21. Mental Tension
22. Ex-Serviceman’s Plot
23. Water Diviner
24. Luck
25. Token Offering
It was 10 o’clock in the morning. A friend of
mine who was an officer in an erstwhile British-owned company walked into my house. He was
in a kind of despair. He announced with suppressed fear that his boss had come and wanted
to meet me. A minute later the boss came in. The boss was in a curious state of mind and
his manners were odd. He was polite, deferential, interested, curious but also felt
strange about something which I could not guess. My friend would not even sit down. He was
virtually trembling and was taking notes of our talk. The boss asked me about the farms,
about my job and then suddenly exclaimed that he had heard I was a regular visitor to the
Ashram, as if it was a strange act or a mortal sin. In fact, the general population had no
idea of what the Ashram was about. In the next breath he said he had been visiting the
Ashram rest houses and found that there was peace in those places. He commented, as if to
himself, that if there was peace in the guest houses, there should be much more in the
Ashram itself. I felt he was incoherent and appeared under stress, being disturbed deep
down. As if to echo my thought, he said he had some kind of lack of balance and his visits
to the Ashram guest house had a soothing touch. He asked me why I was going to the Ashram,
whether I had any imbalance, and what I felt about the place. He was asking the questions
for the sake of asking and expected no reply. I noticed a strange pain had descended on my
head and was spreading all over. Soon the pain lodged itself in my neck and became
excruciating. After an initial spell of an odd exhibition of behaviour, suddenly he calmed
down, found himself restored to the personality of the top business executive he was,
relaxed and waited for me to say something. Surely, the man was a high-strung difficult
case of deep disturbance which had lodged in him decades ago. The case was intricate, the
acquaintance was fresh, the man was in no great mood to listen and understand, but
something in him was attracted to the peace in the Ashram and was interested. My poor
friend, who was himself a high officer, was a spectacle of sorrow at once terrified to be
in the company of his chief executive and happy he was introducing his boss to me. I spoke
briefly that Mother was peace, joy, love and sweetness. Her Presence was felt in every
part of the Ashram and physically all over Pondicherry. Sri Aurobindo’s Samadhi,
I said, was a place for realisation. The man listened intently. When I finished, he took
leave of me. He went up to his jeep and came back inside the house again. He requested
that I might call on him at his factory, if ever I visited his town. The pain in my neck
intensified and rolled into a knot, shooting shock vibrations from there for almost an
hour. My pain directly reflected the intensity of this man’s years of suffering, from
what I had no idea.
From then on, he began to meet me off and on.
Gradually he told me the background of his particular complaint. He was directly under the
Chief Executive of a multi-crore factory with a history of a hundred years. The
factory gave him a high salary, a spacious bungalow, unlimited authority and almost all
types of perquisites. Thirty years earlier his father had held the same post and in the
previous generation his grandfather had also held that post. Over the generations they had
acquired a vast landed property and accumulated wealth of every desirable description
prevalent in rural areas. The family was very orthodox and was scrupulously religious. In
that part of the district the family was a kind of legend and known for their traditional
piety, philanthropy, interest in modern civilisation and high administrative position.
Early in life this man had taken with zest to all the religious rituals connected with the
tradition. There were many around who spoke highly of each type of pranayanam, japa,
puja, etc. He was introduced to the religious scriptures, particularly the Vedas
and some powerful portions of it. Unfortunately, this poor man accepted all of this,
little understanding the high significance of these scriptures and the equally high
importance of taking to them through the right Guru or right traditional method. He avidly
gathered all of them in a somewhat undigested fashion and began to follow them with
meticulous care. He was still augmenting this ‘wealth’ of anushtanam.
When he became somewhat close to me, he disclosed that
in spite of being a kind of favourite child of fortune, he had one serious problem. His
mind was under a terrible tension, a devilish fury all the time. He was happily married
and had a child. Materially he was affluent; socially he was in the highest bracket;
officially, he was respected as an efficient, honest, dynamic executive. There was no
known reason for any lack of satisfaction, much less any grievance. Still, he confided, he
was under a great inner conflict. He knew no rest or respite. Though everyone knew him to
be polite, he explained that he felt like throwing the chairs at others. He felt that his
whole nervous system was on fire, but he managed to maintain a quiet front. This effort
aggravated the situation even more. Occasionally he said he used to lose his temper
powerfully with his subordinates for no fault of theirs. He would soon regret it, call and
make up with them. His envy was for any man who could sleep soundly. Peace of mind was
something unknown to him. He was jealous of anyone who had a quiet bearing.
