Mother's Instrument Pradyot by Nirodbaran

SAIC >History > Articles > The "Home of Grace" - Sri Aurobindo Institute of Culture (An extract from "Mother's Instrument Pradyot" - by Nirodbaran - 31st August 1986)

Hitherto, whenever Pradyot visited Calcutta he stayed in premier hotels. Now the Mother asked him to take up residence in the "Home of Grace" along with Arun Tagore. The "Home of Grace" is a very big edifice in Regent Park, belonging to one Lakshmi Devi Loyalka and called Lakshmi's House. She had offered the house to the Mother in memory of her dead husband. The Mother wrote, "We shall call it Lakshmi's House and it will be the Home of Grace". Arun Tagore, attorney and friend of the family, was invited by the lady to come and settle there and look after the house. In 1968, he accepted the proposal with the Mother's permission. Arun was a great friend of Pradyot's.

Arun started a library and then in 1972 opened a Kindergarten school in order to spread the Mother's idea of education. The Mother named it 'Arun Nursery School'. There had previously been a 'Shakti Centre' for women opened by Lakshmi Devi. In 1975, Arun suddenly passed away. Just before his departure he had opened the Sri Aurobindo Institute of Culture and made Pradyot its Chairman. What began as a small venture, developed gradually into a big project under Pradyot's initiative and drive. Lakshmi House was truly Lakshmi's palace. A huge area and a large mansion to be maintained and kept in order needed a big monthly expenditure. Pradyot had to meet it.

On the other hand his creative genius saw for itself a vast scope which was not available in the Ashram. Difficulties and obstacles never daunted his spirit when he had undertaken some work. He relied on the Mother's help and on his confidence in himself. In 1977 Sri Aurobindo's relics were taken and placed in a beautiful setting in the "Home of Grace" by the Chief Justice of Calcutta, Sri Shankar Prasad Mitra. Besides the Nursery School, cultural training in music, singing, dancing, medical treatment, a printing press, lectures on the Mother and Sri Aurobindo were set going one after another. Recently, saris, gamchhas and napkins have been supplied to the Ashram from this establishment's own weaving machine.

Pradyot's eye was constantly fixed on how to be of service to the Ashram. Most opportunely, he saw in Joya Mitra a lady of immense capabilities whom he adored like his own daughter, and put her in charge of the administration. Pradyot also built up a group of friends who were ready to do whatever he requested of them.Those who have visited the Institute have showered praise on Pradyot for his creative ability in many directions and for the quiet atmosphere, the meticulous care in keeping the place spotlessly clean so that one could at once feel the presence of the Mother as in a temple. Of late Sanjukta Panigrahi, the premier Odissi dancer, started to train students in her art at Lakshmi's House. Uday Shankar, the famous dancer of Bengal, in his last days, had lost grace with the public and it seemed he was jobless. He had heard of Lakshmi's House and came there to seek for a place where he could hold his classes.

Pradyot listened to his problems and promptly said, "You are welcome". Uday Shankar, overwhelmed, exclaimed, "I now believe that there is God!'. This story was narrated to me by Pradyot himself. A grave problem facing him was that the area in which the Institute was located was politically disturbed. Gradually it has been cleansed of bad influences and transformed into a respectable place, I have been told.Since Pradyot had to be present on his birthday at Pondicherry, it was observed in Lakshmi's House on the previous day. The children of the physical culture section (Devasangha) and of the Arun Nursery School used to observe it with prayers, songs, dances, recitations and parade with their dear Dadu as their central figure.

Oh, it was a day of rejoicings. In the evening the function ended with devotional songs or dance programmes by reputed artistes or Pradyot's readings from Savitri. Every year it repeated itself and brought joy, beauty and a fresh lease of life to its founder and to those who were a part and parcel of the organisation.Lakshmi's House is a unique testimony to Pradyot's creative genius as regards its organisation and operation. There were two sides to it; one, a surprising efflorescence of his individuality in an hitherto unknown splendour; the second, giving the Lakshmi's House a touch of novelty among other centres by his glowing faith in the Mother's Grace aided by his untiring zeal.Let us throw some light on the second aspect.

