I wanted to
offer something to the Mother. And I got the idea of painting two lotuses, one
white and the other red.
Curiously,
I received two beautiful lotuses and took up the painting. But due to other
work I could not finish them in a day. These too, like my other paintings, I
did during my lunch time as it gave me great joy. It took some days before I
could finish them little by little. Naturally it would have been better if the
colouring could have been done in one sitting. However the result was not bad
and it was with great joy that I took the paintings to Mother on my birthday on
2 February 1940.
She
received them very well indeed and exclaimed: "Oh! Very pretty! Very
pretty!" She wondered how I could get time to do them. She took them in
both hands and with a broad smile said: "I give them to you, Champaklal!
Take them, they are for you. They are very pretty. You keep them."
I did not
answer and did not take them. And she repeated:
"Take
them, Champaklal, I give them to you as my present."
C:
"Bur Mother! I have done them for you."
Seeing the
state of my mind she found a way our. She gave another broad smile and said
softly, almost in a whisper: "Champaklal, I will take them to Sri
Aurobindo and I will ask him to write on them.”
I said:
"Mother! Are you taking them to Sri Aurobindo? If so, it would be very
nice if you ask him to write the significance. Mother! Sri Aurobindo will write
on the white lotus and you will write on the red one."
When Mother
brought them to Sri Aurobindo I was there. She showed them to him and said:
"See, how nice they are! Today is Champaklal's birthday; he has done these
paintings for me. If you write the significance on them I will give them to
him. He wants you to write on the white lotus and I on the red.”
With a
beautiful affectionate smile Sri Aurobindo said: "Umm." Then he wrote
above the white lotus:
Aditi
The Divine
Mother
And under
the red lotus he wrote:
To
Champaklal
With
blessings
2.2.40
Sri
Aurobindo
Then Mother
told me not to show the lotuses to anybody.
But you
know that after many years blocks were made out of these paintings and printed
for distribution. Do not ask me why I was told not to show them to anybody at
one time as later things were changed. Obviously circumstances changed and the
Mother never stood rigidly by what she said on an earlier occasion under
different conditions. There are so many instances of this kind.
(Excerpts from “The Artist and a Yogi” by
Champaklal, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Puducherry)
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