Gangadhar

I have been thinking for sometime about a very great personality of the Ashram. He remains, so to say, an unsung hero, but a true child of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

It appears one day, suddenly it was Sri Aurobindo who said: “Where is Gangadharan?”

Nobody seemed to know.

Sri Aurobindo: “All of you are centred around your own selves, and you don't care about him because he is a simple man, but Gangadharan is constantly in our consciousness. He is a great soul. He is lying ill in his room, somebody kindly go and attend to him.”

Immediately, Arvamedu Iyengar alias Amrita-da went to his room. He found Gangadharan-ji lying on the floor. He was unable to get up even. From several days he had not even his food. But it did not in the least matter to Gangadharan-ji. He was simply calling the name of the Mother, and that’s about it!

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

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

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

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

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

As he advanced in age I was looking after his small needs, such as providing biscuits, bringing the money from cashier's room meant for his servant, and so on. For that the gratitude he showered was unthinkable. Even now, tears roll down as I remember it.

He was a great saint, and the spiritual experiences he wrote are of great value, written by a simple heart! Such was the simplicity and true greatness of this man that even his servant has become a saint!

Towards the end, he was not keeping well for several years. His relatives from Veerampattinam wanted to take him back. But all that he agreed was they could do his last rites after his death at Veerampattinam. Permission was taken from Dyuman-bhai to that effect.

Now, he had some urinary problem, and he had probably not passed urine for a couple of days. So I told him, on 16th of August, 1992, in the late morning, “Gangadharan-ji, let us go to the JIPMER hospital, so that this painful situation of the urine will be at least solved.”

He replied: “Brother, my time has come.”

I insisted, “Gangadharan-ji, that time comes for all of us, but why physically suffer now?”

He would not listen. So, finally, I called Manoj-da to tell him. As soon as a senior like Manoj-da told him, he readily agreed to go to JIPMER.

At 1.10 p.m. I took him to the hospital. On our way to the hospital we were talking all the while, and he talked normally, even when we were in front of the casualty ward. I went in and returned with the doctor in less than 2 minutes. The doctor declared, “You have brought us a dead body!”

So I returned back to Ashram. Gangadharan-ji was taken to Veerampattinam. For three days there was no deterioration in his body. Finally, on the 4th day, he was cremated on the Veerampattinam beach, on the backdrop of the vast ocean and the infinite blue sky above.

What a sublime and indescribable atmosphere there was!