It was clear he was looking for relief and was willing
to receive it from any quarter. This was a fertile situation for favour-seekers as well as
genuine well-wishers. He religiously followed the instructions given by orthodox priests,
donated liberally to temples of family deities, celebrated festivals in famous temples.
The whole district was combed out in this relief-operation and a good part of the state
was covered. There was a peculiar inevitable result each time. His inner tension
increased.
He disclosed that the very first time he had felt any
touch of peace was at an Ashram guest house. His perception was true in his nerves and was
a real experience, but his extreme orthodoxy stood in the way. He was undecided. Surely
this was not an individual to whom anyone can offer advice, even if it is apparently
sought for. In a vein of detachment, he said he was prepared to resign, settle down to
work on a farm or offer his services to an institution, if only it would bring peace to
his turbulent soul. He asked me whether he could join Sri Aurobindo Ashram and whether it
would administer a permanent relief. I explained that it was uncalled for, too great a
step to seek so small a relief. He was intrigued to see that I considered his suffering
too small. I explained that it was too small a problem considering the great spiritual
power coming from Mother in the Darshan. Anyway, he felt, his condition was less
intolerable than before. With that amount of positive response, I ventured to mention he
could attend one of Mother’s public Darshans. He agreed and did so. He felt a
substantial relief. Now he could consider the possibility of seeking Her Darshan
privately. On his suggestion I arranged for it, though it was not a pleasant idea to
introduce a mentally distracted individual to Mother. I explained the great stress the man
was under and that he desired some relief. Mother was amused and agreed.
A month later, we met. He was sorry he had not told me
what happened with Mother. It was a meeting of a split second. As he entered Her room, She
turned around and looked at him for a second. The devilish tension that had haunted him
for decades dissolved and disappeared. Mother’s look was too powerful for him to bear
anymore. He left the room as if new-born into peace and calm.
He was an only child who had inherited some lands and
a house and had settled as a graduate teacher in his native place. He had more than one
ambition, but was not a dynamic man. As he was comfortably settled, though not on a grand
scale, he never ventured to try anything new. His one real hope was an acre and a half of
lands suitable for conversion into plots. In the mid 50’s the craze for plots was
unknown. It was a time when not even one of the present score of colonies in that town had
sprung up. As this piece of land was on the fringe of a main road of the town and was
facing the most important office complex there, he was pinning his hope on its conversion
into plots. He aimed at a sum of Rs.17,000, which was very high at the time for that town.
One day he came with a face charged with depression
and dismay. It did not take long for him to disclose the source of his depression. One of
his friends employed in the office opposite to his plot had called on him and narrated an
important development. The staff members of that office had been feeling the need for a
housing colony. Some arrangements were made and all the members had agreed on the idea of
founding a housing society. They approached the government for sanction of housing loans
to the members. Many successive collectors had not evinced any enthusiasm for such a
proposal. Therefore, no such proposal had taken shape till then. The Collector at that
time offered all encouragement to the idea and asked the representatives of the staff
society to arrange for a plot. This spurred the office staff and they again approached the
Collector with the idea of acquiring the 1½ acres of land just opposite to their office.
The Collector readily approved of the idea and agreed to pass orders to acquire the area.
The plot had been surveyed, the value fixed, the necessary formalities were being gone
through. After elaborate revenue calculations, the compensation was fixed as Rs.2,000 for
the entire land according to the prevailing rules. It is at this stage that the owner of
the plot got the news. His disappointment and despair were understandable, as the proposal
had taken shape and the Collector was personally enthusiastic about the idea. In a matter
of a month or two the plot might be taken away and the owner informed and compensated. The
one hope of making some money was now slipping away. Being a young man and not placed in a
position to move higher-ups to stall the move to acquire the land, he was steeped in
gloom. The problem was real to him and the authority he had to face was formidable for his
social position. His one lingering hope was to bring some benevolent influence on the
Collector and request him to change to another plot. The advantageous position of his plot
for the staff of that office was a difficult point to argue against. He mustered courage
after some time and started talking to me. The very first question he asked me was whether
I knew anyone whose word would weigh with the Collector. Having said this, he gave the
above details.
