Spiritual bouquets to a friend

Rishabhchand (1900-1970)

The essence of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is the integral surrender at the feet of the Mother. Those who met and knew Rishabhchand testify that he was the living symbol of surrender at the feet of the Mother. He achieved complete detachment from all material objects. For Rishabhchand, Divine was everything.

Rishabhchand was bom at Jiaganj in West Bengal on the 3rd of December, 1900. He was the eldest son of Puranchand (1882—1967), an eminent scholar and writer mainly on Jain religion and philosophy in Bengali. After a brilliant academic career in Krishnanath College, Berhampur, and Presidency College, Calcutta, Rishabhchand plunged into the non-cooperation movement. Time was ripe for shaping a greater destiny for him by the Force. He was sent for a change to a hill station where in the solitude and magnificence of Nature's majesty, one day while reading a book on Sri Aurobindo, his mind suddenly opened to an experience which gave a decisive spiritual turn to his attitude. In this state of consciousness came the idea of starting a business of Swadeshi Silk. In 1926 he founded the renowned Indian Silk House in Calcutta to deal exclusively in the traditional Indian handwoven silks, like the Garad, Tassar, Matka, Murshidabad and Banaras silks. Friends and those who worked with Rishabhchand testify that the visionary businessman had conquered all attachment to money even when in business. He struggled hard and remained firm in his adherence to the principle of honesty and integrity. He regarded this principle as an expressive field in his growth in the Truth of the Spirit.

But nothing could bind Rishabhchand down as his soul sought communion with Sri Aurobindo at Pondicherry. In 1931, he settled in the Ashram at

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Pondicherry and never returned to worldly life. During the second half of his Ashram life one of his missions was to write and express his experience in Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga and his appreciation of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. He has to his credit a number of books like, In the Mother's Light, The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo Part I & II, The Divine Collaborators etc. His book : Sri Aurobindo—His Life Unique was written as one inspired by the Mother and it was first serialised in the Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education. Rishabhchand was the guide and inspiration on the Path of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga for many younger aspirants.

He left his body on 25th April 1970. In the words of The Mother—The Lord appeared Himself to take the soul of Rishabhchand. 'His body left, and he saw Him.'

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