Dr Sudhir Bose

A sadhak who served The Mother till the last day of his life was Dr. Sudhir Bose. Whole morning he saw patients, went to the Ashram, came back to his room with a lot of difficulties and passed away at night in JIPMER.

Khirod-da his eldest brother was the first to join the Ashram. He left his brothers and sisters with the widowed mother and came to Pondicherry. He never went back.  Dr. Sudhir and his other brothers had to complete their studies in a rather difficult monetary condition. Dr. Sudhir passed his LHS degree in medicine which was a degree not quite MBBS but one who passed LHS was allowed to practice medicine. He then joined one of his brothers in Mornai Tea Estate in Assam as the Medical Officer.

The daily life was comfortable as the sole medical officer not only of the Tea garden but also of the surrounding villages. But there was no social life as such. Handful of officers of the tea garden naturally felt bored. The only way to divert themselves was to go once in a while hunting. In the early thirties & forties of the last century anybody who was somebody indulged in that royal sport. Once Dr. Sudhir Bose, his brother and some forest officers had killed a tiger. When the Bose family came to visit the Ashram, offered the skin to The Mother. It was spread out for a very long time in The Mother’s restroom of the Play ground.

After Khirod-da, Jalad-da came and joined the Ashram. Then came four children of the third brother to study in the Ashram school, In this way the family began to make the Ashram their home. Dr. Sudhir Bose was also eager to join the Ashram therefore when he visited he would ,through Amrita-da, send his letter praying The Mother to let him live in the Ashram. But every time The Mother’s answer would be “When I need you, I shall call you.”

That particular year he returned to his job quite unhappy. His feeling was that The Mother would never allow him to be an Ashramite for what need can she have from a person like him! But wonder of wonders he received a letter from Amrita-da that he should resign and come to Pondicherry as The Mother had a specific work for him.

In the fifties and even earlier Nripen-da was the chief Allopath doctor. He not only had to treat all the inmates of The Ashram, the visitors, even the paid workers of all the Ashram departments. As time passed the number of inmates increased so did the number of paid workers. The Mother in a very steady way created various new departments. Naturally daily number of patients increased and for Nripen-da too it was a very heavy load. It was then that the Mother decided to open another dispensary exclusively for the paid workers.

He arrived but the dispensary was not yet ready. It was a series of four garages belonging to a rich local lady Padmini. When Padmini came to know that The Mother wanted that place to open a dispensary for the paid workers; she offered it to The Mother as the place will be used for the wellbeing of the local people. It seems The Ashram had to spend very little amount to buy the property.

The four garages were to be made usable, one as the dispensary, one as the pharmacy, one as the waiting place for the patients and one for the doctor who would be living there. The inauguration took place on 30th January. The Mother came to inaugurate the dispensary which she did for each and every department. After The Mother’s blessing and distribution of sweets She was informed that the open piece of land adjacent to the garages is believed to be haunted as there was a suicide there. The Mother walked through the rooms reaching every corner and then she went out and did likewise on the open ground. She suggested that there should come up a small garden and everyday an incense stick should be lighted. Then she turned it seems towards Amrita-da and wished that one doctor must live in the room prepared as the living quarter.

Two doctors Dr. Sudhir Bose and Dr. Jyotish Das Gupta were given the responsibility of this department. Now Jyotish Das Gupta was a doctor in the first world war. After the war he it seems wanted to leave everything and become a sadhu. With that intention he went to The Himalayas looking for a guru. There he met a sadhu whom Das Gupta thought to be a genuine seeker of truth. So Das Gupta prayed to be accepted as his disciple. But the holy man it seems replied that the time for leaving hearth & home had not come yet. He has to live a family life and he will find his guru in South India. Das Gupta returned, married, had children and then came to know about the Mother, went back & came with family to live in the Ashram. This is what one his daughters narrated to us.

When Amrita-da put up the suggestion of the Mother Dr. Sudhir Bose readily agreed to live in the dispensary.

The dispensary began to function. Dr. Sudhir Bose attended to the patients in the morning and Dr. Das Gupta in the afternoon. Dr. Sudhir Bose whom I called kaka for he was the youngest brother of a very dear friend of mine – Bithi who now lives near Auroville and works at Auro Orchard & Udavi school - took to the habit of sending a monthly report to The Mother of the number of patients treated in the dispensary. The Mother used to go through the report, write down Her comments with Her Blessings. This continued till kaka’s passing away.

Kaka was a tea addict. In his room there was always two flasks of tea ready for those with whom he had friendly relation. It was a concoction made by lots of boiling and minimum of tea leaf. Above that it was sweetened with saccharine as he was a diabetic patient. Many accepted the cup just because Doctor offered it to them.

Regarding his treatment he was an old fashioned practitioner. For many ailments he prescribed a certain mixture. He prepared himself the basic mixtures with the help of a helper and according to the illness he added to his basic mixtures other components. For instance if it was cold & cough he would take a particular basic mixture and add to it something like extract of glycerlizra or Hyosemus; if it was something to do with stomach then in another basic mixture he added say vitazyme or something that will help. He even prepared quite a few ointments in the dispensary; the aim being to run the department as economically as possible.

He loved people around him. Some would come early in the morning, have a cup of tea and spend some time with him; others in the evening and be with him again over a cup of tea.

After I had completed my higher course studies kaka requested Amrita-da to get permission from the Mother to allow me to work in the dispensary. But by then Kireet bhai already requested The Mother to allow me to teach in the school. Then the Mother decided who was to work where. She had consented to my work in the school and kaka was informed about the decision. But Amrita-da said “If she can find sometime after doing her duty in the school and if she agrees to it, she may do so.”

Along with my teaching schedule, I began to go the dispensary irregularly, but slowly it became very regular as he needed someone to keep an eye on the medicine stock, as he was helped by two paid employees. In time it became my responsibility too to see and regulate his diet as he was highly diabetic and also suffered from high blood pressure.

On that particular day the moment I entered the dispensary he informed me that though he was not feeling very well yet he has to go to the Ashram for an urgent work. I should remind him before I go back to school. He had been unwell for quite a few months.

He completed the first rush of patient consultations and went to the Ashram, retired with great difficulty to his room and collapsed on the floor. In the afternoon was taken to the Ashram Nursing Home; from there to JIPMER where he breathed his last.