I had a totally different view of the situation. I
refrained from answering him but asked him a counter question. My question was how that
property had been originally acquired by his family. He asked whether it was possible to
save the situation and avert the acquisition. I knew that this man had visited the Ashram
and had the Darshan of the Mother a little while earlier, not so much impelled by
devotion as to oblige an elderly relative’s invitation. My view was that no wrong
would come to a person who had seen Mother. As he was not a devotee in any sense of the
word, if I explained my thought to him, he would only be irritated. I simply said that
this property would never be lost, if only he could assure me that it was acquired
originally by fair means. He took great pains to give me the details of its original
purchase by his father some twenty years earlier. It was done with hard earned money. He
was eager to get some right word from someone and obliged me with every possible
information. I explained that if only he could give the history of the plot couched in the
history of his family, certainly a way out would emerge. He started, “My father was a
doctor who joined the active service.” I
got my clue and asked him to stop any further narration. As an ex-service man’s
family, they would normally enjoy a special treatment at the hands of the government. I
suggested that he move the ex-serviceman’s organisation. He in turn entrusted me with
the task of drafting an application to their head office in Delhi.
On the seventh day he came to me with a broad smile.
He said that on receiving his application the Delhi office telegraphically instructed the
District Ex-Serviceman’s Association to approach the Collector to drop the move of
acquiring his plot. A man from that office called on him that morning and assured him that
no one on earth would lay a finger on his property. The Collector (who was President of
the District Ex-Serviceman’s Association) was also telegraphically requested by Delhi
to drop the proposal. A few years later, the plot was sold for Rs.47,000.
He is a tall majestic figure with white hair, grey
with age, and he is clad in sparkling white clothes. A man of austere habits and deeply
versed in Tamil spiritual literature, he is a bachelor whose face shines with energy and
purity. He speaks forcefully as per the tradition of scholars in Saivism and Tamil.
He migrated from his native district into our town and settled down to a single life. At a
young age, having come under the influence of a realised soul of his place, he shunned
family life and the search for material rewards in life. Early in life someone explained
to him, perhaps his Guru, that he had the rare endowment of water-divining.
As I was in farming in those days, he was introduced
to me as a water diviner. On enquiry in my town where he had lived for 30 years, I
realised he was an able water diviner. It was said that no place which he had spotted had
failed to disclose a water stream underground. I myself availed of his services for about
a dozen wells. Every point he chose proved to have copious water springs underneath. For
one of the biggest borewells in South India for agriculture 600 feet deep, he successfully
chose the spot.
One day he came to me saying that someone from
Auroville had called on him in his absence. He requested me to contact that Aurovilian on
his behalf. Auroville is a desert of parched red soil in South Arcot District. He wanted
to offer some service to this International city. He was taken there and he located 18
spots suitable for digging wells. All the tubewells that are now working in Auroville are
in the spots he had chosen. Mother was pleased by this gesture of service by someone who
was not even her devotee. Being a traditional Saivite, he looked on these modern
versions of religion (like the Ashram) with a scornful eye instead of veneration.
As we now were relating to each other on water
divining, we had more opportunities to meet. He is an elderly, respectable man, immaculate
in appearance and spotless in character. As I am far younger to him, discussions with him
meant that I would listen in silence and in reverence. Difference of opinion or dissent
was not part of our relationship. That being the case, the topics of Mother, Sri Aurobindo
or the Ashram were respectfully kept out of our conversations.
