Among the Not So Great

New Charu-da

We the young befriended him and could now talk to him on somewhat equal terms. On occasions he would even concede a point in an argument — all with relative calm and a smile — quite unthinkable a few years back. Children who had not experienced the “Charu-da of old” were more free. Some of them even could stroke his beard, and one young girl even wove his beard into plaits!!

Once our first prime minister, Pandit Nehru came to visit the Ashram. In the evening he arrived at the Play Ground Gate with his retinue. Charu-da could recognise Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi, and make out that some others, Lal Bahadur Shastri and the Consul General, Kewal Singh were of the entourage. He let them in. Then came an ordinary looking man, dark-complexioned, in a plain white shirt and dhoti (South Indian style). He didn’t look “official”. Charu-da stopped him. It was his bounden duty. Fortunately for all concerned, someone noticed the happening and succeeded in convincing Charu-da (it must have taken quite a lot of convincing) that the man was a V.I.P. — in fact it was the chief minister of Madras State (now Tamil Nadu) — Mr. Kamaraj. Charu-da stepped back and Kamaraj being what he was, all humility and understanding (I gathered so from a book on Kamaraj), smiled and entered the Play Ground and took his seat.

It made a very interesting, if not prophetic, photo of the Mother, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Kamaraj and the Consul General of Pondicherry — i.e. one Prime Minister, two future Prime Ministers, a Chief Minister and a Consul General — all lined up with the Mother!

Charu-da was a man of rules — all very hard and very fast. Ideas and principles having once entered him found it hard to come out. But he was fair in that he imposed them on himself as much as he tried to impose them on others. There was a strip of lawn on one side of the entrance passage in the Play Ground. It was with some effort that it was grown there, on a slope, to prevent erosion of the Ground. To keep it green, effective and beautiful there was a strict rule: “DO NOT STEP ON THE GRASS.” But rules very few like, and understanding, obey them. The others have to be coaxed to obey. Charu-da had a busy time on this score. Some of the boys, just to tease him, would run right up to the edge and jump and cross over. This kept Charu-da on the red alert. He was a bit puzzled — was this jumping over within the law or not? Once in a way, someone blundered — he/she did step on the grass — by chance, by a studied chance, or plain ignorance, whatever the case, for Charu-da it made no difference. He would pick up his dhoti and give chase. I hate to think what could have been the outcome IF Charu-da had been strong and fast. As it was, if he could stop the miscreant there was a bit of verbal and moral scorching with a stiff dose of “discipline”. I was witness once when the trespasser was a new man, a visitor. He was standing with a foot on the grass. Charu-da came at him with burning eyes and gesticulating said something in some language. The poor man could not understand much as to what was happening, but he moved off in a hurry. I then approached Charu-da and said: “Charu-da, the man is new to this place, does not know our rules. So, you could forgive him.” Charu-da agreed and added: “amio na jene ekbar pa rekhechilam.” (I too stepped on the grass once, not knowing the rule.) I sympathised and said, “It’s O.K., since you did it unknowingly.” But Charu-da disagreed saying: “na, na, Sri Aurobindo bolechen — agyan ekta pap.” (Sri Aurobindo has said: “ignorance is a sin.”) The dialogue had to end there.

One of our ex-students, Prabhat, was often at the receiving end of some practical jokes played by his friends. He was (is) an affable type, usually wore a smile, except when he had to discard it for a look of bewilderment. On this day Prabhat was seen approaching the Play Ground for his group activities. The friends (group members) went up to Charu-da and told him “one of our group boys (Prabhat) is coming. He has the habit of drinking! See his eyes — red and drooping, and his sleepy smile.” Charu-da was convinced and ready. Prabhat stepped in and Charu-da called out, “beriye jao” (get out.) Prabhat probably thought it was a joke or the order was for someone else, so tried to skirt Charu-da and enter, making matters worse. An angry Charu-da now made it quite clear that it was Prabhat whom he was ordering out. Prabhat was now a bit shaken out of his reverie — he looked helplessly on. The friends then came to “see” what the trouble was. They pleaded with Charu-da and assured Charu-da that they would take Prabhat in and see to it that he made no trouble. They explained to Charu-da that Prabhat was actually a good and gentle boy. Charu-da then let him in.

Charu-da continued the Gate duty for as long as he could. Then that body, wasted as it was, could not keep pace with that fire-spirit within. It was slowly losing ground and gave up — Charu-da passed away on the 8th of February, 1974. The fire was extinguished, the embers glowed for a while, the ashes would soon cover them. But, we — some of his many relatives and I, could blow on our “long ago” memories, blow away some ashes — a few embers were alive… so were we able to bring back Charu-da to the warmth of our Present.

This was Charu-da who fattened his soul and made his body lean. There was not much that he had for people to sit up and take note. It would seem rather that he did much, went through a great many travails to arrive at the feet of his chosen Guru. Once there he melted into the melange of sadhaks. It was only the Guru who said, “I see..., I see…” Charu-da was right when he suspected the Guru is “seeing” something more than meets our eyes. Perhaps Charu-da himself did not “see”, yet fattened his soul — that led him surely and safely to this Haven.