he maintained a strong discipline.

Once I borrowed a book from the Library and sent it to Sri Aurobindo for some comments on a particular author's poetry. Sri Aurobindo kept the book for so long that I had to remind him that Premanand must have the book back on time or else he would lose all his prem and ananda.

Sri Aurobindo wrote back: "He is always doing that and losing his hair into the bargain. If he objects to my keeping the book, I will give him a [word I couldn't decipher] on the head which will help to keep his hair on."

Not being able to read that word, I wrote again, asking:

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"Did you write 'I will give him a club on his head' ?"

Answer: "Clout, clout. A clout is a harmless thing - at most you will have to put a bandage."

Premanand used to boast that even if the Mother kicked him out of the Ashram he wouldn't leave Pondicherry, but remain around and near the Ashram. But, alas! Fate, with its peculiar sense of humour, made him leave on his own volition on account of an illness.

Now to get back to Amal.

One day, he had an attack of cold and fever, and I was asked to treat him. That was my next step in coming closer to him. He had, I discovered, someone else tending him - our common friend, Ambu, a young sadhak. Ambu was helping him in every way from preparing his breakfast to putting him to bed. Now I too became Amal's friend, and soon discovered that he knew much more about medicine than an average educated Indian. This was because he was the son of a highly qualified physician in Bombay and because of his own physical defect which took him to the doctor often.

      As our friendship flowered what attracted me the most about him was that he was free from all sense of superiority. On the other hand, what attracted me to his room, I would like to think, was not the occasional toasted and buttered slice or two that he would serve. In those days this was a rare treat and it was prepared by his young friend Ambu. But the real treat I enjoyed beside the delectable toast, was the opportunity I had of enjoying Amal's conversation sprinkled with humour and ranging over a wide spectrum of topics. He surrounded himself with books, particularly of poetry. At times his pretty wife Lalita would visit him. She was known to be of a dedicated spirit and at that time sadhana was her only concern. I was also fortunate to meet his mother, a cultured lady, and his sister, a lovely girl.

After Amal's recovery our meetings became less frequent until I started writing English poetry under Sri Aurobindo's guidance. Meanwhile, Amal had come to know my niece Jyotirmoyee, who had also started writing poetry in Bengali.

Now Amal started dropping in at the Dispensary on his way

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home after the Pranam, and spent some time on my poetic exercises which had been corrected by Sri Aurobindo. He would point out my mistakes in metre and rhythm, language and imagery. Chadwick too, who was an Englishman and also a poet, helped me initially. But he was the harder task-master of the two. Thus, two human gurus prepared my groundwork in poetic composition, and the Divine Guru took full advantage of their contribution, leading me forward till, as the Guru said, the poet in me was born. But before the poet could emerge further, the curtain fell for good on his essays into the realms of English poetic composition. Sri Aurobindo's accident dramatically cut short this development. Instead, I was called upstairs and there I was able to meet the creator of the poet in me himself; Amal had left for Bombay and I had no contact with him except when he used to visit the Ashram.

Literary Association: Twelve Tears with Sri Aurobindo

It was long after Sri Aurobindo left his body that I thought ofwriting the book: Twelve Tears with Sri Aurobindo. For one thing I was not sure that the Mother would approve of my project, for I would have to bring out many features of Sri Aurobindo's private life during those years which might not be judicious for the public to know. Swinging in this hesitation many years passed away. Finally I decided to write it for my own benefit at least. Here I needed Amal's help since I lacked the power of expression for such a momentous work. More particularly when I had to give an authentic account about the composition of Savitri, I found that my memory had failed to a great extent. So many old versions of the Books and Cantos had to be consulted that to put them in proper order and sequence appeared to be a formidable task.

Amal had taken his permanent abode in the Ashram, I sought for his help which he readily spared. He used to come daily to the Ashram to see the Mother and had to wait for quite some time. During this recess or after seeing the Mother we used to sit together, go through all the files and prepare a chronological account of the whole composition which has appeared in the

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book, Twelve Tears with Sri Aurobindo.

