Life of Sri Aurobindo

CHAPTER III

Baroda

Sri Aurobindo returned to India in the beginning of 1893. He joined the Baroda service on 8 February. Unfortunately his father died before his return under tragic circumstances. It is clear from Dr. K. D. Ghose's letter of 2 December 1890 that he had high hopes for his three sons, especially Sri Aurobindo. He wanted him to take up judicial or administrative work in the Indian government, and had used his influence to get him a good appointment. But he was wrongly informed by his bankers, Messrs. Grindlay & Co. about Sri Aurobindo's departure from London. The steamer Roumania, by which Sri Aurobindo was supposed to have left, sank off the coast of Portugal near Lisbon, Dr. K-.D. Ghose learned about this accident and concluded that Sri Aurobindo had been drowned. The shock was so great that he had a heart attack and died repeating Sri Aurobindo's name.

An account of Dr. K .D. Ghose's death by Brajendranath De published in 1954 is reproduced here:

"Dr. Ghose believed up to the very end, that his son had been admitted into the Indian Civil Service, and was in fact coming out. He, in fact, took a month's leave to go and meet him in Bombay and bring him back in triumph, but he could not get any definite news as to when he was coming out and returned from Bombay in a very depressed frame of mind. At last one afternoon he got a wire from his agents in Bombay to the effect that his son's name did not appear in the list of the passengers by the steamer in which he had been expecting his son to come out to India.

"It so happened that, that very night he and the Superintendent of Police were coming to dine at my house. The dinner was ready, the Superintendent came, but there was no sign of the doctor, although his bungalow was quite close to my house. After waiting for some time I sent an orderly to remind him of the fact that he had agreed to dine at my house that night. The man came back and informed us that the doctor was very ill. I at once went round, heard of the telegram and found the doctor very ill and quite unconscious. The other medical men in the station were

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assiduous in their attentions. I did all I could. But it was all of no avail. The poor man lingered on for a day or two and then passed away. ... I had to take the body to the cremation grounds and to attend the cremation."^¹

As a matter of fact, Sri Aurobindo left England not by the Roumania but by the mail steamer Carthage and, though it encountered a violent storm in the Mediterranean, he reached India quite safely on 6 February 1893.

As soon as Sri Aurobindo put his foot on the soil of India, he experienced a tremendous peace. This is one of the experiences that came to him unasked.

Here is what he wrote to a disciple incidentally about this experience :

". . . Since I set foot on the Indian soil on the Apollo Bunder in Bombay, I began to have spiritual experiences, but these were not divorced from this world but had an inner and infinite bearing on it, such as a feeling of the Infinite pervading material space and the Immanent inhabiting material objects and bodies. At the same time I found myself entering supraphysical worlds and planes with influences and an effect from them upon the material plane. . . . "^³

Baroda Service

Sri Aurobindo served in the Baroda state from 8 February 1893 to 18 June 1907. His age was twenty-one when he joined, thirty-five when he left. The period of his service was 13 years 5 months and 17 days.

He first served in the Survey Settlement Department at a pay of Rs.200 per month. He was asked to get acquainted with various departments. In some he had to learn the routine work and observe the procedure of the departmental work. From the Settlement Department he went over to the Revenue Department. He also worked for some in the Vahivatdar's office and in the Secretariat. Permanent work was finally given to him in the Baroda College.

¹ Brajendranath De, "Reminiscences of an Indian Member of the Indian Civil Service", The Calcutta Review, Vol. 132, No. 3 (September 1954), p. 181.

² Sri Aurobindo On Himself (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1972), P 98

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(1) "Aurobindo talked very little, perhaps because he believed it better to speak as little as possible about oneself." (2) "It was as if acquiring knowledge was his sole mission in life." (3) "Aurobindo is not a man of this earth, he is a god come down from heaven by some curse." These three quotations are from Aurobindo Prasanga by Dinendra Kumar Roy,¹ a Bengali writer who stayed with Sri Aurobindo during 1898-99 in order to familiarise him with the Bengali language. Life at Baroda was full, though the political career that followed was like a tornado. Sri Aurobindo's activity during this period can be divided into five parts: (1) service in various departments of the State; (2) literary activity, reading and study – this part was partly connected with college work; (3) political activity – articles in the Induprakash and beginnings of the revolutionary movement, visits to Bengal during vacations for this purpose; (4) spiritual life; (5) family life.

During this period Sri Aurobindo often stayed with Khaserao Jadhav in his house at Dandia Bazar. In his absence he stayed with Khaserao's brother Madhavrao Jadhav. Several other houses also were occupied at different times in Baroda.^²

In the beginning Sri Aurobindo's services were lent to the college from other departments for French lessons for certain periods in the week. So he began his work in the college as lecturer in French. Other work of the college was gradually added. At last the Principal requested the Maharaja to appoint him to the post of Professor of English and from there he rose to be the Vice-Principal of the college. Once he acted for the Principal in his absence.

