Sri Aurobindo for All Ages

Epilogue

WHEN all over the world there was a growing eagerness to know more and more about Sri Aurobindo and the interest in his work was on the increase, he suddenly withdrew from the earth-scene. Superficially, this is a terrible irony of fate. But a study of his life suggests that more than once the utterly unexpected occurred as if by a choice on his own part. One may say that such an occurrence is almost a regular feature at each decisive turn of the upward spiral of his life. We see the rising curve suddenly moving downwards when he threw away a glittering career in the ICS and retired into an unpretentious State job in Baroda. Having risen high in the Baroda Service and acted as the Principal of the Baroda College, he gave up that affluent position of security and prestige. For a time he worked from behind the scene until he appeared brilliantly upon the political horizon, and when everybody's eyes were filled with wonder and delight, his light hid itself in the shadows of the prison cell where he had one of the sovereign spiritual experiences of his life. When he came out of the prison, the nation was ready to offer him all-India leadership but he withdrew from politics altogether and went into the unknown retreat of Pondicherry. Then in 1926, after having achieved what we may call a decisive victory of his sadhana, he withdrew into complete seclusion to the surprise and disappointment of his close followers. And now on the eve of the final Victory — the descent of the Supermind in the physical — came this greatest withdrawal of all in a most unexpected manner and, as it were, almost in secrecy. But just as it is the way of the Divine to move men and forces without their knowledge, so did Sri Aurobindo prefer to act from behind the veil. All his great achievements were prepared in the secret silence of retirement, and with each emergence he brought down a greater light, a higher range of illumination and a vaster kingdom of knowledge and power.

On December 5, 1950, at 1.26 a.m. he left his body. Of one thing we may be sure: Sri Aurobindo did not succumb to death — for him, as for all great yogis — it was ichha mrityu. The Mother has said categorically: 'Our Lord has sacrificed himself totally for us.... He was not compelled to leave his body, he chose to do so for reasons so sublime that they are beyond the reach of human mentality.' Indeed the total significance of this supreme sacrifice will remain ungrasped by our limited intelligence. His body was suffused with a crimson-gold light. Power and peace and bliss filled the room. Many who came — and they came by thousands — were spell-bound, dumb and overwhelmed. Untarnished, undimmed for five days the body lay in state. On the 9th, at 5 p.m. it was interred in a vault in the Ashram courtyard under the cool shade of the 'Service Tree'.

The Mother's prayer of gratitude is inscribed in English and French on the two sides of the Samadhi:

To Thee who hast been the material envelope of our Master, to Thee our infinite gratitude. Before Thee who hast done so much for us, who hast worked, struggled, suffered, hoped, endured so much, before Thee who hast willed all, attempted all, prepared, achieved all for us, before Thee we bow down and implore that we may never forget, even for a moment, all we owe to Thee.