Overman Foundation

Dear Friends,

Chunibhai Patel (19.6.1903—19.8.1992) was a Gujarati sadhak who was renamed ‘Dyuman’ (“the luminous one”) by Sri Aurobindo on 24 November 1928. He visited Pondicherry for the first time on 11 July 1924 and surrendered himself to Sri Aurobindo. He became an inmate of Sri Aurobindo Ashram in May 1927. He was in charge of the Dining Room and looked after the Granary. A dedicated worker to the core, the Mother made him one of the Founder-Trustees of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust on 1 May 1955. He became the Managing Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust in 1991.

We are happy to announce that Overman Foundation has received permission from Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust to publish Dyuman’s Correspondence with the Mother in its online forum. We are extremely grateful to Shri Manoj Das Gupta, Managing Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, for giving us the said permission. We are also thankful to Shri S. Ravi, co-editor of Mother India journal and teacher at Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education for providing these letters to us.

The first five installments of Dyuman’s Correspondence with the Mother—consisting of letters written between 12 June 1929 and 7 December 1935 were published in the online forum of Overman Foundation on 23 June, 27 June, 21 July, 4 August and 26 August 2015 respectively. The last installment of the said correspondence—containing letters written between 9 December 1935 and 30 December 1936 has been published in the online forum of Overman Foundation. Please note that these letters are not included in the Collected Works of the Mother.

With warm regards,
Anurag Banerjee
Founder,
Overman Foundation.

*

The Mother with Dyuman

*

My dear Mother,

The D. R. lady-workers have become such a nuisance: they have begun to spoil the D. R. in many ways. Any number of ladies are now eating 6 to 8 slices of bread. And when they cannot eat them, they take them home, asking for more and more. Then just at the time of work they all fall ill or have some other work, so they cannot do the work in the D. R.

It is all quite true, but there is only one answer: patience and compassion.

9 December 1935

*

My dear Mother,

One conviction has always remained unshaken in me: man or no man, sadhak or no sadhak, the Divine shall manifest. The Truth exists by itself, the Sun shines because it shines.

My dear Mother, may my exterior nature get deepened by my interior faith; may the intensity which is inside come out and remain in the exterior being.

Yes, the truth consciousness must pervade all the being, dominate all the movements and quiet the restless physical mind. These are the preliminary conditions for the manifestation.

Always with you.

13 December 1935

*

My dear Mother,

B has put forth a proposal to get the milk in the morning in two trips instead of one. The dairy servant would have to carry the milk-can on his head in the dark. The Aroumé servants would have to be made free for the first boiling, which would disturb the kitchen work. Since it is only a matter of a few days, I do not see why so many people should be inconvenienced permanently.

C is much displeased with me because I do not agree with him in his ideas and he is insisting on them.

You are quite right in this affair and it is quite unreasonable to ask for these two trips. But B is very sensitive — he is getting more and more nervous. He says he has lost his peace. He needs affection and kindness. I suppose if you approach him in a friendly way, things will become all right.

23 December 1935

*

My dear Mother,

I am puzzled over the relation between the D. R. workers and me; the whole misunderstanding today burst out after my appearing at the D. R. to help them for lunch.

You need not bother about what they think or say. Do quietly what is to be done and leave the rest to me.

All love and blessings to you my dear child.

24 December 1935

*

My dear Mother,

I take the present circumstances at Aroumé as a test of my confidence in You. Under no circumstances must I lose my balance or my concentration on You.

Yes, let us become more and more strong, quiet and patient. All this confusion is bound to come to an end.

Always with you.

28 December 1935

*

My dear Mother,

It seems that the physical mind has now seen how to stand back during attacks in calmness, quietness and peace, given to the Divine alone. I wish it would put into practice what it has seen.

Yes, when it has understood clearly it is bound to put it into practice.
Always with you my dear child.

19 January 1936

*

My dear Mother,

In the beginning of August 1933 the number of inmates was 120. Since then the number has remained between 135 and 150. But the work we used to do in those days we are not doing now. We are not willing to work, so we are obliged to have more and more workers. We did not grow within, which brings about the clashes we have with each other. If more inmates had worked in peace and harmony, we would have been much nearer to the goal.

It is because the forces are working in the subconscient which is, in its nature, full of unwillingness and laziness. We have now to wait patiently until it gets transformed.

24 January 1936

*

My dear Mother,

In the market I generally walk on the foot-path. Several times I have been able to avoid accidents. Our negligence, hurry and carelessness always bring troubles — too many for You. May we learn to be quiet, careful and on guard always.

Yes, we must never give a chance to the adverse forces to do their mischief — they take advantage of the slightest unconsciousness.

27 January 1936

*

My dear Mother,

The work of preparing luchis did not trouble me. What troubled me most was to see people who hardly ate anything else, finish all the luchis or, in order to take them home, took slices of bread. That night we decided never to give so much to eat at one time, but to give special dishes as side dishes. Still I do not understand how so many people got sick. For the first time I feel the seriousness of the responsibility of a hundred and fifty stomachs!

If they behaved normally without vital upsettings and greeds their health would be all right.

My dear Mother, I am completely given to You with a prayer: Peace, peace, peace in the Ashram, peace in each and every heart.

Yes, peace is indeed a very much needed thing and without peace nothing can be achieved.

Always with you, my dear child.

31 January 1936

*

My dear Mother,

When I stand up for the work, not caring for personal things, the result is that everyone finds me “severe, strict, unbearable, iron-fisted, hard as a rock”. The present condition at work is becoming more and more of an impasse. In desperation I sometimes speak out: “Either drive me out or these things must change.”

People will always talk like that when there is a discipline to be maintained. You ought not to mind it as you have my love and trust.

1 February 1936

*

My dear Mother,

When I saw D’s hair quite dry today, I asked her: “Have you no oil?” She replied: “No.” I know that D has nothing to keep her head cool; she washes it daily since the last few days, and this is not good for the hair.

I was just preparing some hair lotion to give her. But you must tell her that I had decided to give her hair lotion before you spoke of it.

7 February 1936

*

My dear Mother,

Whatever may be the causes of F’s anger, let him remain calm, quiet, fully controlled and self-restrained; let him not burst out.

Surely it ought to be like that and I told him so when he came to see me. I told him that the first thing is to remain quiet, composed, peaceful — he simply answered that it was impossible for him — and I had nothing else to say.

With all my heart I wish for the growth of the movement that has taken place in me: to remain quiet under any circumstances, to turn to You and call Your Peace.

Yes, let this movement grow in you and a great strength will grow also to face all difficulties.

Always with you, my dear child.

10 February 1936

*

My dear Mother,

Today I was very sorry, so sorry that I could not tell You during the day about the misbehaviour of the D. R. workers. One thought was in my mind: “I have failed miserably in serving the Mother, I am unfit and useless for the D. R.”

Whatever it may be, my dear Mother, I live in Your trust, which is my constant companion even in deep sorrow.

I do not see why you should be sorry because the people of D. R. misbehave. You cannot be responsible for their character. And if they choose not to change their ways and refuse to progress, it is surely not your fault. So you must not listen to the wrong suggestions speaking of failure and unfitness, and remember always that I am quite satisfied with you, your progress and your work.

14 February 1936

*

My dear Mother,

Darshan is coming, but I am having a strong reaction against eating and preparing food. Today the preparing of luchis was mere play and not much work, but still I am tired of eating.

Tired of eating? When you have so many people to feed! It is not the time for this kind of reaction. I was glad to see that all these outsiders will have a good impression of our cooking.

Many Aroumé workers have the impression that I tell G everything. It is false.

What do you care about the impressions they have? Let them think whatever they like, it does not matter.

They accuse me of knowing all the Ashram gossip and passing it on to her. In fact I know nothing of all this.

What does it matter!!

I wish with all my heart for harmony, peace and a clear understanding with the kitchen workers.

This peace and harmony and clear understanding can be possible only when you will remain perfectly untouched by false accusations and strongly peaceful yourself in front of them.

18 February 1936

*

My dear Mother,

H has sent a note to me: “I cannot continue to help J in washing plantains — I am very weak and feel very tired.”

Yes. Once more she has gone wrong — and by diminishing her work she will become weaker and weaker. It is the work done heartily that was keeping up her health.

19 February 1936

*

My dear Mother,

J lost his temper on the 20th and 21st over nothing; at each step he shows that he wants to rule and govern.

Did you hear him yourself? Were you there when he lost his temper? He is quite capable of doing it, but as a rule never believe the reports of anybody.

22 February 1936

*

My dear Mother,

K speaks of having her work back — so I understand from her chit.

Why that particular work and not any work that is to be done? If people could stop speaking of the work as their work it would put an end to a lot of trouble.

26 February 1936

*

My dear Mother,

This afternoon I felt a conspiracy in the atmosphere formed by hostile forces to trouble me through the Aroumé workers and send me away from here. But, dear Mother, I know that nothing can send me away, for I am in Your hands.

I know that nothing can take you away from here — but the best is to attach no importance whatever to these suggestions and also to the bad will of the workers. If you remain perfectly calm and quiet, these attacks will lose all their strength.

With love and blessings.

27 February 1936

*

My dear Mother,

My mind has become very active. It catches all sorts of nasty suggestions, two of which are prominent: “Relieve me from Aroumé” and “Can’t You manage to send me away from here?”

What is this nonsense? Surely you will not listen to that!

I do not think that any part of my being will ever accept them, and yet I pray for Your help and protection.

Yes, the help and protection are always with you — but you must quiet your mind or get out of it, look at it from above and control all these absurd suggestions.

Always with you my dear child.

2 March 1936

*

My dear Mother,

Whatever the suggestions may be, I know that they are all hostile influences trying to disturb the sadhana. The work at Aroumé needs a very clear mind and vital, free from all likes and dislikes.

When the mind is struck by such adverse suggestions, you must not get nervous or fear but consider them as mere nonsense and push them away as you would push away a fly or a mosquito and then remain very quiet until the attack is over.

All love and blessings to you my dear child.

2 March 1936

*

My dear Mother,

I am getting a negative reaction from the workers about the special dish they have to prepare on Wednesdays. After each cooking of this kind, I find unhappiness, disharmony and bitterness among the workers.

Perhaps it gives them more work and they dislike it. It can be stopped if it is a source of difficulties.

