"MY LIFE WITH SRI ANIRVAN," PART ONE, BY SRI GOUTAM DHARMAPAL - 1 - Forum

"MY LIFE WITH SRI ANIRVAN" BY SRI GOUTAM DHARMAPAL

PART ONE

20/8/08. It was in February 1953 that I first heard about Sri Anirvan. I was then posted at Gauhati, Assam as salesmanager of Hind Hurricane Lanterns manufactured by India Industrial works, Salkia, Howrah. I was then staying at Smt.Amalprabha Das’s house at Panbazar, Gauhati. Amalprabha was a social worker, head of the Kasturba Gandhi Trust in Assam. She was closely associated with me during the great Assam earthquake relief activities from August 1950 to December 1951.

One day, in the third week of February 1953, I was going in a bus to Lijanbazar. I saw a signboard, “Mother’s Centre,” in front of a residence. I got down from the bus and met the owner of the house Dr. Mahadev Agarwal. He was a devotee of Sri Aurobindo, and informed me that they are establishing a Mother’s centre in Gauhati on Mother’s birthday, 21st February 1953, and cordially invited me to attend the function and speak a few words. Soon we became good friends, and I often visited his house.

In the first week of March 1953, Mahadev informed me that Sri Anirvan had come to Gauhati. “Would you like to come with me to see him?” he asked. Till then I had not heard about Sri Anirvan. It was Dr. Mahadev Agarwal who first informed me about Anirvan, about his being very popular amongst Sri.Aurobindo’s circle, especially in Bengal, because of his marvelous translation in Bangla of “The Life Divine,” the magnum opus of Sri Aurobindo. He also told me about the Ashram “Haimavati” of Sri Anirvan at Almora in UP, which he and his wife Shanti had visited. He told me, “You need not talk to him. You simply sit in his presence, and you are overwhelmed by the silence, by the peace emanating from him.”

One day in the first week of March, we went together to a place near Gauhati Railway Station, but were told that Sri Anirvan had gone to the Himachal Ashram of Swami Shivananda. Next day we went to the Kamakhya hills, but to our regret we heard that the same morning, he had left by bus to Shillong where he would be staying for some days. I did not make any further effort to see him and the matter ended there.

I released myself from business in June 1953 and returned to Kolkata. We, the Dharmapals, under the leadership of Sri Bandhu Dharmapal, were then staying at 18/4D, Fern Rd. It was now nearly eight years since we had come to Kolkata from Ahmedabad with ten young men under the leadership of Sri Babubhai Shah (Bandhu Dharmapal) taking vows as Dharmapal for working and dedicating ourselves to the cause of Sanathana Dharma, Eternal and Universal Religion, in the footsteps of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo.

As nothing concrete was taking place initially, I was getting restless. A sense of detachment and renunciation was growing in me. I thought of taking sannyas (monastic vows), and even went to Belur Math of Sri Ramakrishna Math and Mission, whose Swamijis were well known to me. I met the then Vice President Swamiji. He said,”You are welcome, but you would at least have to pass seven years as a brahmachari (celibate) before getting sannyas. Of course, in your case, it may be reduced to three years.” This rather depressed me and at this juncture I remembered Sri Anirvan. I wrote a letter to him asking if I could go to his ashram and stay there for some time. He soon replied that he was closing down his Haimavati Ashram at Almora, as Lizelle Reymond who had been staying with him since the last four years, was returning to Switzerland and he himself had decided to go to Shillong and establish Haimavati there. He said that on the way to Shillong he would stay at Kolkata for a few days during February 1954. He would stay then at Sri S. B. Roy’s house at 55, Dr. Sarat Banerjee Road near Deshpriya Park. He asked me to come and meet him at Sri Roy’s house.

22/8/08 Thus in the morning of 17th or 18th February 1954 I went to meet Sri Anirvan at Sri Roy’s house at the appointed time at 10.00 am. As I sat in the drawing room, Anirvanji came out from the adjacent room, a dark (shyam) bearded sadhu, wearing a lungi and a yellow colored alkhatta (robe) and a white cap. He had small but deep and sparkling eyes with serious though gentle, easily smiling face. I got up and bowed down formally to him, as is the custom.

Then we sat and conversed for about half an hour. Mostly I talked, and he listened. I told him about our past activities, social and political, in Ahmedabad, about our taking part in the “Quit India” movement launched by the Indian National Congress under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, about our leaving politics and founding the Dharma Sangha and taking the vows of a Dharmapal and dedicating our lives for the cause of Sanathana Dharma. Then I confided in him the present state of my mind, my urge for God realisation, to live in isolation, if possible with a holy person like Sri Anirvan.

All the time he was watching me intently, and nodding his head from time to time. He said that he would be going to Shillong in March, and it would take some time to organise Haimavati there. Then I could go to him for some time.

He said, “You carry on as you are doing now, and I will try to help you as much as possible.” He told me how he himself would like to stay alone; why he is against establishing any big and permanent ashram. I then gave him the invitation of Bandhu Dharmapal to visit our residence in Calcutta. Immediately Sri Anirvan looked at his small diary of appointments, and fixed the time, 10:00 am on 21st February. He asked me to take him to our place from 3, Swinhoe Street, where he would be addressing a meeting of the Physical Association of Mother’s Centre organised by Sri Pramod Sen, a devotee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

Thus, it was on the morning of 21st February 1954 that Sri Anirvan visited our house at 18/4 D Fern Rd. I brought him to Fern Rd from Swinhoe Street by rickshaw. In those days Swamiji – as we called him later, did travel in trams and buses.

Ramswarup, Sitaram Goel and their Congress leader friend also came to the first meeting. In the small room, Anirvanji was seated on Bandhu’s cot, and the rest of us sat on chairs opposite him. Ramswarup and Sitaram asked some questions about the present state of the nation and how to work for its regeneration. Anirvanji stressed on the individual spiritual development, on personal sadhana and to do whatever one has to do in the spirit of nonattachment as Karma yoga as ordained by Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. Talks continued for an hour or so and after light refreshments the meeting was over. Ramswarup’s friend took Anirvanji and myself in his car back to Sri Roy’s house.

After this meeting on 21st February Bandhu and I visited Anirvanji on three to four occasions, once at Tollygunj at the residence of the daughter of his friend Biren Sen. Bandhu talked mostly about his life and mission, and asked for his help in the work. Anirvanji said that he would extend all his help to the work of Dharma Sangha, as he felt there was no difference between his thinking and our work. But he emphasised that he would never hold a post of responsibility in any organization, neither as a guru nor an official teacher. “I shall always work in freedom. I shall always remain like a Baul,” he said. Then he talked about Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Rabindranath Tagore, and various Bauls. He quoted from Kathamrita,”The Baul came, sang and went away.”

23/8/08 Anirvanji left for Shillong in the first week of March 1954. In Shillong he had already gathered around him a group of friends and devotees. The main person among them was Smt Usha Bhattacharya, Principal of Lady Kean College for Girls, Shillong. She was a devotee of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and was attracted to Anirvanji after reading the Bangla translation of “The Life Divine,” the best known work of Sri Aurobindo. She even visited Haimavati at Almora, during the period when Lizelle Reymond was living with Anirvanji. Every year when Sri Anirvan visited Himachal Ashram at Gauhati during winter, he would go to Shillong and stay at Usha’s house. There, along with Usha’s other friends, the girls from Lady Kean College came to him. Sandhya Das and Rema Chakravarty were chief amongst the group of girls who were closely drawn towards Anirvanji. In fact, this was the group of girls who were to join the proposed Shanti Ashram at Almora under the guidance of Lizelle Reymond and Anirvanji who planned to be the titular heads, but at the last moment all the girls except Sandhya and Rema dropped out because of the strictness of their parents, who would not allow their daughters to go to such a faraway place.

