ABOUT

This second volume of correspondence spans the years 1934-1935. Sri Aurobindo’s immense love and patience guides Dilip through his difficulties and nurtures his latent talents with tender care.

Sri Aurobindo to Dilip - Volume II

  Sri Aurobindo : corresp.

Dilip Kumar Roy
Dilip Kumar Roy

This second volume of correspondence spans the years 1934-1935. Sri Aurobindo’s immense love and patience guides Dilip through his difficulties and nurtures his latent talents with tender care.

Sri Aurobindo to Dilip - Volume II
English
 LINK  Sri Aurobindo : corresp.

Notes

1. A colonist from Immortality ...

A treasurer of superhuman dreams (Savitri 1, III)

2. Sri Aurobindo Came to Me, 2nd edition, p.263.

3. Sri Aurobmdo and Mother to Prithwi Singh, Dec. \, 1935.

4. nikhilarasamrta murti: literally, a form made up of the nectarous essence of universal delight.

5. Goloka: the Vaishnava heaven of eternal Beauty and Bliss.

6. Aksara Brahman: imperishable, unchanging Brahman.

7. kavih puranah: the ancient poet.

8. The heads of the Ashram's various departments used to report their day's work in notebooks to Mother and Sri Aurobindo. At the same time they also

presented their work problems or problems of sadhana. Nirod, for example, used to send three notebooks: personal, literary and, as he was the resident doctor, medical.

9. We don't really know what happened. But, in fact, Sri Aurobindo often refers to Hitler and Mussolini in subsequent letters. For it was the period when the

Dark was rising. Personified in Hitler, and in Mussolini to some extent, the nazi and fascist forces were gathering strength, soon to burst brutally over the world, unleashing the unspeakable Horror of the Dark.

10. The following passage within brackets has been omitted from the version published in the Centenary Edition (1972).

11. Embarras du choix: in French, "too great a choice".

12. Amiya: Sahana's elder sister.

13. Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury, Zamindar of Gouripur, East Bengal. A veteran sarod player and Dilip's close friend.

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14. The published version of this letter (in the 1972 Centenary Edition) continues with the following passage (perhaps added later by Sri Aurobindo): "But these

injustices of the moment do not endure—in the end a wise and fair estimate is formed and survives the changes of time."

15. Dilip was teaching poetics to a group among whom were Nirod, his niece Jyotirmayi, Sahana and others. In a letter (21 March 1934) to Nirod, Sri Aurobindo touched on the subject. "Your poems are well enough—but for both J and yourself, what has to be seen is whether it comes to something original and substantial. At present what both are doing is only prentice-work."

16. Ramdas: a great devotee of Ram and saint of Kanhangad near Mangalore, who got spiritual inspiration from Raman Maharshi and attained a great spiritual

height by becoming a Sannyasi and repeating Ram mantra. Dilip wrote, "Years ago, I had visited Ramdas's ashram and had been captivated by his radiant personality, flawless sincerity and unalterable purity of character." (D.K.Roy & Indira Devi, Pilgrims of the Stars)

17. Sri Aurobindo's own experience in Alipore jail.

18. Harindranath Chattopadhyay (1897 -1990), a poet and cinema actor, brother of Mrinalini Chattopadhyay and Sarojini Naidu. Husband of Kamala Devi

Chattopadhyay.

19. aksaravrtta: system of versification in which the number of letters and not the sounds is taken into account.

20. Vairagya: disgust or distaste for the worldly life. 21 K.D. Sethna (1904), a Parsi poet and critic.

22. Parichay: a Bengali magazine.

23. mātrā-vrtta: system of metrical measure depending on differentiating alphabetical letters into long and short. A matrais a prosodial or syllabic instant, the

time required to pronounce a short vowel.

24. Jīvanmukta: a living liberated being.

25. We do not know what was Sri Aurobindo's "condition". But

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Nolinis proposal was to translate Sri Aurobindo's Six Poems into Bengali, and offer them to him in a small printed book- let. The translators were: Anilbaran Roy ("Shiva"), Behari Barua ("Jivanmukta"), Dilip ("Trance"), Moni ("The Life Heavens"), Nolini ("The Bird of Fire") and Sahana ("In Horis Aeternum").