When will a largeness and vastness come into the mind and heart? When will a good feeling come and not the feeling of a scorpion bite?

This can come only when the consciousness of the workers will shift from the mental-vital to the psychic.

5 March 1936

*

My dear Mother,

How is it that L has learnt to utter such ugly things about You? Why such a grudge? Where is the reason for dissatisfaction? She has freedom in work, freedom to move about where she likes. In the kitchen she was required to be exact and regular — but now!

The more a mind is ignorant, the more easily it judges everything it does not know or is incapable of understanding.

12 March 1936

*

My dear Mother,

Whenever I have been stiff, harsh, stubborn or rough, it was all ego. And I see before me many people, both men and women, hurt by that ego. I ask Your Grace for pardon. May my consciousness grow and become a part of Your Consciousness.

Yes, my dear child, your aspiration is sure to get fulfilled and your consciousness to unite with the Divine Consciousness.

Always with you.

16 March 1936

*

My dear Mother,

People are unsatisfied with the food. Was it not good?

It was very good.

Were there not a variety of dishes? Was the food not clean and well-cooked?

All was all right.

Then why were people unsatisfied?

Because it is almost a principle with most of them to be unsatisfied.
According to them we are not spending enough for food and because of economy we are not giving the proper food, etc., etc. You have read M’s note to you — he wrote a much more violent letter to us, and so many of these letters we have received! I felt quite disgusted with it. And what I meant is that I do not want the kitchen workers to take any extra trouble for such ungrateful people.

I pray to You with a quiet force of aspiration for a complete victory over these lower vital and physical forces of desire, etc.

Yes, all these lower movements have to be conquered if ever anything divine is to be established upon earth.

All trust, love and blessings to you, my dear child and faithful worker.

18 March 1936

*

My dear Mother,

What shall become of the soup? People are always complaining about it and about the vegetable we use for dinner after straining the soup. It is cow’s fodder for them. Shall we stop it?

No, this soup is very good and wholesome. It is better to continue.

I have received the nick-name “miser” from those nearest to me. My one consolation has always been Your trust. And whenever I have been called this name, I have gone within me and found that my being is sincere and stands purely for You.

Yes, it is true and you are not at all a miser. Simply you are not wasteful — people cannot tolerate that; they want to waste and waste and waste always (naturally so long as it is not their own money that is concerned).

19 March 1936

*

My dear Mother,

Let me tell You very honestly, wherever N has worked he has been treated kindly; nobody has treated him as kindly as You have, and yet he has proved himself ungrateful to everybody. If he finds happiness elsewhere, he can go; but I think he will not.

Each one carries his capacity of happiness in himself, but to tell the truth, I am convinced that those who cannot be happy here can be happy nowhere.

Personally, I was happy nowhere before, it is only here that I am happy. Since 1924 not a single doubt has passed in me. My Mother is the supreme Truth — this remains unchallenged.

Yes, my dear child, you are mine and I am always with you, present near you and in you.

14 April 1936

*

My dear Mother,

How is it that my co-workers think so badly of me that I am deprived of even an ordinary human courtesy? Things are getting worse. Perhaps there would be a lighter air if I were not there.

Do not take these things so much to heart. If you give them no importance they will have none — and if a man truly misbehaves it is he who must feel for it, not you.

My dear Mother, I am completely given to You.

Let this consecration be for you the means of a complete liberation. My help and protection are always with you on the way — my dear child.

22 April 1936

*

My dear Mother,

P is going through a bad disturbance, but the cause is not known; she does not want to speak. May her normal consciousness come again to the front, the consciousness that feels the loving Presence of her dear Mama.

Yes, surely it is not good when there are already so many difficulties, to open one’s door also to disturbance. At the time of the battle the soldiers are expected to pick up all their courage and endurance.

Always with you, my dear child.

28 April 1936

*

My dear Mother,

I understand that we have come here and are allowed to stay here with the clear understanding that we accept Your word, Your guidance and follow You in every way. This is the simple beginning of Yoga.

My dear child, I wish that many would think and feel like you — it would make things so much easier!

All love and blessings to you, my dear child.

29 April 1936

*

My dear Mother,

My yoga means a complete union with You and I know not any yoga except that.

Yes, my dear child, you are mine completely and I am always with you, around you, in you.

29 April 1936

*

My dear Mother,

B said to me in a cutting tone: “Who sweeps the back of the ladies room in the D. R.? It is so dirty — since the last four days no one has swept there.” I kept quiet; but when I went to check I saw that it was as clean as it could be and it is swept every day.

Did you tell her: “I went and saw and it is quite clean. Why do you say that it is dirty? Remember what Mother has said: first sincerity and truthfulness.”

5 May 1936

*

My dear Mother,

C has stopped working in the kitchen and D is trying to do the same. E, F and G are the only ones left to work there. I pray for peace, peace, peace.

Well! The fewer the number the greater the chance of peace, I suppose.

9 May 1936

*

My dear Mother,

When disturbances or bad suggestions come, my being clearly speaks to them and says: “If I submit myself to you, you gain strength and enter into the atmosphere. Go away, you have no place here.” And they do go away. By calling the Divine Force and remaining completely quiet and undisturbed, the bad force is sure to go away defeated.

Yes, this is just the right attitude that is sure to bring the victory.

My dear child, I am always with you and my strength is constantly in you.

13 May 1936

*

My dear Mother,

H is now quite unable to eat and feels sick. Is her nausea not due to the weakness that must have come by her not eating for so long?

Certainly it is that and purely nervous, and the less she eats the more she will be unable to eat.

She says: “Look here, I have full strength in spite of not eating.” This I do not believe. The attitude in her letter to You does not seem to be quite good. If she does not want to eat in the D. R. she can eat at home. But it would be good if she would take at least one spoonful of food.

Yes, her attitude in this in not helpful — she has not sufficient trust to overcome her own fixed idea and she does not open to the Force that would give her the capacity of eating and overcoming this attack.

J too boasts of her strength in spite of not eating. To me it looks all false.

You are quite right.

She could wreck her body if this condition gets prolonged, and there would be complete chaos in the work.

Yes, what you say is quite true — but the mischief is that both J and L do not accept at all what is told to them, on this subject at least.

May the physical consciousness open more and more to the Divine Light and come under its direct influence.

Yes, it is the only solution.

My love and blessings are always with you.

20 May 1936

*

My dear Mother,

The number of persons not doing Ashram work is increasing and increasing. Perhaps they think it is a good sign of their sadhana.

The progress in sadhana comes from the rectification of the inner and outer attitude, not from the nature of the work one does.

With my love.

2 June 1936

*

My dear Mother,

With all my heart I wish for peace, happiness and harmony in the Ashram. This is my humble prayer on the eve of my birthday: let jealousy, disharmony and anger pass away and peace be established in every heart.

Let this year bring you the power of being constantly aware of my Presence for, indeed, I am always with you, in all trust and affection.

18 June 1936

*

My dear Mother,

From my very boyhood, my attitude has been one of disgust towards life and its things. But now I accept all life and whatever things come from You.

Yes, I am in the things also and that is why they must be treated with care.

All love and blessings to you, my dear child.

2 July 1936

*

My dear Mother,

The cause of the outburst between M and N was nothing of importance. If we do not rise above personal feelings and stand for the work, how is the work to be done!

It is the control over oneself that is the first thing needed, and especially the control over one’s tongue! If people could learn to keep silent how many troubles would be avoided!

3 July 1936

*

My dear Mother,

I do not understand the troubles in the D. R. — there are angry outbursts for nothing.

The spirit of quarrels is still in the Aroumé atmosphere. Unless the workers make an effort to throw it away, it will always attack them and create some mischief or other.

10 July 1936

*

My dear Mother,

There are plenty of thoughts suggesting my failure both as a sadhak and as a worker and of my being unfit and unworthy.

You know that these thoughts are quite wrong and come from a hostile force. All thoughts of that kind must be rigorously driven away, for to receive them is an unfaithfulness towards the Divine.

The child does not worry about his growth, he simply… grows.

Love and blessings to my dear child.

15 July 1936

*

My dear Mother,

Until now it has never happened that I have lost money. But the money is stolen; even before I came here to my room it had been stolen. It looks to me like somebody is making mischief.

It is unconscious movements from the subconscient which allow this mischief to happen. But when these movements come to the surface they can be enlightened and then the mischief has no more hold.

Always with you.

19 July 1936

*

My dear Mother,

I saw M delivering a long speech to N and it did not look pleasant. N told me afterwards that it was about the Ashram lemons — they are small in size and without juice, etc.

I suppose there is only to pay no attention to his speech. The best thing is not to answer, not to discuss and not even to listen!…

These are the days for peace; I pray for peace and some tolerance.

When the heart and the mind are at peace the rest naturally follows.

26 July 1936

*

My dear Mother,

What is the matter with P? He looks all right, he moves about and yet he is unable to go for his food!

As far as I know it is a dangerous illness: laziness.

And R also.

R is truly unwell with fever, etc…

30 July 1936

*

My dear Mother,

I hope that we shall pass these busy days quietly. No doubt attacks will come to me, yet I have eternal hope.

To be calm and quiet is the first necessity, and for that do not worry too much about details during these days. I am sure each one will do his best and more can be asked from nobody. Evidently this “best” must progress and become better but that takes time and cannot be expected at once.

Always with you, my dear child.

5 August 1936

*

My dear Mother,

This noon food for 69 persons was sent to their rooms.

I have nothing to say, if you want to do it — but I find that it is those who are doing nothing all day who ought to go for their food in Aroumé.

20 September 1936

*

My dear Mother,

I wish the day would come when You can use me as an instrument in worlds other than this material world. You go into other worlds, worlds of the subconscient, and fight there and conquer and spread the kingdom of light. Is it not possible for us to be Your soldiers even in those dark lands?

There is nothing impossible in the realisation of what you are asking for — a patient, strong, steady and absolutely sincere aspiration can conquer all obstacles — but it takes time.

Always with you.

3 October 1936

*

My dear Mother,

There is a rivalry between S and T — each claims to be the head of the Granary. One comes and tells me something and the other comes and tells me something else. How to pull on, dear Mother?

You might remind them that both yoga and work suffer by such miserable little currents.

