The Press and the Publication Department

An Interview with Dr. Indra Sen

Dr. Indra Sen, one of the first workers and assistant managers of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, was interviewed by Sanjay Bhatt and Bob Zwicker on 28 April 1977. The following text is the transcript of their tape-recorded conversation, as edited and amended by the interviewee.

The Founding of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press

Sanjay: The first question is: How, when and why did you join the Press?

Dr. Indra Sen: I think it was in the summer of 1944. Mother said to me: “Now you too can come.” My wife and children had come two years earlier and I was awaiting permission to come to the Ashram. When I came, Mother sent me to the Press for work. And I started working there; that is how it happened.

Bob: What was your first job? What did Mother ask you to do?

Dr. Indra Sen: My first job was very interesting. I happened to join when R. V. Pillai was not at the station. He was in Hyderabad; he used to come and go, and I joined the Press at a time when he was not here. My duty was to receive consignments of machinery and type as they arrived from Madras under a deal which Pillai had executed. I used to receive them, get them opened, and then the machinery and the type were sorted out and placed in different rooms.

Well, just at the time when things were being received and sorted out, Mother said: “Let the work be started.” At that time neither I nor anybody else at the Press knew how to compose or how to do any printing. But we started doing our best. Somehow we composed New Year’s Prayers and printed it too! How the printing was done I cannot recall, but we studied the cases, the lower case and the upper case, and we composed. And Pillai was surprised how, nobody knowing anything, we were able to compose New Year’s Prayers and get it ready. That was indeed a thrilling experience. We did not understand it all then, but it was a case of Mother’s will getting a thing done even through untrained persons. But what a confidence it gave to us—we felt we could run the Press!

Sanjay: Later on, from Delhi there was an entire Press which had come and a compositor with it—some machines and types, some press....

Dr. Indra Sen: That was much later. In the beginning, it was a press purchased in Madras, a second-hand thing for Rs. 40,000 if I remember aright. And it came. Then, later on we purchased, bit by bit, many things, even new machinery, new printing presses and cutting machines and all sorts of things. In the beginning it was a running press which was purchased by Pillai on behalf of the Ashram, and it started coming and I began to receive it.

I used to function at that time in the rooms at the back, since the frontside was yet in possession of the owner of the house. He had given us only a part of the house. I used to work in the room right opposite to the church and carry on the work. The room was full of type-cases and machinery parts. And there I used to sit. Just at that time or, yes, a little later, I had to write my presidential address for the psychology section of the Indian Science Congress—and sitting in the midst of the type I used to write my address. That I remember very well, I wrote it while attending to that work, sitting in that room in the midst of type-cases. And the flow of that writing was beautiful—that too is a clear impression. The writing was entitled “The Urge for Wholeness”. It was later presented to Sri Aurobindo and then sent to the Science Congress office. It is interesting that it was noticed and printed, in summary and in full, many times over. But it was written in the room full of type-cases and machinery parts, while my primary dedication was to the urgent work of a printing press for the Ashram, which was enjoying Mother’s continuous attention.

Bob: How many persons worked with you?

Sanjay: And how many were paid workers?

Dr. Indra Sen: Not more than half a dozen persons who wanted to learn composing and do some work. They were sadhaks of the Ashram, boys and girls who knew nothing, but they said they would work in the Press; and so they used to come and do anything that could be done and needed to be done—whatever anybody wanted to do he did. This is how the thing started.

There is one thing more in this connection. Vasudha’s brother was the engineer put in charge of reconstructing the premises. He used to work on the construction side and we used to do the cleaning of types and organisation of the printing press equipment. Mother used to get reports about our work through him. His name was Chandulal. He was short in size, very stout and a very nice man. He used to give daily reports to the Mother and brought messages from the Mother which we all looked forward to hearing from him every day.

And then one day he came and said: “Today, the owner of the house must give possession to us of the entire house.” We had been eagerly waiting for that. The man had promised, but later on, it appeared, he changed his mind. He thought: “I won’t give it to the Ashram, I want it for my own business.” Then Chandulal told us: “This morning Mother went to Sri Aurobindo and said to him: ‘Today he must vacate the premises.’” Chandulal further told us not to say a word to the owner but just to wait and see what happened.

