Inauguration of the First Phase building 08.08.1999
Nirodbaran's talk at the inauguration of Savitri Bhavan on
August 8, 1999
 Dear
Friends, Savitri Bhavan team-members particularly..
We were very happy to receive
your invitation, and share your happiness at the completion of
the first section of the complex, your successful endeavour.
It reminds me of the year when you invited me to lay the
Foundation Stone of the Savitri Bhavan. This time the Bhavan
has become a building, and once again I have the honour of
inaugurating it ... because I was 'the scribe of Savitri' - as
it says here on the invitation. But I'm not sure what a scribe
has to do with the inauguration. The answer may follow, if I
have found the right one.
Some of you may be curious to know -
here on the invitation it mentions Dr. Nirodbaran. So what has
Dr. Nirodbaran got to do with the scribe? I remember when I
first came to meet Sri Aurobindo as a doctor, after his
accident: he said, "Nirod is no doctor to me. He has come
to serve me." Those were his very words. How I have
served, well or ill, I don't know who will judge. But I have
done my best, in spite of many pitfalls and errors.
Now we come to the next step, when I
became a scribe. It happened because, as you know, after all
his voluminous writing Sri Aurobindo's eyesight was failing.
He could not see properly, he could not see even the big clock
on the wall. So then Mother came to the rescue as she always
does and said, "Nirod will help you. You will dictate and
Nirod will write now." I don't think she used the
word scribe. So from then on, Sri Aurobindo used to dictate, I
would write down his words, copy them, and then the mater
would go to Nolinida, to make a fair copy or to type. This was
the procedure. I have written about all this [in Twelve Years
with Sri Aurobindo], but still quite a number of you may not
know all these interesting details.) And then when it was
almost finished, Sri Aurobindo asked me, if I remember
correctly, "Is there anything more to be
done?" I answered, "Yes - the Book of Death."
He said, "That we shall see later." That is
the way in which, avoiding the straight answer, he kept us in
suspense. But he knew that he would not see it again: whatever
remained, remained.
 This
is what he has done. And this are the two things he has said
about me: first "He has come to serve me"; and
second "Nirod is no doctor to me."
So doctoring I did, scribe I have also
been, in the best way I could. I have the satisfaction,
whatever anyone may say, that I have done the scribing to the
best of my capacity. Today you know, there is a big storm
going on in India: people are saying that the sanctity of
Savitri has been lost, because we have interfered here and
there. You know what is happening, but we don't care for it.
We have done our work, and we are responsible to the Mother
and to Sri Aurobindo. This is the way the thing has been done.
That is all I have to say.
I am very happy to see that a large
number of people have responded to the invitation from these
wonderful workers, very sincere people, who have done their
best, so that as we can see in a very short time the Savitri
Bhavan is coming up. And there is no doubt about it that the
Savitri Bhavan will go on growing, and soon we shall all be
very happy to receive again another invitation in four or five
years time. But I'm sorry, by that time my soul will be, I
hope, with the Lord. That is all I have to say.
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