This was the main reason why Lizelle became frustrated and depressed, as she wanted to do something active. That was the time when Anirvanji had found some books of Gurdjieff, especially the famous book of Guspensky, the fourth. He saw that Gurdjieff’s philosophy is akin to the Samkhya philosophy of India, and advised Lizelle to go back to Switzerland and work with the Gurdjieff group and contribute to the group what she had learnt all these years in his company. This was how they parted. Lizelle returned to Switzerland, and Anirvanji decided to stay at Shillong.

Thus Sri Anirvan established his Haimavati first at Nong-thy-mai, Shillong, from April 1954. Later in April 1958, he shifted Haimavati to the spacious grounds of Sri Aurobindo Path-Mandir, Shillong, behind the Assam Governor’s Bungalow on Camel-Back Rd near the Words lake, where Usha’s brother Karuna Bhattacharya had a contractor build a small house for him according to his specifications.

From 1954 March to August 1955, I maintained contact with Sri Anirvan by correspondence. Apart from being a saint, Anirvanji was a great scholar of the Vedas, and of Indian and Western philosophy, psychology and literature. He collected a large number of books for his library. Till now his younger brother Bimal Sarkar Dhar was his main supplier of books. Whatever money he received from his friends he would invest it mostly in books. After he came to know us, he would write to us as well, especially when the books were to be purchased from Bombay (now called Mumbai).

Most of the books he ordered were on Zoroastrianism, preserved and translated into Gujarati by the Parsi community of Gujarat. Professor Taraporewala, a Zoroastrian, was his teacher in Calcutta University, where Anirvanji, as Nirvana Chaitanya Brahmachari, did his M.A. degree during 1916-1918 with the Vedas as his main subject. He was very much interested in Sanskrit literature, in Vyasa, Valmiki, in Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti and Banabhalta and other Sanskrit poets.

While filling up the entrance forms for his M.A. he was going to write Sanskrit literature as his main subject, but something within him impelled him to write Vedas instead. Later he told me that it was his Guru Swami Nigamananda who used his spiritual powers to make him choose the Vedas as his main subject of study for the M.A. degree.

To digress. The same extraordinary thing happened again at the end of his studies. After finishing his two-year course, he did not want to go back immediately to the Guru’s Ashram in Jorhat, Assam. He wanted to go to Kanyakumari, to the temple of Goddess Parvati, a form of his Ishta Devi Haimavati. The goddess Kanyakumari is depicted standing with a garland to receive Her consort Lord Siva.

The temple of Kanyakumari is situated at the southernmost tip of India, surrounded by three seas, the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. This was the place from where Swami Vivekananda swam to the southernmost island and had his vision of Reawakened Mother India. When Anirvanji went to the Railway Office in Kolkata to purchase the ticket for Kanyakumari (or Madras from where he would travel to Kanyakumari), instead of Madras he asked for a ticket to Jorhat, Assam. That too was a miracle enforced on him by his guru Swami Nigamananda.

Well, to return to the topic. When Nirvana Chaitanya (Sri Anirvan) filled up his form for the Vedas M.A. course, another problem arose. The Brahmin professors would not teach Vedas to a non-Brahmin boy. Chaitanya was a Kayastha, of the warrior caste. He had to approach Sri Ashutosh Mukerjee, then Chief Justice and Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University, himself a Brahmin. Sri Ashutosh said, “All right, if they do not want to teach you the Vedas, I will get teachers from South India to teach you the Vedas.”

In fact, he did invite two Vedic scholars from South India who had no objection to teaching the Vedas to a non-Brahmin boy. When they came to Kolkata, the other Bengali professors too came humbly down from their high pedestal, and from then onwards non-Brahmin students were admitted to the Vedic Department of the University.

Thus the ground for Anirvanji’s writings on the Vedas was prepared. In his M.A. classes Anirvanji had read portions of Zend Avesta, the scripture of the Zoroastrian religion. The Zoroastrians or Parsis, as they are known in India, had developed their scriptures in Gujarat after they migrated to Gujarat from Persia (now called Iran) in the 8th century, when the Arabian Muslims conquered Persia and destroyed most of their fire temples and religious scriptures. Anirvanji could easily read printed Gujarati, Marathi, Assamese, Oriya and Hindi languages. Thus he knew almost all the languagesof northern India, including Kashmiri. Unfortunately he did not learn the Southern languages, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada. Had he learnt them, it would have been easier for linguists to link the ties between the southern and northern languages, almost all of which had come from the Vedic Chandas Bhasha, Pali and Prakrit. Smt Gouri Dharmapal is trying to do this, though she too does not know much of Tamil, Telugu etc. She had almost united them through her study of Panini’s Ashtadhyayi (grammar of Chhandas and Bhasta) in her book “The Linguistic Atom and the Origin of Languages.”

Then came 6th August 1955. A bolt from the blue, like an atom bomb that fell on Hiroshima on 6th August 1945, fell on the Dharmapals. Bandhu Dharmapal, the founder and leader of Dharma Sangha had an attack of apoplexy, a cerebral haemorrhage. The attack came at 3.00 pm on 6st August, Saturday, and he passed away the same night at about 11.30 pm. A dark cloud of despair and depression descended on us. Under the circumstances, I wrote to Sri Anirvan to come to mitigate our sorrow, and requested him to come and stay with us for sometime in Kolkata if possible.

Anirvanji immediately replied, conveying his grief at the passing away of Bandhu Dharmapal and appreciating his ideas and ideals. He assured us that his help and support to our cause would be always there. He said that though he would not be directly connected with Dharma Sangha, he would do whatever possible to help and take forward the cause of Dharma Sangha as the ideas and ideals of Bandhu were the same as his own. He also informed me that when he comes next to Kolkata in November he would stay with us. The Divine Mother had already prepared the ground for the shifting of his Haimavati to Kolkata, as Sri S.R. Roy, with whom he usually stayed in Kolkata, was transferred to Delhi.

Thus Anirvanji came from Shillong to stay with us for the first time at 6H, Keyatala Rd, Kolkata 700029, on 18th November 1955. He stayed with us till 15th December. He left for Ranchi, a hill resort in Bihar, now the capital of the Jharkhand state; which was then part of Bihar. Anivanji’s college friend Sri Biren Sen, Accountant General of Eastern India, was posted there in his early forties. Almost every year after his leaving his Guru Nigamananda Saraswati’s Ashram in Jorhat, Anirvanji would visit Biren Sen wherever he was posted, Ranchi or Delhi. Before 1945, he would stay for long periods in Sen’s house. He tutored Sen’s son and daughters for some time, especially when Sri Sen was in Delhi. It was during one of his visits to Ranchi that Anirvanji was discovered by a group of devotees of Sri Aurobindo.

One day in August 1942 Anirvanji was going to Ranchi from Kolkata by Ranchi Express. Due to storm and floods in the river Rupanarayan, the bridge was damaged and the train detained for three nights on the Kolkata side of the river, near Bagrtan. Very early in the morning, Anirvanji would get out of the train and, after taking his bath in the river, sit below a big tree in meditation or read a book.

Some devotees of Sri Aurobindo who were also going to Ranchi by the same train were attracted towards him and sat beside him and heard his satsanga. They asked some questions about Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy, especially about “The Life Divine,” the place where Anirvanji had established his first Haimavati, where Lizelle Reymond had joined him later in 1949,50. Tapas not only arranged for his stay in Almora, she herself stayed with him and served him as his cook, his personal secretary and servant. Anirvanji gave her sannyas and named her Chinmayi. It was in fact, Tapas who suggested the name Anirvan, when they were thinking of a name for the author of “Divya Jivana,” the Bangla translation of “The Life Divine.” It was in 1949 that the first volume of this translation was published under the name of Anirvan as author.

Till then, after leaving the Guru’s ashram in 1930, Anirvanji was using different names, sometimes Nirvanananda, sometimes Sachchidananda, sometimes Barda, etc.

