I have been thinking for sometime about a very great
personality of the Ashram. He remains, so to say, an unsung hero, but a true
child of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.
It appears one day, suddenly it was Sri Aurobindo who
said: “Where is Gangadharan?”
Nobody seemed to know.
Sri Aurobindo: “All of you are centred around your own
selves, and you don't care about him because he is a simple man, but
Gangadharan is constantly in our consciousness. He is a great soul. He is lying
ill in his room, somebody kindly go and attend him.”
Immediately, Arvamedu Iyengar alias Amrita-da went to
his room. He found Gangadharan-ji lying on the floor. He was unable to get up
even. From several days he had not even his food. But it did not in the least
matter to Gangadharan-ji. He was simply calling the name of the Mother, and
that’s about it!
Sri Gangadharan-ji was a fisherman and a local Tamil
boy, born on 24 of July 1913, in a small coastal
Now in the 1930s the Mother used to go out for long
drives. Some of you may have even read in Bulletin
the story of a temple that she had visited at Veerampattinam on one of those
outings. However, after the visit as she was returning, a young man was
strangely fascinated by the Mother and he ran behind Her car, all the way to
the Ashram at
So on 24th of July, 1933, exactly at the age of 20, on
his birthday, Sri Gangadharan-ji joined the Ashram.
He was given the work of supervising the cleaning of
all the WCs of the houses of Ashram in the Sanitary Department, which he did till
1987. He was addressed by everybody as brother Gangadharan, because he was
always smiling and was from his heart a true brother to all.
He stayed all his life in a very small room which was
like a store, maybe 6'x12', next to Manoj-da's room. It is only at the very end
we could give him a good room, which he accepted after a lot of persuation.
As he advanced in age I was looking after his small
needs, such as providing biscuits, bringing the money from cashier's room meant
for his servant, and so on. For that the gratitude he showered was unthinkable.
Even now, tears roll down as I remember it.
He was a great saint, and the spiritual experiences he wrote
are of great value, written by a simple heart! Such was the simplicity and true
greatness of this man that even his servant has become a saint!
Towards the end, he was not keeping well for several
years. His relatives from Veerampattinam wanted to take him back. But all that he
agreed was they could do his last rites after his death at Veerampattinam. Permission
was taken from Dyuman-bhai to that effect.
Now, he had some urinary problem, and he had probably
not passed urine for a couple of days. So I told him, on 16th of August, 1992,
in the late morning, “Gangadharan-ji, let us go to the JIPMER hospital, so that
this painful situation of the urine will be at least solved.”
He replied: “Brother, my time has come.”
I insisted, “Gangadharan-ji, that time comes for all of
us, but why physically suffer now?”
He would not listen. So, finally, I called Manoj-da to
tell him. As soon as a senior like Manoj-da told him, he readily agreed to go
to JIPMER.
At 1.10 p.m. I
took him to the hospital. On our way to the hospital we were talking all the
while, and he talked normally, even when we were in front of the casualty ward.
I went in and returned with the doctor in less than 2 minutes. The doctor
declared, “You have brought us a dead body!”
So I returned back to Ashram. Gangadharan-ji was taken
to Veerampattinam. For three days there was no deterioration in his body.
Finally, on the 4th day, he was cremated on the Veerampattinam beach, on the
backdrop of the vast ocean and the infinite blue sky above.
What a sublime and indescribable atmosphere there was!
The Mother's Blessings for Gangadharan on his birthday