Champaklal Speaks

A Strange Experience

It was 1922; I was then 19. As I said before, every year during the holy month of shravan [July-August] my uncle used to go to a village near our town Patan and stay there for worship in its Shiva temple. After he died, my father asked me to go there in shravan and perform the same ritual. I went with my father's sister, Motiben¹⁰, who is now here in Pondicherry. Hardly anybody visited that Shivalaya and so it was very peaceful. Every day, for three to four hours, a particular type of japa had to be done, but instead I spent the time in my own way.

There was a beautiful pond on the edge of the village and every morning I went there for a bath. In the afternoons I would climb a tree beside the pond and jump into the water, I loved doing this again and again. One day I spent more time there than usual and was returning with my aunt. At the entrance of the village beautiful neem trees stood on either side; flowers had begun to blossom on them. Every day I used to enjoy this sight, but that evening I stood there captivated by the scene. I told my aunt: “Look, how beautiful they are!”

After we returned to the village, I lay down to rest in the house in which we had put up. Suddenly my teeth got clenched, I could not speak. Aunt tried to make me speak but I could not. I had a feeling that all would be well after two hours but I could not make her understand. I held up two fingers, but in vain. My consciousness was indrawn though I observed all that was going on outside. Word spread about my condition and a villager who had respect for me rushed in with a sadhu. The sadhu had brought a big bundle of long peacock feathers and started passing them over me while muttering some mantras. I protested, but no one paid attention; they were busy listening to my aunt's story. At the end a villager said that the tree beside the pond was the haunt of a ghost. I knew it had nothing to do with my condition but I was not in a position to explain it to anyone. However, for me the two hours passed wonderfully and then things became 'normal'.

The sadhu who came in with the feathers, had done penance under the same tree beside the pond before he settled in the village. In 1923, he came to Pondicherry and saw Sri Aurobindo who later spoke highly of him and said: “You can see from his eyes that he has done tapascharya.”