Tapas left Anirvanji in 1949, when Lizelle came to Sri Anirvan to stay with him. By then Tapas was attracted towards J.D.Krishnamurti. Towards the end of her life in 1973, she almost came back to Anirvanji. In fact, it was through me that she came back to Sri Anirvan. I first met Tapas in August 1960 in Almora, where I had gone for a spiritual retreat and was staying at Haimavati, then occupied by Pierre Oppliger, the Swiss friend of Lizelle, with his American wife Mary. During the period when Lizelle and Anirvanji were staying at Almora, Pierre and his friends of S.C.I. (Service Civil International, a social service organization) used to visit Haimavati. I had become a friend of Pierre when we were together at Pathalipam on the river Subansini in Lakhimpur District, Assam, where we were working for relief activities during 1950,52. Since 1960, Tapas visited us whenever she came to Kolkata, first when we lived at Keyatala Road and then at Fern Road.

Another place Anirvanji would always visit during his travels during the winter was Allahabad, home of another friend of his from his college days in Dacca, Sri Dhiren Dasgupta. Dhiren, Biren and Naren (Dhirendra, Birendra and Narendra (later Nirvanananda/Anirvan) were great friends during their college days in Dacca,1916-18, and remained great friends till the end of their lives.

This was the itinerary of Anirvanji during his first visit to our place. Kolkata 18th November to 15th December; Ranchi from 16th December to 7th January 1956; Patna from 8th January to 14th January. At Patna, Anirvanji used to stay with Sister Pushpa, Principal of Nivedita Girls’ College. She was a friend of Tapas, and visited Haimavati at Almora, during her summer or October puja vacations. She too had taken up sannyas, but continued with her college work till she passed away.

From Patna Anirvanji went to Allahabad, 15th to 28th January; then he stayed at Delhi until 6th February. From Delhi he went to Almora and Loharghat in the Himalayas, near Mayavati, for the last time. He stayed there till 12th February and returned to Allahabad where he again stayed for ten days. Anirvanji returned to Kolkata on 23rd February and stayed with us till 29th February, when he left for Shillong by plane up to Gauhati, and from there from bus to Shillong by the first week of March.

3/9/08 When Anirvanji was with us in December 1955, Swami Chinmayananda, a sannyasi sadhu, connected previously with Sri Ramakrishna Math and Mission, who too was introduced to us in December 1954 by our astrologer friend Jitendra Kumar Bhattacharya, came to stay with us. Swami Chinmayananda, after leaving Sri R.K. Math and Mission, also lived in Almora, and knew Anirvanji very well. Though Chinmayananda talked much about Anirvanji, even criticised him for staying with Tapas and Lizelle, Anirvanji never spoke anything for or against him. He always kept silence, the silence which we came to know later as Akasha Bhavna, remaining ever quiet and aloof like the peaceful sky, unperturbed in all circumstances.

Though this was Swami Chinmayananda’s second and last visit to our house in Keyatala Road, in December 1955, it became a difficult problem for us how to accommodate the two Swamijis together. Fortunately for us, the problem was automatically solved as, according to his extrovert nature, Chinmayananda preferred the small front room, while Anirvanji was happy to stay in the inner larger room, like a cave, where Bandhu lived.

As to satsanga, we first sat with Swami Chinmayananda who read the Gita without interpreting it, according to the Bhashya of Shankaracharya following his uncompromising monistic Adventism. After his class was over, we sat with Anirvanji, who during that first visit talked to us on Ishopanishad in his way of synthesis. Anirvanji then spoke in English, as many friends who joined the classes could not understand his Bangla commentary properly. However, from his second visit on in 1957, he talked in his natural beautiful Bangla.

In the afternoon and evening, visitors came to meet both the Swamijis. As there were separate entrances for both the rooms, there was not much difficulty. A greater number of visitors came to meet Anirvanji as he had already become popular in Kolkata, especially in the Aurobindo circle, because of his Bangla translation of “The Life Divine.” Anirvanji had also started lecturing at Sri Aurobindo Path Mandir at their Saturday evening meetings. During the fifties he talked there on “The Life Divine.” and the synthesis of the yoga of Sri Aurobindo.

He himself wrote down the lecture notes, which were published in “Bartika,” a quarterly magazine of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, entitled “Divya Jivana Prasanga” and “Yoga Samanvaya Prasanga,” the best commentaries on Sri Aurobindo’s “Life Divine” and “Synthesis of Yoga.” From 1961 onwards, Sri Anirvan began his talks on “Savitri,” the epic poem of Sri Aurobindo. These continued till the first week of August 1971, when he fell ill and could not continue further. His notes were so extensive that by then he had not finished even the first volume of “Savitri.”

“Savitri” had taken so much hold on him, that whenever he would read “Savitri” for the classes he would go into a trance. One morning, he even fell down during a trance. Fortunately, I saw him slowly slipping down, trying to catch hold of the door, and immediately ran and helped him to the bed. That was on a Saturday morning in January or February 1962.

This first visit of Sri Anirvan to our home at 6H, Keyatala Road was like an elixir to all the three remaining members of the Dharmapal family; Sudha Dharmapal, wife of Bandhu Dharmapal with her two children, myself and Sharad Dharmapal, the only two Dharmapals who had remained with Bandhu Dharmapal out of the ten Dharmapals who had taken vows of a Dharmapal for dedicating their lives for the cause of Dharma, according to the principles, ideas and ideals of Dharma Sangha. Sri Anirvan’s presence strengthened our determination to continue with the work of Dharma Sangha. We were assured of Anirvanji’s help and guidance on our path. He became our Acharya in the Vedic sense.

During this visit in March 1956, Anirvanji’s personal appearance changed. No more did he don the saffron dress of a Sannyasi. He wore a simple white kurta or tunic, a Punjabi lungi or dhoti and a cap, all beautifully ironed. His clothes were washed at home, and I took pride in ironing them every day. Previously, I had always seen him in shabby uncared for dress. He was more particular about his food than his dress. He himself was a good cook, and always cooked his own food, from his young hostel days in Kolkata. He was one of the first users of Icmic cookers. Whenever he remained alone in his Haimavati, he cooked himself; not for himself alone but even for his occasional guests. This continued till he fell ill in August 1971 at Fern Road.

Anirvanji’s next visit to Keyatala Road took place in November 1957. He did not come down to Kolkata in the winter of 1956. We had some correspondence at this time, but unfortunately the letters, though few, are not to be found.

In April 1956, I went on my second visit to Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. The first visit took place in August 1945

with Sharad (then called Shyamu) when we were on our pilgrimage to South India from 5th August to 12th October 1945, visiting Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, most of the important ashrams belonging to Sri Ramakrishna Mission in the South, Sri Ramanna Maharishi Ashram at Tiruvannamalai, the Ashram of Sri Ramdas, a great saint and devotee of Sri Rama, at Kanhangada below Mangalore in Konkan, on the west coast of India.

We can draw a line from Kanhangad to Pondicherry via Tiruvannamalai, from the West coast of India to the East coast through the middle of South India, and we see a great Bhakta, a great “Jnani” and a great Yogi living and guiding thousands of their devotees at the same time. Both of us visited and stayed at all these three places, as well as the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrams in the South, where we had the good fortune to meet some of the stalwarts and great sannyasis of the Ramakrishna Movement of the second generation, such as Swami Kailashananda , Swami Tapasyananda, Swami Chidghanananda and others. We had the Darshan of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother together for the first and last time on 15th August 1945, the Darshan Day. I saw the Mother many more times of course, then and later when I visited the ashram in 1956, 1972, 1989 and 1995.

At Sri Ramanna’s Ashram we stayed for five days, saw Sri Ramanna, sat in the hall when he lectured, but could never talk, nor could we understand his lectures as he used to speak only in the South Indian languages, mostly in Telugu andTamil, his mother tongue, though there may have been a few words in English. Nevertheless, his silence was more

eloquent than his speech. In the presence of Sri Raman, all your questions would just melt away, and you would rise to a state of Jagrat Samadhi, if you are a true jignasu or enquirer.

