Presentation of Sri Aurobindo's Portrait

to the Rashrapathi Bhavan on 15th August 1959

When Tara Didi while on a Pilgrimage from Pondicherry to North India and Kashmir had come to Delhi first and happened to meet the then President, Dr.Rajendra Prasad, in Rashtrapathi Bhavan, had asked him as to why among all the portraits of great men of India in the Art Gallery, Sri Aurobindo's was missing. The President appreciated her point and agreed for the same. Surendra Nath Jauhar received a phone call from Rashtrapathi Bhavan the next day for a portrait of the Master. He wrote to the Mother accordingly. The Mother entrusted the painting of this portrait to an eminent artist of the Abanindra School of Oriental Arts, Calcutta, Shri Promode Kumar Chatterjee, residing in the Ashram.

The Mother called the coincidence of Sri Aurobindo's birthday and India's Independence as "15th August - the eternal birthday".

Sri Aurobindo has called this wonderful coincidence as "the sanction and seal of the Divine Force"

On the 15th August 1959 at 11 am the portrait was taken in a procession of cars from the Delhi Branch of Sri Aurobindo Ashram to the Rashrapathi Bhavan. In a brief programme attended by the Vice President, Dr. Radhakrishnan and the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the portrait was presented to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan.