We shall
now take up the period from 1968 to November 1973 when the Mother left Her
body.
As already
mentioned En Avant was started in
December 1967. We still had the two separate sections En Avant and Vers La
Perfection, functioning separately. However in December 1968, the two
sections got united and we had one section called En Avant Vers La Perfection. In the first two years, the
responsibility of running these sections were given to Tanmay, Amita and Kittu.
Despite the two sections being united, they were still sitting in two separate
blocks in the Eastern and Western parts respectively. One revealing incident
happened at that time. I asked Mother through Pavitra-da whether we could start
the classes in our part of the section also at 7-45 am with Mother’s music. She
replied to Pavitra-da that She wanted to know why I wanted to start with
Mother’s music. Do the students want it? Besides it should not become a ritual
that we should start with Mother’s music wherever there is a Sri Aurobindo School.
So I checked with the students and the majority wanted it. I then wrote a
letter to Mother and She replied as follows:
Here is the
English translation:
Sweet
Mother,
Next
year we would like to start cleaning the rooms of En Avant. This work will be done each morning by some teachers and students. We shall
start at 6 in the morning and the work should be over by 6.45.
Many
students and teachers have asked me if we could start the classes daily with Mother’s
music. We are praying for Thy permission.
Thy
child
Kittu
Mother’s
answer:
That
is good. Blessings
Mother
In 1970 it
was decided to divide EAVP into six sections and give the charge of each
section to a group of teachers. That system is still continuing today.
It will not
be out of place to relate one interesting development that took place in 1967.
Many teachers felt that during the last few years there was a marked lack of
interest among the students to become more conscious of why they are here; one of the reasons could be that the Mother had stopped
taking classes since 1958; after that the students had very little direct
contact with Her. The teachers were concerned as to how to remedy this state of
affairs. Therefore after a great deal of discussion among the teachers and Kireet-bhai, a proposal was made that a study
project named “The Spiritual History of India”
should be taken up; it was decided that all the teachers and students of
the Secondary classes would get involved in it. An outline was prepared and was
sent to the Mother for Her approval. After reading it, this is what She commented:
“No! It won’t do. It is not
to be done that way. You should begin with a big BANG! You were trying to show
the continuity of history, with Sri Aurobindo as the outcome, the culmination.
It is false entirely. Sri Aurobindo does not belong to history; he is outside
and beyond history. Till the birth of Sri Aurobindo, religions and
spiritualities were always centred on past figures, and they were showing as
“the goal” the negation of life upon earth. So, you had a choice between two
alternatives: either —a life in this
world with its round of petty pleasures and pains, joys and sufferings,
threatened by hell if you were not behaving properly, or —an escape into another world, heaven, nirvana,
moksha.... Between these two there is nothing much to choose, they are equally
bad.
Sri
Aurobindo has told us that this was a fundamental mistake which accounts for
the weakness and degradation of India. Buddhism, Jainism, Illusionism were
sufficient to sap all energy out of the country. True, India is the only place
in the world which is still aware that something else than Matter exists. The
other countries have quite forgotten it: Europe, America and elsewhere.... That
is why she still has a message to preserve and deliver to the world. But at
present she is splashing and floundering in the muddle. Sri Aurobindo has shown
that the truth does not lie in running away from earthly life but in remaining in it, to transform it, divinise
it, so that the Divine can manifest HERE, in this PHYSICAL WORLD. You
should say all this at the first sitting. You should be square and frank...
like that! (With her hands Mother
makes a big
square sign on the table.) Then, when this is told, strongly, squarely, and
there is no doubt about it—and then only—you can go on and amuse them with the
history of religions and religious or spiritual leaders. Then—and then only—you
will be able to show the seed of weakness and falsehood that they have
harboured and proclaimed. Then—and then only—you will be able to discern, from
time to time, from place to place, an “intuition” that something else is
possible; in the Vedas, for instance (the injunction to descend deep into the
cave of the Panis); in the Tantras also... a little light is burning.”
31
March 1967
(CWM,
Volume 12, On Education, pp 210-11)
After
receiving Mother’s comments there was a discussion among the teachers in Kireet-bhai’s
office; there were many differences of opinion as to what should be done. I
wrote a letter to the Mother. The letter is reproduced below. I am giving first
the English translation:
Sweet
Mother
This
Sunday Kireet read to us what you had said on the project “The Spiritual
History of India”. Among the teachers there are differences of opinion as to what
should be done now.
There
are those who believe that we should abandon the project and that we should
concentrate solely on Sri Aurobindo.
The
other say that we should not abandon the project but we should insist first on
Sri Aurobindo as you had wanted and then gradually introduce the other parts
like the Vedas, Buddhism etc by stressing on what Sri Aurobindo had said on
these topics.
We
pray to you in this situation to tell us what you would like us to do.
Thy
child
Kittu
The Mother picked out the second suggestion and
wrote:
This
is good. Blessings.
Mother
It was
early in 1967 that I was approached by Sisir-da and Sanat-da to take charge of
the History Board. I told them to refer the matter to Kireet-bhai who would
refer it to the Mother. The Mother warmly approved of it and let me know this
through Pavitra-da.
