Esha's recollections of some episodes of her life, as narrated to Nirodbaran in Bengali, who translated it in English. This is presented here in form of a book.
Sri Aurobindo : Contact
Nirodbaran on Esha's story : Esha, the late Dilip Kumar Roy's niece, was a little girl visiting the Ashram when I came to know her through my niece Jyotirmoyee with whom she had become very friendly. She wanted to settle in the Ashram, but her mother did not want it as she was still a minor. When after many years she came to the Ashram again and stayed with Sahana Devi, I became more closely acquainted with her. By that time she had already married and obtained her divorce and had decided to settle here. I came to her help and made all possible arrangements for the purpose. Since then I have come to know her well and listened to her narration of the incidents of her life. As I found them interesting I began to note them down and was thinking of publishing them in Mother India when somehow she got wind of it and strongly objected to it. As I felt I had Sri Aurobindo's sanction for it, I did not listen to her. In spite of my disregarding her objection, luckily she did not stop recounting her saga. Of course she narrated it in Bengali and later I put it down in English as faithfully as I could. When the story began to appear in Mother India, she insisted more than once that I should stop it. My answer was that I believed it could be helpful to many readers and that Sri Aurobindo seemed to support me.
THEME/S
Two birthdays particularly stand out in my mind — those of 1932 and 1936.
On the first occasion, I was seven years old, and I had come to the Ashram with my mother especially for my birthday. In those days, the Mother used to come down to the Pranam Hall every morning except on Monday, which was her hair-washing day. As luck would have it, my birthday happened to fall on a Monday. Nonetheless, I was called to see the Mother at 10 a.m. Amazingly, she kept me with her for nearly two hours. In that time she played the piano for me while I sat at her feet, then she showed me pictures of animals, told me stories in English —which I could not understand — and gave me chocolates, flowers, and a variety of presents.
On the second occasion, in 1936, too, I had a similar birthday celebration.
My next visit in November 1938 was the year when Sri Aurobindo met with the accident to his right leg. There was therefore no Darshan. Soon after, I had to leave the Ashram for a different reason.
After that, the entire course of my life took an unhappy turn, putting an end to my visits to the Ashram until 1949 November. I stayed on up to February 21, 1950, when I had my last physical darshan of Sri Aurobindo.
A series of bitter experiences frustrated my married life and made me break off all contact with the Ashram.
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