Laurence Marshal Pinto - later known as Udar, had his early education at St. Mary's School at Hubli. Later he went to St. Joseph's European and Anglo- Indian High School at Bangalore. After passing the Senior Cambridge and High School he joined the Karnatak College at Dharwar. (He was fond of acting on the stage and took part in many plays. This love of acting held his interest even while he was in the Ashram and he took part in several plays.)

-Wilfy-

1 was brought up in a Roman Catholic family; I really wanted to practise my religion. Not out of fear but out of love. Therefore I prayed a lot to the Virgin

'Belville' family home in Hubli - Dec.1934

At college in Bombay (second from right - seated)

Mary I didn't get very much response. Then I began to take much interest in communion; I began to take interest in the body of Christ and I made a special effort to be what they called a 'daily communicant'. I took communion every day for one full year. Imagine a young boy doing that. There were some questions that puzzled me but I put them aside. There must have been something in me, because when I got an attack of typhus fever - doctors say that it comes at a moment of crisis and if you come out of that crisis you are safe. I was coming to that critical moment, my mother was sleeping with me, my temperature had risen to 105.

"This is the critical point, if he passes that he will be saved," said the doctors.

I was sleeping. In the middle of the night I woke up my mother, and cried "Ma, Ma, look! "

I was thrilled by my vision. My mother thought that my soul was going away. But I had some spiritual experience. They told me afterward that my eyes were shining, that 1 looked inspired. I wish I could remember. After that I recovered.

Aircraft designers were few in those days and Udar was offered very lucrative employment in England itself but he chose to return to India as he considered it his holy Motherland.

There was not even a hope of aeroplane construction in India then. There was only one Air Service, of two small planes, between Bombay and Karachi. So Udar had to look for other means of earning.

He tried to start Electric Supply Companies at Vijayanagram and at Behrampur (Ganjam) but these came to nothing. He spent several months in these two towns in 1934.

In 1935 he came to Pondicherry to do an export business in partnership with a local French firm. At that time Pondicherry was a free port and export business was easy and profitable.

I had come to Pondicherry around 1934 to earn money so that I could get married and Pondicherry was a good place for this. I joined Mr. Robert Gaebele in an export business and made quite enough money for my

So this is something which means that there must have been in my soul something that wanted to open. Then little by little that devotion cooled down. Practice became a habit rather than a faith. I began to have friends and do naughty things, just for the fun of it. I became a bit of a naughty boy. 1 wasn't very happy with the priests, they beat us so much.

- Udar-

He was named Laurence Marshal Pinto. After getting his bachelor's degree in Bombay he left for England where he studied aeronautical engineering. During the years there as a student he met and fell in love with Mona. They took the decision to get married though neither his family nor hers approved. So he decided to earn enough money to be able to get married and to live independently.

- Golden Chain

-

Mona at 21

Mona at 25

purpose and asked Mona to come out to India. She arrived in January 1937.

From 1934 to 1937, though I had been in Pondicherry most of the time and had many friends in the Ashram, I had never entered the Ashram main building or felt like going for a Darshan or anything like that. I was just busy making money and having a good time. My friends in the Ashram were first Amal (K.D. Sethna), Purani, Ambu, Dr. Ramchandra and some others. Amal was quite close and we had lots of good times together - so much so in fact that, as I learned later, the Mother Herself intervened. She told me this one day. She said that Amal would report to Her on all the things we did together and one day She said:

"This Pinto! He is leading my children astray. I will teach him a lesson!" And She certainly did - a great lesson and so wonderful. She tied me up, hands and feet and head and all, into a helpless bundle with the golden cords of Her Love and Joy. I said all this to the Mother and She laughed.

"The streams of heaven shall murmur in her laugh." Savitri p. 346

Although I come from a Christian Roman Catholic family we are pure Indians, Saraswat Brahmins, who had been converted to Christianity long back, at Goa, by the Portuguese. Now, though my forefathers became Christian they kept very strictly to the old social customs. So, as Brahmins/we live apart in Bhammon Vados and when marrying we have to marry strictly within our community. I was perhaps the first in my family to break that tradition.