One day he asked me somewhat curiously what secret was
there in The Mother and added that each time he visited the Ashram and returned home,
there was an order waiting for him in the room. I became interested, but was not bold
enough to offer any explanation of the fact that Mother was the source of all prosperity
and his generous service to Mother had begun to show results in his life. On his
insistence I began to give information in little bits with much hesitation. After some
time, he began to evince more interest in Mother and asked me whether he could have a Darshan
of Mother. Mother was then over 80 and She had stopped leaving her room, receiving only
very few people for blessings. In special cases of aspiration, She might agree to receive
the person on his birthday. I was delighted at his proposal and I knew Mother would be
glad to bless him in view of his pure life and the service he had volunteered. Mother
agreed to bless him and receive him on his birthday. I had the good fortune to accompany
him to Her. The day before that he came to my house and asked me if there were any
formalities or procedures to be fulfilled in going to Mother. His age, his forceful
personality, his strong adherence to tradition, my deferential relationship with
him—all permitted me to explain nothing. I spoke to him about these matters in
monosyllables. Now I quoted the tradition that in meeting great souls we should carry an
offering of flowers or fruits. He wanted to know the details. I hastened to add that I had
already arranged for a bouquet of flowers from the flower service for him to offer to
Mother. He wanted to know if there was anything more. After hesitating, again I quoted the
tradition that one may make a token cash offering, if he chose, and added that those who
sought blessings for the soul carried flowers and those who sought prosperity from Mother
often made a cash offering. He expressed his emphatic personality and declared, “No
cash offering is necessary, blessings alone are needed for my continued service.” My mouth was shut forever on this topic with him.
We both went to Mother. She received us with her
gracious Smile. He was introduced as the water diviner who had visited Auroville. She
blessed us both. We made our pranams and offered
the flower bouquets. She gave him a lovely bouquet of flowers and a birthday card and
smiled on him. He was touched. Coming out, he exclaimed, “No doubt, Divinity. Mother
is great.”
For at least six months I could not meet him. Each
time I sought him, his room was locked. I didn’t know what had happened. The man was
totally missing. Finally, he made his appearance, looking tired but happy. He explained
how he had been travelling all over the state water divining, as he had been approved by
the government as a water diviner. There was something lingering in his mind which he was
holding back. Before he left me, he said that in one year he had done as much water
divining work as he had done in all his long life. There was something more unexpressed.
After much hesitation and beating about the bush, he explained that a great deal of work
had come to him, but no money. In one case the government procedure held up payment, in
another case some error in the cheque delayed payment, while in certain cases he offered
to receive payment when the water was struck, but the farmers did not dig the wells, and
so on and so forth. I mustered courage and recalled to him his emphatic statement that he
needed only blessings for service and no cash offering was necessary.
Mother says She fulfills the highest aspiration of
anyone who meets her, even though the individual never voices it as a prayer. And many
devotees have vouchsafed to that fact. Here in this case, the water diviner declared
emphatically that he needed only service. And he seemed to have received it in copious
measure from all over the state. He sat lost in thought and asked what would happen if he
now changed his mind and made a token cash offering. I said it would certainly do him
good. Soon he brought me an offering to be given to Mother. I was struck by his generous
gesture again. Mother received it with a lovely smile.
Again for several months he was missing. This time as
I was lost in a huge pile of work I had almost forgotten him. One day in the midst of
heavy work, when there were a dozen guests intending to go to the Ashram, Mr. Mudaliar
made his benevolent appearance. I was anxious to know why he had been missing and how his
affairs stood. I put aside all work and sat with him. He said he had left for his native
place in the neighbouring district, bought a piece of land and a small house, installed a
borewell for the land, and arranged for cultivation. Now he had come back to vacate his
place here so that he might permanently go back to his place. With a smile he explained
that all the money came to him after had made the offering and that money helped him
settle down in his old age.
When I went to the shop where I generally buy my
stationery, the owner of the shop asked me if I could suggest the name of a good hostel
where he could put his ten year old son. He said his son was dull and might not complete SSLC.
I did not approve of a parent putting his child in a hostel, while he himself lived in the
same town. He said, “I have worked hard all my life and earned enough. Of the three
children, he is the only son but he is always playful. He never thinks of studying. Though
I am not educated, I wish my son to complete SSLC.” I wanted to meet the child before deciding on the
issue. When I saw the boy, he looked brisk, bright, fairly intelligent. Only that he paid
little attention to studies. I advised the parent suitably and assured him that his son
would certainly take a degree. The father was pleased. The subsequent improvement in the
boy’s education made us good friends.