With Ramadas the case was quite different. He was like a grandfather. You can talk, laugh and sing with him. We could go on evening walks with him, and he was seated as a guru during the prayers. We could sing with him the Rama Dhuna, singing God’s name in chorus, and Bhajans, devotional songs. Oh, those fifteen days with him and Krishnabai, the Mother of the Ashram, were like staying in heaven with God and the Goddess.

5.9.08. During my second visit to Sri Aurobindo’s Ashram, Sri Aurobindo was no more physically, but spiritually he was more visible everywhere, in everything; more pulsating than in 1945, during our first visit to the Ashram. Was it because of the descent of the supermind on Earth in physical consciousness on 29th February 1956? Those who are connected with Sri Aurobindo’s life and Philosophy, aims and ideals, very well know about this spiritual event, that took place at the playground of the Ashram in the evening of 29th February 1956, about which the Mother declared, “what was promised was fulfilled.” It was a matter of great joy for me that the Mother openly proclaimed this event that occurred on 29th February, in a message distributed on the 4th of April 1956. This is the message:

“Lord, Thou hast willed, and I execute:

A new light breaks upon the earth,

A new world is born.

The things that were promised are fulfilled. The day I reached Pondicherry on my second visit to the Ashram was 4th April, which is also the day when Sri Aurobindo arrived at Pondicherry in 1910 for the first time after escaping from the British net spread out for his arrest. Most of the sadhana of Sri Aurobindo after the descent of Krishna consciousness in his physical consciousness on 24th November 1926, after which he closeted himself, giving the charge of the Ashram to the Mother, who made possible the descent of the super mind on the Earth consciousness. That descent spiritually and physically took place, according to the Mother on 29th February 1956.

I stayed at the Ashram for three weeks, from 4th April to 25th April 1956. I stayed then at the Ashram with Prof. Mahadev Agarwal of Gauhati University, Assam in 1953. He was there in the Ashram with his wife Santi, and had rented a house for three months where he could stay during his summer vacation. During this period I had the Darshan of the Mother at least thrice daily; at the balcony Darshan in the morning; at the tennis court next to the sea where Mother used to play tennis daily in the evening with Pranab, her A.D.C. and other senior sadhakas or disciples of the Ashram, and of course at the playground. During this period I had the golden opportunity of meditating in Sri Aurobindo’s room.

On my birthday I received a present in the form of a book, “The Synthesis of Yoga” at the hands of the Mother at the playground on 14th April 1956.

Naturally, I reported all this to Sri Anirvan who had already become our Mentor on the spiritual journey. He was very glad to hear about my pilgrimages, and blessed me. Let me make very clear one characteristic of Sri Anirvan as a teacher. He never thrust himself as a guru upon anybody that came to him, to teach, to expound. He always followed the example of Sri Krishna. After saying whatever he had to say on any issue, like Sri Krishna he would end with “yatha icchasi tatha kuru,” i.e. do as you wish. This was his practice till the end of his life.

Most probably, Anirvanji did not come down to Kolkata in the winter of November 1956 to February 1957. In February 1957, I wrote a short commentary on “The Message of Dharma,” a small pamphlet of about ten pages written almost in the form of Sutra or aphorisms, by Bandhu Dharmapal, about Dharma Sangha, its ideals etc. to be distributed only amongst Dharmapals or would be Dharmapals. Anirvanji almost approved and appreciated with a little correction here and there. The whole commentary and the Pamphlet “Message of Dharma” written by the hand of Bandhu is attached herewith. Though Dharma Sangha as an institution did not grow any further, (perhaps it was not so willed by the Divine), its ideas and ideals have been deeply rooted in our lives, and will live forever in the psychic world.

In March 1957, I went to a short pilgrimage of Gaya and Bodha-Gaya in Bihar. Gautama Buddha has always meant and remained a guiding star in my life, as it was with Swami Vivekananda and Sri Anirvan. It is very difficult to say whom Sri Anirvan preferred more, Sri Krishna or Buddha. I think Sri Anirvan would have chosen Sri Krishna as the guiding star for the nation of India. However, in his own personal life and attitude, sadhana and pursuit of ideals, his leanings were more towards Buddha, with his Akasha Bhavna, stoic silence and isolated life of a Baul.

My first place of Hindu pilgrimage was Gaya, the premier city. Gaya is the place where the Sraddha Ceremony (rituals performed after death) of parents and ancestors (manes) is most beneficial. It is the ancient Puranic place where Lord Vishnu vanquished Gayasura and blessed him, placing His feet on Gayasura’s head. The most famous place there is the Temple of Vishnu with His Lotus Feet (pada padma).

It was here at Gaya that Sri Gauranga (Krishna) Chaitanya was transformed into a Vaishnava, devotee of Hari and Sri Krishna, when he went there for performing the Sraddha Ceremony of his father. Before that he was a pundit, a master of Nyaya philosophy, almost an agnostic, and reveled in criticising the Vaishnavas of Navadvipa, his home town, famous all over India for its schools of Navya Nyaya i.e. neo-logic.

It was here at Gaya that Vijaya Krishna Goswami (a descendant of Advaita Goswami, the teacher and prominent promoter and follower of Chaitanya) turned into a Brahmo teacher under the influence of Debendranath Thakur, father of Sri Rabindranath, who often visited Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar, and at the end returned to the fold of his forefathers i.e. Vaishnava, and himself became a SadGuru. He received his great mantra and its sadhana from a Paramhamsa who descended at the small hill from the sky (taking physical form by his psychic powers), where Vijaya was meditating. Gouri Dharmapal’s parents, her brothers and elder sister also took the same Mantra Diksha from a third generation Guru in the lineage of Vijaya Krishna Goswami.

After visiting the important places in the city of Gaya, I went to Bodhgaya, eight to ten miles from Gaya. It is almost a village with the big temple dedicated to the place where there was a big Fig tree, then a Vata Vriksha, a Banyan tree whose roots grow up into the branches as well as descend, under which Siddharth Gautama received his enlightenment and became Gautama Buddha. Now there is only a big Pippal Tree growing there, another variety of a Fig Tree and a Vajrasana is built under it. The place carved with sixteen lotus steps, where Gautama Buddha did his “chakramana,” walking in meditative mood for seven days after his enlightenment, is also preserved.

In Bodhgaya, I stayed for eight days in a guest house, but spent my days with a Buddhist monk of the Mahabodhi Society, and passed many hours meditating at the place of Buddha’s enlightenment.

Anirvanji very much appreciated my retreat to Bodhgaya and blessed me. Unfortunately the letter cannot be found in my files. A great peace had then descended over me at that time, which I cannot describe in words.

It was much later in 1982 that I had the occasion of learning the famous Vipassana meditation of Buddha, which leads to that wonderful peaceful state.

In June 1957, Sandhya Das, one of the girls who had accepted going to Almora and joining the Shanti Ashram under Lisella Reymond, came over to Kolkata to prepare for her M.A. Examination in Bangla from Calcutta University. In fact, it was because of her and the other girls who had opted for the Shanti Ashram, that Sri Anirvan had decided to transfer his Haimavati to Shillong, to train and mould them and transform them into human Haimavatis. Sandhya was chief amongst them and Anirvan paid much more attention to her. On her part, she was the only girl from them all who remained faithful and completely attached to Anirvanji. So much so, that she is completely absorbed in Sri Anirvan and his words; she played a great part in Anirvanji’s life especially from 1954 to 1964 when Anirvanji shifted his Haimavati to Kolkata.

In fact her marriage with Sri Binoy Lahiri was one of the reasons why Anirvanji came to Kolkata.

All this time between 1954 and 1957, Anirvanji, along with giving spiritual instruction, was tutoring Sandhya for her M.A. examination in Bangla. And therefore he came down to Kolkata rather earlier than before. In between his regular visits to Ranchi, Patna, Allabahad and Delhi, he coached Sandhya. She took her examinations in which she did quite well and passed mainly in First Class.

