BY THE WAY
Part - III
Note from the Publisher
Dada (Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya) is present in his office every morning from 8.30 to 11.45. During this time boys, girls and grownups from the Ashram comet see him. He also receives visitors. They all have something to ask him and Dada answers their questions. The visitor goes back happy. All those who are present in his office also enjoy his replies as well as the stories and humorous anecdotes he recounts. Time is happily spent.
Amalesh Bhattacharya, who has transcribed these conversations, sits in a corner and quietly notes everything down. The present selection of these jottings is the third part of By the Way and it is sincerely hoped that the readers enjoy it.
Pranab with the Mother in Her Room
The Mother in trance during Darshan
A visitor came to see Dada. As he finished talking with him he said at the end: 'Dada, I would like to ask you for something.'
'What would you like?' Dada asked.
'Dada, give me something that the Mother has touched. I Shall keep that with me all the time.'
'Have you ever had the Mother's Darshan before?' Dada enquired.
'Yes, I've had Her Darshan two or three times. I've bowed before the Mother and She has blessed me by touching my head with Her hand.'
'Then what more do you need?' Dada continued. 'The Mother has touched your body itself. This body She has touched is yours. What more can one ask for?'
*
One day during a conversation Dada observed :
'The Mother gives only that which can be got from Her. Its very hard to command Her. The Mother can give whatever you ask Her but then you need to have the strength to accept it.'
Someone said:
'I have heard, Dada, that Vijay Goswami would tell his disciple Kulda Brahmachari not to pray otherwise he would be in great trouble. He might concede your prayer.'
Gangaram-da remarked:
'One should not demand anything from the Mother. On the contrary one should always say: Mother, grant me whatever You wish. In this case the Mother grants us also the strength to accept what She gives.'
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Jyoti-di told Dada one day :
'Dada , you are incomparable. What a tremendous instrument really! Like a banyan tree. Who else has this kind of strength or greatness?'
'Why, are you all any less,' Dada replied. 'There are millions of people on this earth but only you among those millions have reached the Ashram and have had the good fortune to live here. Is that something negligible? All this love and affection and togetherness that exist between all of us, where would it all have been? Where would all of us have been? We may not even have known or crossed each other. Today we have all become part of one and the same family. This has happened due to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo's attraction. It has been possible only due to Their Grace. Otherwise, god knows where we would all have been! We have come here and all together we have created this divine family, this divine community.'
Dada remarked about someone:
'He came by himself the other day and told me :
"Dada, I have realised my mistake. I will try to correct myself."
I told him:
"None of us is perfect, neither you nor I. Do not go looking for another's fault. Look at only your faults and try to correct them. And one day you will see everything has been straightened out. I firmly believe that this time too everything will be straightened out."
When he has acknowledged his fault and understood, then he will certainly be able to correct himself. As he is conscious of his faults so will he also see and value the virtues in others. He will see how many qualities others have.'
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Shanti said to Dada the other day:
'Dada, I have met someone who resembles the man of your story. He was sleeping peacefully under a tree, without any stir or action.'
'Which story, Dada?' someone enquired.
Dada laughed and happily recounted the story.
'There was a man who would sleep peacefully under a tree. He would do nothing but quietly lie and sleep. He was very poor and his clothes too were torn and dirty. One day a passer by asked him:
"Don't you have anything to do? How can you just lie and sleep under this tree? Do you really enjoy this?"
The dull-eyed man asked:
"What will I get if I work?"
"What will you get? Why, you will earn some money."
"And what will I get if I have money?"
"You can have a house, a proper roof over your head with money."
"What will I get if I have a house and a roof?"
"Why, with a house you will live happily, you will eat and sleep peacefully."
"Well, don't I sleep peacefully, as it is?" the man replied."
Why should I complicate my life with work?"'
During a conversation someone referred to Purnanando, an old sadhak. Dada said:
'He had been round India thrice on foot. He was a saffron clad sannyasi, slimly-built but with a strong constitution and he walked every where till the very end of his life, never riding a cycle or getting onto a rickshaw. He lived his entire life in a simple little room under a staircase.
He looked after the Ashram godowns, keeping stock of everything. And whenever someone needed something he
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could immediately get it out. He was, however, short-tempered and would lose his cool over a trifle. But we had a good rapport and he listened to me. One day I told him:
"Purnanando-da, I need a little space in that godown to keep some photographic equipment."
He immediately made space so that I could store my photographic stuff.
Once, while Purnanando-da was going round the pilgrim-centres of India as a sannyasi, somewhere along the way a group of people prostrated themselves before him. They sat around him very respectfully and asked:
"Baba, tell us, who is greater, the yogi or the bhogi (one who enjoys life)?"
Poor Purnanando-da was in a fix. What could he say?
One of Purnanando-da's disciples was with him.
So while the people sat expectantly in front of him with folded hands, this disciple intervened to save him just in time:
"Baba has 'taken a vow of silence," he explained.'
Dada continued:
'Like Purnanando-da, Yoganando-da was another old sadhak. In the beginning he too had travelled across India as a sannyasi, a saffron-clad sannyasi. But after settling down in the Ashram he gave up his saffron robe.
Yoganando-da was very short-tempered and irascible. He was a nice man otherwise, but when he got into a temper it was quite awful. Yoganando-da used to work as a life-guard at the seashore in the Tennis-ground, keeping an eye on all those who went sea bathing. He would note down the names of those who came, the time they got into the sea, the time they got out, etc. and he regularly showed his notes to the Mother. The Mother would sign the daily sheet. He would also report to the Mother about the state of the sea, whether
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Pranab and Vishwajit at work in the photographic darkroom
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the sea was calm or there were lots of waves, etc. And he would communicate this in his kind of English: Mother, today less water, more waves; today more water, less waves. The Mother would also sign this report.
Visitors from the West used to also come for sea-bathing and Yoganando-da would keep their clothes. Now, Westerners usually think it right to pay for any services that are rendered. And so one day a western gentleman paid him ten rupees for keeping his clothes. Yoganando-da was indignant but he finally took the money and offered it to the Mother.
Yoganando-da's daily work was to gather flowers. He and Madan-da would go to collect flowers from outside the town. When the Mother used to come to the Playground, a garland made from those flowers would be put around Her neck.
Pondicherry was under French rule then. This was before1954. The French kept talking about their impending departure but had not budged yet. The Indian government had the whole town surrounded by the army.
Yoganando-da and Madan-da accidentally got onto the Indian side of the border in their search for flowers. The army snapped them up for questioning. Madan-da answered all their questions politely but Yoganando-da was out of his wits and gave them a taste of his temper. So the army men stripped him bare like a Greek statue and made him stand before making him march.
Yoganando-da knew a fellow-seeker, a sannyasi too, who had come to the Ashram for a few days. His name was Dhirananda. However, he did not accept the Mother and Sri Aurobindo as avatars.
One day, on hearing this, Yoganando-da began thrashing him in front of the Dining Room with his slipper. He kept yelling:
"First accept the Mother and Sri Aurobindo as avatars.You accept first, then I'll let you go. Come on, say!"'
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Yoganando-da on duty at the sea-bathing for Ashram children
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The Mother accepting the salute at the March Past in the Tennis-ground
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Dada recounted a strange ghost-story today.
There was a football match between four-five neighbouring villages and two boys from a nearby village had come to watch the match. As the match ended grey clouds suddenly appeared in the sky. So the boys got up hurriedly and began striding back to their village. It could rain anytime. The route was familiar, the places were familiar, the neighbouring villages too were all known. So they walked on briskly.
Within no time darkness enveloped the whole place, strong winds began to blow and it started raining. It was dark, as it is, and on top, the heavy rain was accompanied by winds. They could not see a thing. All of a sudden the known path turned unfamiliar. They felt as in a labyrinth. But still they walked on through that rain and wind, drenched? to the bone.
Suddenly the two boys noticed at a distance a splendid English cottage. There was light inside the house. They thought it would be wiser to take shelter from the heavy rain in that wooden cottage.
So looking like two wet crows in that rain they reached the gate and knocked. The door opened. A youngish-looking Englishwoman appeared.
'What do you want?' she asked.
'We are from a neighbouring village,' the two boys replied.
'We were going back home after a football match but we got totally soaked in this rain. Could we take shelter here? We're in quite a mess, really.'
The lady, probably moved by their plight, asked them to come in. She took out some clean clothes from a wardrobe and told them to take off their wet clothes and wear the dry ones.
'These are my son's clothes. My son studies engineering at Bangalore,' she explained. You can wear these clothes and rest a little on the sofa. I'll make you some piping-hot tea in the meantime.'
The lady went inside and came back with a tin of Huntley Palmer biscuits. It was a new tin and extremely beautiful. She
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opened the tin, removed the tinfoil seal and served the two boys some biscuits on a plate. Tea was getting ready. The two boys began munching the biscuits with great relish. These were expensive, foreign biscuits. The piping-hot tea arrived.
'The biscuits are just delicious!' the boys exclaimed. 'Can we take some with us?'
'Go on, take as many as you wish,' said the lady.
The two boys filled their pockets with biscuits.
'My husband, Mr Baron, has gone out for some work. He'll be back soon. Have your tea while I make you some dinner. You must be dreadfully hungry. The meat is already cooked, I'll just get some bread and toasts ready.'
And even as the lady spoke, outside, the wind raged accompanied by thunder and the rains showed no respite.
Just then Mr Baron entered. He was tall, handsome, manly and seemed a jolly sort. He began chatting merrily with the boys.
The meat was being warmed, the bread toasted. And not the slightest letup in the storm raging outside.
'How lucky we got such a perfect shelter,' the boys thought to themselves. 'God knows what would have happened to us otherwise!'
By then it was almost midnight. Just a few more minutes to go. The rain, it seemed, would go on for the whole night.
All of a sudden Mr Baron turned to his wife and exclaimed:
'Look at that! You've forgotten something, darling! Today is the 15th of July. I too had almost forgotten.'
Another crackling thunderbolt ripped the dark night outside. The windowpanes in the house rattled.
The Englishwoman looked frightened at her husband's words. Her eyes paled and her face stiffened.
'Yes, you're right. It is the 15th of July. It is only a few minutes to midnight.'
And she nervously looked at the clock on the wall.
'What will happen now?' she fearfully asked.
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The lady was trembling with fear. Her mouth went dry and her eyes dimmed.
Mr Baron stood up and looked at the boys:
'Listen, don't delay any longer. Go out at once. Don't stay for a second more. Leave right now!'
The boys were nonplussed:
'What are you saying, sir? Where can we go in this storm at this time of the night? You've taken such good care of us with your gentle hospitality. Now all of a sudden why do you want us to leave?'
Both the husband and wife kept looking nervously at the clock . Then the husband said gravely :
'I can't explain but if you want your good then ask no more questions. Just leave at once.'
When the boys still did not budge the Englishman took out a revolver from his pocket and screamed at them:
'If you don't go I'll shoot. Get out !'
What could the boys do now? And so in that dark night crackling with rain and thunder they rushed out of the house. The Englishman was screaming from behind:
'Run away quickly. Go away as far as you can .'
The boys started running breathlessly in the night through the rain and storm . Just then a thunderclap ripped the sky. The lightning cast a glow all around. And in that glow they noticed that the thunderbolt had hit the Englishman's cottage which was up in huge flames .
At once the two boys fell to the ground, unconscious.
After a long time, as the first rays of dawn appeared, the two boys came back to consciousness. They realised that they were lying just beside the path leading to their village, their own familiar village. Where was the Englishman's wooden cottage? Where was the gate that led to it? There wasn't the slightest trace. They lay just beside the path. The Mullicks' pond and their banana grove stood at a distance.
Incredible! Was it all magic?
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But they still wore the clothes given to them by the Englishwoman and in their trouser-pockets were the expensive foreign biscuits they had asked for at night. Were these too unreal?
They were dumbstruck.
It was believed that a long time back, exactly on the 15th of July, a night of rain and storm, at the stroke of midnight lightning had struck an English couple's cottage and both of them had died. Their son used to study engineering at Bangalore then.
Everyone was quite astounded by Dada's story. Someone remarked:
'Dada, I heard a similar story a long time ago. A man and his wife were driving along the Grand Trunk road at night. The car was going quite fast. On either side there was jungle and some open spaces. It was probably a night of the new moon and so it was pitch dark all around. From time to time a lorry or two would zoom past with their headlights on.
The man probably had some urgent work and he kept telling the driver to drive faster :
"I have to reach by ten o'clock."
The car sped on.
Suddenly the car collided head on with a truck. Both the husband and wife were badly injured on their heads. The side of the car was damaged. The driver was badly hurt too.
In the meantime the truck-driver had escaped with his truck.
In that dark, deserted night the driver noticed a magnificent cottage just beside the road next to the jungle. And there was light within.
The driver somehow reached this cottage and informed them about the accident.
Two people came running and carried the couple into the house. The house belonged to a surgeon. He had his operation theatre on the ground floor. The doctor told the couple that both needed to be operated upon at once.
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On completing the operation the doctor bandaged both their heads and gave them the necessary drugs and injections. Then turning to the driver he said :
"My people have mended your car. I suggest you take them immediately to Calcutta."
He mentioned the name of a nursing home in Calcutta as he wrote down the prescription.
"The doctor in this nursing home was my student . Here is the prescription and drive them straight to him ."
The driver took the prescription and helped the husband and wife into the car. He was amazed to see how the old, ramshackle car had been so quickly repaired. The car picked up speed as if it were brand-new.
He brought them to Calcutta to the said nursing home. He went to see the doctor with the prescription:
"I've brought you two patients of Dr Browning's. Dr Browning mentioned that you had been his student and that's why he was sending them to you. We had an accident. My boss and his wife were injured in the head. Dr Browning operated upon them himself before sending them to you."
The doctor stretched out his hand to take the prescription:
"Yes, Dr Browning was indeed my professor. But he died ten years ago in a plane-crash. Let me see the prescription... amazing! His own handwriting and on his letter paper!"
'The doctor was simply flabbergasted.'
After listening to this story someone remarked:
'There is a wonderful story of this type in Yogavashishtha's Ramayana, Dada. Rishi Vashishtha himself narrates the story :
There was a tapaswi named Gadhi. One morning he went out of the ashram to have a bath in a pond. Standing waist deep in water and contemplating the clear morning sky, he fell into a meditative state. In that meditative state he had a vision and saw that he was lying lifeless in his hut at the ashram and that some bodiless spirits were carrying him away. They carried him very far away to a village and took the lifeless body of
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the rishi to the area where the chandalas lived. There they placed the body into a chandala's wife's womb.
Rishi Gadhi was quite perplexed as he saw all this standing in water.
"But am I not alive? I have come to the pond to wash myself. How did I ever get into a chandala's wife's womb?"
He saw that the chandala's wife soon gave birth to a child. The child was dark like a chandala's son should be. He grew up and then one day he got married. He too had a couple of children. Then as he grew old, his wife and children all passed away. In deep sorrow the chandala wandered from place to place.
In the meanwhile the king of that kingdom died. The king's elephant was sent out on a mission. Who ever the elephant picked up would become the new king. The elephant picked up this chandala with his trunk and brought him to the royal court. The inhabitants of this kingdom accepted him as their king. He became known as the Gobol king.
Rishi Gadhi's vision continued. He now ruled as the Gobolking.
A long time went by.
One day, after removing his royal robes, the king was taking a walk out in the palace-gardens. Just then someone from that chandala village saw and recognised him. He called out :
"Hey chandala, what is this I see? You've become a king!" On hearing this the subjects began talking among themselves:
"Good Lord! We've been living on a chandala's mercy all this time! Our lives are soiled. Shame on us!"
To overcome their sorrow brought on by this realisation. they lit a fire and sacrificed themselves into it .
The Gobol king now thought that his living was quite pointless. So he too set himself on fire and ended his life.
Standing in the pond Rishi Gadhi started as he felt the heat of the fire. He dipped his head into the water once and walked back to the ashram. His strange vision continued to puzzle him :
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"I must have stayed in the water for a short while, he wondered, but in this short time I went through the myriad experiences of an entire life. I was born, grew up, got married, raised a family. They all died. Then I became a king and ruled for quite some time. All this within the span of a few seconds."
And thinking these thoughts Rishi Gadhi arrived in his ashram and sat down in his hut .
Just then a guest turned up at the ashram. He said to Rishi Gadhi :
"O Sage, I'm exhausted by my journey. I was returning from after performing the Chandrayan penance. I had gone to the Kir kingdom, where a chandala king was the ruler. Eight years ago he burnt himself to death. All his subjects, ministers, prime minister died in the same way too. It was to cancel that evil out that I had gone to Prayag to perform the Chandrayan penance."
Rishi Gadhi thought:
"How amazing! All that I experienced in the pond was not my imagination after all. It was indeed all very real. Events that had happened eight years earlier."
And the sage decided to go to this kingdom and see for himself.
So then one day the sage went to this kingdom. He saw that chandala village, its now familiar atmosphere, the chandala of life, all the inhabitants of the village, the known pathways and dwellings. He even recognised one of the villagers and asked him about that particular chandala. The villager answered:
"Yes, O Sage. That chandala later became a king. The king's elephant chose and picked him up to make him king. And eight years ago he burnt himself to death."
When Rishi Gadhi heard this he was dumbstruck. How could this have happened? He was still glowing with life. How could he have lived simultaneously and within such short span of time such a long life?
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So Rishi Gadhi went to his guru and put the question before him:
"What does this mean? Was all this illusory and a mental hallucination or was it a real fact, was it all false or true?"
Gadhi's guru explained:
"What you take for illusion has three levels of reality, the occult, the spiritual and the psychic. These different levels co-exist with this gross, earthly level. There is the spiritual plane and, deeper than this is the plane of consciousness and then the manifested planes. Human beings can station themselves on any of these three worlds, they can also have experiences or realisations at all these three levels at the same time. Man can station himself in all the three worlds together."'
When he heard this, Dada remarked:
'This is what in modern scientific language could be called the split-personality. The occult, the spiritual and the psychic are three levels of reality. All the three are real in their own way.'
Someone then asked:
'But in your story, Dada, the Huntley Palmer biscuits given by the Englishwoman, the clothes given by her to the boys, these didn't vanish like the spectral scene. Even after coming back to consciousness, the boys still had those clothes anthem and those biscuits they had eaten so happily. Similarly that doctor who had died in the accident, the bandages he tied, his prescription, letter-paper etc. were all real too. How can things given by a ghost be real?'
Someone answered:
'Why can't they be real? Things do materialise from the occult plane into the physical. Swami Vishuddhananda, Pundit Goliath Caviar's guru from Kasha, used to do this frequently. Goliath Caviar has himself written about this. Such things are quite common. At one time in the "Guesthouse", stones began to fall through a door and window into the kitchen that used to be in the veranda in front fore Aurobindo's room. A manservant had got an occultist to
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do this. Then the Mother intervened and stopped it. She put an end to his black magic. This incident is quite well-known.'
Then Dada mentioned:
'This reminds me of an incident from my childhood. There was once a large gathering of sadhus for a meal on the bank of the Ganga in Behrampur. A lot of sadhus had turned up for this meal. Among them was one who could grant you whatever you asked for by stretching his hand into the space above his head.
A boy from Behrampur named Santorum went to see this sadhu.
"What do you want," the sadhu enquired.
"A ripe mango," Santorum replied.
It was wintertime then and not the season for mangoes. The sadhu extended his hand into the empty space above his head and brought down a big ripe mango and gave it to him.
Immediately Santorum sank his teeth into this mango and began sucking it. It was a very sweet tree-ripened mango.
"Let me go and show it to my mother," Santorum thought to himself. And so sucking his mango he headed home.
What astonished him was that as soon as he crossed the. threshold of the house and got inside, the mango vanished into thin air.
We do not have any clue about the many such subtle, spiritual, inner worlds with their different levels, different planes of manifestation.'
While we were talking about all this Dada referred to recent experience of his. It happened some time before he had his last heart-problem.
'It was the 41 of December at about seven in the evening. Was sitting in my room. All of a sudden my eye was attracted to the wall in front of my room. I saw a huge revolving globe. All the countries and continents on the globe emerged from it and began circling around the globe. As if floating on water. Gradually they began circling one by one like in a geometric
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design. I felt as if I was witnessing the unity in diversity of the entire world.
The very next instant I saw before me a huge sand dune, a vast expanse of sand, somewhere by the sea, it seemed. At a distance, there was a single-storied house with a staircase in the front. Someone climbed up that staircase and went and stood on the covered terrace on the first floor.
Over the sands some people appeared, streaming in groups of young and old, boys and girls, men and women, children, a lot of army men too dressed in their battle fatigues, all walking towards this house. Each one of them held the Indian flag. Some people were coming by boat, some were walking, some were running. I kept seeing this for a long time. And with eyes wide awake. And even without my glasses it was all very clear. As at the cinema. And not as in one's sleep or imagination. I was seeing all this clearly before me. I would not have believed this to be possible had I not seen it myself.
The very next moment I see as if I am sitting in my room. The whole room is adorned with gold and pearls and diamonds and all kinds of precious gems. The curtains are like voiles of gold. The atmosphere in the house is very peaceful and pleasant.
Savitri and Vim aura were sitting in my room. I asked them:
"Can you see something?"
"Where, Dada? We can't see anything," they answered.
But I went on seeing everything clearly.
I now saw a lady dressed in white. She looked like a goddess. She came towards me and handed me a box beautifully encrusted with precious gems.
"What's inside?" I asked.
