The statue of Sri Aurobindo near the running track of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Delhi Branch, New Delhi.
Sculptor: unknown
Bronze bust by Elsa Fraenkel. This was the first sculpture of Sri Aurobindo which was displayed in his room. Present location: Sri Aurobindo Library, Puducherry 
Bust by Erna Rose King, 1964. Mother’s comment on this bust: “The vast calm simplicity of his forehead, reflecting the perfect peace of total knowledge.” Many casts have been made of this statue. Two are in Puducherry (Reception Room, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, and Hall of Harmony, SAICE), others are in England. 
Bust of Sri Aurobindo near the Meditation Hall of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Delhi branch. Sculptor: B.V. Wagh, Mumbai 
Bust of Sri Aurobindo near the Meditation Hall of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Delhi branch. Sculptor: B.V. Wagh, Mumbai 
Bust by unknown sculptor. Present location: a street in Karadi village near Navasari in Gujarat. 
Sri Aurobindo in death. Sculptor: unknown. Present location: Sri Aurobindo Library, Puducherry. 
Bust of Sri Aurobindo. Sculptor: Ruth Steiger. Present location: Sri Aurobindo Library, Puducherry. 
Bust by Purani. Present location: unknown. 
Table-top statuette by Luciano Gabrielli, Galliate, Italy. Present location: unknown. 
Bronze statue of Sri Aurobindo by unknown sculptor. Location: Sri Aurobindo Bhavan, Kolkata. 
Marble statue by Hirishikesh Das Gupta, offered to The Mother on August 15, 1973. Present location: Sri Aurobindo Library, Puducherry. |
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“Oh, I've had some very interesting revelations on this point, on the way people think and feel about it. I remember someone once made a little statue of Sri Aurobindo; he gave it a potbelly and ... anyway, to me it was ridiculous. So I said, ‘How could you make such a thing?!' He explained that even if it's a caricature for the ordinary eye, since it's an image of the one you consider God, or a god, or an Avatar, since it's the image of the one you worship, even if only a guru, it contains the spirit and the force of his presence, and this is what you worship, even in a crude form, even if the form is a caricature to the physical eye.
Someone made a large painting of Sri Aurobindo and myself, and they brought it here to show me. I said, ‘Oh, it's dreadful!'
It was ... to the physical eye it was really dreadful. ‘It's dreadful,' I said, ‘we can't keep it.'
Then immediately someone asked me for it, saying, ‘I'm going to put it up in my house and do my puja before it.' Ah! ... I couldn't help saying, ‘But how could you put up a thing like that!' (It wasn't so much ugly as frightfully banal.) ‘How can you do puja before something so commonplace and empty!' This person replied, ‘Oh, to me it's not empty! It contains all the presence and all the force, and I shall worship it as that: the Presence and the Force.'
All this is based on the old idea that whatever the image – which we disdainfully call an ‘idol' – whatever the external form of the deity may be, the presence of the thing represented is always there. And there is always someone – whether priest or initiate, sadhu or sannyasi – someone who has the power and (usually this is the priest's work) who draws the Force and the Presence down into it. And it's true, it's quite real – the Force and the Presence are THERE; and this (not the form in wood or stone or metal) is what is worshipped: this Presence.
Europeans don't have the inner sense at all. To them, everything is like this (gesture), a surface – not even that, a film on the surface. And they can't feel anything behind. But it's an absolutely real fact that the Presence is there – I guarantee it. People have given me statuettes of various gods, little things in metal, wood or ivory; and as soon as I take one in my hand, the god is there. I have a Ganesh (I have been given several) and if I take it in my hand and look at it for a moment, he's there. I have a little one by my bedside where I work, eat, and meditate. And then there is a Narayana which comes from the Himalayas , from Badrinath. I use them both as paperweights for my handkerchiefs! (My handkerchiefs are kept on a little table next to my bed, and I keep Ganapati I and Narayana on top of them.) And no one touches them but me – I pick them up, take a fresh handkerchief, and put them back again. Once I blended some nail polish myself, and before applying it, I put some on Ganapati's forehead and stomach and fingertips! We are on the best of terms, very friendly. So to me, you see, all this is very true.
Only....
Narayana came first. I put him there and told him to stay and be happy. A while later, I was given a very nice Ganapati; so I asked Narayana – I didn't ask his permission, I told him, ‘Don't be angry, you know, but I'm going to give you a companion; I like you both very much, there's no preference; the other is much better looking, but you, you are Narayana!' I flattered him, I told him pleasant things, and he was perfectly happy.
It has always been like that for me – always. And I have never, never had the religious sense at all – you know, what people call this kind of ... what they have in religions, especially in Europe . I see only the English word for it: awe, like a kind of terror. This always made me laugh! But I have always felt what's behind, the presences behind.”
(The Mother to Satprem as recorded in Mother's Agenda, April 29, 1961)
The statue of Sri Aurobindo in Calcutta
Satprem: There's a practical problem, Mother concerning the statue of Sri Aurobindo in Calcutta . You know that the Government of Bengal decided to erect a statue of Sri Aurobindo in place of Lord Curzon's – the very man who had sought the division of Bengal , and Sri Aurobindo had tried to stop him.
Sri Aurobindo would take the place of Lord Curzon, across from the “Victoria Memorial.” It's at the entrance to Calcutta .
That's what they decided in principle. Then the government of Bengal was overturned and their decision wasn't put into legal terms, so now everything is pending. Now to restore the momentum, the people of “Pathmandir” have to do something. But the people of Pathmandir have another idea. They purchased some time ago the house where Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta ....
Mother: Ah!
And they propose, instead of putting the statue of Sri Aurobindo on a public street, to put it in the house where Sri Aurobindo was born.
But would it be in the open?
No, it will be in the house.
But no one will see it, then!
That's what I think too. But they say, their argument is: if we put it in the house, it will be protected – the crows will not make a mess on it, and the students won't decapitate it!
Are the students of Bengal against Sri Aurobindo?
No, no, Mother! But it so happens they decapitated the statue of Gandhi, for instance!
(With a smile) Ooh!
For Sri Aurobindo himself, it's better in the house – it's more in keeping with his temperament and character. For the people, it's better outside.
Yes, certainly. A statue is made to be in public, so the image is there for everyone to see.
Yes, but if they are likely to damage it or .... That should be absolutely avoided .... I don't know, they're mad there – they're mad everywhere. They're mad here too.
Here too, it came here, the same idea of killing, destroying .... It's everywhere. It's as if the whole vital world had descended on earth (gesture of a crushing mass).
I wouldn't want anything to happen to the statue.
Yes, Mother, but in my opinion, the statue loses its meaning if it isn't in public. If it's put in a house, it loses its meaning.
Obviously! Obviously.
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