Dear Friends,
We are publishing a second tribute written by Shri Surendra Singh Chouhan to our much revered Huta-ben who left her physical body on 17 November 2011.
Shri Surendra Singh Chouhan is an ex-student of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education (SAICE); after finishing his Higher Course he taught for a year in SAICE. He is an international educator and presently teaching Philosophy to the Chinese students in Shanghai under the auspices of Shanghai Normal University.
With warm regards,
Anurag Banerjee
Founder,
Overman Foundation.
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Huta-di, the Offered One—In Memoriam
Surendra Singh Chouhan
It is difficult , if not impossible , to write about Huta-di who left us on 17th November as her life in Ashram in all appearance was a secluded one . She opened herself only to a selected group of friends and fellow sadhaks. It was my privilege to know her and did have have interactions with her during my stay in Ashram and afterwards with my wife Kiran. What was remarkable during these meetings was her serene poise and inner strength.. Although outwardly she was not easily accessible but was very much visible through her correspondence with the Divine Mother in numerable letters. There we see her not only as a struggling sadhika with her candid confessions to the Supreme but also an embodiment of unshakable Faith in the Divine dispensation. This brings us close to her very very special relationship with Sweet Mother which is something to contemplate about. This mutual Love and trust transcended all the boundaries where the Divine Mother leaned down again and again to sustain the morale of her beloved Child. Close to all this is Huta-di’s complete immersion in the life long work and mission of Drawings/paintings in different hues and colours on and about Savitri under the direct Guidance of the Divine Mother. It was a mystical art and craft at once long drawn and spiritually subtle under the watchful Eye of the Supreme Mother. It was, as if Huta-di came down to accomplish this mission and vision of Savitiri through the splash of colours—and—what a magnificent work she has done! A frail figure with a life besieged by inner turbulence, she still carried on heroically the work of immortalising Savitri further through her Paintings.
Life of Huta-di was like a white flame of Light which burnt brightly in silence during her earthly sojourn to collaborate with the Divine Mother in her Divine work. She was a Rishika of Savitri in the truest sense of the word .
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The story of Huta di…indeed the story of all the great and luminous ones who have passed before us and those who yet will follow is much more the story of the Mother’s Love and Grace, Her action upon earth that transmuted raw and base elements into gold by Her alchemic Divine Touch, like Ahilya transformed into a goddess by the touch of Rama’s Feet in an earlier incarnation of the Divine.
‘The Spirit’s alchemist energy is Hers.’
For several reasons I appreciated Huta-ben. Contrary to the cheerful image of the young sadhika I had seen in the 60s,
I feel considerably disturbed by the photo you have published : a most sophisticated mimesis (up to details of the raiment) has led her to look like the Mother. Is this not a puerile demonstration of “We become what we behold” ? Sorry to share this misgiving with you.
Prithwindra Mukherjee
In those early years, the golden age of the ashram, when we met the Divine Mother every day, I as a child remember Huta di as very chirpy and vibrant with a radiantly smiling face and sparkling eyes. Her conversation was always of the Mother. She was filled with Douce Mere’s Light n Love to the brim. Always in white, seen waiking up and down the Mother’s Room on the 1st floor, Huta di was sweetness incarnate. She was born to paint God’s Rainbow on earth’s Canvas. Our infinite love to dear Huta di.
Aditi Vasishtha – Hero di’s sister !
Apropose of highly misplaced misgiving of Monsieur Prithwindra Mukherjee with respect to the publication of Huta Di’s photograph, I can vouch on behalf of Anurag that it was not the slightest intention on his part to project the image as Mr Mukherjee imagines ! In fact , it was with much difficulty that Anurag was able to get the photograph courtesy Shraddhavan !
Come on Mr. Mukherjee , this type of response was least expected of you ! and even if , and even if she looks like the sweet Mother so what ..can not the child of Douce Mere look like Her ! Excusez – Moi !
Surendra s chouhan !
Yes we do gradually grow into the likeness of what we adore. One distant day we shall all grow divine. Huta di was drenched in the Mother’s showering Love. Here she has the flowing outlines of Sweet Mother in this picture. Not a resemblance but a subtle Presence of the Mothersurrounds her. This is beautiful and was bound to be so ! Let us appreciate and be happy and feel blessed !
You have just put it Right , Aditi !
The day of her passing is 17th November. No such thing as chance in this universe. Goutam Ghosal
Thanks for the text of the tribute which is highly inspiring.
Prof. A. P. Rao,
Hyderabad.
Here is an anecdote from Huta’s book “The story of a Soul”, vol. 2, Part 1, page 185
All my family was photographed with her except me. One last snap was to be taken. I managed to come closer so that I too might come into the picture with my family members and the Mother. Meanwhile Mr. Surendra Mohan Ghosh (M.P.) entered the room. I rose from my place at the sign of command in the Mother’s eyes. I was disappointed – I had been left out.
The next morning I went to the Mother. She was with Vasudha in the small passage leading to Sri Aurobindo’s room. She looked at me and started telling Vasudha something in French which I failed to comprehend. Her eyes twinkled for one instant as they met mine. She then disclosed:
Yesterday I saw you among your family members. You are quite different from them. You don’t belong to them – you have come from another sphere (gesture lifting her index finger up).
Later Vasudha told me that the Mother had said the same thing to her in French.
I laughed at my stupidity and thought: “I should not have been disturbed when I had not been photographed.”