Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India (11 page)

Three other women had an impact in Poddar’s life—Sarojini Devi, Raihana Tyabji and Irene Wolfington. They met Poddar at different stages of his life: Sarojini when he was fifteen and already married; Raihana when he was approaching middle age; and Irene, the spiritual seeker from the United States, in the last decade of Poddar’s life, causing considerable consternation to him and the spiritual world he inhabited.

The story of Sarojini is replete with twists and turns in which, as always, Poddar comes out morally triumphant despite complete surrender by a woman. He becomes the rishi who cannot be drawn by allurement of any kind, even carnal. Poddar first met Sarojini in 1907 and the relationship, if it can be called one, ended in 1911 with Poddar agreeing to accept the sacred aspect of her love, reminiscent of Radha’s for Krishna. She gave him a gold ring, and the two never met again. Sarojini wrote to him many years later telling him she had decided to end her life as her body could not take the pangs of separation any longer. ‘Hindu women accept only one man,’ she wrote. Poddar’s attempts to locate her proved futile. She committed suicide by jumping into the Ganga at Prayag (Allahabad), exemplifying Solomon’s words, ‘There is death, but death by love is an ecstasy, a sweet martyrdom.’
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The ring, Sarojini’s parting token of love, was given away by Poddar to a talented student of Jalandhar Girls School. Poddar remained silent about Sarojini during his active years but narrated the incident to two of his biographers—Gambhirchand Dujari and Bhagwati Prasad Singh—in the last decade of his life, always drawing a parallel between Sarojini and the self-sacrificing Radha.

In her devotion and passion, Irene Wolfington proved to be unlike any other female bhakt Poddar had encountered before. In India since 1963, she had been with the Divine Life Society and Manav Seva Sansthan and by 1965 was sure she did not belong to the USA any more.
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Irene, with her Western liberal education, effortlessly straddled the sacred and the profane. She left behind a massive trail of evidence about her thirst for Hindu spiritualism and emotional dependence on Poddar as well as Swami Chakradhar who was then staying at Gita Vatika.

Swami Chakradhar’s background is shrouded in mystery. Born in Gaya, Bihar, he was known to Jaydayal Goyandka and came to Gorakhpur in 1936. He was rechristened Radha Baba and became some kind of a cult figure within a few years. He and Poddar would get extremely close and a trust, Radha Madhav Seva Sansthan, would later be set up. Gita Vatika now houses the trust as well as a large memorial to Radha Baba.

In 1941, Poddar wrote to Ghanshyam Das Birla about some case against Radha Baba, and sought his help. No copy of this is available, but Birla’s reply reveals that the case related to money: ‘I do not understand why there should be a case against Baba. He used to get money himself and spend. Whether he was keeping an account or not should have concerned only those who donated to him.’
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Birla asked Poddar to provide details but expressed reluctance to get involved, though he said Gandhi should be informed. Poddar promptly sent him another letter that again is unavailable, and Birla wrote back that he had forwarded Poddar’s letter to Gandhi but asked him not to be hopeful.
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Irene’s overwhelming presence in the private papers of Poddar is not reflected in the authorized published works on him. But her relationship with him and Swami Chakradhar is spelt out in a letter Poddar wrote to the then union home minister Gulzarilal Nanda, seeking his intervention to extend Irene’s visa. ‘Unexpectedly, she feels an attraction towards Swami Chakradhar and me. For the past two weeks she has been insistent that I keep her with me and lead her along the spiritual path.’
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As in the case of Sarojini, Poddar distanced himself from Irene’s desire, writing to Nanda: ‘You know I have kept myself away from such things. Neither do I have an ashram nor any special way of sadhana. But I feel this lady’s inclination is read and inspired by god. Ever since she has met me she is pleading me with tearful eyes to let her stay with me.’