The lunch hour came and still he was as firm on his gaddi as ever. We were curious and peeping all the time to see whether he showed any signs of a move. (Laughter) The lunch hour passed and we resumed our work. It was two o’clock, it was three o’clock, and yet no indication! He seemed to be settled firmly, with no intention of vacating. I must say we became a little despondent. I can quite recall his stout figure squarely seated on his throne, conducting his business on that crucial day.

From three to five, those two hours appeared to us very long, and our cherished hope reached its vanishing point, I must say. At five we closed our part of the premises and got ready to go. But just then he shouted out: “I am also going. You can take the house.” (Laughter) The miracle had happened and we were beside ourselves with joy. How much he had really resisted the Higher Pressure, but ultimately he responded. Mother’s plans regarding the Press had been much held up and now they could proceed freely and fully. We felt so happy. It was a day of rejoicing for all of us.

After that we were able to spread our things. In the beginning our work was concentrated in two or three rooms. And then we got the entire premises, began to enter the house by the main gate, not by the back door—then the back door became a back door. That is how it worked out.

Sanjay: Did Sri Aurobindo say anything special about the beginning?

Dr. Indra Sen: Sri Aurobindo was constantly in touch with all that was happening. That I definitely recollect. Certainly, Sri Aurobindo knew the happenings of the Press, from day to day.

Sanjay: Who had the first idea to start the Press?

Dr. Indra Sen: Well, I think Mother and Sri Aurobindo had been feeling the need for a Press at the Ashram for some time. And then, in an overt manner, the proposal came from Pillai, who said: “Mother, I can organise a Press for the Ashram.” Mother accepted and gave to Pillai all kinds of facilities. Mother gave great facilities to Pillai because he was the technical man who could really organise it. I had to work at times as an intermediary between Mother and Pillai. When Pillai wanted something, he wouldn’t directly ask Mother, he would tell me and I would convey his wish to Mother. She was always so considerate. Pillai carried on the work very well, but after some time he began to withdraw. By then we had got ready, and when he left, we were able to carry on the work without difficulty. Our very first achievement of composing and printing New Year’s Prayers by ourselves had given us a wonderful self-confidence. Mother had asked us to start work and we started it and it succeeded. We were now perfectly confident of printing things—with a sense of taste and beauty too.

Sanjay: Did we have some books printed in Hyderabad where Mr. Pillai was the manager?

Dr. Indra Sen: Yes, Collected Poems and Plays was printed in Hyderabad. That was done by Pillai and it was nicely brought out. Collected Poems and Plays in two volumes, first edition—that was done in Hyderabad by Pillai himself.

Sanjay: And before that, was there some Press in Pondicherry where the Arya was printed between 1914 and 1920?

Dr. Indra Sen: The Arya was printed at a Press called “Modern Press”. But I have no personal knowledge of it because I was not at the Ashram at that time.

Sanjay: Was there any date or time when Mother said: “Yes, now the Press is working”? You know, what I want is some chronological data on the subject.

Dr. Indra Sen: I don’t remember any such date, any one particular date.

Sanjay: Were the premises where the Press is now situated taken long before they started using it for the Press? How long before the machinery came were the premises taken on rent?

Dr. Indra Sen: The premises were taken on a long lease and later on purchased. Now they are the property of the Ashram, but they were originally taken on a long lease, probably of ten or fifteen years.

Sanjay: But do you know anything about the date on which....?

Dr. Indra Sen: That our Ashram records would be able to show. But I don’t remember that particular date.

Bob: Dr. Indra Sen, would you describe the Press in the early days—the spirit, the daily struggle, the individual struggle, the spirit of the people working together in order to follow out Mother’s wishes and her instructions and to dedicate the work inwardly and outwardly to her? Can you tell us a little bit about how it felt to be a worker?

Dr. Indra Sen: You ask for a long history of unsettled conditions. Well, I had a good deal to do at the Press and I didn’t have experience. We went out recruiting people, thinking we needed them or would soon need them. Mother gave us the freedom to get as many people as we liked—but she didn’t give us the freedom to send them away! Mother said: “No, you can’t send them away.” (Laughter)

That was war-time and Mother said: “What will they do elsewhere? This is war-time, they may not get work. You can’t dismiss them.” I had to write to her—my copy-books show it—“Mother, there is so much confusion and people don’t do their duty and there is quarrelling.” And Mother gave me the reply: “The Force is at work and things will get all right, you wait.” This was her clear and definite reply. I didn’t understand it well enough then, but it evoked in me an attitude of some faith and of waiting. These words, “The Force is at work and things will get all right”, kept ringing in my ears. I repeated them to myself and I found real joy in doing so, while externally there was confusion and much frustration.

