Sri Aurobindo came to Me

Dedication

To our beloved President,
Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

0 noble judge, who declinest to condone

The demon passions that blur God's sky of peace

And yet canst understand why men are prone

To outlaw the heights and acclaim the dread abyss!

Thy windows are open to the soul's pure white
Vast firmament of faith no doubts can mar;

A contemplative of compassion's light,
Thou sing'st "None but true lovers win the Star

Of Love whose unique miracle alchemy
Can resolve Hate's anarchy into a Harmony."

Hari Krishna Mandir D.K. ROY

Poona – 5 March, 1963

DESHBANDHU C. R. DAS

My appeal to you is this, that long after the controversy will be hushed in silence, long after this turmoil and agitation will have ceased, long after he is dead and gone, he will be looked upon as the poet of patriotism, as the prophet of nationalism and lover of humanity. Long after he is dead and gone, his words will be echoed and re-echoed, not only in India but across distant seas and lands. Therefore I say that the man in his position is not only standing before the Bar of this Court, but before the Bar of the High Court of History. "

(Peroration of the famous trial of the Sage-cum-revolutionary in Calcutta in 1908).

ROMAIN HOLLAND

Here comes Aurobindo, the completes! synthesis that has been realised to this day of the genius of Asia and that of Europe.

(In a letter to Dilip Kumar, dated October 1.1924).
Je vous remercie de ce que vous m'avez écrit au sujet de Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, et du numéro de la revue Arya que vous m'avez envoyé. Je partage entièrement votre manière de voir. Je connais trop peu encore de Sri Aurobindo; mais ce que je connais me suffit pour voir en lui une des plus hautes forces spirituelles du monde.

Which means:

I thank you for what you have written to me about Sri Aurobindo as also for the monthly journal, Arya. I entirely agree with your outlook. I know as yet too little about Sri Aurobindo, but what little I know about him convinces me that there is in him one of the highest spiritual forces of the world.

A Few Words

(About this edition)

'Mahasaraswati is perfection in details' - Sri Aurobindo.

Sri Dilipkumar - one of the closest disciples of Sri Aurobindo followed this Maha Vakya in every act of his life which was illumined by spiritual sensitivity. His sadhana towards perfection permeates as a revealing light - rays of that transcending light can be felt in his inimitable creative works. Ma Indiradevi the daughter-disciple of Sri Dilip Kumar (Dadaji)¹ in a tribute to him wrote, His (Dadaji's) work is his worship and what infnite pains he takes to make that offering as perfect as possible! This is evident in all his publications - literary and music; whenever a new edition was published he strove to chisel it - adding new dimensions, new materials, new insights and sometime deleting whatever he felt was not germane to the main theme.

This is the fifth revised and enlarged edition of the 'Aurobindonian gospel' - 'Sri Aurobindo Came to Me' by Sri Dilipkumar Roy - a masterpiece on all accounts. First edition of this book was published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1952. Sri Aurobindo left his mortal body on 5th December 1950. At that time Sri Dilip Kumar, who consecrated everything at his Guru's feet, was shattered. He told Nirodbaran his Gurubhai in Bengali in a most pained and helpless voice - 'Nirod you do not know what I have lost.' After a few months he started writing how Sri Aurobindo came to him - uprooting him completely from his old moorings. In 1964, the second edition of this book was published by Jaico Publishing House as a pocket book edition. During the decade after the first edition Dadaji wrote that much water had

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Sri Dilip Kumar Roy was called lovingly as Dadaji by his devotees & disciples.

flown down the river of his life resulting naturally in a change of perspective. In the preface of this edition he wrote,'...... so in the present edition I have been forced somewhat against my will, to cut out much that is not germane to my theme, to wit, the delineation of the multi-mooded personality of Sri Aurobindo the intellectual, revolutionary, dreamer, yogi, philosopher, seer- poet, and lastly in his own words 'The messenger of the Incom- municable'. This edition was hailed by the seekers of spiritual life of all climes. As a result, the third, revised and enlarged edition was published by Jaico in 1969. The chapter, "Poet- maker" was added in this edition.

In 1984, 'All India Books' of Pondicherry took out the fourth edition as a reprint of first edition without any revision. Mean- while the German translation was done from the text of Jaico publication. So our endeavour now is to provide the seekers and the intellectuals the latest version of this book as revised by the author himself along with other important chapters, which were omitted in Jaico edition.

The author explained in the preface of Jaico edition about the omission of the chapters, about his Gurubhais, he wrote, 'I have never been one to forget a debt which I hope to be able to prove in the near future, when I propose to write about what I owe to them individually in a haven where I passed some of my happiest years, thanks to their loving kindness, sympathy and cooperation. Later though in many of his articles and lectures he gratefully acknowledged the love, sympathy and cooperation he received from his Gurubhais, he did not write any separate book. So we thought that we should include those chapters from the first edition to make this publication a comprehensive one.

Inevitably, due to the reorganization of the chapters there is overlapping of materials. So the reader will find a few repetitions of Sri Aurobindo's letters as well as the subject matter. This is particularly evident in the chapters 'Seer Poet', 'The Messenger of the Incommunicable' and 'Sri Krishnaprem vis-a- vis Sri Aurobindo'. The two spiritual giants expressed the same

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truth in their own terminology. So, we have desisted from any editing on our part - the chapters and the Appendix are complete in themselves. Any discerning reader will see both the greatness and guidance of the Guru and the understanding, uncompromising help and support of a true friend. We hope this comprehensive publication will equally inspire - all intellectuals, aspirants and truth seekers of spiritual life.

We end with Sri K.R. Srinivas lyenger's comment - 'It is accordingly an indispensable book for all admirers of Sri Aurobindo and all students of yoga and lovers of poetry and all serious practitioners of the creative art of life.'

We acknowledge with thanks our gratitude to Ms. Shyama Khaitan of Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Mr. Saphal of All India Press for their sincere help and active cooperation. May Sri Aurobindo, the Mother, Dadaji Sri Dilip Kumar and Ma Indiradevi bless them all.

SHANKAR BANDYOPADHYAY

Secretary

24th Nov. 2004

Harikrishna Mandir,

Pune - 411016

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