Apart from that, when I had prepared the draft of the book Amal agreed to revise it. I used to go to his place on rue Suffren and spend a few hours every week.  An American lady, Clair, also took part in the corrections. It took us a couple of months to finish the book. It was a very enjoyable work and very interesting too for me, as I was not a prose writer by any means except for the voluminous correspondence with Sri Aurobindo - a quite different affair indeed.

When the book was finished the Mother granted me the favour to hear it read out though at the beginning she had not favoured the idea. Her generous comment has been added to the book. I have to admit Amal's gladly given help to me in this prose work. The unique popularity of the book both for the theme and the composition owes not a little to this help. The book has received felicitation from the Mother. Also she accorded special Pranam to Amal and Clair.

Let me cite another story of Amal's large-heartedness. A sadhak used to seek his assistance in his study of Savitri. What interested him most to know in Savitri was the grammatical construction of its sentences. Some of the sentences are long and the syntax is rather complicated. Since he had learnt a bit of French grammar, where the syntax is rather simple, he tried to apply this knowledge to Savitri. He approached Amal for help and the latter gave it unstintedly. The sadhak used to copy the sentences on a piece of paper and read them to Amal who with exemplary patience and good humour would teach his pupil his lesson. I used to enjoy the scene for its very amusing aspect. The more the sadhak's head refused to understand the complicated structure, the more was Amal's effort to make him follow it. And this would go on every day for an hour or so: Three of us sitting and waiting for the Mother's coming and Amal wrestling with the sadhak's pate to make him learn the lesson.

But I learnt much and saw much of Amal's inner qualities in this foolish and funny episode — which he apparently enjoyed so much. I think he took it as a test to his equanimity which made him remain always unruffled. Further, since he had to wait long

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for the Mother's coming he could enjoy the atmosphere in front of Sri Aurobindo 's room. It was a great privilege for him to utilise the time in this way and have also the darshan of the Mother from a distance. Even the other day, I saw the sadhak coming with a slip of paper to Amal sitting in front of the Samadhi to seek his help, Amal asked with a smile: "What is the difficulty today?" I remember how in contrast I used to get irritated when the sadhak would come to me for the same kind of help in Amal's absence.

This sadhak's work was to sweep and clean the Darshan room and furniture. Once he had a severe attack of rheumatism due to which he used to squat on the floor and drag himself along to clean the floor. I thought the poor fellow would never be able to stand up. Today I find him doing marching on the Playground. A simple man, candid and sweet and a true devotee indeed!

Amal's characteristic traits are much more evident now. For so many people go to seek help for their articles, compositions, etc. in English - this apart from his work as editor of Mother India. I think he has taken the Master's lesson to heart and is practising it faithfully and yogically. That lesson is, as he said in another context, "Be like me". Of course, Amal has now acquired an intuitive power which helps him after reading a few pages or lines to evaluate the work.

     This leads me to my studentship under his guidance in literary works after Sri Aurobindo's passing. Some of us used to hold regular classes in English poetic literature at his place for a number of years. He had changed many houses till he came to occupy the present one. And we frequented each house. His wife Sehra used to be there engaged in her "home work" and we in our business. She used to serve breakfast to me when I was alone.

Our Studentship

Being a medical man I had little chance of reading English poetry and afterwards, though I had composed English poems under Sri Aurobindo's inspiration, I had no time to study poetry.

I have now a very faint memory of our classes in English poetry which we studied (an euphemism rather) with Amal over many

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years after Sri Aurobindo's passing. I thought also that the classes had helped me in teaching English literature. We were just a few in number and hung on for many years. The class was by no means of an academic type. Our emphasis was to have a general knowledge of English poetic literature, English poetry being famous for its variety and special beauty, and to enter into the "heart of poetry".

Amal had a notebook of his own in which he had copied poems of rare poets who were usually omitted in academic studies, for instance, the War-poets, our Indian poets like Sarojini Naidu, Toru Dutt, Manmohan Ghose.  He tried to inculcate in us the beauty of form, structure, rhythm. But alas the rhythmic beauty of English poetry was alien to my Bengali ears in spite of my composing lots of English poetry. I am afraid our Indian ears are not accustomed to it. Since I had a genuine love of poetry except for the rhythm, I could enjoy a bit of its rasa. One thing that we could appreciate was his innate love of poetry because of which he could neither tire of reading with us nor with his students. I believe still that the rasa of poetry had passed into my blood because of which I have become more conscious of the subtlety of rhythm and suggestion in the poetic art,

I need not say that the classes were enlivened with humour and many anecdotes in connection with various poets. There again his prodigious memory, - he has fondly called it a poetry-packed memory - which we notice again and again in his various talks, drew our wonder.