10 October1936

*

My dear Mother,

Dr. U will talk with V about her treatment tonight; there is some fear in her mind. The same fear was in X. All these people may be talking and gossiping on the subject and supporting the fear in one another. This whole recent wave of illness in the Ashram is perhaps due to this fear and nothing more.

You are quite right. It is all due to fear and nothing else. It is a wave of fear and falsehood that has passed over the Ashram and each one is answering according to his or her nature. Very few are those who can stand firm on the rock of their faith and trust in the Divine and reject the wave altogether.

11 October 1936

*

My dear Mother,

It is my humble confession that a wave of fear and falsehood attacked me. This wave wanted me to be very angry with Y. But to all the suggestions and attacks of the hostile forces, I had one answer: “It is impossible; I know all of you very well. How can I be faithless to the love of my dear Mother?” And in gratitude my heart took shelter more and more in Your Love.

I am indeed very happy to hear that you have passed successfully through the experience. Your answer to the attack was the right one. You have only to keep up this attitude and after several attempts the attacks are bound to stop.

All love and blessings to you, my dear child.

12 October 1936

*

My dear Mother,

Z wrote me a letter. She wants to come here and is thinking of using a trick. She will agree to marriage on one condition: that her family allows her to come to Pondicherry before the wedding; then she will not return to Gujarat. She puts this trick idea before You and asks for Your advice.

I do not approve of tricks like that — they can only bring trouble.

13 October 1936

*

My dear Mother,

When You ask me about something, how should I answer You? I was not pleased with my answer today. Not only today but almost always I feel a shortcoming.

The best thing to do is to give me the correct, precise and complete information about the matter. It is what I am asking from you, to have a ground for my decision.

Love and blessings to my dear child.

30 October 1936

*

My dear Mother,

What shall I say about B’s disturbance today in the D. R.? The reports differ and I wait for a little more clarity. In any case a life of peace and harmony is also worth living, and anger thrown out falls back upon the thrower and clouds his soul.

I know nothing more silly than this habit of always quarreling — it is miles away from yoga.

All love and blessings to you, my dear child.

5 November 1936

*

My dear Mother,

This evening’s meditation has resulted in a great renunciation of the past. My soul has gone to the future and given itself to You to be a perfect instrument in Your hands for the new creation that You are bringing down upon the earth.

Yes, it is the future realisation that counts.

My being gives itself to You in all devotion and faithfulness.

And the gift is received with my heart’s best affection.

Always with you, my dear child.

7 November 1936

*

My dear Mother,

A weak point is opening in me. I am becoming over-sensitive to the slightest thing and my first reaction is: “Send me away, relieve me from this work.” My faithfulness to You does not in the least tolerate this weakness, and yet I cannot deny its presence. Some months back You told me: “You have not taken full refuge in me; there is something which is not yet worked out.” This is true, and this is what brings up all the trouble from the subconscious.

My very dear child,

It is a very great progress that you have become of this weak point in you — for now it will be relatively easy to overcome it.

The first step is not to identify yourself with it — to consider it as some wrong influence from outside, something to be pushed away. And if in spite of that it touches you, call me, call me ceaselessly until you are cured. At the same time it will give strength to the weak point and you will see that little by little it will become strong.

Always with you, certain of the victory.

11 November 1936

*

My dear Mother,

My horoscope says that I shall be friendly towards nobody; even my friends will abuse me and give me up. But this prediction will prove wrong; there will be peace in my heart, sweetness in my speech, gentleness and harmony in every expression. My entire being will live in the Divine, for the Divine and by the Divine.

Surely, by yoga the horoscope can be mastered — we are no more bound to it — and we can change our nature as well.

Surely, you are my child and will become so more and more perfectly.

All love and blessings to you, my dear child.

19 November 1936

*

My dear Mother,

A very humble confession. I have always denied the sex-instinct in me, refused to accept it. There was a very strong will in me which simply controlled it, crushed it, pushed it out from the surface consciousness. Yet for all the negation it was there, acting in some form or other.

My dear Mother, my being now accepts its past silliness and in all humbleness it opens itself to You. May this blot be removed and my entire being be Yours.

I am very glad that you have found it out. This is a very great step towards the cure.

Always with you, in the effort and the success.

2 December 1936

*

My dear Mother,

Truly I am a pretender and a hypocrite. I showed myself to be what I was not and brought a good many troubles to You by my behaviour, especially because I have to work mainly with ladies. Would the solution be to remove myself from the field of work?

No solution at all. It is not you that you must remove but the difficulty. The weakness must be overcome and my force will be with you and do what is necessary to remove altogether the obstacle, if you let it do so.

My entire being has become grateful today. I was put to a real and true test. If I were not placed in such close contact with the ladies, I would not have found out my weakness. But I must confess, I could not remain sincere to the core. I hope that it is not too late.

Surely it is not too late and the victory is certain.

In spite of all this, I have always felt some unknown protection around me, even before I came here.

Yes, the protection has always been upon you.

All love and blessings to you, my dear child.

3 December 1936

*

My dear Mother,

May I remain given to You.

There is surely no question about that — but surely also you could not believe that sadhana could be done without facing some difficulties. As your aspiration is sincere, whatever was in the subconscient standing in the way of the Divine Realisation, has come to the surface in order to be transformed. There is nothing there to make you sad or depressed — on the contrary you ought to rejoice over these occasions to make progress and never forget to lean for support and help on my love, force and blessings.

15 December 1936

*

My dear Mother,

The clouds passed away this morning and once more I find myself in the consciousness of zeal, courage and confidence.

I am very glad about this good news, glad but not astonished for I expected as much.

Love and blessings to you, my dear child.

16 December 1936

*

My dear Mother,

The year ends and a new year begins. May the new year bring to us God-realisation.

Yes, the Light must illumine the consciousness and the shadows of Ignorance must be dissolved in all.

Love and blessings to my dear child.

30 December 1936

*

Mother,

There are plenty of moods and fancies among the inmates, many unnecessary harassings. I undergo all possible pinching, tortures and troubles, but our goal is something else — it is the Divine Life.

You are quite right in not allowing the moods and fancies of the people to affect you. You must soar above all that in the constant feeling of the Divine’s Presence, Love and Protection.

With you always.

[Undated]

Faith is the condition to be frank with the Divine.

A complete frankness with the Divine will allow your faith to be steady.

[Undated]

*

(Dyuman’s Photograph with the Mother: Courtesy Ms. Tara Jauhar)

*

Dear Friends,

Chunibhai Patel (19.6.1903—19.8.1992) was a Gujarati sadhak who was renamed ‘Dyuman’ (“the luminous one”) by Sri Aurobindo on 24 November 1928. He visited Pondicherry for the first time on 11 July 1924 and surrendered himself to Sri Aurobindo. He became an inmate of Sri Aurobindo Ashram in May 1927. He was in charge of the Dining Room and looked after the Granary. A dedicated worker to the core, the Mother made him one of the Founder-Trustees of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust on 1 May 1955. He became the Managing Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust in 1991.

We are happy to announce that Overman Foundation has received permission from Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust to publish Dyuman’s Correspondence with the Mother in its online forum. We are extremely grateful to Shri Manoj Das Gupta, Managing Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, for giving us the said permission. We are also thankful to Shri S. Ravi, co-editor of Mother India journal and teacher at Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education for providing these letters to us.

The first four installments of Dyuman’s Correspondence with the Mother—consisting of letters written between 12 June 1929 and 7 June 1935 were published in the online forum of Overman Foundation on 23 June, 27 June, 21 July and 4 August 2015 respectively. The fifth installment of the said correspondence—containing letters written between 15 June 1935 and 7 December 1935 has been published in the online forum of Overman Foundation. Please note that these letters are not included in the Collected Works of the Mother.

With warm regards,
Anurag Banerjee
Founder,
Overman Foundation.

*

A pencil-sketch of Dyuman made by the Mother

*

My dear Mother,

Things are becoming difficult to manage in Aroumé. The workers want to do things according to their wish and a sort of negligence has come into the work; there is idleness, laziness, indolence, unwillingness, etc. Sincerity is getting clouded everywhere.

Today a thought runs on and on in me: O Mother, tell me, how much am I responsible for this condition in Aroumé and the quarrels between the workers?

I do not see in what way you are responsible for that.

So often in recent days I was going to get entangled in the network of bad disturbances, but as yet I have resisted it firmly. Now I ask for Your help, a help that completely removes all the disturbing elements from the co-workers, so that they may turn towards You.

Those who are sincere, I can help and turn them easily towards the Divine.

But where there is insincerity I can do very little. And as I told you already, we have only to be patient and wait for the things to become better. But surely I do not see why you should get disturbed and in what way your disturbance would help things to be better. You know by experience that there is only one way of getting out of confusion and obscurity; it is to remain very quiet and peaceful, firm in the equanimity and to let the storm pass away. Rise above these petty quarrels and difficulties and wake up once more in the light and the power of my love which never leaves you.

15 June 1935

*

My dear Mother,

In all clouds, all difficulties, all obstacles faith in the Divine is the only guide, strength and protection. It is faith in the Divine and love that save a sadhak and carry him beyond the dangers to a life of immortal bliss.

Fortify my faith, O my dear Mother.

Yes, never let anything cloud your faith in my love for you and in my constant presence and help. And rise high enough above these difficulties which try to seem big, so that you may see them as they really are, that is to say, very small and insignificant.

Always with you.

15 June 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Once more I am out of the clouds of confusion and obscurity. A firm quietude and equanimity and a reliance upon the Divine has dispersed them. The Divine is my strength and force, and I live for the Divine alone.

Yes, my child, it is quite true that the Divine is the sole refuge. With Him is absolute safety.

My love and blessings are always with you.

16 June 1935

*

My dear Mother,

The sword of Damocles hangs over our kitchen. We shall have to remain alert, watchful, full of force, quiet and patient. My dear Mother, I am full of confidence in the divine Victory.

Yes, as you say, one must keep up the entire confidence in the Victory of the Divine — and this general Victory will include in itself the personal victory of all those who will have kept faithful and confident.

29 June 1935

*

My dear Mother,

There is an adverse force in the Ashram that goes from inmate to inmate and it wants only to destroy. When inmates leave the Ashram, it does not go; it only becomes more violent. If the inmates remain faithful and sincere, it is bound to go in one second.

I ask for the wrath of Mahakali, the intensest love of that warrior Mother, to chase away this obstinate force and free the Ashram from our everyday trouble.

