The Story of The Ashram Main Building

The Story of the Samadhi

The Samadhi

A visitor to the Ashram building today would admire the perfect arrangement of the pillars and the Service Tree in relation to the Samadhi. The tree gives shade to the Samadhi and the courtyard around it and the pillars support the tree. The pillars also provide the supports for the cloth canopy above the Samadhi. The crossbeams around it give vantage on the east for people to stand and concentrate while leaving enough space on the other three sides to kneel down comfortably. The visitor would naturally assume that the Samadhi came first, the tree next and the pillars last. It was not so. The tree came first, the pillars next and the Samadhi last! If the visitor should insist that the arrangement is too perfect not to have been pre-planned, we have Dyuman's answers to one such set of questions.

Editor's Note

Was there any particular reason for planting the tree there?

No, we were doing gardening. We [Ambu and myself] were under Manubhai; he went and brought a sapling and we put it there.

Was it intended to be central or was it just a tree there?

It may have been decided in the upper world, it has to be; otherwise why should it be there?

When you planted it, you didn't think that it would be dominating the courtyard?

We didn't know. She [the Mother] may have known it in the occult world.

Was the Mother aware that you are going to plant a tree here?

Why, even the smallest thing we did not do without asking her.

An Interview with Dyuman

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The Samadhi of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

2001, View from south-west

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The Service Tree providing shade to the Samadhi

2001, View from west

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The pergola supporting the Service Tree, 2001

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The Three Tanks

When this house was being built, we required some place to wash the bricks. So three cisterns were made, three tanks, and all the bricks of the house were washed there.

Dyuman ²¹

The three water tanks were made for the purpose of washing bricks when the construction of the New Secretariat began around September 1929. Some modifications were apparently made to them by the time the concrete pergola was built in 1942 - compare the photograph on the next page with the drawings and photograph on pp 106-107 and 109. This last structure was demolished in 1950 and the Samadhi was built in the same place. After constructing the chamber on the east to intern Sri Aurobindo's body, Udar Pinto was instructed by the Mother to add the small extension on the west to conform to the structure that had been there.

Editor's Note

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The water tanks built at the time of the construction of the New Secretariat.
The staircase leading to Champaklal's room is on the right.

circa 1929, View from north-west

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The central courtyard of the Ashram main building

1929, View from east

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The Kitchen in the Rosary House with the branches of the Service Tree on its tiled roof.

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1932-1942, View from south-west

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The Planting of the Service Tree

There was a mango tree where the Service Tree now stands. The mango tree had to be cut down; the Mother asked us to get a Service Tree plant from the Botanical garden. As Parichand is now the Ashram gardener, Manubhai was then the gardener - his helpers were Ambu and myself. The tree was planted on a Tuesday in [May] 1930.

Dyuman ²²

Fill the tanks and put pots of fern

The cats were always running about and she [the Mother] did not allow us to remove those three tanks when this house was built. She said, "Fill them up and put corrugated sheets on top." We put galvanised sheets and the tiles would drop on them when the cats fought on the roof of the old kitchen, making a huge noise in the middle of the night. We asked her, "Mother, why not remove these things?" She said, "No. If you like, remove the corrugated sheets and put pots of fern"

Dyuman ²³

The pergola supporting the Service Tree

The Service Tree began to grow; the branches began to go on the roof of the old kitchen. When we had to remove the old kitchen, what to do with the branches which were taking support on it, how to support them? So this scaffolding was built, what we call the Sanchi railings were built. They were done by Sammer, the architect from Czechoslovakia, who had come here with Raymond and Nakashima. The three together built Golconde. So this whole construction in the Ashram courtyard was done by Sammer and, at the foot of each pillar, you'll find a square place. You see, the Mother used to come in the evening on the terrace and give meditation. Her idea was to have grass in each square but that could not be done, so pebbles were put.

Dyuman ²⁴

Demolition of the old kitchen

It was demolished when the Japanese threw a bomb in Madras and Calcutta [ in 1942]. Fearing that something may happen here, we were given training - how to extinguish fires, etc. I told the Mother, "Mother, this is alright, but with you here, if something happens on it [ the old kitchen], I am sure to go on its roof, which is sure to come down with me." Thus the whole thing was demolished.