Afterwards when he came to occupy the present house some of us studied Savitri with him for a number of years and always looked forward to the next meeting. Some electric current in his voice showed how much he was in love with Savitri and thrilled us with its magic effect.

Letters on Savitri

Amal left for Bombay in February 1938, a few months before the accident to Sri Aurobindo's right leg. He had already established a contact with Sri Aurobindo on Savitri and some correspondence had been going on between them in the middle

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thirties. When in his absence Sri Aurobindo resumed his composition of Savitri, which was suspended because of the accident, he on Amal's request used to send parts of his composition to him in Bombay for his comments. Thus was started the "Letters on Savitri" which have been appended at the end of the book. I used to read Amal's letters to Sri Aurobindo and write down his dictated comments on them.

This was a very interesting period for me and I enjoyed the communications, though the full appreciation of them was beyond my power.

My appreciation of the poetic art was a zero at that time and my eyes and ears were not open to the subtleties of the art though Sri Aurobindo had tried initially to develop it when I had been writing poetry. The seriousness with which Sri Aurobindo considered Amal's points made me admire the high level of his poetic perceptions. At times Sri Aurobindo conceded his points. But quite often he stuck to his own versions and explained at length his justification for them.

During the long stretch of Amal's absence in Bombay, and whenever he visited the Ashram from time to time, Sri Aurobindo would send recently composed parts of Savitri for his comments. Once after meeting his objections, Sri Aurobindo asked me: "Is he satisfied ?"

In this way the correspondence went on till the composition of Savitri came to an end. For the proper enjoyment of the poetic rasa these letters are invaluable and their necessity cannot be denied.

Let me cite a few illustrations so that the reader may appreciate the poetic art concealed in the art.

There is the verse:

This truth broke in in a triumph of fire.

Amal objected to it "on account of forced rhythm". Sri Aurobindo replied: "It was very deliberately done and deliberately maintainted.... Obviously, this is not a natural rhythm, but there is no objection to its being forced when it is a forcible and violent

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action that has to be suggested."

Then Sri Aurobindo scanning the line says: "In the first part the rhythm is appropriate to the violent breaking in of the truth while in the second half it expresses a high exultation and exaltation in the inrush."

In another instance about the "baldness" of a line, Sri Aurobindo wrote: "As for baldness, one occasionally bare and straightforward line without any trailing of luminous robes is not an improper element, e.g.

This was the day when Satyavan must die,

which I would not remove from its position even if you were to give me the crown and the income of the kavi samrat for doing it."

Instances are galore which due to my aesthetic dullness I could not appreciate at the time but now I treasure them since they open my inner ear and eye to subtle effects of what is termed - what Amal calls - "The Art and the Heart of Poetry". Later on, Amal in his Talks on Poetry capitalises on what he had learnt from his Guru, I believe.

And then what about the chapter on "Overmind Aesthesis"? Has anything of the kind been said before? We are told that Sanskrit poetic literature is very rich and profound as regards the subject of aesthesis. This chapter on Overmind aesthesis opens a window to a vast new horizon of poetic art and is a sheer creative delight, new to the readers of English poetry, and a pointer to the direction in which future poetry will evolve.

At one time Sri Aurobindo himself thought of writing in some detail on the aesthetic and technical nature of mystic poetry of the future and on Savitri in particular. We think that the Master's illuminating correspondence with Amal partially fulfils that necessity.

Sri Aurobindo had made Amal a political thinker and commentator as well. When Mother India was started in Bombay with Amal as its editor, he used to send his editorials for Sri Aurobindo's perusal and sanction.  I used to read them to

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Sri Aurobindo. The Mother found one editorial too strong and brought it to his notice. But he approved of it. He considered Mother India his paper, as did the Mother consider the Bulletin as her paper,

During the twelve years when all correspondence was stopped only Dilip and Amal were made exceptions.

