Champaklal Speaks

Childlike Simplicity

It was when Mother was ill. Sri Aurobindo used to attend on her in the afternoon. When he was in Mother's Salon (as she called her new room), I would wait in the small passage outside.¹

It was a Sunday, and raining heavily. Sri Aurobindo came out of Mother's room and said to me, “Mother is asking if you know how to close the window?”

(The window had a new kind of fitting.) Luckily, I had a good look at the window-mechanism the previous day and I could say: “Yes, I know.”

Sri Aurobindo went in and told her: “Yes, Champaklal knows.”

Then he came out, smiled and said: “Mother says you had better close the window if you know how to do it!”

At that time there was no frigidaire with us. Mother had got a small wooden box made for me. A tumblerful of water was kept in a vessel which was put in this box and ice was placed in the vessel. Rajangam used to fetch the ice from the factory.

When Mother was ill I used to cool water in this way, pour it into a thermos flask and keep it ready for Sri Aurobindo to take it to Mother when he came to see her.

One day we had a new flask with a different kind of porcelain cup at the top. Sri Aurobindo took in the flask as usual, but came out almost immediately and asked: “How to open this?”

I showed him how to do it. The cup came out easily. He seemed surprised at this and went back with the flask, happy.

This was in the days Sri Aurobindo had his dinner around midnight.

After finishing the correspondence work in the salon Sri Aurobindo would go for his bath and Mother would retire after laying out his dinner on a table in her former room (the eastern most room of Meditation House; later Sri Aurobindo's bathroom and after his passing my room). After his bath he came there for his dinner. While Sri Aurobindo ate I sat in the 'long passage'.

One day he came our in the middle of his meal and said: “Champaklal, come in.” I was wondering why he called me but followed him. Once inside, he said: “You know, this fan was steady; now it is rotating.” I did not know how to make it steady as I had not touched it before, nor had I ever used an electric fan. However, I observed it carefully and saw a button jutting out. I Spontaneously my hand went there and I pressed the button and the fan stopped rotating.

Sri Aurobindo: “Oh, as simple as that!”

I was truly touched by the childlike simplicity.