FLAME OF LOVE FLAME OF LOVE Compiled and Edited by Roshan Sri Aurobindo Ashram Pondicherry First Edition 2007 The writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are copyrighted by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust and have been reproduced with its kind permission. Cover page: "Flame of Love" by Hufreesh © Divyanand Kripanidhi 20O7 12, "Atman", Ravishankar Sankul Surat - 395 001 Published by Divyanand Kripanidhi Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press Pondicherry - 605 0

Grace on Motiben * Mother said to me this morning: "If I give the Bulletin to Motiben will she like it? Do you think she will be happy? I will give it for the pictures; she can see them." Mother knew that my aunt does not know English. C: "Mother, as you are giving, you can give her the Hindi edition." Mother: "I don't have it but I will ask Jayantilal."1 Later, when Mother came for Sri Aurobindo's lunch, she informed him: "Motiben has offered a very pretty silver fork for you. Today is her birthday." Sri Aurobindo smiled and said: "Oh!" Then Mother asked Chinmayee to bring that fork. But pointing to the one which was already there, Chinmay

Part 2 Memories of Bansidhar Painting given by the Mother to Bansidhar on his birthday, 21 February 1949 Like a flame that burns in silence, like a perfume that rises straight upward without wavering , my love goes to Thee; and like the child who does not reason and has no care, I trust myself to Thee that Thy Will may be done, that Thy Light may manifest, Thy Peace radiate, Thy Love cover the world. When Thou wiliest I shall be in Thee, Thyself, and there shall be no more any distinction; I await that blessed hour without impatience of any kind, letting myself flow irresistibly toward it as a peaceful stream

Bansidhar and Photography * In those days the art of photography had not developed in the Ashram. Mother gave Bansidhar some of her pre-Pondicherry photographs for reprinting. She insisted that while making new negatives the old copies must not be touched up. Bansidhar entrusted the work to Latour, son of the photographer who had taken Sri Aurobindo's photographs in the early years. He told him: "Make one negative without touching it up and one after touching up the old one. We shall show prints of both of them one after another to the Mother and order the required number of copies of the one Mother chooses." After seeing the touched-up copy intently

Our Bansimama Bansidhar-ji — Bansimama as I have always known him since my childhood — was a close friend and well-wisher of Vaidya Kesarimalji, my grandmother's brother who was a disciple of Punamchandbhai, one of the early disciples of Sri Aurobindo. My grandmother asked Punamchandbhai, way back in the 1920s, to take her only son, my father, to Sri Aurobindo Ashram. That, I have learned, was how our family was introduced to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. And this is how both Kesarimalji and Bansidharji had always been our mamas, maternal uncles, to us five children. When our mother fell seriously ill and had to go to Calcutta for a long treatment, the Mother asked Bansi

Preface I present this compilation of sweet memories of Motiba (Champaklal's aunt) and Bansidhar (Champaklal's younger brother) who came to Sri Aurobindo Ashram in its early days when the Ashram had few inmates — sixty to seventy. Those were days of intense sadhana, as Sri Aurobindo and the Mother were bringing down the Supreme Truth, Light, Harmony, Peace and love into the earth-consciousness. Given the privilege of living in close proximity with them, the Divine in human form, the sadhaks and sadhikas were single-mindedly concentrated on their sadhana. They were silent servitors and one in their aim to surrender to the Lord Sri Aurobindo and the Mother with full faith. With a burni