Nirodbaran biography of christopher

In the Ashram he entered upon a new life and had many experiences and realizations. He returned to the Ashram with the intention of practising Yogaand took up work as the resident doctor. He found to his surprise that poetry was one of the vocations taken up by some of the disciples. As Sri Aurobindo had already withdrawn from the public life of the ashram, he communicated with and instructed the sadhaks via letters, and Nirodbaran entered into a voluminous correspondence with Sri Aurobindo described as 'epistolary history', alone runs into 1, pages who encouraged and guided his attempts at poetry.

He published a collection of his poems as Blossom of the Sun and 50 poems by Nirodbaranwhich were revised and commented on by Sri Aurobindo. In November Sri Aurobindo broke his leg and as a physician Nirodbaran was one of the disciples with medical knowledge who attend him while he recuperated. Nirodbaran was born into an aristocratic and distinguished Zamindar family.

Later he had published Talks with Sri Aurobindo 3 volumesCorrespondence with Sri Aurobindo 2 volumesand his memoir 12 years with Sri Aurobindoas well as various volumes of poetry and other writings. He went peacefully. Sri Aurobindo told us a humorous story about his teaching. A student complained once that what he was teaching was not according to the book and pointed out the apparent mistake.

And it was Sri Aurobindo, again, who was behind the loss of his stately shikha, his prized Brahmin tuft. The story is both amusing and revealing. Sri Aurobindo is said to have put two or three young men to nipping off his shikha at any cost, and it was done by no one else than Nolini at 2 a. Can we imagine Sri Aurobindo doing it, even out of fun to strike at his orthodoxy?

Well, the sequel will explain the meaning of the irreligious practical joke. One day his father came to his room. Tears then streamed down his cheeks. She belongs to a rich family…. They are likely to give, as dowry, fifty thousand rupees in cash.

Nirodbaran biography of christopher

I have just seen the girl. Yes, she is quite dark in complexion with pock marks on the face. Her family is extremely orthodox…. But you have pulled down the whole edifice. The incident shows at any rate the intimacy that had developed between the guru and the young shishya. His reminiscences further disclose that this closeness was not of our earthly making.

Then, his strange vision while standing by a village pond at eventide is a corroboration of my bright surmise, and sends our memory back to the vision of the Magi in the Bible. Once he had come with papers and documents to be signed by Sri Aurobindo. He was waiting at the door for permission to enter. Sri Aurobindo sat up on the bed, Amrita sat on the floor by the side, put the paper before Sri Aurobindo showing him the place where to sign.

But I felt that each time he was putting his fingers on the papers, they were eager to have a touch, but the Master did not give the poor fellow any chance. His supramental nature fought shy of any demonstration. Even with regard to the Mother, Sri Aurobindo was very restrained in any external physical exhibition of his feelings. We did not realise till then that Sri Aurobindo was capable of so much emotion.

Sri Aurobindo was sitting on the bed. This was Amrita, the hungry heart! This hungry heart had some spiritual vital sustenance with the arrival of his nieces. But let that come at its right place. Once when he was late, Sri Aurobindo kept on waiting. Another anecdote of the early days, recounted by Sri Aurobindo which I have recorded elsewhere, runs like this.

One day most unexpectedly I entered his room to see him holding the hand of one of his nieces who seemed to be in a mood of abhiman. He at once dropped the hand and I came out with a delighted smile! It looks as if all old sadhaks have to pass through such emotional experiences in order to give a completeness to their integral yoga as did Shankarathrough a renewed contact with either their daughters, sisters, adopted or real, nieces or various other relations.

This niece took some lessons in English from me. Amrita used to inquire about her progress, but what he stressed most was that I should try to make her write correctly so that she might be of use in her work. Her sister also helped. Speaking of his illness, I was a bit concerned when I first heard about its being an affection of the heart.

I knew that he had prostate trouble, perhaps high blood pressure too, but both were kept in check. During the last days his growing pale complexion was a topic of frequent discussion. When he had the second attack, I felt very uneasy, but the crisis passed and he was slowly recovering. He used to be seen sitting up in his chair in the early morning in front of his central door.

That was his last joke. But I came away with a very bad prognostic impression. He looked ash pale, extremely weak, even though cheerful. Amrita has fainted. The bird had flown away! Soon Dr. Sanyal arrived and gave the same verdict. The news outwinged the wind, and the rush of visitors followed in a calm mourning procession. One was compelled to close the door with a promise to open it the next morning.