- Udar-

Mona & Udar's wedding in Pondicherry 6^th Feb.1937

Udar with his brothers and sister - Joe,Amy,Udar,Millie,Wilfy

The connection with the Ashram came 6th Feb. 1937 with the visits of Ambu and Amal Kiran to his house. His circle of friends from the Ashram began to grow and one day they suggested he should show the Ashram to his English wife. Amal got permission for them to go for the August Darshan of 1937. This Darshan became the turning point of his life. He had a wonderful experience when he saw Sri Aurobindo. "At last I have seen true majesty!" he said, for though Sri Aurobindo wore only a simple dhoti and chaddar he looked like an emperor.

- Golden Chain -

Mona and Gauri - 1939

Slowly after this he came closer to the Ashram, more particularly to the Mother, he was caught irrevocably and totally in the magic of Her love. His family was assimilated into the larger family of the Ashram. On the 26th April 1938, Sri Aurobindo gave him his new name "Udar- Udara in Sanskrit- noble, generous, upright and sincere."

- Golden Chain -

During the Second World War, Sri Aurobindo encouraged him to go to Delhi to help recruit and train the staff of the newly formed Indian Air Force. After a year there, he returned for good to Pondicherry, having sold off his property in Hubli and offering the money to the Mother. Now all his time and energy were for Her work.

-Golden Chain -

Meenakshi,Anasuya,Mona,Doraiswamy,Udar

Gauri,Ambu,Nishtha(UP President wilson,s daughter)

This war (WW II) was a very crucial one. If the powers of Darkness were to win, the whole progress of the world in its evolutionary ascent would be put back for a very long time. And so it was most necessary that the forces of Light should win. That is why Sri Aurobindo and the Mother took so much interest in the way the war was moving and They had to be kept informed of the developments from day to day.

The news was broadcast daily by radio but there was no radio-receiver in the Ashram at that time. We had one at the house where I and my family were living at that time, the one near the Pare a Charbon, and every night Pavitra and Pavita would come to our house for the 9.30 p.m. news broadcast and Pavita would take it down in shorthand and later transcribe her notes and send them to Sri Aurobindo.

- Udar -

One day, in the morning, after Balcony Darshan when Mother would give some of us a flower each and talk at times, there was a mention of Sri Aurobindo's poem A God's Labour. Mother said that when She first read the poem She went at once to Sri Aurobindo and said to Him, "Lord, what have you done! In this poem of yours, you have exposed my secrets to the whole world." Sri Aurobindo just gave a loving smile, Mother added.

This poem is truly a poem about the Mother.

Then Chinmayi asked me if I had read the poem myself. I said I most certainly had. She then asked me if I knew it by heart. I replied that I had not committed it to memory but could do so easily. I felt I could do it and said so. Chinmayi was surprised and turning to Mother she said, "Look, Mother, Udar says he can learn the poem by heart between now and lunchtime. Can he do it?" There were five to six hours in which to commit to memory the thirty-one stanzas, each of four lines.

Mother asked me, "Can you?"

"I feel that I can," I replied.

Udar with challi Denise - 1968

Memories of Udar - Red rose and radiant smile...

When we were having our meals with the Mother I used to tell Her many stories and She liked them quite a bit. One day She said to me, "You know, Udar, when I was a little girl in France I felt, even then, a great urge to go to India. For one thing I expected good stories, as it was said in France that Indians are great storytellers. But when I did finally come here I did not find the storytellers and I wondered why Indians had such a reputation. But when I met you, I knew."

- Udar-

This brings me to a very important remembrance of what the Mother said to me. This time it was about the heat. It was around mid summer and some of us were complaining of the heat when the Mother said, "Why do you complain? You feel uncomfortable with the heat, so you complain. But this is because you are fighting the heat. If you can make friends with it and not fight it you will not be uncomfortable and will not need to complain!" The Mother explained that one can make friends with all kinds of weather - not only the heat. One can be friends with the cold also and with rain and snow.

This advice I took very much to heart and I have always tried to be friends with whatever weather I have to face - the heat here, the cold in Europe and America. And I really did not suffer as others did because of my friendliness. Then there is, most particularly, the walking in the sun. Here when the sun is at its highest, and in summer, most people like to walk in the shade; but the Mother explained to me that this is not good. "The sun is our friend," She said, "our very dear friend, our lover. If we did not have the sun we would suffer very much. So why hide from your lover? Walk in his fullness and let him embrace you with his love. Of course, I know, that sometimes his embrace is a bit too intense and warm, but what to do? If you let him embrace you, he will never harm you and, on the contrary, will give you strength and good health." I pass on these wonderful words to others so that as many as possible may benefit from them.

