On France

Its action was chiefly destructive. It prepared many things, it founded nothing.

It was an unsuccessful attempt, but even the failure changed the face of Europe. And this effect was chiefly due to the force, the enthusiasm, the sincerity with which the idea was seized upon and the thoroughness with which it was sought to be applied. The cause of the failure was the defect of knowledge, the excess of imagination.

The action of the French Revolution was the vehement death-dance of Kali trampling blindly, furiously on the ruins She made, mad with pity for the world and therefore utterly pitiless.

Sri Aurobindo > Early Cultural Writings > Historical Impressions

Napoleon was one of the mightiest of vibhutis, one of the most dominant.

The work of Bonaparte was wholly admirable. It is true that he took freedom for a season from France, but France was not then fit for democratic freedom. She had to learn discipline for a while under the rule of the soldier of Revolution. He could not have done the work he did, hampered by an effervescent French Parliament ebullient in victory, discouraged in defeat. He had to organise the French Revolution so far as earth could then bear it, and he had to do it in the short span of an ordinary lifetime. He had also to save it. The aggression of France upon Europe was necessary for self-defence, for Europe did not mean to tolerate the Revolution. She had to be taught that the Revolution meant not anarchy, but a reorganisation so much mightier than the old that a single country so reorganised could conquer united Europe. That task Napoleon did effectively. It has been said that his foreign policy failed, because he left France smaller than he found it. That is true. But it was not Napoleon's mission to aggrandise France geographically. He did not come for France, but for humanity, and even in his failure he served God and prepared the future.

Sri Aurobindo > Early Cultural Writings > Historical Impressions

The modern Frenchman closely allied by his clear habit of mind to the old Athenian, himself lucid in thought, light in temper and not without a supreme felicity of method in practical things, evinces much the same sentiments, pursues much the same ideals. He too has a happily-adjusted executive machinery, elaborated indeed to fit the needs of a modern community, but pervaded by a thoroughly clear and logical spirit. He also has a passionate craving for equality and a large and just social principle, and prefers to conserve the high calibre of his national character by the infusion of light, gaiety and happiness into the common life of the people. And he too has so far compassed his ideal that a consensus of competent observers have pronounced France certainly the happiest, and, taken in the mass, the most civilized of modern countries.

Sri Aurobindo > CWSA > Bande Mataram > New Lamps for Old - V

And after seeing what England has produced by her empiricism, her culture of a raw energy, her exaltation of a political method not founded on reason, we must see what France has produced by her steady, logical pursuit of a fine social ideal: it is the Paris ouvrier with his firmness of grasp on affairs, his sanity, his height of mind, his clear, direct ways of life and thought,—it is the French peasant with his ready tact, his power of quiet and sensible conversation, located in an enjoyable corner of life, small it may be, but with plenty of room for wholesome work and plenty of room for refreshing gaiety. There we have the strong side of France, a lucid social atmosphere, a firm executive rationally directed to insure a clearly conceived purpose, a high level of character and refinement pervading all classes and a scheme of society bestowing a fair chance of happiness on the low as well as the high.

Sri Aurobindo > CWSA > Bande Mataram > New Lamps for Old - VI

For years the British intelligence tried to get hold of Sri Aurobindo. There were several attempts to even get him kidnapped, which failed because the French did not give in.

One story goes that seditious literature was planted, through a ruse, in the well of the house in which he then lived. When the planted consignment was unearthed Sri Aurobindo asked that the police be informed. The investigating magistrate, M Nandot, a Frenchman, who came with the Police Chief of Pondicherry, was so impressed with Sri Aurobindo's vast collection of books and papers in Greek and Latin, all scattered around, that he was convinced that a person who was steeped in Greek and Latin could never indulge in illegal acts. Nandot exclaimed, "Il sait du latin, Il sait du grec" ("He knows Latin, he knows Greek!") and left, "the prosecutors became friends and admirers." For the French, Sri Aurobindo was an honoured political exile, entitled to their protection."

Source

British ingenuity surpassed all efforts of the past, when in a final attempt of sorts to nab Sri Aurobindo, they made an "attempt to exchange France's Indian possessions", especially Pondicherry, "for certain areas in the West Indies." It is said that the Mother's (Mirra Alfassa) brother Matteo Alfassa, a formidable administrator in the French administration, without any hesitation, transferred the mischievous file from the tray of documents to be ratified to a hidden corner of his drawer, thereby into oblivion. Sri Aurobindo is said to have remarked about him: “It is men like him who built up France and also made it possible for the Ashram to continue here”

Raymond Poincaré administration, between 1913 and 1920, thus "firmly decided against the proposal”. Pondicherry remained French, and Sri Aurobindo continued his tapasya there."

Source

Also read: Sri Aurobindo > CWSA Vol. 36 > The Future Union (A Programme)

After independence and partition on 15 August 1947, there still remained the Portuguese and French possessions in India, and Sri Aurobindo naturally felt particularly concerned about the latter. At about this time, the leader of the French Cultural Commission, Maurice Schumann, met Sri Aurobindo with the French Indian Governor, M. Baron, to explore the possibility of opening an Institute in Pondicherry for the study of Indian and European culture. Sri Aurobindo's suggestion to the Indian and French Governments was that, while Pondicherry and the other French areas should certainly merge with India immediately, they should also have the right to retain their cultural (as distinct from political) contacts with France. The Indian Government wouldn't agree to this at the time, but after Sri Aurobindo's passing, when the unhappy stalemate continued, Surendra Mohan Ghose was asked by C. Rajagopalachari, then Chief Minister of Madras, to meet the Mother and request her to use her good influence to bring about a settlement.