He lived in that part of the town which is surrounded
by very fertile paddy lands. To own some lands in that stretch was a matter of prestige.
When anyone here first acquired some wealth, they would buy a few acres of land in that
area. Lands were irrigated from the river. Water supply was copious and unfailing during
the years of good monsoon. Even during the years of monsoon failure, these lands would
unfailingly receive good water supply for the samba season, as it so happened that the
little water that flows in the river is stopped by a hill and all of it is available for
irrigation. In such years a second crop is not possible. As every land owner there was
well-to-do, people erected electric motors, so that during years of drought also they can
have a second and even third crop. It is an irony of nature that at a place which abounds
in surface water, ground water is scarce. Many dug bore-wells there after trial and error.
Some did not succeed. It was the ambition of this man to buy some lands there, which he
had done. He had a further desire to fit his lands with a borewell. Knowing my experience
with borewells, he asked me for ideas and explained the problem there with the ground
water. His neighbour unsuccessfully tried ten times and he was still trying for the 11th
time, he said.
I spoke to him of the Mother and asked him to pray to
Her. He had many relatives in Pondicherry and his business took him there quite often. So
he said he would visit the Ashram to obtain Mother’s blessings before starting to dig
a well. Any other type of help with respect to digging the well I offered to give. Digging
started and was finished in two weeks. Water was struck!
He came to me to express his thanks and surprise at striking water in the first
trial. He said, “I started life at the bottom, went to Singapore, and worked hard.
Now I am well off. I have earned enough for the rest of my life, though I am not one of
the richest merchants. But it is my luck that any work that others can complete easily
will lead me through detours, difficulties, lapses until frustration mounts beyond
measure. However, finally I will succeed. This has always been the pattern of life,
achieving through the hard way what is easy for everyone else. This digging of the well
has been arduous, uncertain, complicated for everyone else, but it turned out to be easy
for me. This is a standing wonder in my life.”
I added
that once people take to Mother, such a change inevitably comes over their lives and his
was another expression of Mother at work.
A few years later during one of his visits to me, he
expressed his dejection over the attitude of his partner. His was the biggest shop in the
town. There were three partners from its inception, all having equal shares. These were
all boyhood friends who went to Singapore during their boyhood. All of them returned
together with substantial savings. They desired to remain together in future, too. With
that in view, they together bought the biggest shop in the locality. Soon business
flourished and all the partners, being in their prime of life, started buying properties,
building houses, investing the surplus funds in other trades independently of the other
partners. One of them struck gold in another business he chose and began to prosper beyond
measure and soon became a VIP. Then he stopped coming to the shop any more, except for
periodic visits. The other two flourished in a few other lines, though not rising to
greater heights. My friend and this other man together managed the shop. My friend was
less dynamic and less ambitious. So he saved all his excess cash in terms of immovable
properties. His was a modest outlay fitting his quiet temperament
Now my friend had come to me to unburden his woes
regarding this partner, whom he had to meet everyday and work with all the time,
co-ordinating purchases, accounts, displays in the shop, floor management, cash handling
and the multitude of responsibilities that go with running a business. In spite of being a
boyhood friend, his partner now showed a new side of his personality. His daily increasing
wealth turned his head. He was no longer level-headed. His interference was often and
comments were impolite. His manner was intolerable. His language became objectionable and
he became a nagging pain-in-the-neck at work. My friend, who had a quiet sweet
temperament, would not retort. But his partner had become a nightmare for him. Not being
able to be rude, not being able to stand the situation, he was suffering and oppressed. He
told me that he would gladly give up his share and retire into his house, as he had enough
money for the rest of his life. He said he could start another shop all on his own and
make as much income, but he was polite enough and good enough not to express it to either
of his partners. But now a point had come beyond which he could not remain quiet. He said
he had decided to take some action to free himself from the trouble, but was undecided on
what it should be.