From morning till about 4 p. Most of the people were in tears. They had lost a true brother. Revealing had been also the occasions of his birthdays — memorable fetes. Flowers and fruits, garlands and presents filled the whole room and in the midst of them all was seated the King of Spring, face beaming, lips cracking jokes, hands distributing sweets, a veritable Anandamaya Purusha.

Like Lamb among the essayists, Amrita undoubtedly was the most lovable of our old sadhaks. Could not the Mother prolong his life? The answer is that there is no certitude below the Supermind; until it has completely established its victory over the forces of darkness and death, such casualties cannot be ruled out. Had that work come to a ripe end or was his body so worn out by disease that the soul decided to discard the tattered rags?

Whatever it may be, we learn from the Mother that he is always with her, moving about and freely just like a child. His wonderful early vision, does it not speak of his age-old tie with Sri Aurobindo? What more do we want? Ripeness is all, and that ripeness he attained, whatever technical terms you may apply to his inner status. I must, however, end on a note of melancholy, from my Man of Doubt.

His office is there working efficiently, though perhaps a bit lacklustre, but, the constant nirodbaran biography of christopher, the ananda-mela has come to a close. There has passed away from us a presence which will be difficult to replace. Still, as a consolation for what we have lost, we have among us our staunch elders, Nolini, Champaklal, Dyuman, pillars planted by the Mother herself.

Mother India, Sept. True friendship is an act of Divine Grace. I had such a friendship with Pradyot. Everyone in the Ashram was aware of it, but few knew about its nature, depth and duration. Some remarked that ours was a strange relation, for we hardly expressed any emotion, met very rarely, exchanged very few words. Nobody could realise that we were so close together.

Well, our friendship was about seventy years old. Passing boyhood, youth, adult state, it had arrived at a mature old age, when he suddenly took his leave. The tale of this tie cannot be told and finished within two words. Its romantic background and classical development demand a story with a deeper meaning. I shall portray only the classical picture, in short the period of our combined Ashram-life.

One must remember, however, that his life was the consequential development of his previous growth. I have seen him and known him as a young boy of character endowed with a fine brain calm and collected; at a later stage, as a courageous, kind, liberal, unpretentious and active lover of work. Concealed behind all these attributes, was the soul of a child who had love and good will for all, capable of sacrifice for a cause.

He had drawn the far and remote near by his magical charm. In one word his life was the history of a progressive unfoldment and its last was spiritual. For the spiritual, I had a small part to play. After our return from Scotland, we were posted at far-away places, but very soon I became a member of the Ashram. Naturally, my gravitational pull tried to draw him towards the Ashram from the Jamshedpur Tata factory where he was serving as an electrical engineer.

He answered and came only for a short stay. The pull did not appear to be very strong. I told him only one thing, that he should try to send some regular offering, however small it might be. He responded, but evinced no further interest. I thought that perhaps he had come to meet me and Jyotirmoyee whom he had known in Scotland and used to call didi.

Is there any use communicating with him? Some people say that everything one does in this world is of some use or other known or unknown. Sri Aurobindo had to make a sign. Perhaps he composed the poem because I used to send him my poems and they may have made him try his own hand. Meanwhile he suddenly got married to a Bengali Christian Lady, who was a School Inspectress and whom he had known through Jyotirmoyee and me in England.

He informed Sri Aurobindo about his marriage. Slowly his interest in the Ashram began to take shape and he formed a centre in Jamshedpur with the local Bengalis. He earned their love and respect because of his position and loving nature. In his job too his worth began to be recognised and he rose to the position of a Superintendent and even acted for the Chief Engineer in his absence.

Here a house was taken on lease and named Jamshedpur House for the visitors from the centre. I was very happy to see his growing interest and he surprised me once by asking if he could get a used pen of Sri Aurobindo in exchange for his new Sheaffer pen. The Mother told Sri Aurobindo about it in my presence and had the wish granted. Now he was paying occasional short visits, but not during the Darshan times.

I could meet him only in the evening, since I was serving Sri Aurobindo. Then he, Sisir Mitra and I would spend some hours together, and after his dinner with me we would part. For the rest of the day, we did not see each other. I observed that his meal was restricted and very sparing, for he was suffering from gastric trouble about which he had already written to Sri Aurobindo.

