probably caused her spinal vertebrae to get curved. I would watch Mother's head project out a little while she rested on her couch or even when sitting on a chair absorbed in a trance. Until her habit of sleeping in this semi-reclined position was changed, my exercises would not produce any result at all. What could I do? I did not know. And so in the end I gave up my efforts at removing her discomfort. Then one day, a long time afterwards, after Mother's physical withdrawal, while I was going through all the diaries, letters and papers she had left me, I came across a note written by her. When I read it I was stupefied. I was extremely saddened to realise how very e

55 Once we went to Darasuram near Kumbakonam. Darasuram is a tiny village on the outskirts of the town and the site of an ancient Chola temple. Perhaps not more than thirty or forty families live here. I have noted a strange thing that wherever I may go I attract young boys round me. Here too among such a crowd I found a clever, smart boy who became my un-asked-for guide. He began showing me round. For instance he showed me a carving in the temple which when covered on one side becomes a bull whereas when covered on the other represents an elephant. We went round the temple taking photos. Naturally the youngsters also wanted to be photographed. That smart boy stayed

He was known as the "Father of physical culture" in Gujarat. He also taught English and Dyuman-bhai was one of his students. He was an accomplished writer. His Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo in English is an invaluable book. Towards the end of his life he went to England to do some research on Sri Aurobindo's life as a student, all the houses he lived in, how he studied, what his life was like. He shed light on all these aspects of Sri Aurobindo's life that were totally unknown to us. In 1942, when I came here at the age of 19, I stayed here for about four months. I had come to find and understand the vision and path of Sri Aurobindo and to decide what I would do in life in the

and she worked up to the end. After she had been seriously unwell since the 20th of May, when Dr. Bisht came for the first time to examine her, she said that she was undergoing a process of transformation, something was happening to her, she didn't know what it was, she didn't know what to do and she asked Dr. Bisht if he could help her in any way. Naturally, Dr. Bisht, a scientific man, could not see the inner things, and he said, "Mother, to see and tell you what is happening, I must make a big .progress; only then can I give my answer to you." Mother 'immediately said, "Make a-big progress!" So from that we can understand how eager she was to continue her work of physical

I Remember Walking with Mother on the beach - 1952 Pranab with Mother - 5.7.51 1 Sometimes Mother used to recount amusing stories. She told me one from the time when she was in Paris, in charge of a spiritual group called 'Le cosmique'. One day, she heard of a savant, a man of knowledge, who had arrived and was going to reveal God's Word. So, along with a few friends, Mother decided to go and hear him speak. They went on the appointed day. They arrived a little late and saw that the room was already filled with solemn people who sat in silence. There was an air of expectancy.

deranged. He left the Ashram and after treatment for a while soon regained his balance. But he never really became fully normal. However he came back to the Ashram. He kept on looking after things in his own way in the Ashram. For example if he saw a mango leaf lying anywhere he would pick it up and put it in a fold of his dhoti near his waist. Whenever you saw him his dhoti was always stacked with mango leaves. One day I asked him: "Haradhan-da what do you do with all this heap of mango leaves?" Smiling he said: "You know Pranab how fond I am of mango leaves." "But what do you do with so many leaves?" I asked. "Why," he said: "I decorate my room with them."

Mr Maitra replied: "Oh, they're my sons." The gentleman called me near him and asked me my name. "Shri Pranabkumar Bhattacharya." A little astounded he asked Mr. Maitra: "How's this possible? You're Maitra and your son is a Bhattacharya." Totally unfazed, he retorted: "Oh yes, my friend's son is my son." The gentleman did not say anything more. But I became a little suspicious. Why had Mr. Maitra lied for no reason at all? I felt there was an unbecoming cleverness somewhere and I felt rather uneasy. The man did not seem to be very straight. Anyway Mr. Maitra came away with one pigeon. On the way he made me shoot some sparrows. At home, as usual, he cooked th

PART II Translated from the Bengali by Maurice Shukla Pranab garlanding Mother at the Playground on 21.2.52 Mother accepting flowers from Pranab in the "Children's court-yard" on 23/24.4.50 Our Motto Dedicated Service and Self-Culture Our Yoga Nivedita Karma and Atma-Suddhi (Dedicated Service and Self-Purification) Our Aim Spiritual Height and Material Perfection 1 It once occurred to me that since every yoga has its guiding principle - Yogah karmasu kaushalam is the Gita's or Yogaschitta vrittinirodhah is Patanjali's - ours too s

However, we asked the Sadhus: "What are your names? Where do you come from? Where are you going? And why on earth are you sitting here in this blistering afternoon?" The Sadhus took no notice of our queries and kept sitting with the same grave expression. We said again: "We have heard that Sadhus can do many strange things. Can you? If you can then show us something." The Sadhus remained silent. I felt slightly annoyed and said: "Are you Sadhus or fakes? I've heard that often thieves disguise themselves as Sadhus. You're not like that, are you? Then why don't you speak?" Even this did not ruffle their silence. Then I said: "Very well! We'll find out wh

Gymnastic Marching was born in 1948 and it has been going on since then. I conducted it every evening up to December 1958. In the early days Mother would watch it from the beginning up to the end for about 45 minutes every day. First we had the March Past when Mother, standing in front of the map of India, would take the salute of all the groups. After the March Past Mother went to attend to some work and I called her to take our "concentration" after the Gymnastic Marching was over. She would again stand in front of the map of India as she took the salute. After December 1958 Mother stopped coming out and I had to remain with her. So Mona Sarkar took up the work of condu