Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Samadhi

Samadhi is a place and construction for keeping in peace the bodies of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

To the north from the Samadhi stands a large Service Tree with its peaceful atmosphere. Its branches give shade to the courtyard around Samadhi.

There are some pillars around Samadhi connected at the top by beams (pergola). The pillars provide the supports for branches of Service Tree and also for the cloth canopy above the Samadhi.

Visitors are warned about keeping silence. Some people siting on the ground in a short distance around, some slouly pass around the Samadhi, some kneel near it.


	Circa 1951 PHOTO ID: 00054 SOURCE: ‘Sri Aurobindo Ashram: The Story of the Main Building’.- 1st ed.- Pondicherry.- 2008, p.117.
	26 April 1951 PHOTO ID: 00052 SOURCE: ‘Sri Aurobindo Ashram: The Story of the Main Building’.- 1st ed.- Pondicherry.- 2008, p.115.
	9 December 1953 PHOTO ID: 00051 SOURCE: ‘Sri Aurobindo Ashram: The Story of the Main Building’.- 1st ed.- Pondicherry.- 2008, p.114.
	February 1957 PHOTO ID: 00053 SOURCE: ‘Sri Aurobindo Ashram: The Story of the Main Building’.- 1st ed.- Pondicherry.- 2008, p.116.
	24 April 1970 PHOTO ID: 00133
	20 November 1973 PHOTO ID: 00130 SOURCE: Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education.- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram.- XXVII 4 11-1975.- P I
	20 November 1974 PHOTO ID: 00132 SOURCE: Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education.- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram.- XXVII 1 02-1975.- P I
	24 November 1973 PHOTO ID: 00131 SOURCE: Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education.- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram.- XXVI 1 02-1974.- P XV
	Library House, south facade 1975 PHOTO ID: 00003 SOURCE: ‘Sri Aurobindo Ashram: The Story of the Main Building’.- 1st ed.- Pondicherry.- 2008, p.11.
	2001 PHOTO ID: 00045 SOURCE: ‘Sri Aurobindo Ashram: The Story of the Main Building’.- 1st ed.- Pondicherry.- 2008, p.97.
	2001 PHOTO ID: 00046 SOURCE: ‘Sri Aurobindo Ashram: The Story of the Main Building’.- 1st ed.- Pondicherry.- 2008, p.98.
	2001 PHOTO ID: 00047 SOURCE: ‘Sri Aurobindo Ashram: The Story of the Main Building’.- 1st ed.- Pondicherry.- 2008, p.99.

2. The place Before 1950

	Courtyard in place of future Samadhi Circa 1929 PHOTO ID: 00048 SOURCE: ‘Sri Aurobindo Ashram: The Story of the Main Building’.- 1st ed.- Pondicherry.- 2008, p.101.
	Courtyard Circa 1932 — 1942 PHOTO ID: 00049 SOURCE: ‘Sri Aurobindo Ashram: The Story of the Main Building’.- 1st ed.- Pondicherry.- 2008, p.103.
	Courtyard 1942 PHOTO ID: 00050 SOURCE: ‘Sri Aurobindo Ashram: The Story of the Main Building’.- 1st ed.- Pondicherry.- 2008, p.109.
	Courtyard 1943 — 1947 PHOTO ID: 00080 SOURCE: ‘Sri Aurobindo Ashram: The Story of the Main Building’.- 1st ed.- Pondicherry.- 2008, p.151.

There were three water tanks in the courtyard that were made around September 1929 during building of the New Secretariat.

When this house was being built, we required some place to wash the bricks. So three cisterns were made, three tanks, and all the bricks of the house were washed there.¹

Some modifications were made by the time the concrete pergola was built in 1942 (see photo 00050). This last structure was demolished in 1950 and the Samadhi was built in the same place.

“There had been an old mango tree there that was withering away. We replaced it with a little copper pod tree with yellow flowers.”³.

The pillars came next. Concrete pergola was built in 1942 to supportt the Service Tree.

“The Service Tree began to grow; the branches began to go on the roof of the old kitchen. When we had to remove the old kitchen, what to do with the branches which were taking support on it, how to support them? So this scaffolding was built, what we call the Sanchi railings were built. They were done by Sammer, the architect from Czechoslovakia, who had come here with Raymond and Nakashima. The three together built Golconde. So this whole construction in the Ashram courtyard was done by Sammer and, at the foot of each pillar, you'll find a square place. You see, the Mother used to come in the evening on the terrace and give meditation. Her idea was to have grass in each square but that could not be done, so pebbles were put.”⁸

The old kitchen “was demolished when the Japanese threw a bomb in Madras and Calcutta [in 1942]. Fearing that something may happen here, we were given training — how to extinguish fires, etc. I told the Mother, ‘Mother, this is alright, but with you here, if something happens on it [the old kitchen], I am sure to go on its roof, which is sure to come down with me.’ Thus the whole thing was demolished.”⁹

After constructing the chamber on the east to intern Sri Aurobindo's body, Udar Pinto was instructed by the Mother to add the small extension on the west to conform to the structure that had been there.

