Departure sanctioned

A seventeen-year-old boy came to Pondicherry to find a place for Sri Aurobindo. He was a great writer. I translated two of his stories. One was about an ugly woman and a blind man. The other story carried the message, “Who needs a woman?” This fellow was like Sri Aurobindo’s son. Sri Aurobindo was so indulgent to him.

One day when he was quite old, at around three o’clock in the afternoon he said to his friends, "Tomorrow you will not see me here.” Nothing was wrong with him.

His friends said, “What?”

He said, "I will speak to Chief.” They never used the name “Sri Aurobindo” — they always called him “Chief” or something like that. "I will speak to him tonight and I am sure he will take me.” Amrita had received a message from Sri Aurobindo that Sri Aurobindo sanctioned his departure. This man also meditated on Sri Aurobindo and Sri Aurobindo said that he would take him to the other world. When he told his friends, everybody laughed and laughed. He was lying down in his easy chair. He said, “All right, you will see tomorrow. Tomorrow after three o’clock, early in the morning, I will not be in the physical.”

When the time came, some curious people went upstairs to his room to see. Alas, he was no more. He did not take any kind of drug. He did not commit suicide. He was just lying down and he was gone.

That kind of connection Amrita and this man had with Sri Aurobindo. They knew that they would be able to contact Sri Aurobindo.

In Amrita’s case, it took three months or so. He was praying to Sri Aurobindo, but Sri Aurobindo did not listen to him. After three months, Sri Aurobindo listened to his prayers. He told everyone in his office that the next day he would be gone. At one-thirty in the morning, there was the sound of one cough. Nolini came to see him and he was gone. Amrita did not want to live on earth any more. He was satisfied, satisfied, satisfied.

In the second case, curious people came down to see whether the man was alive. They were planning to make fun of him, but he was gone.

Such a close connection these two had with Sri Aurobindo!