A Talk : 'Her organisational power was tremendous'

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"Her organisational power was tremendous"

  Krishna Tewari

Kamla and Krishna Tewari

Krishna Tewari: I am going to talk about the year before I actually met the Mother - because that year was one of the most momentous years in my life and in the history of this great country called Bharat—India; I refer to the year 1971—the year in preparation of Sri Aurobindo's centenary year 1972. I was in the Army posted in Calcutta and we were confronted suddenly with a very grave situation, when in East Pakistan which is presently Bangladesh, a big problem arose, as a result of which millions of refugees started coming into Indian part of Bengal and other states—Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya. (Indian part of the partitioned Bengal is called West Bengal—the other part was the East Pakistan.) It became quite apparent that this influx cannot be stopped unless some drastic measures are taken and in a country like ours, drastic measures mean military action. I was directly involved in the headquarters of the Eastern Army at that time as one of the heads of the arms and services and it became quite apparent that we might have to go to war with Pakistan to stop the influx. Because in East Pakistan the suppression was so terrible—we saw the refugees, miserable men, women and children (ultimately in millions)—had come into India and perhaps some of you know that the Bengal part of India is fairly congested in population as it is. And to feed those millions of people was a colossal problem for India. Not only feeding them but looking after them— because soon after the clamp-down in East Pakistan took place in March 1971, the influx into India had started. In June-July all these people had

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come in and the monsoon had also started. In Bengal most of the countryside gets flooded during monsoon except for roads and high grounds—which were all filled up with refugees. If military action had to be taken, it would mean bulldozing the people off the roads for the military to act. It was a nightmare of a situation and the military dictatorship of Pakistan at that time was quite unrelenting.

But during those grim times, a divine instrument—one of my own officers— came and said to me, "Sir, why are you so pensive these days?" In a typical military language I turned around to him and said, "Chum, if you had a clue of some of the problems that I am facing these days—I can't share them with you as it is all top-secret—you would be more pensive." I had been warned at that time that we might have to go to war. But he had come prepared,—he said: "I shouldn't be advising you Sir, as you are my old instructor; I have a humble suggestion: 'Whatever your problems, write to the Mother for Her blessings.'" I had no idea of the Ashram or the Mother and hence I asked him, "Whose Mother?" He said: "The Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram." I had heard of Sri Aurobindo, but not of the Mother. I pondered over the situation; if I should write to a French lady, being a military man with all the problems involved on security considerations and so on. But after two or three days I wrote to Her and said, "Dear Mother, I can't tell you what the problems are but I have been advised that I could seek your blessings on the problems that I am facing—I will be grateful for your blessings." My letter came back to me signed across: "Blessings, Mirra." I call this a miracle. In the book I have authored I talk about the divine intervention in the war. Our problems started getting resolved slowly and slowly. All of us in the Eastern Army, from the top Commanding-in-Chief to all of us (heads of different Arms and Services), had received Her blessings through the same instrument who happened to be one of my own officers. We didn't know that all of us had separately asked and received the blessings. One day I was travelling with my Commander-in-Chief. (We used to take off from our HQ in Fort William in Calcutta in a helicopter and go to Dum-Dum airport, get into an aircraft and fly down to places we had to visit.) We were to go to Tripura and we had to go right round East Pakistan. What

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would take 55 minutes direct flight took us five hours then. We were travelling in the VIP aircraft, the boss was lying down and we two others were sitting -I had the blessing packet of the Mother in my pocket. I used the same words to the Chief, "Sir, you are very pensive this morning." He sat up and said, "Krishan, you haven't done your homework this morning." I was taken aback because till then I had never been caught without doing my homework in all my 29 years of service and I said so. He opened one of his pockets and took out a message in which our Russian friends had told us that the Chinese were moving towards India's borders and Assam. I had been a POW in China and I am allergic to the Chinese. I reacted to the boss saying, "Oh, no sir, we can't cope with two fronts now—East Pakistan and China"; to this reply he said, "Krishan, never mind" and he opened his other pocket and took out a blessing packet of the Mother to show me. My immediate silent reaction was, "Et tu Brutus!—you've also received the blessings?" That's how I discovered that the others had also received the Mother's blessings. It was amazing—this Divine intervention!

In about August-September after Sri Aurobindo's birthday, we received a little booklet tided 'Sri Aurobindo and Bangladesh'. Bangladesh did not exist at that time and this name existed only in a resolution of Mujiboor Rehman's party—Awami League who had wanted a Bangladesh—Sonar Bangla; the booklet written by Satprem, Mother's confidant, talked about Sri Aurobindo and Bangladesh. We read it and we were astounded. We read for the first time Sri Aurobindo's message of August 15, 1947 wherein he talked about the partitioning of India; so it got us thinking. We were working almost 20 hours a day and those were momentous days we were living through. We would have gone to war in October 1967. Indira Gandhi who was our Prime Minister at that time was also in contact with the Mother, (it was the biggest Grace at that time). She decided in late 1971, to go around the world capitals to explain India's stand. So the operations were delayed. There was a divine plan behind that too—because we didn't have to start the war—Pakistan preempted us. They attacked first on 3 December 1971 and although we were all ready, we didn't have to start the war. And in two weeks time we won the war—93,000 regular Pakistani

