THE ASHRAM IN THE MAKING

"FROM the very beginning of my present earthly existence,happened to meet many people who said that they had a great inner aspiration, an urge towards something deeper and more true, but could not advance, because, they said, they were bound, subjected, slaves of this brutal necessity of earning their livelihood and that put such a burden upon them, took so much of their time and energy that nothing remained to enable them to devote to any other kind of activity inner or outer. I have heard this very often, I have seen many poor people like that—I do not say poor from the monetary point of view, but poor, because they felt themselves imprisoned in a narrow and deadening material necessity.

"I was very young at that time and I always told myself that one day, if I could, I would try to create a small world—oh, quite small—a small world where people would live without having to busy themselves with food and lodging and clothes and all the imperious necessities of life, so that I might see whether all these energies freed by the certainty of an assured material existence would turn spontaneously towards the divine life and the inner realisation."

The Mother

This may help give some idea of where lies the origin of this "small world" of ours—the Ashram. Now let us see how it has evolved and is evolving.

In the words of the Master himself : "The Ashram is the Mother's creation and would not have existed but for her."

The spiritual magnitude of the Mother's life-work—the Ashram cannot be judged by a surface view. Today wherever the eye

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meets anything remarkable, you may be sure the Mother's power has been at work.

Her "small beginnings asked for a mighty end".¹

The Mother does not believe only in abstract precepts but in living them. Her own example is our light and guidance. Nolini's eloquent words bear on the point: "...our mode of living, our life itself took a different turn with the arrival of the Mother. ...The Mother came and installed Sri Aurobindo on his high pedestal of Master and Lord of Yoga...the Mother taught us by her manner and speech, and showed us in actual practice, what was the meaning of disciple and master; she has always practised what she preached. She showed us, by not taking her seat in front of or on the same level as Sri Aurobindo, but by sitting on the ground, what it meant to be respectful to one's Master, what was real courtesy. Sri Aurobindo once said to us, perhaps with a tinge of regret, 'I have tried to stoop as low as I can and yet you do not reach me.'²

To use the expression of K. D. Sethna :

'The Mother lived most simply. She had no more than two or three plain Saris³ which she herself used to wash. There was nothing to which she would not lend a willing worker's hand.

1.Savitri, p. 357.

2."Every time I stood before him I had felt his immeasurable stature and active abidance in a consciousness far, far above our own. Yet, how gracefully he reached down to us whenever necessary! In those days, he would ask us to sit on chairs equally with him. I have never seen him ordering about anybody, whether during his political life or during his life as a yogi. When a telegram had to be sent, he would write out the matter and holding the paper in his hand would say in effect, "I suppose this must be sent." A dozen hungry hands would stretch out to execute what was neither a request nor a command." (A. B. Purani, Sunday Times : Sri Aurobindo Memorial Number, 1950).

3."The Mother, when the Ashram was still unformed, was wearing patched cotton saris. When she took up the work, it was necessary to change her habits, so she did so."—Sri Aurobindo.

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There was no task she considered below her. But whatever she did, she did with her whole heart and invested with beauty and spiritual significance, for her entire being seemed the dynamic depth of a consciousness far other than the ordinary."

In the course of time more and more aspirants came in quest of the Light and offered themselves to be moulded as the Mother pleased. Formerly cooking was done by a Pariah cook. A new turn was given to the kitchen service when two Gujarati girls gave themselves to the Mother and were prepared to take up the kitchen work.

After a time (1932) one of them began to ask how to cook certain particular dishes. To a certain question Sri Aurobindo replied on behalf of the Mother: "A sauce with saffron, coriander, cumin, black seeds as was written for the cabbage. If there are a few tomatoes to add in the sauce, it will be better."

To another question : How to prepare this sauce, Mother?

Sri Aurobindo : Dissolve the rice flour in a small quantity of cold liquid—add little by little the hot milk, stirring all the time, bring to boiling point and then mix with the cooked greens and mashed potatoes.

Question : Snake-gourds and potatoes are available. Mother, this is altogether a new dish, how to cook it ?