The wrath of Mahakali manifests from time to time and acts all right, but the effect of it does not last because those who answer to the adverse force do not truly want to be cured. They are not sincere.

We have only to remain quiet and confident, unshakeable in our faith and trust in the Divine’s Grace.

1 July 1935

*

My dear Mother,

I worked hard today in our courtyard garden and had a new vision: as humans are beings, so also plants are beings, and they too respond in proportion to one’s love and affection for them. And if a sadhak with insight develops this, it will be a great help in the evolution of Nature.

Yes, plants have a consciousness of their own; they are very receptive and respond quite well to the force.

Always with you my dear child.

2 July 1935

*

My dear Mother,

If there were even a little sense of gratitude in the hearts of the inmates, no one would dare to tell You: “I am leaving.” May the Ashram inmates learn to be grateful and bow down in gratitude to the Divine.

Yes, my dear child, you are quite right — but gratitude is a virtue of the psychic and very few people live in their psychic consciousness.

5 July 1935

*

My dear Mother,

The physical work done in our courtyard these last few weeks has given me a very nice training. But I saw people looking at us with contempt when we were soiled and working; it has given me a better understanding of where they stand. I wish we would realise that physical work is in no way inferior to meditation. In fact if we think of the manifestation, work will surely be an important factor for the new creation.

There is no doubt about that.

I am always very happy to see you work physically. A good material work not exceeding normal capacities is most useful for keeping a good physical and moral poise.

13 July 1935

*

My dear Mother,

I did not go for marketing today, but I had a long sitting with You during the Pranam after many months. There I realised more clearly that in truth we all belong to You and our true nature is one of Your peace, love, harmony and joy. I know for certain that one day we shall rise above the nature of quarrels, envy, hatred, jealousy, arrogance and pride.

Your experience is true, the essential nature is peace, harmony and love. I hope all will realise it one day.

I am always with you.

14 July 1935

*

My dear Mother,

This too is a training for me: to see how far I stand detached from circumstances, untouched by the jealousy around me and true to the Divine.

Yes, the only thing you have to do is to remain quiet, undisturbed, solely turned towards the Divine; the rest is in His hands.

17 July 1935

*

My dear Mother,

As long as the being does not depend upon the Divine alone, there can never be peace, joy and happiness.

Yes, this is true; it is only in union with the Divine and in the Divine that harmony and peace can be established.

Always with you, my dear child.

20 July 1935

*

My dear Mother,

B has informed me that she is again getting bad ideas; but she is not weak and has taken her food regularly. She is quite strong and keeping quiet.

It is all right, but if B and the others made less fuss about these “bad ideas” they would get them less often!

22 July 1935

*

My very dear Mother,

Today I had a very true experience: While returning from the market this morning, the thought passed in me: “C is a big man in the outside world” and I felt a kind of dissatisfaction somewhere in the vital. Then You appeared before me and showed me: “Look here, here you are.” You carried me on Your arm close to Your heart.

Yes, it is surely better than to be a “great man” for the outside world!

All love and blessings to you, my dear child.

11 August 1935

*

My dear Mother,

D saw Aroumé and looked quite pleased and satisfied; he also took away 3 loaves of bread. He shall have to pay a heavy price for that, and I shall not be satisfied if it is less than 3 lacs rupees. If he can give a loan of 99 lacs to the government, surely he can also give to You a good and descent sum.

He went away without giving a single rupee! and I believe he does not intend to give anything —only sweet words, that is all.

My dear Mother, it looks to me as if the disturbance in me has gone. Once more I have regained my normal balance of peace and happiness. I was feeling that my disturbance will pain You much more than any loss of money, and that brought me to my senses very soon.

This is good. Indeed the loss of money is of small importance, but the loss of equipoise is a much more important thing.

All love and blessings to you, my dear child.

20 August 1935

*

My dear Mother,

May my sincerity increase and pervade my entire being. That will bring a great consecration and surrender to the Divine, leading to an integral union.

Yes, my dear child, sincerity is the key of the divine doors.

Always with you.

31 August 1935

*

My dear Mother,

May the wideness and depth of Thy seat increase in my heart; may it be Thine, Thine integrally.

Yes, I am always seated in your heart, consciously living in you.

1 September 1935

*

My dear Mother,

The Ashram had a dish from F on Monday, an extra dish on Wednesday, soup on Thursday and a fine dish of cabbage on Friday. My beloved Mother, for all this may a sense of gratitude arise in us — this is my prayer.

It seems that this night, between 9:30 and 10 o’clock, some people were speaking against G’s bath-room door while she was inside unnoticed. One person was saying something to this effect: how is it possible to work with such bad food? And another one answered: you ought to write to the Mother.

4 September 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Yoga in the cave is easy, but yoga in life is altogether a different thing. There must be sincerity to the core and absolute self-giving to the goal.

I do not believe that sadhana in the cave is easy — only there the insincerity remains hidden, while in life and action it is revealed. You can look like a yogi in a cave but in life the humbugging is more difficult, because you have to behave like a yogi.

Always with you, my dear child.

6 September 1935

*

My dear Mother,

May the day draw nearer when all the reports of disturbances stop and You are informed only of galloping progress and flights of the being towards the Divine. Blessed will be that day.

It is in a great peace that I am waiting for that day, the peace of the certitude of Victory. You must enter that peace, my dear child, and let nothing affect you. It is only when we are not affected that we can always do the right thing at the right time and in the right way.

Love and blessings to you, my dear child.

6 September 1935

*

My dear Mother,

The D. R. workers often have second or third works at different places. They have their main job, and in their free hours they do other things. It should not be otherwise, but it would be better to have a few full-time workers rather than many part-time workers.

People can’t do all day the same work; it is most taxing on the nerves and after some time they get tired, depressed, discouraged, speak of suicide, etc., etc.

Even in ordinary life it has been recognised that for the sake of the work itself, complete change of occupation for a few hours every day in most useful.

Always with you, my dear child.

13 September 1935

*

My dear Mother,

We were preparing bread for 3 years or more according to this proportion: 1 kg of wheat for 3 loaves (25 kg for 75 loaves). Since last August we have been using 35 kg for 75 loaves — the difference is 10 kg per day. This difference has always pained me.

As the bread has not risen well recently, the consumption of loaves in the D. R. has increased. It is not that the stomachs of the eaters are asking for more food, it is insincerity and a lack of discrimination on the part of the people eating the food.

The loaves are surely much better than those we used to have before (I am seeing them every day). But I have no objection to that. After all, apart from the milk, the bread is the most substantial food we are giving, and I do not think it would be fair to reduce it. I think the chief reason why people are eating more bread is because the bread is much nicer than it used to be.

I must say that before we took up cattle, we never separated the bran from the wheat — it went into the bread.

It makes the bread a little too heavy to digest. I have said to give this small amount of bran (only 4%) to the milkmen.

My dear Mother, grant a simple sincerity in the entire being, a sincerity which keeps the full light and consciousness and accepts only the Truth.

The greatest enemies of a perfect sincerity are preferences (either mental, vital or physical) and preconceived ideas. It is these obstacles that must be overcome.

I am always with you to lead you to victory.

15 September 1935

*

My dear Mother,

I ask for “justice” from You. Here is my appeal!

O Lord, the human mind is too ignorant, too obstinate and obscure. May the Divine Grace be granted to it in order to set all things right.

Yes, it is the Divine Grace that must be prayed for. If justice were to manifest, very few would be those who could stand in front of it!

My love and blessings are always with you.

19 September 1935

*

My dear Mother,

At this moment a question comes to me: how is that my head at once gives a money value to everything? Only if the money allows it, do I think of proceeding further!

It is all right. We must avoid as far as possible all wastage.

Always with you, my dear child.

24 September 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Give me a very, very quiet head, for it is into a quiet head that the true knowledge and consciousness will descend. Then there will be a true action and a worthy expression of Your true instrument. Beloved Mother, a very, very quiet head.

Yes — it is true, a very, very quiet head is indispensable for a clear understanding and vision and a right action.

My consciousness is always with you to give you a quiet head.

25 September 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Today I saw that my body is strong and that it can work; it is good that it does not remain slothful.

My dear Mother, may peace and quietness increase in my physical.

My dear child, I am always with you, and together we will fight the battle and win the victory.

Do not worry about the reactions of people, however unpleasant they may be — the vital is everywhere and in everybody full of impurities and the physical full of unconsciousness. These two imperfections have to be cured, however long it may take, and we have only to work at it patiently and courageously.

Always near you, supporting and guiding you.

27 September 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Jealousy prevails in Aroumé. Here I give You a letter from B and one from C. I have answered them both.

Jealousy comes from a narrowness of the mind and a weakness of the heart. It is a great pity that so many are attacked by it. Your answers are all right.

My dear Mother, what a fine instrument the dark forces have found! Jealousy spoils the entire life, the entire sadhana and brings troubles of every kind. Dear Mother, may it get rooted out.

The only answer is a quiet and luminous patience in the manifestation of the truth and in the consecration to the Divine.

28 September 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Whatever the circumstances may be, my heart shall always remain turned towards You in all love and consecration and confidence.

Well, surely when unfaithfulness prevails all around it is the time to be truly faithful and to stand untouched and unmoved in the storm.

Love and blessings to you, my dear child.

29 September 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Money can always come to the Ashram in showers, provided that the sadhaks are devoted and consecrated, faithful and sincere. If a sadhak says today: “Mother, I want to leave”, and tomorrow: “Mother, I want this and that”, I feel that money cannot pour in. The Ashram has to turn more and more inward in pursuit of the Divine if it wants to manifest the Divine in all its richness.

What you say is perfectly true, but there is also the divine Patience which waits for the obscurity to vanish.

In humbleness, my dear Mother, I am at Your feet, at Your disposal, always for You, an eternal gift.

Yes, my dear child, I know that you are mine, and it is with full trust that I take you with me on the way.

30 September 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Wheat-drying finishes on Saturday. The coolies are showing fatigue from carrying the bags of wheat up and down. But there are only two more days of this work.

You must be careful not to overburden them. If they get sick I shall have to bear the consequences.

All love and blessings to you, my dear child.

2 October 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Ah, where is the stability? And the work! Where is the work? It is not even half the work that we used to do in this compound.

Equanimity — equanimity. It is the only practical answer to all this confusion which is bound to come to an end one day.