Dyuman ²⁵

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Sammer's design of the concrete pergola to support the Service Tree

1942, View from south-west

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The original pergola had only seven supports forming two squares (1942)

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The central courtyard of the Ashram. The structure with pots of fern on top can be seen behind the group of children. (1942)

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The Possibility of a Glass Case

December 6th - I entered Sri Aurobindo's room before dawn. Mother and I had a look at Him; how wonderful, how beautiful He looked, with a golden hue. There were no signs of death as science had taught me, no evidence of the slightest discoloration, or decomposition. The Mother whispered, "As long as the supramental light does not pass away, the body will not show any signs of decomposition, and it may be a day or it may take many more days." I whispered to Her, "Where is the light you speak of - can I not see it?" I was then kneeling by Sri Aurobindo's bed, by the Mother's feet. She smiled at me and with infinite compassion put Her hand on my head. There He was - with a luminous mantle of bluish golden hue around Him.

With the morning came the procession of people, taking a last glimpse of the Divine Master. The Mother said to me, "People do not know what a tremendous sacrifice He has made for the world. About a year ago, while I was discussing things I remarked that I felt like leaving this body of mine. He spoke out in a very firm tone, 'No, this can never be. If necessary for this transformation I might go, you will have to fulfil our yoga of supramental descent and transformation!' "

Prabhat Sanyal ²⁶

I also saw, to my utter wonder and delight, that the entire body was suffused with a golden crimson hue, so fresh, so magnificent. It seemed to have lifted my pall of gloom and I felt light and happy without knowing why. When the Mother came, I asked naively, "Mother, won't he come back?" "No!" she replied, "If he wanted to come back, he would not have left the body." Pointing to the Light she said, "If this Supramental Light remains we shall keep the body in a glass case." Alas, it did not remain and on the fifth day, on the 9th of December in the evening, the body was laid in a vault.

Nirodbaran ²⁷

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When was it decided to make a glass case?

You see, Sri Aurobindo passed away on the fifth and arrangements for burial in the Ashram courtyard were started after Pavitra obtained permission for it from the Government. At the same time, Panou started making the coffin of rosewood with silver lining. Then, on the sixth, as Mother found no deterioration whatsoever in Sri Aurobindo's body, she decided to keep it in a glass case instead of burying it. A shopkeeper from Madras, I don't remember his name, had come for the last Darshan of Sri Aurobindo. He offered to help us in getting the glass from Madras. Jayant Patel and myself went with him and he arranged for the glass from China Bazaar. We came back the same evening and the glass arrived without breakage on the seventh morning. Panou received the glass and was about to start making the glass case when the message came from Udar asking Panou to stop work on the glass case and resume work on the coffin. So that was the situation.

So, at first, Mother didn't think of a burial, she thought of keeping the body in a glass case?

She did think of a burial in the beginning. Then, as the body showed no signs of deterioration, she decided to keep it in a glass case. But when the body showed some signs of deterioration (we, of course, didn't notice it), Mother decided to go ahead with the burial.

So there was a possibility of no burial at all?

Yes, it was a possibility. I fully remember that Mother first said, "There will be a showcase, no burial." And then, on the third day, Mother said, "No. We will change to burial."

An Interview with Vishwanath Lahiri ²⁸

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Construction of the Samadhi

When I went to the Mother, She gave me full instructions about where to bury Sri Aurobindo and asked me to go down to a depth of eight feet. There was already there a construction of sorts on which flower pots were kept and all that had to be broken down and the pit dug up. Some roots of the tree over the place had to be cut and Mother gave precise instructions about this. The whole thing had to be finished in one day as we did not know, at the time, that His body would not decompose, and so we had to work very fast and very hard.