But before he took up permanent work in the college he used to be called by the Maharaja from his home for his personal work, either for drafting some important letter, or making a digest of some correspondence or documents, or even to draft agreements. One important work which the Maharaja got Sri Aurobindo to do in 1895 was to prepare a precis of the long-drawn-out Bapat case. Sri Aurobindo was called to Ootacamund for this purpose. This was outside his official work. But in spite of this fact, it must be mentioned that Sri Aurobindo only once acted as personal

¹ Chandemagore: Prabartak Publishing House, Magb 1330, pp. 16, 23, 9.

²  See Appendix VII, Houses in Baroda, p. 350.

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secretary to the Maharaja. This happened in 1903, when the Maharaja took him as secretary on the Kashmir tour; but as the experience was not pleasant, it was not repeated.

The following extract from Sayaji Rao Gaekwar Yancha Sahavasat by Govind Sakharam Sardesai (the famous Marathi historian) referring to Sri Aurobindo, affords contemporary evidence about his Baroda state service and life:

"Sri Aurobindo and myself were together with Sayaji Rao very often. . . . Sometimes men like Sri Aurobindo would pen out lectures for him.

"Once the Maharaja had to address a social conference. Sri Aurobindo prepared the speech. We three [i.e., the Maharaja, G. S. Sardesai, and Sri Aurobindo] sat together and read it. The Maharaja after hearing it said: 'Can you not, Arabind Babu, tone it down? It is too fine to be mine.'

"Sri Aurobindo replied smiling: 'Why make a change for nothing? Do you think, Maharaja, that if it is toned down a little, people will believe it to be yours? Good or bad, whatever it be, people will always say that the Maharaja always gets his lectures written by others. The main thing is whether the thoughts are yours. That is your chief part.'"^¹

Sardesai also states that Sri Aurobindo carried on the major part of the correspondence that passed between the Indian government and the Baroda state about the insult which Curzon felt when the Maharaja, who was in Paris, was called by the Indian government (as Curzon was visiting Baroda in 1900), and the Maharaja did not come.^²

"I used to go out walking with Sri Aurobindo in those days. He usually was reserved and non-communicative. To a question he would reply 'yes' or 'no' and not go beyond. There was something of the mystic in him."^³

"I wrote many memoranda for the Maharaja", Sri Aurobindo once said. "Generally he used to indicate the lines and I used to follow them. But I myself was not much interested in administration. My interests lay outside in Sanskrit, literature, and

¹ Govind Sakharam Sardesai, Sayaji Rao Gaekwar Yancha Sahavasat (Poona:  S. Jagannath and Co., 1956), pp. 20-21.

² Ibid. p. 25. E

³ Ibid. p. 31.

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in the National movement. When I came to Baroda from England I found out what the Congress was at that time and formed contempt for it. Then I came in touch with Deshpande, Tilak, Madhavrao, and others. Deshpande requested me to write something, in the Induprakash. There I strongly criticised the Congress for its moderate policy. The articles were so slashing that M .G. Ranade, the great Maharashtra leader, asked the proprietor of the paper not to allow such seditious articles to appear in the paper otherwise he might be arrested and imprisoned. Deshpande approached me with the news and requested me to write something less violent. I then began to write about the philosophy of politics leaving aside the practical part. But soon I got disgusted with it."^¹

The series of political articles mentioned above, "New Lamps for Old", which severely criticised the policy of the Indian National Congress, was published in the Induprakash of Bombay from 7 August 1893 to 5 March 1894. Sri Aurobindo was pressed by K .G. Deshpande, his Cambridge friend, to write the series. K.G. Deshpande, after his return from England, settled in Bombay as a barrister and was also editor of the English section of the Induprakash. The paper had a Marathi section also. On Sri Aurobindo's joining the Baroda state, Deshpande requested him – knowing his strong nationalist views at Cambridge – to write articles about the Indian Congress. Deshpande joined the Baroda state service in 1898 – five years after Sri Aurobindo.

Deshpande introduced Sri Aurobindo's series with the following note:

"We promised our readers some time back a series of articles on our present political progress by an extremely able and keen observer of the present times. We are very much pleased to give our readers the first instalment of that series. The title under which these views appear is 'New Lamps for Old' which is very suggestive though a metaphorical one. The preface will take us over to the next issue. The views therein contained are not those that are commonly held by our politicians, and for this reason

¹ Cf. Purani, Evening Talks, Third Series, pp. 36-37.