The woman did not utter a word. But I understood from her attitude that she had brought this gift for me.
I said:
"Only if I can use this for the-Mother and Sri Aurobindo's work will I take it."
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She silently and softly bowed her head in agreement. Then she placed that beautiful box in front of the Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's photos above me and bowed to them.
Then she stood on a somewhat raised platform in front, calm, poised, in a posture of unparalleled elegance and dignity, graceful and powerful. She held in her hand the Indian flag fluttering in the breeze. I felt I was seeing Mother India herself. She assured me that whatever might happen India's good was absolutely certain.
I saw some young boys and girls come and sit in front of me, some near my feet on the floor and some beside me. Some remained standing. A few boys came and sat on my left. I proceeded to stroke their backs affectionately but I could not feel their backs. I was just stroking vacant space.
The atmosphere in the room remained luminous, peaceful and filled with joy.
This continued till eight in the evening.
I kept seeing this and wondering at the same time:
What is all this that I can see? With eyes wide open and sitting?
At ten in the evening I saw another scene.
My room did not feel like mine. There was a river flowing at a distance. And its sloping embankments were very high .Beside this river stood a bamboo hut, a hut made of stripped bamboo.
I am lying on a bed in this room as in my own room.
People keep streaming in from the riverside in groups and everyone is carrying a gift of some sort. They are all offering these gifts to me. They are placing them on the floor. And the people keep coming. I do not quite know them but they are all very neatly and beautifully dressed. Their faces are glowing and they all look at me with great respect.
I could recognise only two people, Tinkari-da and Vasudha-ben, who entered my room drawing the curtain on the left side. Tinkari-da looked somewhat old but Vasudha-ben
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was dressed in neat, elegant clothes, her face was glowing and her hair was neatly plaited. She looked simply marvellous.
I then saw a fat, dark-complexioned man come and sit near my head . He too was carrying a gift-box. But he did not hand it to me nor did he say anything. He was weeping, weeping ceaselessly, so I asked him:
"Would you like to say something?"
The man does not answer but goes on weeping.
I asked again:
"What's wrong with you? Will you tell me?"
But the man keeps silent and goes on weeping.
A woman before me stretched her hand to give me some kind of an envelope. I stretched my arm to take it but she immediately withdrew her hand.
Then she stretched her arm out again with the envelope.
Once again just as I was about to take it she withdrew it.
The third time just as I caught the envelope it disappeared in my hand. The woman and that dark man also disappeared.
Then I see very near my bed a European lady standing with her back towards us. I am unable to see her face, just her back. In her hand she is holding a leather noose. There is a European man standing behind. He is looking furiously at the European woman as if he is against her idea. His look is one of anger at the woman. Neither of them, however, says anything.
For a long time both of them stood near my bed. The woman holding a noose in her hand with her back towards me and the man glaring at her.
They remained in this way for a long time.
Time rolled on and it was morning. The morning glow filled the four corners.
I got up and these two people melted away from in front of me like shadows.
I see I am sitting on my bed. Everything I saw was with eyes wide-awake. I felt as if the river at-the distance was Vaitarani. On the other side was the world beyond. I remained on this
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side. That fat, dark man who kept weeping was perhaps the "Man of Sorrow".'
As Dada ended, Ananda-da asked:
'Tell me, Dada, did you know at the time you were having this vision that this was a premonition of your heart-problem? Would you have resisted it in a spiritual way had you known about it?'
Dada replied:
'No, even if I had known I would not have done anything from my side. I leave it to the Mother. Whatever is Her wish, that will be. At all times, in all circumstances, this is my attitude.
However, when I go for an outing or in a car anywhere, I call the Mother and take Her protection, not just over myself but over the others as well.
Once Vishwajit was accompanying us to Cuddalore. There the road is very narrow. Two buses from opposite directions were standing next to each other. What Vishwajit did was rashly cycle between the two buses through the narrow pas sage. Had the two buses started off he would certainly have been crushed between them. So I began calling the Mother and asking for Her protection.
The buses did not move. And Vishwajit managed to get through that narrow passage. I felt relieved.
The two buses started just a second later. Had it happened earlier there would have been a disaster.
In any case, after I saw this vision, I had that problem on the 8th of December.
In the morning a little nagging pain started in my chest. I was quite alert as usual. I did some deep breathing and the pain subsided. The pain did not disappear altogether but it was now subdued.
The pain returned in the afternoon. It just would not go so I thought I should tell them. Otherwise it might be too late.
Hardly had I told Savitri this that everything fell astonishingly into place. All those who were needed came
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together, the doctor, the ambulance, some young men with a stretcher.
Within half an hour I was in the Nursing Home intensive care room.
The doctors checked my heartbeat. They seemed to be quite worried. I could see everything and feel everything. I was fully conscious.
The doctors were around me, Dr Jayaram, Dr Dilip, Dr Salila, Dr Gayatri.
At five o'clock in the evening they noticed on the monitoring machine that there was a blood-clot in my heart. And they dissolved it at once.
At seven in the evening my heartbeat stopped.
The doctors had just three minutes in hand. Whatever could be done had to be done within this time. If the heart remains still for more than three minutes then it becomes very difficult to save the patient.
Dr Salila fitted a machine onto my chest and got busy trying to give some electric shock therapy to the heart. A special gel has to be applied to the chest before giving this electric shock therapy. But they could not find that gel. So they used whatever they could find at hand and the machine was set to try and start the process. But as the machine had not been used for a long time it would not start.
One more attempt was made. Even then the machine did not start.
The heart was not beating during all this time. And the seconds were ticking by. Twenty-five, thirty seconds passed. The heart continued to be still.
Dr Salila and Dr Gayatri concentrated on the Mother in despair and then tried to start the machine as they had done previously. And this time the machine started. I felt the electric shock and a jerk on my chest.
As a result of the impact of that shock the heart started beating again. But I did not feel any pain and there was no fear or doubt in my mind.
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"So this is what they call death," I thought to myself. Dr Salila and Dr Gayatri began administering artificial respiration. This artificial respiration lasted continuously for half an hour.
At eleven at night they found out that the heart was not pumping as much as it normally should. Blood was not reaching all the blood-vessels in the brain. The blood was unable to circulate within the brain and kept returning to the heart. If this condition continued a little longer death would be certain. Medically this is known as pulmonary oedema. This continued for quite some time. Gradually I became drowsy. Perhaps I was given an injection. And then I was not conscious anymore.
I was told later that the heart began beating fully after a short while and the blood-flow into the brain became normal again.
Someone seems to have asked then:
"Doctor, what do you think?"
The doctors answered:
"We've done whatever we had to. Now it is between the Mother and Pranab."
Three weeks after this I came back from the Nursing Home.
The Mother had told me once:
"The heart never stops beating, it never takes any rest. If for some reason it stops once and then it resumes beating again it means the heart has got a new life. Then it can work harder and more powerfully."
I too think the same. I have received a new heart and a new life after this illness.
The Mother once told me:
"There are five ways of overcoming the fear of death. These five ways can be attained all together or one after the other. In the end all of them combine together and bring success."
First, the Mother said, we have to overcome the fear of death. This fear is embedded in our subconscious from our very birth. Everything will one day disappear, everything will vanish into an unknown, unconscious emptiness. Such is this
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fear. This fear has to be eliminated first with the help of the reason. We have to understand that life is an uninterrupted flow and that this flow never ends.
The second way: deep within our being there is a radiant light and this light is unwavering and steady. We have to unite with this immortal, indestructible light and radiance.
The third way is faith in the Divine and total surrender to Him.
The fourth way is to become a brave warrior. Through inner knowledge we have to know that death is nothing. It is nothing but a bad habit of the unconscious, material life. This habit has been encrusted into our mind, age after age, through various religious thought and collective attitudes. Different thoughts, sentiments and movements enter our being through the mind and take root in the depths from the surrounding collective or family environment. That is why like a true warrior we have to liberate ourselves fully from all this. We have to build a character that can bear all kinds of ordeals and is patient and firm. We have to understand that this is a battle. Like the fully awake, alert soldier who fights from his trench, our conscious ness too must battle tirelessly.
And the fifth way, according to the Mother, is to be rightly initiated after having acquired the complete knowledge of all the ways in order to penetrate the cave of death and to return from there alive, back into normal life and work and act effectively. This is not given to all. Only those who are trained and initiated in a special way are capable of this. I have told you about this only by way of information.
One person asked:
'Before your illness, Dada, the vision you had of Mother India, what did that tell you about India?'
Dada answered:
'India will continue to progress and improve. Whatever the Mother has said about India will come true. There is no other way. .
The Mother once wrote to me:
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(India must rise to the height of her mission and proclaim the Truth to the world.)
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(The effort to increase and enlighten the consciousness is the best way to serve the country.)
In 1969 when the political crisis in the country took place, the Mother offered some advice to Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister. The Mother gave me a copy of that as well. With the hope that they are pertinent I share these with you today:
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(Let India work for the future and take the lead. Thus she will recover her true place in the world.)
(Since long it was the habit to govern through division and opposition.
The time has come to govern through union, mutual understanding and collaboration.)
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(To find a collaborator, the value of the man is more important than the party to which he belongs.
The greatness of a country does not depend on the victory of a party, but on the union of all parties.)
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Once, the Mother wanted to give me a map of India.
I asked Her:
"Is this the map of undivided India?"
"No, this is a map of present-day India," the Mother replied.
"Let it be, Mother," I told Her. "I do not want it then. When you have a map of the undivided India then give me one."
The Mother then wrote a message to me:
(To Pranab
Never forget that you are not alone. The Divine is with you helping and guiding you. He is the companion who never fails, the friend whose love comforts and strengthens.)
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In 1947 when India attained Her independence the Mother gave a massage:
(To my dearest child, to my friend who is so close, with all my love.)'
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Tejbabu has come from Orissa. He has come to meet Dada. This is his first meeting with Dada after the devastating cyclone in Orissa. Dada had naturally made enquiries about his well-being earlier.
'We must have tried calling you at least ten times on that day to have your news.'
Tejbabu laughed.
'I was quite safe. There were, however, some problems with food, a little rice, a negligible quantity of some vegetable and dal (lentils). I would look at the dal and vegetable, dip my finger in them to pick up a little and eat the plain rice with water.'
Dada handed over to Tejbabu a comment that he had written on 18th November in English about the cyclone in Orissa. Here is the text of that comment:
What I felt after the "Super cyclone" hit the Orissa
coast on 29.10.99
The Mother had poured Her infinite Love, Grace and Compassion on Orissa and its people in response to their aspiration for the Life Divine.
Steadily and gradually the people of Orissa started awakening and opening to the Mother's Light and their inner and outer activities turned towards an Integral progress and Integral transformation.
A good progress was made and slowly the work started growing in various fields of human activities.
But there were many defects and shortcomings in the process and the Mother wanted a very fast progress. So She unleashed Her "Mahakali" aspect and allowed Nature to smite a terrible and crushing blow on Orissa and its people in order to break their pettiness, selfishness and all other weaknesses that were coming in the way of their progress.
Now the whole of Orissa is becoming conscious about its shortcomings and seeing the loving, kind and compassionate
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hands of the Mother that had smitten them, a prayer rises from them:
O Mother! Lead us from darkness to light, unconscious ness to consciousness, weakness to strength, and make us your perfect instruments in your work of Integral transformation so that we are ready for the advent of the Superman, who is coming to our rescue.
Let Thy Will be done.
Pranab
18.11.99
After reading Dada's comment Tejbabu reacted enthusiastically:
'It's really marvellous, Dada. It is the absolute truth, pure and straight.'
After a few more words Tejbabu looked at someone in a dramatic sort of way and said:
'There, my greetings to you, sir. You write books, don't you? Let me ask you something. Answer honestly and in one word. Say yes or no.'
Everyone looked at Tejbabu a little taken aback. Dada's eyes were also on him.
The gentleman was a little unsettled but he said:
'Go ahead, tell me what you wish to ask.'
Like a lawyer conducting a trial, Tejbabu raised his finger and asked:
'The Mother is Divine. Do you believe this? Say yes or no.
'Yes, I do.'
'Do you accept the Mother's words as the words of the Divine?'
'Do you accept them totally?'
'Yes, of course.'
Then Tejbabu opened I Remember and began reading.
'Listen, this is what the Mother has written in Her own hand on Dada's birthday on 18.10.49:
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You are our joy of everyday
Our hope of to-day
Our victory of to-morrow.
And she ends it with this:
Let this wine of immortality
be the wine of your complete victory.'
Tejbabu opened another page and continued reading:
'This morning I saw your back when you were walking away from the balcony. It was very interesting. Your back and your steps were full of decision and resolution. I was seeing somebody going straight to his purpose, filled with the strength to conquer all obstacles, the power of victory.
TheMotherwrotethison24.11.58.
Listen to this. The Mother writes:
You lead us by the surest and fastest path towards the integral Transformation.’
Tejbabu continued:
'Mind the words, the Mother is saying "In the integral Trans formation" Dada is being asked to give "the surest and fastest" leadership.
The Mother says again:
I did not see in thee the man, but the human being cap able of supramentalisation, the aspiration for physical perfection, the effort towards total transformation, the will to divinise the body and a natural and spontaneous capacity to do so...'
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Tejbabu observed:
'Read and see what the Mother is saying here:
To thee whom my love selected when the time had come to start my work on the most material level.’
Tejbabu was greatly moved and asked:
'All this is in the Mother's own Hand, her Divine Testament. Then why is it that we do not want to accept it, we do not believe in it? Why do we doubt, then?'
When Tejbabu was asking these questions, he was not referring to an individual but talking to everyone:
'Do you agree or you don't? Do we believe in it or we don't?'
Then the person he had questioned said:
'Tejbabu, it isn't just a question of accepting or not accept ing, believing or not believing. It is a question of divine Grace. The one who receives this divine Grace can alone believe and accept totally in his mind and being and in all the parts of the being. Why, even Arjuna who was an unmistakable part of God, his loved friend, when he wished to see the divine form of Sri Krishna, Sri Krishna replied: Na tu mam shakyashey drishtum anena eva swachakshushya. You will not be able to see my real form with your human eyes.
Then the Lord bestowed His Grace on Arjuna: Divyam dadami tey chakshu pashyamey yogamaishwaram. I grant you divine eyes so that you can see my divine form. (Gita 11.8)
Without this divine Grace even if He were to reveal Him self people would not believe, they would refuse to acknowledge. Even if the resplendent Divine were to be standing before our very eyes in person people would not accept it.
Duryodhan did see Sri Krishna's cosmic form in the assembly of Kauravas. But even after seeing Him with his own eyes he refused to accept Him. Contemptuously he dismissed it as merely illusion or magic.
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Moreover, just before the battle of Kurukshetra, Dhritarashtra, Sanjay and all the rest requested and implored him to accept Sri Krishna and take refuge in His Grace. Disaster would follow if he didn't.
But like one who is morally degenerate Duryodhana retorted:
"No, I will not accept Him. Even if I know Sri Krishna to be God Himself, even if He can create or destroy in a flash the universe, I will still refuse to accept Him."
Sorrowfully Gandhari and Dhritrashtra asked:
"Why, dear son, but why?"
"Why is He then the Panda vas' and Arjuna's friend?" he replied.
So you can imagine how pride and arrogance and ignorance can veil the truth.
Krishna's Grace was on Arjuna at that time. That's why after getting the vision of the cosmic form he exclaimed:
Nashto mohah smritirlabdha tvatprasadanmayachyut. Sthitosmi gatasandehah karishye vachanam tava. By Your Grace all my doubts and attachments have vanished and I have recovered my memory. I seek refuge in You. I shall obey Your commands. (Gita 18.73)
You know, Tejbabu, in order to know the Divine you need the Grace of the Divine. He who chooses the Divine has been chosen by Him. Just knowledge and erudition, why, not even severe tapasya (askesis) can grant you this. Hasn't Sri Aurobindo clearly said in Savitri:
God shall grow up while the wise men talk and sleep.
With the arrogance of knowledge and of the intellect we can only talk and sleep. And during that time beyond the ignorant sight of people God shall grow up and manifest Himself.'
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Someone asked Dada the other day:
'Why do tantriks do their tapasya in the total solitude of cremation grounds on the night of the new moon?'
The very essence of Tantra is that one must not run away from the fearful and the perilous but face up to them and fight them. One must overcome them fearlessly and turn difficulty into opportunity.
The Mother and Sri Aurobindo's yoga is the same. We have to face difficulties, fear and the undesirable. We must not shy away but stand up to these and overcome them, transform them. This is not a path for the weak and the cowardly. Nayamatma balaheenena labhya. There are many who fail, who get defeated.
In the outside world there is a need for discipline and control over many things in ordinary life: the social, collective control, the legal control, mental and ethical do's and don'ts. Thanks to this the various temperaments of human nature, the different inner urges and movements are kept in check. Life thus goes on undisturbed with a superficial calm and order.
But for us here, especially in this Ashram, the ordinary controls and rules and restrictions were removed. Life thus got an unhindered, free cadence. The Mother always repeated that without absolute freedom Her work could not be possible. When there are no outer rules or laws or control, what happens is first there is a sense of unlimited liberation but along with it all the inner physical, vital, mental suppressed desires and feelings and obscurities and passions come out into the open. There is no more any suppression of any kind, you see. And everything in our nature needs to be purified and transformed. There are many who can't keep steady. Good people often end up doing things here that they would not have done outside had they lived there. Many lose their mental balance.
I remember, Champaklal once told me that living in the Ashram was living in a state of uncertainty:
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"I myself, Champaklal, do not know what I will do tomorrow or what will happen to me."
But if we will it from within then Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's Force and Consciousness will protect us till the end and assist us to overcome all obstacles and difficulties. It is like rowing a boat in the dark during a cyclone.'
Dada is in a very happy, jovial mood today, talking, laughing and making everybody laugh. Just then Jog arrives from the Sports Ground and, as is his wont, bows to him at the door.
'How are you?' Dada enquires.
'I have gone a little deaf, Dada.'
'In which ear?'
The right one, Dada.'
'Did any water get in? You didn't try to clean your ear with something, did you?'
'No, Dada, nothing of the sort but there is a buzzing sound in the ear.'
'Be very careful. Never poke anything into the ear. Don't they say, "don't put anything into your ear smaller than your elbow"?'
As soon as Jog left a girl arrived. She used to study at the Ashram. After finishing her studies she now lives in Madras with her husband.
'So how are things with you? Are you fine?' Dada asked with a smile.
'I'm fine, Dada.'
Dada looked at her for a while and then remarked laughingly:
'So you got married in a flash? Without any thought or worry, you got married in just two days.'
The girl shyly lowered her head and smiled.
Dada went on :
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'Marriage is like gambling. Like buying a lottery ticket. Lakhs of people buy a ticket but only two or three win a prize among them. The others lose all their money. There is a story that in former times the creator had created husband and wife in one body. Every one was very happy. Everyone was so happy that even the gods could not equal human happiness. So one day the Creator got a little jealous. He then separated man and woman from one body. So they remained half each. From then on every man and woman has been looking for the other half during their life. Nobody is able to find the other half that corresponds and so each one is unhappy. If the corresponding other half is found then there is happiness.
When I came to the Ashram for the first time in 1942, Chimanbhai had already settled here. He was married and his wife and mother lived in his hometown. The mother cried so much for her son that she became blind and his wife's health deteriorated out of sorrow.
One day Chimanbhai while telling me about his inner anguish said:
"Pranab, if ever you come to the Ashram then never get married."
The one who walks on the spiritual path doesn't know what his fate will be, how his life will unfold. How can one take the responsibility of another person's life? It is very painful both for oneself and for the person one marries.
Then when I came back to settle in the Ashram, after a long time I told Chimanbhai:
"Chimanbhai, do you remember, you had told me that if I wished to come to the Ashram I should not get married. Well, I didn't get married."
Chimanbhai heard me and then asked:
"Do you have any regrets?"'
Everyone laughed hearing Dada say this.
Then Dada recited an amusing folk-rhyme about a chacha (an uncle) who had just got married. He was thrilled in the beginning as he sang with joy:
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'Tairey nairey tairey na
Roimu ghorey, bairey na .
Shokal shondhya dupurta
Khaibo daibo pohatta. (...)
Tairey nairey tairey na
My home I love, the world ha! ha!
Morning, evening, afternoon
I'll make merry till I swoon!
A few days later the chacha was singing a different tune:
Aday ar kanchkolar milon
Modeyr shamistritey
Shokal theykeyi thukthak
Chhutor rajmistritey.
Tairey nairey tairey na-
Ar to biha korbo na.
Ginger, raw plantain don't mix
Husband, wife in a lousy fix
The squabble starts from break of day
Like mason and carpenter bray
Tairey nairey. Good Heavens, no!
Marriage I'll till death forego!'
Everyone was enjoying this amusing rhyme when Jyoti-di from Corner House turned up. She told Dada :
'My daughter is coming with her children from Calcutta. I'm sending a car to the station. But no one knows them nor do they know anyone from here.'
'Only eleven people,' Dada observed. 'A football team! And you're the referee? The driver will stand with the nameplate at the station. But, it's true I'm told that the station has become very big now. If for some reason they cannot find each other then there will be a real problem.'
So Jyoti-di asked:
'Shall I go, then, Dada? I will be able to locate them.'
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'Okay, go then.'
'Then Chandranath teased Jyoti-di by saying:
'Jyoti-di, do one thing. Wear a pair of trousers and a shirt with a cap on the head. You'll look very young and smart. Your grandchildren will be stunned to see you.'
