Talk on Savitri by Udar Pinto | Early Disciple of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Pondicherry | The Mother

No. 5 Rue St. Gilles is on the street in the French Quarter of Pondicherry directly behind the main compound of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. “Golconde Guest House” is just a block down the street from this large French Colonial-style structure that the Mother had named “Fenêtres” (Windows). This is home to Udar Pinto, his English wife Mona, manager extraordinaire of Golconde, and their daughter Gauri, a teacher at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education. Sri Aurobindo gave Udar (Generous) and Gauri (another name for Durga meaning the Fair One) their names but asked that Mona keep her own name as it reminded him of the Mona Lisa. At “Fenêtres” one enters into a glorious courtyard ablaze with vibrant colors of bougainvillea, marigolds, roses, other types of flowering plants, graceful arrangements of potted plants and an upstairs terrace filled with orchids. Gauri’s animals (she rescues cats and dogs from the streets of Pondicherry and nurses them back to health) either playfully greet one at the door or in the case of some dogs stand back and snarl and growl suspiciously until one’s purpose in visiting is cleared to their canine satisfaction.
Upstairs Udar has his quarters with a large vestibule where one can sit and wait for him. He then greets guests in his expansive sitting room with his faithful servant nearby. His bedroom is off to the side. I shall always remember these rooms as my first public darshan of the Mother was viewed from that very space since Udar’s quarters look out onto the balcony adjoining Mother’s rooms. That darshan was February 21, 1968; some thirty-two years ago! Udar had broken his hip in 1999 and was recuperating at home after being in the Ashram nursing facility for some time. When I entered the room he was seated in a very large, high wheelchair; very high above my own chair. He appeared so stately and in command that this gave me the impression of sitting before a ruling monarch of empyrean stature. In fact he told me that when the Ashram school staged “Perseus the Deliverer”, one of Sri Aurobindo’s plays, he had played the role of King Cepheus. One day he went to the Mother in his costume. When she saw him she said, “Udar, I know where I have seen you before, you were at one time a Roman emperor!”
Udar told me that he was born in Hubli in Karnataka (near Goa) in April of 1907. His father was a businessman there and did many things for the town of Hubli. The road they lived on was called Pinto Road. His father had originally come from Goa. Goa was colonized by the Portuguese and long back Udar’s family had taken on the Portuguese name of Pinto and had completely lost all contact with their original Indian name. He studied at the Good School in Goa and was brought up in the Catholic Church. He said he was a good Catholic and took his religion seriously as a young man. Later he began to find some rather foolish things in all religions which is what ultimately led him to Sri Aurobindo. He passed his exams in Hubli and was sent to Mussoorie in the mountains of north India for further study. He wanted to take a degree in engineering and was being prepared for that goal. However, by that time he had become rather unruly and was thrown out of school. This was to be a turning point in his life. He stated that if he had remained there he would have graduated, gotten a good job and settled down to a “humdrum” life. After he was thrown out he attended another school in Belgaum and from there went on to Bombay to the Royal Institute of Science for a degree in engineering. He was then sent to England in 1929 where he spent four years and earned a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the London University. However, there was nothing for him to do. There were no airplanes in India at that time so he had to go into business. He settled down in Pondicherry in 1935 because it had a reputation for being a good place to do business. He tried it out for two years and it proved to be prosperous. All of his friends were connected with the Ashram but at that time he was not interested nor did he ever visit the Ashram. He was a young man and a bon vivant. His friends came to his home for sumptuous dinners and whisky and sodas and “all kinds of things”, he said. They would go back and tell the Mother stories of their visits to Pinto’s house. She would say, “That Pinto fellow is spoiling my children and I will catch him one day.” “Finally, she did,” Udar said.
Udar had met his beloved Mona while attending school in England and she waited three years for him while he got settled in Pondicherry. Finally, in 1937, he sent for her and they were married. Their daughter, Gauri, was born at the end of that year in November.

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