But within six months the situation as a whole changed. People dropped out and we were left with just the number we needed. That was, no doubt, a great experience. A remarkable play of egos, much confusion, much frustration, much pettiness too, yet things went on—and on the whole there was progress and in the end a surprising clarity and overall harmony. The Power showed its effectivity through the results that came about.

Bob: Was this difficulty with the paid workers or among yourselves?

Dr. Indra Sen: In the situation as a whole, among ourselves as well as the paid workers. There was lack of organisation and too many idle hands, no smooth flow of work and so on. For example, we didn’t have a man for accounts; he came much later. There were compositors, but we had no work for them. And so people were idle and there was a lot of chit-chatting.

Bob: Did you ask Mother what to do about this? What people should do with the idle time?

Dr. Indra Sen: I asked her repeatedly. My copy-books show that. But Mother said: “The Force is at work. Wait and see.” And Mother didn’t want to do anything in an overt manner, as some of us wanted to do it. She relied on her own spiritual working and within six months things came round and became smooth and harmonious.

Bob: But what was your idea? What did you want to do?

Dr. Indra Sen: My idea was, well: dismiss these people who are not wanted, give them notice. The ordinary idea, that was my idea. (Laughter)

Sanjay: Sir, about the strike in 1947: could you tell us something about it? Why was there a strike and what did Mother say?

Dr. Indra Sen: I will have to recall. I will have to try to go back in my mind.

I remember that they wanted to enforce on us some demands. But Mother did not consider their demands reasonable. She gave them a warning, she said to them, “Look here, you are well looked after, you should not go on strike.” But still they went on strike. Then Mother said: “Nothing doing. I won’t agree, won’t concede to any of their demands.” A radical change in the whole situation, as permissible under law, was then brought about. We were free from the paid workers and they were free from us. The sadhaks displayed a wonderful spirit and coped with the entire work by themselves. Later we appointed a few hands on a new basis, as we needed them. Thus did the solution to the difficulty due to too many hands come about.

Sanjay: How often did Mother come there?

Dr. Indra Sen: Perhaps two or three times. I remember Mother’s last visit. She went to all the rooms and showed pleasure: “Well, this is nice and clean.” And she remained silent when she found it was not good enough. But Mother went to almost every room in the Press.

Sanjay: Did Mother come there after the strike or during the strike?

Dr. Indra Sen: Not during the strike, but on some other occasion.

Sanjay: S said Mother had come there once. S told me that she had come and addressed the workers about how she was treating them and what they were expected to do.

Dr. Indra Sen: I don’t remember. S might remember better because he has maintained continuity with the Press. So far as I am concerned, it dropped from my mind as my work shifted to other fields. The Press was very much in my mind up to the year 1951 or 1952. Then Mother gave me teaching work and I dropped the Press from my mind. Later when Mother sent me out, my teaching work also dropped from me. Then I began to look after Jawalapur and Tapogiri; for almost the last twenty years my main work has been there.

Sanjay: Do you think that most of the departments which started after 1926 have something of the Overmind’s working in them, in the forms which the mind has already made? Can we say that when Mother started all these organisations, she wanted to put in the Overmind?

Dr. Indra Sen: I had a lot to do with the organisation in the Press and later on in the Centre of Education, and the Mother always said: “This is over-administration.” (Laughter) That is what Mother always told me. I remember it very well, I would say “Mother, things must be organised.” She said: “No, let things grow!” I remember that very well. Mother told me that not once but many times over, because that habit of my mind was very obstinate. I made proposals and got the same answer—again and again. (Laughter)

Of course, basically, all of us received encouragement from the Mother. We were spiritual seekers, we aimed at spiritual realisation and Mother was all for helping us in that pursuit. But she had to pull us out of our egos and, where hard formations were concerned, sterner action was necessary. Silence was the usual response, but at times a positive rejection was there—but only where the Mother saw that the person could stand the rejection well enough. My mind’s habit was obstinate and it received the handling it needed; it has not been the loser for that!

Bob: You say that most of the proposals you made were rejected?

