Down Memory Lane

Dyuman

I think it was in November 1949 or sometime in 1950. I was on a visit to the Ashram and sitting in the Ashram courtyard after dinner. I was to leave next morning in the early hours before Mother would come to the balcony. Yet there was a childlike wish in me, sitting there, to have Mother's darshan once more. My dear friend Kishorilal had come to say "Good-by" and he said that Mother usually came to the staircase at about 9 p.m. to see some Ashramites for specific purposes and although I did not fall in this category, Dyumanbhai was the man who could ask Mother about my wish at that odd hour. Dyumanbhai just passed near us at that moment and as I was shy to ask, Kishorilal, who had grown friendly with him, spoke to him. Dyumanbhai looked at me and said that Mother had just come to the staircase and I could join the line of people going to her. In case anyone questioned me on the way, I was to say that Dyuman had told me to be there. None stopped me on the way and my heart's wish was fulfilled. Besides having her darshan, I could do pranam too.

I observed an interesting thing. The Ashramite ahead of me was reporting to Mother the condition of a sick colleague. After hearing him Mother asked, "But is he not feeling less weak?" The Ashramite said that he was in fact feeling less weak and it had remained to be mentioned.

Dyuman was the name given by Sri Aurobindo to Chunilal Desaibhai Patel. He came to live at the Ashram on 5.5.1927, which happens to be the day I was born. Speaking of it to me, he would joke, "So, I am of your age."

A tireless worker, he had many things to do. He cleaned the carpet of Mother's room every morning when Mother was in the bathroom. Then he cleaned the staircase. He served breakfast, lunch and dinner to Mother. He replied to his large number of correspondents in longhand and promptly, even in the wee hours. He was concerned with the problem of the continuous

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financial shortage at the Ashram and was also the supplier of food for the Ashramites and in charge of the Dining Room.

Dyuman's aim of self-sufficiency in food goaded him to acquire agricultural lands and grow crops there. At his fixed hours he went to the farms to look after the work there. He was often seen with a straw hat on his head on his way to the farms. "I am a farmer," he often said. The straw hat went well with his usual plain dress of a white dhoti and a white banyan, with a full sleeve bush shirt added in the cool season.

Dyumanbhai regarded Auroville equally as Mother's work along with the Ashram. He dreamed of being the food supplier to Auroville and with the same aim of self-sufficiency in food wanted to organise and run agricultural farms at Auroville. I received a letter from him, written in the early hours of the morning, conveying his idea of serving Mother's Auroville by freeing the Auroville residents from the food problem. The letter breathed the enthusiasm of this great worker of Mother's.

About 135 acres of barren land belonged to Auroville in the village of Puchipalayam near Vanur. Dyuman had the talent of making farms out of barren land and this site he took over for the purpose. It was named Annapoorna Farm after the Mother Goddess who gives food to the world.

Dyumanbhai selected a man from Andhra for the work at the site and the work started. The work went on with the combined financial resources of Auroville and Dyumanbhai's own friends. He was of the view that the farm work was the Matrimandir in Matter and should be given top priority and his spirit of work was admirable.

He was aware of Mother's views about chemical fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides and took to organic farming. His Gloria farm has earned a name for itself in our country as well as abroad.

Dyumanbhai had an anecdote to say about Mother and organic farming. Mother once said to him when he was serving soup to her, "I hope you are not giving me poison in it." Mother meant the chemical fertilizers that went into growing the vegetables for the soup. Dyuman, then and there, decided to grow vegetables himself by the organic process for Mother's soup. It opened a new chapter for him.

Now, coming back to the Annapoorna Farm, a day came

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when he had to give it up due to the Auroville happenings. He was not spared the rude treatment which had become a usual feature there.

A time also came when he had to give up the Beauty Land work near Cuddalore for reasons beyond his control.

After this Dyuman concentrated on the Gloria Farms. Then, in 1987, he took up the work of agriculture in Orissa on 130 acres of land at Matrugram. One day I felt like offering ten thousand rupees to Dyumanbhai for his work and took the amount to him from Sri Aurobindo Memorial Fund Society. Dyuman was very happy to get it. "I was just in need of this amount for the Orissa work".

For me it was an experience to hear Dyumanbhai speak of Mother. The simple devotee in him came out in front.

In respect of Mother's administrative directions, those who found them inconvenient or not to their liking, usually tried to find excuses to bypass them. Manipulation or misrepresentation by favourites has been often pleaded by such people. Dyuman said, "I just see Mother's signature. Anything she has signed I do not question."

Not that he was unaware of the play of the ordinary human vital in which Mother's disciples indulged in front of her. He said in private, "We all go to Mother with knives in our pockets to stab others."

"Mother wore out her body for us," he would say and ask,

"What did we, her children, do for her?"

Or, he would say, "Mother gave and gave. We only took and took."

Well, Dyuman was generous in giving. He wished to give whatever was with him to give. He spent liberally for the special occasions to celebrate the Ashram events. Some of his colleagues were sore with him though for this reason.

He has given me a tray and water-jug he used to carry with Mother's food to serve her. I cherish this gift from him, as if from Mother through him.

Once I wished to have some Khadi dhotis from the Ashram Prosperity as blessings. Dyumanbhai asked me to wait, went to the Stores and came back with a pair in his hands.

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Sometimes he took me to the farms. On the way to Beauty Land, he showed at Cuddalore the sports ground where he had come, long ago, with Mother to see a football match. In those times, Dyuman had to go to Cuddalore for timber requirements. Once Mother had to go to the State Bank of India at Cuddalore for the encashment of some thousand rupee notes of the Ashram as required by the Ordinance of the Indian Government. That was in the late forties. There was no State Bank of India branch at Pondicherry then and the Cuddalore branch was near the harbour. Dyuman went to Cuddalore to fix with the Bank the date and time for Mother to be there. "I arranged with the Bank Manager", said Dyuman with a twinkle in his eye, "to receive her with respect and offer her a chair."

Some years after the passing of Mother, I suggested to Dyumanbhai to record his memoirs. He declined, saying, "I am here to work, work and work."

Dyuman is known for his volatile moods. After he joined Sri Aurobindo Society and became a part of the game that was going on then in relation to Auroville, we found ourselves to be on the wrong side of each other. During that period I often got hurts and on a few occasions he was rude also. In spite of Mother's signed statements about me.

When the situation at Auroville changed, Dyuman was invited to go to the Matrimandir in 1991 and he went there. After a long break of years he was once more at Auroville.

From early 1992 our contact grew again and he didn't hide his emotion about it. It was a happy break from the cloudy days of the past.

In August that year I went abroad. When in Germany, I got a phone call from home. Dyumanbhai had passed away. Just two months after his 89th birthday.

I remember his Yoga of service. He was available all the 24 hours, so to say. His room served him as his bed-room, office-room, reception-room and also as store-room on occasions. His doors were always wide open.

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