This question did cross my mind when I had visited the place and had the Grace of resting in the room where Champaklal ji lived during the last few months.Β
While there could be a number of reasons ranging from the most mundane which includes his attachment to Gujarat which may have come up subsequent to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother’s physical withdrawal. Being intimately linked with them at every level it wouldn’t have been easy for him to stay there with all the physical memories around. In fact he started going out and visiting places all over the world after the Mother’s physical withdrawal as Her greatest representative. But there surely must be other reasons such as past associations with persons that needed to be worked out. This place or rather the area around the place was, in far back times a hub of the Indus Valley civilisation. Who knows what stamp of memories it contains. However what came to me intuitively was very simply that Champaklal ji was sent to Gujarat on behalf of Sri Aurobindo as this was the land that had once given space to the Lord. It is here (Gujarat) that the seeds of spirituality began to blossom in Sri Aurobindo’s life. Yet due to the freedom movement Sri Aurobindo had to come away abruptly leaving behind, who knows, many who would have missed him and longed for his touch. Perhaps Champaklal ji was paying here the debt of the Divine to the land and people of Gujarat for having sheltered the Lord. Among all the other places, Jantral was perhaps best suited where he could remain in relative isolation surrounded by a natural canopy of trees fulfilling also his wish to spend some days in such an isolation. This is what I intuitively felt though men of his stature are not bound by any human reason. The rules and norms of ordinary life do not apply to them. It was also an example for all that outer conditions matter little and the Divine is always with his lover and devotee regardless of Time, place and circumstances.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
