The First Durga Puja Held in the Ashram 1944 - Priti Das Gupta

Shakuntala, Krishna and several others are decorating the Meditation Hall under Milli-di’s guidance. People keep dropping in to have a glimpse. My mind goes back to the days of yore. The first Durga-puja took place here in 1944, the year that I came to the Ashram for good. Watching the billowing white clouds unfurl on the bright blue autumn skies, I would remember Durga-puja in Bengal. That was a time when I felt a little heavy-hearted. The thought that kept weighing on me was how I was going to spend these days of the Puja all alone. I kept wishing: “Ah, if only there was Durga-puja here too!” On the saptami (the seventh day of the Durga-puja) I went to the Ashram and what did I see? Minnie-di, Milli-di, Gauri, Bibha, Krishnalal-ji, Jayantilal-da and some others were busy decorating the Meditation Hall below and the staircase with vines and flowers. Ila-di (Chitra’s mother) was also deeply absorbed in the work. Sujata, Sumitra, Suprabha, Chitra and the younger ones were running around getting everything that was needed for the decoration. Very nervously I stood near Nolini-da’s room and watched all this while my childhood memories of the puja in Bengal overwhelmed me. Let me tell you why I started talking about the lion. About a year or two after coming to the Ashram I dreamt one night that I was standing alone in the Meditation Hall. There was nobody anywhere around. But as soon as my gaze fell on the staircase I saw a huge white elephant coming down. This elephant was so stunningly beautiful that I cannot describe it. All of a sudden I saw an enormous tiger coming to attack this white elephant. But just then an extremely handsome gigantic lion jumped on the tiger. What a battle followed between the two! I quickly hid behind one of the columns of the Meditation Hall and began watching the battle. There was no way of escape me and I was terrified. “What did you dream last night?” The Mother used to ask me this question every morning and listen most attentively to my dream. I too enjoyed recounting it to Her. One could fill up whole storybooks just with all these dreams. The Mother used to ask almost everybody about their dreams. This dreamworld is a strange, mysterious world. Both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have explained the deeper meaning of dreams to sadhaks and sadhikas in writing as well as orally. So anyway, I told the Mother about my dream in minute detail. She listened with great interest and then said: “Why did you feel scared of the lion? That is my vehicle. The lion is your friend.” I just kept staring at the Mother, transfixed. That childhood memory returned while I was embracing the lion during Durga-puja and telling everybody: “The lion is my friend.” But I could not take my eyes off the Mother. Everything in a man’s life is preordained. I began to understand this slowly with time. When the Mother Herself said: “The lion is my vehicle. He is your friend”, my heart filled with joy. I cannot translate that experience. Quite a few years later I prepared and offered to the Mother some golden buttons in the shape of a lion’s face for Her gown. Dyuman-bhai had got me everything I needed. In the translation-class I offered a lion-shaped paperweight to keep her papers together. Bhabhi-ji (Violette) had got this brass paperweight for me from Delhi. So the lion was indeed my friend. In childhood one’s consciousness and power are very much awake. That is what I discovered in this churning of my childhood memories. It was after coming to the Ashram that I discovered that every flower had an inner meaning. The Mother had named flowers according to this inner meaning. The shiuli flower was called Aspiration by the Mother, the lily was called Divine’s Grace. What is astonishing is that these flowers bloom during Durga-puja in autumn! During the first Durga-puja in this new environment I felt very lonely. Everyone was unknown to me. Suddenly Ila-di came to me and held me affectionately: “Why don’t you go with Chitra to Golconde and bring some grass from there?” ------------------------------------- Please note: All texts will not come here. Please ref to the book" Moments Eternal" by Priti Das Gupta