'Let me tell you a story, then,' Dada said. 'A boy found a very good job in America. He had to go to America for two years for special training. But there was a condition. He could not keep any link with his family during this period. Nobody was to know anything about him during these two years, where he was or what he was doing. On his return home from the training after two years he could re-establish links with his family.
So the boy prepared to leave for America. His parents came to see him off at the airport. The boy told his parents:
"Two years from now when I return please come to fetch me at the airport."
And so the boy left and the parents returned back home.
What happened in the meantime was that a miracle-drug was invented. This drug could reduce your age by half.
After two years had gone by the son returned home. At the airport he started looking for his parents.
"Where are they? Have they not come?"
He scoured the whole place looking for them.
Just then a youngish-looking lady came towards him. She was holding a little boy in her arms and feeding him with a milk-bottle. The lady stopped in front of him with her baby and said:
"So sonny, you're back!"
The young man was a little surprised and asked:
"Excuse me but who are you?"
"What's happened to you? Can't you recognise me? I'm your mother, dear."
"My mother? What are you saying? My mother is much older. How can you be my mother?"
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"But I am your mother, son. A new drug has come out. Thanks to this drug I've lost half my years."
"Is that so? But father? Where is he? Hasn't he come?"
"This little boy in my arms is your father," replied the lady showing the little boy. "In his old age he was longing to become a little boy. And so without telling me he took three or four doses of that drug. And that's why he has become a baby!"
The baby-boy took the feeding bottle out and softly murmured:
"Yes, dear, it's true."'
Everyone had a good laugh listening to Dada's story. Jyotidi too could not help laughing and covered her mouth with her sari.
We were talking about the beneficial qualities of trees and plants. The leaves of neem are extremely valuable. The Mother called the neem-flower Spiritual Atmosphere.
Gangaram-da recounted:
'I once went very far in a jeep to get some good cactus plants. I began having a terrible headache because of the sun and the heat. I came back and told the Mother about it at the Playground:
"Mother, I've got a terrible headache because of roaming in the sun."
The Mother told me:
"Go and get some neem-leaves along with the branch."
There used to be a neem-tree in the Playground then. So I went and got a branch of neem-leaves and gave it to the Mother.
She Said:
"At home wash these leaves well and eat them."
I told myself that it would not be before eight or half past eight that I would get back home so I cleaned the leaves with
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good water in the Playground itself and chewed them up. Surprisingly, within a short time my headache disappeared. I went and informed the Mother:
"Mother, my headache's gone with those neem-leaves."
The Mother laughed:
"You have already eaten them!"'
'Yes, the neem-tree has got a lot of positive qualities,' Dada added. 'There was a kaviraj (ayurvedic doctor) who was a very good physician. However, his young son did not believe in all these herbs and roots.
So the kaviraj, in order to educate his son, gave him a cloth-bundle and told him:
"Go to this distant village and deliver this to one so-and so. You'll have to walk quite some distance. Do one thing:
wherever you find a tamarind-tree, rest a little under its shade. But never stop under the shade of any other tree except the tamarind. On your return, sit down and rest in the shade of a neem-tree. Don't rest under the shade of any other tree except the neem."
So the young boy set off in the sun for this village. Wherever he spotted a tamarind-tree he would sit and rest under its shade. And then resume his walk.
It was almost the end of the afternoon. When he reached the village, the boy was burning with fever. But, nevertheless, he decided to return home.
On his return wherever he spotted a neem-tree he would sit down and rest a little under its shade. And then set off again. By evening he was back home. And his fever also had disappeared.
And in this way the young boy could understand through personal experience the truth of what his father used to tell him. There is fire in the shade of a tamarind-tree and many positive qualities in the shade of a neem-tree.'
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Dada was telling us about Bula-da, the head of the electrical department of the Ashram:
'He was a man of considerable authority and rather severe. There was not the slightest scope for any modification in his organisation.
At one time the electric bills of the Ashram were turning out to be very high. Bula-da instructed that low-power bulbs should be used in all the houses so that the electric-metre did not run too much. And so in accordance with his instructions a dim bulb burnt in every house. He would make rounds to check.
One day he saw a very powerful light burning in Venkatesh's room. Bula-da was furious with Venkatesh.
"What is this? When everyone is using a low-power bulb, why are you using a high-power one? This cannot be tolerated. Switch off your light at once!" Someone asked Bula-da why he was getting so angry.
"Shouldn't I," replied Bula-da, "just imagine when Sri Aurobindo is in darkness, why should Venkatesh light such a bright bulb?"
He kept repeating "when Sri Aurobindo is in darkness" to drive home his point.
Venkatesh had no other option but to quickly replace the high-power bulb with a low-power one.
Such was Bula-da's authority, then. Everyone used to respect him a lot.
In his work, Bula-da was extremely sincere. If anyone came to inform him about the slightest inconvenience he would immediately go and set the problem right. Whether the department was closed or the workers of the department had all gone, if someone turned up to complain about any electrical problem in his house, Bula-da would set off with a ladder on his shoulder.'
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A non-Bengali gentleman came to see Dada and bowed respectfully to him before introducing himself. In the end he implored:
'I want to put my son in the school. Will you kindly help?'
'I'm not on any committee of the school. For admission to the school, the registrar, Manoj Dasgupta, has a council of twelve advisers. It is they who decide about admissions. I am responsible only for physical culture: dand (push-throughs), baithak (squats), wrestling, marching, body building, etc. I have absolutely no role to play in admissions.'
In order not to disappoint the gentleman, Dada recited an amusing rhyme:
'Chahtey ho jab tagda haath
Tab chala aao hamara saath .
Kusti, baithak, dand lagao,
Mugdar, bhala, teer chalao.
Mardka bhushan hai vyayam.'
If what you wish is a robust arm,
Then come and walk with me in calm;
Squat and dip and grapple strong,
With mace and lance and bow work Long-
Man's best ornament is exercise.
Today is Praveen's birthday. The Corner House (the students' canteen) is serving special food today. Everyone is fond of Praveen. 'It is our captain's birthday,' they say. Everyone is giving a hand in the Corner House work today.
Someone remarked:
'Dada, Praveen is a tireless, silent worker. He does everything himself. He puts in a lot of effort. One moment he is serving milk at the counter, the next he is sweeping
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and mopping the floor. He will even clean the drains. Wherever there is a shortage of workers, Praveen is there.'
Dada has written a song in English for Praveen's birthday and given it a tune himself. He wants everyone to hear this song. This time too in Dada's composition the tune came first and then came the lyrics. Here is the song:
A Birthday Song
Happy Day, Happy Day,
Happy Birthday,
Round and round
With a bound
It must come
What may!
Today is the Birthday of
Praveen dear,
We have come to greet him from
Far and near;
May he progress well
On the Sunlit Path,
May he get his full
In the Golden Light bath.
All good things must
Come on his way.
Our dear Praveen-bhai,
Hero of the Day!
3.4.2000
Gopal from the Corner House is reading out to Dada from the Mother's Notes on the Way. In the May of 1962, the Mother fell very ill. Her condition was very serious. The
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Mother says that She has left the protection of Her physical body to one person:
I entrusted it to the person I walk with. In other words, it is not my responsibility: the other person has to make sure it does not fall...
As soon as Dada heard this he exclaimed:
'But that's me. The Mother is speaking about me.'
Someone observed:
'Yes, we all know that, Dada. The Mother would always ask you to protect Her body, especially when she entered a state of meditation or trance. You would protect the Mother's body in an occult way.'
'The Mother once thought that She would leave Her body,' Dada told us. 'She asked me to go and call Nolini.
"I would like to say something before leaving my body," She informed me.
Dr Prabhat Sanyal motioned to me to indicate that the Mother's body was in good health and everything was fine with Her. There was nothing to worry or get upset about.
However, I went and called Nolini-da.
The Mother started telling Nolini-da things which he began noting faithfully. When, after he had finished writing, the Mother wished to hear what had been noted down, Nolinida was unable to read his own handwriting.
From then on it was arranged to tape the Mother's words. The Mother wanted Satprem to participate in some specific work and so the responsibility for taping was placed on him after this.'
In the course of the conversation Dada mentioned that the Mother's sight and hearing were very sharp.
'Noise coming from faraway would seem to the Mother to be coming from very close. What other people could not see the Mother could and She would exclaim: "Surprising, people can't see it!"
Once on a Kalipuja-day there were some very loud crackers being burst at quite a distance.
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The Mother exclaimed:
"Pranab, what is this you are doing inside the room? '.You're making so much noise that I cannot do anything!"
"Mother, I am not making any noise in the room. They are bursting crackers outside. That is what you can hear."
The Mother said nothing after that.'
A visitor from America has come. He is somewhat short and stocky. He showed photographs of his children and told us about their jobs. They all held important posts in their work. Dada looked at the photographs and laughed.
'Your children are all quite tall and handsome. They are much taller than you are. You know what the Mother used to say jokingly:
"If sons are taller than the father, then sons can put plates on their father's head and eat their breakfast!"'
The visitor couldn't help laughing at the Mother's humour. And Dada laughed too.
Dada told us:
'Maharaja Jogindranarayan Rao of Lalgola in Berhampore was my great-grandfather's friend. He would visit our house. He once came on a visit and stayed for about ten days. The Maharaja had strange eating habits: one plate full of thick rotis and a big bell-metal bowl of melted ghee. He would dip the roti in the bowl of ghee and eat. That was all he ate.
The Maharaja used to help the country's revolutionary movement by giving money which would be sent to my grandfather in our house. This is how the revolutionary group collected money.
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It was said that the Maharaja's ancestors were very powerful pirates and robbers. When they had made a lot of money from the robberies they became zamindars and settled down. In those days a lot of kings in East and West Bengal were descended from robbers.
The kings of Lalgola originally came from Bihar^and their title was Rao. But they became Bengali and from Rao they became Ray.
The 'Edward Recreation Club' of Berhampore was called 'Maharaja Jogindranath Club' and plays used to be staged there.
An amusing incident once took place there. Motakaka and his friends were playing at this club. The play was about Indian revolutionaries and Motakaka was playing the role of the leader of the revolutionaries.
There is a scene in the play where the police arrest some revolutionaries and take them away. Suddenly the leader of the revolutionaries appears and pats the captive revolutionaries on their backs to congratulate them.
So Motakaka, who was playing the part of the leader, began, by mistake, back-slapping the police instead of the revolutionaries. The spectators were a little confused at first but when they realised that Motakaka had made a mistake they all burst into laughter.'
Dada reminisced one day:
'Before coming over to settle in the Ashram, Motakaka had tried all sorts of ideas for doing business. And so one after the other he would start ventures and one after the other they would all fail. And in this way a lot of our houses were sold away in trying to save these businesses. For each business that Motakaka started a house was sold away. The losses were continuous and so were the borrowings. In the end he was declared insolvent. After that he "came away to the Ashram.
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Motakaka had a very inventive mind and an enthusiasm to match. But be that as it may, the Divine had chosen for him a life of sadhana at the Ashram and so he did not achieve any success in the life outside. Whatever he took up failed. We can see this sort of divine lila in some people's lives. Even after having everything one meets but failure in the outside life. This happens because the Divine has reserved for him success in the inner spiritual life. He on whom the Divine bestows I Grace, his outer life He devastates. There is a saying in the Bible: "He that loseth life shall find life." The Mother used to sometimes say:
"Don't ask for my Grace. My Grace is fire. It will burn up everything."
That's why one day I told the Mother:
"Mother, it is difficult to understand how you pull different people in different ways. You are very clever."
The Mother became angry and remarked:
"No, it is not cleverness, it is Divine wisdom."
In another context the Mother once told me:
"You know, Pranab, how stupid I am? I make a payment once when I order something and when the ordered thing has been supplied to the department I pay for it a second time."
I replied:
"Mother, this too is your Divine wisdom. You know that there is theft, there is embezzlement and yet you do not see You keep pretending that you do not see or know. In fact to catch the theft is not your work. Your work is to change the thief."
Dada was told that Usha had lung-cancer. He observed
'Usha has always led a very pure, sattwic, ashram life. She would never eat anything from outside. She has led a very orderly, clean life. There was no irregularity anywhere. When I started the physical culture activities after forming the
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groups, Usha was one of the girls of the first batch. She then became a captain. Among the many women-captains, Usha was one of them.
This is a deadly disease. It is difficult to predict when or where it will strike. And it has become very widespread now.
Then Dada remained silent for some time as if in deep thought before remarking:
'In fact the real root of this disease is man's psychological pressure, stress, tension, anxiety and depression. These days almost everybody suffers from depression, anxiety, stress and tension. Little by little it eats you up. When this reaches a point where it becomes unbearable, this deadly disease breaks out. To be able to break free from this disease one must be free from all psychological stress. One needs to bring down peace and delight into the body. While doing physical exercise one must keep this in mind. One must consciously feel this peace and delight in the body while taking part in physical culture. This is the great difference between physical culture elsewhere and here. One must exercise with this feeling of Sachchidananda in every part of our body. It is no use to exercise in a mechanical way without turning our consciousness to this.
A porter keeps lifting weights all day but his muscles do not develop all that much. His body does not develop because his attention is all the time on the load that he is carrying and not on his body. If you take up body-building in a regular way keeping this spirit of invocation, then within a few days you will see how the body develops. The body becomes graceful and beautiful.
Dr Datta remarked to me yesterday that while doing physical exercise the consciousness does not remain focussed on this all the time and we begin exercising mechanically.'
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Dada was saying, 'Our children are taken by bus for picnics. They love to go to Gingee and sing happily all the way in the bus. Then they climb the hills there. No matter how often they go to Gingee, they never tire of the place. That is how the songs "Gingee Hills" and "A Picnic Song" have been composed. Like with other songs, the tune came first and then came the lyrics.'
Here are the two songs:
GINGEE HILLS
Gingee hills are calling us,
For a picnic trip.
Bus, car, motor-cycle,
or take a jeep.
Climbing is a fun,
Take it on the run.
Up, up, up we go,
To see the rising sun.
We are free to-day,
Cheerful and gay.
Hop, hop, hop we go,
In our simple play.
Golden light around,
Fresh air abound,
High, high, high we go,
To sing our joy profound...
9.6.97
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A PICNIC SONG
Picnic, Picnic,
Come quick, come quick,
Picnic we shall go;
I go, you go,
He goes, she goes,
All would like to go.
Come Ho ! Come Ho !
At five we start,
All dressed and smart,
Never we be late;
With helping hand,
Our merry band,
All in a happy state.
We climb the mountain,
Bathe in fountain,
See many wonder-things,
Many adventure,
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Fun and laughter,
Whatever fortune brings.
The food we eat,
All clean and neat,
Beautiful in taste;
Sweet and sour,
Packed with power,
Slowly with haste.
When day is done,
We end our fun,
Thanking Mother Divine;
Our spirit is high,
Next to the sky,
All is well and fine.
25.3.92 pranab
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TO ACTION
On to duty,
To our work,
May we put our Heart and Soul !
To build anew,
Our good, old world,
We must play our Heroic Role. (1)
There is nothing as
Big or small,
When we take up some work;
Our sincere efforts,
And perfect spirit,
Make of it a dazzling spark.(2)
When we work,
We give and give,
But never look for what we get;
Love for work,
That makes us act,
And in that way our life is set. (3)
That work is our
Body's prayer,
We must always keep in mind;
A work done well,
Is sure to bring
A supreme joy, we shall nowhere find.(4)
pranab
24.11.2000
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Dada remarked:
'After a long time on Praveen's birthday I went out for a drive. I thought to myself that I had not passed in front of the Ashram for a long time. After 19921 had not gone to that side so I thought that I would go past the Ashram.
I saw in front of the Ashram the same religious atmosphere that exists in front of a temple: a crowd of religious pilgrims, shoe-racks, etc. A totally religious atmosphere. The silent, spiritual atmosphere of former times was no longer there.'
Then Dada remained silent for a while after which he added:
'People cannot hold on to the spiritual, probably they do not want to. They want this very religious atmosphere; a fixed, routine, religious path is what they prefer. Perhaps man is not yet fully ready to understand and follow the spiritual path beyond the religious.'
'In 1945,' Dada said, 'I set up the physical culture groups with some very simple equipment, a set of parallel-bars and a pair of "dun-kath" (dipping bars) which are still there in the Playground.
It was our first demonstration in the Playground. The Mother had not started coming to the Playground then. So She got a description of it from me. One of the items in the demonstration was the "pyramid". The Mother could not quite understand this. We did not have the photo- graphic arrangements then as we do today. So I asked our artist Jayantilal-da to make some drawings of the "pyramid" demonstration. He made the drawings which I showed to the Mother. She was delighted. We still have those drawings of Jayantilal-da's.
The following year the Mother came to the Playground to watch the demonstration. She was very pleased with it and She told me:
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The newly constructed gymnasium of the physical Education Department
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"Buy whatever equipment you need."
So through Biren-da, I got from Madras a vaulting-box, a vaulting-horse, wall-pulley machines, a punching ball and punching-board, and so on. And with these I started organising physical culture in a more satisfactory manner.
From then on the Mother used to come to the Playground from time to time. She would also play table-tennis in 'Nanteuil'.
When the tennis court was ready in 1948 the Mother I started playing tennis everyday. After Her game She would come to the Playground. By the time She got back to the Ashram it would be ten or half-past ten. She would then have interviews with some people. This took a long time.
Then Sri Aurobindo was served dinner which was followed by a collective meditation.
After this the Mother and I would sit down to have dinner. By the time we finished it was half-past one or two. After dinner, at about .two o'clock the Mother would have some time to Herself. She taught me occultism then, how to go out of the body in a conscious way crossing various planes and types of consciousness of life. She would teach me about the experiences and activities in those planes of being. All this training took a lot of effort. There was, in the first place, the whole day's work and effort and on top of that all this work of concentration until so late at night. I used to get very tired and feel sleepy. After a few days I told the Mother:
"Mother, what will I do by learning all this? You are there. Whenever I need to know or do anything I will tell you. You do it for me. Wouldn't that be all right?"
The Mother replied:
"Yes, that too is possible. Whenever anything is needed to be done you let me know and I will do it."
After all this the Mother would sometimes give me a big glass of cold milk mixed with honey.
After I had finished drinking the milk the Mother accompanied me downstairs and bid me 'aurevoir' at the Rosary
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gate near Abhaysingh's room. Then She would return to Her room and I came back home.
Towards the later part the Mother could not come down. She would come till the staircase door to bid me farewell. And then later still She would bid me 'aurevoir' from Her room itself.
The Mother had got separate keys made for me, one for the door by the staircase near Nirod-da's room, one for the first- floor door in the corridor. She also got a key made for me of Her room so that I could go to Her whenever I needed to. I have kept those keys given to me by the Mother.
Returning home late at night I would exercise, have a bath, finish the office-work and go back to the Mother.
This was my daily programme. Sometimes, necessarily, there would be some changes in this programme. The Mother would Herself write down the programme of the day. I still have those slips of paper with the Mother's handwritten programme.
The interesting thing was that ordinarily the Mother would sit down for dinner at one or half-past one but when She had written down the programme for the day, She would strictly respect the schedule.
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Between 1948 and 1958, for ten years, I played tennis with the Mother every evening. We did not miss a single day.
Once my leg was hurt and I also had a little fever. With that fever and the limp I played tennis with the Mother. I did not even let Her know of it.
One day somehow the Mother came to know that I had fever and said:
"We won't play tennis for two days. Let your fever go. We'll take it up afterwards. Instead one day let me go to your house in the evening and make you some hot cocoa. I could go and we could chat a little in the evening."
We used to stay in the house where Mona's family stays today.
"Mother, please don't do that," I answered. "If you go to my house in the evening, prepare cocoa for me, sit and chat, then people will get jealous. Please don't do that, I beg you."
She listened and then, looking at me, said:
"You are a good fellow, you know."
So I played tennis with the Mother continuously for ten years. Then when the Mother left playing tennis I too stopped. My tennis rackets used to be kept with the Mother. One day the Mother wrote to me to ask:
"Is there anybody to whom you would like to give one of your old rackets? (I am keeping your first one 'en souvenir*)."
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I remember an incident of those days. Perhaps I have already told you about it. The Mother sent Amrita-da with a chit. The Mother had a feeling that some danger could befall me and She wanted to caution me with this note sent with Amrita-da. Amrita-da looked for me everywhere and finally handed me this note in the evening.'
(Mon aimé [my loved one], there is a very violent and dangerous attack upon you. For my sake and the sake of the work, be very careful and take great care of yourself.
My love never leaves you.)
A gentleman from Biren-da's club in Calcutta, where Dada used to practise body-building at one time, has come to meet him along with his wife. Both have now become quite old.
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They were friends from Dada's club-days in his youth and so he asked them to come and sit. He began chatting with the gentleman happily.
'When he had come to the Ashram for the first time and came to see me, I could not recognise him. He walked in and introduced himself:
"I am Probir."
"Probir? I'm sorry but I can't place you." I thought for a while. Then he told me his childhood-name. "I am Shuntko."
"Ah! you are Shuntko! Tell me that. Now I have recognised you."
Nobody can forget a name from childhood. One may not recognise the person by his proper name. The nickname reminds you at once of the person.
Our Gopal Bhattacharya from 'Insurance' had his house in Calcutta near our club. When Gopal came here and introduced himself I just could not recognise him. Then finally he said:
"The 'Dakatginni' of your area is my aunt."
