Recollections

A Sunday morning

For us, the school children, every day was a day of happening, of celebration if 1 may say so. But Sunday was something very special. It was a day when we were free to spend as we liked till 5pm when the group activities began. There was naturally music class with Sahana-di which she used to hold in the Play Ground old gymnastic hall.

Just a small sketch of the day may give an idea how some of the children spent the Sunday. There were naturally cricket tournaments in the winter but other than that we were free all through the year.

A few of us who arrived in the Ashram in a period of five or six months time bonded into a group and that too a mixture of boy and girls nearly of same age. All of us just entered our adolescence, thus bundles of energy. We actually didn’t know how to spend it as the Mother being the generator replenished us every moment of the day through Her presence.

Even now I find that if there is no school then the children feel lost. We were in the same situation, “How do we spend the morning on a Sunday?”

We would certainly devise something or the other which was permitted. Going out as the children do now was a definite “no” without the Mother’s permission. And even it was arranged it had to be under some elders like Biren-da who had to approach the Mother for Her consent. But that would be a rare occasion. Thus Sunday mornings were spent playing at the Play or Tennis ground or swimming in the sea.

I don’t know when they open the Play Ground gate these days, but then it was kept open from early hours and we would go there to play Gadi for a period and then go to Tennis ground for Sea Swimming.

Yogananda-da (Parul-di’s uncle), Arun-da and Sudhi-da were life guards. It was only in their presence we were allowed to enter into the Sea. One of them (generally Yogananda-da stood on the shore ready for any emergency, Arun-da would get into the water; so would Sudhi-da. Sudhi-da short and stout; he could swim for hours. Whenever we girls went swimming he would be with us with an inflated tyre and pull us far into the sea.  Once it so happened we went over a fisherman’s net, Sudhi-da realised it only after we were a few meters inside. With difficulty he had to steer us clear of it. Generally after having reached a certain distance. We just floated holding onto the tyre for quite sometime and then return. Coming back to the shore is far easier as you move along with the waves.

One day we were quite a distance from the shore and suddenly the tyre was snatched away from our hand by someone. Soon we were surrounded by half a dozen swimmers and in an eye blink we got back our tyre.

This was Biren-da’s group teaching someone how to swim. It was an interesting method though a little unconventional. Now there were two Biren-das: one was called press Biren-da or Biren-da with long hair. He had long hair up to his waist and worked at the Press. A slim figure, always in dhoti and chadar; in hand either a book or a news paper, reading even while walking on the road.

Then there was Pehlwan Biren-da who used to teach body building and also boxing. This Biren-da had a unique way of teaching swimming. If it were an adolescent or a young man who wished to learn to swim with him, he agreed. On a Sunday morning he would ask a few young men who were in his body building group and at the same time quite proficient in swimming to go for sea swimming. They always knew where they were to start, that is the old pier. (It was a little longer in those days)

When everyone present some would jump into the water and start swimming, other after getting into water wait for Biren-da to get in. The learner was then asked to jump and catch the inflated tyre that was already floating on the Waves. With all faith in Biren-da the beginner would jump only to find the tyre a little farther from his reach. Naturally in order not to drawn the poor fellow would try stroke after stroke and though it would be a test of stamina and endurance those who continued, learnt to swim in one or two sessions. For the distance was at least more than 500mts but whenever the swimmer was tired there would be the tyre to take some rest before he was forced to continue.

On the day we were involved, some one quite grown up was learning how to swim. The moment he snatched at our tyre we began to scream and in no time got it back. But later Biren-da scolded us for not learning how to swim properly.

This is how we began our Sundays most of the weeks.  The Mother came for blessings three days a week-Sunday, Tuesday and Friday.  Once in a while She came early and we would still be out playing or swimming. Then someone would come to inform that the Mother has already come down and She has started the Blessings.

We would then rush home, get ready in no time and run to the Ashram. For it was the period when very few amongst the young people had a cycle.

After having The Mother’s Darshan we just ambled towards the D.R for our breakfast which was kept in a cupboard by a friend on prior arrangement. After eating sometimes we would just wait half lying on the eastern Verandah to have also the lunch. But that was not the end of the morning. After lunch we often went back to the Ashram to listen to The Mother’s organ playing. For on Sundays if She were free she would play on Her organ for a short period. We all rested on the Verandah in front of Nirod-da and Debu-da’s room. Quite often we slept till someone woke us up. Then it was our rooms where a good sleep and then get ready for the Play Ground. Group activities, March Past, marching, distribution and then the Mother’s class. Later on the Mother introduced Meditation on Thursdays and Sundays which continues to these days.