Sri Aurobindo - a biography and a history > Pg. 754

All the students of this class were grown-ups. We were about ten or twelve: Pavitra-da, Nolini-da, Amrita-da, Kalyan-da, Dayakar, Ranju, Amiyo and we five girls, Minnie-di, Millie-di, Tehmi-ben, Violette and I.

The Mother would come to the class immediately after finishing Her game of tennis. We had almost everyday a dictation..... After the dictation everyone had to recite poems. Even Nolini-da, Pavitra-da and Amritada had to do it. No one could escape this. And everyone got nervous in front of the Mother. I have recited a lot of poems before the Mother: Les Elfes by Le Conte de Lisle, Liberté by Paul Eluard, Booz Endormi, La Conscience by Victor Hugo, the famous poem Ballade de Florentin Prunier by Georges Duhamel and other poems by reputed poets. Minnie-di once recited a poem most beautifully in her sweet voice. We were all enchanted. Tehmi-ben, in her lovely voice, recited the very well-known poem by Paul Verlaine "Il pleure dans mon coeur/ Comme il pleut sur la ville".

The Mother would Herself read out each of the poems that were recited to Her. If only we could have recorded those poems in the Mother's voice! It was only after listening to the Mother that I understood how words combined with music and rhythm in order to bring out the actual meaning of the poem.

In this French class, the Mother read out from works of Molière, Racine, Corneille, Anatole France. She enjoyed reading Révolte des Anges by Anatole France and Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. She also read Andromaque, Le Cid, Les Femmes Savantes and other such works. We would just sit and listen entranced.

Priti Das Gupta > Moments Eternal

Mother also gave the children poems by French poets for the recitation classes

O sons of the Infinite, monarchs of the Light,
Resplendent warriors in heaven's lofty fight,
O nation that revolts divinely against death's might,
You who shatter the law of the eternal night.

There was the news of the war, too: It is curious that several things that my mind was hammering at got done after I had dropped the idea altogether, Sri Aurobindo told a disciple. At one point I had an idea that France must get back Alsace-Lorraine. It was almost an obsession with me and when I had ceased to think about it, the thing got done. Yes, Sri Aurobindo loved France, and He who never said anything about his past lives (when asked what He had been doing in his previous lives, He laconically replied, Carrying on the evolution), told Mother that He had had a French past life and that French had come to him like a spontaneous memory. So every day She read the "dispatch" at the gates of the government building. Sri Aurobindo was surrounded by maps; He followed Moltke's advance along the Marne step by step. When the Germans were marching upon Paris, He said, I felt something saying, "They MUST NOT take Paris." And as I was consulting a map I almost felt the place where they would be stopped.

Satprem > The Divine Materialism

At this critical moment in world history the following incident happened in Pondicherry, as narrated by the Mother herself. 'I used to sit on the terrace to meditate every morning, facing Sri Aurobindo's room. That day I was inside my room, but looking at Sri Aurobindo's room through a small window. I was in meditation but my eyes were open. I saw Kali [the black goddess of power and destruction] entering through my door. I asked her: "What do you want?" She was dancing, a truly savage dance. She told me: "Paris is taken, Paris will be destroyed!" We had no news at all, it was just in the beginning of the war. I was in meditation. I turned towards her and said to her: "No, Paris will not be taken, Paris will be saved" – quietly, just like that, but with a certain force. [On another occasion the Mother would say that it was Mahashakti herself who said "no."] She made a face and went away. And the next day we received the dispatch … posted on the gate of Government House. We got the news that the Germans had been marching upon Paris and that Paris was not defended; the way was quite open, they had to advance only a few kilometres more and they would have entered the city.' But they did not persevere in their effort.

Georges van Vrekhem > The Mother - the story of Her life

... Naturally, on the mental level there's a whole mixture of all kinds of ideas, but the Force behind... For example, the students want to completely change the method of education: they violently demand the elimination of all examinations. And they themselves are unaware of it, but they are driven by a force that wants the manifestation of a truer truth.

They themselves would rather have no violence—it seems it's not the students who started the violence, but the police. And that's very interesting, because the police stand for the defense of the past. When I read those children's letters, and when later I was given the news, then there came in me (it was said very, very clearly, a very clear vision): the future. It's the higher Power COMPELLING people to do what they must do. Between now and that (which is a long way ahead), there must be the power of an IMMOBILE number. And the vision was very clear: if millions—not thousands, millions—of people assemble together and occupy the place absolutely peacefully (simply assemble and occupy the place, naturally with representatives who will say what they like), then it will have power. But there must be no violence; as soon as one indulges in violence, it's the return to the past and the open door to all conflicts.... At the time, I didn't know it was the police that had started the violence; I didn't know, I wasn't aware of the details of the events. But it was a very clear vision: an occupation by the mass, but a mass all-powerful in its immobility, imposing its will through sheer numbers, with intellectual representatives for negotiations.

... It's like a sort of revulsion with stagnation. That's it. A thirst for something which is ahead and appears more luminous, better. And indeed there IS something—it's not just imagination: there IS something. That's the beauty of it, it's that there is something. There IS a Response. There IS a Force that wants... to express itself.

Agenda 1968, 22.May

Agenda 1967, 29.Jul

Agenda 1968, 22.May