Barindra Kumar Ghose’s tribute to the Mother

Dear Friends,

5 January 2012 marked the 132nd birth anniversary of Barindra Kumar Ghose (1880-1959), the noted revolutionary, journalist, author and Sri Aurobindo’s youngest brother. He was one of the earliest inmates of Sri Aurobindo Ashram and resided at Pondicherry till 1929.

It is said that Barindra Kumar left the Ashram because he was unable to accept the Mother. Today we are publishing a tribute paid by him to the Mother which was published in ‘Khulnabasi’ on 21 February 1940, that is, on the occasion of the Mother’s birthday. It is hoped that this tribute would eradicate many wrong notions.  

With warm regards,

Anurag Banerjee,

Founder,

Overman Foundation.

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Barindra Kumar Ghose’s tribute to the Mother.

 ‘In the Yoga-Ashram of Pondicherry, the Mother is the living embodiment of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga. The touch of her creative genius has given the Ashram its present shape. The work of each department bears the stamp of her originality and constructive genius. It is doubtful if there is any other place on earth where such a big family could be seen carrying on like clock-work its day-to-day activities in silence and harmony, without a shade of conflict. The constructive power of the West and the whole-hearted surrender and self-giving of the East are moving hand in hand in the life of the Ashram.

‘But to have given a perfect shape to the Ashram is not the Mother’s greatest achievement. She is the living image and the other expression of the Yogic Power that is operating everywhere in the Ashram as its centre. To attribute Divinity to a human being may seem to others a sheer fantasy of the devotees or nothing but sentimentalism. But one who has had the slightest touch of the spiritual Power of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga knows for certain that the open sesame of his Integral Yoga lies in the Mother alone.

‘Sri Aurobindo once said to me that he doubted if there was in the past any figure embodying so great a Yogic power. He added that he had done ten years’ Yoga by one’s contact with her. The Yogic Power of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo opened wide the doors of the unostentatious Ashram, so long in the grip of want and difficulty, to the steady inflow of sufficiency and prosperity. Spontaneous offerings came from disciples and admirers. The most ordinary men found in themselves an outflowering of the poetic power, a wonderful talent for painting, a capacity for meditation, occult vision and skillfulness in work. Day by day the Pondicherry Ashram grew into a Yogic place of pilgrimage for the entire world. An aspirant had a vision: the Mother and Sri Aurobindo were inside a golden tabernacle on the top of a luminous hill, and men from different climes from all directions thronged to the place in endless streams. To-day his vision has materialised.

‘In the course of repeated experiences, a restless fellow, mad after work, with impurities unpurged, a man of vitalistic temperament, I have realised, from the play of the Mother’s miraculous Power, how true were the words of Sri Aurobindo. From the angle of Yogic vision the Mother has no equal even in India, the tapobhūmi (the land of Tapasya).’    

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7 Replies to “Barindra Kumar Ghose’s tribute to the Mother

  1. He maintained this adoration for the Mother till the end of his life. Dilipkumar Roy in his Bengali reminiscences has left most interesting details of Barindra’s loving attitude.
    Congratulations for having discovered the ‘Khulnabâsi’ files : this was one of the first journals devoted to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother issued outside. Devotees from Khulna were proud to have counted Sri Aurobindo’s parents as Khulnabasis.
    Prithwindra Mukherjee

  2. Fantabulous Anurag!Kudos to you !Let me draw your attention to the fat that in West Bengal there is an undercurrent of anti-Aurobindonian force carried on by some religious missions and the Bengali media.They gather anti ashramic materials from the writings of people who left the Pondicherry ashram to launch indirect attacks on the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.may this article from Khulnabasi be an eyeopener for all of us.It would be to be general benefit if you could collect and publish more materials substantiating the spiritual grandness of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo inorder to counteract the antiAurobindonian undercurrent i spoke of.That would be one of the grandest tribute you can lay at the Mother”s feet.I can assure you of my help small though it may be;and I am sure others will stand behind you as well.God Bless!

  3. Excellent. I can only pray to The Mother to give Her strength and Protection to make more and more ‘Overman Foundation’ stronger.
    With regard
    mahua

    1. No. But some time before he left his physical body Sri Aurobindo had sent a telegram to Barin Ghose which he got framed. This telegram used to adorn a wall in Barin’s room. Dilip Kumar Roy had seen this telegram when he visited Barin (he was quite close to Barin and respected him immensely) after he left the Ashram in 1953. He has also written about it in his reminiscences in Bengali titled ‘Smriticharan’. But the text of the said telegram is not available.

      With warm regards,
      Anurag Banerjee

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