Blessed are those

Nolini Kanta Gupta's first meeting with Sri Aurobindo

Extracts from the book 'Reminiscences'

It was during my stay at the Manicktolla gardens that I had my first meeting and interview with Sri Aurobindo. Barin had asked me to go and see him, saying that Sri Aurobindo would be coming to see the Gardens and that I should fetch him. Manicktolla was in those days at the far end of North Calcutta and Sri Aurobindo lived with Raja Subodh Mullick near Wellington Square in the South Calcutta area. I went by train and it was about four in the afternoon when I reached there. I asked the doorman at the gates to send word to Mr. Ghose - this was how he used to be called in those days at the place - saying that I had come from Barin of the Manicktolla Gardens. As I sat waiting in one of the rooms downstairs, Sri Aurobindo came down, stood near me and gave me an enquiring look and I said in Bengali, "Barin has sent me. Would it be possible for you to come to the Gardens with me now?" He answered very slowly, pausing on each syllable separately - it seemed he had not yet got used to speaking Bengali - and said, "Go and tell Barin, I have not yet had my lunch. It will not be possible to go today. " So, that was that. I did not say a word, did my namaskara and came away. This was my first happy meeting with Him, my first darshan and interview.

The first Pranam to the Mother

In the beginning, Sri Aurobindo would refer to the Mother quite distinctly as Mira. For some time afterwards (this may have extended over a period of years) we could notice that He stopped at the sound of M and uttered the full name Mira as if after a slight

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hesitation. To us it looked rather queer at the time, but later we came to know the reason. Sri Aurobindo's lips were on the verge of saying "Mother"; but we had yet to get ready, so He ended with Mira instead of saying Mother. No one knows for certain on which particular date at what auspicious moment, the word "Mother" was uttered by the lips of Sri Aurobindo. But that was a divine moment in unrecorded time, a moment of destiny in the history of man and earth; for it was at this supreme moment that the Mother was established on this material earth, in the external consciousness of man. Let me now end this story for today with a last word about myself.

I have said that so far the Mother had been to us a friend and companion, a comrade almost, at the most an object of reverence and respect. I was now about to start on my annual trip to Bengal in those days I used to go there once every year, and what was perhaps my last trip. Before leaving, I felt a desire to see the Mother. The Mother had not yet come out of Her seclusion and Sri Aurobindo had not yet retired behind the scenes. I said to him, "I would like to see Her before I go." Her with a capital H, in place of the Mother, for we had not yet started using that name. Sri Aurobindo informed the Mother. The room now used by Champaklal was the Mother's room in those days. I entered and waited in the Prosperity room, for Sri Aurobindo used to meet people in the verandah in front. The Mother came in from Her room and stood near the door. I approached Her and said, "I am going," and lay prostrate at Her feet. That was my first Pranam to the Mother. She said, "Come back soon." This "come back soon" meant in the end, "come back for good."

Courtesy: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Puducherry

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