Once at Jamshedpur he had an acute pain. He dreamt that Mother Kali had taken him on her lap and was rocking him like a baby. He used to come in European dress; I supplied my dhoti and shirt with which he used to go and see the Mother. I had no farther contact with him during the day. His wife also came twice or thrice and stayed for some time.

They were financially well off, for both of them were in service. Once the Mother lodged her in the Sri Aurobindo Society present centre and I used to be invited there from time to time. She was a very fine lady, motherly, quiet and generous. I used to call her Rani-di. She loved Pradyot very much and was proud of his high abilities and name in Jamshedpur.

He was averse to public shows. He sat outside the temple in the courtyard, reading a newspaper. Will you come with me? He obeyed her, but when they came out, he lost trace of the lady: she had vanished. Long afterwards, he got the truth of the matter, that it was the Mother-Goddess herself who had appeared before him. There was a traditional belief that none could return without having the darshan of the Mother.

He wanted to leave Tata and take up a government job at Calcutta which had fallen vacant. The reason was that the authorities at Tata were not willing to consider his just claim, for though he first officiated as Chief Engineer and then held that post he was not given the salary assigned to it. The Mother, on hearing about it, asked Pradyot to give them an ultimatum.

It had no effect. Perhaps the authorities were not very pleased with him for his being too popular with the workers whose fair demand met with his sympathy. Once there was a big strike in the factory over the pay. Violence broke out causing injuries and bloodshed. As the ultimatum had failed, Pradyot applied for the Calcutta job. On the interview day, he saw that many candidates were his own assistants.

So he kept apart and was pacing in the corridor. When his turn came, the interview passed off splendidly. He was certified as being of outstanding merit. It so happened that on the eve of the interview he found a book on Electricity on his table, but he did not know how it had come or who had placed it there. He began, however, to peruse it. After the interview he realised that all the questions he had been asked had been fully answered in that book and so it had been an easy ride for him.

When he returned home from the interview, the book hand vanished! He had also some qualms about his health. But all barriers fell down before the unseen Power that acted. Afterwards he was given the job of the Chief Engineer in Damodar Valley. It was a new project. It seemed that all the officers of the Damodar Valley wanted Pradyot to be appointed as their chief.

His fame had gone abroad. They had already heard of his ability and efficiency. After he had settled in Calcutta with his wife who had now retired from service, he came in contact with Ashram disciples and was made Chairman of the Patha mandir some years later. He came to know Dr. Sanyal as well. A special feature of his chairmanship was that the members of the Pathamandir often used to be invited to his house and the deliberations ended with light refreshments.

Pradyot was fond of having a circle of friends and enjoying diversion with them. Otherwise he avoided so-called socials as far as possible. I had marked this trait in him in Glasgow and of course here in the Ashram his evening entertainments were a well-known feature. His birthday was a festive occasion when even the workers of his departments were treated liberally.

In his household the servants used to receive special treatment on that day. What shall I give them? Once Pandit Nehru visited the Plant and was very pleased with the whole organisation. Pradyot was always in contact with the Mother and sought her advice in various matters. One such example is still imprinted on my mind. Pradyot had come for an urgent consultation.

Do one thing. Bring him to the Tennis Ground. After the game, I shall see him there. Pradyot was in his suit and with his valise. The Mother Selected a place a little away from the base-line of the court though there was enough room at the corner, and sat for consultation. Both of them started their deliberations while we went on with our tennis.

But I was terribly nervous lest a ball should strike her. I had therefore to abandon the play and like a good boy take my seat by their side to listen to their jargon. And this was precisely what the Mother had wanted and the way she did it was typically hers. She could be very naughty at times. The interview over, we returned.

The next day, I believe, she arranged a talk to be given by him from the Projector Room in the playground on his own subject. The Mother was herself present. Pradyot spoke on the construction, management, etc. The Mother was very much impressed and said that it was a fine delivery, clear, lucid, distinct, always to the point and never too much.

Once, it seems, Pradyot had a confrontation with the Central Government regarding the extension of their line at some place. The Committee at Delhi made a strong objection saying that Bengal had been given sufficient advantage. The Governing Body was called to Delhi. They wanted Pradyot to accompany them; he was not very willing. The officials simply would not hear the arguments and raised technical counterpoints about some grades to which the opponents found no effective reply.

They waited for Pradyot and egged him on to reply. The petition was granted. That was Pradyot. He was really excellent in deliberations and people used to be afraid of him and confessed their failure to meet his points. There was a talk of his going to France. One loses much that one has received of spiritual refinement. Thus Pradyot had to beat a retreat and go back to his work.

