Among the Not So Great

A Tree

(Poem by Sri Aurobindo)

A tree beside the sandy river beach
Holds up its topmost boughs
Like fingers towards the skies they cannot reach
Earth-bound heaven amorous.

This is the soul of man. Body and brain
Hungry for earth our heavenly flight detain.

Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems: A Tree

Ravindra-ji (R) was a colossus — a tree with spreading branches offering shade to all and sundry. He was a colossus both literally physically and figuratively. I wonder at myself how I would have missed him out for so long! Our young eyes in the 40’s saw him with mixed feelings of fear, dislike, wonder and much later some opposition. These may be the reasons for my missing him out. I gathered too late that his Centenary year has passed us by — none took notice of its passage (?) — so I was not the only one napping (small comfort is it?).

R was a big man of sallow features. His head was big even for him. A good crop of black hair and a luxuriant goatee beard adorned his face. Thick horn-rimmed specs completed the picture. Remarkable was the dress — for its simplicity and constancy. It was the same from the first day I set eyes on him till his last days (till death do us apart). It (the dress) comprised of a very loose “T”-shirt (this for want of a better name) overhanging an equally loose pair of pyjamas. Both were of course white cloth, made in Ashram. The pyjama never reached the ankles! He believed in bare feet and bare head (maybe in much later days he took to a pair of chappals). I never saw him use a cap or umbrella. His residence was on the ground-floor, in a very small room forming the N.W. corner of the Ashram Main Building. He shifted to a first floor room built later over the same room. The old room is turned into a cold room to house (preserve) Manuscripts of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

The most remarkable feature of R’s personality was his laughter. I have not heard a second one approaching it in quality and quantity. It could jolt you the first time but was enjoyable then onwards. Have you heard the kingfisher’s challenging cry? It is a shrill kaan kaan — repeated rapidly 8-10 times (it has a very nasal ending). R’s laughter would do any kingfisher proud. The laughter ended in a tired whimpering. One could hear the laughter a long way off, a furlong or more away!

There was a period that produced great workers. Karmayoga was the In thing it seemed. To mention a few of its practitioners: Manoranjan, Udar, Mona Pinto, Narayanprasad,… and Ravindra-ji. The Mother must have seen in R a great worker, on whom she could lay quite a burden (a joyous one). She did so, starting with a light one, gradually increasing it. He carried it well, I think to Her satisfaction. Let us now look more closely at the works he did.