The integral approach characterises Narayan Prasad's presentation of the Ashram story. As one who has been asked all manner of questions about life in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, I welcome this treasure-house of information and inspiration.

Narayan Prasad has done a thorough job, as befits a disciple of the Master and the Mother. No mere chronicler, he does an "inside job", in the better sense of the term. This authentic and fascinating account of a divine experiment, a most timely adventure in integration, will inspire a host of readers.

Jay Holmes Smith

LIFE

IN

SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM

NARAYAN PRASAD

LIFE IN SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM

© SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM TRUST, PONDICHERRY

First Edition 1965

Second Edition 1968

Third Enlarged Edition 24th November, 2010

Published by:

SRI AUROBINDO KARMI SANGHA TRUST

Matrimandir, Sri Aurobindo Sarani

P.O. Habra-Prafullanagar, North 24 parganas

PIN :743268, Phone: (03216)270481

West Bengal, India

Price : Rs 250.00 only

Graphics & Printing by:

BIDYUT MUDRAN

Kolkata-700012

Phone:03322419015

To raise the world to God in deathless Light,

To bring God down to the world on earth we came,

To change the earthly life to life divine.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

THE earlier editions of this book were published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, in 1965 and 1968. The book is in demand still here in India and abroad as well. People are intents to know more about the Ashram and its life now-a-days. That is why after a long interval of 42 years this enlarged third edition has been brought about.

In this edition information regarding the birth of Matrimandir at the dream city of the Mother—Auroville, the Mother's leaving her earthly abode and the latest development of the Ashram have been appended.

Here, I am to acknowledge with gratitude the kind permission given by Sri Manoj Dasgupta, Managing Trustee, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry, to publish this third edition along with the said Appendices.

I also acknowledge with gratitude the help given by Prof. Supriya Bhattacharya of Kalyani University, in preparing the manuscript of the Appended portion from the last Bengali edition (2005) of this book.

It is expected that this third edition also like the earlier two, will draw the attention of the inquisitive readers who are interested in the life of Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

Gobinda Lai Chakraborty.

PREFACE

IT is a matter of great pleasure that Sri Aurobindo Karmi Sangha Trust, Matrimandir, Habra, Prafullanagar (North 24 PGS.) has now brought out the revised and enlarged edition of Narayan Prasad's "Life in Sri Aurobindo Ashram" whose second edition was published in 1968. To the readers and devotees of the present generation, the name of Narayan Prasad is not known. He was born on 02.02.1902 in Nathnagar, Bhagalpur in Behar. He was attracted to the Ashram in the early thirties and came and stayed in the Ashram several times. (16.02.32—01.3.32, 10.8.32 — 20.8.32, 23.11.32 — 20.03.33, 09.11.33 — 04.01.39). On 10.8.39 he joined the Ashram permanently and took part in various activities of the Ashram for a long time and thus gathered a first-hand experience of various facts of the Ashram-life till his death on 17.5.1980. Narayan Prasad was no litterateur; in fact, he was for long in charge of the Ashram Granary. This was, in a way, an advantage. For he could communicate in a very easy style an intimate inside-view of the life and sadhana in Sri Aurobindo Ashram. The basic outline of the Mother's and the Master's vision, the most fundamental elements of the practical aspects of Integral Yoga, the activities of the Ashram in its wonderful range, the link of the Ashram to the wider world, the impressions of dignitories on their visits to the Ashram, observations of writers, artists and thinkers from all parts of the world, interviews with the Mother on vital questions of existence — everything is captured in a most lucid and engaging style from the beginning to the end. From this book readers of the present generation will not only draw inspiration and light from the little nuggets of gold gathered from the experiences of the old sadhaks,

but also will get an idea of the world-wide action of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga as revealed in several startling incidents across remotest corners of the world. That Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is not merely a deep, inward living, that it is also a call for transformation and hence a force in action upon the outer life, is amply brought out in the luminous pages of this book.

This is a book for the beginner as well as for the advanced sadhak, if there is any. By writing it Narayan Prasad did a great service to readers of all ages. Now, Sri Aurobindo Karmi Sangha Trust too rendered a great service by bringing out from oblivion this treasure-house of information and inspiration. Living in Sri Aurobindo Ashram was a sadhana for Narayan Prasad; writing of it was no less of that. The sweetness and light born out of that continues to radiate in these pages. We are now grateful for this opportunity to partake of this sweetness and bask in this light.

OM Namo Bhagavate.

At the feet of the Lord and the Mother.

Supriyo Bhattacharya

FOREWORD

What is so attractive as the Life Divine actually lived— or even steadfastly aspired for ? Narayan Prasad's picture of Life in Sri Aurobindo Ashram presents to the reader a cameo of the Kingdom of God in the making, a divine community, aware of its shortcomings, growing in the light of its Ideal. The Table of Contents reveals the scope and the richness of this work.

The author is in love with his theme, alive to the privilege of living in this community. That he is not at all a litterateur (he has long been in charge of the Ashram granary) is characteristic of this Ashram. He has the facility of communicating to the reader something of his own experience, his thirty years of adventuring in the Life Divine in this sacred milieu. Only one who has himself trodden the Path can disclose to us in such clear fashion the subtle features of Ashram life.

The integral approach characterises Narayan Prasad's presentation of the Ashram story. As one who has been asked all manner of questions about life in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, I welcome this treasure-house of information and inspiration.

In this day of universal stress on Integration, to the point where it may be said to be the keynote of the age, it is worth calling attention to the evidence in this book that Sri Aurobindo Ashram is a force for unity on every level of life. There is here a constant and insistent emphasis on the utmost integration of the individual through the Integral Yoga as the only dependable foundation for the collective integration.

Visits which some of us have made in scores of Sri Aurobindo Centres and hundreds of homes of disciples have convinced us that the average product of the Ashram and its Centre of Education is giving a good account of himself as an integrating influence in the local community.

This is true also of the Sri Aurobindo schools and other

institutions in various states of the Indian Union, which radiate the spirit of unity and harmony, and of the journals in several languages published in the Ashram, which spread culture in its deepest sense, without provincialism.

The author effectively refutes the widespread assumption that the inmates of the Ashram live a cloistered existence. He reveals the currents of the world's life that sweep through this spiritual community; the constant stream of visitors from many lands and all parts of India, with whom the disciples and students mingle freely; the Sri Aurobindo Library with its wide array of books and magazines from various countries and cultures; the weekly cinema shows with documentaries from Embassies and selected feature films—all of this free from the cultural chaos that one so commonly finds "outside".

While inmates are expected to refrain from any political activity, the Ashram, with the Mother as its dynamic Centre, has always been strongly related to current historical developments. To illustrate this point, very little is known, even fifteen years after Sri Aurobihdo's passing, of what he did to save humanity from Nazi domination and keep open the path of human evolution. This yogic action the author reveals in the context of the historical facts. Sri Aurobindo's whole energy was centred not only in bringing down the Supermind but in seeing it in operation in the world.

It is good to note that, as an antidote to any temptation on the reader's part to form a too idyllic impression of the Ashram, Our Way of Sadhana indicates some of the rigours of the "sunlit path", the inner self-discipline necessary for transformation. The author has done well to make clear also that the Sri Aurobindo Ashram is a laboratory, not a yogic showcase.

Narayan Prasad has done a thorough job, as befits a disciple of the Master and the Mother. No mere chronicler, he does an "inside job", in the better sense of the term. This authentic and fascinating account of a divine experiment, a most timely adventure in integration, will inspire a host of readers.