At once I knew who he was.
They had a mango-tree that gave sweet-and-sour mangoes. Naturally with such a tree around kids are bound to hover about it. So in the afternoons we used to try and pluck man- goes from this tree by chucking stones. And Gopal Bhattacharya's aunt used to chase us away with a stick:
"Who is that under the mango-tree? Just you wait! I'll teach you a lesson!"
"Gosh! the 'Dakatginni' (the dacoit-woman) is coming. Let's run!"
And we would flee.
For this reason the name "Dakatginni" has stuck to my mind. Although Gopal Bhattacharya introduced himself I could not recognise him but then as soon as he mentioned "Dakatginni" being his aunt I knew who he was.'
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Tejbabu recounted an amusing story:
'A gentleman used to worry a lot about his son's future. The son was growing up. What will he be when he grows up? Will he turn out fine or will he be an utter failure? All these thoughts preoccupied him. What if he turns out to be a drunkard or a brigand? He might become avid for money and a miser. Of course he could also turn out to be a decent, pious man. Who can say? And he went on worrying in this way.
One day he thought:
"All right, let me test him. Let me see what his intentions are."
So one day, on a table, he placed a bottle of alcohol, a wad of hundred rupee notes, a pistol and a copy of the Bible. He placed them in the room in such a way that the boy would see them immediately on entering. And he hid himself to spy on the boy. From what he picked up he would know about the boy's future.
He saw the boy enter the room and look around to see if anyone was there. Then he sat down comfortably, picked up the bottle of alcohol and guzzled it up.
The gentleman was shocked and exclaimed:
"Oh God! Does this mean the boy will end up a drunkard?"
Then the boy took the wad of money and stashed it into one pocket. Then he took the pistol and put it in another pocket.
The gentleman now thought to himself:
"So the boy will end up a brigand and a swindler!"
After this he saw the boy pick up the Bible, place it under his arm and go out of the room.
The gentleman now exclaimed:
"Ah! now I see. My boy will neither be a drunkard nor a swindler and a brigand. He will be a pucca politician. He will booze and rob and mouth religious speeches!"'
Everyone enjoyed Tejbabu's story.
Dada then said:
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'I know the story of a lady. She was trying to reason with her son by telling him: "Son, do what you want but for god's sake don't become a political leader. If you do perfect work, people will hate you. If you do imperfect work, god will hate you. Either you will do perfect or imperfect work. In either case either people or god will hate you."
The lady's reasoning was irrefutable.
But can you tell me where the fallacy is in this logic?'
Everyone sat still. Then someone answered:
'I studied this at college many years ago. I don't remember very well. But I think there are a number of fallacies in this.
In logic, in a syllogism there are three statements: the major premise, the minor premise and the conclusion.
In the first statement there must be the major term, in the second, the minor term and both in the first and the second statements there will be twice the middle term or what in the science of logic is called the argument for deduction. This middle term has to be universally distributed at least once.
Here the lady's syllogism contains more than three verifiable statements. That the syllogism has not been well-constructed is the first fallacy, the fallacy of imperfect syllogism;
the second fallacy is the fallacy of four terms. And if we take the word 'hate' to be the middle term then it has been distributed limitedly, only twice. So this is the fallacy of undistributed middle. If one were to think a little more then there may be other fallacies too. The structure of logic is such that if you wish to construct a correct syllogism then all the errors will be exposed as with a metal-detector.'
Just then Ishit turned up. He has grown quite a lot.
'So Ishit? You've grown a lot, haven't you!'
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'Dada, tell me a story.'
Dada went through the names of various stories one after another:
'Have I told you this one? And that? What about this one? Oh, I've told you this one too. There's a story called "Something of the sort", have I recounted it to you?'
'No, Dada, you haven't.'
'Then listen.
Two boys stayed together in a room in a school-hostel. Their cots were next to each other.'
'What's a cot?'
'A cot is a bed. So the friends slept together in their respective beds. One night they were both asleep. Suddenly one of the boys noticed that his friend was caught as it were in a vigorous scuffle with someone. It seemed as if something were pressing his friend down onto the bed while he was furiously trying to rid himself of it. He was wriggling desperately.
At this point the boy got up to help his friend. He realised that it was something that could not be seen but which could be felt, a lot like a human being, long and plump but completely invisible. The two friends pounced on this disembo-died something's body as if in a wrestling bout. Then with a nylon rope they tied it really tight and strong. He could feel that this something was tightly tied with the strong nylon rope but it was impossible either to understand or to see what it was. But it was some sort of thing. It was very strong. The two friends began vigorously pulling this thing with the rope tied around it.
After some time this something lost all its energy and fell into a drowse. So then nervously and with great caution they began feeling its arms and mouth. It was still invisible and they were scared that this something might bite. They made some sort of a mould and took an imprint of this something's mouth. When they saw the imprint they were horrified. There was an imprint of a terrifying mouth.
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After tightening the rope they dragged this something out- side and dumped it into the pond. There was a huge splash in the water as it fell, as if a human body had sunk. And yet nothing could be seen.
This something has an existence, it can be held and felt, it can be grappled with but it cannot be seen. It is not a ghost though. How could a ghost be tied up with rope? How could you grapple or fight with a ghost? It would not have made that splashing sound either as it fell and sank into the water.
What is this something, then? Let me see if you can guess.'
'It could be something created out of fantasy,' the boy answered.
'Not exactly,' Dada answered. 'Such incidents happen truly. Go and ask Batti-da if you don't believe. He will tell you how a similar thing grabbed him one night.
One night Batti was sleeping in the open on the deck of the swimming pool in the Sports-ground. All of a sudden while he was sleeping something weighed down on him. It grappled vigorously with him. But when it was unable to wrestle with Batti's strong body that invisible thing disappeared.'
Rani-di then remarked:
'I once saw a ghost in the day-time with open eyes. It was something like a vision. One can see but one cannot touch or feel it.'
Rani-di then recounted her story.
'Once from Nabadwip I accompanied Reba, the assistant headmistress of my school, to Gaya, to perform the final rites for her departed mother. My elder brother had passed away some time earlier and so I thought I could perform the rites for him as well. That was the reason for my accompanying her.
We were staying at the Bharat Sevashram Sangh. They had arranged for a priest.
The priest was reciting the mantras while we were making the offerings to the manes by announcing the names of different people one by one.
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When my work was done I sat there and watched. Suddenly before my eyes a hazy face appeared. The face gradually became clearer and it was there just in front of me. I could see just the face and nothing else. I could not recognise the face but I noticed that it was looking at me very sorrowfully.
Suddenly the priest asked me:
"Ma, can you see something?"
"Yes, sir, I can see a face but I can't tell you whose it is," I replied.
"Look carefully and recollect, Ma. Perhaps someone you know has come to accept the water-offering from your hands so as to quench his soul's thirst. Just recollect and tell me who it could be," the priest said.
Then after a long time of reflection I suddenly recognised the face. It was Arati, one of my students. Quite some time back she had got married and had a couple of children. Then I heard that she was killed in a stove-burst accident in the kitchen. Yes, it was Arati's face indeed! Now it was clearly recognisable. So I told the priest about her. The priest began reciting mantras and I made some offerings for Arati.
Then the face vanished from in front of my eyes. I had a feeling of great contentment within me.
Upon my return I recounted this to Arati's parents. They observed:
"Yes, it is indeed true. Arati's death was after all accidental. The obsequies were performed but the offering to the mane at Gaya was not done. You have done a wonderful thing, my dear."
When I saw Arati's face and recognised her I told the priest. He told me at once that her death was accidental and that I should go to make the offerings to the manes at the shrine of the "dead spirits".
"But I won't be able to climb to the top of the mountain with my painful knee," I told him.
"You tell the priest the name and lineage of the person and make your offerings to him. The priest will make the offerings on your behalf. That should do," the priest suggested.'
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Everyone heard Rani-di's story in fascinated silence.
'Another time, Dada,' Rani-di continued, 'we went to Badrinath. Pandit Gaurinath Shastri was with us. We went and put up at a guest house past which the Alakananda flowed. Just across the bridge stood the Badrinarayan temple.
Shastri-ji said:
"Now that you have come, make water-offerings for all your known dear departed at the 'Uddhabshila'. I will recite the necessary mantras. You just make the water-offering by uttering the name of the person and his or her lineage."
So I started telling the names while Shastri-ji recited the mantras. And along with this I would offer water.
I uttered the name of my elder brother-in-law, recited the mantra and offered water.
Then while uttering the name of my second brother-in-law I mistakenly pronounced the name of my youngest one, Hariprasanna.
Shastri-ji recited the mantra and I offered water.
The very next instant I realised my mistake. My youngest brother-in-law was still living. How could I make water- offerings in his name?
I immediately told Shastri-ji:
"I've made a terrible mistake. My youngest brother-in-law is still alive. What have I done!"
Shastri-ji answered:
"Go at once to the Narayan-temple and tell Narayan every- thing. God is omniscient."
So I crossed the bridge to go to the Badrinarayan-temple and quietly tell him everything.
I was returning from the temple when I saw in the space above the bridge a corpse lying enveloped in white. After a while this corpse disappeared.
I came back and told Shastri-ji about this incident.
"Go back to the temple and tell this too to Narayan," Shastri-ji advised.
I obeyed.
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From then on I started feeling a little uneasy within me. I returned to Nabadwip.
We were all sitting and chatting in the evening together. I just hoped no one had any bad news to give, that everything was fine at the Ashram and my youngest brother-in-law was in good health.
As I was thinking these thoughts I asked if I had received any letters.
"No, Rani-di, nothing has arrived for you," they all answered.
Then suddenly Mandira exclaimed; "Look at that! I had completely forgotten. Luckily you asked. Your peon delivered a letter for you. Just wait, I'm getting it."
I quickly went through the letter. My youngest sister had written:
"On the last Vijaya Dashami your brother-in-law unexpectedly left his body."
I was quite stunned to note that it was on that very Vijaya Dashami day that I had mistakenly pronounced my youngest brother-in-law's name and offered water.
The fact that I had mistakenly utteied his name, was it I who made the mistake or did someone make me commit the mistake and get me to offer water? Truly the mind cannot explain everything.'
The following day Rani-di gave Dada news of some people she knew. She spoke about a girl who had been selected for doing a Master's in medicine in an All-India level competition but both her elder brothers wanted her to get married. They felt that after getting married she could take on the parents' responsibility.
Tell her not to get married,' Dada advised.
'What if there is disquiet in the family as a result?' Rani-di enquired.
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'Whatever happens in the family let her not marry under any circumstances,' Dada continued. 'Let her first complete her studies and stand on her feet. She can consider this option only then, if she wants to. But she should not do this now but remain strong.'
Just then a visitor dropped in with her son and a brother. She had offered Dada a present the day before.
Immediately on seeing them Dada said:
'Ah, come, come. The red bedcover you brought yesterday was very nice. How did you know that I liked red?'
'I don't know but I just felt like buying that particular bedcover. I didn't know you liked red. I'm happy to know that you like it,' the lady replied.
'Yes, I like red very much, Dada continued. The Mother knew this. That's why on my birthday She would always wear a red dress.'
Somebody came and bowed respectfully before Dada.
'How are you?' Dada enquired.
'I'm quite at home,' he said a little hesitantly. It was clear from his way of answering that he was not all that fine. But his mouth said the contrary.
'This is how it should be. Whatever be our condition, good or bad, we should feel "at home". If we are not capable of even this then of what use has our stay been here?'
Dada uttered 'at home' with such dignified tranquillity that a feeling of unwavering inner reliance on the Mother came through. A simple word uttered by Dada with that depth of voice acquires such a lot of feeling and meaning...
Another visitor turned up with his little daughter. He has been trying to get his daughter admitted into the Ashram school for a few years but to no avail.
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'If she gets admitted, it is the Mother's blessings. If she doesn't get admitted, then too know it to be the Mother's blessings,' Dada observed.
After a slight pause he continued:
'Life is Her blessings, death too is Her blessings; joy is Her blessings, sorrow too is Her blessings.'
Babua has come from Calcutta for just two days. After Jaya-di's passing the whole responsibility of running a big school and 'Lakshmi-House' has fallen on his shoulders. He is still young. The thirty-forty teachers of the school are all quite elderly, the age of his father, uncle or aunt. It is sometimes quite difficult to manage them.
On seeing him Dada invited him in:
'Come in, come in. You have lost a lot of weight!'
'Well, it's natural, Dada,' someone remarked. 'So much responsibility at this age must be exhausting him.'
'Have you heard the story of that king?' Dada enquired with a laugh. 'A king was going on his elephant through an important street of his city. On either side of the street his subjects stood respectfully.
The king was extremely lean and so a peasant on seeing him could not stop himself from laughing. The king turned to his minister and said:
"Go and see why that man is laughing on seeing me."
The minister did as instructed:
"Hey, why are you laughing like this?"
Taken aback and scared the peasant stuttered:
"Where, sire? I didn't laugh."
"You needn't be scared," the minister reassured him, "just tell me honestly why you laughed like that on seeing the king?"
So then the peasant answered haltingly out of fear:
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"I'm laughing at the king for this simple reason: he eats well and lives a comfortable life. He doesn't have to do back- breaking work like us. We barely manage two square meals a day. And yet, see, how our bodies look. Why is our dear king, then, after living such a comfortable life and enjoying such good food, so skinny?"
On hearing this answer the king called the peasant and told him:
"I'm making you king for seven days. You'll live like a king, that is like me."
So the poor fellow became king. He was very happy but he noticed that an extremely pointed huge sword hung over his head by a slender thread, what is called the sword of responsibility. If the slender thread broke then the sharp sword would fall on his head and pierce him straight through. Out of fear, terror and anxiety the poor fellow became skinnier than the king in less than a week.'
Everyone laughed on hearing Dada's story. So did Babua. Then he asked Dada:
'Tell me, Dada, how should I go about it? How should I conduct myself so that I can take everyone along with me?'
'Love and respect are the most effective controlling powers,' Dada answered. 'Love each and everyone, respect each and everyone. Tell everyone: "I am new and young, it is you who will teach and mould me. If I make any mistakes then help me to correct them, guide me." Then you will see how everyone collaborates with you. Your conduct should be firm and humble at the same time. Never indulge in being bossy. Then everything will be fine.'
Dada handed him a packet of the Mother's 'Blessings'.
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Pranab at work in the Physical Education Department office
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The reading Room adjoining the Physical Education Department office
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A visitor has come from Brazil. He is tall, healthy and well- built. You can see at once that he is into physical culture. He was greatly impressed by the ultra-modern equipment for physical culture.
'I have been to several countries,' he observed, 'but rarely have I seen such a fantastic gymnasium run so systematically. I liked the two "malkhambs" in particular. Exercising on the "malkhamb" is terrific. I've never seen this special equipment anywhere else.'
'You know, in ancient times, the "malkhamb" was the focus of physical exercise,' Dada explained. Then he started telling him about the different types of "malkhambs" and about the various people who excelled in this in different parts of the country.
Then Dada asked him to have a look at the Encyclopaedia of Indian Physical Culture. Gangaram-da took out a fat volume from the top shelf of a cupboard.
'Take the first volume out and show him. There are pictures and descriptions of the "malkhamb".'
The gentleman began leafing through the fat volume.
'Go towards the middle and open page 630.'
The gentleman turned to page 630 and was astonished. It was the page on 'malkhambs'!
'Turn a few more pages and you will see pictures of the experts.'
Dada seemed to know the entire, fat encyclopaedia inside out. He knew by heart what there was on which page even though he was not even looking at the encyclopaedia. The gentleman just had to open the page and read even as Dada went on commenting. He was stunned, wonder-struck. What an extraordinary power that he knew the whole encyclopaedia inside out. Quite difficult to believe unless one has seen it!
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'When I first came to the Ashram in 1942,' Dada told us one day, 'I didn't know anything about hathayoga. I used to believe that those who practised hathayoga were capable of performing all kinds of strange, unbelievable acts.
Ambu-bhai used to practice hathayoga at that time in the Ashram.
I would look at him wonder-struck and think:
Goodness, he must be capable of such incredible things!
So one day finding him alone, I asked him:
"Ambu-bhai, can you fly?"'
Ishit has come again. Dada was about to get up and retire but seeing him he sat down again.
'So, Ishit, you want to hear a story? Today is his day for story-telling.'
Ishit laughed and nodded:
'Yes, Dada, tell me a story.'
'So listen then to the story of a royal horse. The king had a very beautiful horse, spotlessly white and very energetic. The groom too was equally energetic and young. The horse used to gallop at the speed of a tempest. The king loved his horse very much and he would go riding only on this horse. One day it was noticed that the horse was limping a little. The king was quite worried. A lot of doctors and healers were called. They all examined the horse carefully but could not detect any disease. The horse was quite fine and healthy. They examined his four legs to see if he had any rheumatism but he was found to have nothing of the sort. Why then was the horse limping? Nobody had an answer.
So the king called his old minister. The minister was very wise and elderly. The king told him:
"Will you please go and see what the problem is with the horse? Why is he limping?"
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The minister returned after examining the horse and told him:
"Your Majesty, you have to change the horse's groom. The previous groom was very young and energetic and he has gone home for a holiday for four months. He left an old man to look after the horse and this old man is slightly lame and he limps. You know how horses are attached to their groom. Seeing his groom he too walks like him." So the king removed the old man and appointed a young, healthy groom.
Within a very short time the horse's limp was gone and he began galloping as before.
Now listen to another story of a horse. A sheik had two horses, one white and one red. The white horse was called Dulki and the red horse was called Mulki. Dulki was the faster of the two. No horse could equal him. Dulki used to run at the speed of lightning which left everyone stunned.
The red horse was not all that impressive. He couldn't run as fast as Dulki.
One day a friend of the sheik's turned up and asked him to give him his white horse, Dulki.
"No, I cannot give you Dulki. Dulki is my favourite horse. Why don't you take Mulki instead?"
But his friend would not agree. He insisted on having only Dulki.
The sheik too remained adamant.
One night the sheik was asleep when suddenly he was awakened by some clatter in his stable.
The sheik got up and went to the stable. His fear had come true. His friend had got into the stable to steal his white horse, Dulki.
As soon as he saw the sheik he jumped onto Dulki and galloped away in the dark. So the sheik mounted his red horse, Mulki, and began chasing him.
Both the horses were racing away but Dulki was well ahead with the sheik on Mulki following behind. But gradually the
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distance between them began decreasing. When Mulki was about to overtake Dulki the sheik wondered:
"What? Will my Dulki be overtaken? Impossible." The sheik then called out to his thief-friend:
"You fool, you can't even ride a horse and you've come to steal a horse! My Dulki cannot be overtaken in this way. Follow my instruction, you moron, twist Dulki's ear a little and with your feet tickle his sides. You'll see how fast Dulki will run then!"
The sheik's friend followed his advice.
And before you could blink Dulki had left Mulki and the sheik far behind in a gallop like the tempest.
The sheik then dismounted from the horse, thrilled. It's true he could not catch the thief but at least his horse Dulki had not lost. He had zoomed away leaving everyone behind as he always did. With this feeling of satisfaction the sheik returned home.'
Dada recounted today the story of a brave Pathan.
'The Pathans ruled our country at one time. The Pathans are extremely courageous and obstinate.
A Pathan sardar lived in a village. His ancestors had come to settle in this village a few generations earlier. A long time had gone by and now there were only a few Pathan families that lived there. Some were farmers while others were day- labourers. Everyone respected this Pathan sardar and addressed him as "sardar". The "sardar" was a well-built man and his body was the colour of black-stone. He had long, thick hair and an enormous moustache that sharpened at the two upturned ends. With kohl in his eyes and perfume in his moustache he would sit at his door. He helped the people in their problems and difficulties which made him very popular with the villagers.
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One day a Moghul sardar was passing by in front of the Pa than sardar's house. This Moghul sardar had a very strong body and a huge moustache. He wore a fez and a cotton-padded vest.
As the Moghul went past his house proudly twirling his moustache it hurt his self-respect and he called out:
"Eh, Moghul sardar!"
The Moghul sardar turned back and asked:
"What's the matter? You have something to tell me?"
"You bet! You walk past my house twirling your moustache that way? Where did you get that cheek? Don't you know I am a Pathan? I won't tolerate your walking with such arrogance. Lower your moustache!"
"And if I don't?" asked the Moghul sardar.
"Then you'll have to fight with me: it'll be either you or I who'll live. If you can't accept my offer, then lower your moustache."
So the two men decided to fight it out. The day was fixed. In three months' time the Moghul would come to fight the Pathan at that very spot.
Accordingly the Pathan made all the necessary arrangements.
He had only three months in hand. Who could say what the outcome of the fight would be? He could be killed too. So he quickly married off his daughter. Then he settled all the property matters. Everything that needed to be done before death, he did.
The Pathan sardar loved his wife very deeply. Three months later, on the eve of the fight, he embraced his wife and the couple cried all night. Then at daybreak both of them dug a grave together. He lowered his wife into the grave and with one stroke of the sword he cut off her head and buried her under the earth. He did this to save his wife from any future dishonour were he to be killed.
Then he washed himself, picked up his sword, dabbed his moustache with some perfume, and began waiting for the Moghul sardar.
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The Moghul sardar turned up at the appointed hour.
The Pathan sardar called out:
"So, let's start the fight!"
"No, I won't fight," the Moghul replied.
"Why don't you want to fight?" the Pathan asked.
"My wife told me not to," he answered.