But he began to feel that he should retire and settle in the Ashram. He could not do that either, so long as his wife was not inclined to take the plunge. Here there is hardly any scope for his talent. Sanyal and Pradyot. Perhaps the inner field was ready. Sanyal preceded Pradyot. Thus two distinguished and well-known professional experts left Calcutta, leaving their respective circles of friends and admirers in complete bewilderment.

It seems Dr. Roy had a nirodbaran biography of christopher time convincing the members that if Pradyot was going to Pondicherry to serve the Mother very little could be done by Dr. Roy and there was no way to prevent it. Now that the merger had taken place, the Mother had envisaged the possibility of the Ashram technicians taking part in the Pondicherry administration.

Pradyot, Sanyal, M. The house was so called because the British Consul in the old days used to stay there. Now it was fully renovated and the upstairs was allotted to Pradyot, a lovely spacious apartment with a big room to serve as his office. Sanyal was settled in another palatial building overlooking the sea. The Mother knew how to give due consideration to people according to their status and their past.

Soon after Pradyot had become an inmate of the Ashram the Mother formed two committees: A. C, — agricultural and technological. All the members concerned were called by the Mother and she herself inaugurated the meeting, introduced Pradyot to them and said that he had acquired a vast experience and his technical knowledge and constructive wisdom would be of great help in their collective work.

She asked them to meet regularly and discuss their problems with him as their chairman. The Mother was the President. As I was not directly involved, I cannot go into the intricate problems associated with the work. I noticed that Pradyot used to meet the Mother every day for some months. He had to pay them regular visits, for which a handsome allowance was accorded to him.

He used to offer all that sum personally to the Mother on the day of his arrival. The Mother had given instructions that he could see her with the money at any hour of the day. Even at other times before he departed on his visits he used to consult her on the various relevant problems of the country — political, social, technical. His questions were short, precise and direct and similar were the answers of the Mother.

I have published some specimens in my book Sweetness and Light. Once a leader of a political group had gone on a sham hunger-strike before the Ashram gate. It continued for several days, and the Mother seems to have instructed people that they need pay no attention to him. One fine morning, he was conspicuous by his absence. You are one of the few who say things without colouring them.

Now he was made a special instrument for collecting funds for the Asharam. We were passing through difficult times after Sri Aurobindo had left his body. I shall have to go to the Himalayas. How long will the crisis last? Will you be able to get five lakhs at least? If people become paupers as a result? What if they get broke? Can anyone become a pauper on the score of offering money to the Divine?

There was a generous response. Somebody even sold his car. Thus the crisis was averted. I looked into your past and got the answer. During a second crisis, the Mother had to sell her saris, ornaments, etc. Dyuman appeared one day before Pradyot with a box of these ornaments for disposal. He went to Calcutta and disposed of them to his familiar associates at whatever reasonable or unreasonable price struck him as fitting.

Pradyot helped Dr. At another time an Australian who had worked for many years in an Ashram garden wanted to return home, but he was short of adequate funds. He had a costly shawl in exchange for which he wished to get a big sum. How pretty it is! Tell me how much you want. The Mother obviously wanted to recompense the man for his long service to her; the shawl was an excuse.

How could he hold such power? There are many reasons. She once gave him what looked like an old coin with the figure of a snake carved on it. She effaced this figure as the snake is a symbol of the sex-power. She gave also a talisman. Both these represented the money-power. It is your Force which is doing everything. Download as PDF Printable version.

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Integral yoga Intermediate zone Supermind. Matrimandir Pondicherry. I saw that he waited in silence and called for inspiration — then words and lines descended. I do not know whether this type of composition from an entirely silent mind was ever achieved by any other poet. Perhaps it was possible in the case of Shakespeare; but, I am afraid, it was not such a conscious process for him, as it was for Sri Aurobindo.

There are overhead lines in other poets like Milton and Wordsworth but not in a mass. One more point: Sri Aurobindo did not take poetry as mere poetry — he took it as a part of his Sadhana. He constantly endeavoured to raise poetry to a higher plane, a higher consciousness. I began with it on a certain mental level, each time I could reach a higher level I rewrote from that level.

Moreover, I was particular — if part seemed to come from any lower levels I was not satisfied to leave it because it was good poetry. All had to be as far as possible of the nirodbaran biography of christopher mint. If they were so, why should it be so difficult to bring down and organise the supermind in the physical consciousness?