Mother: The snake-gourds must be cut in bits like short tubes (2" long), remove the inside seeds and fill the tubes with mashed potatoes mixed with a thick white sauce and fried onions. Cook slowly on a low fire in a curry sauce (like that of the cabbage, etc.).

In the kitchen report book the directions were given sometimes by the Master, sometimes by the Mother. On one occasion, as to why the Mother did not say anything the Master wrote :

"No instruction needed. You do it very well. Mother could not suggest anything better."

The Mother preferred lentils and beans. We got them from

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France for our use because of their food value. When the number began to grow and it was difficult to procure them regularly, then mugdal, gramdal and masurdal were, one after another, introduced at the suggestion of the man in charge. First a little of it would be cooked as a sample, the Mother would taste it and then allow it to be used.

A little more detail about the growth of the Dining Room I shall give presently. What I want to emphasise here is how the forces acted on those who were to form the first stones of the growing structure that would be the Ashram.

Till August 1930, the Dining Room was under the charge of S, a sadhak from Gaya. Venkatraman brought things for him from the market. Afterwards the purchasing work was entrusted to Balsubramanya. The man next to shoulder the responsibility for the whole affair was then serving bananas under S. When he found that the supply of bananas was not good enough, he asked the Mother if he could buy them himself. The reply was to the effect that he could do the marketing, taking money from S.

In January 1933 when B wanted to go from here the Mother asked Dyuman if he would do the marketing. If he would, said she, he would have to act according to the directions of the man in charge S, and she added, "I shall give money only to him and not to you."

He began marketing with Rs. 5/- a day. If the production of cereals was included, the expenses on food alone would be five lakhs. This was in 1962. Since then every year the price has been rising. Now in 1968 they have become almost double.

In order that everything might be done under the Mother's guidance Dyuman began to report to her the day's working. He would send two reports a day. Sadhaks were free to have as many slices of bread or as many bowls of rice as they liked but previous intimation had to be given of the quantity required for the day. The intimations were as these :

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There will be ...visitors tomorrow; ...extra quantity will be needed...people require one whole lemon each. Hence...extra lemons will be needed tomorrow.

Yesterday the following three kinds of vegetables were got from the market...which is to be cooked for lunch ? Which for the evening ?

These intimations, when signed by Sri Aurobindo, were acted upon.

The details I have given are perhaps dry and uninteresting in themselves and even may sound ridiculous in some ears. Still I have given them just to show their bearing on what detailed supervision the Master and the Mother exercised over routine matters of the day.

Prior to 1933 the Dining Room, Kitchen, Dispensary, Library, Workshop, all were within the precincts of the main Ashram building. The Dining Room was in the room now occupied by Prithwi Singh. Only 30 people could sit there. There was no counter. Food was kept in a dish in a cupboard. Dyuman meditated before and after his dining room work.

The present Dining Hall (Aroume House) was taken on rent in September 1933. It took three or four months to effect minor repairs. In January 1934 the Mother opened it. It is a spacious building with two halls and marble floors. It has six other rooms, a large verandah and a fairly large garden in front. The Municipal Park across the road forms a beautiful view.

Before 1945 the park was an open, almost bare area having a central structure with a dome. When Pondicherry was a French possession its major celebration, 14th July, Republic Day, was observed here. Afterwards the open space was turned into a beautiful park.

The arrangements in the Dining Hall are not only in good taste but also very pleasing and even attractive. No dusty corner, no stained wall or floor, no cobweb hanging from the ceiling.

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Such are the sitting arrangements that 178 people can sit comfortably in an Indian style. Japanese-pattern low dining tables make for economy of space as well as for ease and convenience.

During the Darshan days, it is the Dining Room that puts on a gala look. All finish their meals within an hour and a half and the peace is never disturbed. A special counter is opened these days, conducted entirely by the girls of the Education Centre.

On a blackboard facing the entrance of the dining room are written, daily, in beautiful script, valuable and inspiring extracts from the writings of the Master and the Mother. These words often give food to the soul before we give food to the body.

