Mohan Mistry

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Mohan Mistry is an inmate of the Ashram. He is best known for his devotional songs in Sanskrit, Hindi and Gujarati on The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, set to music by himself.

He was born in 1937 in a music loving family in Navasari. From his very early boyhood he had a great love for music, especially devotional music. He has been mainly self trained though he had learned classical music for seven years in a regular music school at Navasari. He studied in a Parasi school. Later he worked as a music teacher in TATA school at Navasari. His father passed away in 1950 and his family had hard time. He was a volunteer in Sevadal music group during opening of ATUL by Jawaharlal Nehru. During 1956-57, he went to Shivanand Ashram, met Shri Vinoba Bhave and walked with him from Vyara to Surat.

From the young age he was in search of a Guru. Once while walking at Lunsi Kui area in Navsari on 15th Aug 1958, accidentally he saw some people coming out from a bungalow. He went in out of curiosity and when he saw there the photos of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, something clicked within and after that he became their devoted child. Then after he joined the Ashram in 1960 on 23rd April. The Mother gave him the mantra — “Sri Aravind Saranam Mama”.

Initially he worked at Dinning Room, Art Gallery and Corner House. After that he worked at Ashram’s Electric and Water Service Department till 1978. He has done photography for 10 years and he is one of the official photographers of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. He worked in Sri Aurobindo’s room from 1986 to 2002.

He developed further in the field of music with the Grace of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo after joining Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1960. He learnt Sitar for 5 years in the Ashram, learnt western music and he used to play piano for 3 hours for many years. He was closely connected to Champaklal and sung his ’Prarthanaa Ane Udgaro’. Many people know of him through his ’Dhyana’ Series of musical CDs played in the study circles of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo all over the world. At present he is a full time music teacher in Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry, where he teaches the young students of the Ashram school and Ashram inmates. Apart from these he sings occasionally other devotional songs on Meerabai, Kabir and Nanak. He has traveled widely to Europe and U.S.A. at the invitation of devotees of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother to give musical performances.

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