General EditorApril 9, 2013 at 11:55 AM Comment by a senior Ashramite:
The notice on Sri Aurobindo’s Relics published in Mother India is written by Byakta Manoj (Manoj Das) and not by Gupta Manoj (Manoj Das Gupta). Byakta Manoj published this notice to safeguard the power and authority of Gupta Manoj so that people should not take Sri Aurobindo’s sacred Relics privately from anybody else and install them in their centres. But Gupta Manoj himself has started this process of obtaining Relics from private sources – he did it in order to please the so-called leaders of Odisha so that he gets their support in the present crisis. On 7.1.2010, Relics were given to one centre in Odisha from Sri Aurobindo’s room by the late Kumudben, who was then in-charge of Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s rooms. But actually 8 Relics were finally taken to Odisha. When Kumud-ben refused to give more than one Relics, the other 7 Relics were privately collected with the consent of Gupta Manoj from Tara Jauhar (5), Dr Dilip Datta (1), and Dr Salila (1). These were put in seven boxes in the office of Gupta Manoj. On that day, when one box of Relics came from Sri Aurobindo’s Room, 7 other boxes containing Relics were surreptitiously added to the tray before it reached the Meditation Hall downstairs. For this purpose, Gupta Manoj went to Sri Aurobindo’s Room ahead of the scheduled time so that the others would not be able to see where the additional boxes came from. During this period, Pranab-da, who was in his late eighties, went through a lot of tension and this proved fatal to him. As soon as he heard that the 8 boxes of Relics had reached Odisha, he left his body. From this day onwards, people have felt free to collect Relics privately. They now give importance to the Relics and not to the person from whom the Relics have come or by whom they are taken for installation. Therefore Byakta Manoj, Gupta Manoj and the present Trustees have no right to publish such notices in Ashram journals after breaking the procedure themselves. People are now laughing at such notices with which the Trustees are desperately trying to cling to power and authority instead of clinging to the Truth.
