Ordinary Women Extraordinary Lives

Jhumurdi's life has always revolved around the Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry. She came to the Mother when she was two; more than half a century later, she is one of the most significant teachers at the Ashram school and a woman with a simple and refreshing perspective on life...

The Mother Asked To Be Informed The Day I Was Born.
I was born in Calcutta. My grandmother and later my mother's older sister were among the first to turn to Sri Aurobindo. My father had been taught since childhood to pray to Sri Aurobindo and when they were married, my parents received a telegram from Sri Aurobindo. Later, when my infant brother was very ill, my mother took to writing to the Mother every day to ask her to have him taken away...

The Mother asked to know the day I was born and I came to the Ashram when I was two years and three months. I have been living in Art House ever since.

No One Else Could Have Had Such A Privileged Childhood.
The Ashram was then a small community of 300 people, and I belonged to the first batch of children. We got so much love and care... Pondicherry was our playground and I remember, the Governor's House was far more beautiful then (we Indians don't know how to keep things well). We were not allowed to go into the Ashram till we were four, but we used to try to get in anyway.

When people at the Ashram told her we were trying to sneak in, Mother decided it was time to teach us something. We never had classes for spiritual training. She taught and established values and principles without seeming to. She would buy us beautiful things; but she taught us detachment as well.

Yet, We Could Turn To The Mother For Everything.
Sri Aurobindo was God, remote. But, Mother's words, we understood; we went to her for everything. If you had fever, she would give you a flower, which you keep under your pillow. We believed in Mother's force, and it worked.

Birthdays were very special- she would ask you what you wanted, and we would find ourselves asking for things we never thought we would ask for -- progress, for example.

After the passing away of Sri Aurobindo in 1971, the Mother began to teach us. The books, 'Conversations' and 'Questions & Answers' were actually what we discussed in class. She taught us the things that are the raison d'etre of our existence.

But she didn't really teach -- she let you grow like a flower, and as you learnt to love her, you couldn't help doing the things that she would want you to do.

For Mother, flowers are very special.
She gave us states of consciousness when she gave us flowers. According to her, the orchid symbolised attachment to the divine; the pink lotus was the 'arata aditi'. We associate flowers with our inner lives. Their beauty is an expression of the divine -- but even if you see only the flower, you are still in touch with an attempt at perfection.

My Life Revolves Around The Ashram, The School And The Mother.
I wake up at three every morning and reach the 'samadhi' at the Ashram at 10 minutes to four, where, along with six or seven others, I do some gardening, clean the place as well as the 'samadhi'. Together, we work the new floral arrangement for the day. The decor changes every day, according to the flowers available. I'm back at home at 5.50 am and I arrange the vases, look after the egg distribution and art department and get to the school by 8.20 am.

Mother Said The Best Way For Me To Learn Was To Teach.
She asked me to teach once when I was a little girl, then when I was nine and then once again at 11 years of age. At 20, I began to teach full time - I had given no exams, earned no diplomas, and my students were 16! It's been more than 40 years now, and I like teaching.

The Sri Aurobindo Centre of Education has no syllabus. We teach what everyone teaches, it's how you teach that makes the difference. We offer no degree -- the children get a certificate to say that they have completed 17 years of education; the ones that do well have the word 'successfully added to that line.

Academic excellence is only one part of the being. Sri Aurobindo wrote in 'Savitri', "A tree sleeps in the seed"; he said education must bring forth the dormant faculties in an individual. I teach anything in French - literature, Shakespeare, Sophocles, Mother's works. It is a small school, no more than 400 students, and with 200 teachers following their progress. I take the higher course -- 'knowledge'. We all learn together, it is a process of discovery, even of yourself.I have been teaching 'Savitri' for 20 years now, but every time, I see it anew. The book is the same, the person reading it has changed.

I Would Live No Other Life.
Living at the Ashram has helped me work towards finding the essence of myself. One aspect of wisdom is to know where you belong. I belong here. I wanted a spiritual life. Sri Aurobindo used to say to us when we were children, "Always behave as if the Mother were looking at you." Learning to live the way the Mother would have wanted me to live is like climbing up a hill -- the perspective changes, your whole understanding of things changes. I have not yet reached the top of the hill. I am not grown up yet.
Jhumurdi spoke to Primrose Monteiro-D'Souza and Meenakshi Doctor

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