Dr. Indra Sen: I haven’t kept a count of proposals made, proposals approved and proposals rejected. But my present feeling is that all that I was then and all that I said and did then, deserved to be rejected. And that is what I have been doing all these years and yet it has not been done effectively enough.

Sanjay: Do you think that we can view all these departments as channels for the working of the Higher Power to promote and achieve spiritual growth among the workers—a psychic and spiritual personality in them?

Dr. Indra Sen: Of course, the Ashram being a field for the realisation and the manifestation of the Divine, the various departments as constituents of Ashram life would reflect the same spirit. As spiritual seekers, we have learned to appreciate that the spiritual truths of life are the deeper and the higher determinants of life, and hence are more efficient. Naturally, we would like to live by them, to avail ourselves of them more and more in our life and action. By doing so we would grow spiritually ourselves and bring into being standards higher than those of our ordinary mental and vital nature.

Sri Aurobindo avowedly conceived of the Ashram as a field for the practice of Karmayoga, and it was most patiently organised as an environment imbued with the Divine Presence, in order to help the growth of the Divine Consciousness in those who sought such growth and lived in the Ashram.

The various departments of the Ashram are, in fact, intended for this purpose, as a field for the working of the Higher Power. They can be understood and appreciated fully only when seen in this way.

However, the human element which is sought to be remoulded is still human and much varied. The departments, therefore, in their quality and character, present human nature in its higher as well as its ordinary lower aspect.

Sanjay: Suppose I am working in the Press—how would you advise me to go about doing my work, now that you know more or less what Mother wanted in the work to be done?

Dr. Indra Sen: Well, one thing: we should work out of a consciousness of the whole, the Will that inspires the entire Ashram life. Each individual should maintain, as best he can, an increasingly direct contact with this Will. While obeying his immediate superiors, his answerability and responsiveness should be to that Will to build up a living continuous contact with the source of our inspiration. This is what is very definite and clear to me. Suppose I am working under you. I obey you, but still I feel as though I am obeying Mother who inspires the whole work. There should not be a kind of “my personal will” being subject to “your personal will”, but rather Mother’s Will finding expression through you, and I obeying Mother’s Will as expressed in and through you. Then the spiritual bearings remain correct.

Sanjay: At present, in the organisation of the Press, as in that of the School, they are bringing in ideas of working from outside, from organisations of a similar character—like new systems of education or new systems of printing and organisation and administration.

Dr. Indra Sen: The inner creative Will is the primary fact. It must remain alive and active. And it can surely accept and re-create into its own perspective of life and existence any experiences obtained externally from other sources. But if things are accepted imitatively, then the creative Will gets ignored and suppressed. That is what comes to me in answer to this question.

In this connection, it is now also possible to explain what Mother possibly meant by saying, “Let things grow.” At that time I understood what was meant by trying to organise a department, but “letting things grow” left me more or less blank. But now it is a significant phrase. One must aspire, seek unity and harmony in oneself and let the Divine unity and harmony remould us all in its own image. This takes time, but what comes about is stable and effective. What is organisationally—that is, in an external way—imposed does not work because we are inwardly not duly attuned to the situation of life. The approach of growing up ourselves in a situation to meet its demands under the overall guiding and inspiring Will is, therefore, the best solution. Organisation or the external form of relationships should be an expression of the inner status and growth, and freely change with it and not be a restriction on it.

This is perhaps enough as the first attempt to know our Press, how it came into being and how it has helped to grow up and to do its work as a department of the Ashram in its pursuit of the spiritual ideals it seeks to serve.

(Mother India, September 1978, pp. 586–594)

Prithwi Singh & the Publication Department

As far as I know the present ‘Publication Department’ room was originally a part of the first Ashram Library set up by Premananda under the Mother’s direction.

In 1934 Prithwi Singh, my father, wrote to the Mother:

While I am here I should like to do some sort of work. I can take up the work of the classification of books in the library according to the method of Dr. Dewey whose book I have brought with me. A sort of arrangement in cards is also necessary. If you approve I can explain the method to Nolini-babu and if he thinks it is not too complicated for the average user I can take up the work quite gladly. In any case I shall try faithfully to perform any work that you may be pleased to give me.

In 1938, when Prithwi Singh settled down permanently at the Ashram, the Mother asked him to work in the Library. On 4th of June 1938 he wrote to the Mother:

Regarding library work . . . Parichand has agreed to work one hour with me in the morning from 8:30 to 9:30 and for the rest I am trying to do everything myself. Altogether about 2925 books have been arranged, labelled and classified and there would be another 500 volumes or so of English books still left to be done. . . .