The Revised Edition of Savitri

Though the Supplement to the Revised Edition has explained at great length its necessity and the modus operandi of the revision, I think a short account would be in place about the genesis of this hazardous venture.

In the December 1986 issue of the Archives & Research the editors brought out a long corrigenda for the various "mistakes" they had found in the Centenary Edition of Savitri. When compared with Sri Aurobindo's manuscripts, a sadhak felt distressed that texts read out to Sri Aurobindo and passed by him had been tampered with.  Nolini Kanta Gupta, whom he used to consult, had passed away. To whom was he to make an appeal now? He prayed to the Mother to intervene and heard her answer: "Go to Nirod."

I knew nothing of this imbroglio except that I had taken notice of the long list of apparent mistakes published in the Archives Journal. I had taken no further interest. Now as the sadhak drew my attention to it and some other responsible people did the same, I thought something had to be done. Thus a Board was constituted with Amal and myself as the editors and the person concerned as a helper.

     At the very outset we had to face a big problem. Since there were so many versions of Savitri culminating in a final version, during Sri Aurobindo's own time and that edition itself found to be faulty, the question was which version we should follow. I was asked to appeal to Sri Aurobindo. I heard the reply: "Follow the text." We could not make out which text he meant. Obviously the one completed during his lifetime, but that text itself abounded with "mistakes" detected by the Archives. This was the dilemma. I should stop there since the rest of the story has been told in the

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Supplement to the Revised Edition.

The sadhak who had objected to the revision had withdrawn from the field of discussion but the work had to continue. His place was filled by another quite competent member and the work proceeded. It took 3-4 years to complete it.

I found the work extremely interesting, often eye-opening, but sometimes hazardous. Occasionally the punctuation created difficulties. We know how important even a comma or a semicolon can be in poetry and when that was indistinct we tried our best to decipher it with the help of the magnifying glass and also consulted other versions. We know the story of Oscar Wilde who appeared to be rather fastidious over trifles and once spent a day inserting a comma and another day deciding to remove it! Sri Aurobindo was no less fastidious. At times the difficulty was of a different nature and when we could not come to an agreement, inspite of Amal's authority, we had to refer to a third party. There had been occasions when our team-work threatened to be ruptured. I dared to challenge Amal’s judgment,, because I was the scribe and though my role has been exposed to be erroneous at times, I had to stick to my convictions. This led once or twice to a very precarious situation threatening to ruffle our long-enduring friendship, but the Supreme Pilot came to the rescue.

There was a pressure on us that the work should be finished in our lifetime since Amal and I, who were closely connected with Savitri, were oldsters. We have done our best and we hope all genuine Savitri-students will back us.

Amal Kiran as a Professor

I don't remember how he was appointed as Professor of English Poetry at our Centre of Education. But he made one condition before he accepted the post. It is mentioned in the book Talks on Poetry which are his own talks collected in book form. There in effect he says: "It would be an open class and not restricted only to the students of the Centre; Ashramites, visitors and others would be allowed to join it," - something like the Sorbonne University of Paris, I believe. He would follow no set method, method should follow him. He should be left free to be

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guided solely by his inner inspiration. He asked the Mother's approval for his conditions. The Mother's characteristic reply was: "Then I shall be with you." The Mother being a Parisian appreciated the method, also because this is the method she herself had followed in her "open class" in the Playground. Finding an echo of her own ways in Amal's utterance she was glad to give her sanction.

About her talks which were primarily meant for our young students, they actually transcended all time and space leaving the Students gaping with wonder at the Mother's face and hearing the rhythmic intonation of her voice as torrents of ideas from above would fertilise our poor indigent earth. Similar was the case with Amal's talks. They were not meant to be understood by the students. The poet, like a bird, got a joyous occasion to disburden himself of the entire weight of the poetic world of the past, present and future and leave a rich heritage for posterity.

Sri Aurobindo's lectures on English poetry in Baroda are reported to have had that magic, with students from other colleges flocking to hear him. Not all students could follow him, it seemed, but he did not care. There have been a few other professors in India who had acquired such a reputation.

Gales of laughter would reverberate in the room during Amal;s talks - tending to disturb the neighbouring classes. One American sadhika asked the Mother whether it was all right for her sadhana to attend Amal's class and laugh so much. In short, Amal was in his element.