26. Dilip had sent to Sri Aurobindo a, passage (in French) from The Confessions of St. Augustine.

27. Nag Mahashoy: a householder disciple of Sri Ramakrishna's.

28. Mayavadin: one for whom the world is an illusion.

29. The following passages within brackets have been omitted from the version published in the Centenary Edition (1972),

30. Bhāgavat: an old and widely read Purana dealing with the life of Sri Krishna and his devotees.

31. Puranas: sacred works composed by Vyasa, eighteen in number, which contain the whole of Hindu mythology and ancient legendary history.

32. (Dilip's note:) Dhruba Sundara, that is, "Beauty in the Concrete" (published in Madhu-Murali, IAP Publication).

33; Ordhendra Kumar Gangopadhyay (1.8.1881 - 9.2.1974), himself a good artist and musician, he is better known as an art-critic. Although he was a

practising lawyer, art was his first love. As the general secretary of the Indian Society of Oriental Art, the Rupam magazine stands testimony to his brilliance. In countries like China and Burma (Myanmar), he gave lectures on Indian Art. Among the many books he wrote on art, are: Vedic Painting, South Indian Bronze, Masterpiece of Rajput Paintings, and his research work on music, Ragas and Raginis.

34. viraha: separation, absence of the divine Lover.

35. BrahmSnanda: bliss of absorption into Brahman.

36. sanra ananda: ananda in the body.

37. Fenetres: name of a house.

38 Maya was Dilip's only sister. She was married to Sri Bhava

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Shankar Banerjee, the only son of Sir Surendranath Banerjee, the great nationalist leader. They mostly lived in Barrackpur, near Kolkata.

39. Vibhutis: incarnations of a particular power of a deity.

40. Vanara: monkey. Raksasa: hostile being of the middle vital plane; a being of vital hunger; the violent kinetic Ego; the fierce giant Powers of darkness; the

Veilers in Night.

41. Ksatriya: ruler, warrior class.

42. Harishchandra: a King of the solar dynasty, son of Trisanku, reputed for his unique truthfulness and integrity.

43. Shivi: the son of Usinara, this king was put to test by Indra and the gods; Indra took the form of a kite and Agni took the form of a dove. The dove, chased

by the kite sought refuge with Shivi. The kite asked the king to give back its prey, but the latter refused since it was his duty to protect the dove and offered instead any other flesh. The kite then asked for a piece of the king's right thigh equal in weight to that of the dove. Shivi cut a piece, but its weight was insufficient; he kept on adding pieces of his own flesh, but the dove was still heavier. The king then offered himself in the balance. Seeing that Agni and Indra blessed the king for his firm sense of sacrifice.

44. Bejoy Krishna Goswami (2.8.1841 -1899), was born at Shantipur in Bengal, and was a descendant of Adwaitacharya. He was married to Yogmaya Devi

and became a brahmo. After he started his Yoga and was told by his guru that he could give diksha to others, he went out of the Brahmo Samaj, and later founded an ashram near Dacca. At the end of his life he became a Vaishnav. He wrote a book called Prashnottor [Questions and Answers].

45. mayamrga: a magical golden deer which enticed Sita in the Ramayana. Sita requests Rama to catch the deer for her and in his absence, she is abducted

by Ravana.

46. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas are the three gunas (qualities or modes) of everything in the nature. Sattva is the mode of

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light and poise and peace. Rajas is the mode of action, desire and passion. Tamas is the mode of ignorance and inertia, the force of inconscience.

47. Vaishnavas: devotees of Vishnu.

48. Thoughts and Glimpses.

49; Sarat Chandra Chatterji (15.9.1876 - 16.1.1938), the famous Bengali novelist and short story writer.

50. See Letters on Yoga, Cent. Ed., p. 770.

51. 4 Arts Annual 1935, printed and published by Haren Ghosh.

52. The Mother, Chapter 2.

53. Donne, John (1572 - 1631). Dean of St. Paul's; preacher and metaphysical poet; author of satires, epistles and elegies. Vaughan, Henry (1622 - 1695). A

Welsh metaphysical poet and mystic.

Crashaw, Richard (1613 -1649). English poet of metaphysical inspiration.

Francis Thompson (1859 - 1907): English poet, author of "Hound of Heaven".

54. Blake, William (1757 -1827). English poet, painter and mystic.

55. Esha: Maya's daughter.

56. Adhar Das: a Professor of Philosophy at Calcutta University.

57. The typed letter continues with the following passage: "If and so far as publicity serves the Truth, I am quite ready to tolerate it; but I do not find publicity for

its own sake desirable." On Himself, Cent. Ed., p. 376.

58. Girijapati Bhattacharya (1883 -1981) was one of the co-founders of Parichay. He wrote many articles and reviews. He was also a hunter and expert in

photography, painting, music and flowers.