My dear Mother, pride challenges the Divine Grace whereas humble consecration and self-giving call the Divine Grace; then it becomes effective and protects. By becoming humble and giving myself to the Divine I lose nothing. May the shallow ‘I” become a portion of the Divinity.

Yes, humility and sincerity are the best safeguards. Without them each step is a danger, with them the victory is certain.

My dear child, humility and sincerity will take you to the goal.

3 October 1935

*

My dear Mother,

It is my earnest wish to have good relations with one and all. Hardly a day has passed in which I have not cried within myself about my disharmonious relation with D. I never meant it to turn out like this.

Do not worry or be impatient. All the disharmonies will disappear, but it must be on the true basis of a settled luminous consciousness leaving no room to the play of the ego.

My love and blessings are always with you.

5 October 1935

*

My dear Mother,

I shall not be in a hurry for harmony, but it is not pleasant to remain in conflict, inner or outer, with someone; it brings so many difficulties into the work.

Surely we must always want the peace and the harmony and work for it as much as we can — but for that the best field of action is always inside ourselves.

Love and blessings to my dear child.

6 October 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Let the play of the ego disappear completely. In my case, I know very well that there is pride, arrogance, likes and dislikes. There is also a part of me that wants to be big and great — it is ambition.

My dear Mother, may I become a humble doer of Thy Work.

Yes, my dear child, in truth, sincere humility is our safeguard — it is the surest way to the indispensable dissolution of the ego.

Always with you on the way.

6 October 1935

*

My dear Mother,

The other day when I wrote to You about saving expenses if there is war in Europe, I meant this:

Milk: one cup instead of three. Not three plantains but one. No washerman at all — we can wash our own clothes. No servants. No pocket money — people may not go to the theatre or cinema or buy all sorts of things for pleasure.

Surely if France or England entered the war we would be obliged to do that. For the moment it is not yet necessary.

9 October 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Confidence in the Guru is the key to Victory. Lack of confidence brings complete failure. Confidence, confidence, may an utter confidence in the Divine increase in the Ashram.

Yes, it is so absurd to ask for help and yet to have no trust! On the contrary with confidence everything becomes so easy.

Always with you, my dear child.

12 October 1935

*

My dear Mother,

I am quietly happy, yet the fire in me is becoming more and more intense every day. May a deep quietness and Peace remain behind the intensity of the fire.

Yes, the true Agni always burns in deep Peace; it is the fire of an all-conquering will.

Let it grow in you, in deeper equanimity.

Always with you, my dear child.

13 October 1935

*

My dear Mother,

May the Divine Patience grow in me. True patience can grow only in the true knowledge and consciousness and in full confidence in the Divine.

If the mind remains more quiet in front of circumstances and happenings the patience will be more easily increased.

All love and blessings to you, my dear child.

15 October 1935

*

My dear Mother,

May peace and confidence come into the exterior being, may the mind be filled with quietness and trust in You, in Your words and actions.

It is only love that can understand and get at the secrets of the Divine Working. The mind, the physical mind especially, is incapable of seeing correctly and yet it always wants to judge. It is only a true sincere humility in the mind allowing the psychic to rule the being, that can save human beings from ignorance and obscurity.

Always with you, my dear child.

16 October 1935

*

My dear Mother,

In these monsoon rains and winds, the cart goes for food distribution thrice a day. The servants give more service than their due time (9 hours), get drenched three times a day and yet not a murmur from them. I feel a happy relation with them.

Yes, it is very good. The servants may be given a tip after the rain is over. You might give it to them yourself as an encouragement.

Recently F is getting very troubled by what people say about her. Often the idea enters her head: “I am bad, I am unfit”, etc.

Yes, I will tell her not to mind what people say. In fact I do not know why she is attaching so much importance to all that — so long as we are pleased with her, it ought to be sufficient.

18 October 1935

*

My dear Mother,

I have always observed that whenever there is some heavy work or extra work to do, somebody or the other falls into a bad depression and it increases the work. The attack of depression comes either directly or through others. I have to remain firm, quiet, unshaken and full of confidence in the Divine.

Yes, when there is an attack it is general and always the blows come on all sides. But the more it strikes the more we must remain calm and undisturbed.

22 October 1935

*

My dear Mother,

About the present conflict in the Dining Room. As far as I understand it, the reason is this: the workers want to have freedom of action and they feel suffocated under my pressure.

It is not under your pressure, it is under the pressure of discipline. These people refuse to be disciplined and that is why there is such a confusion.

Forgive me for the wrongs done by me in the D. R. and the Ashram.

I see no wrongs to be forgiven.

26 October 1935

*

My dear Mother,

If there were even a few in the Ashram whose physical consciousness could readily receive the Divine Force and allow it to be effective in its working, I feel that a greater part of the illnesses in the Ashram would be pushed aside, and there would be sounder health.

May the body consciousness awaken, give itself completely to the Divine and allow the Divine Force to work out its Will.

Yes, what you say is quite right. It is of the greatest importance that the body consciousness should open to the Divine; that alone can put an end to all these illnesses rising in the Ashram.

Always with you, my dear child.

28 October 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Teach me to rely more and more on You.

In the peace and the inner silence you will more and more become conscious of my constant presence.

30 October 1935

*

My dear Mother,

The cold in my head is bad now; I took green “pastilles” from G and I may ask him for a few drops of oil in the nose. But this is the last time I am thinking of taking medicine. The next time the body should take up the true attitude and depend only upon the Divine Force.

The power that the body must get is to be aware of the illness at the moment of its coming and to reject it before it has time to settle in the body. But once the illness has caught hold of the body, then we must by one means or another help the body to recover.

Always with you.

31 October 1935

*

My dear Mother,

This evening H told me: “The moong dal is not clean. Will you get it cleaned by your granary workers?” I thought: “This is too much for me and there will be no end to it!” Also the people asking for Prasad are increasing and H is actively canvassing them!

All the above is purely from the viewpoint of discipline and organisation. But when I see things from a wider angle, I feel totally different: discipline too is progressive; what is good today may not hold good tomorrow. There will be a change in our outer life as a result of our inner progress and the descent of the consciousness from above.

My dear Mother, both these viewpoints are placed before You, the former arising from the egoistic mind, the latter from a wider mind, humble before Your working.

A harmonious combination of the two attitudes, each one working at its place and time, is the right thing.

J asks me to tell you that she no more wants to go home in the afternoon and she is ready to do the work that is needed in the kitchen. This is the result of a true progress in her consciousness and it has to be encouraged.

All love and blessings to you, my dear child.

1 November 1935

*

My dear Mother,

May I know You more and more as You are, and not as I think You are.

Surely, my dear child, you will know me more and more as you become more and more conscious of my presence near you.

4 November 1935

*

My dear Mother,

K informs me that she gets fever now and then, and it troubles her much. The only thing that I feel about all our fevers is this: let us turn ourselves to our Beloved, the Divine. So long as we have not turned ourselves fully, we shall have to endure the consequences patiently.

Surely all these troubles come from a resistance somewhere, something that opposes the work of transformation.

5 November 1935

*

Beloved of my heart,

May I get more peace and quietness under all circumstances and push forward vigilantly and patiently.

Yes, my dear child, let the peace settle more and more in you, especially in your physical mind and rely more and more on my love and blessings.

12 November 1935

*

My dear Mother,

A need for a complete quietness, even in my exterior consciousness, has arisen now. Inside there is always a force, but to make it more effective in its manifestation a complete quietness in all the being is the immediate need.

Yes, quietness, quietness, a calm and concentrated strength, so quiet that nothing can shake it —this is the indispensable basis for the integral realisation.

With love and blessings always.

7 December 1935

*

Dear Friends,

13 August 2015 marks the 112nd Birth Anniversary of Surendra Nath Jauhar. Born as Sikandar Lal on 13 August 1903 in the village of Vahalee (now in Pakistan), he received his education at Dayanand Anglo-Vedic High School and College. After his matriculation he changed his name to Surendra Nath Jauhar. At the age of sixteen, he joined the freedom struggle of India. He participated in the defiance against the British Martial Law Regulations. As a member of the District Congress Committee at Delhi he organized the boycott of foreign cloth throughout Chandni Chowk and also read out the Congress Independence Day Pledge and Resolution at the Clock tower. The British Government arrested and tried him in six courts. He was confined in the Central Jail at Multan (now in Pakistan) for fifteen months. He established his business venture ‘S. N. Sunderson & Co.’ which flourished under his able leadership. In 1939 while on an all-India tour with Prof. Indra Sen, he visited Pondicherry for the first time and had the Darshan of the Mother. This was ‘the supreme discovery’ of his life; to quote his own words: ‘… I lost my heart and won the soul and the real life.’ The Mother too had absolute faith in him and authorized him to make collections for the Sri Aurobindo Memorial Fund in 1951. He started building the Delhi branch of Sri Aurobindo Ashram in the land he had purchased between 1938 and 1940 and it was formally established on 12 February 1956. The Mother too had told him: “This place will house the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Delhi Branch, and there certainly will be a Shrine for which I have been keeping Sri Aurobindo’s precious relics.” On 23 April 1956 he founded ‘The Mother’s International School’ in the premises of the Delhi branch of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Within a year of its establishment, the school had 200 students on its rolls. In 1956 he established the Mirambika Free Progress School. A dedicated servitor of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, he passed away on 2 September 1986. In 2011 a five-rupee commemorative postage stamp was issued by the Government of India in his honour.

Dr. K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar aptly remarks about Surendra Nath Jauhar: ‘The Sikander who became Surendra Nath Jauhar, the Arya Samajist and Gandhian Satyagrahi who became an ardent Aurobindonian and self-absorbed practitioner of the Mother’s Yoga for life’s change and world-transformation, and successful businessman and dealer in building materials who became the architect of the Delhi Ashram and the missionary teacher-registrar of the Mother’s International School, the boy from the Jhelum District in whom native intelligence was doubled with the deeper intuitions of the soul, who made his whole life an adventure of consciousness spanning the whole rainbow arc from the physical to the spiritual, — it was as though all these leaps forward, all these quantum jumps into the unknown, added up to the single integral movement from Here to Eternity.’ (The Spirit’s Manifest Home, pp. 82-83)

As our humble homage to Surendra Nath Jauhar, some of his photographs have been published in the online forum of Overman Foundation. We are extremely thankful and grateful to his daughter Ms. Tara Jauhar for sharing these invaluable photographs with us.

