(A Counter to) Deliberate Distortions of Sri Aurobindo's Life and Yoga

Letter to the Managing Trustee of the Ashram

Sudha Sinha

Sudha Sinha is a well-known writer in Hindi. Her article on “Education for Creative Thinking” received the national award for the best article in Hindi for the year 1967. She was also nominated the best writer of Bihar State for the year 1985. She has published 50 books so far and written numerous articles in various journals such as Navneet, Navbharat Times, Kadambini, Hindustan, Dharmyug & Kahaani. Her stories are presently being broadcast by the All India Radio, Pondicherry.

(Mother! Grant me your blessings so that my memory and expression remain faultless.)

Having come to Pondicherry with the aim of offering my services to the Ashram after retirement from government services, I met Shri Jayantilal Parikh, the founder and main person in charge of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives. I learnt that he was in search of a person who was good in Hindi. I carried with me one or two earlier publications of mine which he glanced through cursorily and asked me a few questions. I gathered that he felt reassured about me. He told me to join work the very next day and added that he will inform the person who looks after the inmates’ work distribution that I am working at the Archives. He also fixed up the time for me and said that for now he would want me to start translating Sri Aurobindo’s unpublished writings on Kalidas. He arranged for me to have the original manuscripts in English and I started the work immediately remembering the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Till that time there was no English-Hindi dictionary at the Archives; I took a copy of Dr Kamil Bulke’s English – Hindi dictionary and respectfully placed it there amidst other books of reference.

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The joy of translating lines from Sri Aurobindo was beyond description. I was experiencing that divine joy and upliftment. One day I was stuck at a certain portion; I felt as if I neither had the words nor the skill to express it. I tried to gather everything possible from all the corners of my mind, but this mental effort was of no use. Feeling lost, I stopped working; but before leaving the place I did this much – I noted the difficult passage in my diary.

My mind kept hovering over the lines till I was awake. A sense of otherness came on me. I sleep well; so it must have been that day as well! It was around 3 in the morning when I woke up fresh and felt like writing something. Something? I did not understand what was happening – something started coming from somewhere and like an instrument I opened my diary and translated those lines,1 and that too in poetic form. I couldn’t believe it; it was actually poetry. I read it again and again, there was no need to change anything much; I prepared a second draft (I had not yet started working on computers till then).

On reaching the Archives I went straight to Jayantilal-da and told him my experience. I recounted it spontaneously. The state with which I had been overcome while translating those lines, I felt Jayantilal had entered that state himself, and his throat was full of that feeling. The sense of what he conveyed to me with great emotion was that he was very happy and that I was open to the positive forces that helped me while writing. On that day itself, he took the decision that when the book with those essays will be published, it will carry this passage as its foreword. So did it happen. The words that Jayantilal-da said in praise of me and the blessings he gave, I would like to keep them to myself; but this much I can tell that his last blessing-command was, “Keep it as it is.”

Just then Peter came up to him like a comet. He had some papers in his hand. He started raising his voice to say something to him. He was showing him those pages, shaking his hands. What I could understand was that he had come to quarrel with Jayantilal- da for having raised objection to his editing some of the unpublished portions of Sri Aurobindo in a capricious manner. He was as excited as Jayantilal-da was calm. At that moment I

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asked to take leave of him and he permitted me with a nod of his head.

Jayantilal-da started keeping ill health. His naturally smiling countenance began to be enveloped by a shadow of gloom and repentance. He could not survive long with the grief and pain he bore in his heart owing to Peter. One day, when he was disturbed due to Peter’s insulting attitude, I went to ask him something. He said, “I am fed up with this man!” He then spoke in Hindi, “I will have to do something.” But before he could do anything, before he could save the Archives from Peter’s dark hands, he left this world. After the influence of Jayantilal-da’s physical presence was gone, the asura got a free hand. He started robbing the place. He started speaking openly against Sri Aurobindo. It is only after this that I met Shri Manoj Dasgupta and brought to his notice Peter’s unabashed deeds. But I found that Peter and his collaborators were never restrained. That unfortunate, semi-literate, unrefined profligate kept writing books against Sri Aurobindo while sitting inside the Archives room. The mask of deception was that he was editing Sri Aurobindo’s new set of works. There was nobody to keep an eye on the delay in the work and the inner treachery; even now there is none, because the Ashram’s administration is in the PIT of Peter.

There is a need to look carefully at all the books that Peter has touched with his filthy hands; it is necessary to investigate and remove whatever and wherever he may have put objectionable things. Towards this end there is a need for a team of highly learned men to work day and night who (1) understand Sri Aurobindo’s literature, (2) have faith in Sri Aurobindo, (3) are conversant with Sri Aurobindo’s original conceptions of “Integral Yoga” and “Supermind”, (4) are able to take their vision up to those aspects of Indian culture that Sri Aurobindo has seen.

No need to mention that the editing of Sri Aurobindo’s works cannot be left in the hands of a fraudulent characterless loafer who harbours hatred towards India. That a fraud cheated us by wearing a mask of deception does not mean that, when we have discovered the cheat, we must place him in the panel of experts.

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As of now there is only this mistake that a school drop-out, lusty American taxi driver managed to enter that department of the Ashram which had place only for learned persons. Now that everything is exposed, then what is the purpose of taking sides with that scoundrel? Foolish ego of a few petty-minded persons who are hand in glove with a habitual offender! Some persons with a “Yes Boss” mentality are afraid of losing some personal privileges! A hypocritical peace for a few beloved children of the Mother! Come out of this self created prison house! Look inside yourself! Does not your soul bleed with the insult hurled at the Supreme Master?

With humility 17 July 2010

Notes

1. No one who has not lived the life of India, till it has become part of his breathing and woven in with every thread of his imagination, can fully appreciate the poem. If one does not know the charm of its hills, the scent of its flowers, the beauty of its skies, the flowing sacredness of its rivers with all the phases & emotions of an Indian river’s life, if one cannot distinguish & thrill to the touch of its various winds, if one cannot clothe its local places with ancient historic & mythical associations or people them with the strange host of beautiful & weird figures & faces which the imagination of its people has created, if one does not recreate for himself the ancient splendours of its cities, the sense of peace & infinity in its temples & hermitages and the simple sweetness of its rural life, for him the Meghaduta offers only its shell.

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