Whenever Sri Anirvan would be in Kolkata, he would hold regular classes and meetings at Sri Aurobindo Path Mandir, College Street, Kolkata, and Upanishad classes at our residence, 6H, Keyatala Road where he would stay.

The same pattern was maintained in 1958. In 1958, Sandhya had shifted to our house as a guest, so that Anirvanji could teach her until late evening. Sandhya gave her examinations in November 1958. The result? She passed in the Third Division. Reason? The opinions and comments of the teacher were not approved and appreciated by the examiners however brilliantly she might have written. The fates of many good students are thus marred by such inefficient, unworthy examiners.

8/9/08 From Anirvanji’s visit to Kolkata in 1957 till he came down to stay in Kolkata in November 1964, he followed a routine of work in Kolkata.

Sri Anirvan would arise from sleep early in the morning between four to five a.m. After ablutions he would do his morning exercises of Pranayamas and Asanas; write letters or read. From 7.30 to 9.00 A.M. he held classes reading and explaining the Upanishads. He began talking on the Upanishads serially in Bangla, starting with the Isha Upanishad. By August 1st 1971 he had stopped taking classes because of his illness. Commentaries on all the major Upanishads, including Kaushitaki and Svetasvatara Upanishads, were complete.

After permanently coming over to Kolkata, he held his talks at 6H, Keyatala Road or 9/3, Central Park, Jadavpur or 9/2, Fern Road, every Sunday morning from 9 am to 12 noon, three hours at a stretch. From May 1965, he had began his talks on Rig Veda, at the request of Gouri Chowdhury, who had met Anirvanji first in December in 1964 at Keyatala Road, after her return from England where she went to study leave from her Lady Brabourne College, which she later called Barbarnini college, where she was a reader in the Sanskrit Department. And from January 1966, at the request of his niece Narayani Devi, who had translated the Life of Sister Nivedita by Lizelle Reymond into Bangla. Anirvanji added to his classes, his talks on Srimad Bhagavat Purana. Thus from January 1966, his Sunday morning classes extended over three hours at a stretch, he sat almost all the time sitting in one posture, in one particular Asana, and rarely changed his posture or got up leaving the Asana. He had so fully mastered the Asana.

Coming back to his programme till 1965, after the Upanishad class in the morning, after 10 am he would go for a walk at the lake, which was very near our house at Keyatala Road. As he came to Kolkata only during the winter, the weather was always cool and comfortable. After returning from the lake he would take his bath and finish his lunch generally by 12 noon. From 12 to 4 pm he read newspapers, rested and did his personal work. From 4 pm to 5 pm and again from 5 to 7 or 8 pm he generally gave individual interviews. Three days in a week he would go to Sri Aurobindo Path Mandir to give talks on “The Life Divine” or “Synthesis Of Yoga,” and last of all on “Savitri,” the epic poem of Sri Aurobindo. On other days he held open sessions, discussions and answer questions from people who would come to meet him in the evening. He would dine at 8 pm, and then meet the family members for light conversations, and with close devotees who remained at our Keyatala Road house till night. Two three friends even stayed at our house while Sri Anirvan lived there. For us Dharmapals it was a happy time, peaceful and yet full of joy. The time passed happily like festival days.

9/9/08 I would write notes in longhand of the talks on the Upanishads by Sri Anirvan at the Dharma Sabha. I wrote in my Gujarati script as I could not write in the Bangla script. Though I could read and speak Bangla quite fluently, I never practiced writing in Bangla, may be due to lack of diligence, patience. I had to take help of my Bengali friends, whomever

I found nearby, sometimes Bina Das, Narayani Basu or Debi Majumdar and later (in the eighties and nineties) Bratati Mukerjee. As Sandhya was present at the Ishopanishad talks, she had taken notes, but in the Bangla script and Anirvanji could directly use her notes for writing the Isha Upanishad for the Burdwan University. Later Anirvanji used my notes for writing Aitareya and Kena Upanishad. He had started writing Taittiriya Upanishad in 1970 when he was residing at 9/3, Central Park, Jadavpur, but the work was stopped after writing the elaborate introduction, writing in full detail about the sacrifices or yagnas, as Taittiriya Upanishad belonged to Yajur Veda, the Veda especially connected with sacrifices.

Soon after coming to 9/2, Fern Road, he fell ill at the end of 1971, and had to stop all work, teaching and writing, except talking at the interviews and writing letters, being an invalid, confined to bed. Thus there are only Commentaries on three Upanishads - Isha, Aitareya and Kena, written by Anirvanji himself, which were published before he passed away in May 1978.

The remaining commentaries on the Katha, Kaushitaki and Taittiriya Upanishads, were published from my notes first in the “Arya Darpana” monthly magazine published by Assam Bangiya, Saraswat Math, Halisahar, W.B. and then in book form by Burdwan University. Svetasvatara Upanishad is now being published in the “Arya Darpana.” At the time of Mandukya and Prasna Upanishad commentaries, I did not find anybody to help me in writing in the Bangla script, and so I translated my notes myself into English instead. The Mandukya Upanishad commentary is now already published in the “Ribhu,” a biannual magazine published by “Golden Horizon,” a centre for “Sri Aurobindo’s Adventure of Consciousness,” Kolkata 700091, in the 2005-6 issues. The Prasna Upanishad commentary is being published from the February 2007 issue. I hope to get them published soon in book form.

Regarding the Vedas, Anirvanji said that, though he started studying the Vedas while he was in Calcutta University, and wrote articles in the Arya Darpana magazine, the true spirit of the Vedas was revealed to him only at Almora, when he was living face to face with his Haimavati, the snow peaks of the Himalayas! It was during the period of his stay at Almora and Lohaghat with Tapas and Lizelle, when he was translating into Bangla the “Life Divine” of Sri Aurobindo, that he also started his work on the Vedas especially the Rig Veda. He sent his poetic translation in Bangla of the Suktas of the Rig Veda along with his commentary to “Arya Darpana,” but most of them were written down and preserved in big notebooks, especially the translation and commentary of the third book (Mandala) of Rig Veda, of Rishi Visvamitra. He called it the Gayatri Mandala because the famous Gayatri Mantra, which is daily repeated by all the Brahmans of India even today (R.V. 3.62.10), forms part of this book. The notebooks were lying hidden in the cave of his bed all these days and the credit goes to Rama Chowdhury, elder sister of Gouri, to bring them out in the book form in six volumes after nearly twenty years of Anirvanji’s passing away- the last volume having been published in , through her Haimavati Anirvan Trust.

The real credit for getting published “Veda Mimamsa,” Sri Anirvan’s Magnum Opus, goes to Dr. Gobindgopal Mukhopadhyaya. It was he who prompted Dr. Gourinath Sastri, the then Principal of Sanskrit College, Kolkata, in 1958, when he was going to meet Anirvanji at the Haimavati Shillong in Assam, to request him to write something on the Vedas. The result was the publication of the first volume of Veda Mimamsa in 1961, as a part of Calcutta Sanskrit College Research Series; Volume II was published in 1966 and Volume III followed in 1973. Had the printing of Vol. III not taken so long (though the manuscript was given in 1967, work was halted due to the Naxalite movement during that period and other reasons), we would have had a complete version at least of the Devata – prakarana- the elucidation of all the gods of all the three worlds (lokas), the earth (prithivi) the Midregions (antariksha) and the Heavens (dynloka). As it is, even the elucidation of the gods of the antariksha loka is not completed in the third Volume. I will rather put all the blame on the Supreme Divine who does not allow any great man to complete his work his Mission. Divine will? Divine enemy?

