Pavitra

Pavitra-Da

(Philippe Barbier Saint Hilaire) (1894-1969)

The art of living consists of keeping earthly step to heavenly music.

Nikolayevich Panin

Pavitra-da was a well-known figure in our Ashram. He was a multi-faceted genius, but managed to dissimulate all his brilliance under a layer of ordinariness and friendliness. At first the friendliness was not easy for most of us, to feel. There were several reasons for this. First he was a French man i.e. white man. We unconsciously kept ourselves (5-6 decades back) a little distanced — not just because he was ‘white’, but we were naughty young boys and it was prudent to keep away from serious looking elders. He was one such. There was real respect too — he lived in the Ashram, first floor i.e. close to Mother’s Room. Also he was Her “Sarathi” whenever She was the Rathi. He was made the director of our newly formed school. We can read him, or analyse him better, after a closer acquaintance with him and his life.

Pavitra-da was born in Paris in the year 1894, on the 16th of January. His father — Paul Barbier Saint Hilaire — was typically French, cultured and a strict father, yet affectionate and understanding. Pavitra-da, as Philippe, at a very young age showed an aptitude to things mechanical. He got a bicycle as a birthday gift from his father when he was eleven years old. He dismantled it — his father watching him silently. Philippe could not put it together and asked his father if he could take it to a mechanic. “No” was the father’s reply, but a booklet was given as a help. It took all of three weeks for the job. It left the young boy wiser, more sober and more skilful. All these events and attitudes (of Paul B. S. H.) helped mould the character of the young Philippe and also put him on the path of his Future — as we will see — as engineer — Ecole-Poly-technique. Then the Great War (W.W.I) was on them. All were sucked into its tide. Philippe was inducted into an artillery division. He served as a sub-lieutenant. Though it was a tough life, they did have quite a bit of leisure time. It was during these leisure times young Philippe came across some books on psychic phenomena, magic, occultism etc. dubbed as “nonscientific” and studied them. Inevitably he discovered India.

Philippe did not arrive straightaway in India. He first reached Japan. He started a laboratory which interested many and Philippe got to know many — including some Buddhist monks from Mongolia. He went and lived in a monastery in Mongolia. It was a hard austere life. Yet he was not inwardly satisfied. He had heard of Sri Aurobindo when in Japan (Our Mother had left Japan a little before Philippe’s arrival there). He was attracted to Indian philosophy. He wrote to the Ashram (Pondicherry) but received no reply. Regardless, he boarded a ship, and after some delays and storm and detours reached Dhanushkoti and took a train to Pondicherry and arrived here on the 17th of December 1925 to start a new chapter of his life.

Pondicherry

Philippe booked into Hotel d’Europe. He then went to the Ashram. Sri Aurobindo was as yet meeting people and He agreed to see Philippe. The first day Philippe spoke to Sri Aurobindo. On the second day Sri Aurobindo spoke to Philippe — now PAVITRA. Philippe metamorphosed into Pavitra — the name given by Sri Aurobindo. I hope now to more than justify my dubbing him “multi-faceted genius”.

The Mother took him close — She trusted him and laid on him many responsibilities. His old training at home, in the military and in the monastries, etc. now stood him well. He was the Mother’s handyman. He was ever alert to hear the Mother’s call: “Pavitra, Pavitra!” and he would answer “oui Mère, oui Mère (Yes, Mother) and hurry to do Her bidding.

Pavitra-da was appointed the Director of our School in 1943 — 2nd of December. He taught maths to the older students. He started the Atelier — Workshop — at the outset to attend to the Mother’s car, but later developed to do other jobs — lathe work, tinning, smithy, and most importantly operate a fleet of cars for most of Ashram’s ever expanding and varied types of departments (farms, building service etc.) who need transportation of food (vegetables, grains), personnel and material.

Pavitra-da’s old training and hobby naturally prevailed on him to start a laboratory for our school. It was a small room at the East end of Play Ground with a partition dividing it into two sections — one for physics, the other for chemistry (the present ‘laboratoire’ is the “grown up” version of that old one. It (Old Lab,) doubled as the “Interview-Room” for the Mother in the evenings and it was also the modest precursor of the Mother’s Adults’ classes.

Pavitra-da had some tough tests to go through when he first arrived i.e. back in 1925 on the 17th of December. He had some free time and he volunteered to work — he told so to Sri Aurobindo. (He needed some money so he worked as a tutor to the children of a French family. This was when he arrived in Pondicherry.) Sri Aurobindo gave him the work of looking after a sadhak, a Charu Chandra who was ill and had requested Sri Aurobindo for a servant. Pavitra-da was happy to do so, but Charu had his reservations — for this man was a ‘Sahib’ (a white), a Christian, a ‘mlechcha’! He tried hard to find some fault with his new servant but Pavitra-da was a perfectionist. Charuda would even throw away the water that Pavitra-da brought from the Ashram, for it was “polluted”. Charu-da left for Bengal for a short duration and when he returned there was no sahib servant. The ‘servant’ had been given other responsibilities. A new phase in his (Pavitra-da’s) life here had started. (Charu-da to his credit did not make a fuss. He was given another sadhak to help who was not so amenable as the sahib.)