When I went to the Mother, She gave me full instructions about where to bury Sri Aurobindo and asked me to go down to a depth of eight feet. There was already there a construction of sorts on which flower pots were kept and all that had to be broken down and the pit dug up. Some roots of the tree over the place had to be cut and Mother gave precise instructions about this. The whole thing had to be finished in one day as we did not know, at the time, that His body would not decompose, and so we had to work very fast and very hard.

About the digging, which was the most difficult work, I remember two persons who worked very well and very hard. One was a visitor, a Jew, one Dr. H.P. Kaplan, who was staying at Golconde at the time. He worked like four men. It was wonderful to see how well and quickly he worked. The other was our dear Biren, the boxer. He also worked wonderfully. So many of our sadhaks and sadhikas worked and even the children. We needed many persons as we did all the work ourselves and did not bring in our paid workers. Besides the digging, the soil had to be taken away and the hollow blocks of cement concrete had to be brought from the Coco Garden and also the present reinforced concrete slabs, to form the cover of the pit. We dug down to eight feet below the ground level and then we rammed down the earth and laid a layer of about six inches of solid, dense concrete as the base, and this was plastered over to make a good clean floor. Then the four side walls were built, using the concrete hollow blocks from Coco Garden, with the hollows vertical and these hollows were then filled with concrete so that the walls were of solid cement concrete, eight inches thick. We went up about four and a half feet and then levelled off to lay the cover, which was to be of the pre-cast slabs from Coco Garden, about 1.5 inches thick of well reinforced cement concrete. Then the walls were also plastered and the room made ready for the body of the Lord. All this was done in one day, on the 5th December 1950.

But the body of Sri Aurobindo did not decompose; it lay on His bed, with a royal and calm look and with a great and wonderful golden light all around Him. The golden light was really marvellous. His body lay in this state till the morning of the 9th December when the Mother gave Her order to put Him into the coffin we had prepared and to lay Him in the room we had made ready. Although Dr. Sanyal said that decomposition had set in, I was not convinced that it had, as there was no smell at all of decomposition, a very unmistakable smell. But Mother said that as the golden light had withdrawn and a greyness was coming on His face, that was the sign She had received for the burial to take place. But, She allowed me to keep my belief which is that His body will not decompose for thousands of years but will remain, grey in colour and much thinned down by the loss of liquid and with all the features quite intact. I had seen, in my youth, the body of Saint Francis Xavier in Goa and had noted the greyness of the colour of the skin and the shrinkage of the flesh, but that all the features were quite intact, even the eyelashes on the eyes. That is my belief and the Mother did not discourage it. So I had prepared a very, very solid coffin, lined with silver sheet and with a thick and solid cover and a rubber gasket all around and with so many screws that even small bacteria would not be able to enter from outside. I did not want that things from outside should attack His body.

When I lifted His body to place it into the coffin, the whole body was lying in the liquid that had come out of it. Normally such liquids have a very foul smell, but, in this case, the liquid had a celestial perfume that was really wonderful. My whole body, my clothes and all, was soaked with this liquid and it was so good that I did not change my clothes or even bathe for some days, to keep all that wonderful perfume on me.

After His body was laid in the room we had made ready for Him, the concrete slab cover was put on and fully sealed and plastered to make the floor of the room to be built above it. This room was built a bit later in the same way as the lower one, to a height of about four and a half feet, and when it reached its top, it was about two feet above the ground level.

Regarding this second room when the Mother had asked me to build it, I protested as I knew that this room was meant for Herself and I did not want to participate in anything that anticipated Her leaving us. But the Mother was adamant and said to me what She had never said before, ‘I order you to do it!’ After that there was nothing but to obey.

The portion above the ground level, to a height of about 2.5 feet, was built with an added piece to the west, to conform to the original structure which had the flower pots on it. This is the present form of the Samadhi as seen above the ground level. The surface of this was at first just finished with cement plaster and grey washed, to match the rest of the Ashram buildings. The Mother did not want anything elaborate. But, with the constant stream of persons coming to the Samadhi, this surface became soon quite soiled and, before each Darshan, the whole had to be scrubbed and washed and repainted grey This went on for many years and it was only in the mid sixties that the Mother agreed to the marble cladding of the surfaces....

In all, 54 pieces of marble were brought and with these the cladding was done and completed on the evening of the 3rd April 1967, on the eve of the 4th April which is the anniversary of Sri Aurobindo's arrival at Pondicherry.... When the Mother left Her body, the top slab had to be lifted off and for this some of the marble had to be chipped off and replaced by some pieces which we had kept. This second cladding was finished in the night of the 23rd November 1973, the eve of the 24th November, the Siddhi Day.

Sri Aurobindo on the Ashram
Ashram main building	ABOUT SAMADHI
Library House	PHOTOGRAPHS
Meditation House	HISTORY
Secretariat
Rosary House
Sri Aurobindo's rooms
The Mother's rooms
► Samadhi

Circa 09.1929	Making of three water tanks in the courtyard.
05.1930	Planting of Service Tree.
1942	Demolishing of kitchen in the Rosary House.
1942	Building of concrete pergola.
05.12.1950	Building of the Samadhi.