Personalia / Sujata Nahar

Sujata Nahar

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(12.12.1925, Calcutta — 04.05.2007), spent her early childhood in Santiniketan’s cultural atmosphere under poet Rabindranath Tagore. At the age of seven she lost her mother. Her father, Prithwi Singh Nahar, his world shattered, searched for another dimension to his life. He found Sri Aurobindo and Mother at Pondicherry. His children followed him there one by one. Thus Sujata, who first came to Sri Aurobindo in 1935, at the age of nine, decided to remain near him in May (29th) 1938. She lived in Pondicherry for forty-three years.

At first, she received private tutoring, became secretary to Pavitra, an eminent French mathematician, chemist and engineer, who was Mother’s right-hand man. Sujata also worked with him in his laboratory, where she made a variety of preparations for Mother. She was very actively involved in the new physical education devised by Mother.

Satprem arrived at the beginning of 1954. A young man just turned thirty, he taught the top students and assisted Pavitra with the correspondence. Thus Satprem and Sujata came together. Eventually Mother started to make him the confidant of her experiences and asked him to help her with the French translation of Sri Aurobindo’s books. Mother then entrusted Sujata with the typing of her private conversations with Satprem, the ‘Agenda.’ From 1965 onwards Sujata regularly accompanied Satprem to his meetings with Mother.

After 1973, when Mother left her body, the Ashram changed from a living experiment to a stereotyped institution. In 1978 — Mother’s centenary year — the Ashram trustees ‘expelled’ Satprem, because of the trilogy he had written on Mother’s life and experiment.

From 1978 onwards, Satprem and Sujata lived far away from Pondicherry (mostly in Harwood, Nilgiri), devoting themselves to edition of the 13 volumes of the Agenda and to their sadhana.

In 9th April 2007 Satprem leaved his body at the age of 84. After a month, in May 4 2007, Sujata also leaved her body. About last days of Satprem and Sujata see Nirmal Singh Nahar (elder brother of Sujata Nahar). On Satprem and Sujata: An Interview By Anurag Banerjee

Sujata Nahar is the author of Mother’s Chronicles, a biography of Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

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