Credit must go again to Dr. Gobindagopal Mukerjee for prompting Sri Anirvan to start writing about the Upanishads. It was he who arranged to invite Sri Anirvan to talk on the Upanishads as a part of the Extension lectures at the Burdwan University, where he was the head of the Department of Sanskrit, and later took the whole responsibility of getting them published from the Burdwan University. The first volume of the Upanishad series, the Isha Upanishad, was thus published in 1965, and the second volume, the Aitareya Upanishad, was published in 1969 from the Burdwan University.

The third volume of the Upanishad series, the Kena Upanishad, was first published privately by us in 1969 with the help of the money received from Sri Tejesh Chandra Ghosh of Allahabad, but later published also by the Burdwan University as the third Volume of the Upanishad series in 1984, thanks to Sri Rathin Palit, the then head of the Publication Dept. Of the University and of course the then Vice-Chancellor of the University Sri who personally knew Gouri Dharmapal from their student days. The fourth volume, the Katha Upanishad, was published in 1988, the fifth the Kaushitaki in 1992 and the sixth, the Taittiriya, as late as 2007, nearly thirty years after the passing away of Sri Anirvan. All these three Upanishads were published using manuscripts prepared from my class-notes with the help of different friends.

10/9/08 Apart from the volumes of Veda Mimamsa and six Upanishads, his direct works on the Vedas, another of Anirvanji’s great works was to expound Sri Aurobindo’s Philosophy in Bangla. As mentioned earlier, Anirvanji’s first monumental work was “Divya Jivan,” his translation of Sri Aurobindo’s “Life Divine” during his stay in Almora. Both the volumes were published from Sri Aurobindo Ashram before Sri Aurobindo himself hailed the translation, “as good as the original.” Anirvanji’s expositions of the “Life Divine” and the “Synthesis Of Yoga” were delivered at his lectures at Sri Aurobindo Ashram during the Fifties as “Divya Jivan Prasanga” and “Yoga Samanvaya Prasanga.” Anirvanjis even checked the proofs of the second editions of all these books during his stay at Central Park.

To resume our narrative, it was in June – July 1958 that I went to Shillong to stay at Anirvanji’s Haimavati; the actual house was built in the sprawling compound of Sri Aurobindo Path Mandir. From the window of my room, I could see Anirvanji’s small house, with his personal small garden surrounding it, at a distance of about 15-20 metres. I took my meals with Jasoda Narayana Ghosh, who was in charge of the Shillong Path Mandir then, and not with Sri Anirvan, as the guests did at his Almora or later Narendrapur or Kolkata Haimavati. Apart from eating together, the quiet atmosphere of the program pervaded everywhere, and we would meet only in the evening, that too mostly in silence, occasionally asking questions.

Thus after a month’s quiet retreat I returned to Kolkata. This is what Anirvanji wrote to Sandhya, who was then staying at our house at Keyatala Road. The letter in Bangla is dated -13.7.58.

“Gautam will arrive tomorrow. He passed a month here closeted as if in a cave. Hope he is returning full of inner joy. He is going from one Haimavati to another Haimavati. I did not know that he too is a Mother worshipper. He is blessed by the Mother even before his birth. (in fact my mother’s family members were Mother Worshippers of Goddess Amba or Durga and my father’s family members were Vaishnavas, Krishna worshippers).

I bless him and hope my dream of kumar sambhava, the birth of a son, Kartikeya, for the destruction of demon Tarkasura as a result of meeting of Siva and Parvati, will be fulfilled in him. The nation needs true men. There is a lot of noise outside but tears come to the eyes when I think how people are empty and poor within. In such a situation, hope arises, there is some joy, when I see someone engrossed in deep sadhana…

Saraswati is the longed for “Ishta” Goddess of Bandhu realised in a dream. You must have seen that picture of Saraswati in their place of worship and one united India was a part of his constant meditation…we have to work for the success of the dream of Bandhu. That responsibility is mine as wll as all of you…”

So greatly and deeply Anirvanji had identified himself with Bandhu Dharmapal and Dharma Sangha’s ideas and ideology, though officially, he would not identify himself with any institution; such was his attitude after coming out of his Guru Swami Nigamanandaji’s Ashram in 1930. He remained a free Baul...

Like us, he too considered Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath (whom we kept outside the Trinity of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo, only as a poet of the new age) as the four pillars of resurgent India, of the new Age. Let me quote here a beautiful passage from one of his diaries…

He writes on 7th January 1963 from our Keyatala Road house…

”Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Rabindranath, Aurobindo………they are like the great suns shining in the sky of the same age . Not only of Bangla (Banga) or even of India, the Bharat-varsha, they are the great suns Mahasurya enlightening the whole Earth “Prithivi.” Ramakrishna in my childhood, Vivekananda in my adolescence, Rabindranath in my youth and Aurobindo in the end of my life, the unbounded splendour and strength and grace of these four great lights have always inspired and brightened my self- confidence.

I have never been able to keep them at a distance, and worship them as Gods. “Thakur” Ramakrishna, I considered a constant playmate of my eternal childhood, Vivekananda, always a friend (dosara) of my eternal adolescence and Aurobindo my “Bandhu” a friend and a brother of all my lives. And Robindranath? He is my mother. Such close affinity of all my nerves I have with none other. I have not seen Ramakrishna and Vivekananda with my (physical) eyes. They had left this world before my eyes opened. (In fact Sri Ramakrishna passed away in 1886 before A was born , but Swami Vivekananda passed away in 1902 when he was six years old and could have seen him physically, if he had been nearby.

His Guru Swami Nigamananda born in 1880 had seen Sri Ramakrishna physically as he was taken to Sri R.K. by his father to Dakshineswar, and Sri R.K. had blessed the young child). Though there was a possibility, I never saw Aurobindo physically. That was because of my nature. I could not go to anybody for the sake of just having Darshan. What happens naturally I consider that to be the real truth: I think it is hypocrisy to go against one’s nature and make things happen……..( then he continues to narrate how he had seen Robindranath several times but did not go close to him etc.)

Anirvanji came down to Kolkata again in October 1958. This time he came a bit earlier as he wished to prepare Sandhya for her M.A. examinations. Sandhya had already shifted to our Keyatala Road house from her hostel by May-June 1958.

He taught Sandhya for many hours in the morning, afternoon and even till late in the evening for nearly one month, as if it was his main purpose in life.

After Sandhya’s examination was over, Anirvanji took her with him on his regular visits to Allahabad, Delhi etc. They returned to Kolkata at the end of January 1959; He had talks in the morning at Keyatala Road and lectures at Sri Aurobindo-Path Mandir thrice a week in the evening during February 59. He left for Shillong with Sandhya in the first

week of March 59.

12/9/08 One would wonder why Sri Anirvan gave so much time to Sandhya? Many eyebrows were lifted, envying her and asking questions. The answer to this query lies in the story of his life, in the dreams and visions of Sri Anirvan, in his mission of life; how the Supreme Divine guided and moulded him. Every person, small or great, is the portion of the Supreme Divine, expressing, manifesting and developing in the manifest world a particular aspect of the Divine. Slowly and steadily, Sri Anirvan was prepared by the Divine for expounding and dissimilating the sacred knowledge of the Vedas. His association and work in expounding Sri Aurobindo’s writings was part and parcel of the same vision and mission.

But there was another sacred and secret vision and mission of Sri Anirvan’s life which was very near to his heart, and that was to search for Uma Haimavati, his Ishta, whose vision had beckoned to him from his boyhood. He would seek her out in the physical human form as he wished to be like Shiva. If he could not meet his Uma Haimavati directly he would try his best to give shape to his ideal whenever he saw the possibility.

Like Napoleon, he also believed that the hand that rocks the cradle shall rule the world, that the future and greatness of the nation lies in the betterment of women. That was the main reason in establishing the Shanti Ashram in Almora with Lizelle Reymond as its Mother. The name “Shanti” was selected intentionally by Sri Anirvan. “Shanti Devi” was the name of Anirvanji’s “bhiksha mata,” the mother from whom he begged food for the first time when he took “Sannyas” (monk’s vow) from his Guru. Shantidevi herself had taken Sannyas from Swami Nigamanandaji, and was a highly developed Sannyasini. Anirvanji paid her great respect, and considered her like Gargi of Brihadaramka Upanishad.