It will be a mockery to attempt to give an aperçu of the contents of his Talks. One glance at them makes one appreciate in wonder how much Amal has assimilated Sri Aurobindo's own knowledge and used it creatively. For instance, overtones and undertones in rhythm, various planes from which poetry comes, the French symbolist Mallarmé’s innovative poetry, overhead poetry, the Mantra, etc. All these characteristics baffle our imagination. Only one wonders how far thisgem of a book will appeal to the taste of modern poets, critics and readers who cannot appreciate even Sri Aurobindo's Savitri.

Any true lover of poetry will admit that Amal's Talks on Poetry

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is a unique book.  These talks were given for a whole year without consulting any book or even notes. We know of a similar phenomenon when he was invited by the Annamalai University to give talks on Shakespeare in the year of the Bard's quatercentenary. They are not learned dissertations but, combined with free distribution of humour they make poetry indeed a rasa.

Amal Kiran as a Critic

I shall take two famous English poems on which all English critics have given unanimous verdict and their verdict has been accepted to be true. Amal alone, an Indian, proved that their verdict was wrong. One poem is of Wordsworth, the other of Blake. Wordsworth's poem starting with -

A slumber did my spirit seal

is, according to the critics, a member of the Lucy series. Sri Aurobindo was the first critic who in his Synthesis of Yoga refers to the poem as describing a mystic experience of Wordsworth's; but he had left it unanalyzed.  Amal accepts Sri Aurobindo's verdict and proves its truth by a serious and extensive study of Wordsworth's poem. The crucial word of the general English judgment is "She", in the poem. She being feminine, the poem cannot but refer to Lucy is their clinching reason. Amal found from his intensive study of Wordsworth's collection of poems that "She" as referring to the spirit had been used by Wordsworth in some lines. Therefore the poem expresses an experience of Wordsworth's own subtle body making a diurnal round in a state of trance, an authentic mystic experience.

The other poem, one of Blake's most powerful lyrics, is The Tyger -

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night...

No critic has opined that the Tyger could have referred to Christ, for Christ has been described by Blake himself elsewhere or even

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known as a meek and mild personality whose love for mankind made him sacrifice his own life on the Cross, How can the Creator make him a Tyger, a blood-thirsty animal ? Here too Amal's intensive research proved the identification.

On this poem a very long controversy went on with Europe's Blake authority Kathleen Raine. The argument and counter-argument that went on between the two are something fascinatingly remarkable. Finally Miss Raine, after studying Amal's book, magnanimously wrote "I concede you the victory" and congratulated him on his power of marshalling the arguments in an invincible manner.

Here I am reminded of his arguing even with the Mother in a very calm and composed manner on some controversial subject and gaining his point against all evidences to the contrary.

We see this critical insightful power abundantly illustrated in his Talks on Poetry. It is not for nothing that Sri Aurobindo invited his opinion on his epic Savitri. The Mother once said to Amal: "If I told you what Sri Aurobindo and I think of your mind, you would get puffed up." Amal never asked what they thought and chose to remain "unpuffed-up". The touch of humour in the last sentence is typically Amalian.

Amal Kiran as a Speaker

    Amal gave a few talks to the Ashramites and the visitors in the Hall of Harmony in 1970-1971. These have been published in book-form: Light and Laughter. It is an immensely enjoyable book and, according to the Publisher's Note, "it proved a best seller". It was so popular that it had soon to be translated into several Indian languages. I do not remember under what circumstances the Talks were arranged. The Hall of Harmony used to be packed to the full and Amal was again at his best.

I happened to introduce him to the audience in these words:

    "The speaker is our distinguished, renowned, celebrated Amal Kiran, poet, critic, philosopher, journalist, historian whom you have seen hopping about with his stick in the Ashram.... He can talk Relativity with an Einsteinian like Jugal, politics and communism with my colleague Manoj Das, history with Sisir,

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philosophy with Arindam and Kireet; even with Dr.Agarwal* he can hold his own and, with his associate editor Albless of Mother India, swap notes on Supermind. One day my friend Champaklal remarked,‘When these two persons get together they start talking about Supermind as though they have put Supermind in their pockets!' In short, our guest is a versatile genius. Still, he says he feels shy to address you... Geniuses are always a bit shy; only, I wonder how with so much knowledge packed in his brain Supermind will find room in it!