With warm regards,
Anurag Banerjee
Founder,
Overman Foundation.

*

In 1918 as the Captain of the Hockey team of Dayanand Anglo-Vedic High School, Lahore.

Group photo taken in 1928.

In 1931 beside his car.

1940: Surendra Nath Jauhar, the Freedom-fighter.

With his family in 1948.

1951: Playing Cricket.

1951: Participating in the activities of Physical Education Department of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry.

1951: Playing Tennis in the Tennis Court of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry.

At the Sri Aurobindo Memorial Convention with the Mother, Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Hemendra Prasad Ghose, Surendra Mohan Ghose, Dr. Kalidas Nag and others in April 1951.

At the Samadhi of Sri Aurobindo.

With his family in 1952.

Arrival of Relics on 4 December 1956 at the Delhi Branch of Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

With Governor A. K. Jha.

With his family in 1960.

With his wife Dayawati and daughter Purnima offering medicines, books and money for the Indian Army to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in 1963.

 Distributing prasad to school children.

With his wife Dayawati and son Anil in 1965.

At the foundation of Auroville on 28 February 1968 with Lala Hansraj Gupta, Mayor of Delhi, to his left.

With Lala Hansraj Gupta.

With Dr. Karan Singh on 16 November 1968.

With Dr. Karan Singh, Dr. K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar and Sundaram.

With Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati.

With the King and Queen of Nepal.

With Acharya J. B. Kriplani.

With Ustad Allaudin Khan.

With Kurbaan-ji at Madhuban.

With his daughter Tara in Nainital in 1971.

With the Mother in Her room.

With André Morisset (the Mother’s son) and his wife Wanda at the Delhi Branch of Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

A group-photo with André Morisset, Wanda, Lata and Tara Jauhar.

At Khurja.

*

Dear Friends,

On Saturday, 25 July 2015, the Aurobindonian community of Pondicherry lost a bright jewel with the passing away of Ira Sarkar at the age of seventy-eight. She was in charge of “Ira’s Home”, a boarding for young boys and girls named after her by the Mother. A radiant personality with a beatific smile always adorning her face, she was loved and respected by one and all.

An obituary of the late Ira Sarkar, penned by Sunayana Panda, has been published in the online forum of Overman Foundation.

With warm regards,
Anurag Banerjee
Founder,
Overman Foundation.

*
Ira-di

Ira-di is synonymous with childhood in the Ashram because for the last forty years she looked after the hostel for the very youngest children who joined the school as boarders. When the school was started in the Ashram all the students were children of members of the Ashram and they lived with their parents. But in the 1950s, when parents who were not living in Pondicherry wanted to send their children to the Ashram School hostels were created one by one.

Ira-di was the niece of Anilbaran Roy and it was through him that, together with all her brothers and sisters, she came to the Ashram in the 1940s. As their parents were still living in Bengal she looked after her siblings because she was the eldest. While she was student she learnt to dance from Anu-ben and participated in many programmes. She learnt to sing from Sahana-di and other music teachers of the time. She attended classes of the Mother.

Even before she finished her studies she had told the Mother that she wanted to work in a “boarding” – as hostels are called in the Ashram. When she finished her studies she was asked to help Kiran-di, an elderly Bengali lady, who was in charge of a boarding. There she did the kind of work that Kiran-di could not do, such as taking and fetching children from the School and Playground. She also helped Kiran-di with the cooking as children used to eat in the boardings in those days. This was in a way a training for her because a few years after that she was asked to take charge of a new boarding of which she was going to be the head.

This new boarding was given the name “Ira’s Home” by the Mother and she had three others to assist her: Brajkishore-da, Kavita-di and Aruna. In those days boys and girls lived in the same boarding so she had a mixed batch of very young boys and girls. The first batch of children who came to live with her had all been newly admitted to the school that year and were mostly Bengali. It was a time when large numbers of children, coming from various parts of India, were being admitted to the school and new boardings were being opened every year.

The great advantage for the children was that Ira-di was a singer and a dancer. The uniqueness of Ira-di’s boarding was that she taught the children to sing and dance because for her music and dance were as essential as reading and writing. Children would get up in the morning and get ready but before having breakfast they would learn to sing. Having sung a few songs the children went off to Corner House for breakfast and then to school. In the same way, before dinner there would be a dance session. Then everyone would walk down to Corner House for dinner. Homework was done in the afternoons and in those days homework was discouraged in the Ashram School so it never took more than an afternoon or two in the week.

In the very first years when she was given the charge of the boarding she used to present a small performance of songs and dances for Nolini-da’s birthday on 13th January. So, the whole month preceding it was filled with rehearsals and costume preparations. Ira-di would choose poems from Kobi Nishikanto, Dilip Kumar Roy, Dwijendralal Roy or other Ashram-connected poets and then choreograph dances to them. There was no question of recording songs in those days, in the mid-sixties, so Ira-di used to sing the songs herself during the rehearsals, instead of playing them on a cassette-player. Closer to the day of the presentation the other singers of the Ashram came and sang with musical accompaniment. One can imagine Nolini-da’s joy at being present at those cultural programmes with which his birthday was celebrated.

I was in the boarding under her care for a year, at the age of 10, and it is only in hindsight I can see some things that I could not see then. How enriching it was to live in a house where dancing and singing were as routine as eating and sleeping. When you learn to sing and dance as a child you are naturally inclined towards these activities when you grow older. For more than four decades those children who lived with Ira-di had this privilege. Nobody had asked her to do it. She did this because she wanted to share her own passion with the children under her care. She also taught dance to other young children of the school outside the boarding.

After a few years the performance for Nolini-da’s birthday stopped and the songs and dances were prepared for the Bengali New Year in mid-April and again later in the year. This was perhaps her greatest contribution to our growing up years. We were all familiar with the words of these wonderful poets. Ira-di was particularly close to Kobi Nishikanto and she taught the children many of his poems in the form of songs after they had been set to music. In fact, Nishikanto used to come to the boarding to see the rehearsals. The high and beautiful thoughts of his poetry were a part of our everyday life.

In the very first years the food for the children came from the Dining Room and Ira-di had to cook some additional dishes for the children. But from 1968, after Corner House was opened for the children who were living in the boardings, Ira-di cooked only when it was someone’s birthday. In the evenings, on the days when we did not go for the meditation in the Playground Ira-di used to read to us from her enormous volume of Ramayan written in Bengali. We sat on our wide balcony, all of us around her, and listened to her.

Strange as it may sound, Ira-di was also a coach for wrestling. This is the uniqueness of the Mother’s vision. She wanted her children to develop multiple skills. The same lady who had taught us the delicate movements of dance in the morning was teaching us the different positions of pinning your opponent down in a wrestling pit in the late afternoon. On Sunday mornings and very often on week-days in summer, the children of the boarding would be up before 6 o’clock in the morning, would rub mustard oil on their arms and legs, then walk down to the Tennis Ground, which was just steps away from the house, and practise wrestling on the sea-sand. Then we would have a dip in the sea, come back home and have a wash and go for breakfast and then to school.

For twenty years Ira-di looked after both boys and girls but for the next twenty years she was given the charge of only girls and that too the ones who were still in the Primary section. The boarding moved to another house, closer to the Ashram. As age was catching up with her she could not be as active as before.

All those who had ever lived in her care will remember her love and warmth, the way she made our childhood days memorable with songs, music, stories, sea-swimming, walking to the Ashram Theatre to watch cultural programmes and going to the Playground meditation every Sunday and Thursday evening. For many she was the one who initiated them to performing on a stage before an audience, for others she will be remembered as the one who taught them to wrestle. But everyone remembers her for her gentleness and her sweet smile which was always on her lips.

*

Ira Sarkar with Sunayana Panda

About the Author: A graduate from Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Sunayana Panda is an actress and author whose published works include Seven Dedicated Lives (2009), Following in Their Footsteps (2010) and Sri Aurobindo and The Cripps Mission (2012). She has also translated Pramila Devi’s memoirs into English titled The Luminous Past (2014). She is also a member of the Editorial Team of The Golden Chain, the Alumni Journal of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education.

Photographs courtesy: Sunayana Panda and Mahashweta Sengupta.

*

Dear Friends,

Chunibhai Patel (19.6.1903—19.8.1992) was a Gujarati sadhak who was renamed ‘Dyuman’ (“the luminous one”) by Sri Aurobindo on 24 November 1928. He visited Pondicherry for the first time on 11 July 1924 and surrendered himself to Sri Aurobindo. He became an inmate of Sri Aurobindo Ashram in May 1927. He was in charge of the Dining Room and looked after the Granary. A dedicated worker to the core, the Mother made him one of the Founder-Trustees of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust on 1 May 1955. He became the Managing Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust in 1991.

We are happy to announce that Overman Foundation has received permission from Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust to publish Dyuman’s Correspondence with the Mother in its online forum. We are extremely grateful to Shri Manoj Das Gupta, Managing Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, for giving us the said permission. We are also thankful to Shri S. Ravi, co-editor of Mother India journal and teacher at Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education for providing these letters to us.

The first three installments of Dyuman’s Correspondence with the Mother—consisting of letters written between 12 June 1929 and 11 January 1935 were published in the online forum of Overman Foundation on 23 June, 27 June and 21 July 2015 respectively. The fourth installment of the said correspondence—containing letters written between 19 January 1935 and 7 June 1935 has been published in the online forum of Overman Foundation. Please note that these letters are not included in the Collected Works of the Mother.

With warm regards,
Anurag Banerjee
Founder.
Overman Foundation

*

A pencil-sketch of Dyuman made by the Mother

*

Dear Mother,

On this coming Wednesday, we are thinking of preparing Halwa. Now that it is a routine dish, shall I try it once without cashew-nuts and raisins?

Will it not be a little tasteless?

19 January 1935

*

Dear Mother,

My love for You is too little, too shallow. My self-offering and devotion are too flat and full of turmoil. My consciousness is too clouded, not clear and transparent.

My dear Mother, I know this, yet I know also: there is a certitude of Victory and Realisation.

It is all right to see the imperfections and deficiencies but only on condition that it brings a greater courage for a new progress, an increase of energy in the determination, and a stronger certitude of victory and future perfection.

