Contact with The Mother

SAVED FROM MURDER

I have been in touch with the Ashram since 1926-27. I first came across Sri Aurobindo’s Thoughts and Glimpses. I liked his description of God, “An eternal child playing an eternal game in an eternal garden.” Many of the questions which used to arise in my mind got automatically solved just by pondering over this aphorism. My parents had died when I was still young and such a number of calamities fell upon me in my early life that I wondered how a benevolent and compassionate God could create a world full of evil and misery. Sri Aurobindo’s writings, most of which I later read, satisfied me immensely. I believed in divine help and on many occasions the help of the Mother came to me: my faith in her and in the Master grew greater and deeper day by day. I had a firm belief that Sri Aurobindo knew about the Divine more than anybody else and that his was the one solution for the world’s problems.

A most decisive incident occurred in 1950. A partisan labour movement was in terrific swing in the area and the organisers were inducing Harijans and other peasants to violence. They were trying to grab or rob whatever lands and cattle and riches they could lay their hands upon. The life and property of Mirasdars who were few in number in comparison to workers and labourers were in danger. The ratio can be put as something like 5:95. Threats of use of force and murder were being issued, so much so that many of the Mirasdars fled from their villages out of panic.

I had gone to South Arcot with my family for some ceremony. When I returned alone to my native place, I heard talk of an attack upon my house. The threat was duly notified. Already many Mirasdars had been harassed and attacked by the said organisers.

As I was informed about it I did not take the matter very seriously. There was no arrangement of police there as the police station was at least five miles from the village. Mirasdars and other villagers grouped themselves together in an organised defence so that some measures might be taken in the event of any sudden danger. Village guards were posted to prevent small incidents of violence. They used to patrol at night.

There was an epidemic of cholera in that area and unexpectedly most of guards took leave just one day before the day of the incident which follows. They had been patrolling the area in my absence for three days and nights consecutively, so they wanted to go home to have their bath and to rest.

It was a full-moon night. At the dead of it, a few words as of a harsh command, broke my sleep only to make me wonder whether what I was seeing was a reality or a dream. For the whole scene did resemble a dream. Four fully armed and disguised men stood on one side of my bed and four on the other, one before my feet and one behind my head. One of these was tapping me and asking me to get up. My first reaction was complete astonishment. I could not believe my eyes.

The main gate was locked, but the back door was open. They had entered by the back door and with quiet feet climbed the stairs and stood in formation by my bed.

I had not yet come out of my dreamy surprise when a fellow gave me a soft slap on the face which made me conscious of the reality of the situation. The shock was over in a few seconds and courage took its place. Peace prevailed in my limbs and the remembrance of the Mother in my heart.

One of the party spoke through clenched teach: “You wretch, troubling the peasants, depriving them of their rights and drinking their blood, not giving them livelihood! Get up! We have today come to settle the matter!”

“You have been crushing the labourers all along! Where is your treasure?” hissed another.

“Can you prove what you are saying? Where is the evidence that I have been oppressive?” I asked.

“Don’t talk too much! Open your safe!”

I did not really attach much importance to my valuables. I opened the lock of my safe and they gathered out all the silver utensils in a gunny-bag, including a silver ornament of Kali with a red cloth. They removed the few gold ornaments, notes and pronotes and coins of a few thousand rupees that were there, for most of the gold ornaments were taken by the female members of my family who had gone with me to South Arcot and were still there.

The servants were in the backyard and there was only my land supervisor in the next house. They asked me to open the front door of the house which was still bolted from inside. I obeyed. They were all surrounding me.

I was confident that they could not do any harm to me without the sanction of the Divine, so I kept myself peaceful all along in the way I was trained during the past few years of my sadhana.

They asked me to lead them to the next house and there they ordered me to open the iron safe. I told them that there was nothing in it except the Lord’s silver ornaments and that I had no key with me, for it was with my wife who was away. “You can break it open if you like, but I have not got the key with me!” I replied.

One of them put a heavy hand on my shoulder and removed the towel from off it. This gave me the suspicion for the first time that they had evil intentions on my life also. It was a warning signal to me. When they again brought me in front of my house, there were about 25 armed men and even on the surrounding road about 500 well-trained Malaya-returned soldiers stood on the alert. They talked in a language which I did not understand. It was not, in any case, an Indian language.

As I reached near my house, they bade me march towards the threshing-ground of my field which was about 1¼ furlongs from the house. They started irritating me in various ways. “You did not open the safe.” “You did not hand over the keys to us.” “You started arguing when we asked you to share your field-proceeds with labourers” etc., etc.

Now I understood that my end was approaching. But I had somehow still a very deep faith in the Divine. I lifted my head and called for die help of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Then a miracle happened far sooner and far more tangibly than I could ever expect. I heard a few sounds which got translated in my mind into some such words as: “They are taking you southwards. They will give you a push and as soon as the push comes, run...”

It was a five minutes’ walk from my house to the threshing-ground. Before starting, they made me give them ten gunny-bags of paddy seed and a tin full of kerosene oil. They emptied three-fourths of the tin on the bags and, keeping some wax-candles by the side of the bags, lit them so that by the time they reached the threshing-ground—that is to say, within five minutes—the whole house would be on fire and if people came on the spot they would run towards the house rather than towards the threshing-ground or towards the escaping murderers. This diversion would help them to carry out their designs.

As soon as we reached the spot, most of the men withdrew ready to escape. There were only two men behind me ready to kill. All along the way they kept me in their vigilant hold. As they reached the intended place, they left me free and gave me a heavy push so that as soon as I lay flat on the ground they would slash me from behind.

The push was near my neck. Immediately on getting it, I shot forward at full speed. And as soon as I ran, the bell of the temple which was about 1¼ furlongs from that place rang. The bell was the signal of danger. When my people had known that I was being taken to the threshing-ground they had run towards the temple to ring the bell. The coincidence of the ringing of the temple-bell and my running was the most important factor on which hung the question of my life or death. Had the bell rung before most of them had left me and I had been pushed, they would have killed me then and there on the way because I was still in their grip. But as I was made free to be pushed down I could escape. The ringing of the temple-bell, and most strangely, just at that very time, the great bellowing of about fifty cattle who were grazing in the field, made people run from miles towards the spot shouting “Coming, coming”, “Run, run”, “Danger, danger”. The absence of the guards who had gone on leave was another strong point for my safety. Had they been there, they would have run to save or would have been running about shouting of danger. That also would have been another incitement to my captors to hurry up their work instead of choosing such a ceremonious plan of killing me on the threshing-ground.

As soon as I ran, the would-be murderers also ran behind me and, with their long spears, tried to pierce my body. I got a few jabs on my arms and shoulders and even on the back of my neck although I ran all along with my head bent low to avoid any deep wound.

When the shouting of the villagers increased, the two men ran back and disappeared.

When I returned later to my house, I found that the kerosene-sprinkled gunny-bags of paddy seed remained unburnt, for the candles consumed themselves to the end without touching the bags. This saved the house too from being gutted.

The whole incident had such a transforming effect on the entire structure of my life that even now my being remains full of utter gratitude to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother who gave me new life from within as well as from without.