The Great Thing that the Mother Told Me

Through the pages of the ‘Basant’, I wish to share with my colleagues and other friends the greatest joy of my life that I have had recently. The house built on the Mehrauli Road in the year 1939-40 has stood there too conspicuously to have escaped the notice of anybody who has happened to go towards the Qutab Minar. My colleagues and friends have also known that the same had been offered to the Mother and named as “Sri Aurobindo Niketan”.

Lately I had turned to the premises with a keen desire to develop them. Hence on the 15th August, 1955 — Sri Aurobindo’s Birth day — I commenced work on a number of small projects including the compound wall, electrically operated automatic tube-well, sanitary and water installations in about a dozen latrines and bathrooms, and sewage lines throughout, with a septic tank for 100 persons, all of which have been happily completed. Electricity and power for the premises were obtained and the land round about has turned into a number of grassy lawns and beautiful flower-beds all around, as well as playfields. This quick growth astonished me and my heart was filled with hope. Many more ideas of further development occurred to me and I reached the Ashram last December with a head and heart full of ideas and hopes.

I obtained an interview with the Mother and sought to present to Her how things had progressed at the Niketan House, and asked for a constitution for the Sri Aurobindo Niketan to regulate its further growth. The Mother answered me graciously, “There is no need for a special constitution; it will be `Sri Aurobindo Ashram Delhi Branch’ and it will be a part of the Ashram here.”

I can hardly describe the state of my mind when I heard these words. And further when She also agreed to have a Samadhi of Sri Aurobindo here too (a monument with relics), you can well imagine my happiness and wonder. She also agreed to our developing an educational institution and then, after deep consideration, fixed 12th February, 1956 as the day of inauguration of the Delhi Branch. This is the good news I bring to you.

Opening of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Delhi branch

Let this place be worthy of its name and manifest the true spirit of Sri Aurobindo’s teaching and message to the world.

With my blessings

This will not be merely a Centre as many others, working under the inspiration of the Ashram, but a part, a limb of the Ashram at Pondicherry, under the Mother’s direct contact and guidance and Presence. Obviously, the decision to open a direct Branch of the great and unique Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, was a new departure in the history of the spiritual work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

I returned from the interview with a joy altogether overwhelming. What a fulfilment for me! What an opportunity for Delhi and North India as a whole! I was happy beyond measure. A Branch of Sri Aurobindo Ashram means an extension of the atmosphere and the power of the Ashram of Pondicherry. That amounts to a physical availability of the influence of the Ashram in Delhi. What a privilege!

I have been full of these thoughts and feelings ever since I have had the opportunity of that great interview with the Mother. And I can have nothing better to share with my colleagues and friends, and I do this on the auspicious occasion of Basant, the happiest season of the year.

May we all, ever more widely and deeply, open ourselves to the influence and the power, that become available to us in and through Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Delhi Branch, and seek more confidently the true joy and fulfilment of life.