"I wanted him to speak about his association with Sri Aurobindo. Out of the few on whom Sri Aurobindo bestowed special attention in the field of poetry, ( and in yoga) three of us are here today. Amal, myself and Nishikanto. Now the Master has left us. But before leaving, he commanded: "stick on!" My two friends are sticking on literally, and I am sticking on psychologically."

I can do no better than give a few samples from his talks. The reader will see how sublimity and levity jostle with each other so that levity itself is transformed into sublimity and vice-versa.

"Can a talk ofmine be at all designated a discourse? Discourse implies acting the philosopher. In that respectI seem to resemble Dr. Jonathan whom Samuel Johnson once asked: 'Have you tried being a philosopher?' Dr. Jonathan replied: 'Sir, I have tried several times, but always cheerfulness keeps breaking in.' "

     "To go back to the old days when I was young, the most important things then were the Pranam and the meeting with the Mother in various ways..... The evening meditation was extremely exalting because everything was dim and the Mother used to come and sit in a trance and all of us would try to do the same. Every day there was one little odd occurrence, a disturbance, due to a South Indian yogi who had become a sadhak here..... Before he came here he had thought he was the Avatar of the age.  After he saw Sri Aurobindo he developed some misgiving about himself and was inclined to think that perhaps Sri Aurobindo was the Avatar!"

"In those years after Sri Aurobindo's passing away, some of us used

* Dr. Agarwal was a follower of Bates's system in eye-troubles due to errors of refraction. -Editors

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to gather on the first floor and receive flowers and blessings from Her or be near Her... until Her lunch-hour. Then everybody would go away but by an inexplicable stroke of Grace, I was allowed to remain waiting in the passage outside her bathroom. I would sit there until she finished her lunch and came out to go the bathroom.  Occasionally, I would walk into Sri Aurobindo's room, sit there for while and then return to my usual station and meet the Mother. One day I oversat in Sri Aurobindo's room. And what did I see? The Mother had crossed all the way right to the end of the long corridor wondering wherethe waiting fellow had disappeared.  When I saw her I got up with a start feeling ashamed that I had made her take all that trouble to come and look for someone utterly unimportant, just to give him the blessing he hardly deserved but keenly desired."

" The manner in which the Mother deals with the children is another eye-opener. I recall how she once handled a little girl who was brought to her as having fever. The Mother put her hand gently over the girl's head, moved it slowly to the back of the head, then slide it right down the spine in the same caressing way, and at end lightly kissed the child on the forehead. The little patient, I am positive, went away as good as cured. The Mother once told me that she used to cure her son Andre, when a boy, of all his illness without ever calling a doctor."

So far about Amal Kiran in his "Light and Laughter".

Amal Kiran's Ordeals

Amal had gone to Bombay in 1938 about four months before Sri Aurobindo's accident.

There he suffered from a serious heart-strain. He writes to Sri Aurobindo after his recovery:

"... you know that owing to error in instruction... I swallowed ... 48 times the normal dose, over 4 times the dose a horse might be given and nearly 25 times the dose at which the drug begins to be sheer poison for human beings.... In my awful condition I kept calling to the Mother and you. Of course, I am again up and doing, and I can't take this setback very seriously, through I have semi-collapses now and then and the medicos say I

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need regular attention and should not exert myself. Mother and you get me out of all scrapes; the sweet grace of you both has been unfailing. And I don't think I am much frightened by theoretical possibilities of death. Will my undertaking to come away do me any harm ? This is a year in which, I believe, the Truth-Consciousness may make up its mind, or rather its Supermind, to descend....Won't I be losing something great if I don't throw all caution to the winds ?"

Sri Aurobindo replied: "You must on no account return here before your heart has recovered. No doubt, death must not be feared, but neither should death or permanent ill-health be invited. Here, especially now when all the competent doctors have gone away... there would be no proper facilities for the treatment you still need, while you have them all there. You should remember the Mother's warning to you when she said that you would have your realisation in this life provided you did not do something silly so as to shorten your life. That ‘something silly’ you tried your best to do when you swallowed with a cheerful liberality a poison-medicine without taking the least care to ascertain what was the maximum dose. You have escaped by a sort of miracle, but with a shaken heart. To risk making that shaky condition of the heart a permanent disability of the body rendering it incapable of resisting any severe physical attack or shock in the future, would be another 'something silly' of the same quality. So it's on no account to be done."