What happy-go-lucky fancy-web-spinning ignoramuses you all are! You speak of silence, consciousness, overmental, supramental, etc. It may be so one day, but meanwhile I have to discover everything about the working of all possible modes of electricity, all the laws, possibilities, perils etc. So, these are some aspects of the technique of composition of the poem.

As for the poem itself, well, it is not merely poetry, it is Mantra — the lines are prophecies, the poet is a seer and a prophet. Q : I am told the Mother had said somewhere that the reading of Savitri can be a great help to Sadhana. A : Yes, certainly; but you have to read with that attitude; you have to remember that every line of this poem is a Mantra, it is the creation of a Yogi; keep it in mind that every word of a Yogi is charged with power, and then read.

Q : Does that mean that this poem too is charged with a high vibration, as it is the case with the Upanishads? A : Exactly so. Sri Aurobindo is a great Rishi. As the Mantras of the Rishis descended from higher planes, so it is in the case of Savitri. The quintessence of Mantric Poetry is its rhythm, its rhythm is its very soul. If you read intellectually, you may see only the literary value and enjoy its flavour merely from a literary standpoint.

Q : Were all the images that Sri Aurobindo used in Savitri born of direct experiences? A : Certainly. Whatever he wrote there about the different planes was seen and experienced by him. He went to those planes; when he wrote, he wrote from those planes. If that were not so, would it be possible to write all that stuff even for a highly fertile imagination?

Many of the lines in it were from the vital mental levels. Most of the composition had gradually come from higher spiritual planes since or thereabouts. Q : Apropos of Savitri, could you kindly say a few words about the response and evaluation by the poets and critics from abroad? A : There had been some response. You may find it in some issues of Mother India.

The appreciative comments of Sir Herbert Read, H. You may find some of his observations on Savitri in a fine book containing the correspondence between K. Sethna and the English poet Kathleen Raine. Sethnaedited by K. The observations of H. White whom Shri Nirodbaran quotes are also recorded in this book. Q : I would now like to pass on to a different topic.

Please say a few words about the nature of the Sadhana that you are at present carrying on in the Ashram. Do you still receive guidance from your Guru? A : We do receive guidance whenever needed. Besides that, as far as I am concerned, an inner perception has grown — I can see what I should do or what I ought not to do. In a way, now we are passing through a most difficult phase of Yoga — very difficult indeed.

Initially when we started Yoga, we had a lot of spiritual experiences — now we have them rarely, one might say these are temporarily suspended at any rate, this is my experience. Now the Sadhana is going on — how should I put it? The consciousness of these planes is now in process of being gradually transformed. So, this is a very difficult phase — not so much for you who are young and full of energy, as for us.

Therefore, one has to go on working now with the right attitude. If we probe deeper, we would see — to give you a bare outline — the subconscient and the Inconscient are the last hurdle on the way to transformation — this hurdle had to be removed. The supramental, or the Truth-Consciousness, is working there; as a positive outcome of the Sadhana of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother the supramental consciousness had already descended and its manifestation too had got under way.

Now, it remains to awaken or manifest the supramental that is involved in the subconscient and the Inconscient, or, to put it differently, the supramental consciousness which had descended had to be linked to the supramental consciousness covertly acting in the subconscient and the Inconscient, so that a total change of consciousness in all the parts of the being may become possible.

This is, to be very brief, how our Sadhana is now going on here. So, we have to be prepared for this; this is the secret of their work. All the disorder and crisis that you see the world over is, in a way, the outcome of their work. The Truth-Consciousness is churning out all the falsehoods and impurities deep down in the earth-consciousness and purifying it.

A : The Mother! What could I say of her? Frankly, I cannot find words if I try to speak of her. One just cannot imagine who the Mother was! I am only the Mother — the Universal Mother. To me there is no great or small. Whoever calls me, I accept him. A great occultist once said that there was no Occultist like the Mother in the past, nor will there be one in the future.

To understand the Mother is very difficult! Q : If one opens oneself to the Mother in a simple, sincere way, does her Force really work? Would you kindly explain exactly how you receive her help? A : The Mother and Sri Aurobindo are living presences to us. Whatever is happening here, in each person, — well, the Mother and Sri Aurobindo know everything.

People do not realise that, but the Mother and Sri Aurobindo know everything.