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they are very important. We have been long convinced that our efforts in Political Progress are not sustained, but are lacking in vigour. Hypocrisy has been the besetting sin of our political agitation. Oblique vision is the fashion. True, matter of fact, honest criticism is very badly needed. Our institutions have no strong foundation and are in hourly danger of falling down. Under these circumstances it was idle – nay, criminal, – to remain silent while our whole energy in Political Progress was spent in a wrong direction. The questions at issue are momentous. It is the making or unmaking of a nation. We have therefore secured a gentleman of great literary talents, of liberal culture and of considerable English experience, well-versed in the art of writing and willing, at great personal inconvenience and probable misrepresentation, to give out his views in no uncertain voice, and, we may be allowed to add, in a style and diction peculiarly his own. We bespeak our readers' most careful and constant perusal on his behalf and assure them that they will find in those articles matter that will set them thinking and steel their patriotic souls."^¹

The publication of the first two articles created a furor in political circles and Mahadev Govind Ranade, the famous Maratha leader, who was connected with the paper, sent a warning to the editor that he might be prosecuted for sedition. Deshpande was in a fix. He requested Sri Aurobindo to tone down his criticism a little. After that Sri Aurobindo lost all enthusiasm for writing the series and even though he somehow finished it he took a long time to do it. He never liked the mendicant policy of the Congress.

A few extracts from that historical series, "New Lamps for Old":

"I say, of the Congress, then, this,– that its aims are mistaken, that the spirit in which it proceeds towards their accomplishment is not a spirit of sincerity and whole-heartedness, and that the methods it has chosen are not the right methods, and the leaders in whom it trusts, not the right sort of men to be leaders; – in brief, that we are at present the blind led, if not by the blind, at any rate by the one-eyed."^²

"For by reflection or instinct to get a clear insight into our

¹. Sri Aurobindo, New Lamps for Old (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1974). P. 6.

². Ibid. p. 19.

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position and by dexterity to make the most of it, that is the whole secret of politics, and that is just what we have failed to do."¹

"We lose in sincerity which is another name for strength." ²

"So long as this temper prevails, we shall never realise how utterly it is beyond the power of even an excellent machine to renovate an effete and impoverished national character and how palpably requisite to commence from within and not depend on any exterior agency."^³

"To put it in a concrete form, Paris may be said to revolve around the Theatre, the Municipal Council and the French Academy, London looks rather to the House of Commons and New York to the Stock Exchange."⁴

This series brought out many political questions and displayed the powers of Sri Aurobindo for the first time before the public – an all-encompassing grasp, a subtle power of thought, capacity for expression and a mastery over the language, rare courage, utter sincerity, burning patriotism and selfless character. All these can be seen in the Induprakash series even now after so many years.

Sri Aurobindo's circle of friends at Baroda included Madhavrao and Khaserao Jadhav, K.G. Deshpande, Fadke, Mangesh Kolasker, etc. Mr. Fadke took a photograph of Dinendra Kumar Roy and Sri Aurobindo.

Sri Aurobindo once recounted an anecdote of those days:

"I remember that a young Sannyasi with long nails came to Baroda. He used to stay under trees. Deshpande and myself went to see him. Deshpande asked him what is the Dharma – the standard of action?

"He replied: 'There is no fixed standard. It is the Dharma of the thief to steal because that is his Dharma.' Deshpande was very angry to hear that. I said: 'It is only a point of view!'"⁵

¹. Ibid. p. 59

². Ibid.

³. Ibid., p. 41.

4^. Ibid., pp. 40-41.

5. Cf. Purani, Evening Talks, Third Series, p. 166.

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The work entrusted to Sri Aurobindo was sometimes very dull, requiring mechanical plodding through reports and the making of abstracts. Sri Aurobindo felt no enthusiasm for that land of work. At one time the work entrusted to him was consulting the time-tables of railways in Europe!

Sri Aurobindo seems to have visited Bengal for the first time after his return from England in 1894. He met all his relations – his mother Swarnalata, Sarojini, Barin, Jogendra, as well as his grandfather Rajnarayan. This is how Sarojini describes his appearance: "a very delicate face, long hair cut in English fashion, Sejda ["older brother", i.e. Sri Aurobindo] was a very shy person."

His mother did not recognise him – it was perhaps natural after so long an interval – when they met. She argued, "My Aurobindo was not so big, he was small." When it was explained to her that he had come back from England after finishing his studies she suddenly had a flash of memory and said, "My Aurobindo had a cut on his finger." In fact, he had the mark of a cut received from a broken glass bottle. The mark was shown to her and she recognised him.

The letters written by Sri Aurobindo to his family were few and are hard to find. The following letter to Sarojini shows him as an affectionate brother. It also shows that Benoybhushan did not return to India till 1894. One sees how scarce the correspondence between the brothers was.

Baroda Camp

25th August, 1894

My dear Saro,

I got your letter the day before yesterday. I have been trying hard to write to you for the last three weeks, but have hitherto failed. Today I am making a huge effort and hope to put the letter in the post before nightfall. As I am now invigorated by three days' leave, I almost think I shall succeed.

