Champaklal Speaks

The Grace Arranges my Work

One day I said to Mother: “Mother, I would like to wash my father's dhoti.” She smiled and said that she would ask Sri Aurobindo. The next day when I went to Sri Aurobindo he looked at me and said: “You want to wash my dhoti?”

C: Yes.

Sri Aurobindo: “Are you ready?”

I looked at him in surprise and wondered why he asked that.

Sri Aurobindo: “You know, people will mock at you, laugh at you, joke about you. Are you ready for all that?” When he saw that I was eager to do this work in spite of such possibilities, he looked at me affectionately and smiled. He said so because the Ashram atmosphere was like that at that time. But very soon Mother changed it entirely.

As I look back, I clearly see that it was the Mother who made me ask for this work. For it is not in my nature to ask anything for myself. True, I always aspired to be able to spend all my time and all my energy in the service of Mother and Sri Aurobindo. This aspiration got fulfilled in different ways, often to my utter surprise.

When I came here for good, cooks were from the pariah caste. In Library House the cook was an old pariah woman who was fair-skinned enough to be taken for a Brahmin. Afterwards I came to know that she had also worked as a cook in France. Pariahs are considered a low caste like that of scavengers but the ones I saw here kept themselves clean. A pariah named Ratnam used to wash Sri Aurobindo's and the Mother's commodes; at first sight he too did not seem to me of a low caste. When Sri Aurobindo and the Mother moved into Meditation House, the commodes were washed at a tap in the small shed where they now distribute flowers and incense for the Samadhi. (The tiny room behind was the boiler room; the contraption is still there.) I have read in a book by Kishensingh¹ that when he asked for permission to wash these commode pots Mother refused it. In my case however, the gracious Mother herself gave this work, which I had wished to do but had never asked for.

There are thus many incidents where the Mother herself arranged my work without my asking. Actually her grace is constantly showered on each and everyone of us, but we cannot see it. When the time comes she herself makes us aware of it.

Madhav: “Once when I was sitting by your side on the landing, waiting for Mother to call us, you told me that every aspiration of yours had been or was in the process of being fulfilled. At that time, I asked you why you did not spend all the time in Mother's room, a thing which you could very well have done. But you said: 'No, it has to be arranged by itself. The aspiration is there, of course, but I know it will be realised in due time.' And in the course of a few months I did see it come to pass. You found yourself there practically all the time. That made a deep impression on me and convinced me that sincere aspiration, even when not expressed in words, evokes response from the Grace. Your life has been a standing example of this truth. Sorry to interrupt you, Champak-bhai, please proceed.”

In the early days. Mother used to prepare a pudding. She would set aside a small quantity in a saucer, add a little milk and stir it with a spoon till it became smooth and consistent. She showed me how to do it and was particular that no grains should be left unmashed. And when she passed on the work to me, I followed her directions to the letter.

And do you know for whom this portion of the pudding was meant? For the cats! Later on I learnt that they were not mere cats but something more. You would be interested to know that at one time Sri Aurobindo himself removed bones from the fish meant for these cats. It was a sight to see him doing it with Chinese chopsticks.

There was another work. In those days there were no filters as we have now. But Mother was drinking filtered water. The mechanism employed was quite simple. A filter candle was placed in a big enamel jug kept on a window sill. A rube joined it to a kuja [earthen pot] kept on the floor. I had specially arranged for a big kuja. Mother washed this candle every day with a brush. As she brushed it, I would pour water over it from a kettle. It was such a joy to work with her.

One by one, different kinds of work went on being added, each one giving me the privilege of working with her that much more. Of course this was possible then because she was not seeing people as she did later on and so she had more time to herself.

Though I have not written down details of the life in those days, as perhaps you may have done, I have such sweet memories of them. As I recount them to you, I relive them and my being bows to Them in gratitude.