It was
later in the year that the concept of Spiritual History of India was mooted. Regarding
the project, The Spiritual History of India, I wrote another letter to the
Mother; this letter was concerning the part that I was entrusted with two other
teachers. I was to take up Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. One of the students in
the group wrote a letter to Mother which prompted me to write to Mother a
question.
Here is the
letter to the Mother which I wrote and Her reply.
Kittu’s letter to Mother
We
have started the project “The Spiritual History of India”. Priti, Ratna
and myself are doing the part related to Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. There are
16 children who have joined the project and most of them are between the ages
of 11 and 14. One of the students showed me a letter written by you to him,
which says: “There is no harm in studying but their teachings have been
surpassed; and to know the Truth it is safer to understand Sri Aurobindo’s
teaching.”
After
reading this, the question that comes in front of me is: Is it really useful to
speak to such young children about Ramakrishna and Vivekananda and is there not
a risk in doing this? Will they be able to understand all this in the proper
perspective even after it is explained to them? Personally, I have my
hesitations, but we would like to know what you have to say on this.
Mother’s
Answer
All studies or at least
the greater part of studies consists in studying the past with the hope that
this would make one understand better the present. But if one wants to avoid
the danger that the students would get stuck to the past and refuse to see the
future, one must take great care to explain to them that all that has happened
in the past had the aim of preparing all that is happening now and all that is
happening now is preparing the road to the future which is really the most
important thing for which we have to prepare ourselves. It is by cultivating
intuition that one prepares to live for the future.
In 1972 I
organised an exhibition on Sri Aurobindo. Mother gave me her fullest support
and the exhibition which was held from August 12 to 20 was a tremendous
success; in fact Mother told Satprem that Sri Aurobindo was present in the hall
during the Exhibition. I requested Mother to grant me permission to meet her to
express my gratitude. She fixed 31 August at 10 am to meet her with André.
After some initial talk about the exhibition, I told Mother that after coming
in contact with the manuscripts of Sri
Aurobindo which we had exhibited, I had fallen in love with them and would like
to help in preserving them in the new department of the Archives. Mother asked
me if I knew anything about the preservation of manuscripts and as I was
preparing to answer, André intervened and said that I was very much needed in
the school. Mother paused for a while and then said: “Kittu, my dear child, Kireet is often outside travelling and Tanmaya
has gone to France; I count on you to do something for the school”. I
replied: “Mother, I am already working in the administration of the school and
also taking classes, what else do you want me to do?” Mother replied that André
would tell me.
After a few
days, André called me and told me that after a detailed discussion with Mother
the following points were decided.
1.
I
was to take immediate charge of the Avenir
section in the Flower Room. This section consisted of children from the age of
6 to 9. She wanted me to observe the classes and see whether even at that age
there were some children who could be given some freedom. In fact, after
Tanmay’s return from France in November, he was requested to go and pick out
children who were ready to use the freedom. More about that later.
2.
I
was also told that after a year or so, I should do the same thing for the next
higher group of classes from the age of 10-12. Mother was very clear in her
mind that we should start choosing children right from the early stages who
were to be the future leaders.
I started my work in dead earnest and many teachers
of that section wrote letters to Mother and sent them through me; Mother sent
the replies generally written by André and these were communicated to the
teachers by me. Mother was not writing much at that time. André also met many
of the teachers to get a first hand report of their views which he then
conveyed to Mother.
I was also assigned an unpleasant task by Mother.
Mother expressed her wish that a few teachers needed to be weeded out of the
school and She asked André to find out how it could be done. When André stated
the problem to me, I told André quite clearly that it was beyond me to do it,
but since Mother wanted it to be done, I can make a suggestion. I proposed that I could meet the section
heads and ask them to give a written report on the teachers they felt should to
be removed with the reasons. I also told the section heads that these reports
should be shown to the teachers concerned. After that they would give them to
me and then I would show them to André; this was followed by a detailed
discussion with the section heads. After he was fully satisfied, he would
present them to Mother. Mother rapidly went through the reports and then took
her decision. She decided that some teachers would be given a warning and a few
others were asked to work in some other department. What is very clear is that
Mother was taking a lot of interest in the School and trying to bring it on
line to fulfil the ideals set before us.
In November André left for France and Tanmay
returned from France; Kireet-bhai was also back in Pondicherry. Mother started
meeting them for discussing matters relating to the School. This started in the
end of November. In the first week of December I joined them in the meetings.
The meetings were held with the Mother every alternate evening between 7 and 7.30.
These meetings lasted till March 29th after which they were stopped
as Mother started meeting very few persons. Tanmay recorded most of the talks
with a small tape recorder and transcribed many of them which he passed on to
Kireet-bhai and myself. I still have them with me. In all there were about 60
meetings with the Mother in four months. Evidently many areas of great
importance regarding the School were covered, besides some other topics
connected with the Ashram and even her physical transformation. Another point
that needs to be noted was that Mother clearly indicated to Tanmay that all the
tapes should be given to Satprem who would then decide what to publish.
I shall not give all the details of the talks that
took place, but I shall highlight some of the points that emerged which are
very relevant to the Centre of Education.
(To be
continued)
No comments:
Post a Comment