Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Its Role, Responsibility and Future Destiny

BEHIND THE GENESIS OF THE BOOK

A couple of months back, on July 17, 1995 to be precise, P-da of our Ashram Press wrote to me a two-page long letter in a most unexpected way. I say 'unexpected' because we have not met each other even for once during the last so many months if not years. In his letter, among other things, P-da has expressed his anguish over the supposed absence of harmony and brotherly feeling among many Ashramites. He somehow feels that our collective life here is not as he thinks it should be. He wanted to meet some senior member of the Ashram who could possibly clear his sense of uneasiness.

I immediately took the letter to respected Nirod-da (Sri Aurobindo's literary secretary and the celebrated author of Twelve Years with Sri Aurobindo) and read it out to him. I asked Nirod-da whether he would like to see P-da and explain the true situation to him. Nirod-da replied that he had already met P-da and asked me to write something to him.

Days passed after that. Somehow I did not feel like writing anything in haste nor did I want to indulge in any cheap theorising or writing for the mere pleasure of writing. I prayed to the Mother for her guidance so that my own ideas about the issue might be made clear. And then, after seven long weeks I started typing out something on my machine. The end-result has been quite different from my contemplated reply to P-da. P-da is now out of the picture. My long essay has been composed on a bigger canvas and with a wider perspective. The whole essay is an integrated one with its ideas and arguments developing in a continuous way.

After the essay was completed I decided to show my manuscript to Kishorbhai (Dr. Kishor Gandhi, the renowned exponent of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga-Philosophy and the

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compiler and editor of the six-volume letters of the Master), for I greatly value his perspicacious wisdom and critical acumen. Kishorbhai has been kind enough to go through my long essay very carefully and then write to me a valuable note wherein he has penned his considered comment. This note has brought out in full measure Kishorbhai's unbounded faith in the future glory of our Ashram. This is what he has written to me concerning my manuscript Sri Aurobindo Ashram: Its Role, Responsibility and Future Destiny:

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(5.10.95 Jugal,

Your marathon writing is really very well done; it is not only very instructive but also very inspiring, especially in its last section.

I have thought over the problems you have raised a great deal, and it has raised a number of points in my mind. Instead of mentioning them in detail, I will sum them up in one sentence of Sri Aurobindo which seems to provide the real answer to all these problems:

"My opinion is that Allah is great and great is the mystery of the universe and things are not what they seem, etc."

The Ashram is an epitome of this mystery; so any attempt to unravel it by the human mind is bound to be unfruitful. The only thing to hold on is this faith:

"The Ashram is the cradle of the new world."

Many thanks for showing me your note -

Kishor)

So, such is the genesis of this manuscript and I fervently pray from the depths of my heart:

"O Mother, O Sri Aurobindo, let Your Will be done always and in every way!"

J.K.M.

Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Pondicherry

12 September, 1995

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