The body being the very basis of sadhana, the Mother was seen taking particular care to organise the food arrangements. She wanted to give us wholesome food, well-cleaned, well-cooked, well-served.

The local market proved too small for the needs of the growing Ashram. The rice purchased in the market used to be full of bits of stone. So the granary was opened where grains could be properly cleaned, made ready and stored for daily supply.

In the whole of Pondicherry, it was difficult to get even three bags of rice of a uniform quality. It was therefore decided to buy paddy and hand-pound it. Two sadhikas and asadhak did the hand-pounding. They had to make ready 32 kgs. of rice everyday. When the number went up, husking without polishing was done by a huiler in the town. Now we have our own huiler. When rationing was imposed we started growing our own paddy.

The first garden and paddy field⁴ that came into the possession of the Ashram was Cazanove. The whole area of 22 acres was walled up and has a tube-well, fitted with an oil-engine. The next field was "Rizière" and then "Highland". To this was added in 1962 a plot of 36 acres which has been named by the Mother

4. Some say the first purchase was a plot of land which came to be known as Manure Garden.

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"New Paddy Land". The total yield meets our annual need for the moment.

The Japanese method of paddy cultivation was introduced by the help of two Japanese cultivators who stayed here for a pretty long time. Because of our limited resources it took so many years to acquire self-sufficiency in one item. Our effort is to be self-sufficient in vegetables, milk, oil as well as fruits.

The Agricultural Section of the Centre of Education was awarded the second prize for improved agricultural appliances by the Indian Institute of Agricultural Research, Government of India. These agricultural appliances based on the Japanese system of paddy cultivation have been manufactured in our workshops.

Cauliflowers and cucumbers were seen rarely grown in Pondicherry. They were tried in Cazanove with success. Some more lands were bought here and there for growing vegetables but to feed 1500 people every day much more was needed. There was a time when vegetables grown in our gardens were brought into the Ashram and the Mother would come at noon to see them. This came to be known as vegetable Darshan.

Since then a new addition has been a big area of 90 acres called "Gloria", 10 miles away from the Ashram. It is meant for the cultivation of vegetables, and, if possible, pulses.

Its soil is said to be the best of all. It has been put under the charge of a veteran agriculturist who was once an Assistant Director of Agriculture in the Madras State Service. Now he is a resident of the Ashram along with his family.

On the question of milk production there is much to say. In short, the start was given by the Mother herself. In 1925 she used to be present at the time of milking. The milkman brought his cows to an open space in the Ashram courtyard. Later she passed on this work to Amrita and a separate place was allotted for milkmen where milking is done even today twice a day at 4 a.m. and 230 p.m.

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How much attention is paid to cleanliness is evident from the fact that not an ounce of milk is accepted from the pots of the market milkman. A certain quantity of milk has still (1968) to be purchased from the town as the milk-yield of the Ashram dairy is not enough for our requirements. The milkman has to bring his cows to the Ashram dairy. The udders of the cows are washed with potassium permanganate water before milking and the pots used for the milk are our own.

In those days visitors did their own cooking. To save C from buying milk in the town the Mother asked him to keep a pot daily at a particular place. Once, on finding a black mark in the pot she pointed it out to him. It was sufficient to bring home to him the importance of cleanliness. Now we can see from where the sense of cleanliness springs. And it has almost become ingrained in us.

Describing the living condition of those days, C explained: "Rs 15/- was enough for one person to pull on for a month. One rupee worth of rice would suffice for a month, plenty of vegetables could be had for a pice. Even in 1933 a pound of sugar cost one anna, good silk ten annas a yard, a German time-piece Rs 3/-, all this as Pondicherry was then a free port.

Sometime in 1934 it was learnt that a milkman from whom milk was bought for the Mother's use wanted to sell his cow. When it was brought before the Mother, it was seen looking at her as one looked at one found after a long quest.⁵ The Mother wanted it to be bought though a very high price was charged for it.

