Sri Aurobindo and Suresh Chandra Chakravarty drink tea²¹

In the Sri Aurobindo Ashram there was a super-excellent Bengali writer. His name was Suresh Chandra Chakravarty, but he was known as Moni. He was extremely close to Sri Aurobindo. He was the one who first went to Pondicherry at Sri Aurobindo’s request to arrange for Sri Aurobindo’s accommodation there. Everything was done in secret so that the British would not come to know of it. This young man took such a risk because the British wanted to kidnap Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo arrived in Pondicherry by steamer on 4 April 1910.

Sri Aurobindo had very few companions at this time. Suresh Chandra Chakravarty was one of these young men. They used to take turns making tea for Sri Aurobindo and cooking. When Sri Aurobindo used to drink his tea, he had the habit of placing his legs on the table and this young man did the same. He used to put his feet up on the table. Nobody else dared to do it, but he was so close to Sri Aurobindo.

Then, when the Mother came to Pondicherry in 1914 and saw this behaviour, she was horrified. How could a disciple put his legs up on the table in front of the Master? So she stopped it. She was also very strict with Sri Aurobindo’s diet. From eight or nine cups of tea a day, she brought it down to one.