About the digging, which was the most difficult work, I remember two persons who worked very well and very hard. One was a visitor, a Jew, one Dr. H.P. Kaplan, who was staying at Golconde at the time. He worked like four men. It was wonderful to see how well and quickly he worked. The other was our dear Biren, the boxer. He also worked wonderfully. So many of our sadhaks and sadhikas worked and even the children. We needed many persons as we did all the work ourselves and did not bring in our paid workers. Besides the digging, the soil had to be taken away and the hollow blocks of cement concrete had to be brought from the Coco Garden and also the present reinforced concrete slabs, to form the cover of the pit. We dug down to eight feet below the ground level and then we rammed down the earth and laid a layer of about six inches of solid, dense concrete as the base, and this was plastered over to make a good clean floor. Then the four side walls were built, using the concrete hollow blocks from Coco Garden, with the hollows vertical and these hollows were then filled with concrete so that the walls were of solid cement concrete, eight inches thick. We went up about four and a half feet and then levelled off to lay the cover, which was to be of the pre-cast slabs from Coco Garden, about 1 V inches thick of well reinforced cement concrete. Then the walls were also plastered and the room made ready for the body of the Lord. All this was done in one day, on the 5th December 1950.

But the body of Sri Aurobindo did not decompose; it lay on His bed, with a royal and calm look and with a great and wonderful golden light all around Him. The golden light was really marvellous. His body lay in this state till the morning of the 9th December when the Mother gave Her order to put Him into the coffin we had prepared and to lay Him in the room we had made ready. Although Dr. Sanyal said that decomposition had set in, I was not convinced that it had, as there was no smell at all of decomposition, a very unmistakable smell. But Mother said that as the golden light had withdrawn and a greyness was coming on His face, that was the sign She had received for the burial to take place. But, She allowed me to keep my belief which is that His body will not decompose for thousands of years but will remain, grey in colour and much thinned down by the loss of liquid and with all the features quite intact. I had seen, in my youth, the body of Saint Francis Xavier in Goa and had noted the greyness of the colour of the skin and the shrinkage of the flesh, but that all the features were quite intact, even the eyelashes on the eyes. That is my belief and the Mother did not discourage it. So I had prepared a very, very solid coffin, lined with silver sheet and with a thick and solid cover and a rubber gasket all around and with so many screws that even small bacteria would not

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be able to enter from outside. I did not want that things from outside should attack His body.

When I lifted His body to place it into the coffin, the whole body was lying in the liquid that had come out of it. Normally such liquids have a very foul smell, but, in this case, the liquid had a celestial perfume that was really wonderful. My whole body, my clothes and all, was soaked with this liquid and it was so good that I did not change my clothes or even bathe for some days, to keep all that wonderful perfume on me.

After His body was laid in the room we had made ready for Him, the concrete slab cover was put on and fully sealed and plastered to make the floor of the room to be built above it. This room was built a bit later in the same way as the lower one, to a height of about four and a half feet, and when it reached its top, it was about two feet above the ground level.

Regarding this second room when the Mother had asked me to build it, I protested as I knew that this room was meant for Herself and I did not want to participate in anything that anticipated Her leaving us. But the Mother was adamant and said to me what She had never said before, "I order you to do it!" After that there was nothing but to obey.

The portion above the ground level, to a height of about 2 V feet, was built with an added piece to the west, to conform to the original structure which had the flower pots on it. This is the present form of the Samadhi as seen above the ground level. The surface of this was at first just finished with cement plaster and grey washed, to match the rest of the Ashram buildings. The Mother did not want anything elaborate.

But, with the constant stream of persons coming to the Samadhi, this surface became soon quite soiled and, before each Darshan, the whole had to be scrubbed and washed and repainted grey. This went on for many years and it was only in the mid sixties that the Mother agreed to the marble cladding of the surfaces....

In all, 54 pieces of marble were brought and with these the cladding was done and completed on the evening of the 3rd April 1967, on the eve of the 4th April which is the anniversary of Sri Aurobindo's arrival at Pondicherry.. When the Mother left Her body, the top slab had to be lifted off and for this some of the marble had to be chipped off and replaced by some pieces which we had kept. This second cladding was finished in the night of the 23rd November 1973, the eve of the 24th November, the Siddhi Day.

Udar Pinto ²⁹

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Sri Aurobindo's Samadhi

9 December 1953, View from north-west

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The Samadhi under the shade of the Service Tree

26 April 1951, View from south-west

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The Samadhi at noon

February 1957, View from south-east

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Sri Aurobindo’s Samadhi

View from south-west

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