For the classification he did as he had written to the Mother in 1934 by using the Dewey System — a decimal system of classification. He had got labels printed for that purpose and used to get paste from Harikant’s ‘Binding Department’ situated in the main Ashram building. A small label was pasted on the book’s cover, giving its reference number and a bigger one inside giving more details. Later on, in 1941, when I along with my sister, Suprabha, and Prithwi Singh’s three grandchildren joined the Ashram, Mother asked me to help my father and also work with Mona for embroidering bedspreads for Golconde. She also asked her to help Kiran Kumari (who used to repair stoves, pens, clean the filters, water pumps, refrigerators, cut chit pads from used papers etc.) and also help Sujata. By the way, it was from our eldest sister, Sujata, that Suprabha and I had our first French lesson. The book was French without Tears!

The Library then comprised the present ‘Reading Room’ and the first part of the present Publication Department (upto the first door that leads to the courtyard). A partition separated the second part, which also opened onto the same courtyard.

The third part was the adjoining room. These last two were used as classrooms. In the third one, Pavitra-da used to teach mathematics to Mrityunjoy, Vasudha, Shanti Doshi, Mangatrai, Noren Singh, Abhay Singh, Sujata and Dayakar. In 1942 Muttayen taught French there to Sumitra, Amiyo-da, Kanak-da, Chimanbhai to mention a few and Sunil-da taught maths to Chhobi, Arun, Ashok Ganguli, Sumitra and perhaps to Debu. Later on, Suprabha too had joined the class. In the second part of the room, Tinkori-da and Biren-da used to teach English to some students. In the same room ‘danton’ (toothsticks) were kept for those who liked to clean their teeth from Neem twigs or twigs from other trees.

English and perhaps French books too were kept in the present Reading Room then known as the Library. Premanand looked after that part; he would issue the books and was extremely strict that they be returned on the exact date. Sometimes, if a book was misplaced, he would call me for I somehow had a gift of finding the missing book very fast. Sadashiv, and later on, Vasanti also worked with him.

The first part of the Library where father worked used to shelve all the vernacular books. There were many Bengali ones — story books, novels, as well as magazines etc. — offered mainly by Sadhaks and Sadhikas. There was a constant supply of books from Kolkata mainly from the Arya Publishing House.

The present Fruit Room was also part of the Library. There were glass almirahs full of ‘granthabalis’ of Bankim, Sharat, Trailokyanath and others. Mats were spread on the floor where Sadhaks used to read the daily newspapers. (The Mother named the room ‘Falsehood’). There was also a long open shelf where magazines, mainly Hindi, Bengali and Gujarati, were stacked. Each year these magazines were bound and later kept in the glass almirahs.

Tarapado Patro of Sri Aurobindo Pathmandir used to send books published by the Arya Publishing House, as most of Sri Aurobindo’s books were then printed there. Some were printed at Madras and from the end of 1949 or the beginning of 1950 a few major works of Sri Aurobindo were published in the U.S.A. Towards the end of 1949 the Arya Publishing House became ‘a distributing concern and no longer a publishing one’.

Prithwi Singh used to arrange the books in the Library, sweep the floor and perform other tasks as well. He would also type out Sri Aurobindo’s manuscripts. He had thus become an expert in deciphering our Lord’s handwriting and I too was able to read Him more or less easily. I remember seeing some of Sri Aurobindo’s manuscripts written in a beautiful handwriting and more than easily readable. He used to write ‘e’ in the Greek style.

Ila-di, Rani-di and others helped father temporarily in arranging Bengali books. Father had taught me how to arrange the books in the cupboards, aligning them with the help of a ruler. Later, Tehmi-ben, Leena-di (Rose and Anju’s mother) also worked with him for many years. Piloo, better known as Sutapa, also helped him, specially with the typing, preparing bills and maintaining accounts. Neel too was there for some time. Later on, Suprabha, Shobha, Jaleshwar-ji, Sukhveer-ji, Mounnou, to name a few, worked with Prithwi Singh. I do not remember which year I stopped working with him nor when Suprabha began to work there nor till when.