The second ordeal that Amal had to pass through was more serious and at the same time most extraordinary. I wish I could reproduce the strange phenomena in his own language given in The Adventure of the Apocalypse (1949) now collected in his The Secret Splendour. I can provide only the bare gist of it. He begins in his natural way: "Between the heart-strain known as myocardial defect and the heart-strain, the cri du coeur that is poetry, no connection has been noted by either doctor or critic. But the story of the poems collected here has its beginning in a collapse due to overstrain of the poet's heart-muscle."

Nobody has ever heard of a poet composing poems of an unusual quality after a sudden collapse resulting from a combi-

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nation of many factors physical, psychological and intellectual - a severe straining from a close and wide study of the Relativity Theory and Quantum Theory, months of intensive research in the philosophical implications of modern physics. The result of all these was a general tired feeling. Another cause was the receding of whatever poetic faculty he had into the background.

"Then came the sudden collapse... the feeling of a hollow in my chest was growing deeper and deeper. So sucked in and dragged down I felt that I thought I would die. Various home-remedies were tried to keep me up. Yet the terrible sinking increased." It struck him that appealing to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo was the only decisive help that could be drawn. With all his power of faith and aspiration he pulled at the saving and healing Light that is their Yogic Consciousness and when he thought a blue sheen and a gold enveloped his heart he sensed a subtle supporting strength gradually taking outward effect.

"A doctor was summoned. By the time he came I had emerged to a considerable extent from the vacuity in the heart region.... As the evening wore on I found my mind getting extraordinarily quiet and clear, until I seemed to look into new dimension of things. Suddenly the whole universe appeared to be a great living being, a wonderful substance of Spirit, and every piece of matter tingled with a divine presence drawing my worship.  I had an intense impulse to read that Canto of Sri Aurobindo's Savitri which is named ‘The World-Soul’. It is a thrilled cry of mystical insight...."

Then he describes his wonderful mystical experience. He realised for the first time that the entire Canto was glowing with an absolute perfection. The impression extended to all that had been published so far of Savitri and "I could not help worshipping the Yogic power that was embodied in it".

After a time, he says, a flood of poetry raced through his mind and he began to scribble lines on whatever paper material he could lay his hand on. He was writing in total darkness in semi-trance till 4 o'clock in the morning.

I will cut short the long description that follows: "I was writing to the Mother every day, her reply to one of the letters

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was: ‘My dear child, I quite agree with you that there is a power, other and much more powerful than that of the doctors and the medicines and I am glad to see that you put your trust in it. Surely it will lead you throughout all difficulties and in spite of all catastrophic warnings. Keep your faith intact and all will be all right.’"

Amal used to send these poems to Sri Aurobindo and I used to read them out to him. He would listen with quiet attention without making any comment. I couldn't make any dent into them. At the end he dictated an appraisal of them which is added in Amal's Collected Poems.

Sri Aurobindo says: "Your new poems are very remarkable and original in their power of thought and language and image; but precisely for that reason I have to study and consider carefully every individual poem separately before I can comment on them. ... That will be possible only after some time.... I am afraid you will have to possess your soul in patience till things are quieter and time less crowded." (July 20, 1948)

After we had finished reading the poems in December, Sri Aurobindo continued his remarks: "I have gone through your manuscript of poems and I propose that they should be immediately published without further delay. I had started making comments on each poem as I think you had wanted me to do; but this would have been an interminable process and your poems would have had to wait till after Doomsday...."

In his second letter Sri Aurobindo says, "I had started making comments on each poem...." But Amal writes that no such comments were sent to him.

I am putting the account of Amal's very crucial ordeal of 1991 mostly in his own words.

