At the
age of eighteen, André joined
the army in October 1916 as an artillery officer. Meanwhile the First World War
had started (in 1914) and in March 1916, the Richards left for
Though
André was
separated from his mother due to the war, yet he always felt as if a
force-field was protecting him. An inner contact continued to exist between the
son and his mother due to which André escaped fatal accidents several times. He himself
has admitted:” The continuous flow of “luck” was amazing.” Let’s quote two such
instances of “luck” from his reminiscences.
In May
1918, André had
suffered an attack of flu along with others and was treated with heavy doses of
aspirin. He and his colleagues recovered after forty-eight hours of high fever.
However, they did not catch the ‘Spanish Flu’ which started towards the end of
the war (and claimed the lives of twenty million people across the world—Sri
Aurobindo’s wife Mrinalini Devi being one of them) for which aspirin was no
longer a cure. “It seemed that we had been more or less vaccinated by the first
attack of what was not yet called the Spanish Flu”, recollects André.
The
second instance of “luck”: on the night of 15 July 1918, the battery of 6#
howitzer in which André was
serving had to face severe gunfire from the enemy camp. “The way from the
Command post to the battery was limited to a narrow footpath by rolls of barbed
wire,” remembers André. While
he was walking over there, he was caught in one of the rolls which were thrown
on him following the explosion of a shell. Some more rolls fell on him as he
was trying to extricate himself. Three months later, while he was at a distance
of two hundred and fifty kilometers on the North-West of the site of 15 July, he
found one of La Main de Massiges—the place where he and his fellow soldiers
were present in July—and the location of their battery was shown as a target;
however there was a mistake and the “ four guns being shown at both ends of the
footpath” so that the spot where André was “pinned to the ground” was shown as the actual
target.
The war
ended in 1918 and André, as a
reward for his bravery and contribution, received several titles of honour
which included the Cross of the War 1914-1918 (which he received just after the
War), the Cross of the Voluntary Fighters and Chevalier of the Legion of Honour
(these were received after 1935) which is considered as the highest order
conferred by the State. In December 1919, he joined Ecole Polytechnique and
obtained the title of Ancien éléve de
l’ecole polytechnique in August 1921, after which he joined Le
Carbone-Lorraine (Le Carbone came to be known as Le Carbone-Lorraine when it
merged with Le Lorraine probably in 1935); he was the director of a factory
making batteries and other electrical materials for Le Carbone-Lorraine from
1926 to 1939. Later he joined the Industrial Company of Battery Cells and
became the honorary President of the company. He was also associated with
several foreign and international organizations and established himself very
well in the elite society of
Meanwhile
in 1920, Mirra and Paul Richard returned to
Some
relevant passages from the letters written by the Mother to André are reproduced in the
following.
16
January 1927: Our community is growing more and more; we are nearly thirty (not
counting those who are scattered all over
16
February 1927: I think I told you about our five houses, four of which are
joined in a single square block surrounded on all sides by streets and
containing many buildings with courtyards and gardens. We have just bought,
repaired and made comfortable one of these houses and then, very recently, we
have settled there, Sri Aurobindo and myself, as well as five of the closest
disciples. We have joined the houses together with openings in some of the
outer walls and of the out buildings, so that I can walk freely in our little
realm without having to go out in the street, which is quite pleasant; but I am
busier now than ever, and I can say that just now I am writing to you in a
rush.
3 July
1927: It is true that for a long time I have not slept in the usual sense of
the word. That is to say, at no time do I fall back into the inconscience which
is the sign of ordinary sleep. But I give my body the rest it needs, that is,
two or three hours of lying down in an absolute immobility, but in which the
whole being, mental, psychic, vital and physical, enters into a complete rest
made of perfect peace, absolute silence and total immobility, while the
consciousness remains completely awake; or else I enter into an internal
activity of one or more states of the being, an activity which constitutes the
occult work and which, needless to say, is also perfectly conscious. So I can
say, in all truth, that I never lose consciousness throughout the twenty-four
hours which thus form an unbroken sequence, and that I no longer experience
ordinary sleep, while yet giving my body the rest that it needs.
25
August 1929: In this letter I am sending you a few photographs of the Ashram
which no doubt will interest you as they will give you an idea—however
incomplete and imprecise—of the surroundings in which I live; in any case a
very limited impression, as the Ashram at present consists of seventeen houses
inhabited by eighty-five or ninety people (the number varies as people come and
go.)
I am
also sending you conversations 14 and 15. [1] I hope that you have received it;
in several instalments, the complete series of the first thirteen; I had them
mailed to you as they were published.
21
October 1929: I shall not endeavour to reply to your opinion on the
“conversations” although there are certain points which you do not seem to have
fully grasped; but I suppose that a second reading later on, at your leisure,
will enable you to understand those parts which eluded you at first glance.
Moreover, these “conversations” make no claim to exhaust their subjects or even
to deal with them thoroughly. Rather they are hints whose purpose is more
pragmatic than didactic; they are a kind of moral stimulus meant to goad and
spur on those who are on the way. It is true that in my answers many aspect of
the question have been neglected which could have been examined with interest
that will be for another time.