We, in the course of time, came to know Pavitra-da, what I think is the “real” Pavitra-da, much of it in the Body Building Gym. He would come regularly there when the Mother was busy seeing (interviews) others and he was not needed as a ‘sarathi’. He climbed the rope, hand over hand (no foot-support), performed a neat “Kip’ on the Horizontal Bar (arms and legs straight) and also a “hip-circle back”, the Bar held at the small of the back. This last item was part of his military training with a loaded knapsack strapped on. He told us that these “stunts” kept him youthful and also served as a test and guage on the advancement of Time.

There was, in our group of body-builders, a Gautam Das — older than us and somewhat touchy. He had developed quite an impressive body. His pectorals were well developed. They — the pectorals — came under Pavitra-da’s scrutiny. His thick glasses seemed to give his look a greater intimacy. Being French and young at heart, he made some very rather “intimate” comparisons of Gautam’s achievement. We had a good laugh at, Gautam’s expense, he naturally, was not at all amused but could only mutter his annoyance under his breath.

Pavitra-da’s youthfulness and skills showed up in some other ways too. He would sit on a bicycle handle facing backwards, (i.e. the seat) and push off and pedal down the street — well understood it was empty of traffic.

One day, seeing me on the foot-path in front of the Ashram, a gentleman asked me “Hey! you taken a French leave?” I did not know what the expression meant — I told the gentleman so. He spied Pavitra-da coming out of the Ashram and told me “Go, ask him”. I went up to Pavitra-da and asked him what French leave meant. He hardly broke his step, and said “It is what we call “congé à l’Anglaise” = English leave! Pavitra-da moved on — I was left none the wiser. I learned the meaning much later though I was a practioner of the term for as long as I can remember.

Pavitra-da later took ill — it was diagnosed as cancer. When he told the Mother about it, it seems she said: “You know about it, the doctor knows about it and I know about it. Nobody else need know about it”! Pavitra-da never complained about the pain. He carried on his work quietly. He refused all medicines. Those around him knew that something was wrong only when the pain became acute and his movements stiff and slow. He took all of 45 minutes to go up to the Mother, but go he would. I have seen him come down slowly, past midnight to stand near the Samadhi. He must have taken a long time (my estimate would be, at least 30 minutes. I did not know his condition until much later). Until one day André-da (Mother’s son) informed Her that Pavitra-da would not be coming to meet Her She did not say anything but gave André-da a red rose to be given to him. Pavitra-da passed away the next day. He had fulfilled his life’s mission, a mission he had promised himself when lying in a tent in the War Front — the mission was to serve the Divine, to consecrate his life to the Divine. To what extent he fulfilled that mission can be well appreciated by what the Mother had to say about his passing away. I quote:

“It is very interesting, the experience I had that night. Nothing like it I ever had in my life. It was the night before the day he passed away. The time was 9 o’clock. I felt he was withdrawing, withdrawing in an extraordinary manner. He was coming out of himself and gathering and pouring himself into me. He was coming out consciously and deliberately with the full force of a concentrated will. He continued to do so steadily, ceaselessly for hours. It ended at about 1 o’clock. I looked at the time.

“There was no slackness or interruption or stop at any moment. It was throughout the same steady continuous flow, without a break, without diminishing in strength. Such a concentrated undiminishing stream it was. The process continued until he was wholly within me as though he was pumping and exhausting all he was in the body till the last drop. I say it was wonderful — I never experienced such a thing. The flow stopped when there was very little left in the body. I let the body remain as long as it was needed for the work to continue, till long, quite long after the doctors declared it dead.

“As he was in life, he could not have done the thing. I did not expect it of him, it must have been some past-life of his that was at work and did the thing. Not many yogis, not even the greatest among them could do such a thing. There he is within here, quite wakeful, looking in a rather amused way at what you people are doing. He is merged in me wholly, that is dwelling within me, not dissolved; he has his personality intact. Amrita is different. He is there outside, one of you, one among you people moving about. At times, of course, when he wants to take rest and repose he comes and lodges here. A remarkable story. A great and difficult thing Pavitra has done.”

The Mother, Words of the Mother I: General

An Epilogue

A remarkable epilogue to an equally remarkable story of a more remarkable man.

In the past (in Ashram) Pavitra-da was often addressed by many here as Ramakrishna. I gather that a portion of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa’s being had incarnated in him. It would seem once possessed by Kali, always possessed by Her.

Who could have seen into this past life of Pavitra-da’s? Only one guess — our Lord Sri Aurobindo.

My lover took away my robe of sin and I let it fall, rejoicing; then he plucked at my robe of virtue, but I was ashamed and alarmed and prevented him. It was not till he wrested it from me by force that I saw how my soul had been hidden from me.

Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine and Human: Bhakti