Poddar’s interpretation of Irene’s wishes was not quite accurate. In fact, Irene was obsessed with the Swami. Irene had met Chakradhar in Vrindavan and saw in him the perfect guru she was in search of, but her devotion was laden with roadblocks. In March 1965, even as her visa extension was delayed, Irene was more worried about not being able to meet Chakradhar. She wrote to the Swami: ‘I feel like a corked bottle full of fruit juice that is getting fizzier and fizzier! When and how it will blow god alone could guess.’
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As Chakradhar became more and more withdrawn, Irene would get more anxious and pine for him, seeking Poddar’s help. Poddar stepped in, holding out the carrot of visa extension to rein in Irene. In June 1965 he laid out some ground rules for her. ‘Upon my request Sri Nanda has accorded permission to you to stay in India for one year or more, i.e., till 9 June 1966 at the most . . . Instead of loitering here and there all the day you will have to chalk out a daily routine for yourself which would include fixed hours for japa (recitation of mantra), dhyan (meditation), study of healthy literature, observance of mauna (silence).’ Irene was told she could see Swami Chakradhar at fixed hours along with others, and for fifteen minutes alone. Poddar added that his letter had the approval of Baba himself.
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Irene resented Poddar’s diktat. Apart from doubting his claim that the letter had the approval of Baba, Irene hit out at Poddar’s ‘we are conservative’ argument against women getting close to Swami Chakradhar. Her ire against Poddar was building up especially as he had divulged her love for Baba to other women. She was particularly angry that Lalita Dalmia, wife of Vishnu Hari Dalmia, had been told about her ‘affairs’.
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Irene’s visa extension did not come through until December 1965. She eventually left Gita Vatika for Vrindavan and Rishikesh and rechristened herself Manjushri and even Mata Irene. She would occasionally write to Poddar and also sent letters for the Baba with a request that he should read them out to him.

Raihana Tyabji’s life was a contrast to Irene’s, though both were non-Hindus steeped in the Radha tradition. Raihana won a firm place in the hearts of both Gandhi and Poddar. A Sulaimani Bohra Muslim born in Baroda in 1900, she was the daughter of Abbas and Ameena Tyabji. Ameena, the second wife of Abbas, was the daughter of Badruddin Tyabji, president of the Indian National Congress in 1887. The London-educated Abbas retired as chief justice of the Baroda High Court and he and his wife were part of the inner circle of Baroda ruler Sayaji Rao III. Post-retirement, he became an active Congress leader, took to khadi and adopted other aspects of the Gandhian lifestyle. He headed Congress’s fact-finding committee on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919. Abbas played an important role in the salt satyagraha and earned for himself the epithet ‘grand old man of Gujarat’ from Gandhi. Raihana’s sister Sohaila was the mother of eminent historian Irfan Habib.

While Raihana’s first meeting with Gandhi in 1915 in Bombay and subsequent intimate relationship are known through scores of letters in the
Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi
, the Poddar Papers as well as the vast body of hagiographies on him are silent on how Poddar and Raihana met.
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Raihana’s relationship with Gandhi and Poddar was complex, multilayered and seemingly contradictory. (Interestingly, Gandhi destroyed Raihana’s letters to him.) Credited for ‘having taught Urdu to the Mahatma and for having encouraged him to incorporate verses from the Qur’an into his prayer meetings’,
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Raihana was also a brilliant singer of bhajans who would perform at Gandhi’s ashrams and annual sessions of the Congress. Gandhi acknowledged her beautiful voice: ‘But I should prize your presence even if you had not that rich melodious voice.’
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He addressed Raihana variously as ‘Mad Raihana’, ‘Raihana the Crazy’ and at other times ‘beloved daughter’.
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He would often invite her to Sevagram Ashram in spite of the fact that she did not attempt tasks like spinning.
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Raihana differed with Gandhi on the latter’s experiments with brahmacharya (abstinence from sex) but became one of ‘Bapu’s brahmachari soldiers’ by choosing to remain unmarried for life—a decision that was taken either due to the break- up of her ‘possible engagement to a first cousin’ or because of the leucoderma she suffered from.
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Gandhi engaged with Raihana at all levels, personal and public.

It is likely that by the time Raihana came in contact with Poddar, her masterpiece
The Heart of a Gopi
, written over three days in 1924 ‘with sheets of foolscap and poised pen’, was already being discussed—even though it was published only in 1936.
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The stupendous success of
The Heart of a Gopi
, as Lambert-Hurley argues, was in the tradition of Kabir, Bulleh Shah and Raskhan, an attempt to ‘inhabit the shifting ground between faith groups’ and rejection of ‘an exclusively Hindu or Muslim paradigm’.
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While her relationship with Gandhi had myriad hues, Poddar was Raihana’s Krishna and she his gopi or Meera. She was not alone in her devotion to Poddar: Saroj Nanavati, daughter of Justice D.D. Nanavati, whom Raihana had befriended in the early 1930s during her research at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona, was equally enamoured, though less assertive. Saroj and Raihana lived for a few years with the Gandhian Kaka Kalelkar in his ashram in Wardha and later the three moved to the Gandhi ashram in Delhi.
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Poddar asked Raihana and Saroj to destroy the letters he wrote to them, but the rich cache in the Poddar Papers show that both he and his two ‘gopis’ wanted their ‘sacred relationship’ to survive. Though both Raihana and Saroj sought his attention, it was Raihana—full of tantrums, unusually dramatic and exceptionally forthright—who dominated Poddar’s heart. For the world, Poddar was simply their elder brother and they his sisters, but there was an undercurrent of mystique, an unknown factor, that ran through their relationship.