The Pathan sardar was furious:
"Then lower your moustache, you fool, and get out."
So the Moghul sardar said:
"Okay, I accept. I agree to lower my moustache. I'm going."
He lowered his moustache and went away.
The Pathan sardar went on staring at him like one disoriented. His face was pitiable and his dim eyes filled with tears...'
Elisabeth has come to see Dada today. Dada called her in and asked her to sit. She finds it very painful to move about. She has become extremely weak and thin.
She looked very happy in Dada's presence. She sat for a while and chatted a little and then left. Gangaram-da held her arm and helped her out.
'This same Elisabeth, how energetic and lively she was,' Dada observed. 'She has been to so many places with me, by car, on motorbike or by cycle. Today one can hardly recognise her.'
'But even with this health,' Gangaram-da noted, 'Elisabeth has brought out a remarkable book called Sri Aurobindo on Indian Art with innumerable photographs, all taken by her. It's a wonderful book and she took great pains to bring it out.'
'One morning,' Dada recounted, 'Elisabeth turned up at six o'clock and told me:
"Dada, let's go for an outing!"
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So we packed some food and water into the car and proceeded to Tiruvannamalai. The Arunachalam hill stands near the town. And at the bottom of the hill is the temple. The Ramana Maharshi Ashram is near the temple.
The deity installed within the temple is the "Teja-lingam" which is worshipped daily. Every year on the full moon of the month of Kartik a huge fire is lit on top of the hill in an enormous recipient full of oil and ghee. Thousands of pilgrims come to worship the "Teja-lingam" at that time.
At about one-third of the way up on the hill is the "Skandashram". There is no proper path from this point to the top of the hill. Through a jungle of weeds and rocks, a narrow zigzagging track fit for cows and goats goes round and round right to the top. If you do not know this track then it is quite difficult to reach the top.
Elisabeth decided she wanted to go to the top of the hill. So we began climbing.
On the way we met a ten-year-old girl from a nearby Tamil settlement. She began guiding us along the track leading to the top. Then after a certain point she announced that she would not go any further. She was scared.
I began wondering what to do without her. Suddenly a man appeared:
"Come, I'll lead you to the top."
He was from Tiruvannamalai at the foot of the hill and knew the place well.
So we began climbing with him.
After climbing some distance Elisabeth felt exhausted.
"I can't climb any more, Dada. Let me rest here a little. You go ahead to the top."
I answered:
"That is not right. I will go to the top with you. Take rest along the way as you go up. You will be able to reach the top."
We reached the top of the hill. The air was pleasantly tranquil and the place deserted: There was nothing but the blue sky overhead. We could hear the breeze blowing and see
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Tiruvannamalai and the temple below us. The atmosphere was peaceful and solemn. We were enjoying it when Elisabeth felt both hungry and thirsty.
So I gave that man some money and asked him if he could go down and get our food and water from our driver.
"But, sir, why would the driver give me what I ask?" the man enquired.
So I brought out a picture of the Mother and a packet of "Blessings" and handing them to him said:
"Show these to the driver and he will know you are our man and he will give you the food and the water."
So the man went down the zigzagging track.
Elisabeth remarked:
"You gave that man some money. What if he disappears with the money and the food ?"
"No, no. Can't you see just when we needed him he turned up to help us to the top? He is not a human being. He is Shiva Himself. When a bhakta or devotee is in trouble Shiva always comes to his rescue."
And surprise of surprises! Hardly had we mentioned him that the man, within that short time, had gone down and come up again carrying our food and water and was standing before us. All this in less than thirty-forty minutes!
Elisabeth could not believe it.
"What did I tell you? So you see now?" I told her.
The man sat and ate with us. Bread, butter, bananas and sweets. After eating he said:
"This type of food doesn't satisfy us. We eat a plate of rice and then drink a glass of water. Only then do we feel we've eaten - rombu santosham (truly contented)."
After eating we came down the hill. We wandered around a little and went to the man's house. He had a sister who sculpted small figures in stone of gods and goddesses like Kartik, Ganesh, Shiva, etc. They earned their living through the sale of these stone figures.
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The man said that when there was a festival at the temple he lifted the palanquin of the deity. He showed us his right shoulder. Because of continuously lifting the palanquin his right shoulder had become hard and swollen like a buffalo's. His sister studied in the seventh form in school and during her free time she sculpted these figures.
He said:
"Sir, I can't lift the palanquin like this any longer. It is very painful. Why don't you buy me a rickshaw. I'll ply a rickshaw and return your money. I'd keep whatever profit I make."
"No, my dear fellow, I will not be able to do all that."
Then after a long time when I went back to Tiruvannamalai this man recognised me and calling out "Sir, Sir" came running to me. He was delighted to see me. He told me that he had bought a rickshaw and stopped carrying the palanquin and now plied his rickshaw. His sister had passed her higher secondary examination and now had a good job some- where.
I was very happy to hear this.
I wandered around on the Arunachalam hill and then I met the priest of the temple. He told me:
"Sir, Kailash is the abode of Shiva but Arunachalam is Shiva Himself."
Even after this I have been three more times to the top of the Arunachalam hill,' Dada added.
One day in the course of a conversation Dada said:
'The Mother once told me:
"My room and all that is in it is all yours. You can use all of it as you wish. You can even stay here. This room is yours."
I told' the Mother:
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"Mother, I do not need your room. You be with me. That is all I want. I do not need anything else."'
'Last night I could not sleep at all. Between one and four in the morning I had a very light sort of sleep. Then I did my exercises. After having my bath and breakfast I felt sleepy. So I fell into deep sleep. When I woke up at nine o'clock, I could not understand at first whether it was morning or evening. Then after a long time I understood that it was morning. This happens after deep sleep. Many times after waking up one does not quite know the direction of one's head and feet. It takes a while before one realises one's orientation. I asked the Mother once about this. She told me:
"During sleep, the soul often goes out and wanders in the subtle world. When it reenters the body it is indeed true that one does not know where one's head or one's feet are."'
Today is a Darshan day. Someone asked:
'Dada, what is the significance of a birthday?'
'The Mother has said that the soul is much more receptive on a birthday,' Dada explained. 'If on this day you are in a state of proper aspiration then you can progress a lot on the path of yoga which at other times might take a much longer time. A birthday or a Darshan day is a moment of great opportunity. The Mother used to say it was very much like a spring-board. One can move forward considerably on this day.'
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Ira-di has brought two girls from her boarding to Dada.
'These two girls, Dada, are extremely mischievous. They are always fighting and arguing.'
The two girls came and stood in front of Dada but neither of them looked at him. One of them fixed her eyes on the ceiling-fan while the other kept looking at the motifs on her frock. From time to time they glanced on either side from the corner of their eyes.
One could see that both the girls were spirited and mischievous.
'Even after all the fighting and arguing all the time, these two girls are still quite fond of each other!' Dada remarked with a laugh.
'Yes, their fighting and their liking for each other is in equal proportion,' Ira-di confirmed.
'Who is older among you?' Dada enquired.
'I,' replied one of them innocently.
'So you are the younger one?' Dada asked the other girl. 'And she is your elder sister, isn't she?'
'Yes.'
'And she, then, is your younger sister?'
'So you are the elder sister and you should love your little sister. You should look after her needs, see what her problems and difficulties are. Because you're the elder sister. Am I right?'
'Yes.' .
'And you are her little sister, aren't you?'
'So, you too should love your elder sister. Does one fight with one's elder sister? Tell me?'
'No, I won't fight with her.'
'So, you're the best of friends now?'
'Yes,' the two girls replied.
'I am happy. You are both very good girls,' Dada told them.
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'If you ever fight again or beat each other then I'll bring you
back to Dada. Just remember this,' Ira-di cautioned them.
The two girls slowly ambled out with Ira-di.
There was no note of chastising in whatever Dada said but a deep vibration of love in his voice. And as the girls left his office holding hands Dada went on looking at them with a deep, loving tenderness.
During one of the conversations Dada recounted:
'A girl from outside the Ashram once wrote to the Mother that she was in love with a boy and wanted to marry him.
In the beginning the Mother did not either say yes or no.
Letters started pouring in one after another. The girl went on pressing the Mother. She told her that if she did not marry this boy she would rather not live and she wanted the Mother to grant Her consent.'
'The Mother then asked me:
"Why do people write to me, why do they seek my opinion if they do not want to listen to me?"
Then on seeing the girl so insistent with her letters requesting Her consent, the Mother had no alternative but to agree.
The wedding took place. Some time went by. She even had a baby. And then the quarrels started and the disquiet, finally leading to divorce. Now they live separately and the boy stays with his mother.'
Dr Shyama, Gadadhar's wife, has come from Orissa to meet Dada. Gadadhar runs a big Centre of Sri Aurobindo and
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the Mother in Orissa and does a lot of work for the Ashram. He greatly reveres Dada. His wife, Dr Shyama, is a well-known doctor and holds a very responsible post in the government.
Dada told her affectionately:
'You now look like a very serious housewife.'
And he added at once:
'Let me tell all of you something very interesting.
Quite some time back we received news of Gadadhar's wedding. Very soon after the wedding Dr Shyama came to see me. I did not know her then so well. I asked her:
"So did you attend Gadadhar's wedding?"
Very meekly, like a well-mannered girl, Shyama nodded to say "yes".'
On hearing this someone remarked:
How's that, Dada? Isn't she Gadadhar's wife?'
Everyone had a good laugh listening to this incident of long ago. Dr Shyama too joined in the laughter.
Dr Shyama told Dada:
'Today as I was coming to you, someone told me "Why do you people disturb Dada so much by continually visiting him? It puts Dada under great strain. He has to listen to all your problems and difficulties which only damages his Physical health. It should suffice us that he is there. His presence itself is a blessing for us." Tell me, Dada, the fact that we come to see you like this and tell you all about our joys and sorrows, our problems and difficulties, does this truly harm you in any way?'
'Not at all. If I do not listen to what you have to say, if I do not think about you but just stand silently like a tree, that is being like vegetation and not worth anything. I will try and
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work for you as long as I can with this body. Of what use is the body, then?'
'Now all these problems and difficulties of ours we bring to you, doesn't all this disturb you?'
'I've just told you. I am absolutely not disturbed. It has no effect on me at all. And besides, where there is life there are bound to be problems. The very purpose of life is to overcome problems. However, most of our life's problems are of our own making. We invite problems. Very often the consequences of an action take time to work themselves out. Sometimes the fruit of a past action may appear after ten, fifteen years. At that time we forget that the seed of this difficulty was sown by us. We forget this and blame the Divine for it. Why did the Divine do this to my life?'
'But, Dada, I've heard that by listening to our various difficulties and problems, the Mother would fall ill.'
'No,' Dada replied, 'the Mother did not fall ill by listening to our problems. She fell ill because of our pettiness, our littleness, our insincerity and hatred and smallnesses.
'Dada, you see, you hear all this too. Doesn't your body fall ill?'
Dada laughed and replied:
'No, that has not happened yet. Not yet.'
Dada told us one day:
'Once while talking to me about the English and the French temperament the Mother told me that the English temperament was plain and prosaic but the English could write very beautiful poetry. Their poetry was marvellous.
And the French temperament was intense and poetic but the French excelled in prose. French prose is absolutely limpid, clear and precise but their nature is just the opposite extremely poetical.
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The Mother had mentioned two French writers whose names I cannot now recollect. One of them used to write spontaneously without any effort. He would just go on writing in an uninterrupted way. The words would come like in a flow. He did not have to think or make any effort at selecting words. His pen just went on writing. While reading him one felt that the appropriate word for the appropriate emotion just flowed out like a cascade.
The Mother told me about another French writer. His name too I cannot recollect. He used to write with a lot of thought and effort. Every word was meticulously thought out and weighed before being written down. But while reading his writing one feels that the emotion just flows effortlessly and spontaneously. There is not the slightest trace of all the thinking and analysing, all the sifting and polishing, all the pain and effort, while reading his work. As if the words have flowed onto paper by themselves like water.'
In the same context Dada spoke about Napoleon.
'Once Napoleon is said to have remarked to his wife Josephine:
"The mirror reflects without talking, you talk without reflecting!" (Le miroir réfléchit sans paroles, vous parlez sans réfléchir.)
On hearing these words from Napoleon Josephine retorted at once:
"This proves that I am polished like the mirror while the emperor has no polish." (Le miroir est poll mats l'empereur
n'est pas poli.)'
Dada was telling us about Batti-da's childhood:
'Batti and his elder brother Narayan came to study here very young. After some time, though, their father decided that his sons would go to study abroad and came to take
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them away from here. He wanted them to take up jobs after- wards.
Bata's elder brother, Narayan, complied but Batti did not want to go away. This is where he wanted to be.
Just as they were leaving with their father the Mother called Batti and giving him some money told him:
"If they do not let you return then use this money to buy a ticket to come back."
Finally it is with that money given by the Mother that Batti bought a ticket to run away from his place to come here.'
Ishit came to see Dada as was his daily habit. Dada asked:
'So, Is hit, are you eating bamboo-leaves? You're shooting up like a giraffe!'
The boy sat on a stool before Dada.
'No, do not sit like that, all stooped and slumped. Straighten your back and sit. This is the age for growing. If you sit stooped like that your body will become crooked.'
So he sat up with his spine straight.
'Yes, sit like that. When you sit the spine must be straight right from the waist up to the neck while the soles of the feet must be close together and flat on the floor. The knee and the thigh must be at right angle, the spine erect, the neck and the head upright but without being stiff. Yes, now you are sitting correctly.'
Then turning to us he said:
'During the child's growth one must be especially attentive to the way he walks, sits, moves, otherwise his posture will be spoilt. A child's study-table must be according to his or her built. While studying the child must lean very slightly but without bending his spine. The left arm should be on the desk and the light from the table-lamp should fall on the books and notebook from the left too.'
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This truly is Dada, I marvelled. How sharp and attentive is his concern for little children, the way they walk and move. Their parents surely do not give the same care or worry about them as much.
Dada was recounting:
'The roof over the attached gymnasium I have in my house is transparent. One part of the courtyard is open to sky.
One day I found that the fledgling of a bulbul had fallen to the floor. It could not fly yet and went on chirping ceaselessly. The fledgling's mother kept flitting madly from one side to the other calling out desperately for help. She could not lift the fledgling nor could the fledgling fly.
So then we started feeding that little bird with bread crumbs, rice, water, etc.
The next day the fledgling started making some efforts to fly. With a lot of effort it managed to rise a foot or two and fell back. The mother-bulbul went on flitting desperately from one end to the other and calling out. She was totally disoriented.
The day had hardly broken that the mother-bulbul would appear. The father would also appear and they would stay the whole day and watch their baby. They would try to communicate with their chirping sounds. As evening came and it became dark they would go away.
The fledgling kept trying to fly for two-three days and then finally one day it flew away.'
Dada was recounting this story when Jyoti-di arrived.
A few days back her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren had come. She was quite drained out by them. They went back to Calcutta the day before.
'So have they all gone back?' Dada enquired.
'Yes, Dada, they all left yesterday.'
Then Dada observed jokingly:
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'That mad desperate look I saw on the mother-bulbul the other day is what I have been seeing on Jyoti-di's face too for the last few days!'
'Oh, yes, Dada, I can't tell you how busy and drained out I was with them these last few days!' Jyoti-di agreed.
'So now you feel reassured? But it was good that they came down to see you. They could also see the Ashram. Now they will not make any demands on you like before. You kept going to Calcutta all the time under their pull only to return all topsy-turvy.'
'Dada, both my knees pain a lot. I walk with great difficulty. The doctors have x-rayed and say that the knee-bones are growing. Can too much walking do that, Dada?'
'No, walking cannot make your bones grow. It is difficult to always explain what or why something happens to the body. In any case, do not fear. Do not get upset. Keep yourself mentally strong. Tell yourself "if there is pain in my knee why should it bother me?" as I do.'
Chandranath remarked:
'Dada, our Indian cricket team plays very well in the beginning but towards the end, god knows what happens, they have such a spiritless attitude. A little more of effort and they would win, another 25-30 runs to make but even those few runs they're unable to get. They lose even as victory stares them in the face.'
'Why only in cricket,' Dada observed, 'we have the genius and we have the capability in all the fields but the vital is very weak. This weakness of the vital has gone into the very marrow of this race. And the root-cause of this weakness could be said to derive from the influence of Buddha and Shankara. This indifference towards the physical and the intense attraction for the spiritual life has made India very
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one-sided. But then thanks to Buddha and Shankara the soul :, pf the country has been saved. Spiritual thought, spiritual feeling and philosophy have survived but the vital of this race has weakened terribly.
Of course, the soul is now reawakening with the vital. It has woken up considerably already but a full reawakening will take time.
The Mother wanted our vital too to become as dynamic and strong as the psychic so that the life of India would once again become all-victorious as it was once in the past. It will become greater than' that. Along with a strong vital what we need is collective effort and collective perfection.
From an individual point of view we have much more of heroism, courage and bravery than the others but that collective, communal force and organisation is lacking in us. Otherwise, just imagine, how immensely developed the Vijayanagar empire was. It was more powerful than even the Roman empire in valour and wealth. It was unequalled in its wealth and prosperity. The Vijayanagar kingdom had so much wealth that along the roads as they sell mounds of peanuts today they used to sell mounds of precious gems' and gold in the streets of the capital Hampi.
Such a powerful kingdom lost everything after losing just one war. There is no instance in history where a whole kingdom has gone to ruin just because of losing one war.
We do not have such a developed collective spirit and there are plenty of proofs of this. So much heroism, so much valour, so much self-sacrifice and yet we cannot save the situation when it matters.
When Mohammed Ghori began mounting continuous attacks on Prithviraj, the other Hindu kings thought:
"This is Prithviraj's problem, not ours." If all of them had repelled him together as they had done the first time, then the Muslims could not have come in. Prithviraj tried to stave them off all alone, one hundred and four times in succession. Finally treachery combined with disunity and division. Raja
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Jaichandra who was Prithviraj's maternal cousin went and sided with Mohammed Ghori. As a result all of Prithviraj's valour came to naught.
But treachery also was paid back in its own coin. The following year itself Mohammed Ghori attacked Kanyakubja and dethroned Jaichandra. Defeated, Jaichandra sought to flee and drowned in the Ganga and died.
In Bengal it was Maharaj Nandakumar who fell a victim to conspiracy. The English understood that as long as Nanda- kumar was present they would not be able to hold sway. That's why through deceit and intrigue they managed to get him hanged.
It was the same during Mir Qasim's time. The Fort at Mungher was impregnable. The English were not capable of defeating Mir Qasim. However, the hidden enemies showed the English the secret path into the fort at Mungher and helped the English to penetrate it.'
Listening to Dada, one person asked:
'Mir Qasim was defeated in war but what happened to him after that is not known.'
'What happened to Mir Qasim at the end came to be known,' Dada revealed. 'Long after the war, his corpse was found lying in a tattered tent by the side of the road leading to Delhi. Shorn of all glory, ruined, powerless Mir Qasim! He was wearing a rich but tattered robe. His lifeless body was covered with an opulent shawl.'
'Dada, he may have wished to get help from the Badshah of Delhi and then gather his forces to fight the English once again. Maybe that's why he had come to Delhi.'
'Yes, that is possible.
That is why the Mother would always repeat to us that in Sri Aurobindo's yoga collective integration was needed along with the individual's progress. Sri Aurobindo called this "spiritual solidarity".'
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A sadhak came into the office while Dada was talking. He bowed to Dada.
Dada smiled and welcomed him:
'Namaskar. Are you fine?'
He hesitated and did not say anything.
So, Dada told him:
'Whatever it be, you are happy, aren't you? That is enough.'
Dada gave someone a badge and explained to him its meaning:
'The two birds in flight are coming down together onto the earth. The two birds are twin aspects of the Divine: the static and the dynamic, you could call it Purusha and Prakriti. The two birds are golden in colour, that is they are descending carrying the supramental light. There is the Mother's symbol in red on the birds' breast, a symbol of-the Mother's Love. There is water below, water that is creation, multiplicity. They are coming to establish over this creation, over this earth, the Consciousness of the Mother's Love, Peace and Ananda.'
Dada was telling us about his youth.
'When we were young, all of us brothers used to go together to our uncle's house in Srirampur. We brothers were all very naughty. There was a huge courtyard in our uncle's house, quite a high raised verandah and large rooms. We would run around the house. Our mischief would unsettle everyone. They were worried that we might slip and fall and break our arms and legs.
I was running on the edge of this raised verandah over the courtyard when someone called out; "Good God ! Don't run like that on the edge. You'll fall!"
As soon as I heard this I said: "Will I fall? See how I jump!" And I jumped onto the courtyard
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My uncle was sitting in a chair in the courtyard and reading a book.
We were all running around. Just then a bit of cement and sand came off and fell near my uncle's chair.
My uncle glared at us and asked us very gravely:
"Tell me, how many more days are you people staying here?"'
In the same context Dada told us:
'You know, my father was extremely short-tempered. He loved us very much but when he got angry, there was no escaping.
In my childhood I used to tell myself "Pranab, see that you do not become short-tempered like your father."'
Hearing those words of Dada's I was quite surprised. He has been so conscious about self-development from such a young age. The motto that Dada has given us for our life, 'Dedicated Service and Self-Culture', this self-purification, this self-control was begun by Dada from that tender young age.