During the war years (1939-45) it was quite difficult to get books from outside Pondicherry. Prithwi Singh, who with the Mother’s Blessing started the Ashram Book Sales Department (of which he was put in charge) suggested that if our Ashram had its own Press, Sri Aurobindo’s books could be printed before they went out of print. The opportunity presented itself and our Ashram Press was started in 1945. When India became independent on Sri Aurobindo’s birthday on the 15th of August 1947 and Pondicherry still remained a French territory, it became even more difficult and quite time-consuming to import books. As our Ashram had its own Press, the ever growing demand for Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s books could be met.

When Sri Aurobindo’s Collected Poems and Plays was printed in two volumes in the Hyderabad Government Press in 1942, (Nolini-da was the Publisher), Sri Aurobindo would write the name of the recipient and autograph the copies.

As far as I remember, it was from 1947 that Sri Aurobindo started to autograph his books for those who bought them during Darshan times. Father and I would insert a paper in the book with the name of the buyer and the books would be sent to Sri Aurobindo for His autograph and Blessings. The next day the books were returned and handed over to the buyers. If my memory serves me right, in the beginning Sri Aurobindo used to write the names but not later on when the numbers had increased enormously as well as our Lord’s other work.

In 1952 a small part of the Ashram Library was shifted to the Ashram School and Mother had put Medhananda in charge of the Library which later on was shifted to the present building nearly overnight (in fact, in two days) — it was in November 1954, when the French administration ceased and Pondicherry became a part of India. The remaining part of the Ashram Library was then also shifted there (see Bulletin of February 1955).

Previously, before the sales section was started, Prithwi Singh not only looked after this part of the Library but also had some other responsibilities. He was highly educated, a well-known art critic and had a superb collection of paintings of renowned artists of Bengal, the first edition of Tagore’s books and of other famous writers and a vast collection of magazines. When he came to the Ashram he offered his coin collection to the Mother and used to look after that too. Mother wrote to him on 6 January 1941:

The collection is indeed very well arranged and quite interesting. I am thinking of reserving a special shelf for it and then I will ask you to come and arrange the boxes on the shelf.

Later on, the coin collection was transferred to the Library and the Mother asked me to look after it. I did so for some years. Thereafter it was given to the Philatelic Department and Noren Singh was asked by the Mother to take charge of that too. It is still there.

In 1936 Prithwi Singh had offered to the Ashram his personal collection of the Arya volumes.

As Prithwi Singh was well-read and very proficient in English, whenever any letter came to Sri Aurobindo asking Him about a particular turn of phrase or expression used by Him, He would often send the question to Prithwi Singh who would find out from dictionaries and encyclopedias kept in cupboards in the Reception Room similar usage by earlier famous writers or poets. As his eyesight was poor he would ask me to read out to him, and inevitably he would find what he was looking for and then send his answer to Sri Aurobindo. I think it was via Nolini-da.

In the course of his proof-reading of The Life Divine he had put a few questions to Sri Aurobindo regarding some rare or newly-coined words and received His answer in detail.

As Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s works spread, Prithwi Singh would receive many letters enquiring about business, about books, about the Ashram as well as questions regarding sadhana etc. He would generally send these last ones to the Mother who would go through them and return them after replying, mostly in the margin or at the bottom if there was place. Prithwi Singh would then dictate the replies incorporating Mother’s answer and these were mostly typed by Suprabha who worked with him for many years. For the Bengali letters, he answered them mostly in English so that they too could be typed.

In 1949 he had began to prepare a glossary of Sanskrit terms from the complete works of Sri Aurobindo. He wrote to the Lord that he thought that it would take one more year to complete it. I do not remember when the work was completed.

As far as I remember, he used to look at all the proofs of Sri Aurobindo’s books. Ranju-da also helped him in this task. Later on I would read out from Savitri, The Life Divine and other books and father would choose sentences from them for the New Year Diary which was printed in our Ashram Press.

Nirod-da writes in Twelve Years with Sri Aurobindo (p. 36, 2000 ed.):

. . . we could not know what was being written, because, except for the sonnets, he passed everything to Mother. She received it as a gift from God and sent it on to Prithwi Singh for typing. Though his eyesight was bad, his typing was so neat and clean, done with such minute care, that Sri Aurobindo was very pleased with his work.

I would like to close these recollections of my father with something very precious that I remember. Sri Aurobindo said about him: “. . .without Prithwi Singh there would be no Life Divine.”

SUMITRA NAHAR

(Mother India, September 2009, pp. 780–783)