Always with you.

21 January 1935

*

My dear Mother,

I have deceived myself and You all along; I am filled with imperfections and lower impulses. I boasted of my purity, but now I see that it was all boasting, full of pride and ego.

Dear Mother, make me vividly conscious of all my defects and imperfections. I lose neither courage nor heart or strength. My strength is You, and in You I rest.

Everything will be all right in time. There is only to keep up a patient aspiration and an unfailing confidence in the Divine Grace and its assured victory.

Always with you.

23 January 1935

*

My dear Mother,

B saw the cupboard to be repaired and told me: “This is quite the old pattern; even if I repair it, it will not be safe. Ask the Mother for a new one.”

I told him: “I have no heart to reject the old one.”

He said: “It is your economic nature that goes on using the old one. Everybody is giving away the old furniture and is asking for new.”

My dear Mother, let us use what we have. This attitude of B is a very big drain on the Ashram energy.

Yes — it is quite a wrong attitude.

24 January 1935

*

My dear Mother,

C told me: “Sometimes when the flow of Light comes down from above, I say: ‘Not now, let me finish this work.’”

I said: “Never do that. Receive it, welcome it, allow it to come. It is the physical consciousness that wants to have its own old nature.”

Surely what you said was right. Moreover with a little practice the light can be fully received and still the work go on. But this condition comes later.

With all love and blessings always.

28 January 1935

*

My dear Mother,

An Aroumé servant asked for half a day leave for tomorrow morning. I told D I need a replacement, but it seems he does not have sufficient hands and cannot spare a man. If a servant comes to do part of the work, it is all right. Otherwise, we can manage with what we have quite easily.

It is better to insist a little with D — the difficulties come from inadequate organisation and by insisting it obliges them to make an effort and the difficulties get solved.

6 February 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Now You know F’s absurdity, for she has written to You what she wanted to do today. I am happy that she is now free from that.

Sri Aurobindo has just read her letter to me — you did well to console her. These ideas of incapacity are absurd, they are the negation of the truth of progress. What cannot be done today, will be done another day — if the aspiration is there.

6 February 1935

*

My dear Mother,

F has gone into a state of depression and despondency. To imagine, to invent, to justify and assent to falsehoods as the Reality and Truth — this is a chronic disease with many of us. May this nature of purely vital ignorance and physical stupidity disappear from the Ashram.

Surely it will be a very good thing when all these ignorant depressions are chased away.

7 February 1935

*

My dear Mother,

What’s the matter in the Dining Room? Why do we take pleasure in coming into conflict with each other? Is there even one day that has passed peacefully until now? Why do we seek for power instead of consecrating ourselves at the feet of the Divine?

Save us, save us, O dear Mother.

There is only to be patient — all that will pass one day. Perhaps in the state of their present consciousness they would find life too dull without quarrels.

Since yesterday I have been thinking of taking up the serving and distribution of food.

I do not think it is possible. I do not like that you should be bound by a regular work like that one. The rest would suffer.

My dear Mother, grant me an absolute loving consecration to Thee. Make me Thy humble and docile servant. And wherever I am asked to serve, give me gentleness and peace. Teach me to be Thy docile servant.

Surely you will do more and more perfectly your service to the Divine.

9 February 1935

*

Dear Mother,

I am often called a “miser” because of my resistance to outer suggestions. I am a miser! If I become generous and lavish, as the inmates want me to be — which is absolutely impossible —we must put aside not 16 thousand rupees for food but 30 or 40 thousand rupees. How shall we do so?

You are quite right and I do not find you a miser.

If I listened to what the people say, we should have been ruined long ago.

My dear loving Mother, make me more and more true and faithful to Thee. O my dear Love, may the Divine Grace alone manifest.

You have chosen the right path. Do not mind what the others say.

In all love and trust.

10 February 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Today I experienced that wherever I turned my eyes, I found You claiming all; I left all, ran to You, Mother, called You, threw myself at Your Feet, and I had all, and You.

This is a very good experience.

My dear Mother, always Thy child, make me Thy child, a true child.

Yes, my true child whom I keep always in my arms.

12 February 1935

*

My dear Mother,

A display of tremendous energy: the lady workers of Aroumé worked from 5 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon. This is not the first time; once they worked from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at a stretch.

O my dear Mother, let the energy be consecrated to the Divine consciously; let it be a pure self-giving to the Divine.

Yes, with consecration the work can be done much more easily and happily. But nobody must be asked a greater effort than what he can do.

27 February 1935

*

O my dear Mother,

I am becoming more quiet and peaceful. It is peace and equanimity that have made my work easier and simpler and brought goodwill where there was bad will.

Yes, let the peace and the quietness settle more and more in you and everything will become easy in your work.

Always with you.

9 March 1935

*

My dear Mother,

The Aroumé servants are obedient and willing workers, never absent without informing me previously. Even when they are ill, they come and take leave. I think it is the result of my kind and gentle behaviour with them.

Yes, I am sure that servants behave according to the way they are treated.

10 March 1935

*

My dear Mother,

The negligence of G and H today reminded me of past cases where I and my fellow workers were treated like butlers and couriers. Happily, it passed away very quickly. We may not be close friends, but surely we have to co-operate fully in the work.

Yes, it is good to turn a difficulty into an occasion for a new progress.

With love and blessings always.

12 March 1935

*

My dear Mother,

What should my attitude be towards F in her disturbances?

My dear Mother, let there be no attachment in me for others; let there be purely a goodwill and a heart filled with loving consecration to the Divine. If help of consolation comes from me, or rather through me, let it be purely a divine work.

Yes, it is like that that the help becomes true and effective.

To do at each moment the best we can and leave the result to the Divine’s decision, is the surest way to peace, happiness, strength, progress and final perfection.

With love and blessings always.

15 March 1935

*

My dear Mother,

A complete reliance upon the Divine Grace alone gives peace, happiness and joy. That is because the Divine Himself takes up the devotee and carries him or her in His arms.

Yes, the Grace is infinite for one who sincerely trusts the Grace.

Always with you, my dear child.

15 March 1935

*

Dear Mother,

What about J? What work will he do? He has not spoken to me about anything.

He has not been accepted as a permanent member and that is why no work has been given to him. He is married and has children and he wanted to bring the whole lot here. He has always lived on K’s charity. We do not need this kind of people here.

21 March 1935

*

My dear Mother,

A full trust and confidence in the Divine Love saves a sadhak from all dangers and difficulties and gives him happiness, peace and joy.

My dear Mother, grant me a force that brings an integral and complete self-giving to the Divine.

Yes, it is a sincere self-giving that saves one from all difficulties and dangers.

With love and blessings always.

28 March 1935

*

My dear Mother,

L was getting suggestions that she would become mad. It seems that many people said to her: “Why do you laugh so much?”— even when she was not laughing. I told her: “These are suggestions thrown upon you; you are not like that. On the contrary, it is such a nice thing, this laughter, a sort of great release and liberation.”

Yes, she must not fear — it is all stupid suggestions and you spoke quite well.

31 March 1935

*

My dear Mother,

I want You to interfere in all my movements, whatever they are; and Your interference will be promptly responded to with love and submission, with an earnest will to change as You would like. I want You, I seek for You day and night, night and day — for Your Light, for Your Consciousness, for Your Force.

O Mother, come into my entire being, my smallest cell, the tiniest drop of my blood. Come, my dear Mother, and make the whole being Your seat.

My dear child, with all my love I take you in my arms as my own child and assure you that you will become more and more mine.

3 April 1935

*

My dear Mother,

We have to find somebody for the washing and wiping of vessels. I do not know who it could be.

It seems to me that the only solution is that M should work himself, instead of throwing all the work upon others.

6 April 1935

*

My dear Mother,

A big disturbance is hovering over the kitchen. Twice it appeared a few days back, but it was controlled. N has accused me directly of being unfair. I tried to explain to her each time, but the roots have not disappeared.

The best is to ignore all these petty things. To want only what the Divine wants in us and for us, is the only important thing.

6 April 1935

*

Dear Mother,

I thought I had a very pure relation with the inmates, but today I see that it was all humbug. There is a still greater purity to manifest and to live.

When I go deep down and analyse myself, I find the lower vital impulses, the animal impulses of ordinary human life and its instincts. These things have no strength to make me act physically but I understand now that they creep in and govern the lower vital nature in a very subtle polished form.

Yes, these things were to be seen. It is good that you have seen them; but now there is only to be quiet, happy and peaceful in a steady will that all the nature should be enlightened.

6 April 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Blessed be the day when there will be peace, gentleness, kindness and the manifestation of Love.

My dear Mother, may the Divine manifest.

I would say: may the world become aware that the Divine is manifesting!

8 April 1935

*

My dear Mother,

The kitchen has not yet finished its troubles, and now the serving section has begun.

We are not trained to resist all evil, nor disciplined enough to persist after the Truth, nor cultured enough to live a quiet and happy life.

Yes, the suggestion of disturbance and dissatisfaction has become very strong and many respond to it; but we have only to keep quiet, very quiet, more and more quiet as an answer to the growing restlessness and stand calmly until the storms are over.

It is only a perfect Peace that can overcome all these excited fits…

With all love and blessings always.

9 April 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Water supply: Aroumé consumes a good deal of water for drinking, cooking and washing. If it happens again like today that there is no water from the taps for many hours, what shall we do? We shall have to use the well. The water will be fetched from it, boiled, passed through a cloth and used for cooking, drinking and washing vessels.

It is ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE to use the well water (even boiled) for drinking — the well water of the town is contaminated by infiltrations — this means typhoid and cholera — and for cooking also it is impossible because the well water has a filthy taste and smell.

12 April 1935

*

My dear Mother,

P bought some things last month and did not pay for them. Today R gave me the money to pay on her behalf. After that I began to think: so many people are buying things in their own capacity. Do they all pay cash or they remain as debtors? Can they not be stopped!

I have tried several times but never succeeded and the result was only that they began hiding things from me, which made their case much worse.

13 April 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Feeding animals in Aroumé: crows, squirrels, etc. come in a very big number. They not only eat up what is thrown to them by S, but also what is put for drying in the sun. Even they eat up raisins and cashew-nuts and spoil the sugar and such things, it is too much. I feel we should stop this feeding and lessen the number of animals in Aroumé.