I advised him not to take any outward action. His
patience, politeness, self-restraint, and consideration for others were commendable and
any action now might lessen the value of his great, good behaviour so far. Instead, he
could pray to Mother for relief, I said. He agreed. He added that he would visit the Samadhi,
as he often went to Pondicherry. Within a week, I heard he was trying to meet me and
thought there should be some developments with his partner. Soon he met me. He said,
“I am relieved, relieved of my nightmare under unpredictable circumstances which are
almost miraculous. My nagging partner went to the house of the other partner and displayed
the wares of his beautiful temperament. The other man was outraged. He offered to buy this
man off on the spot and did so. The trouble was over. As to my share of the newly acquired
one-third of the shop, it was also paid on my behalf. You see, now I am a 50% shareholder! To my surprise, the other partner, contrary to his
wont, asked to be paid back at my own convenience!”
An American devotee of Mother returned to the USA
after living in the Ashram for three years and met an old school friend. His friend Marc
was a salesman for a large computer company. They sat together to exchange their
experiences over the last three years. Marc told a sad tale of how he had been the best
salesman in the company in the previous year, but now he was the worst. Everything in his
life was going wrong. He was unable to sell even half as much as before. He lost interest
in his job. His wife was unhappy and he was constantly weighed down by a heavy depression.
The devotee also told his friend how he had spent the last three years in Pondicherry.
When he spoke about Mother, Marc became very interested and asked him to tell more. By the
end of the first hour, his friend’s sad face began to smile. In the second hour his
friend began to laugh and beam with joy. He said, “I feel wonderful just hearing
about Mother. I haven’t felt so happy in years.”
They agreed to meet a week later.
When they next met, Marc was smiling even more. He
told the devotee that in one week his whole life seemed to be changing. He felt happy, his
wife had stopped complaining and he was invited to an interview for a new job in an even
larger company at a far higher salary. But he was afraid that with his poor performance
for the last year, they would never select him.
The devotee told him to simply remember Mother during
the interview and imagine that the interviewer was Mother. He also suggested that his
friend give a small token offering to Mother, which he happily did. Three days later Marc
called him to say that he got the job.
In the next few months, Marc and the devotee met often
and spoke about Mother. Marc reported one good event after another. Within four months he
was offered an even better job to head a new computer department of another company at
nearly twice the salary that he was earning six months earlier.
Marc wanted to visit India to see the Ashram before
taking the new job, but he was afraid he could not afford the expense of Rs.20,000 and the
loss of three weeks salary, which was another Rs.20,000. Anyway he decided to spend his
last savings and go.
Marc and the devotee met in Pondicherry. Marc said he
had never known so much peace and joy before. After returning to the USA, he wrote to the
devotee saying that on his return he had received an unexpected gift of Rs.40,000, exactly
the amount he had lost by going to India!
Marc was so happy with the changes in his life that he
started talking to many of his employees about Mother. He also began sending monthly
offerings to the Ashram as an expression of his gratitude. One day he was sitting in a
company meeting and several employees were complaining that their pay cheques were nearly
one month overdue. Marc started telling them about Mother and told them to offer the
problem to Her. To everyone’s great amazement, even Marc’s, the company
treasurer walked in five minutes later and handed everyone in the room their salary
cheques.
Marc’s wife also became devoted to Mother. Her
father, who lived in a city 500 miles away, called her one day to say that he had been
fired from a job he had had for 20 years and he was now too old to ever get another good
job. Marc’s wife told this to her husband and he told it to his devotee friend. Marc
did not like his father-in-law, but he felt sorry for the man’s problem. The devotee
suggested a way out. The next day Marc’s wife called her father and asked him to send
her a little money without asking any questions as to why she was asking for it. She was
afraid to mention Mother, because her father was a very strict Christian. Her father said
that he had faith in his daughter and agreed to send the money. When it arrived, she sent
it to Mother as an offering.
One week later her father called back to say that he
had been hired as a temporary employee for two week’s time. A month later he called
to say that he still had the temporary job. Even six months later he still had the same
job. After nearly seven months, one day Marc received a call from his father-in-law, who
was bubbling over with joy. He told Marc that he had been offered a new permanent job with
a reputable company in Los Angeles in the very same building where Marc was working! Marc was very happy for his father-in-law’s
good fortune, but sorry that they would be moving so close to his own home!
Marc’s story of good fortune still continues. The
last we heard he had become a partner in a computer company earning five times as much as
before he came to Mother.