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soldiers surrendered to the Indian Army. Never before had it happened in the history of the Indian Army! How did this happen? On 16 December 1971 the surrender was signed. The next day, we met the Commander-in-Chief of East Pakistan, General Niazi, and one of us asked him, "What happened to you?; you had all these fully equipped soldiers—How have you surrendered?" He replied, "I don't know—it was hopeless. I knew I will be wasting the lives uselessly and I surrendered." How did this come about without the orders of his supreme commander? And I say that the Mother was acting directly. We started our connection with the Mother from that time. And that's why I say that without having met Her physically, without even knowing that She was there, I met and got to know Her. I often think of those momentous days. Soon after the war I came here and I met Her physically for the first time in February 1972. That was also another momentous event—I was the first military man to meet Her after the formation of Bangladesh. I came with my doctor wife who was then a Major in the Army and along with our three children. We only got three days leave to come here— what momentous three days they were! We were there for the foundation ceremony of Matrimandir and we had a meeting with the Mother. When we went up to meet the Mother, I think it was Roger who met us outside Her room and Madhav Pandit had taken us in. One of them had told me, "Think of all the things you need when you go before the Mother and they will be granted without your asking." When I came out of the room, I looked at this person and suddenly felt very self conscious. I realised that I had gone completely blank when I was in front of the Mother - not a single thought. In fact, I thought She must have seen me as an idiot of an Army officer, as I had gone completely blank—no thought at all. Kamla will describe the first meeting. The second time, later in 1972, I met Her alone. I was not allowed to sit in Her presence but passed in front of Her.

I remember meeting an admiral of the US Navy whom I met here, soon after I came to Pondicherry—Admiral Rutledge—he accosted me one day and said, "Hey general, how did you guys do it? In two weeks time you guys overran that whole country; where did you get the arms and equipment from?" I said, "We

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had a big bridge connected to the Mother and that's how everything was done." I am sharing this with you because it's so important for us to know how direct the Divine intervention was. When I went back to Calcutta after the visit to the Ashram, I immediately asked for premature retirement, as I had decided that I would like to be here. And I let the Ashram know this decision of mine through Madhav Pandit who was the Secretary to the Mother at that time. I was rung up 3 days later and was told that the Mother had forbidden me to leave the Army. She had said it four times, I was told, "He is not to leave the Army. He must not leave the Army. He must continue in service. We shall decide when he is to leave the Army." I promptly withdrew my resignation.

The Mother's intervention on that historic occasion, and the vision of Sri Aurobindo that partition must go had set us thinking. Bangladesh had become a friend of India. The other part West Pakistan still remains to become so. We are not good instruments in solving our own problem and we create more complications, but perhaps it will take longer. So I thought I would share these thoughts, because they live with me very very vividly even now. It is wonderful to share these momentous moments.

Kamla Tewari: It's not easy to recount what exactly had happened. As he has described, there was a very strong and special atmosphere in Calcutta; all the top-brass had received these blessing packets from the Mother. Of course the Indian Army fought very well and we were also very busy—I was working in the Command Hospital, Calcutta and we were flooded with the war wounded. The first thing was that the leave given to us for 3 days was very reluctantly given—to visit the Ashram of which we had absolutely no idea, our knowledge was zero. When we came as a family, two adults and three children, the youngest being six, and the very next day at 4.30 in the morning we were told of Matrimandir inauguration in Auroville. So we came along to Matrimandir—that was my first experience of this completely barren land full of red dust. We walked from Aspiration side to Matrimandir and were covered in red dust from head to toe; and all we saw next to the banyan

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tree was a deep crater, and early morning Sunil's 1972 music was played. It was wonderful, I thought that I had never heard such beautiful music before; it was like out of this world and I felt at that time within me a voice arising that said, this is your place; and how and when I would come I didn't know, but that was the voice saying, this is your place. After the end of the music we were all given a pebble and asked to put it into the east pillar foundation which I think is Mahalakshmi. (Named after an aspect of the Divine Mother.) That whole day was very intense—this was 21^st February, Mother's birthday. At 10 am we had a meditation in the Ashram, sitting around the Samadhi. I thought: I could never meditate for half an hour and here I was in deep meditation when the first gong went and woke up only after the second gong—I wondered what had happened to me! How could I manage to meditate for so long! And then we had the darshan of the Mother from the balcony and even the children remember that. The Mother standing on the balcony and we were so far below, but we felt influenced by Her. There was a very strong atmosphere, which one would always remember. On 22^nd morning, we met the Mother as a family; five of us, being the first military family to come here. We were given an audience with Her—She was sitting in a chair and we were standing in a row, and he (Krishan) went first and sat at Her feet. We had all taken flowers (for the Mother) and were instructed to keep looking into Her eyes till She gave us a flower: I saw Krishan's face, and it went completely blank; after that he was given his flower—a red rose. And then when he came away, I kneeled next to Her—I don't remember Her face at all, only two deep blue eyes and I think everything else went blank; it was so powerful. When we were coming back in the evening to Chennai station, I was weeping all the way, one daughter was jumping around, she had high fever right through the train journey, the other two can describe for themselves. This was something that affected all of us—it was a very powerful meeting. But I would like to put across that as an Army family coming from an Army discipline what struck us was the quiet discipline in the Ashram; anywhere you stood, you stood in line, in silence. There was a very strong discipline, which appealed to me at least. You went to the dining room— and as

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a doctor I wanted to look around—and saw all those large pressure cookers; food being cooked for so many people. I was told that it was all done by the Mother. It was something tremendous—Her organisational power was tremendous.

His very body answered to her power....

Book III, 4

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