Now that they have taken the habit of coming it may be difficult to stop them, but you may try.

21 April 1935

*

My dear Mother,

More peace brings more Light, and that sets everything right. O Lord, more peace.

Yes, it is in peace that the knowledge and the power can manifest.

Always with you.

24 April 1935

*

My dear Mother,

How is it that I read nothing, learn nothing! Some people learn languages, some learn painting, some learn singing; many read books on yoga and some are typing out Sri Aurobindo’s articles in “Arya”.

All that is for people who have a restless mind and need some mental occupation.

How is it I do nothing? This becomes a riddle to me at times, and I have no solution except this: it does not matter, let me have my Mother; it is quite sufficient if I have her.

This is surely the best.

Always with you, my dear child.

28 April 1935

*

My dear Mother,

In advancing towards the realisation there might come difficulties. I pass over them as the Mother’s child; I begin the sadhana as a child of the Mother, I advance like that and even in fulfilment I remain Thy child, my dear Mother, a child of eternity.

Yes, you will always be my dear child and thus you will reach the realisation.

29 April 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Tomorrow I am finishing the medicine for boils. May this be the last medicine for me. O body consciousness, open yourself to the dear Mother and get yourself filled with her Love.

Yes, there comes a time when medicines are no more needed, but that means that the body consciousness is quite opened to the force from above and that a strong unwavering will is established in the material.

With all love and blessings to you, my dear child.

30 April 1935

*

My dear Mother,

I have seen this: the Ashram has no hostile forces; it is filled with the Mother. It is only when we open to these hostile forces, calling them in, that they come and disturb us. If we remained calm, quiet and open to the Divine alone, the life of the Ashram would undergo a very rapid transformation and there would be peace, joy and happiness.

This is quite true. The peace and the happiness are always there.

With you always.

30 April 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Peace and an unshakeable equanimity are the firm basis for happiness, joy and progress towards the Goal. May it increase in me, in all of us in the Ashram.

Our love and blessings are always with you, establishing equanimity as an indispensable basis for the Realisation.

2 May 1935

*

O my dear Mother,

My heart is filled with gratitude that You brought me here. You fished me out of the lower nature and kept me in the bosom of Your eternal love.

O my dear Mother, teach me to love Thee, to surrender to Thee; teach me to be Thine, more truly Thine.

Yes, I am keeping you in my arms and surrounding you with my love which united to your aspiration will take you to the goal.

6 May 1935

*

My dear Mother,

In Aroumé there are a good number of people having moods; none can say when these moods will come — they come without any reason.

Moods are all over the Ashram — they come from the obscurity and bad will of the physical mind. When the physical mind will consent to open to the light all these moods will disappear.

With love and blessings always.

11 May 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Too frequently I meet people in their difficulties and bad conditions. In this state I go deep down within myself, and my being rises in a great and fervent prayer to You:

O my dear Mother, make me more and more selfless, completely selfless, filled only with Your Purity, Peace, Consciousness, Love and Light.

I am always with you and you will never call me in vain — our peace, love, help and protection will always answer to your call.

13 May 1935

*

My dear Mother,

There is misuse of filtered water in Aroumé; people are taking too much water in their tumblers and then throwing it away. No external rule can alter the situation; there has to be a change of consciousness and a complete consecration to the Divine.

Surely you are quite right—but we have to provide until the change of consciousness takes place!

Herewith a notice that can be put in Aroumé and also here near the filter.

Always with you.

14 May 1935

*

Dear Mother,

When anything happens to the body, it loses courage at once and becomes weak, helpless and full of fear. In one word, there is no peace and equanimity in the body consciousness. Not only the body but the entire consciousness gets clouded and veiled; there is no remembrance of the Divine in the physical consciousness and it is this that catches the illness and prolongs it.

Yes, this is quite rightly observed—but to have become conscious of it is a big step towards a successful transformation of the body consciousness and the victory over illness.

My love and blessings are always with you.

15 May 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Unless the body consciousness opens and receives the Divine Light, Peace and Consciousness, nothing of permanence is achieved. The body is the base, and upon that base the Divine has to work and construct a building. However much the vital and the mental are open and receptive, nothing can be said to be permanent if the body is not stable.

I am glad that you had the experience of the necessity for the body to open and to receive the divine Light and Will, as the mind and the heart does. This will do much for the increase of the resistance to illness and the capacity of keeping good health.

I am always with you.

15 May 1935

*

My dear Mother,

I am always given to Thee and to Thy Work. Make me more quiet, make me rest in full peace amidst these hundredfold activities. I have to learn this more and more, and You have to teach me. Teach me, my dear Mother, to be more and more Thine.

Yes, I am always with you, teaching you the true action and the true consecration.

19 May 1935

*

My dear Mother,

The most important thing for me to do is to remain quietly happy, consecrated and concentrated on You, and to do what has to be done very sincerely and devotionally, not worrying about the future, but quietly aspiring very humbly before You.

Yes, this is the right attitude and the most sure way.

Always with you in an affectionate trust.

27 May 1935

*

My dear Mother,

What did I see this evening when You were looking at me from Your window? I saw that my chest was as transparent as glass and that You were seeing Your own image there.

My dear Mother is always in my heart for eternity. My Mother, my Mother, my Mother.

This is a very beautiful and true experience. I am happy you had it. Yes, I am always in your heart — for ever with you.

28 May 1935

*

My dear Mother,

I fail to understand why there is so much antipathy against me in the Aroumé workers?

I do not think it is so bad as all that.

Three days back, as soon as I entered the Aroumé gate from the market, a force ran through my neck, saying: “It would have been better if you had died.”

Do not listen to all this rubbish. It does not come from the Aroumé workers, but from some hostile force that wants to upset you.

Yesterday when I was taking my lunch, a force wanted to send me away from Aroumé: “Go away, go away, you are not wanted here.”

Same explanation as above.

And now B tells me: “I shall not be able to cooperate with you in this way, nor shall I be able to work with you.” I do not even know what “way” he means.

My dear Mother, all is left to you. I rest happily and go to bed.

Yes, be quiet and do not worry about all that.

It is the same forces which want to make you believe that your co-workers hate you and make the others believe that you hate them. The mistake is to believe these forces—one ought always to answer them: No, it is not true, it cannot be.

Always with you, my dear child.

30 May 1935

*

My dear Mother,

I thought that as I have grown bulky, I might not be able to work physically. But I find that I can work with a sustained energy, quietly and with a balanced mind. And I think You are quite happy to see me working.

Yes, I am very glad to see you working physically and am sure it will do you much good. I am glad also that your body is getting a little less thin. It was truly necessary to fill the holes!

All love and blessings to you, my dear child.

30 May 1935

*

My dear Mother,

Today I heard C and D quarrelling. Afterwards, F told someone: “Prison life is easier than to work with C.”

Would it not be better if you spoke to D? If he is not satisfied, it is better for him to tell it frankly rather than to complain hidingly.

Always with you, my dear child.

1 June 1935

*

My dear Mother,

I have spoken to D very clearly: “Give dumb service; utter not a word even if there are whips on your back.”

If you mean that there must be no quarrels it is quite all right. But he must feel free to tell me what he has in his heart.

“Work can never be done if there is no discipline! The Mother knows very well the person in charge of the work, and those who work with him have to follow his instructions.” And he has agreed to that kind of work.

Let us see, my dear Mother. I wish that dumb service should be given to You by all of us.

I wanted to tell him also that if he has any complaint to make or if he is not satisfied with his work, it is to me that he must freely say so.

My love, blessings and trust are always with you, my dear child.

2 June 1935

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My dear Mother,

I, who was so social and friendly to all, am becoming more reserved day by day and relate to others only for the work or for business. Often the suggestion has passed in me that even with those I am somewhat free with, I should relate just for the work.

This is not necessary nor even advisable. You must feel free to speak to them and help them when they need it. Go on with them as you do — it is all right.

Grant me the strength, my dear Mother, to remain quite faithful to the Divine Will.

Yes, the strength is always with you to be always faithful to the Divine Will.

2 June 1935

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My dear Mother,

There is not a single worker in Aroumé who has not shown his or her bright side — love, devotion and service to the Divine. That is the light which shines in each of us; that I adore and through it I always feel in harmony with the inmates. That is what I put in front in my dealings with them.

Good.

Difficulties each of us has, some more, some less, but it is foolish to have contempt for someone having troubles. On the contrary, a sympathetic heart must go out to them in all goodwill and kindness, to help them out of their difficulties.

What you say is quite right and with this attitude there is no doubt that, sooner or later, the difficulties will vanish.

All love and blessings to you my dear child.

4 June 1935

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My dear Mother,

The work in our courtyard garden: as you saw, I can do good work as a coolie also, and though completely soiled with earth all over, I can remain Your child.

I was very pleased to see you enjoying your work. I hope you will rest very well this night and your body will get stronger and stronger.

I feel that it would be good for us inmates to do some sort of manual work — but the wish must come from within our hearts.

Yes, it is when it comes spontaneously from the good will of the heart that it is helpful in all ways.

I am quietly happy, with a greater confidence that the Divine Will is always victorious. The increased confidence gives me more strength, quietness, peace, patience and a force that serves the Divine Will.

Yes, with the growing confidence comes the growing force and the growing capacity to receive it.

All love and blessings to you, my dear child.

6 June 1935

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My dear, dear Mother,

I am happy with an increasing daily experience: My Mother is in my heart. She who supports me, guides me, loves me, She is the soul of this body and much more than that.

My dear Mother, I love You with all my heart.

Yes, you are truly in my arms, arms of love that always keep you close, very close to me.

6 June 1935

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My dear Mother,

At work two parties have formed — the quarrels go on daily and the smallest thing becomes a mountain. Both parties are quite dissatisfied with me because I do not take sides, I hear nobody and I put forth my case of peace and quietness.

What you are doing is quite all right. The most important thing is to keep an unshakeable quietude and peace. One day or another it will act upon them.

Desires, desires, have they no end? Yes, they have, the moment we turn towards the Divine and quietly aspire for Him, giving ourselves completely and sincerely to Him.

Yes, you are right. Keep a constant faith in the Divine’s final Victory.

7 June 1935

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My dear Mother,

Where You are, I am. And I have no place to go except into Your loving and affectionate consciousness.

Yes, my dear child, your home is here and I am always with you.

7 June 1935

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