Champaklal Speaks

Old Soap-bits and World Economy

1948-09-23

Mother gave a new soap cake for Sri Aurobindo's use and asked me if I had kept the unusable bits of the old ones. She knew that I must have preserved them¹ I said: “Yes.”

Mother: “Then bring them; they will be given to Pavitra and he will make a nice big cake out of them. I give all my bits to him and he prepares a big cake from them.” The war-time restrictions were still not removed and there was difficulty in getting soap from France.

Mother noticed from my expression that I was not enthusiastic. She went on to ask me: “Are you using them?”

C: “No, Mother.”

Mother: “Then, why waste them? If you were using them it would be all right; otherwise why not use them this way? Now there are hardly 12 cakes; perhaps only 9 or 10 are left, maybe even less. We can make new ones.”

C: “All right, I shall bring them.”

Now I had wrapped each bit in paper and numbered them date-wise, indicating from what day to what day each had been used. All were arranged in a box. It occurred to me that as Mother had asked only for the soap-bits, I could retain the wrappers with the dates. So I took out a few; then an idea came that Mother should see the whole box, what a pretty sight it was. So I took to her both the opened ones and the box with paper-wrapped ones.

Mother saw everything. She admired and appreciated it so much that she said: “I cannot take them away; no, Champaklal, you keep them; I cannot take them.”

She was very happy to see the box. Then she added: “But you see Champaklal, the world's economy is in my hands; so I have to start from the Ashram.”