When the idea of Shanti Ashram did not materialise, Anirvanji went to Shillong where, among the visitors to the ashram, he found some young girls in whom there was the possibility of growing into Gargis and Maitreyis, into his ideal of Uma Haimavati. Sandhya was one of the girls who remained with him, under his direct training for a much longer time than any other person. Even now she is working for him.

We find a vivid picture of this phase of the life of Sri Anirvan in his diary “Vichitra” published by Haimavati Ashram Trust in 1993; and also in the short biography of Sri Anirvan by Dr. Govinda Gopal Mukerjee in his book ‘Mahajana Samvada.”

END OFPART ONE

"MY LIFE WITH SRI ANIRVAN" BY SRI GOUTAM DHARMAPAL, continued

It was here at Gaya that Vijaya Krishna Goswami (a descendent of Advaita Goswami, the teacher and prominent promoter and follower of Chaitanya turned into a Brahmo teacher under the influence of Debendranath Thakur, father of Sri Rabindranath, who often visited Sri.Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar, and at the end returned to the fold of his forefathers i.e. Vaishnava, and himself became a SadGuru, received his great mantra and its sadhna from a Paramhamsa who descended at the small hill from the sky (taking physical form by his psychic powers), where Vijaya was mediating. Gouri Dharmapal’s parents and other members of the family, brothers and elder sister also took the same Mantra Diksha from a third generation Guru in the line of Vijaya Krishna Goswami.

After visiting the important places in the city of Gaya, I went to Bodh-Gaya, 8 to 10 miles from Gaya. It is almost a village with the big temple dedicated to the place where there was a big Fig tree, then a Vata Vriksha, a Banyan tree whose roots go up into the branches as well as descent – under which Siddharth Gautama received his enlightenment and became Gautama Buddha. Now there is only a big Pippal Tree growing there, another variety of a Fig Tree and a Vajrasana is built under it. The place where Gautama Buddha did his “chakramana,” walking in meditative mood for seven days after his enlightenment, is also preserved with sixteen lotus steps carved on it.

In Bodh-Gaya, I stayed for eight days in a guest house but spent my days with a Buddhist monk of the Mahabodhi Society and passed many hours mediating at the place of Buddha’s enlightenment.

Anirvanji very much appreciated my retreat to Bodh-Gaya and blessed me. Unfortunately the letter cannot be found in my files. A great peace had then descended over me at that time, which I cannot describe in words.

It was much later in 1982 that I had the occasion of learning the famous Vipassana meditation of Buddha, which leads to that wonderful peaceful state.

In June 1957, Sandhya Das, one of the girls who had accepted to go to Almora and join the Shanti Ashram under Lizella Reymond, came over to Kolkata to prepare for her M.A. Examination in Bangla from Calcutta University. In fact it was because of her and the other girls who had opted for the Shanti Ashram, that Sri Anirvan had decided to transfer his Haimavati to Shillong, to train and mould them and transform them into human Haimavatis. Sandhya was chief amongst them and Anirvan paid much more attention to her. On her part, she was the only girl from them all who remained faithful and completely attached to Anirvanji. So much so, that she is completely absorbed in Sri Anirvan and his words; she played a great part in Anirvanji’s life especially from 1954 to 1964 when Anirvanji shifted his Haimavati to Kolkata. In fact her marriage with Sri Binoy Lahiri was one of the reasons why Anirvanji came to Kolkata.

The same pattern was maintained in 1958. In 1958, Sandhya had shifted to our house as a guest, so that Anirvanji could teach her until night. Sandhya gave her examinations in November 1958. The result? She passed in Third Division? Reason? Opinions and comments of the teacher were not approved and appreciated by the examiners. However brilliantly she might have written. The fate of many good students are thus marred by such inefficient, unworthy examiners.

8/9/08 From Anirvanji’s visit to Kolkata in 1957 till he came down to stay in Kolkata in November 1964, the following was his daily routine in Kolkata.

Generally he would arise from sleep early in the morning between four to five a.m. After ablutions he would do his morning exercises of Pranayamas and Asanas; write letters or read. From 7.30 to 9.00 A.M. he held classes reading and explaining the Upanishads. How he started talking on the Upanishads serially in Bangla, starting with the Isha Upanishad. By August 1st 1971 he had stopped taking classes because of his illness, he had completed commentaries on all the major Upanishads, including Kaushitaki and Svetasvatara Upanishads.

And from January 1966, at the request of his niece Narayani Devi, who had translated the Life of Sister Nivedita by Lizelle Reymond into Bangla. Anirvanji added to his classes, his talks on Srimad Bhagavat Purana. Thus from January 1966, his Sunday morning classes extended over three hours at a stretch, he sat almost all the time sitting in one posture, in one particular Asana, and rarely changed his posture or got up leaving the Asana. He had so fully mastered the Asana.

9/9/08 I used to talk long hand notes of the talks on the Upanishads by Sri Anirvan at the Dharma Sabha, I wrote in my Gujarati script as I could not write in the Bangla script. Though I could read and speak Bangla quite fluently, I never practiced writing in Bangla, may be lack of diligence, patience. I had to take help of my Bengali friends whomever I found nearby, sometimes Bina Das, Narayani Basu or Debi Majumdar and later in the eighties and nineties Bratati Mukerjee. As Sandhya was present at the Ishopanishad talks, she had taken notes, but in Bangla, and Anirvanji could directly use her notes for writing the Isha Upanishad for the Burdwan University. Later Anirvanji used my notes for writing Aitariya and Kena Upanishad. He had started writing Taittriya Upanishad in 1970 when he was residing at 9/3, Central Park, Jadavpur, but the work was stopped after writing the elaborate introduction, writing in full detail about the sacrifices or yagnas, as Taittiriya Upanishad belonged to Yajur Veda, the Veda especially connected with sacrifices.

Thus after a month’s quiet retreat I returned to Kolkata. This is what Anirvanji wrote to Sandhya, who was then staying at our house at Keyatala Road. The letter in Bangla is dated -13.7.58.

He writes on 7th January 1963 from our Keyatala Road house…

He taught Sandhya for many hours in the morning, afternoon and even till late in the evening for nearly one month, as if it was his main purpose in life.

"MY LIFE WITH SRI ANIRVAN" BY SRI GOUTAM DHARMAPAL, PART TWO

13/9/08 Anirvanji did not come down from Shillong to Kolkata in the winter of 1959. The whole of 1959-1960, he was extremely busy writing the manuscript for his Veda- Mimamsa. Dr Gourinath Sastri, principal of Sanskrit College at Kolkata, had requested him in 1958 to write something on the Vedas for their Sanskrit College Research Series.

Since 1959, after my visit to Shillong-Haimavati in 1958, I planned to go to Almora-Haimavati for a spiritual retreat, which actually took place in July-August 1960. On 14.6.59 Anirvanji wrote to me from Shillong Haimavati…

“My dear Gautam,

Your letter of the 5th reached here last Monday. The rains have earnestly set in. It is raining almost incessantly since yesterday.

I hope the week of sickness is definitely over in your house and now you are planning weeks of health. I am glad that you are improving. Mother always presents us with a riddle to solve. Good, bad and indifferent things will be coming to you and you have simply to go beyond them. You die to live that is the only solution to the riddle.

Almora is quite nice during the rains. It is pleasantly cool there and it does not rain so heavily of continuously as in Shillong. You may very well go there in July or August.

Is Mono (another girl from Shillong who stayed with us for some time after Sandhya left) still with you or has she gone to Navadwip?

Is her friend ( I think it is Chameli) still in Calcutta? If she is still there and if you can contact her, can you send with her a “Janata” Kerosene store for me by Burmah Oil Company? It cost Rs. 7.50 but here they charge Rs. 12.02.14. I shall pay later on.