I remembered reading in Dada's book that even after staying so very close to the Mother day and night Dada managed to keep his balance. Some became mad, some others were afflicted physically or mentally. Dada said:
'One thing saved me. I would see that often the Mother gave more importance to someone for a particular work, more attention, and the others who were close to Her felt bad, jealous or angry. Seeing these reactions, I would tell myself: "Beware, Pranab, see that such thoughts do not get into you. Today the Mother has kept you close but if tomorrow She does not give you the same affection, the same attention, you must not change your attitude in any way. Your love for the Mother, your serving the Mother, must remain unaffected".'
This unflinching service without any expectation, this attitude of 'I serve Her because I love Her' is what has saved Dada. All his life, right from his childhood through his adult-
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hood, Dada, even while being the Mother's personal attendant, has always kept this Self-Culture as his life's motto. May we do the same.
Dada has always served the Mother from the very beginning by completely effacing himself. He never paid any heed to his personal problems or needs, comfort or inconvenience. They never even entered his mind.
From the very start Dada had two shirts and two pairs of shorts. They had moreover become old. The shirt sleeves and the shorts were beginning to come unstitched. Threads were coming out but Dada would cut these off with a pair of scissors and continue wearing them.
And so it went on like this. Dada did not pay the slightest attention to it.
One day some old pants and shirts were sent to .the Mother all cleaned and ironed. Chitra-di and Dr Satyavrata of the Ashram had a brother who was a pilot. He had died in war. Chitra-di made a pile of his used clothes that had been cleaned and ironed, and she left them with the Mother to give to anyone who needed them.
The Mother gave these clothes to Dada telling him to give them to anyone who needed them.
Then Dada asked the Mother:
'Mother, can I take a couple of these old clothes for my own use?'
The Mother was surprised to hear this:
'Why should you use these old pants and shirts? Don't you have enough?'
Dada hesitated a little and replied:
'No, Mother, I have two pairs of shorts and shirts and both are torn.'
The Mother was even more taken aback:
'Don't tell me! Why haven't you told me all this time? Just look at that! Quickly, give me a slip of paper.'
So the Mother wrote a note to Albert-da, who is in charge of the Ashram clothes department, asking him to quickly
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make Pranab some pairs of white and khaki shorts and shirts and whatever else he needed.
The Mother felt very uneasy and embarrassed. Why hadn't She paid any attention to this side of the problem?
'From then on, for my birthday, the Mother would offer me two-three boxes filled with new clothes,' Dada told us. 'She gave me so many that I am still using them. I have not been able to wear them out.'
One day, while talking about his father, Dada told us:
'My father's departure was quite wonderful. He had not been feeling very well for some time. He was taken to the Nursing Home. There he chatted and laughed with everyone. He was then given a glass of Horlicks. After drinking his Horlicks, father said he wanted to sleep. And so he fell asleep.
After some time the nurse attending on him came and saw that he was no more. He had passed away. Such a death is indeed rare.
Motakaka's passing too was marvellous. After his evening meal he put on his silk kurta, wore some perfume on his body and went to sleep.
The following morning he was gone. He was holding a packet of the Mother's "Blessings" in his right hand and a pinch of snuff between two fingers in the other.'
Someone remarked that the son of so-and-so occasionally had backache. It would disappear in a day or two and then return. Dada said:
'Ask him to get it properly checked. Probably one of his legs is slightly shorter, so little that you do not realise it. But
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Dakshinapada - Pranab's father
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it disturbs the body's balance. And that is why he gets backache. The leg that is shorter should have a shoe that is a little higher so that both the legs are equal and then he will not have any pain.'
'Yes, you're right, Dada. The doctor told him after checking him that he should get one shoe made a little higher.'
'Yes, there is no other way. Our body is not all perfectly built. If you watch carefully you will notice that our limbs are not all perfectly symmetrical. Very few people have a perfect body-construction. It is not possible to easily detect this in those who do not. This is revealed when you start doing sports or if there is any physical stress.'
'Yes, Dada, I've read this in one of your books,' someone remarked. 'The Mother told you once that if you draw a line down the centre of the face between the eyebrows over the nose and the lips, the two sides of the face are not identical. If you watch carefully you will notice many differences. The two sides, the two eyes, the two jaw-bones are very different. Otherwise the human face would look like a statue.'
'So, Gautam? How are you? I hear you are working at the Dining Room? Are you enjoying it?' Dada asked.
'Yes, Dada.'
'Good. A little hard work does you good. When I first came to the Ashram I went and told Nolini-da to give me such work where I would need to make a lot of effort. Nolini-da asked me to go and work at the Laundry. In those days all the Laundry-work was done by sadhaks: washing of clothes, wringing, drying, then ironing all these clothes in the evening. It was not like today. Today all strenuous work is done by paid workers and machines. In our time all this had to be done by ourselves. There were large water tanks and clothes had to be washed in them; some clothes needed a gentle wash,
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some needed to be beaten vigorously. Then all these washed clothes were rinsed in water in those tanks, wrung and taken to the terrace to be dried out in the sun. In the evening when all the clothes were dry they had to be folded one by one and ironed. I used to iron shorts.
Besides, the soap used to be prepared at the Laundry as well. Caustic soda was mixed proportionately with water in big pots and put over fire for boiling. From the top through a narrow tap groundnut oil was poured into the mixture. This boiling mixture of caustic soda had to be continually stirred with the help of big iron ladles. The handles of the ladles used to get hot and we had to wrap them with some cloth and continue stirring the mixture regularly. "We had to go on stirring this caustic soda mixture for four-five hours. It was very strenuous work. When the solution was ready it was poured into big wooden moulds. The solution would remain in these moulds for a few hours. Then from the mould bars of soap would be cut out. The little bits and crumbs of soap that were left were used the next day for washing clothes soaked in boiling water.'
Fifty students and fifteen-sixteen teachers from a school in Orissa have come to meet Dada. The students meet Dada one by one in a line and he gives to each one a booklet. Some students greet Dada with folded hands, some shake hands with him, some hesitatingly, some with great enthusiasm. Some greet him by saying 'Dada, namaskar', some 'bonjour'. Dada responds accordingly with 'namaskar' or 'bonjour'.
Then they all start happily taking photos with Dada. When it is all over Dada looks at them and smiles and says:
'When Prince Philip came to Delhi, he liked the Indian custom of doing "namaskar" very much. He said this Indian
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custom of humbly greeting with folded hands was more beautiful, more hygienic than the English hand-shake.'
The principal of the school asked Dada for a badge in front of the students.
'Unfortunately, I do not have so many badges.'
So the gentleman said:
'I'm asking only one for myself, not for the students or teachers.'
'How can I give one only to you and not to the others? It does not look right or good.'
The gentleman felt embarrassed.
Then the students sang together a song written and composed by Dada: Pledge Renewed (Standing at Thy altar 0 our Lord Supreme...)
Dada went on looking at them with warm, loving eyes. He listened to their singing. Then he called one of their teachers and told her:
'At two or three places their pronunciation is not quite right. Let them correct that by listening to the cassette.'
Someone asked:
'Dada, where were you when Calcutta was being bombed in the Second World War?'
'I was in Berhampore then,' Dada replied. 'People were leaving Calcutta in droves under the menace of bombs. The bombs fell in Hatibagan, in Dalhousie Square, also in Kidderpur dock. The Japanese dropped the bombs into the spouts of the ships harboured in the dry docks. When the bombs fell in Dalhousie Square one of the boys from our Berhampore Club was killed. He had gone to Calcutta to buy books for his new class. There was hardly anyone in Calcutta at that time. They had all gone away; depending
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on what was possible or available each one had sought shelter with their family or relatives far away.
My eldest aunt's house was in Sealdah in Baithakkhana Road. It was a big double-storied house. Whenever anyone from Berhampore went to Calcutta in those times when hotels were few, they would go and put up at my eldest aunt's house in Baithakkhana Road. And they too used to welcome them with open-armed hospitality by making impressive arrangements for their stay and food. Going to Calcutta meant putting up at the Baithakkhana Road house.
I remember when the bombs were falling over Calcutta, this eldest aunt had come to Berhampore to stay in our house. Every week on Saturday she would bring huge cauliflowers, big prawns, loads of sweets and so many other things. While the older people remained in Calcutta, she left the women and the children in our house in Berhampore.
My eldest uncle had three brothers. He himself was very good academically, a very responsible man with an impressive personality. His second and youngest brothers were extremely devoted and grateful to him. The third brother had polio. He used to sit in a front room of the house with a cash-box and loan money on interest to small and big traders, milkmen, labourers and small shopkeepers. This was his work.
The second and the youngest brothers were very fond of good food. I remember one day the second brother wanted to eat meat.
"Today I would like to eat some flesh," he announced. He never said he wanted to eat meat, but eat flesh.
The eldest brother would leave for work very early in the morning and return late in the evening. At home the brothers were as much fond of each other as they would fight and get into trouble. But they were all scared of the eldest brother and respected him. And so very often in the evening as he would be getting into the house the three brothers were engaged in a fight. Without asking anybody any questions or anything he
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would take a stick and give all three of them a good drubbing. He was not interested in knowing what had happened, whose fault it was, etc. He would just enter the house and freely wield his stick.
After some time another scene.
The four brothers would hug one another and cry and wail "Oh, dear, oh, dear brother!" The eldest, the second, the third and the youngest brothers would hold each other tight and go on crying unbelievably.
Then they would all quieten down and start chatting and laughing together as if nothing had happened.
This was quite a common thing.'
Dada observed one day:
'Many people try and fool the poor, simple, uneducated people of the villages in many ways. In one such incident a group of Westerners came to a village in their car. Their objective was to propagate Christianity among the poor simpletons of the villages.
They wanted to prove that Jesus Christ was greater than the gods and goddesses, Allah or the saints and fakirs of the village.
The Westerners had deliberately disconnected the start- switch of the car.
The curious villagers gathered round the car as the Westerners told them:
"Listen, our car has stopped. Why don't you call your gods and divinities and try and push the car. Let's see if the car can restart."
The villagers came up one by one.
Tightening the gamcha (an Indian towel) around his waist, one of them tried pushing the car by hailing "Jai Ramji ki!"
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But the car neither moved nor started.
Then another person came up.
"Let me have a try once."
And hailing "Jai Shankarji ki" he tried to push the car,
But the car stayed put.
This time it was a Muslim who came up saying:
"This isn't for you. Let me have a try."
And he began reciting "La Ilaha Rasool Allah" as he tried to push the car.
But the car did not budge an inch. Everyone began thinking that verily the names of gods and goddesses had not helped them to move the car.
One of the Westerners quietly switched on the start-key. Then he called one of the villagers and told him:
"Now utter the name of Jesus and push."
"Victory to Jesus Christ", he hailed as he pushed the car.
Hardly had he done this that the car started moving!
"So you can see with your own eyes the greatness of Jesus," the Westerners proclaimed.
"Now, look again. That tulsi plant is supposed to be God for you, isn't it?"
"Yes, sir, we worship Tulsi-mata (Mother Tulsi) in the morning and in the evening. We light oil-lamps to it. Tulsi-mata is our goddess."
"All right, now see what your goddess does. I'm plucking these tulsi leaves and rubbing them onto my feet, onto my body and onto my face. See, nothing is happening to me." - And he began rubbing the leaves on his feet, body and face.
"You see? Your goddess has no glory.”
A clever boy of the village had been watching the whole thing all this time. He said:
"Sir, there is a divinity even more living than the tulsi."
"What's its name?"
"Sir, we call it Ram-tulsi."
"Fine., Go and get me your Ram-tulsi," the Westerner said scornfully.
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The clever boy went and got a branch of nettle from the forest.
"This is our Ram-tulsi. Bow at His feet. Sir."
Contemptuously the Westerner taunted him:
"Oh, I've seen your Ram-tulsi. Just look, I'm rubbing your Ram-tulsi on my feet, on my body, on my face. Your Ram- tulsi won't be able to do anything."
A little later because of all that rubbing of the nettle leaves the poor saheb's body began to burn. He began fidgeting and jumping desperately, uncontrollably. His whole body was aflame and swollen and came out in a rash. The saheb was restless and he was jumping and gasping for life!
The boy then said:
"What, saheb. What do you say now? Does our god have some 'punch'?"
The saheb was speechless but continued to fidget and exclaim "Oh God! Oh God'"'
Dada often composes all kinds of rhymes and verses, sometimes by himself, sometimes on other people's request. We are giving here a selection. We hope the readers enjoy them.
Physical Health - For the young
Eat less but work much more
Firm and strong be body your.
Physical Health-For the old
Food, sleep, and work, my dear,
Must measured be, from year to year.
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Cure for Rheumatic Pain
If rheumatic pain flattens you out
Do not fret, do not shout.
Give your body a light workout
Each day of the year, all throughout.
Eat what your tummy thinks is light
A weekly flushing's tummy's delight.
Drink tea and coffee, just a cup not two
But daily fruit is best for you.
Do not let your body go cold,
No getting wet! You have been told!
Keep your tummy clear and light,
Your oiled body in sun delight.
Do your work, don't overstrain.
Due rest and sleep are body's gain.
Put discipline into your life,
Your pain will vanish with fear and strife.
1.1.64
On Agomoni's birthday
(Tuntuni's Rhyme)
Into dear Tuntuni's little hands
Two books I place with picture bands.
Poor Tuntuni without feathery wings
She longs to fly on cloudy swings.
On wings of stories, light and airy
She can now fly like a real fairy.
She may not have real wings to fly
But now none can hold her from flying high!
As dear Tuntuni laughs and plays
My eyes look on, on her happy ways.
She tells me stories, she tells me rhymes,
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My ears amazed, my eyes but gaze.
This little bird with wonder fills
With her energy that awe instils.
Her magic spell charms one and all,
To see her once she does enthral.
This little bird called Tuntuni
In Mother's Love, grown strong and sunny.
In Mother's shade she loves to grow,
Fear and doubt she does not know.
May Mother's Grace be always hers,
The Grace protect sweetest of birds.
Our Tuntuni, this girl so strong
Links all her strength to this Contact long.
17.11.69
It's hot! It's hot!
So very hot!
A glass of sherbet bring!
My body feels
All over moist,
The punkah needs a stronger swing!
When Dada was very young he loved one song very much. Everybody used to sing a line from this song, 'Rajar Kumar Pakshirajey'. One day Rajkumar, a captain of the Playground, came to see Dada. So Dada recited this line to him.
'What comes after that, Dada?' Rajkumar asked.
'I remember just that. I have forgotten the rest of the song.' 'If you've forgotten it then you can create the song yourself. Make a song on me, Dada,' Rajkumar added. So Dada then wrote this rhyme himself:
Rajkumar
Rajar Kumar Pakshirajey
Ever busy, night and day.
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To help rebuild,
Gather what's spilt,
He has no peer
Afar or near.
In the middle of night
At sundown or morning light,
Call him but once,
At your door he plumps!
Ever full of cheer,
A joy to see and hear,
Such a boy's very hard to find:
In a million one of his kind.
All I pray for
At the Mother's dool;
May good come his way In Her Grace's sway.
22.4.92
Ashwini-bhai
Who can beat us?
None defeat us!
Ashwini-bhai is on my side!
If on the way a tyre burst,
Ashwini-bhai I fully trust
Within a flash he can replace
A punctured tube or outer case!
(When Dada was very young in Berhampore, a 'kabuliwala' used to come to hawk walnuts, almonds, bedana (a prized
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variety of pomegranate), asafoetida, kohl, etc. Recalling this childhood memory, Dada made up this rhyme on that gentle 'kabuliwala'.)
Kabuli Rhyme
Whole walnuts crisp and dry
Groundnuts roasted you must try
Sour pomegranate I supply.
And my prices are not high!
Mew, mew, baha
Baha, baha
Bedana,bedana, babu,
Bedana, bedana!
To Shreya-didi
Shreya-didi has made it clear,
I want a rhyme from Dada dear.
In the morning when I appear
It should be ready, do you hear?
Her youthful mind is ever-green,
Her eyes aglow with hope's sheen,
Her heart is fresh and vigorous
Her bosom full of love for us.
A small diminutive body is hers
Her face with happy laughter stirs.
Her thirst to know and understand
All knowledge in its finest strand.
What shall I write to her, then tell me,
What shall I tell our Shreya-didi?
She who wants to live this life
Like a boat that floats on without strife.
The Mother's words, the Mother's counsel
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Is what to her I can rightly tell
The One who pours Her endless Love
Her divine Nectar from high above.
O hark! O hark! my Shreya-didi,
Hold on to Her till eternity,
In your waking, in your sleep,
Her always in your heart you keep.
On life's journey Her Name repeat
In joy and pain or sad defeat.
Lay all you have, ugly or meet
At the Divine Mother's glorious Feet.
15.9.94
A Youthful Body
If sweets and oily fries are out Your body will be young and stout.
6.7.95
To Sumit-bhai
Sunando and Sumit
Not bad boys, I admit.
From morn to night
They dwell in delight.
In and out like lightning come,
Their heads with ideas many hum.
Their greatest joy, I must reveal,
Is licking chocolate for every meal!
8.7.94
(Dada wrote once a rhyme for Agomoni's birthday. Then Agomoni grew up, got married. Her daughter, Aditi, also grew up. One day Aditi came to Dada and told him:
'Dada, you've written a rhyme for my mother's birthday. Now you must write one for me as well.'
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Almost twenty-nine years later Dada wrote a rhyme for Aditi to make her happy.)
Aditi
One morning Aditi expressed a wish
A rhyme for her from me she'd like to fish. .
The rhyme must be ready in three-four days,
For Calcutta she won't leave without it, she says.
With paper and pen I sit down to write.
But what shall I write, no ideas in sight?
My little sister I cannot disappoint,
In seeing her happy our happiness is joint.
The One we call Aditi in Heaven dwells,
Is the Mother of gods twelve, everyone tells.
As the Divine Mother adored by all,
If Her you please, you'll never fall.
When on this earth the Divine Mother came,
Much loved and worshipped, Mira she became.
She is the guardian of our life's responsibility,
We serve Her always, each to his ability.
In doing Her work such joy we get,
It makes us all other joys forget.
Ever forward She leads us our Mother Divine,
She clears our path of any negative design.
Our little sister busy in knowledge's pursuit
Her mind and body blossom on Her Grace's route,
Her being is ever prostrate at Mother's Feet,
Her words of light she does always repeat.
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I ask you now, O my little sister sweet,
Speak to me freely, in confidence complete,
Our life is a nursery for qualities ever fine,
Will you give your life to the Mother's work Divine?
2.8.98
Once Dada took up Bishwanath Banerjee's challenge to write verse in the Tamil way, with the rhymes at the beginning of the lines:
A Tamil Rhyme
I won't eat today
Why if there's work,
Don't tell mother,
Won't I be in trouble,
When work is over,
Then will I eat,
Well if you'd like to come
Tell me clearly right now.
Work comes first
Shirk it not, my friend;
What comes in mind,
Aught hide not from people.
Pen a Tamil poem
Then with great delight.
Will you take the challenge
Till this bet is won?
28.3.98
On Rupa-didi's Request
A girl named Rupa-didi who in Calcutta lives
She writes me letters which the postman gives.
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Once or twice I met her here when she came
She takes me for her brother, 'Buda Dada' is my name.
I do not know how is, but maybe 'twas her temperament
She became my little sister in the flash of a moment.
With this family of 'dadas' and 'didis' life's a joy,
To serve the Mother always all my energies I employ.
The clarion-call of the New World the Mother announced,
Her great Work is underway, the obstacles are trounced.
Becoming divine is the first need of our life,
Then the world purified be and rid of every strife.
May in this task arduous Her direction we get,
On the path of victory let us ourselves set.
20.5.2000
Dada told us a very amusing incident:
'One day I was coming down the stairs to go to the Mother. I saw a lady hurry to my mother and ask her: "Prafulla-didi, will you please lend me your fish knife?"
"What for? Why do you need a fish knife?" my mother enquired.
"My son's coming. So I need the knife."
I was a little nonplussed. What on earth does that mean? If the son is coming why does she require a knife?
Later I understood that she needed the fish knife as she wanted to cook fish for him.'
'Once I felt like knowing all about physical culture in France,' Dada told us one day.
'Pondicherry was under French rate then. Captain Bohart was the commandant in Pondicherry. I fixed an appointment
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with him so that I could discuss this. I informed the Mother about it and taking an interpreter with me went to meet him. Bohart was himself an athlete and was deeply interested in physical culture.
I was informed that he was in hospital.
In those times the French would go into hospital to rest for the slightest problem. They would come back home after five-six days. So Bohart told me to come and see him at the hospital.
At the hospital I saw that Captain Bohart was in perfect condition as he sat on his bed. He welcomed us and asked us to sit.
Bohart was an expert in shot-put, what in French is called "lancement du poids".
So whatever question I asked, he would somehow bring the subject around to "lancement du poids" and get all excited. At one point he got so excited while talking that he stood up on his hospital bed in order to show me how to throw the shot-put. What a scene that was!
Later Bohart met the Mother and told Her:
"I had a wonderful discussion with Pranab the other day about physical culture. I told him that the French were not as advanced in physical culture as they were in literature or sculpture and that we needed to do something about it."'
Dada told us this story the other day:
'There was a gentleman who was strikingly bald. He was fond of touring Darjeeling and often went there.
One day his daughter and son-in-law were transferred to Darjeeling for their work. His daughter wrote to him that since he loved Darjeeling so much he should come and spend some time with them in Darjeeling.
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It was the period of the monsoon and Darjeeling is not so pleasant then. It remains always overcast and foggy with continuous rain. One cannot go out anywhere or see anything.
