Champaklal Speaks

The “Bulletin”

The Mother took keen interest in the Bulletin. It is known as the Mother's journal. She used to give the necessary instructions to Jayantilal for it. She had full confidence in him and often accepted his suggestions. Sometimes she did not give him any instructions and left everything to him. At one time the Mother wanted to publish some articles on Art in the Bulletin and asked Jayantilal to write some pieces on the subject.¹

Mother was fully satisfied with Jayantilal's work, but those who do the work have their own difficulties. Once Jayantilal came to ask Mother to permit him to print advertisements. She did not want to print advertisements in an Ashram magazine but when Jayantilal said that the Ashram had lost one lakh rupees in the last ten years (1949 to 1959), Mother reluctantly gave him the permission. She wanted only advertisements that were connected with education to be taken but it did not work. Finally, she had to give in to the financial situation and permit all advertisements. Jayandlal himself had not wanted it, but circumstances forced him to do it.

The Advent also was known as the Mother's magazine. In the beginning, it was published from Madras according to her instructions. Mother India was known as Sri Aurobindo's paper; it was at first published from Bombay and later from Pondicherry. Sri Aurobindo used to give instructions and guidance to Amal Kiran, its editor. After Sri Aurobindo's Mahasamadhi, the Mother told Amal that from then on she would give him the necessary instructions.

Once, when issues of The Advent and Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual (published from Calcutta) came to the Mother, she showed them to Nolini and to me and said, “See, there are more pages of advertisements than articles. Really, it is amusing.” Thus she sometimes made fun of the advertisements and sometimes showed her dislike of them. Apart from Nolini and me, occasionally, she also showed the advertisement pages to others.

The Advent was Nolini's responsibility but was looked after by Madhav.