23
August 1930: The Ashram is becoming a more and more interesting institution. We
have acquired our twenty-first house; the number of paid workers of the Ashram
(labourers and servants) has reached sixty or sixty-five and the number of
Ashram members (Sri Aurobindo’s disciples living in
4 August
1931: I have also received the Grande
Revue [2] and I read the article you mention. I found it rather dull, but
apart from that not too bad. But the Mukherjee quoted there must have been
lived for many years outside
I
repeat, there is better, far better in
28
September 1931: Just a word about your remark that having children is the only
way to perpetuate the human race. I have never denied this, but I wish to add
that there is nothing to fear in this respect; if it is Nature’s plan to
perpetuate the human race, she will always find as many people as she needs to carry
out her plan. The earth will surely never suffer from a dearth of men.
3
November 1931: The things that are awaited they alone can remedy the sorry
state of affairs you mention in your letter of October 9th; and it is certainly
not confined to the small states of central
It is no
use lamenting, however, saying: Where are you headed! The final collapse, the
general bankruptcy seems obvious enough…unless…There is always an “unless” in
the history of the earth; and always, when confusion and destruction seemed to
have reached their climax, something happens and a new balance is established
which extends for a few centuries more, the life of declining civilisations and
human societies in delirium.
Do not
start thinking I am a pessimist. I certainly do not like things as they are. I
do not believe, however, that they are worse than they have been many times
before. But I want them to be different, I want them to be more harmonious and
more true. Oh, the horror of
falsehood spread everywhere on earth, ruling the world with its law of
darkness! I believe that its reign has lasted enough; this is the master we
must now refuse to serve. This is the great, the only remedy.
10
February 1933: After a very long time I was happy to receive your letter of
January 5th, especially since you think of
What do
you say to that? Isn’t it tempting? Will you ever have the time or the
possibility to come here? Once you let me hope for a visit.
I would
like to show you our establishment. It has just acquired four houses which I
bought in my name to simplify the legal technicalities; but it goes without
saying that I do not own them. I think I have already explained the situation
to you and I want to take advantage of this opportunity to remind you of it.
The Ashram with all its real estate and moveable property belongs to Sri
Aurobindo, it is his money that enables me to meet the almost formidable
expenses that it entails (our annual budget averages one ‘lakh’ of rupees,
which at the present rate of exchange corresponds approximately to 650,000
Francs); and if my name appears sometimes (bank accounts, purchase of houses,
of automobiles, etc.) it is, as I already told you, a matter of convenience for
the papers and signatures, since I manage everything, but not because I really
own them. You will readily understand why I am telling you all this; it is so
that you can bear it in mind just in case.
[This
last letter is particularly important because the Mother reminded André that she was only the
manager of all the properties belonging to the Ashram whose real owner was Sri
Aurobindo. This, she did, because André was her lawful heir.]
23
August 1936: Your last letter refers to current events and betrays some anxiety
which is certainly not unfounded. In this ignorant unconsciousness men sent
moving forces that are not even aware of and soon these forces get more and
more out of their control and bring about disastrous results. The earth seems
to be shaken almost entirely by a terrible fit of political and social epilepsy
through which the most dangerous forces of destruction do their work. Even
here, in this poor little nook, we have not escaped the general malady. For
three or four days the forces at work were ugly and could justifiably cause
anxiety, and a great confusion was beginning to set in. I must say that under
the circumstances the Governor (Solomiac) showed great kindness and resolve at
the same time. His goodwill is beyond all praise. Finally, it all ended quite
well, considering the difficult circumstances. But now more than 14000 workers
are out of work. The largest factory is closed, no one knows for how long, and
the other one was burned down.
The sign
of the times seems to be a complete lack of common sense. But perhaps we see it
this way simply because nearness makes us see all the details. From a distance
the details fade and only the principal lines appear, giving a slightly more
logical aspect to circumstances.
It may
be that life on earth has always been a chaos whatever the Bible may say, the
Light has not yet made its appearance. Let us hope that it will not be long in
coming.
24 April
1937: A small booklet is being published in
22
October 1938: Speaking of recent events, you ask me “whether it was a dangerous
bluff” or whether we “narrowly escaped disaster”. To assume both at the same
time would be nearer to the truth. Hitler was certainly bluffing… Tactics and
diplomacy were used, but on the other hand, behind every human will there are
forces in action whose origin is not human and which move consciously towards
certain goals. The play of these forces is very complex and generally eludes
the human consciousness. But for the sake of explanation and understanding,
they can be divided into two main opposing tendencies: those which work for the
fulfilment of the Divine Work upon Earth and those which are opposed to this
fulfilment. The former have few conscious instruments at their disposal. It is
true that in this matter quality by far compensates for quantity. As for the
antidivine forces, they have only too much to choose from and always find minds
which they enslave and individuals they turn into docile but nearly always
unconscious puppets. Hitler is a choice instrument for these anti-divine forces
which want violence, upheaval and war, for they know that these things retard
and hamper the action of the divine forces. That is why disaster was very close
even though no human government consciously wanted it. But at any cost there
was to be no war and that is why was has been avoided—for the time being.
Due to
the outbreak of the Second World War, all communications between the Mother and
André got
severed, especially after the conquest of
Meanwhile
when the Second World War started, André joined the French Army of which he was the Captain
from 1939 to 1940. From 1940 to 1942, he was the director of a factory of Le
Carbone-Lorraine near
[1] The fifteen talks of the Mother are published in Collected Works of the Mother, Vol. 3.
[2] Grand Revue
was a French literary magazine published till 1939.
[3] Personal communication to the author.