You stood in grandeur—sombre, austere, still! A little pale and worn out but MAJESTIC like our MASTER!

Oh! what joy it must have been—what a thrill—when He touched you for the first time. Did you ever imagine even in a dream that the Master of the Universe would come one day and you would serve Him? What a splendid fate! What did you feel when His gaze caressed you—an inner joy indeed! And when He opened your doors and searched for something—opened this drawer or another—surely you must have pushed the object forward into His hands so that He might not have to search. Didn't He look surprised and smile His beatific smile? Weren't you proud of your service? Indeed! How could you not be? And when He wrote His immortal works sitting in the same room—the room vibrating with His thoughts—you must, have felt that vibration and tried to respond in your own way. What a splendid life!

And then one day He left the Shankar Chetty house. Were you sad? No, never. How could you be? You had also become a yogi in your attitude. You just stayed in that house still in meditation—doing your own Sadhana whereas other objects used by Him went pell-mell here and there.

Then when His 75th anniversary of coming to Pondy was celebrated, you looked out with eagerness for some old once-familiar faces—His associates. Oh! how can that be? We are human beings, we serve Him and pass away to come back again in new forms. Not like you, solid and firm in faith and body!

Perhaps you grew a little weary—perhaps not? Years passed. You remained in the same house as a sentinel to His memory. His 85th anniversary of arrival passed quietly and lo! here you are in His Ashram's main-building solid, majestic—ready to serve Him again! Men will come and go but you will go on in your service to Him, the great Lord.

AN ADMIRER

(Of the Almirah used by Sri Aurobindo when He came to Pondicherry and stayed in the Shankar Chetty House.)