My Pilgrimage to the Spirit

Some Reminiscences

I reached the Ashram on 30th December 1927, i.e.; thirteen months after the birth of the Ashram. The descent of the light of overmind consciousness had illumined and charged the atmosphere with concentration and dynamic electrification, and whoever entered and breathed the air used to get his mind illumined and feel as if he was pushed deep into the ocean of a dynamic peace. The pressure and the working of overmental descent was so very strong throughout the day and night that everyone was driven to remain inward and one could hardly open his eyes fully even while working. Everyone was having two types of experiences—there was an experience that sat-chit-anada consciousness with all its peace and power was forcing its way through the top of the head; there was another experience that a strong stream of peace and meditation was being poured in through the head, and everybody in the Ashram was forced to remain under the spell of peace and meditation throughout the day and night and was having a multitude of experiences.

When I reached the Ashram, the number of the inmates was about 30 and my number was 31. When I reached the Ashram in December 1927, I was a young boy of twenty-one and perhaps the youngest among those who were in the Ashram at the time.

In the morning there used to be a common meditation in the presence of the Divine Mother on the ground-floor verandah of Sri Aurobindo's house. The Mother comes down at 7 a.m. In meditation, I open myself up in all parts of my being and strive to receive her Light and Grace to purify and illumine my whole being. The meditation lasts for half an hour or forty minutes. After the meditation everyone offers pranam to the Mother and after receiving a suggestive flower message from her everyone returns to his room and retires for breakfast or to the work which each sadhaka accepts as his daily sadhana as a preparation for meeting the Divine.

The Mother came to the library-room at a 11 a.m. and saw the newcomers and gave them interviews. The interviews over, the Mother proceeded to the dining-room, which was situated in the corner by the side of the present 'Prosperity'. It was a small room, and at the entrance a chair was kept on which the Mother sat and gave each of us our dishes kept ready for distribution which we received after offering our pranam to her. The Mother first tasted the food separately kept in small dishes. She threw a gracious glance on each of us while going.

There was a cook servant who used to prepare only rice and vegetables. We used to get bread from the market. The morning breakfast at 6 a.m. consisted of bread, milk-cocoa and plantains. The lunch at 11.30 consisted of bread, rice, vegetable, curd or milk, plantains and one dish prepared by a batch of inmates. Dara was fond of preparing payasa. Mirchandani was fond of preparing potato vada. The Bengali batch used to prepare puri and we used to prepare special khichri (kedgeree). Evening meal at 6.30 p.m. consisted of bread, vegetable, milk and plantains.

In the beginning the Mother came on the terrace of Sri Aurobindo's house at 6 p.m. and walked there for half an hour. After a year she started going out to the lake in the car that was driven by Pavitra, and walked there for half an hour or more and returned at 6.30 p.m.

There was a programme of soup distribution at about 7 p.m. above the reception-room verandah. During the soup distribution most of us reported our experiences of the day to the Mother and she gave explanations of our experiences and at times she would tell us her experiences regarding each of us.

This was a golden period in the sadhana in the Ashram, when gods were called down to inhabit those who were fit to assimilate their consciousness. The Grace of the Divine Mother had begun to work upon me and I was dragged many a time into trance and came back with different types of experiences. Once I saw myself acting as a military officer on a mountain in one of my past lives. When I reported this vision at soup time, she said 'Yes, in one of your past lives you were that officer' and then added, 'You were with me in Italy and were one of the best sculptors.' She had suggested me to write poetry because I was a well-known poet in France in one of my past lives.

There was night meditation after 9-30 p.m. We sat in the upper verandah in the presence of the Mother. During this session of night meditation many people used to have experiences.

There are many incidents which took place by the Grace of the Divine Mother. It so happened, one day, that the main gate was locked from inside for morning meditation by a young gate-keeper and he joined the meditation. When the meditation was over we were leaving the Mother and receiving flowers from her. The gatekeeper was to bow first of all to receive flower blessings from the Mother and then he would open the gate. On that day I had finished my pranam and after receiving flowers I approached the gate, but it was closed and the younger gate-keeper was searching the gate-key. I asked him and he said that he had lost the key. I was in a most collected and concentrated mood and by the Grace of the Mother, I followed the Light that was flowing out from my third eye, asking him to follow me. I proceeded with semi-closed eyes where my third eye led me and led the gate-keeper to the key which was lying in a corner of the garden.

There were many such incidents of miraculous nature. However, I was much alert about these powers and miracles. I had been acquainted with thought transmission, telepathy and establishing keen contact at long distances through identification since my school days. But these things had not helped me to control my nature or to transform it. These did help me to break my mental, vital and physical limitations or to grow into a wider consciousness. I was no more at the mercy of circumstances. The Grace of the Mother made it possible for me to control external conditions.

Time was passing fast and the number of inmates increased from 24 to 150 in 1935. The descent of the over-mental consciousness and Light had charged the atmosphere of the ashram with dynamic silence. The main object, however, was to transform the human nature into the divine and that demanded its own pace. A good deal of human patience was called for.

GOVINDBHAI