Krishna Tewari: clarification

In the October issue, the obituary of Krishna Tewari stated that, after attending the inauguration ceremony at the beginning of Matrimandir, he and his family wanted to join the Ashram and Auroville immediately, “but The Mother forbade him to do so”.

His daughter, Deepti, explains. “After he visited the Ashram and had The Mother’s darshan in February 1972, Krishna had put in his resignation asking for premature retirement from the Indian Army. He wrote this to the Mother. She immediately had one of her secretaries get back to Krishna with very forceful instructions, repeated 4 times.

To quote from Krishna’s book:

“She said it four times, ‘He is not to leave the army. He must continue in service. He must not leave the Army. We shall decide when he will leave the Army’”

So the refusal was in relation to his giving up his army career and had nothing to do with Auroville. He continued to serve in the Indian Army for another 4 years until his superannuation in December, 1976.”

Krishna and his family joined Auroville soon after.