The Mother proclaimed that Lakshmi's House will be the Home of Grace. There came a time when the situation turned very critical so much so that Lakshmi's House had to be either abandoned or kept up at the cost of a huge sum of money. Then was heard Pradyot's leonine voice: "I shall keep my Mother's Home of Grace, if need be, with the last drop of my blood. Don't you know that the Mother Bhagvati has called this house alone the Home of Grace? How could you think that I would give it up so long as life remains in me?". Such were the words he uttered to his Calcutta friends.In Pradyot's eye of vision, Lakshmi's House extending beyond its material bounds of wood, brick and stone, became the abode of the Divine Mother.

It is for this reason that he was able to surmount innumerable difficulties and with a steady, calm spirit take up the heavy responsibility on his shoulder. A boy who called him Dadu felt at this time a lion-like power in him and there emitted from his thick eye-brows a tremendous courage. The Mother once gave Pradyot a card which bore on one side a line from Savitri. "Her single will opposed the cosmic rule", and on the other, written in her own hand, "Pradyot, is it this you wanted?". In this context that young boy recalled a message of the Mother, "Truth is a victory won after hard labour. To win it, we must be fearless warriors - warriors who fear nothing, let come foes or death, let people be for him or against him, let the body be or be not. An uninterrupted fight must go on till it ends in victory". Pradyot fulfilled that responsibility squarely until his last moment. His close circle of friends has perceived what tremendous pressure was brought to bear upon his frail body while discharging the burden of Lakshmi's House, but Pradyot, armoured with the Mother's might, went ahead undaunted, fighting all the way and caring the least about his health.

On the one hand , he spent his last drop of energy in the service of the Mother's Home of Grace; on the other, he flung the doors of that temple wide open to all and sundry. Always a reticent person, he articulated these few words to the audience on the occasion of the Mother's centenary celebration. "This House is the Mother's, therefore it is yours. She has named this house the Home of Grace. Come all of you, accept her grace. The doors of this House will always be kept open for you." But those who responded to this generous call were mostly the youth whom Pradyot could attract by his natural charming personality. His appeal to them was simple: " Have a firm faith in the Mother, love her deeply, dedicate your life in Her service." Pradyot was to them their dear Dadu, an intimate friend and sincere well-wisher. He had sat and eaten with them , walked about with and given himself to them without reserve, cut jokes with them and made them his own. Those who wanted to prepare themselves for the Ashram life have received his unstinted help.

One extremist young man confessed to have turned a new page in his violent life under Pradyot's sweet influence. As the Chairman of the Institute of Culture, he made the members feel that everything there belonged to the Mother and the Ashram. Hence when the section could send napkins and gamchhas to the Mother's prosperity Department, his deep happiness expressed itself, but in a few simple words such as : "You know, Nirod, 500 gamchhas have been offered by the Institute of Culture." When the people around began gradually to join the Institute, they began to call it "The Ashram". Pradyot was happy to learn of it and said, " They have caught the truth." This centre alone in Calcutta goes by this name. And in this Centre, Pradyot had introduced the rules and disciplines of the Ashram, setting himself as an example. Around the altar of Sri Aurobindo's Samadhi perfect silence and meticulous cleanliness were maintained. No tiny stain about could escape his keen eye and he would clean it up himself.

The future alone will be the witness of his work starting with small footsteps, striding forward and becoming an extraordinarily active Institute. That was his dream. At least that it would be the Mother's Home of Grace, was his abiding faith. And it has become a realised fact. Today Pradyot's soul will be happy to see that his own life-work , Lakshmi's House, has transformed itself into the Mother's Home of Grace in every part of it. The Light that radiates from it is a part of the Mother's eternal Light. Wednesday, August 23, 2006