5. A similar incident comes to the mind. There was a time when we had not even a rickshaw of our own. There was a bullock cart. It was under the charge of an inmate of the Ashram. The days of which we are speaking, the Mother used to come to the terrace in the evening for a walk. Seeing the Mother, the bullocks, like human beings, on the way stopped and remained staring at her and would not move. At this the sadhak got puzzled and began to twist the tail of the animal, and use his stick to make them move but of no avail. They refused to stir and kept on looking at the Mother intently. The Mother felt their beating so much that she relieved the sadhak of his duty and sent the bullocks away to a disciple's place in Andhra State.

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The cow had some good habits. So she was given a name. The practice of naming the cows still continues. It was with her that a start was made of our first dairy which is some way off the Ashram, facing the sea. When it was placed on a sound footing, a member of the Ashram was sent to the Government dairy at Bangalore to learn the process of cattle-breeding. Every Sunday the Mother appeared at the balcony to see the cows at 3 p.m.

Sunil Kumar of Kasturba Sewa Mandir, when on a visit in connection with the annual meeting of Sri Aurobindo Society, said to R, 'here everything is very fine but you have not got sufficient milk. I propose to send some cows from the Punjab.'

On their arrival, when the Mother was asked where they were to be kept she said that L had been asking for some cows for a long time. Send them to him. Thus a start was made of the Lake Dairy.

Now, the place was, as if it had been earmarked, when the Mother used to have a drive before 1932. She often used to make a halt when she reached the spot now named the Lake Estate. From that time we entertained a hope that it would form a wing of the Ashram. And it did come into its possession in 1954. At that time there was only a small building a little way off the Lake. The building was surrounded by waste land and sandy soil, frequented by snakes and scorpions, a place where nothing could be grown. It is now blooming as the Lake Estate.

Out of an area roughly covering 250 acres, 25 acres have been levelled for orchard where various kinds of fruit trees are being planted. In another wing of the Lake 5000 coconut and 500 cashew-nut trees have been planted with success. When the whole scheme is carried out it will form one of our beauty spots.

This is how the marvellous experiment in organisation was started. The ease and simplicity with which the work is done convinces one that even if the number of inmates increased tenfold, the organisation would be able to cope with the situation.

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Once a special train arrived with 550 pilgrims from Gujarat. At 9.30 a.m. they expressed their desire for Ashram food and at 12 they had their lunch with us. This is not the only case.

In November 1960 there were continuous heavy rains for more than 20 days. Vegetables in the market were meagre even for individual needs. But this abnormal situation could not disturb in the least our normal tenor even for a day. We had our usual steaming meals all the three times, with no diminution of any item.

Once two English girl students from London, where they had heard of Sri Aurobindo and his International Centre of Education, called at the Ashram in the course of their all-India tour. How could 1500 people live together, they wondered.

At another time, a German lady wondered how so many people could have hot meals, every time, with firewood for fuel. Since August 15,1965 steam-boil cooking has been on.

Development of Services

The number of those who lived at first with Sri Aurobindo was four or five and until 1922 there was no appreciable increase. In 1923 the number was between eleven and fifteen and from that time it gradually increased until in 1926 there were about twenty-five, by the end of 1927 thirty-six, in 1928 eighty. By 1942 the number had jumped to 350 and by 1952, to 800. In 1962 it rose to over 1200 and in 1964 it ranged between 1300 and 1400. In June 1967 it stood at 1425. In addition there are more than a hundred visitors who stay for long or short periods.

The increase in members gave rise to increase in departments now known as Services, e.g., Domestic Service, Sanitary Service, Furniture Service, Electric Service etc. These Services have a two-fold purpose—utilitarian and spiritual. They provide the training-ground for doing the work as part of sadhana. Whatever we do we are expected to do as perfectly as we can. The Mother holds:

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"In works, aspiration towards Perfection is true spirituality."⁶

The standard of perfection laid down by the Mother is:

"We thirst for perfection. Not this human perfection which is a perfection of the ego and bars the way to divine perfection.

But that one perfection which has the power to manifest upon earth the Eternal Truth."

To face the housing problem the Building Service came into existence. Each one is given a room to himself as far as possible, so that he may be free to pursue his sadhana, undisturbed, and be in his own atmosphere.

