Learning with the Mother

INTRODUCTION

This part of the book covers the Mother’s work, from 1950 to 1954, with the youngest children of the Ashram. During these years, She met them to teach French. It is interesting how these classes started.

We, the captains of Group A who supervised the physical education activities of the children, of ages four to twelve, usually spoke to the children in English or ‘Ashram Hindi’. But sometimes we spoke in French, for that was not only the Mother’s native language but also the official language of French Pondicherry. It was at the time the medium of instruction in all Pondicherry schools, including the Ashram school. Among the locals of Pondicherry, hardly anyone spoke or understood English.

Towards the end of 1950, we the captains of Group A, discussed the idea of speaking only in French with the children, so that they as well as ourselves, would learn the language faster and become more fluent. Consequently, we approached Mother when She came to the children’s courtyard for the daily distribution of groundnuts and told her of our plans.

She was very happy to hear this. Spontaneously She decided that She too would give a few moments every evening to speak in French with the children. On 17th November, 1950, the classes finally started.

The next day (17th November 1950), we told the children quite excitedly that Mother would also speak to them in French and that she might ask them their names and ages. So the children learnt to answer a few basic questions from us. When the Mother came to the children’s courtyard, She started a conversation with the children. The first conversation was quite humorous:

Mother : “What is your age?”

Child : “My name is Kokila.”

Mother : “And what is your name?”

Child : “I am eight years old.”

The Mother laughed, for the child had answered mechanically in the order in which she had learnt to say her name and age. The following day, the Mother announced that she would conduct regular French classes for the children.

On 19th November, she brought the first lesson, a typed sheet with the picture of a bee drawn at the top. She sat in her chair in the children’s courtyard, with the children all around her, and gave the first lesson on the bee. She explained about the life of the bee and the meaning of related words. When the class was over She handed over the sheet with the lesson of the bee to me since I was the captain of the group. Thus she made me the monitor of the class under her personal guidance. From that day on, I sat on the floor next to her chair, and helped with calling out the names of the children and maintaining the record for successful recitations and dictations on a little chit pad. The record was used for giving prizes and awards to the children.

In due course, as monitor of the class I was given a wooden Almirah, which was kept in the verandah of the Guest House. The Mother also gave me a small chit pad on which she had written the names of the children, one on each page. Besides the notebooks and stationary for the class, I kept in the almirah a lot of little toys, photographs, framed pictures, pencils, erasers and other gifts that Mother handed me from time to time. Whenever she got something interesting for children, she would just pass it on to me and I would put it in the wooden almirah. She used these little gifts as prizes in the class. Each time a child would note down a dictation correctly or recite a passage without a mistake, she would mark a tick against the child’s name. When 10 such ticks were marked, she would give him or her a prize. She would ask me what was available, and then would select something from the collection. The Mother would not only select the prize for the child, but most often She would also write the name of the child, write Her blessing and sign the prize before She gave it.

Mother in a light moment with the Green Group children

Many of the prizes were created by Suren Da, an elderly ashramite who could not go to any department for work because of his health. He used to collect extra prints of photographs from the bulletins in the Press and cut them out to make interesting combinations with pictures from other magazines. For example, he once made a card of Mother standing among the snowy peaks of the Himalayas. Mother particularly enjoyed a card of herself feeding a Lion. He would frame these pictures with glass from broken panes and fix cardboard stands at the back. I still have some of these from the collections of my sisters & brothers, Chitra, Purnima, Promesse and Victor who won them as prizes.

A painting of the Ashram courtyard with a cut out of the Mother

Thus she trained me not only to organise things but also to take care of all material objects without wasting anything and to remain always conscious of the need to progress at all levels and at all times. Remaining close to Her physical presence for long periods daily, brought out spontaneously the best in our inner and outer beings.

By the time She had finished four of these lessons in the children’s French class, the Mother got busy preparing for the Darshan on 24th November. Then came the annual day of the School on 2nd December. Even after that She could not resume the classes because Sri Aurobindo’s health was deteriorating. On 5^th December, 1950, Sri Aurobindo took Mahasamadhi. The Mother did not emerge from her room for 12 days after that.

The Mother distributing prize to the deserving children

From 17th December, 1950, Mother resumed Her daily routine. She also restarted the French classes and at this point She took up her book “Tales of all Times” in the class. She would first read out a story to the children and then explain the moral of the story and how to assimilate the lesson in their lives. She would also explain the meaning of the difficult words in detail. In time, She reduced the classes to four days a week, and finally by May 1951, to three days a week—Sundays for dictation, Tuesdays for recitation and Fridays for stories. Thrice a week Mother was taking a translation class with the senior students and sadhaks, and on Wednesdays She would take a class ’Prayers and Meditations’ for our Group B. Thus She took classes everyday in the Playground of some group or the other.

In 1954, the Mother discontinued the dictation classes on Sundays. Later the recitation classes on Tuesdays were also stopped. But She continued with the Friday classes right up to 5th December 1958, after which She stopped coming to the Playground.

This then is a brief survey of the Mother’s work with the Group A children. I have tried to put in this section as much material as seemed practical, in order to give a comprehensive picture of how meticulously she worked with the children.

We see the Mother working with the children, trying to instil into them the right values and attitudes and always aiming towards progress and a higher aim of life. She has time and again shown us that by regularity and discipline one can achieve everything without disturbing the routine activities of the day.

*It is quite interesting to note the date on which the Mother started classes for the Green group and the last date of the class. She started on 17th November 1950 (17th November was her Mahasamadhi day in 1973). She took the last class on 5th December 1958 ( 5th December was Sri Aurobindo’s Mahasamadhi day in 1950).