59. laghu guru: metrical system, literally "short-long".

60. Housman, Alfred Edward (1859 - 1936), English classical scholar and lyric poet.

61. The published version of this letter continues with the

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following passage (perhaps added later by Sri Aurobindo):

"There may be exceptions, for there is hardly a rule with- out exceptions, but this is, I think, generally true."

62. Sahid Suhrawardy, a Bengali poet and a cultured man, was Dilip's friend. He graduated from the Calcutta University with honors in 1910 and from Oxford

in 1914. He became secretary to the Artistic section of the League of Nations. Later on he became Nizam Professor of Indian Studies at Vishvabharati, and then Bageswari Professor of Comparative Arts at Calcutta University. He gave brilliant lectures from 1923 to 1943. After Partition, he went to Pakistan and became Pakistan's ambassador to Spain in 1955.

63. For the reader: Here is in Dilip's own words, what happened when he first met Baradakanta Majumdar at Lalgola, in the Murshidabad district of Bengal. "When I told him about my groping in darkness for a clue to light he asked me to sit down and meditate with him. 'I will find out about it,' he said somewhat cryptically.

"I was not a little intrigued and tried in vain to meditate with him. What is he going to find out, I kept asking myself as he went off into a samadhi.

"After about a half-hour he came to and said without ado that I must on no account accept anybody other than Sri Aurobindo as my guru. On my telling him that Sri Aurobindo had turned me away he shook his head categorically and said: 'No he hasn't.'

"'How do you mean?' I said, utterly at a loss.

"'I mean what I say.'

"'But Sri Aurobindo told me himself—'

"'No, Dilip Kumar,' he cut in, 'he has accepted you already —he told me this himself just now.'

"I was nonplussed and started wondering whether it was all a hoax or I was daydreaming.

"He looked kindly at me.

"'As you disbelieve my assurance,' he smiled, 'I will give you

a proof. Have you got a chronic pain in your right abdomen ?'

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"I have,´ I said, startled. 'It's a hernia.´

"I know. Now tell me: didn't Sri Aurobindo tell you to undergo an operation before you entered the path of Yoga?' "I was dumbfounded, for Sri Aurobindo had written to me in 1924 those identical words." (Pilgrims of the Stars, first edition, Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc.)

64. Bichitra: a Bengali magazine edited by Sri Upendra Nath Gangopadhyay. All eminent writers of Bengal used to con- tribute to this magazine, including

Sarat Chandra Chatterji, Rabindranath Tagore and others.

65. Raskāna: devoid of the sense of Rasa. Rasa is savour, a sentiment expressed or flavour contained in a writing.

66. Kabiraj Gopinath: a profound scholar of Indian philosophy and an explorer of the realms of consciousness, Gopinath Kabiraj (1887 -1976) was born in

the district of Dacca in East Bengal. He first studied in Jaipur and then in the Government Sankrit college of Vanarasi under Dr. Arthur Venis. The latter recognized his student's capability and offered him the post of Librarian after he passed his M.A. examination in 1914. There Gopinath Kabiraj could carry out his research and he was appointed Principal of the College later. He published more than seventy works. He was a disciple of Swami Vishuddhananda Paramahansa.

He had a personal relationship with Dilip Kumar Roy and they exchanged letters. He spent the last years of his life in Mata Anandamayi's ashram at Bhadaini on the banks of the Ganges.

67. Barindra Kumar Ghose: Sri Aurobindo's younger brother, a revolutionary who was interned at the Andaman islands for about a decade, in the famous

Alipore Bomb Case. Then lived for a few years in Pondicherry with Sri Aurobindo. In 1928 he went back to Bengal.

68. Raksasas, Pisacas, Pramathas: hostile beings and demons.

69. et hoc genus omne: latin for "and the whole tribe".

70. Praswani is a mixture of matra-vrtta and laghu guru.

71. Prabodh Sen: famous exponent and an authority on Bengali metre.

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72. sragdhara: a type of Sanskrit chhanda.

73. In the published version of this letter (Centenary Edition) the following phrase is included hereafter: "Anything that carries the Word, the light in it, spoken

or written, can light this fire within, open a sky, as it were, bring the effective vision of which the Word is the body."

74. Arjava: John Chadwick, an English poet who came to the Ashram in 1930 from Lucknow where he was a lecturer in Philosophy.

