Manoj Das Gupta Stops Sudha Sinha’s Hindi Classes

[On the 14^th of March 2012, Manoj Das Gupta (Managing Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram) abruptly stopped Sudha Sinha’s Hindi classes. Sudha Sinha happens to be an eminent writer in Hindi. She has 24 books to her credit and was presented the National award for writers in 1967. She was also nominated the best writer in the State of Bihar in 1986/1987. Her translations of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s works into Hindi were greatly appreciated by the publication department of the Ashram until she became a petitioner in the case filed against the mismanagement of the Trustees in August 2010. After that, her translation of Volume 4 of the Mother’s Collected Works was cancelled at the stage of printing and she was told not to proceed with her translation of Sri Aurobindo’s Autobiographical Notes. If the management had been less vindictive and thought of the larger benefit of her work to the Ashram, it certainly would not have acted in this manner. After all, who has lost more in this battle, Sudha Sinha or the Ashram? The Hindi speaking disciples and devotees of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have been deprived of excellent translations and the students will no more have the privilege of being taught Hindi by a renowned writer. Sudha Sinha will now get more time to write and continue with her translation of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s works, whether the Trustees approve of it or not. We publish below the two letters which she wrote recently to Manoj Das Gupta.]

SUDHA SINHA

( 21.11.1933)

Mother, let me express Thy Will

 

To

Manoj Das Gupta

Managing Trustee, Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Puducherry

Manoj Das Gupta,

On the evening of 13.03.2012 Mr. Ravi of the Ashram School told me at the Ashram gate not to come for School gate duty from next Sunday. Why? He said that this was your order. I accepted this order in spite of knowing that this was nonsense. In a similar way on 03.05.2011, I was informed over the phone that I should stop translating Sri Aurobindo's works, which had been assigned to me by the Ashram. At the same time, I was informed that my translation of Words of the Mother, Volume 4 (which had been assigned to me by the Ashram) had been stopped at the printing stage. Why? I was informed over the phone that whoever was against "him" would be debarred from doing any work – by him it was meant "you"! Yes, I am against you because you are against Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and I have come hundreds of miles from the place of my birth only for Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. (I am continuing my work of translation; it is due to your foolishness that the Ashram will be deprived of it).

I do another work for the Ashram, that of teaching Hindi to non-Hindi speaking people of the Ashram. Today I have that class. I will tell those persons who are learning Hindi with me that as long as Manoj Das Gupta is Managing Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, I will not take this class, and I will postpone it for the time being.

Whether it is gate duty or teaching Hindi or translation, I have always been offering it humbly to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. How could you connect this with you? Don't be under the notion that you are taking my service. To take service from Sudha Sinha will remain beyond your reach this life.

It would not be inappropriate to mention here my forthcoming book "Anukatha". How Sri Ram got his formal education is the subject matter of this book. After reading the "Yoga Vashishth" of Valmiki, I was astonished that the method followed in the education of Sri Ram is the same that has been propounded by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. This is what is expressed in my book Anukatha. It is not by chance that the foreword of this book has been written by the director of the Shyamaprasad Mukherjee Samsthan (Shyamaprasad Mukherjee whose strong personality was praised by the Mother herself). In this foreword, I have been mentioned as "Vidvan". I asked him with curiosity whether Vidvan had been written instead of Vidushi. He answered, "No, I I used the word "Vidvan" deliberately because I am impressed by the masculine vitality in your work."

This vitality can be attained by anybody, even by you! It would have been so good had this vitality and common sense mentioned by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother developed in the Ashram. Then this danger of the Ashram being usurped by characterless sycophants, brokers, greedy and anti-national elements would not have been there. Not only Ashram, but even Auroville, which has been created by the Mother, has come under the same spell. I had read in my childhood that one rotten fish spoils the entire pond. You are a living example of that.

In the service of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

Sudha Sinha

14.03.2012                                                                                                  

(This letter is not confidential, it can be used by anybody who wants to free the Ashram from the grip of  this national and international mafia.)

*   *    *   *   *

SUDHA SINHA

( 21.11.1933)

To                                                                         

Manoj Das Gupta

Managing Trustee, Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Puducherry

Manoj Das Gupta,

Today my Hindi students asked me to reconsider my decision to stop my Hindi classes. I told them I cannot continue to teach them because I was fed up with the arrogant behaviour of Manoj Das Gupta, the Managing Trustee of the Ashram. Moreover, he had informed me through Shobha Mitra around 3.30 p.m. in the afternoon of 14 March, 2012 to discontinue my classes and deprive you of the benefit of learning Hindi. This order came shortly after the stopping of my gate duty at the Ashram school on the previous day (13.03.2012), which I have mentioned in my last letter.

What is the reason for this sudden stopping of my gate duty and teaching Hindi, which I was doing voluntarily out of my devotion for Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, without taking any benefit from the Ashram? I know that the reason for this stupid action is that you are furious at me for filing a case against you and the other Trustees of the Ashram for supporting Peter Heehs' book denigrating Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. I had warned you long ago in 2005 about Peter Heehs and his suspicious behaviour at the Archives of the Ashram. But you did not listen to me at that time just as you disregarded the warnings of so many eminent members of the Ashram such as Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya and Jugal Kishore Mukherjee. I wrote you several letters after that, but you did not respond positively. In the beginning I thought that my negative assessment of Peter Heehs was purely personal, but later I realised that he had caused anguish to innumerable devotees and disciples of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Yet you kept supporting and protecting Peter Heehs despite the written and oral complaints of so many aggrieved devotees. I conclude therefore that you are not concerned with the welfare of the Ashram and its inmates or devotees outside but that there is a conspiracy and collusion between you and Peter Heehs to disturb the peace of the Ashram and destroy the organisation of the Mother.

Your behaviour of late has convinced me that you are not worth being a Trustee of the Ashram and I have started believing the widespread rumour that you had been made a trustee in highly suspicious circumstances.

Sudha Sinha

15.03.2012