-Udar-

An avid, lifelong, enthusiastic learner, Udar began to study Sanskrit at a rather ripe age, in 1980. Each morning he went to Pujalal's room and learned to recite slokas with him. He was such an enthusiastic and joyous student. In that Udar really exemplified Mother's adage about how to stay young by always having a progressive attitude.

- Mandakini -

Mother said that I had been with Sri-Aurobindo and Herself in many previous births. Once, in Delhi, I had been to someone who was supposed to have the capacity to tell you of your previous births. In my case he became very modest and offered to help me find this out myself. So we went together into a deep meditation and there I experienced my association with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother to be right from the beginning of this world, even when there was no life and there was only rock and sand and sea. When I recounted this story to the Mother, She confirmed it at once.

- Udar-

Puja day 1954 - Udar, champaklal

Mona did not want a Portuguese surname so I looked up the old records in Goa and to find our original name which had been changed by the conqueror. Then one day I told the Mother of all this and She said to me, "Why change the surname? It was my own grandmother's name." Mother's own grandmother had the same surname. Indeed, Mother's maternal grandmother was called 'Mirra Pinto' before she became 'Mirra Ismaloun' I was again thrilled to hear this and now the name Pinto has become very dear to me.

On Her father's side She was of pure Arab stock and even Her surname, Alfassa, is Arabic.

- Udar -

"I will always be with you and look after you, constantly call me." She told me, "People don't call me enough, don't ask me enough."

That was something I never knew, I never thought before. She said, "Ask, ask, go on asking, it does not matter whatever you ask, it is your business to ask, whether I give or not is my business, but there is no harm in asking, ask anything."

So from that moment, I started asking. I ask for anything, the most insignificant thing, it does not matter. When I go to sleep and want to get up at 3 o'clock, I ask Mother, "Mother will you wake me up at 3 o'clock?" I don't need an alarm clock.

-Udar-

This promise the Mother is keeping wonderfully well. She is always with me, very, very close and, if I do not realise that sometimes, I have only to call Her and I feel Her presence at once. I have a very strong feeling, too, that the way it all happened shows that somehow the Mother must have been aware that the next year (1973) She would leave us physically and She took this occasion to show how She was not leaving us really but, on the contrary, making it easier for Her to come to us instead of our having to wait to go to Her.

I am also sure that this promise of the Mother is not for me alone. It is to all Her children.

-Udar-

l first met Udar when I was a student in 1974. I had come as Auroville's first exchange student then. I was staying in Pondicherry at first and was told that Champaklal was going to the Matrimandir. I was told to come along in a jeep with Udar and some others. We missed Champaklal, but Udar suggested we climb the Matrimandir anyway. It was slowly creeping towards sunset and there was a mild breeze and when we got to some point, Udar started reciting Savitri. In one fell swoop I was introduced to Auroville, the Matrimandir, Savitri and Udar. The moment is still very much with me. It was beautiful. I only wish I could remember the lines.

Two friends - Amal,Udar - 26^th April 1997

There was a boy and a girl in our Ashram who fell in love with each other and with Mother's approval, wanted to get married. The girl's mother wanted the marriage to be performed by one of the Purohits in the Ashram. But due to some reason, the Purohits refused to perform the marriage. The lady was sad about this and wrote to Mother for help and guidance. Mother turned to me and said, "Udar, you are a Brahmin and a priest. So why don't you be the priest for this marriage?" I was quite taken aback and thought you perhaps Mother was joking but I found Her to be quite serious, so I just kept quiet. Then when I told the lady what Mother had said she was overjoyed and so I had, perforce, to accept the assignment and agree to perform the marriage.

Wedding ceremony of Amita and Nilesh

Wedding ceremony of Anjali and surendra

Now I am quite ignorant of how these ceremonies are performed and know only something of the Christian system. So I felt that it would be foolish to try to learn anything about all this now and that it would be best if I made up quite a new ceremony with selections from Savitri. This is what I did.

- Udar -