In the beginning the Building Service was conducted by a Gujarati engineer, Chandulal. He used to see the Mother every day for her directions. He would not pull down even a wall without the Mother's sanction. The whole building service was organised by him and Kshirod, formerly Principal of Vishuddhananda Saraswati Vidyalaya, Calcutta. It is interesting to note that the first thing Kshirod does early morning is to sweep a part of the Ashram courtyard.

In 1932 daily reports of each department were sent up to the Mother in the evening. She used to note the work done each day and give instructions in her own handwriting for the work to be done the next day. Nothing is done here without the Mother's knowledge and sanction. There is no department into whose detailed working she has no insight. It is thus that the whole work has been systematised by her guiding fingers. Still there is no

6. This message was recorded in the Mother's own voice and relayed at the commencement of the inaugural session of the fifth All India Handmade Paper-Maker's Conference, held in the Ashram on October 29, 1961. One of the reasons for the Conference being held here was that the Khadi & Village Industries Commission was very much impressed with the remarkable progress made by our Hand-made Paper Unit in the course of two years.

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compulsion. Although no one feels inclined to do anything without her permission, yet the degree of freedom enjoyed by everyone here is rarely to be found in such an organisation elsewhere. Once an organiser of a big concern at Gorakhpore remarked that the faith and surrender seen in the working of the Ashram were beyond comparison.

Till 1952-53 the Building Service was the largest of the Ashram departments. Scores of masons, carpenters and other workers were in its employ.⁷ It had different sections to deal with different materials—sand, lime, mortar, cement, timber, cane, glass, paint and other materials. Nowadays hollow concrete blocks are used more than bricks, and for this also there is a separate section. Such splendid buildings as Golconde and Harpagon,⁸ which lend charm to the Ashram, bear testimony to the skill and efficiency of this department. This service is now divided into two departments, the Upkeep Service concerned with repair and maintenance of existing houses, the Construction Service for building new structures and making accessories. All this work as well as the Electrical Engineering Service is co-ordinated by a technical committee which meets weekly. The findings of this committee which has been functioning since 29th July, 1955 are submitted to the Mother for approval.

Since 1962 physical access to the Mother has been much restricted. Still her guidance is there; the words she spoke long ago come ringing back into our ears :

"Formerly I used to keep control over everything. Nothing could be done without my first knowing and approving it.

7.Mother's care for labour is reflected in her words : "No workman must be given any work exceeding his strength; it is unfair and inhuman to do so."

8.Harpagon workshop was started to. supply the fittings and metal requirements of Golconde. The only apparatus at the time was a hand-drilling machine and a hand-bellows. Now it has many sopisti-cated machines and a well-equiped foundry.

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Afterwards I adopted a different mode of acting. I withdrew from all details and kept myself at a distance, sending the right inspiration to each worker in his own field."⁹

Screws, hinges, door-handles, etc., as building requisites, are made in the Ashram workshops. The start was made by our French engineer, Pavitra. His workshop, then within the Ashram area, met individual and departmental needs. An addition was later made for preparing tin and galvanised buckets, pipes, watering cans, etc. One of the very few boys of tender age to enter Ashram life, who has grown under the Mother's care and has been taught and trained by Pavitra, is now in charge of this workshop. Recently the Construction Service also has been put in his hands. The way he conducts his departments reflects the inner qualities fostered in him by the Mother. His turning to the Mother seems to have grown natural and unfailing.

One may well ask what have such services to do with spirituality ? Why should one who aspires to install the Divine within him, be concerned with the wheels and cogs of a machine ? It is here that we have the special feature of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. We have to bring the Divine out of the temple and infuse Him into every transaction, every action of life. The Devil can only prevail where the Divine does not actively rule. Hence it is necessary to surround everything with the halo of Truth, transfuse everything with the golden ray of Truth. The very raison detre of the Ashram is to express divinity in terrestrial things.

Concluding his long article on the Ashram, K. M. Munshi makes the perceptive observation :

"If the spirit has to promote and transform life, it must be through life as we live it; and that is perhaps the Ashram's speciality."

⁹- Mother India, February 1958.

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