My best wishes and love for you all…….Please remember me to Sharad also…

ever yours,

A.”

This is the first letter of Anirvanji in my file. As it was difficult for me to read his Bangla handwriting, Anirvanji used to write to me in English. I ,too, as I could not write in the Bangla script, wrote to him in English. But I did not keep the copies of my letters to him and he did not return it to us unless it was necessary.

“Om Haimavati.

23.8.59.

My dear Gautam,

Your letter of the 13th. Mr. Das of Allahabad is seriously ill. It is a long protracted illness which is slowly sapping away his strength. I might go down in winter to see him and stay with him for a few days. On my way to Allahabad I might stay in Kolkata for a few days. But please keep this strictly confidential. I shall not make any decision before January.

Conferences achieve very little, that is true. I too have not much faith in them. But I have a great faith in the good will of the conveners of these conferences. It is Her Light. This is the “subha buddhi”- (written in Bangla- meaning “good will”) spoken of in the Shruti. The last Sukta of Rig Veda too breathes this same idea. Let us join forces with this…. And work silently in full support (?) with those who work……..noise will attract a big crowd? They will come and hear and then conveniently forget…..let then, who cares…….work without seeking fruits of (?) the work….

I hope you are all well. With love for you all.

Ever yours.

A.”

During this period, there were anti Bengali riots in all parts of Assam, Bangla Kheda - driving away the Bengalis - as they said in Assamese. I had seen the same thing, the same spirit among the Assamese people, when I was staying in Assam during 1950-53 for my relief and business work. I had written a long letter to Anirvanji requesting him to come over to Kolkata. To this letter of mine A replied-

“Om Haimavati

13.9.59.

My dear Gautam,

I was glad to have your long letter. The disturbances have quieted down by this time. The outcome is, people have been alerted. There appears a change of tone in Nehru’s voice. Some of his recent utterances appears to be inspired not by his ego but some higher power.

We are all instruments in Her Hand. To realise this gives a poise and a dignity to all our doings and thoughts.

I feel we are before a great Dawn. I am not thinking of India only but the whole human race. Those who have dedicated themselves to Her should now be vigilant and wait for orders.

Sandhya is alright. She had been dead tired, and is now almost her old self again. She says she has written to you.

My love and best wishes for you all.

Everyone’s A.

P.S. – Mono might come to Shillong during the Poojas, if so, I would like her to bring a few things from Calcutta! The Janata stove is one thing. I shall inform you when I am definite she is coming.”

In 1959, I was suffering from low-blood-pressure and was undergoing a course of Naturopathy under one Sri Ananta Sastri who had come from Bangalore and joined us in our business. And then I had started adding eggs to my diet, one or two, with a tablespoon of Brandy. Until now I had been a vegetarian as Anirvanji was, so he writes on 3.1.60 from

Shillong,

“My dear Gautam,

I am glad to hear that eggs and brandy are doing you good! They are making you a full fledged Tantrik! In Bengal Mother has invariably a partiality for the Tantriks. You are surely going to win this time!

I think Bani* should go back to her parents. What is the use of dragging an existence which does not help her in any way?

Sandhya caught a chill and was bed ridden for a few days. She is still very weak, perhaps she is going down to the plains this week.

Love – special brand – for New Year- impartially for all of you!

Ever yours…

A.”

*Bani: Bani Majumdar later Bani Ghosh – A girl from Shillong who had left her parents, come down to Kolkata, and was then living with us. I knew her when I had gone to Shillong Haimavati in 1958 and was staying in Sri Aurobindo Path Mandir. Sri Jasoda Narayan Ghosh, who was a friend of Dilip Kumar Roy and stayed at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry for some time, was then in charge of the Sri Aurobindo Path Mandir. She had come in contact with Anirvanji too. A had even given her a new name “Aparajita,” name of a flower as well as the Goddess Durga, meaning one who is unconquered, invincible. Jasoda Babu too had come down to Kolkata and was staying at Bani’s house. Later they got married, myself being one of the witnesses signing on their marriage certificate! Bani had an adventurous life, though sad but always remained invincible in spirit! They had a son, named Divyajyoti or Divine light as he was born on 24th November, the Siddhi day of Sri Aurobindo! Jasoda Babu passed away in 1965, when A had already come down to Kolkata. Last I heard about Bani, she was living with her son who is a businessman in Bangalore.

The next letter I received from Sri Anirvan is dated 24.1.60. I had gone to Nagpur in January 1960 to attend a general session of Jana Sangha, a former

nomenclature of present Bharatiya Janata Party with which I was keeping in close contact, as I was then working for the cause of United India. We had formed the Unity Party of India, the inspiration then coming mainly from Sri Anil Baran Roy of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. Even since I returned from my visit to Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1956, Anil Baran Roy was writing me letters about their problem of the partition of India in 1947 at the time of Independence. Sri Aurobindo had forecast in his message to the nation that “this partition of India will and must go” and the Mother of the Ashram had also said to a correspondent Sri Chamanlal after the passing away of Sri Aurobindo that, “ Sri Aurobindo had said to me that the partition will go within ten days!” All this had inspired me to return to politics and work for the cause of annulling the Partition. Till 1962, I worked for the Unity Party but nothing materialised.

“Om Haimavati.

24.1.66.

My dear Gautam,

I hope you are back from Nagpur by now. Where and how is Mono? I had not heard from her from two weeks. Had she been able to secure a job?

Inwardisation gives you a vision and that vision creates a mood, or a temperament . it is then best to hold on to that mood, because, while thought is discursive emotion is more or less stable. It is better to Feel Reality than to think about it.

Gradually the spiritual feeling gets the upper hand and draws in the thoughts also towards reality. Then even in your normal functioning, you can remain happily and luminously in Truth.

With love to all of you,

Ever yours..

*Enclosed herewith my small pamphlet “What after Bangladesh?” published in January 1972- to give a full idea about the matter.”

16/9/08 After coming over to Kolkata at the end of 1945, to work for Dharma Sangha, for the first two years the Dharmapals depended on the donations received from friends and sympathisers. Soon a financial crisis arose. As we believed in full life and had not taken to Sannyas renouncing life and becoming monks, we decided to earn our bread.

We started business activities first in the name of “Dharmapal Brothers,” later “Apurva and Company.” At this period of time, i.e. after the passing away of Bandhu Dharmapal, we had opened a business office in the name of “Aparna Traders” at 3, Bentinck Street in the business area. In the beginning of 1960, we were thinking of establishing a private limited company in the name of “Lotus India Private Ltd.,” profits from which would be used for donations to Saints, religious institutions etc. Replying to my letter of 13 January 1960, Anirvanji wrote to me the following.

“OM Shillong

17.1.60.

My dear Gautam,

Your letter of the 13th Jasoda Babu had already written to me about the starting of the new enterprise asking for my good wishes. I had immediately sent a packet containing the very best. Now I see the inauguration day has been postponed! Never mind I am sending another packet in addition. May the Lotus bloom in the full sunlight of the Divine

Grace.

To lose all zest for work is not bad. It is rather good if you still go on working full speed. Then you see the fun of the whole thing. The sun rises and sets at such a slow pace, it seems as not to move at all. And yet it is shining all the timeshines indifferently over our lives and hates (?) peace and war, good and evil. It is alone and It fills the whole world with its light- and does not care.

Remember that Shloka of the Ishopanishad –“I want to see the most benign form of yours! That Purusha yonder there, He am I, He am I!

Madam Reymond has come to India, with her tourist party. She is now in South India, will be in Delhi on 8th February, then to Shillong and from here to Calcutta; perhaps on the 18th she intends to see you there.

“Nivedita” is going to be filmed by Sri Ajit Bose.

Please give my best wishes to Ramswarupji and Sufiji. The Memory of the Delhi days are still green.

With love for you all, with a special brand for Sharad.

Ever yours…….

A”

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