Nevertheless, he accepted his daughter's offer and went to Darjeeling. In the evening he was wandering about when he suddenly noticed that the diamond from his ring had fallen off somewhere. It was an expensive diamond and it was now lost! The gentleman went on looking worriedly here and there. All of a sudden he noticed on one side of the path under a tree the diamond lying on a rivulet of rainwater. It was glistening in the dark. He thanked his fortune as he picked up the diamond thinking: "I have been very lucky indeed in finding the diamond. God has heard my prayer!"
Another day, he was wandering in the vicinity of that very tree. Darkness had already fallen and the streetlights were lit. The place was deserted. During the rainy season the Darjeeling streets are quite deserted in the evening.
In the course of his walking he reached the tree. All at once the lights went off, probably due to load shedding.
There was total darkness as he stood under the tree all alone.
All of a sudden in that darkness a goonda grabbed him threatening:
"Hand me everything you have! Don't shout or make any noise!"
"Oh, God! What will happen to me now?" the gentleman began wondering.
Suddenly all the streetlights came on again. A couple of people seemed to be coming that way. Seeing this the goonda took to his heels.
"This place seems to be blessed," the gentleman wondered. "Some spirit or divinity certainly dwells here. It was at the same place that I recovered the diamond the other day and today I have been saved from this goonda."
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"Tomorrow morning I should come and meditate under this tree. My prayers will certainly be answered. I will pray for my hugely bald head to be cured of its baldness."
Now as he was thinking this he began imagining that his bald head was covered with thick black hair. He started stroking his head and waiting impatiently for the morning to come.
That night there was continuous, heavy rain. As soon as morning broke he headed for that tree. On arriving he found that the soil under the tree had collapsed because of the night's rain and the tree had got uprooted. He could not pray for his bald head. It glistened as brightly as ever before.' Upon hearing Dada's story someone remarked:
'Baldness is a problem that perhaps even the gods cannot solve. Probably that's why the gods uprooted the tree and slipped away!'
Chandranath asked Dada for a packet of the Mother's 'Blessings' for his friend's wife's illness.
Dada handed him one.
Just then another person approached Dada and stretched out his hand:
'Dada, please give me one "Blessing" too.'
'For whom? For what?' Dada enquired.
He did not quite answer but merely said:
'Please give me one. It's for something.'
'What is that "something"?' Dada asked a little surprised.
All those sitting in the office were also slightly astonished. What's this? You need a 'Blessing' from the Divine and you won't tell the Divine what it is for! Hiding from heaven! It's like telling the doctor: 'Doctor, please give me some medicine.'
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'What's wrong with you?' That I cannot say. There's something wrong. Give me some medicine.'
Dada did not get angry but told us an amusing story instead.
'Listen to this story then,' he said.
'A man was walking along a path. He was going to the house of one of his friends but he did not know where it was. On the way he crossed two boys who were playing.
The man asked:
"Young boy, can you tell me where Nakulbabu's house is?"
The two boys knew the house.
"There it is, that way" they said, continuing to play.
"My dear, be a good boy and show me the house. I'll give you something then," the man pleaded.
One of the boys volunteered:
"Come with me."
He led him to the house, not very far away.
The man happily took out some money to give to the boy.
"I won't accept any money," the boy said. "You told me you would give me something. Give me that something and I'll accept."
So the man decided to buy him some toffees.
"I won't accept any toffees. You promised to give me something. Give me that something and I'll accept that."
The man was a little puzzled.
"Then come with me and let me buy you some sweets," the man replied, "or a top or some marbles or whatever you wish."
"No, no, no, I don't want any sweets or tops or marbles. You yourself told me you'd give me something. Why don't you give me that. I'm ready to accept that," the boy repeated.
I The man was in a real fix and began wondering what to do. Just then Nakulbabu, whose house he was looking for and , who had been listening to all this, came out and said:
"All right, young lad, why don't you come back to my house tomorrow evening? I'll give you that something."
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The boy, obstinate as he was, turned up the next evening as
asked. He absolutely wanted to have that something. The man then told the boy:
"Okay, then, I'll give you something. But before that go
and get a bowl of milk that is on the table in the next room." The boy went into the next room. The room was semilit
and you could not see anything clearly. The boy picked up the
bowl of milk from the table and hollered:
"Ugh, there's something in the milk." The man shouted from the other room:
"Take that 'something' and get me the milk here." When the boy came into this other room he saw in the light
a dead cockroach floating on the milk. The boy picked up the cockroach with two fingers. "So now you've got your 'something'?" the man asked. "Yes, sir, I've got 'something', I've got 'something' indeed,"
the boy kept repeating.'
Dada was speaking to us the other day about his childhood:
'When I was young, I used to occasionally get very angry. And whenever I got angry, I would give away everything I could lay my hands on, my pictures, books, notebooks, pens, pencils, toys, etc. to people around me.
We had a manservant then whose name was Panchanan. A most clever man he was. He had a flute which he would often play. Whenever he went to the Gariahat market he would take his flute with him and play on it merrily as he walked. And he would continue to play on his flute on his way back home. As soon as I would hear the sound of the flute I knew Panchanan was returning from the market.
I too had a flute of my own and it was much better and much more beautiful than Panchanan's. It was a flute with some brass inlay work on it. Panchanan naturally had an eye on my flute.
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One day Panchanan told me:
"Dada-babu, this time when you get angry, give that flute of yours to me. You will, won't you?" I did not answer. So he asked again:
"Dada-babu, when will you get angry again?" When the Mother heard about this incident she remarked:
"So, when you got angry, Pranab, you would give away your things? The European nature is just the opposite. When they get angry they take away other people's things!" And the Mother started laughing.'
'We had two dogs,' Dada told us one day. 'One of them was a small Tibetan chow, black and thick-haired. My brothers and I used to play with her. The dog would play and run about with us. She understood us perfectly when we spoke to her. She was called Rita. The other dog was an alsatian and her name was Rani. At around 10 -10:30 in the morning I would call out:
"Rita, time for your bath. Come on, I'll give you a wash."
Rita would run to me from wherever she was and sit under the tubewell tap, her head raised. I gave her a nice scrub after which she would go away shaking vigorously to dry herself.
One day a relative of ours came home with a huge suitcase he had bought which he left outside before entering the house.
I opened that empty suitcase and asked Rita to get inside and lie there which she did at once. I shut the suitcase tight.
When my relative tried to lift the suitcase to take it home he realised that it was quite heavy. Why was the empty suitcase so heavy? He had hardly opened the suitcase that Rita jumped out and scurried away. We all had a good laugh.
One afternoon all my brothers and I were moving about in a procession inside a room, each one playing on a canister
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or a bowl or a plate and shouting "Bande Mataram" and making a big racket. This was how we played. Rita also was part of our procession.
My mother was taking a nap in an adjoining room. Unable to bear our boisterous play she came out holding her hand-fan. Every time we were naughty, mother would thrash us with the handle of her fan. We did not, however, realise that she was coming to thrash us. Suddenly I noticed that Rita had disappeared from behind us. She had coweringly slipped away to hide under a bed. A dog's sensitivity is extremely sharp. Before we could even realise Rita had understood and sneaked away. Previously she too had had a taste of the fan-handle and so she knew what was coming.'
'Dada, did the beating with the fan-handle hurt you?'
At once Dada's eyes and face softened and he replied a little lost in his own thoughts:
'No, it did not hurt. A mother's beating does not hurt.
I used to take Rita for a walk in the evening.
One day I was walking along a path and Rita was following me. It was summer and naturally very hot.
I was walking along the path by a pond. Suddenly there was a splashing sound. I turned back and saw that Rita had jumped into the pond. After swimming a little she came out of the pond shaking herself vigorously and began following me again.
During the war when bombs were falling over Calcutta our Berhampore house was full of relatives and friends from Calcutta. The house was bursting at the seams. There was no free space left in the house.
Not wanting to discomfort the guests, father left the two dogs in the house of a friend who also had dogs of his own.
Unfortunately our dogs Rita and Rani would not eat anything in that house, however much you tried to feed them. They did not move around or bark but would just doze about quietly. Perhaps it was their hurt pride.
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One day I heard that both Rita and Rani had starved themselves to death. And my child's heart suffered a lot.
A dog can never forget his master. He loves his master with all his heart. One day father brought a golden retriever belonging to an Englishman to the house. His name was Jack. The Englishman was in the army. At that time there was a war going on in the North-West Frontier. The dog used to stay with his master and one day his master died in the war. That is why someone had given the dog to us.
It was quite a good dog and lived and moved and played with us. Not far from our house was a police camp.
In the evening the police bugle would be sounded. In our house and the surrounding ones the conch would be blown. When both the bugle and the conches were blown, poor Jack was bewildered and would start whining pitiably. And the whining would go on and on. Perhaps he remembered his master then. Nothing could stop his whining then.
And so every evening with the sounding of the bugle and the conches he would start crying miserably.
Everyone in the house remarked that a dog's howling early in the evening was not auspicious, it brought bad-luck and so it would be better to send him away. And so the dog was returned.
I have told you about Rita, the Tibetan chow. An Italian spaniel also came with her to our house. He was a male and his name was Rin. If any of the children annoyed Rita then Rin would get furious. He would angrily bark in retaliation. Rita was like his sister and he was always her elder brother.
Finally Rin was sent to one of my uncles where he was quite happy.
One day in the morning they discovered Rin lying dead outside my uncle's bedroom near the closed door. Perhaps he had died of snake-bite or he could also have been poisoned. But even in death he did not forget his master.'
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Prafullamayee - Pranab's mother
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Dada played for us many of his songs on his clarinet. It is beautiful to watch him play as he gets totally absorb- ed in himself. A marvellous expression lights up his face.
After he had finished playing Dada asked with a smile:
The last two pieces were tunes of Bengali songs. Does any of you know these two songs?
When I was a child, maybe aged five or six, my mother taught me these two songs. I would sing along with her at that time. I still remember the lyrics clearly.'
Dada then recited the lyrics of both the songs:
'Hark! The veena's music, hark!
As it fills the azure sky.
O you traveller new on the path,
Tune your ears to this music high.
The heart cleansed of dirt and dust,
Sterling pure your soul must be,
As a flower washed in morning dew
Your life renew for eternity.
Now listen to the second song:
Hail! O Lord of the world!
O Life of the world, we hail. '
As it rises in the sky, ,
The new Sun, we hail!
Behold! Thy glorious Rays '
Pervade the earth, we hail!
Nature sings with me,
Thy songs we sing, O, hail!
O'er pure waters of Delight,
Glimmers Thy name, O, hail!'
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'The day after Dyuman-bhai left his body,' Dada told us, 'I was sitting in my room and playing the clarinet in the morning.
As I was playing, all of a sudden I felt clearly the presence of Dyuman-bhai. As if he had come to my room. I began feeling his close, intense presence very clearly. He remained there for quite a long time.
Just then someone came to tell me about his leaving the body. He probably felt very bad seeing me playing the clarinet at that time. But he did not know that I was playing the clarinet to Dyuman-bhai.
After Dyuman-bhai's departure, after 1992,1 did not go to the Ashram main building anymore, nor to the Mother's Room.'
Dada was 'telling us about those who were no longer amidst us, how their presence, their touch, their experiences, why even their voices, are still with us:
'Once after sitting for the matriculation examination I went to Shantipur. In Shantipur there is a mango-grove called "Babla". At one time Sri Chaitanya used to sing here the name of Hari late into the night along with his fellow- devotees. Those who were with me told me that even today one can hear the sound of the khol and the cymbals in this area deep into the night.
A local Muslim used to look after this mango-grove. Hearing us talk he came forward all by himself. He was a Muslim and was not supposed to believe in all this, but he said; ,
"Yes, Babu, it's true, even today we can hear the sound of the khol and the cymbals and the kirtans late at night."'
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Pranab playing the clarinet in his room
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Dada was telling us the other day:
'When Sri Aurobindo used to give Darshan during the period prior to 1938, a list was prepared of all those coming for the Darshan. Also marked was the amount of time each one would spend before Sri Aurobindo. And all respected these timings as they filed past Sri Aurobindo.
On Sri Aurobindo's left a list would be kept of the people coming for Darshan. From time to time Sri Aurobindo used to consult this list to check who was coming.
The Darshan-seekers would first kneel and bow in front of the Mother. The Mother would place Her hand on their heads to bless each one of them. Then they would bow to Sri Aurobindo who would also bless the person by placing His hand on their heads. Then the persons would bow their heads between Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and both would bless the person with Their hands.
And in this way, one after the other, the Darshan-seekers would come and go. This is how the Darshan was formerly organised.
My father, when he used to come to the Ashram for Darshan, stayed in the beginning in Dilip kumar Roy's house.
An amusing incident took place on Darshan day.
Dilip-da left first after getting ready. My father was to go later. Dilip-da was a forgetful, absent-minded person. So, mistakenly, he locked the house as he left.
My father, on wanting to go out, discovered that the door was locked. He called out several times for help but nobody was there. Dilip-da was already at the Ashram for the Darshan while here my father was locked in.
What was to be done? God! If the time assigned to him for Darshan were over what would he do then?
So he began shouting loudly and people from the adjoining French Institute building came rushing.
Finally they helped my father out through a window with the help of a ladder.
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Father made a dash for the Darshan. He was fortunate and he managed to reach in time for Sri Aurobindo's Darshan.'
While talking Dada observed one day:
'Our country, India, is known as "Devabhumi" or the land of the Gods. This is the sacred land where the Divine's Dream will find its truth and fulfilment. To evolve life in its integral truth is the real karma or purpose of the sadhana. That is why India is also called "karmabhumi".
From time immemorial the people of this country, be they kings or saints, why, even the ordinary people of this country, have all striven to find how best to incarnate the integral Truth in this life and to transform it according to the divine Dharma.
This sadhana and endeavour have been going on both at the inner and the outer levels of life, right from the Vedic times or even earlier. The Rishis used to call this "loksiddhi" or "spiritual realisation". The gods' heaven and the human earth will one day be like two sisters born of the same Mother, amartyah martyena sayonih. It is this goal of life that I have called Spiritual Height and Material Perfection. If there is any purpose in human life, any goal, then this is the purpose and goal.
In this "yagna of transformation" the gods too come down to help man. They are born in human form. So that they can guide man from his ignorant, human life to the divine god-life. I remember reading about this during my childhood school days. I still remember something of that:
Even if Heaven be empty of Gods,
On this earth, indeed, they need come.
I have forgotten a few lines after that, then it continues:
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Even as Gods in human form take birth
Today to dispel darkness from the earth
And raise it up towards the Light.'
Upon hearing Dada's words, someone remarked:
'Your words remind me of Vishnupurana. It is said there that those who take birth in this Bharatavarsha, they are even greater than the gods as far as heaven and liberation are concerned. Even the gods bow to them and sing their praise.'
'That is why the Puranas say that all the other parts of the earth are bhogabhumi, where the fruits of action are merely enjoyed. It is only India that is the karmabhumi, the country of karma or action. It is through the karmayoga or the yoga of work that the progress of the soul is achieved. That is why even the gods take birth in this country to make some progress. The work we have to do here is as I have said. Dedicated Service and Self-Culture.
If you look at history, then you will see how life has been experimented here in so many different ways, on such strange, diverse paths, how work and sadhana have evolved here. All the experiments that have taken place in this country with life, all the different ways to train and perfect it, all the different ways of approaching it.
Some wear ochre, some white, some only a loin-cloth, some nothing at all. Some have clean-shaven heads, others matted locks. Some survive on alms, some on nothing but air. Some are householders, some ascetics. Some wander in the forests, some live in inaccessible mountain-caves.
Every facet of life has been tried and experimented with, how to be victorious over this life and the suffering and pain and disease and death of this life, how to suffuse this life with ananda and beauty.
How many unknown anonymous great beings, yogis, mahatmas have come, experimented with life and disappeared. They have performed tapasya and the fruits of their
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tapasya have been left with the collectivity. We hardly know anything about these people.
In the historical period we had the Buddha, Confucius who showed us the path and exhorted us to follow a certain discipline and live in a certain way in order to attain perfection.
All this, even if it has enlightened our life a little bit, has not really changed it fundamentally. Man is still under the same yoke of sorrow and pain and misery.
Then Jesus Christ came with his message of love but that too did not solve the situation much. Man ended up putting him on the cross. Somehow Jesus managed to escape alive and came to India. It is said that he spent his final days in a cave in Latah.
Shankar brought the message of renunciation and detachment. But human life remained in the same darkness.
Chaitanyadev brought the message of love and devotion but cruelty, violence, greed and pettiness remained.'
The past history of the whole of India, the flow of the Time- Spirit with its great Life, unfolded before Dada's eyes. Over- whelmed with emotion he kept seeing all this and talking to us:
'How many great sages and saints have come and gone! In the same way emperors, kings and rulers have also tried to strongly unite the life and society of this country and thus lift man upward.
First, King Chandragupta managed to bring almost the entire country under a single rule. That period of the country is known as its golden age. But then this very Chandragupta was disheartened and baffled. People began to die in hordes as a result of famine and plague. Despite being the king of a vast kingdom he looked on helplessly at this procession of death. His subjects were starving to death, his subjects that he loved more than his life, like his own children, but he was powerless.
If I cannot give a fistful of food to the hungry, if even after seeing people die of starvation I cannot do anything to help,
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then of what use is all this kingship and kingdom, with what right can I continue to be king?
Unable to bear this inner turmoil he gave up his kingdom into the hands of his son, Bindusar, and following a Jain saint, Bhadrabahu, he sought initiation to become an ascetic and live like an ordinary bhikshu. He ruled over India but finally became a bhikshu and an ascetic. He spent his last days along with his guru in the holy Jain spot of Sravanabelagola in south India.
The same thing happened with the third king of the Maurya dynasty. King Ashok. He too tried to mould India into a strong, united country and infuse love and beauty and compassion into life. "With the help of rock-inscriptions on every mountain and hill he wished to make man great.
But in the end he too was disheartened and unsuccessful. He too renounced his throne and became a poor priest in a Buddhist temple in the wilderness. He could do nothing worthwhile with his life. And in the end, overcome with sorrow, Ashok refused to take any medicine to revive his broken health and in a way brought about his own death.
This is our country's history.
Life is not for simple enjoyment. Life is for progressing in the divine Truth. That is the aim of life.
Then, during the mediaeval times, in our Bengal, Ballal Sen began his sadhana to try and build society and make it progress. He tried to organise the collectivity and improve it qualitatively. For this he finally took up sadhana with Aniruddha Bhatt, a Shaiva Tantrik guru on the bank of the Ganga living in a hut in a forest. He left his kingdom in the hands of his son Lakshman Sen.
If you observe you will see that one after the other, be it in the spiritual field of sadhana or in the social or national field of administration, man has always sought the path of progress and liberation in all the ways possible.
The force of knowledge, the force of philosophy, the force of thought and intellect in man can no doubt help him guide
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his practical life but they can also, on the contrary, cause imperfection by creating all kinds of problems in an unstable life. And so in trying to do good it succeeds in just the opposite.
No political ideology, religious discipline, philosophical vision, intellectual analysis, moral code or scientific discovery can bring about that perfect fulfilment in man. Man will continue to be the same half-human, half-animal being he is.
The Mother and Sri Aurobindo have told us that if man wants to get out of the present condition and consciousness he has to transform his nature and his consciousness. Over the human nature, the human consciousness, there is the Divine Nature, the Divine Consciousness. It is only in the light of this Divine Consciousness that life can be changed and transformed.
But for that man has to consciously will it. He has to call into him that Divine Consciousness. From below man has to invoke, to aspire for that Divine Consciousness and from above this Divine Consciousness will respond in answer to that aspiration, will consent to come down into human life. The transformation of human life depends on this conjunction of the aspiration from below and the consent from above.
But then until the transformation of human nature takes place, are we to just sit and twirl our thumbs? No, how can that be? Man has to first believe in this Truth with his mind and life. Then keeping this Truth in front he has to educate himself in an integral way. He has to keep the flame of aspiration steadily burning within him along with his reliance on the Divine Grace.
The work has to be done both from within and without. Within, the awakening of the psychic and psychic and spiritual sadhana.
Without, the sadhana of the mind, life and body. As a man comes to life with the conjunction of body and soul, so too
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the sadhana of man can be complete only with both the physical and the psychic effort.
Work is the support of this sadhana, a work that corresponds to one's nature and liking, what the Gita calls sahajakarma. Our aim is to raise oneself in integral Harmony through work and to make our work perfect with the help of the soul, to realise one's soul through karma and to realise one's karma through the soul.
And we should always endeavour to keep ourselves open to the Divine Consciousness. Then will the Divine Grace and Force descend in our being and body and make the total transformation possible.
The Mother has assured us that this Divine Force and Consciousness, this Supramental Consciousness has come down onto the earth. It is at work in man. The Supramental itself will descend into man and the Supramental Consciousness will by itself work out the transformation of human life as and when it wishes.
The whole earth is the instrument of the Mother's Divine Force of Action. Each human being is a centre of the Mother's Consciousness. When this Divine Consciousness will awaken in human life, when this Force will act, then the whole world will get transformed too.
Man has been doing what is within his own means so far. He is not capable of more than this. If he wants to find the key to his problems then he must take recourse to the Divine Consciousness and Force. The Divine Man shall emerge with the joint endeavour, the joint yagna (askesis) of Man and the Divine. This then is what Sri Aurobindo and the Mother called the "Sunlit Path" of human life.
