Centenary Celebrations of

Sri Aurobindo’s Visit to Surat

 

REPORT

 

Surat Branch had planned to celebrate the centenary of Sri Aurobindo’s visit to Surat in a dignified, serene and spiritual manner. By Grace the aspiration was fulfilled.

 Centenary Celebrations of Sri Aurobindo’s visit to Surat were organised on a large scale and on all India level, on 24, 25 and 26^th of December 2007. About 200 Active Workers from 50 different Centres and Branches from of India and about 200 devotees from Surat participated fully. In the town hall in the evening the audience numbered to about 600.

 24-12-07: Holy Relics of Sri Aurobindo were received with full dignity at the Surat Branch. There was meditation with the Ashram music and then the members of the Branch chanted Sri Aurobindo Upanishad in Sanskrit.

 25-12-07: In the morning all gathered at the Centre and the Relics were enshrined in complete silence, collectively by Shri Vijay N. Poddar, Taradidi, Shri Manoj Das and Shri  Aniruddha Smart. There was collective meditation with Ashram music before and after enshrinement.

 After the enshrinement all went to the “French Garden” area, the place, where the historic Annual Convention of the Indian National Congress was held 100 years ago and for which Sri Aurobindo had specially come to Surat. Sri Manij Das (Pondicherry) and Shri Vijay N. Poddar (Pondicherry) addressed the audience and transported everyone back into the history. There was collective singing of Vande Mataram, led by Shri Mohanbhai Mistri (Pondicherry).

 In the evening in the town hall Shri Vijay N. Poddar (Pondicherry) was the main speaker and talked on Resurgent India. Shri Manoj Das talked on “Indian Spirit and the World Today.

 26-12-07: Delegates Conference as held in the morning and the topic was “Our Work Ahead”. Shri S. C. Tyagi (Saharanpur), Shri Sharad Joshi (Vadodara), Shri Thiruvenkatam (Coimbatore), Shri Kireet Thakkar (Vadodara), Shri J. P. Sing (Sultanpur) expressed their ideas. Shri Vijay K Poddar (Delhi), Shri Hanskumar Mankad (Vadodara), Sri Ajit Sabnish (Bangalore) and Shri Vijay N. Poddar (Pondicherry) Summed up and concluded.

 Visit to a diamond factory of a devotee was arranged in the afternoon. Sri Aurobindo’s full life size statue, (same as that of the Parliament House) is installed at the factory and there is also a beautiful meditation hall where full size oil painted portraits of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are installed. There was collective meditation in the meditation hall.

 In the evening in the town hall Shri Manoj Das (Pondicherry) was the main speaker. He talked on “Sri Aurobindo in Surat”. Shri Aniruddha Smart gave a talk on “The Eternal Relegion”. A book titled “Sri Aurobindo in Surat” was released and introduced by the author Hiranmayi Smart (Surat). The function concluded with a dramatic recreation of “Sri Aurobindo in Surat” in Gujarati; managed by Shri Hitesh Jariwala and directed-acted by Shri Shailendra Vadnere and group.