75. Anami: a collection of poems published by Dilip in 1933.

76. "I have lost all wish for my salvation, may I be born again and again and suffer thousands of miseries so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only

God I believe in, the sum-total of all souls—and above all, my God the wicked, my God the miserable, my God the poor of all races, of all species is the special object of my worship. He who is the high and low, the saint and the sinner, the god and the worm, Him worship, the visible, the knowable, the real, the omni- present; break all other idols. In whom there is neither past life nor future birth, nor death nor going nor coming, in whom we always have been and always will be one. Him worship; break all other idols." (From a letter of Swami Vivekananda; quoted by Sri Aurobindo in The Synthesis of Yoga, Centenary Edition, 1972, pp. 257-58)

77. sarva-bhutani: all creatures.

78. daridrerseva: service to the poor.

79. Old house: the Library House, where Dilip first met Sri Aurobindo in 1924.

80. prayopavesan: fasting oneself to death.

81. Ardhendu Bhattacharya (22.1.1904 - 23.6.1987). A chemist by profession, he was a musician by inclination. A fine sitarist, he played sarod also.

82. Tambura: a stringed musical instrument.

83. Christ of the indian Road.

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84. It is a pity not to have found Dilip's poem. The poem is published in the Centenary Edition, Vol.5, p. 594 with a few alterations.

85. Neurasthenia: a general term for fatigue, anxiety, listlessness, etc. (Complete Wordfmder, Reader's Digest Oxford, 1996).

86. Shanta: a Gujarati lady disciple.

87. Narasimha: the manlion incarnation of Vishnu. Hiranyakashipu, the Asura king, persecuted his son Prahlada who adored Vishnu, his sworn enemy. So

Narasihma finally held Hiranyakashipu and with his nails cut open his stomach and pulled out his entrails.

88. Meherwan Sheriar Irani (1894 -1969) was born in Pune from parents of Persian origin. He had his first experience of "God-realization" in 1913, while in

College. Later on he trained disciples and travelled with them in India and Iran, then established a retreat near Ahmednagar. He released a large volume of works on the spiritual theme of human life. m 1925 he went into silence and in 1927 he stopped writing, in the end communicating through his own system of representative gestures.

89. Chandulal: the Ashram engineer.

90. Dayakar: a seven-year-old Telugu boy, from Nellore, in Andhra Pradesh. His mother is Krishnamma and his father Rama Reddy, or Satyakarma, became

theAshram's treasurer.

91. Manodhar: a Bengali sadhak, the Ashram's barber. Sita:

' Harm's companion.

92. Radhananda or Shuddhananda Bharati was born in 1893 in Tamil Nadu. He studied Tamil literature in-depth and soon flowered into a poet and composer.

He lived in the Ashram for over a decade, during which he observed silence and lived on uncooked food. He also learnt French and translated many works into Tamil.

93. Haradhan hailed from Chandernagore. He was a soldier in World War I and settled in the Ashram in December 1930.

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94. Rani was Bejoy Nag's wife. She was a very sweet and quiet person.

95. 'Here is what Sri Aurobindo wrote to Nirod: "The question was whether new faculties not at all manifested in the personality up to now in this life could

appear, even suddenly appear, by force of Yoga. (...) What a wonderful argument! Since it has not been done, it cannot be done! At that rate the whole history of the earth must have stopped long before the protoplasm. When it was a mass of gases, no life had been born, ergo, life could not be born—when only life was there, mind was not born, so mind could not be born. Since mind is there but nothing beyond, as there is no Supermind manifested in anybody, so Supermind can never be born. Sobhanallah! Glory, glory, glory to the human reason! Luckily the Divine or the Cosmic Spirit or Nature or whoever is there cares a damn for the human reason. He or she or it does what he or she or it has to do, whether it can or can not be done."

96. manasputra and manaskanya: mind-born son and daughter.

97. Rishiputras and Rishikanyas: sons and daughters of Rishis.

98. Duraiswami lyer, an eminent and brilliant advocate of the Madras High Court and Sri Aurobindo's disciple. He had seen Sri Aurobindo at the Surat Congress in December 1907 where he had gone as a volunteer from South India. Later, in March 1942, Sri Aurobindo sent him as his personal envoy to the Congress leaders to urge them to accept Sir Stafford Cripps proposal.

99. Suchi and Sarala were a French couple. Sarala was a good tailoress.

100. "Urvasie": one of Sri Aurobindo's narrative poems. The theme, love of King Pururavas of the lunar dynasty and the nymph Urvasie, is taken from the Mahabharata.

