Nagin Bhai Tells Me

PART II

Apropos of My Poem Prelude

I shall give here one instance when Amal Kiran, my elderly friend in the Ashram, was so helpful to me in several respects. I shall particularly narrate the literary help I received from him, how he prompted me to compose a poem. That poem in a mysterious way, and as if prophetically, gets connected with the great Event which took place one year after its composition, the event of 29 February 1956.

For a time Amal was in the Centre of Education, our Professor of English Poetry. Once he asked all the students to write a poem as homework. Nobody wrote. He was still very patient and said: "Do you think it is so difficult to compose a poem? In our ordinary parlance also there is so much poetry." This he showed to us by writing on the blackboard how our normal speech can be poetry. He further encouraged us by saying that whatever we would write, he would give us full marks ! Some of us tried. He liked my composition so much that he came to my room and said: "Since you have such a talent, why don't you write poetry! I shall publish it in Mother India." But I pointed out to him that in my composition there were no rhymes and all lines were not of equal length. "We can sit together and perfect it as much as possible," he said. It was my maiden attempt and, after going through it, he said that not a word need be changed in it; I was naturally happy when he found it all right. This was my Prelude. But I was stunned when he added that he felt jealous about it. What humility for a gifted poet like him! He even published this poem in the April 1955 issue of Mother India. The poem is as follows:

Standing on the last horizon

I saw a golden gate opening.

It had no bolts, no hinges—

Only a huge lid that looked like a sun.

Amazed I watched on, forgetting my very self.

The opening lid made no sound,

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Only a movement of light.

Then gushed out air the world had never breathed before.

How the whole thing happened is a great surprise to me; but a greater surprise is the Supramental Manifestation that took place unexpectedly later in February 1956.

My second poem is also about the Manifestation and was published in Mother India, April 1956; it runs as follows:

O Power Supreme! long-waited Birth!

Thou comest burdened with lotus dawns

To the wearied limbs of patient earth.

Calmly thou comest, O lovely Light,

To plant the Sun's Immortality

And the Moon's solid tranquility.

Behind thee I glimpse eternal pace

Of the royal Master's radiant feet.

The finite shall kiss the Gnostic Grace!

Soon thou wilt burst the inconscient Cavern

And release the iron crusts of our world.

Denied to the Gods, to Man thou art given!

It seems that things were moving fast and the atmosphere was rife for some very significant Event to take place. Somehow my Prelude caught it and somehow Amal was responsible for making me write it; I look at it again in sheer amazement.

In connection with Supramental Manifestation I recollect Amal's story. It was on 29th February 1956 that he had to go to Bombay for some work; but he was hesitant to do so as it was expected that something important would take place during that year. He asked the Mother; as she thought that it would be towards the end of March she allowed him to go; it was expected that by then he would come back. She also told him that in case it

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happened, she would inform him about it. He was on his way to Bombay, traveling by train on 29th February—the most memorable Day in human history. He had retired early in his compartment, but then he saw in his sleep a big crowd. He noticed that they, standing in a queue, were moving one by one towards the Mother. He wanted to join in. Shaking his slippers in his dream, he woke up. Most unexpectedly he saw the Mother standing, a transparent form against the wooden panels of the compartment. He could not make out anything from that vision. After his return to the Ashram he asked the Mother about it. She replied: "I had promised to inform you about the Supramental Manifestation whenever it would occur. I came to do it."

One more incident apropos of the Manifestation. This was much before 1956, during the time of Sri Aurobindo. Dilip Kumar Roy noted that the Mother was spending several hours in the Playground. He wrote to Sri Aurobindo asking whether the Supermind was going to descend there; he even sought permission to join the Playground activity. Sri Aurobindo replied that it was not necessary for him to do so. He added that if the Supermind was going to descend in the Playground he himself would not get it as he wouldn't be going there!

And yet see the irony of events! Sri Aurobindo had left his body and Dilip Kumar Roy the Ashram. And the Manifestation indeed took place in the Playground. The Mother was giving us the meditation after the Wednesday class when this happened.

The same year I met the Mother and asked her: "How is it that I was there in front of you during the meditation and yet did not know about the Descent?" But I must say that I had slipped into a trance at that time; this was in spite of her warning me not to go into it in public places. And, though Sri Aurobindo had taught me to be conscious in trance, I had fallen into an unconscious trance.

Amal prompting me to write a poem and that poem having some connection, howsoever remote, with this great Event makes me feel happy; 1 owe that happiness to him indeed.

Towards the end of the year 1954, in what was before the gymnasium hall and what are now the office and the store-room

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of the Playground, the Mother spoke thus: "The next fourteen months will be critical for the Ashram." She, however, did not give any reason as to why it was going to be so, nor any indication of what was going to happen afterwards. These fourteen months ended in February 1956. Till the end of 28th of February nothing happened. Our small human mind had forgotten what the Mother had said and then suddenly something wonderful took place. The Supermind had made up its mind to come down on the oddest day, the extra day allotted to the year 1956, 29 February! The Mother later called this day the Golden Day. Surely Sri Aurobindo's "strategic sacrifice"—to use Amal's phrase—on 5 December 1950 had hastened the Supramental advent.*

* The above article was written by Nagin-bhai to felicitate Amal Kiran on his 90th birthday. It appeared in Mother India, March 1995, pp. 181-85.

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