Gangadhar

Gangadharan was a fisherman and a local Tamil boy, born on 24 of July 1913, in a small coastal village of Veerampattinam, south of Ariankuppam, some 6km south of Pondicherry.

Now in the 1930s the Mother used to go out for long drives. Some of you may have even read in Bulletin the story of a temple that she had visited at Veerampattinam on one of those outings. However, after the visit as she was returning, a young man was strangely fascinated by the Mother and he ran behind Her car, all the way to the Ashram at Pondicherry. Naturally, he was not allowed in the Ashram premises. He went on insisting that he wanted to see the Mother and said he wanted to stay here in the Ashram. The parents of the lad came from Veerampattinam, and tried a lot and cried too. But the lad was steadfast in his resolve. Finally, the Mother advised the parents that, it is best he stays here as he wants to do.

So on 24th of July, 1933, exactly at the age of 20, on his birthday, Gangadharan joined the Ashram.

He was given the work of supervising the cleaning of all the WCs of the houses of Ashram in the Sanitary Department, which he did till 1987. He was addressed by everybody as brother Gangadharan, because he was always smiling and was from his heart a true brother to all.

He stayed all his life in a very small room which was like a store, maybe 6'x12', next to Manoj-da's room. It is only at the very end we could give him a good room, which he accepted after a lot of persuation.

He was a great saint, and the spiritual experiences he wrote are of great value, written by a simple heart!