The 25^th Anniversary of 'MotherIndia'

(This article has been edited and abridged by the Publisher)

February 21, 1974 marks Mother India's 'Silver Jubilee'. It may be of interest to recall -how this periodical was launched and to note some of the vicissitudes through which it passed. Considering the initial difficulties in its way, one may well designate it a child of Divine Grace.

In its origin it was the idea of a young businessman, Keshav-deo R. Poddar, now known as Navajata but even at that time secretly what the name signifies: 'The New-Born.' For, although not yet a resident of the Ashram, he was devoted to the cause of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Feeling the need to bring into the dust and heat of the common world's arena the breath of the New Life they embodied, he conceived a paper which would busy itself with that world's problems without any narrow business-concern. It was meant to make current the gold of a spiritual light at any material expense, and no calculation was made about the length of time it might take for this celestial coinage to be accepted.

Navajata put his project before the Mother. She, in consultation with Sri Aurobindo, approved it. Then he proposed Amal Kiran (originally K. D. Sethna but known to the Aurobindonians by the name the Master, during Sethna's stay in the Ashram, had given him, meaning 'The Clear Ray') as Editor. With the Master's and the Mother's sanction he asked Amal Kiran to assume charge under the name familiar to the city of Bombay where both of them resided at the time. As the two Gurus had said "Yes", Sethna could not say "No". Forthwith, the periodical was fixed to be a fortnightly and the date of its publication planned to coincide with February 21,1949, the Mother's seventy-first birthday.

The crucial question of the title was very appropriately settled by a brain-wave of the Editor's wife, Sehra. What she brought up answered at once to the truth behind the publication-date by harmonising with (1) the fact that the base of operations, besides being the motherland of Sri Aurobindo, was the country which

the Mother, while hailing from the West, had still made her own by soul's choice, and (2) the vision of the Ashram-Mother as incarnating not only the "Wisdom-Splendour" that is the universe's fount -

Creatrix, the Eternal s artist Bride

but also that particular face and front of the Infinite, the Goddess Bharat-Shakti

Who watches over India till the end -

mothering especially the India of the Rishis, the Yogis, the Saints and, above all, the Avatars.

How would a fortnightly with a spiritual background fare in the commercial capital of India where the word 'spirit', if it meant anything at all, might connote simply what Prohibition puts out of the way of celebrating or relaxing commercialists? Bombay was also a centre of furious political activity, with culture and idealism no more than a suggestion of infra-red and ultra-violet beyond the multi-passioned spectrum of contending or co-operating shades of opinion in practical politics. The desperateness of the proposed venture and its need of Grace from the Divine was finely hit off by the message (dated January 29, 1949) received from Aldous Huxley for the first issue:

I wish you all success in your venture. You will, of course, be a voice crying in the wilderness. But if a few individuals pay attention, something will have been accomplished.

Some time before the date of publication the Mother gave an interview at Pondicherry to all the Aurobindonians concerned: Navajata, Sethna, Soli Albless who had been appointed the Editor's associate, and Yogendra Rastogi who was Navajata's right-hand man for management. The Editor was rather worried over that part of his job which was to consist in writing thousands of words on various political themes in a manner that would be

clear, cogent, penetrating, widely informed, easily authoritative, enlightened by a view of national and international situations from the height of Sri Aurobindo's thought. Although conversant with this thought, the crowded and chequered field, to which he was expected to apply it with full cognisance of what was going on there, was mostly foreign to him. More than a little puzzled, he unburdened his mind to the Mother: "Mother, I have to be an expert political thinker and writer. But I have no turn for politics and no touch with it." She smiled a cool sweet smile and answered: "Neither have I." The Editor got a start: "Well, then what shall I do?" Again the imperturbable sweetness and then the reply: "There is Sri Aurobindo. He will guide you in everything." A sudden flood of power swept over the hearer. "Oh, yes," he said, "Sri Aurobindo will surely do the impossible." And Sri Aurobindo did.

Not only did he put from afar his mighty spiritual force to the task of 'politicising' the Editor's grey cells. He also got every editorial, however lengthy, read out to him before publication and sent a telegram of approval or modification. Matter for Mother India received preferential treatment among the sundry call s on the precious time of the Avatar of Supermind. And his interest in it had a directly personal touch . On one occasion , when a sadhaka's sceptical attitude to the opinions expressed in the fortnightly was reported to him , he said: "Doesn't he know that Mother India is my paper?" Here was Grace in abundance and without stint initiating , fostering, shaping, supporting, championing.

