Almost a year earlier, K. D. Sethna had come from Bombay. A brilliant Philosophy graduate, he had done desultory Yoga, and was researching on "The Philosophy of Art" for his M.A. In the meantime, having bought a new pair of shoes wrapped in an old newspaper, he returned home and saw an article on "The Ashram of Aurobindo Ghose" in that paper. His mind was suddenly made up: Pondicherry would be his place of sadhana - what he had bought must have served as the shoes of a pilgrim! He arrived in December 1927 and was received by Purani who had been the link in the correspondence between the Ashram and this newcomer. On entering the room of Purani (who was staying then in the Guest House, in the room once occupied by Sri Aurobindo), Sethna happened to look through the north-facing window and caught a glimpse of the Mother walking on the roof-terrace of the Meditation House, and he said to himself, "She is very beautiful!" A meeting with her was arranged, and he told her that, having seen everything of life, he now wanted nothing except God. The Mother was amused and said sweetly:
“Oh, at 23 you have seen all of life? Don't be in such a hurry, you must take your time. Stay here, look about, see how things are, see if they suit you and then take a decision.”
Although a bit disappointed, he agreed - but the Mother's eyes! What eyes! What radiance!
“When I was talking with her I felt as if from her face and eyes some silver radiance were coming out... I could not make out how this was happening ¬ nor could I doubt that this was happening. Apart from this impression of light, there was another - something out of the ancient Egypt.”
He stayed on for the Darshan of 21 February 1928, - and forgot about his M.A. dissertation. The Darshan strengthened his desire to do the Integral Yoga, and the Mother accepted him. There was of course no question of an interview with Sri Aurobindo, and like others in the same predicament, he too had to communicate through letters. "I went on writing to Sri Aurobindo," he acknowledges, "and all types of questions I used to put to him ... bombarding him with queries. Most of my questions were either philosophical or literary - because, though I had my own share of common difficulties, the real difficulty at the beginning was my Westernised intellect." Sri Aurobindo replied promptly and sometimes at length, and these letters were an amalgam of information, instruction, elucidation and initiation, and they were to grow into gorgeous epistolary treasures and significantly enrich the Aurobindonian canon. From an early part of his stay, Sethna sported the spiritual name of "Amal Kiran" (Amal for short), which Sri Aurobindo had given him. The word meant "The Clear Ray", and fitted his ardent and flame-bright nature.
It was Amal's particular destiny to correspond at length with Sri Aurobindo on the great 'work in progress', the epic ‘Savitri’, and as good as coax the poem to come out into the open. After a good deal of astute strategy and clever tactics on Amal's part, his efforts were rewarded on 25 October 1936 - "one of the most important days, if not the most important, of my life here" -- for, in a letter written on that day, Sri Aurobindo gave 16 lines from the exordium (Book One, canto I) beginning with the memorable
It was the hour before the Gods awake.
as an example of possible "overhead" poetry. But ‘Savitri’ was to be a carefully guarded secret for another ten years, and even in the Ashram itself very few knew anything authentic about it. There was some random speculation, of course, but that was about all till from the middle forties onwards the poem started appearing, first in fascicles, then in two volumes; and finally in 1954 the entire work came out in a single volume with Sri Aurobindo's letters to Amal on the poem printed at the end.
(Chapter 17, ‘On The Mother - The Chronicle of a Manifestation and Ministry' by K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar. Reprinted (third edition) 2004, Sri Aurobindo International Centre Of Education, Pondicherry.)
“From the very beginning of my stay in the Ashram I have sought to quicken to the presence of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother from the core of my heart… An inner urge…has yearned for an Unknown surpassing every object of my senses and my thought and making nothing worth while unless that Unknown were first found… There is one single wish running through all the years—and that is to be open more and more to the transforming grace of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. On each birthday it gets an extra spurt."
- Amal Kiran
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