The month of December observes Sri Aurobindo’s Mahasamadhi on the 5th. It is also a month we have chosen to celebrate the life of Amal Kiran, one of Sri Aurobindo’s foremost disciples. He left his physical body this year, on the 29th of June, at the age of 106. Amal Kiran was born on 25th November 1904 as Kaikhushru Dhunjibhoy Sethna. It was in December, at the age of 23, in 1927 that Amal Kiran joined the ashram in Pondicherry. Three years later, on 3rd September 1930, upon his request, Sri Aurobindo named him Amal Kiran, or The Clear Ray. This name, coming from the master, must have been an impetus to its actual realisation to any extent in a human soul in the guise of K D Sethna.
Before his advent into ashram life, Amal Kiran was already an erudite scholar of letters, winning many prestigious prizes, awards and a scholarship. In the ashram, he devoted himself to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother with unreserved fervour and remained one of their truest children till the end. Known as a multi-faceted genius, he has produced about 50 scholarly writings and was the editor of Mother India. Through some of his writings one can sense the immense devotion he had for Sri Aurobindo and The Mother and the crystal clear knowledge of the purpose of his life upon earth. His sole preoccupation in life seemed to have been his seeking for a transformation of his being through opening himself to the light of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Here is an excerpt from his writings that gives us a taste of the kind of self-consecration his life was: “…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.”
He entwined everyone with this love we may call impersonal love, the highest form of love that is bound not but reached far into the secret spaces within. Strangely, all who speak of him posthumously speak of him with light in their eyes and joy. This must be the result of the mark he had left on people who came to know him. The late Jugal Kishore Mukherjee had remarked, “K.D.S.’s shining complexion, his delicate sensitive face, two eyes radiating a keen and kind glint of intelligence and a sweet smile as innocent as that of a child, cannot but captivate the hearts of the visitors.” (http://overmanfoundation.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/the-passing-of-amal-kiran-alias-k-d-sethna/)
Perhaps, above all qualities, his sense of humour puts a stamp on his personality as one who finds amusement in the play of God, with his life the playing-field. In a recent conversation, Sudha-di, an ashramite and a close friend of Amal-da, shared with delight some of her personal encounters with his humour:
• Amal Kiran had received a phone call. At the other end the voice queried, “Is this Auro-Food” (a wrong call). Pat came the reply from Amal Kiran, “No this is Amal-Drink.”
• Amal Kiran had injured his hip and was in traction and he had to keep himself quite still. Sudha-di queried,” You must be feeling like the immobile Brahman.” And with a chuckle he replied, “Fortunately not the motionless one!”
• His close friend Raja had brought his 3-year old daughter to see him. The child stood before Amal Kiran in awe and blurted out in Tamil, “He looks like God!” Amal Kiran wanted to know what she had said and her father translated. Upon hearing this, Amal Kiran patted her chubby cheeks and said something to the effect, “I haven’t lived in vain then!”
Let us turn a few leaves and take a peek into the life of this inspiring gem, a colossus amongst sadhaks.
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