When the main articles for the first issue - written by the Editor and Albless - were sent to Pondicherry, not only Sri Aurobindo but also the Mother listened to Nolini's reading out of them. Both the Gurus sent words of praise and total sanction. However, in the Bombay-office where various practitioners of journalism dropped in for a close look at the experiment, a crisis arose. The office had been set up only six or seven weeks before the projected date for the opening number. There were no materials in reserve except for two or three issues. Several newspapermen raised their eyebrows to convey that this would never do. One day a veteran journalist appeared and clinched the

others' contention. He told the small staff that they were heading for the rocks: unless they had six months' matter in hand it was foolhardy to start on February 21,1949. They said their opening number would be a brilliant one and it would be a shame to suppress it. A warning finger was wagged in front of the novice Editor's nose: "Better to he quiet for a few months than go up a rocket and come down a stick!" The Editor and his companions swore they would work frenziedly and keep things going. "Impossible! All journalistic experience is against you. Mass your forces sufficiently - six months' stuff in hand - and then make your entrance."

Mother India was in a quandary. To commence and then flop was an unbearable prospect. The Editor had at times the apparently irrational feeling that if hard-pressed he could write the whole periodical single-handed. But could one rely on such delusions of grandeur? Not to be published according to the original plan was galling. Navajata, Rastogi and Albless were no chicken-hearts and they were in full sympathy. Yet the Editor could not bring himself to involve everything in a rapturous risk. He thought it best to consult the Mother. So he despatched to her an urgent note: "All journalists advise us to postpone publication for some months. They say we must be well-stocked with articles: otherwise we are doomed. My own instinct is that of Foch at the Battle of the Marne in 1914. When he was asked by his superior at headquarters for a report from the field, he sent the message: 'My centre is giving way, my right wing is in retreat, situation excellent, I am attacking.' But what do you say?"

On January 27, 1949, the Editor received the telegram: "Stick to the date. Live on faith. Blessings, - Mother." With a whoop the office went into action and faith in the Mother's Grace has kept Mother India in action up to now.

During Sri Aurobindo's life-time this Grace, though often directly bestowed in response to questions, was frequently operative from behind the scenes, as it were. For, the Mother was extremely busy on many occasions and left matters entirely to Sri Aurobindo: her support was tacitly present, his actively at work. The decisions about the editorials were sometimes taken

when both she and he were together; but generally it was he who gave judgment. This was in the fitness of things in regard to political pieces. He had been a great politician and had still his finger on the nation's pulse. And sometimes he let his disciple-editor be as audacious as he had himself been in the famous old days of Bandemataram and Karmayogin. Once, in the period when it was a vital issue whether or not to recognise Red China, an editorial came out in strong criticism of the current national policy . The Mother looked at the opening sentence in the printed copy that had come into her hands. It is reported that she was rather surprised at the way the thoughts had been voiced. She went to Sri Aurobindo's room and said: "Amal has written very violently. Did you see and pass the expressions before he printed them?" Sri Aurobindo , with his Himalayan calm, just smiled and said : "Yes ." This was enough for her: the Master was in sole charge of politics . She never took his disciple to task over any editorial. And when once he got into a little trouble with the authorities for a somewhat slashing article on Kashmir and was called up to be questioned, both she and Sri Aurobindo , on being informed, assured him of their spiritual support. The confrontation with the authorities got happily resolved.

Two days before Sri Aurobindo passed away, the disciple had an interview with the Mother late in the evening. As the Master could not do his usual job, the Mother listened to the new editorial. She let it stand, but asked the writer to be cautious in certain matters. On her own responsibility she would not like to allow extremist expressions on some points. There should be no fear or faltering, but forces of a particular sort were not to be encouraged.

After the passing of Sri Aurobindo, in December 1950, all editorials were necessarily read out to her, but the political aspect had to be toned down. The Mother herself was not happy about politics because she didn't feel like commenting on Indian situations just as Sri Aurobindo used to do. She did not have his background of past national leadership and reputation. At the end of a year or so, Mother India was converted wholly into a cultural review and from a fortnightly it became a monthly altering

its format in the process. This was in February 1952. Some time in 1953 the Mother decided to shift the office from Bombay to Pondicherry and to get the monthly printed at the Ashram Press.

From February 1954 the Editor too came down to Pondicherry and settled in the Ashram. Now the Mother could be consulted directly at all times, and she presided most generously over the month-by-month run of the periodical, giving 'Words' each time, and other contributions now and again, attending to diverse problems of cultural policy and practical management. Questioned on the issue of becoming more 'popular' she ruled that wanting to please readers as a means of obtaining a larger circulation was a form of vulgarity: one must write at one's highest and give the readers what, according to one's best lights, one believes they should have. This did not exclude making the field as wide as possible. Mother India need not restrict itself to being philosophical or to dealing with spiritual topics. Its appeal could be vast and varied , but there should be consonance, however subtle and implicit, with the great ideal of refining no less than sharpening all of man's faculties. And, of course, topics concerned with the Integral Yoga were to hold the centre of the stage.

At the end of twenty-five years Mother India cannot do better than turn in deep gratitude to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo and so comport itself as to be able to carry on building the Mother 's India within us and without, and through that loveliness, help the whole earth to aspire for

What most she needs, what most exceeds her scope,

A Mind unvisited by illusion s gleams,

A Will expressive of soul's deity,

A Strength not forced to stumble by its speed,

A Joy that drags not sorrow as its shade.

K. D. Sethna