Champaklal's Treasures - Edition-II

Champaben’s Reminiscences’

[Between 1923 and 1927, Champaben was engaged in personal service to the Mother. Thereafter she was obliged to return to Gujarat on account of some problems in the family. After the demise of Punamchand in 1950, she again came and stayed on in Pondicherry. Below are a few of her reminiscences.]

In August 1920 my husband and I and also Dikshitbahai came to Pondicherry. We stayed in a hotel named "Amanivasam" for about 15 days. Almost everyday we used to meet Sri Aurobindo. At that time I did not know even a bit of English. Sri Aurobindo was staying in the first floor of the "Guest House" (now part of the Playground). He would see us in the verandah adjoining his room. He looked thin and rather darkish. He would talk to my husband for quite long; but I could make nothing of what was being said. Having grown up in the old traditional atmosphere, I thought it would be improper on my part to ask my husband about the gist of his conversation with Sri Aurobindo. All the same, I liked the atmosphere and would feel a kind of inner happiness. At the end of the conversation, I and my husband would bow down to Sri Aurobindo and he would bless us.

1) Translated from Sanjeevan. a Marathi quarterly magazine, December 2004 - March 2005,pp. 18-19.

One day my husband said to Sri Aurobindo: "We wish to see your room." Thereupon, Sri Aurobindo, with great solicitude, took us from the verandah into his room. The floor of the room was kutcha, not properly finished, on account of which there was dust on it, some of which stuck to our feet. In the centre of the room, along its full length, Sri Aurobindo's foot-marks had made a kind of a depressed track in the floor. (In those days, Sri Aurobindo would walk the length of the room to and fro for hours together. That was the cause of the depressed track in the floor.) The room was quite simple — there were one chair and a table with a typewriter on it. There was also, I remember, a photo of Sri Ramakrishna in the room.

Four or five months earlier in the same year (1920), the Mother had come from Japan to stay here permanently. She was staying in a house close to the sea-beach. Daily, at about 4 or 4.30 in the afternoon, she would come to Sri Aurobindo carrying agarbattis, some fruits and a French type of bag. I naturally was unable to say anything to her. But she showered great love on me; my happiness knew no bounds.

One day we told Sri Aurobindo: "We very much wish to stay on here." He said: "For the present, go to Chandernagore and stay with Motilal Roy. Later, I shall call you here." Accordingly, we went to Chandernagore, but stayed there only for a month where after we returned to Patan. Finally, in 1923 we came over and settled down in the Ashram.