101. Nishkriti: a Bengali novel by Sarat Chandra Chatterji, translated by Dilip and revised by Sri Aurobindo.

102. Goloka is the Vaishnava heaven of eternal Beauty and Bliss.

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Literally the world of Light. Brahmaloka is the world of Brahman : the highest state of pure existence and consciousness attainable by the soul without complete extinction in the indefinable. Vaikuntha is the world of Vishnu.

103. Brahmarandhra: the opening at the top of the skull.

104. Cloison: partition-wall.

105. tapo-bhanga: interruption in austere ascetic meditation or austere devotion to God.

106. soma-rasa: the juice of the soma plant. Soma represents the divine delight of being.

107. (Dilip's note:) I had referred in my blasphemous letter to Sri Aurobindo to Voltaire's reply to the question of the credulous farmer—whether sheep could be

killed by a curse—that it could, only there should be some arsenic behind the curse. I blasphemed suggesting that the Divine Grace was all right but it was essentially perseverance and discipline which had tangible results in killing the sheep though of course the Divine Grace is not both to take the credit for the removal of the impediment.

108. Poems by Sri Aurobindo.

109. The first part of the letter is missing.

110. Dhurjati Prasad Mukherji was a Professor of Economy and Social science at Lucknow University. He was a well-known critic on poetry, music/ etc., and a close friend of Dilip's.

111. Bhababhuti was a Sanskrit poet who lived in the seventh century C.E. He was born in Padmapura in the state of Vidarbha, but spent most of his life in the palace of Yashodharma, king of Kanauj. His important works are the three dramas: Malatimadhava, MahavTracarita and Uttararamacarita. He was a great devotee of Shiva.

112. Raihana Tyabji was born and brought up in an aristocratic highly educated muslim family. At the age of 16 she had a profound spiritual experience which she narrated in a booklet: Heart of a Gopi. She was a powerful singer and used to

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sing Meera bhajans in love of Krishna. She passed away in 1976.

113. Mrinalini Chattopadhyay (1883 - 1968), Harm's sister. Tripos in Philosophy from Cambridge University. An educationist. She first came to see Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry in 1919, then in May-June 1920 when she introduced Mother into wearing a sari. From then on, she continued her visits.

114. Rajani Palit.

115. Here is an extract from Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo by Nirodbaran;

"... What about the uprush of mud ? Has it settled down, and are people now floating in the flood of the Supramental ?" 'It is still there, but personally I have become superior to it and am traveling forward like a flash of lightning, that is to say zigzag but fairly fast. Now I have got the hang of the whole hanged thing—like a very Einstein I have got the mathematical formula of the whole affair (unintelligible as in his case to anybody but myself) and am working it out figure by figure."

116. "Silence, Light, Power, Ananda, these are the four pillars of the Jivanmukta consciousness," is how Sri Aurobindo defines the term (see p. 65).

117. "A God's Labour".

118. Moni Bagchi (1905 - 1983) was a journalist and was very skilled in writing biographies. He was awarded the honour of National Biographer by Bharatiya

Vidya Bhavan. His best known biography is Bhagini Nivedita [Sister Nivedita].

119. Re the sentence: "... I should have thought your Gurudev would have more or less agreed with it", Sri Aurobindo wrote commenting on the margin; "Not more or less but entirely".

120. Ahutr. oblation.

121. daksinayana: southern or the winter solstice. The early vedantic thought attributes the "psycho-physical symbolism" of dark path to this period of the year in contrast to

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Uttarayana, the northern or the summer solstice (cf. Bhagavad Gita, VIII, 24, 25 & 26).

122. tippanr. a comment or an explanation.

123. - Rishabhchand (3.12.1900 - 25.4.1970) was born in West Bengal and had a brilliant academic carrer in Berhampur and at Presidency College, Calcutta.

He turned to the non- cooperation movement and then founded the renowned Indian Silk House in Calcutta in 1926. He came in contact with Sri Aurobindo and settled in the Ashram in 1931 where he worked in the Service Mobilier. He wrote many books on Sri Aurobindo's and Mother's work, among them Sri Aurobindo—His Life Unique.

Ambabhikshu(born on 5.7.1900): A Gujarati disciple. Fired with idealism, he left his medical studies midway, joined the freedom movement and stayed at Gandhiji's Sabarmati Ashram. Then he joined Vinoba Bhave. Left him for a Sikh guru who directed him to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. In the Ashram he tended gardens and grew fruits and veg- etables. Later with the help of his wife Kamalalakshmi, he made rose water, power syrup and other products for Mother.