Praising an article Raihana had written for
Kalyan
, Poddar expressed admiration of her love for Krishna. ‘I know you are a true Muslim. I do not want you to become less of a Muslim. My Krishna is not of Hindus alone. He belongs to a gopi’s heart. Wherever there is a reflection of gopi’s heart, Krishna exists and he is willing to give everything.’
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In this long letter it also comes out that Raihana wanted Gita Press to publish
The Heart of a Gopi
. Poddar came up with a convoluted and unconvincing defence for not having published the book: ‘Kakasaheb (Kalelkar) also explained to me. If there was even a slight possibility of allegation against you of having become a Hindu I would not have liked to publish it from Gita Press . . . You are a true Muslim. I do not want anyone to suspect you after reading The Heart of a Gopi.’ Poddar added that though Kalelkar called
The Heart of a Gopi
a literary work, and some other person had said the book was a flight of emotions and had nothing for the nation, he thought the book was beyond literature and emotion.

Raihana’s reply reveals a mind totally immersed in Krishna; she saw Poddar as his personification and was in no mood to distinguish between the two. Ecstatic with devotion, Raihana said she had not stopped crying since receiving Poddar’s reply. For her, all that mattered was pining for Krishna and living in close proximity to him. Literally and metaphorically, Raihana saw Poddar as her Krishna whose words were those of God. Despite her devotion to Poddar, Raihana defied him on one count. Poddar had asked her to destroy his letter, but she replied, ‘Bhai Saheb, I should destroy your letter! Oh god! Shouldn’t I kill myself before that? I am able to listen to his voice and you want me to strangulate that. What kind of a cruel order is this? Do not be afraid. Your words inspired by Krishna would not pass through any incompetent or unsuitable person. Bhai Saheb your words are a gift from Krishna.’
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Raihana’s veneration had its impact on Poddar. In his subsequent letters to her, Poddar told her he was at the mercy of Krishna and totally unaware of what was in store for him. ‘By birth I am a varnashrami (one who believes in the four stages of life) Hindu but in reality I am nobody. I belong to my Krishna. If Krishna keeps me as his own I can accept anything . . .’ He described, in greater detail than in his previous letter, the various forms of Krishna, his playfulness and the personal and spiritual amelioration that bhakti to him promised. Poddar told Raihana he had been possessed by a kind of magic similar to that which had engulfed her. He thanked his fate for giving him sisters like Raihana and Saroj and trusted in the relationship remaining pure and truthful.
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Raihana’s reply was more intense than her previous letter. She told Poddar his letter gave her immense succour: ‘I cannot do without reading it once daily. Every time I keep thinking of one thing or the other you have written.’
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Still at Dalmia’s factory in Dadri, Poddar wrote to Raihana about his various experiences of Krishna, in his dreams, in his thoughts and even fantasies. Surprised by the open and fearless tone of Raihana’s letter, Poddar admitted he had also never been so free with any of his associates, friends and those who revered him: ‘What I write to you is a fact, not my imagination or mere writing skill. I do not know how these things have been revealed to you. Only Krishna knows. I cannot tell you how my love for you is growing. My Krishna is your friend. What kind of pleasure and what kind of relationship is this? The question of Hindu–Muslim is outside the realm of our relationship. What has that got to do with us? I like your unfettered behaviour.’
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Poddar’s papers are silent on his relationship with Raihana and Saroj after Independence. From the Gandhi ashram in Delhi, Raihana offered ‘spiritual guidance as comfort to those with mental difficulties’
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and corresponded with the likes of Mary Cushing Niles, management consultant from America. Raihana became close friends with Niles who would often confide her problems at work, as well as in her marriage and with her daughters. Their correspondence also shows how Niles reviewed in ‘detail several of her own past incarnations as they were “seen” by Tyabji’.
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