"I am in the Ashram Nursing Home. On October 15, I had a nasty toss in my own working-room. Suddenly, while moving with the help of my 'Walker' I fell backward, with the 'Walker' falling on top of me. When I touched the floor I found my right leg terribly wrenched by being pressed behind my bottom; it was a position of great pain and, what was worse, one from which it

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was impossible for me to get free. If I had been alone inevitably with my door locked from outside, I don't know what would have happened. Luckily my friend who takes great care of me ... was there.  She pulled out my leg and I was appalled to see its state. The half below the knee was in one line and the half above from the knee upward was in another. The sight was most inartistic. I gave the knee a push and the two parts got into some sort of line.

"The Ashram doctor was called.... He suspected a fracture of the thigh bone. I was surprised, for owing to my lame leg I had fallen hundreds of times and most awkwardly on occasions, yet never had a fracture. Now the X-ray revealed a nasty multiple break at the knee-joint..,. Our doctor called an Orthopaedic Surgeon."

I shall give a summary of the long account. Out of three options offered by the surgeon the one adopted was similar to the one adopted in the case of Sri Aurobindo except that a slim steel rod was driven in the shin-bone to help the traction.  Otherwise in many other respects he had "walked faithfully in his Guru's steps".

I find that some other factors have been omitted from the description. As I remember them they are: Due to the fracture the two parts of the leg were not in proper alignment, so the patient would not be able to stand on his leg even after the cure had taken place through traction etc. Luckily there was no such trouble in Sri Aurobindo's case. To bring the two parts into proper line a radical surgery was needed in the present case. A famous Orthopaedic Surgeon promised to do that alignment by surgery. It was a very risky operation but the surgeon was confident. Amal also was willing to go through it, for he said that life was not worth living if he could not even stand on his legs. When I heard about Amal's consent to it, I was very disturbed for I felt the great danger involved in it. Amal's nephew who is a surgeon in America also was against it.  Finally, after much tension and anxiety, Amal withdrew his consent, for he said that he had heard the Mother's adesh against it. Oh, what a relief it was! The upshot is, though he cannot stand on his legs, and the

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wheel-chair carries him about like a perambulator, he is with us in full vigour of mind and heart.

Now he asks himself an overall inner question: "What do Sri Aurobindo and the Mother expect me to gain by this accident ?... In the middle of one of the early nights I asked Sri Aurobindo what was to be my fate by this fall. A number of phrases came as a reply, the last and most significant of which was; ‘The Mother will lift you up high beyond everything.’ "

Then follows a long description of his experience of a constant bliss in the very body. Those interested can read about it in Mother India, February 1992.

There have been other tragic ordeals that Amal has gone through, but I think these three are enough to show that he has been born to fulfil an extraordinary purpose in the Mother and Sri Aurobindo's Yoga.

Epilogue

We are very fortunate indeed to have two exceptional persons whose intellectual accomplishments are a thing of wonder to us.

     Those who have read the essays in this compilation will agree with our assertion that Amal is one of them and the other is Nolini Kanta Gupta. They have written many books on various subjects from A to Z. Amal has many volumes still unpublished.

One wonders how in one single life they could have achieved such a miracle. This question has been uppermost in my mind and seeks for an answer. Can one say that such potentialities were latent in their consciousness and have manifested themselves under favourable conditions ? We know that both of them were intellectually superior to a degree. There are plenty of such geniuses in the world, but not as versatile. We are told that all knowledge lies dormant within each one of us, but we know of very few people who have attained versatility to such a great extent.

We know that Amal has been inspired by the Master's Yogic Force, particularly in poetry, and since he is a sadhak the Master's Force could work with his remarkable mind and unshaken faith as the instruments to achieve such exceptional results. To give an

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example of his strong will power. In the early days people used to go for Pranam to the Mother on the main staircase. One day Amal and X were waiting for Mother to open the door. As soon as she opened the door she looked at X and after admitting her in closed the door. She didn't care even to give a glance to Amal. This made Amal feel a violent jealousy. He looked down and saw a huge abyss which would as if swallow him completely. He realised at once the character of jealousy, what jealousy is. He willed then and there to be completely free from it and he succeeded in it. Nolini's achievements were cut short because of his failing health at the end, though he had attained a rare height in spiritual consciousness. Fortunately Amal's physical health is still sound and we expect from him not only spiritual progress but more many-sided intellectual accomplishments.

Let our unbroken friendship too remain intact.

NIRODBARAN

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