124. Partha naiveha namutra vinasas tasya vidyate na hi kalyana-krt kascid durgatim tata gacchati:

"Q Son of Prtha (Arjuna)! Neither in this life nor hereafter is there destruction for him; know for certain that one who treads the path of virtue can never come to grief."

(Gita, 6.40)

125. The double square brackets are Sri Aurobindo's.

126. Somnath Maitra, an eminent Professor of English, Presi- dency College, Calcutta, younger brother of Sisir Kumar Maitra. He translated many works of

Tagore into English. He was Dilip's and Prithwi Singh's friend. After losing his little daughter of nine, his former life lost its charm. He asked permission to come to the Ashram in September 1935 and stayed for about one month.

127. Moon-Lord = Som-nath.

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128. The Bases of Yoga. The other two are: The Riddle of This World and Lights on Yoga.

129. See Sri Aurobindo's letter dated 5 October 1935, p.322.

130. The double brackets are Sri Aurobindo's.

131. Professor Mahendra Nath Sarkar was an eminent teacher of philosophy at Presidency college, Calcutta and author of many valuable books on Indian

philosophy and spirituality. An ardent admirer of Sri Aurobindo, he visited and stayed in the Ashram for some time.

132. Tresor: name of Dilip's house.

133. Allusion to the Darshan of 24th November.

134. Satyendranath Mukherji, an eminent Bengali lawyer.

135. Kingkhap: a jewellery box lined with velvet.

136. Shantipuri dhuti: a very fine handloom cloth (dhuti worn by Bengali men), with a black or a golden border, made in Shantipur, Nadia, West Bengal, worn by Sri Aurobindo on Darshan days.

137. Maybe an allusion to the invasion of Ethiopia (formerly Abyssinia) by Italy in October 1935.

138. Tabula rasa: an erased tablet in latin.

139. Galen: a Greek physician of the 2nd century CE.

140. An English nursery rhyme:

little Jack Horner

Sat in a corner

Eating his Christmas pie

He put in his thumb

And pulled out a plum

And said, "What a good boy am I!"

141. (Dilip's note:) Re. My songs at the Government House, Pondicherry.

142. Uday Singh Nahar, Prithwi Singh's cousin.

143. The following passages within brackets have been omitted from the version published in the Centenary Edition (1972).

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144. Baba Lokenath Brahmachari: born on Jamashthami day (August 1730) at 3 a.m., in Chourasi Chakia, a remote village in 24 parganas, West Bengal. He was

the 4th child of Ram Narayan Ghosal and Kamala Devi. At age 11 his thread ceremony was performed, when he was initiated to the Gayatri Mantra by a householder- sanny'asi and a great scholar, Bhagawan Ganguli. Lokenath went away with his guru and practised Yoga till he became a Realised Being.

Around 1864 he came to Baradi village, and founded his ashram, and there spent about 26 years. His Mahasamadhi occurred in the first week of June 1890 (19th Jaishtha).

Strikingly, Sri Aurobindo once wrote that Mother "had seen Lokenath Brahamachari very often" and had identified him from his photo.

145. These words within brackets were added by Sri Aurobindo.

146. (For the non-biblical reader:) Esau, son of Isaac and Rebecca, elder twin brother of Jacob to whom he sold his birthright for a mess of red pottage. Traditional founder of Edomites. Jacob is the traditional founder of Israel.

147. The following passage within brackets has been omitted from the version published in the Centenary Edition (1972).

148. "With the Guru's grace all difficulties can disappear in a flash even as agelong darkness does the moment you strike a match."

149 Harin's poem:

"His ways are such

As you shall never guess though you may try

A myriad lifetimes long. God is as much

A hostage to the law as you or I."

150. UtsTdeyur ime loka na kuryam karma cedaham

sankarasya ca karta syam upahanyam imah prajah:

"If I were not to work, all these worlds would have perished,

I would have been the cause of confusion among men and

of their ultimate destruction." (Gita, 3.24)

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151. In the letter of 30 December 1935 Sri Aurobindo asks Prithwi Singh to arrange for the sale of Dilip's houses in Calcutta. (ref. Sri Aurobindo and Mother to

Prithwi Singh, p.63-64., Mira Aditi Centre, Mysore).

152. Bejoy Chatterji (1879 - 1943). A barrister. Joined the staff of the paper Bande Mataram and worked with Sri Aurobindo as co-editor.

END OP VOLUME TWO

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