Tapogiri is such a large place that ordinary sight cannot distinctly see such a long distance; but I was able to see all the scenes as if they were just in front of me.

In order to have a view of those scenes, special seats were artistically erected on suitable trees. Among those who were the spectators, I could only see Pranab, the other individuals were unrecognisable, or perhaps they did not want themselves to be recognised, as was my impression.

I saw there many Sadhus, Sanyasins, Tantric Kapaliks, Vairagins, Avadhuts, Jain Sadhus, Aghoris etc., even family men as well as Sufis were there, all engrossed in their particular sādhanā.

There were among others such penances as were never heard of or about which nothing was read anywhere. Some of them were beyond imagination. What was seen in the beginning is even beyond the scope of writing.

Some were sitting on the ground, some on water, some even in the air were meditating in Padmasana. Some were doing all sorts of Asanas. Some were meditating on slabs of ice; some were lying on beds of nails. Some were simply sitting in Padmasana. Some were standing only on one leg. Some were dancing with song and music, while some were silently doing the same. Some were hanging with tree-branches clasped between their legs, with fire blazing below them. Some were naked, moving about, some standing still on one leg. They had big tridents in their hands.

In one place, there was a fierce fire burning, around which many Digambars (naked sādhus) were seated and they were cutting their own limbs and offering them as oblations in the fire. The strange thing about this was that whereas bad smell comes out of limbs when they are thrown into the fire and blood flows from them when they are cut, nothing of the sort happened in this case, and there was great peace in the atmosphere. There were also some Tantric sādhaks and Bhairavis (woman sādhaks) doing their sādhanā. Some individuals remained buried in pits with only their head outside.

In one place, a big sacrifice was going on. One of my maternal uncles was dedicated to Veda. His voice was very sweet and I was very fond of his very sweet Vedic chanting. Wherever I received news of a Sacrifice, I used to run to it, and it was thus that I was able to witness many sacrifices.

There used to be Vedic recitation in chorus also and at that time two teams were formed, who in turn did the recitations. There was also one individual devoted to Veda and he used to chant Veda in a continuous rhythm, and I liked it very much and even now I have liking for it.

This Yajna at Tapogiri was in many ways extraordinary, for nowhere else have I heard such Vedic recitations.

In between, there were the exclamations svāhā-svāhā uttered melodiously by priests. They were very delightful to the ear. They filled all the limbs of the body with quite a new experience. Along with the performance of the sacrifice, the divine music of the Mother was constantly heard there. I have heard the Mother's music many times, but the one I heard there was unique and unheard of before. This music gave divine joy and since I cannot express its divinity in words I simply say that it was marvellous and quite apart from all other music.

I saw the day of the final and full offering of the sacrifice also. This final day of the sacrifice is very delightful and interesting. One really feels exhilarated on that day. It is verily very elevating. It is the day on which all the officiating priests show all their capacity or rather their capacity automatically finds its full expression. This is what I had experienced about the priests in my North Gujarat.

The Vedic recitation of the priest in the sacrifice at Tapogiri was wonderfully unique. After the Vedic prayers, was heard in sweet and sonorous voice the chanting of—

Lead me

From the non-being to the true being,

From the darkness to the Light,

From death to Immortality.

Om! Peace! Peace! Peace!

With this a supernal peace spread around everywhere. Then was heard Sri Aurobindo's sweet and sublime voice—

So be it.

For one moment swayed the Earth and the Heaven too.

And in a moment all suddenly became full of Peace and Joy Divine.

I saw before me the sacrificial flames rising impetuously, uniformly higher and higher. Their end was not visible. These golden flames were spreading their light everywhere above, below, in all directions and penetrating the earth there also. All the priests were seated in this light.

Then they began straightaway to rise above, but somewhere in the middle, some of them settled down, while some rose higher and were lost in the golden light.

Indrasen was the chief of the priests of this sacrifice. My eyes looked at some distance from that place and saw there some individuals. I was not able to see what they were doing, for there was a sort of veil around them. One could only feel that there were some persons there. In the meanwhile I saw that they too were rising up into the golden light.

I too thought of going up but some individual forcibly caught my hand and the vision ended. Only this much I can say about that individual, that he was my all in all.

Visions Of Champaklal

Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya

Someone remarked: In the Veda there was a rishi called Yajna. He has said: “I saw in my mind's eye the glorious praise of all the sacrifices and sādhanā of our predecessors. The sādhanā of the Vedas was called sādhanpantha by the rishis, purveshang pantha—sādhanā is walking on a path. This is why the rishis never claim any of their achievements or realisations as their own. They believe that our ancestors, since eternity, have created in the tradition of sādhanā a structure for sādhanā. We have to see that this tradition of meditation and sādhanā is not broken—ma chhedi vayato dhiyam.”

I feel the same way. With those who have accepted the Mother and Sri Aurobindo's sādhanā, it is not important to judge who has achieved how much because all of them have contributed to help us become successful. This is why we bow before everybody.