So in brief this is what we must do now. We must try to:
1. Do our work as properly and as perfectly as we can.
2. Develop our mind, life and body, with proper culture and study, to the maximum of their possibilities.
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3. Keep a constant contact with our psychic being by Japa, prayer, meditation or simply by remembering.
4. Keep ourselves open upward so that when the higher forces come down, they can enter into us and do their work.
5. Remain quietly happy all the time.'
Dada was telling us that there are chakras in different parts of our body that interact with the cosmos and the Infinite:
'The ancient Rishis and sages have spoken to us about the six chakras: muladhara, swadhisthana, manipura, anahata, vishuddha, ajna and above these the sahasrara chakra.
Muladhara is right at the base of the spine, coiled like a serpent, what Sri Aurobindo has called "Coiled Energy" or the kundalini power.
Swadhistana is below the abdomen, the chakra of the
lower vital.
Manipura is at the navel-centre where the lower vital ends. Anahata is our heart-centre which is the seat of the psychic
and the higher vital.
Vishuddha is at the throat-centre, the centre of speech. Ajna chakra is located between the eyebrows. This is the
seat of the will-power, the seat of the will and psychic vision. Sahasrara is at the crown of the head, the centre of the
Overmind.
Besides these chakras the Mother and Sri Aurobindo have spoken of two other chakras, one at the knee and the other at the soles. The knee-chakra is the seat of the subconscious. There is a visible connection with the subconscious here.
And the sole of the foot is the seat of the Inconscient. Those who call this body the seat or altar of sadhana do it because truly with the body we can interact with the whole
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world and the Infinite Consciousness. With the help of each chakra we come into contact with a different plane.
It is like the doors and windows in a house. By opening a door or a window you get into touch with a particular part of the outer world. These chakras too are all subtle centres of being, the centroids of consciousness as it were.
Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is the sadhana of Integral Transformation whereby this body will become the Divine Body and the Divine or Supramental Consciousness will illuminate and take root in this very physical consciousness.
The mind of man acts today only within the confines of the unconscious, ignorant world. But as this mind becomes increasingly purified, illuminated and wide so will the cosmic and the Infinite Consciousness infuse his being. The flame of a lamp diffuses its light all around. The flame and-the circle of light it diffuses is what we can call the whole lamp. This body too is then a centre of an all-pervasive, infinite Force of Consciousness. This mind will be a fort of Light, dense with knowledge, what Sri Aurobindo has called the "Mind of Light".
I have felt that this Mind of Light must certainly also have a corresponding point or chakra in this body.
And so I checked all the chakras that are there in the different parts of our body. These are all the centroids of consciousness under whose pressure the various glands in the human body function. It is under the signals of the consciousness that they obey and create the different kinds of hormones. These are called chemical messengers and it is they who carry the information from the consciousness throughout the body. And thus arise in the body all kinds of feelings and sensations, and actions and reactions are regulated.
I feel that there is a new centre or chakra behind the head, just on top of the spinal column where the pituitary gland is located. This pituitary gland. is connected to the hypothalamus and the pineal gland. The hypothalamus controls
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and regulates the hormones of the pituitary gland. And so if we can control the chakra that surrounds the pituitary gland and make it work in a disciplined manner then our body will be able to develop a certain equanimity and balance. The different voluntary and involuntary muscles will be able to work in greater harmony. If someone can exert perfect control over this chakra, perfect control over the proper functioning of the glands in accordance with the body's needs, then he can gain total mastery over the body. Because all the movements of physical energy expressed in different actions and moods are controlled by its band-master and his signals. That is why if we can exert control over this then we will have conquered the decay of the body. We could stop the onset of this decay. If we can bring this chakra under our total control then we could attain even physical immortality.
What Sri Aurobindo has called the "Mind of Light" will be able to work out with the intervention of this chakra the conjunction of the Supramental and the physical being.
This chakra that surrounds the pituitary gland is the centroid of the "Mind of Light" in our body, the point where the mind and the body meet and become one.'
Dada wrote a brief note about this discovery in a diary given to him by the Mother. Here is that note:
17.1.55
It seems there is a new centre at the base of the hind brain. The pituitary gland is also situated here. As its proper functioning brings harmony and balance in the physical being and gives perfect co-ordination of the different muscles of the body (both voluntary and involuntary) so if one has got perfect control over this centre and can make the gland work according to the physical need at each moment then one will have perfect control over one's body. It will then function properly, the decay will be stopped, and the
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movements that bring the decay can be prevented. Thus perfect control and mastery over this centre may bring physical immortality.
Sri Aurobindo has spoken of 'Mind of Light' that will serve as the liaison between the supermind and the physical being. Perhaps this centre is the seat of the 'Mind of Light' in the body.
Dada was sitting that day as if lost in thought. Very quiet. Then Chandranath asked very gently:
'Dada, you surely have to fight against all sorts of things in the subtle world?'
'Yes, it does happen,' Dada replied. 'All kinds of adverse forces, evil formations. Once I saw that someone had grabbed me from behind and was trying to stab me with a dagger through my chest. I was unable to see his face but I seized his wrist holding the dagger and began resisting it away from my chest. After quite some time that hand and the dagger vanished.
On another occasion, not very long ago, I saw in front of me a terrifying face like a pot. Horrible and ugly and leaning over my face. So I screamed out in order to scare it away. Hearing my scream that horrible face disappeared. I made such a sound with my scream that even Savitri and Shanti woke up and came running towards me.'
'Dada, you dwell very high in the overmind and the supermind, don't you?' Chandranath asked again.
'Almost everyone has some sort of contact or the other with the overmind or the supermind and goes there but they do not know this. They also meet the gods. Almost everyone has seen God and keeps seeing Him. But they do not realise this, that is the difference. The main thing is to be able to see the Divine, to be able to get the Darshan of the gods in a fully conscious way.'
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Sri Aurobindo's Integral Education:
Physical and Vital Education
(A Talk on All India Radio (Pondicherry) on 23.7.71)
"The truth we seek is made of four major aspects: Love, Knowledge, Power and Beauty. These four attributes of the Truth will spontaneously express themselves in our being. The psychic will be the vehicle of true and pure love, the mind that of infallible power and strength and the body will be the expression of a perfect beauty and a perfect harmony.”
Man has various parts of being and a system of education, to be truly effective, must cover all the aspects of his existence.
Thus, the four basic elements of his being: the physical, the vital, the mental and the psychic must be developed and perfected by their appropriate education so that he achieves the utmost possible perfection of himself and contributes his maximum for the total progress of humanity.
These four parts of man are interrelated, even interwoven, and it is not possible to separate them distinctly in their functioning's. Each part influences the others and the education of each has its effect on the whole. Each part, however, calls for a special approach of education.
Now, material form is intended to express the Divine Beauty. Wherever we turn we see Nature presenting a panorama of beauty. The glorious sunrise on the eastern horizon, the floating of white fleecy clouds in a clear blue sky, the rolling mass of waters in a turbulent river, the mighty mountains lifting their heads up in the sky, the lush green foliage in a thick forest are so many faces of Beauty. In the animal world, the majestic approach of a lion, the dancing peacock,
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the swift running of a cheetah or a deer, the swinging body of a king cobra with its hood upraised, are equally beautiful.
The human body too must express beauty - beauty in form and beauty in movement.
A well-developed and proportionate body, with a bright face and eyes, healthy skin, an upright carriage, a cheerful disposition, radiating health, vigour and vitality, is beauty personified. So also grace, rhythm, power and energy harmoniously expressing themselves in its movements are beauty in action.
All these may be considered as inherent qualities. But education and culture in an ideal environmental condition can do much for the maximum utilisation of the potentialities.
The body is the pedestal of our terrestrial existence. The body is the means for the expression of life, mind and soul. Its importance extends far beyond its own well-being. Apart from the expression of the truth of the body itself, its condition, good or bad, has great relevance to the expression of the truths of the other parts. The body has to be taught to live as long as possible by maintaining its health, strength and energies.
To preserve the body strong and active it is essential that apart from observing the normal rules of health a sound programme of physical education should be adopted.
"The basic programme will be to build a body beautiful in form, harmonious in posture, supple and agile in its movements, powerful in its activities and resistant in its health and organic functions.”
A systematic physical education with suitable food, adequate rest and sleep, personal and environmental hygienic conditions, appropriate activities of self-expression, and inner quietude and calm, goes to produce physical fitness
with all its components of health, strength, endurance and skill.
Physical skill means speed, agility, suppleness, a good neuromuscular co-ordination, spontaneous reflex, grace,
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harmony and those special capacities which can be acquired only by special exercising and activities. "An extended and many-sided physical education and discipline" is needed.
For discipline and morale, a sound and strong character are important and they are naturally acquired by a meaningful physical education. It helps "to form even necessitate the qualities of courage, hardihood, energetic action and initiative or call for skill, steadiness of will, rapid decision and action, the perception of what is to be done in an emergency and dexterity in doing it." Activities of such an organised system of physical education promote sportsmanship, leadership, obedience to leadership and spirit of fair play so necessary for a healthy and progressive life, individual and collective.
The vital, the life-energy part of man, is more difficult.
"The vital being in us is the seat of impulses and desires, of enthusiasm and violence, of dynamic energy and desperate depression, of passion and revolt. It can set in motion everything, build up and realise, it can also destroy and mar everything.”
Education of the vital proceeds in various stages. Firstly, a good amount of life energy must be generated by the vital. When the body functions in its optimum health and fitness, and there is harmony between the body, the vital and the mind, plenty of vital energy is generated in the system. This balanced state of the various parts of the being also creates a very congenial condition for contact with the universal energy from which, if one is trained sufficiently, one can draw almost inexhaustibly.
The second step is to learn how to preserve this energy within oneself and not to throw it out and waste. If the vital is left to itself it brings in strong desires, impulses and their variable reactions draining the energies. The process of coercion and suppression will not do. That can only bring violent
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disturbances in the being. Or if one sits tightly upon it in order not to give it an expression, the vital is likely to get weakened.
But this energy is not meant to be bottled up. It is to be used. And the next part of vital education is to learn how to use this energy rightly.
To be able to use it properly one must take up the education of the senses, the eyes, ears, nose, palate and touch, which gather and feed the mind with their experience. These senses must be trained to perceive and receive correctly and report exactly to the mind. The mind too must be taught to interpret them justly without bias or preconceived notions or ideas.
Sufficient use of the senses, exercise or full attention and power of observation, a strong memory, along with the discipline of the emotions with the purification of moral habits, can help in this regard. An aesthetic sense and feeling for harmony and beauty must be cultivated.
A good amount of the vital energy is needed for the normal life-process. But still a good part remains unutilised. That must be tapped for individual and collective progress, and there is so much to build and create in this beautiful world of ours. To conclude in Sri Aurobindo's own words:
"Our life, still full of obscurity and confusion and occupied with so many dull and lower aims, must feel all its urges and instincts exalted and irradiated and become a glorious counterpart of the Supramental super-life above. The physical consciousness and physical being, the body itself must reach a perfection in all that it is and does which now we can hardly conceive. It may even in the end be suffused with a light and beauty and bliss from the Beyond and the life divine assume a body divine.”
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(The following three pieces were also written originally in English)
The following qualities are essential for good performance in all the different branches of physical activities.
1. Good technique
2. Physical strength
3. Endurance
4. Improvement of those parts of the body that are lagging
behind the others in strength, shape and development
5. Physical fitness and health
6. Strong and determined will
7. Constant aspiration for endless progress
8. Balanced and systematic hard work
9. A highest possible ideal
10. Courage to face and vanquish any situation that tries to
spoil the ideal.
11. Plasticity to adapt to any circumstance when needed and must recognise and change one's mistake when- ever it comes up to the surface of one's nature.
12. Divine Grace
If any of these misses from your programme it will spoil your possibility of good performance.
Good technique is achieved by constant practice of any item along the most scientific and improved methods prescribed by the authorities in this special subject.
Physical strength is achieved by practising exercises that demand great strength.
Endurance is achieved by long distance running or skipping for a long time.
The parts that are lagging behind others in strength, shape and development may be improved by practising special exercises intended for those parts.
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Physical fitness and health may be achieved by the correct application of the health laws as regards food, sleep and rest, exercises and cleanliness (both physical and inner), keeping a cheerful and poised state with a motto of moderation in everything.
Strong and determined will and a constant aspiration for endless progress will be developed by living an inner life and applying in life the teachings of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.
At the age of 17 you ought not to be satisfied with the work you were doing when you were 12 or 14, you should progressively try to do more and more hard work. That is the only way to surpass your limit and if you practise conscientiously you will see that things that were once hard and difficult are now turned easy.
20.7.53
Immortality
Release of physical energy destroys matter.
Conservation of energy consolidates matter.
For a healthy, strong and beautiful body, -for a body that is capable of executing perfect harmony and strength in all possible movements, - the physical energy must be totally preserved without the slightest wastage. But energy is produced constantly in our body much more than we need for our physical existence in a perfect state and if we do not use this surplus energy for some definite purpose it may bring perversion in the being and destroy the physical balance.
Physical energy should be used for one's integral progress and for some constructive work which is the true expression of one's true self.
"When this process will work automatically with joy and peace and without any struggle and effort, it will lead us to physical' immortality.
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Until then our sole object should be to keep this constantly front of us and to work for it incessantly.
25.8.53
Do not expect anything from anybody. If one does by himself what he ought to have done it is good. If he does not it is good also. Do not be pleased with one and displeased with the other.
5.10.53
Someone asked one day:
'What did you use to do, Dada, during the time you spent with the Mother in Her room?'
Dada remained silent for a while and then spoke:
'What else? I would do whatever little thing the Mother asked me to do. She wanted some water, for example. I would serve Her water. She needed a piece of paper to write on. I would hand Her that. Or She would be lying and I would raise the pillow a little bit to make Her more comfortable.'
'Is that all? Nothing else? I've been told that after Sri Aurobindo's physical departure you would constantly stay with the Mother like Her shadow. The Mother had told you not to leave Her even for a moment. Was it only for these little jobs?'
'No, that is not correct,' Dada explained. 'The Mother would write to me occasionally about the real reason why I stayed with the Mother, what I did, what its spiritual import and relevance was. But She did not want anybody else then to know about this. Everyone does not have the necessary right or capacity to know everything. They would not have understood or perhaps misunderstood. They might have felt jealous or envious. It would have been to their disadvantage. It
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would have harmed the Mother's work. That is why She did not want anybody to know about it. At least that is how it was then.
But I am sure the Mother did not want that this should never be known out of courtesy's sake. Otherwise She would not have written these things down for me. She could have just told them to me orally and not put them down in writing.
And then if nobody gets to know the real truth, that too is not good. That too can cause misunderstandings to arise. False and wrong notions keep piling up in the mind. That gives birth to negative statements and negative attitudes. That too is not good.
That is why there are many people who are close to me who have told me: "Dada, let people know the real importance of your place beside the Mother, then and now. Let people know the truth. If they still harbour wrong thoughts, or say incorrect things, then let them do that with the full knowledge of the truth. That will then no more be your responsibility.
"But those who want the truth, let them benefit from this knowledge. There would remain no cloud of uncertainty in their belief and trust. You cannot ignore your responsibility vis-à-vis the future."
I thought about it and felt that what they said was not wrong. And so I feel the need today for letting you know a part of that. The Mother has written a lot of things to me, enough to fill up a big box. I have decided to publish a few select things from that.
I have heard it from the Mother that Sri Aurobindo remarked on seeing me the first time: "Pranab has a strong vital." Then he added: "He has a grand psychic." In answer the Mother told him: "That's why he can do." But what the Mother meant when She told Sri Aurobindo "he can do" I did not understand it then.
After Sri Aurobindo left His body the Mother wrote to me on a piece of paper in French
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( I want to tell you to what point you are what Sri Aurobindo asked you to be when He left His body - the material support of my body, the energy that enables it to face all the ordeals after this sudden and irreparable collapse of that feeling of total and absolute security that gave me thirty years of unmixed happiness.)'
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In the November of 1953 the Mother wrote in a book She gave to Dada:
(To Pranab, the foundation-stone of the edifice of the Future)
Dada recounted to us in one of the conversations:
'One day, at half past five in the morning, the Mother told me:
"In your whole family, your mother, father, brothers, in all I see a special sign of Sri Aurobindo's divine stamp. That is why I have made all of you an integral part of me. If the need arises I could integrate your whole town. You have taken a new birth in me."
And saying this the Mother wrote this:
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(There is no limit to your miracles, now you have reincarnated in me the perfected spirit of your family.)'
The Mother wrote to Dada:
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(There are two complementary aspects of the liberating action of the divine Grace on earth among men; both aspects are equally indispensable but not equally appreciated:
The sovereign, immutable peace which frees from all anxiety, tension and suffering.
The dynamic and all-powerful progress which frees from all bondage, attachment and inertia.
The peace is universally appreciated and recognised as being divine; but progress is well-received only by those who have an intense and courageous aspiration.)
(The Mother wrote to Dada about how to control human beings:)
(In their ordinary consciousness human beings cannot tolerate any authority imposed upon them by any other human being who seems to be on the same level as themselves.
And on the other hand, to have the right to impose itself on others, a human authority must be enlightened, impartial and unselfish to the extent that nobody can question its value.)
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(Become master of your body - this will lead you to Freedom.)
Dada said:
The Mother used to always write to me two cards for my birthday. One generally for other people to see and another which was not to be shown to anyone. This was meant exclusively for me, the words of greeting and blessing for my birthday. I had not shown any of them so far. I have selected only a few from among these. There are many others but let those confidential words of the Mother remain confidential for the time being.'
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( On the way to Victory.)
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(To Pranab, Bonne Fête! Victory to you, the victory for which you aspire the most, with my blessings.)
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(To Pranab. Let it be the assurance of an integral Victory. With my love and blessings.)
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(To Pranab with all my love and confidence. He shall be victorious.)
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(To my beloved child and faithful companion in the building up of the New World.
With my love, my trust and my blessings for ever.)
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(To Pranab Bonne Fête! Forward, ever forward towards the Victory... of the new creation.)
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(To Pranab with perfect Love. After the manifestation of the Truth will come the supreme manifestation of the perfect essential Love.
Then, your being will be fulfilled.)
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(It is only an uncontested rule upon earth of Truth and Love that can satisfy our aspiration. That is why we shall endure and fight, up to the final victory, for the realisation of Truth and Love.)
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(In true love for ever.)
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(O thou who art the strength of my body, to thee all my love and my gratefulness.)
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(Love Divine.
With love we fight.
For love we conquer.
Through love we transform.
In love we realise.)
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(To Pranab. The divine love and affection wishes you Bonne
Fête and Bonne Année.)
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(To Pranab. Let the Divine's Love be with you at every moment and in everything.)
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(Bonne Fête! to Pranab. May Heaven and earth collaborate to make you live in Light, Force and Joy. With love.)
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(Bonne Fête! To Pranab. Love manifested in Truth, is the Supreme Victor and will conquer earth for the Divine Life. With love.)
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(My loved one. The Divine's love is with you always and for ever.)
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(Bonne Fête To Pranab with everlasting love.)
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Pranab, The Divine loves you.)
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(Bonne Fête to Pranab. With all my love I pray for your full Realisation.)
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Sri Aurobindo's book The Mother was brought out in a deluxe edition. Two thousand one hundred copies were printed, each one of which was numbered. The number 2 copy of this book was given to Dada by the Mother with the following words:
(From the Mother to her dearest son, with love and blessings.)
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The deluxe edition of Sri Aurobindo's Collected Poems and Plays brought out only one hundred copies, each one of which was numbered. The copy number 48 was given by the Mother to Dada.
Sri Aurobindo wrote on it Himself with His blessings.
(To Pranab with blessings. Sri Aurobindo)
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The book Words of the Mother was given by the Mother to Dada with the following words:
(Let this help to take one step more towards transformation.)
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Entretiens, Aphorismes et Paradoxes was given by the Mother to Dada with these words:
(To Pranab with love, my birthday present.)
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The Mother gave the French edition of Prières et Méditations to Dada:
(To Pranab so that he realises.)
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For the English edition of Prayers and Meditations the Mother wrote:
(To Pranab, in memory of the French lessons...)
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Words of the Mother (Fourth Series) was given to Dada with these words from the Mother:
(It is given with love and meant as a useful companion.)
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The Mother's book Education came to Dada with these words:
(Given with the power to realise...)
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The Mother wrote the following personal note to Dada:
(My dream may seem absurd and impossible but I must live it, because without my dream the world is meaningless
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(Today to love Mother; Tomorrow to love Mother and everyday
to love Mother who loves me always and for all eternity.)
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In a notebook given by the Mother to Dada, She wrote:
(To my beloved child for him to note his experiences and remembrances. With my love and blessings for ever.)
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(In order to teach French to Dada the Mother had Herself
written these two things on two separate slips of paper for Dada to say:)
(Mother, give me the perseverance so that I learn to speak
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Let this volume close with the following two writings of the Mother. After this words have no meaning. We can only reflect in silence, in deep meditation what Dada is and how much he means to the Mother.
The Mother made this proclamation on his birthday:
To Pranab, For his birthday
Realisation.
That is what we aspire for and for which we shall strive unceasingly however long it may take to achieve.
With love and blessings.
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Bonne Fête to Pranab.
To he who is my physical strength,
One in the aspiration, One in the endeavour,
One in the endurance, One in the Realisation.
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