It will be, I fear, quite impossible to come to you again so early as the Puja, though if I only could, I should start tomorrow. Neither my affairs, nor my finances will admit of it. Indeed it was a great mistake for me to go at all; for it has made Baroda quite intolerable to me. There is an old story about Judas Iscariot, which suits me down to the ground. Judas, after betraying Christ, hanged himself and went to Hell where he was honoured with the

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hottest oven in the whole establishment. Here he must bum for ever and ever; but in his life he had done one kind act and for this they permitted him by special mercy of God to cool himself for an hour every Christmas on an iceberg in the North Pole. Now this has always seemed to me not mercy, but a peculiar refinement of cruelty. For how could Hell fail to be ten times more Hell to the poor wretch after the delicious coolness of his iceberg? I do not know for what enormous crime I have been condemned to Baroda, but my case is just parallel. Since my pleasant sojourn with you at Baidyanath, Baroda seems a hundred times more Baroda.

I dare say Beno may write to you three or four days before he leaves England. But you must think yourself lucky if he does as much as that. Most likely the first you hear of him will be a telegram from Calcutta. Certainly he has not written to me. I never expected and should be afraid to get a letter. It would be such a shocking surprise that I should certainly be able to do nothing but roll on the floor and gasp for breath for the next two or three hours. No, the favours of the Gods are too awful to be coveted. I dare say he will have energy enough to hand over your letter to Mano as they must be seeing each other almost daily. You must give Mano a little time before he answers you. He too is Beno's brother. Please let me have Beno's address as I don't know where to send a letter I have ready for him. Will you also let me have the name of Bari's English Composition Book and its compiler? I want such a book badly, as this will be useful for me not only in Bengalee but in Gujerati. There are no convenient books like that here.

You say in your letter "all here are quite well"; yet in the very next sentence I read "Bari has an attack of fever". Do you mean then that Bari is nobody? Poor Bari! That he should be excluded from the list of human beings is only right and proper, but it is a little hard that he should be denied existence altogether. I hope it is only a slight attack. I am quite well. I have brought a fund of health with me from Bengal, which, I hope it will take me some time to exhaust; but I have just passed my twenty-second milestone, August 15 last, since my birthday and am beginning to get dreadfully old.

I infer from your letter that you are making great progress in English. I hope you will learn very quickly; I can then write

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to you quite what I want to say and just in the way I want to say it. I feel some difficulty in doing that now and I don't know whether you will understand it.

With love,

Your affectionate brother,

Auro

P. S. If you want to understand the new orthography of my name, ask uncle.^¹

Sometime in 1894 Sri Aurobindo met M .G. Ranade at Bombay for half an hour. It was Ranade who, having read Sri Aurobindo's Induprakash series, had sent a warning to the editor. He was anxious to meet the intelligent and promising young man! At last when an interview was arranged he found an opportunity to try to persuade Sri Aurobindo not to waste his energies in violently attacking the Congress but turn them to some constructive work like jail reform! When Sri Aurobindo went to prison he remembered Ranade's advice and ironically wrote afterwards that he had begun the prison-reform by going to prison!

From 16 July to 27 August 1894 Sri Aurobindo contributed a series of articles to the Induprakash on Bankim Chandra Chatterji. The articles contained literary criticism and an estimate of Bankim's work. It is evident that Sri Aurobindo knew Bengali well and had familiarised himself with the works of Bankim and Madhusudan Dutt before he called Dinendra Kumar Roy to Baroda in 1898 to acquaint him with the colloquial terms and pronunciation of Bengali.

In the year 1895 the first collection of Sri Aurobindo's poems, Songs to Myrtilla, was published "for private circulation". Sri Aurobindo used to read Homer, Dante, the Mahabharata, Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti, during this period. He instructed the Bombay firms Messrs Radhabai Atmaram Sagun and Messrs Thacker Spink & Co. to send him catalogues of new publications from which he would select books and order them. The books used to come by railway parcels.

The routine of his daily life was as follows: After morning tea Sri Aurobindo used to write poetry. He would continue up

¹. Sri Aurobindo, Supplement (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1972), P. 420-21.

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to ten o'clock. Bath was between ten and eleven o'clock and lunch was at eleven o'clock – a cigar would be by his side even while he ate. Sri Aurobindo used to read journals while taking his meals. He took less of rice and more of bread. Once a day there was meat or fish.

There were intervals when Sri Aurobindo took to complete vegetarian diet. He was indifferent to taste. He found Marathi food too hot (with its chillies) and Gujarati food too rich in ghee. Later, he once had a dinner at B G. Tilak's, which consisted of rice, puri, legum (dal) and vegetables. He liked it for its "Spartan simplicity". Sri Aurobindo was in the habit of reading far into the night and retiring very late. He was a late riser.

During this period he used to send money regularly for the maintenance of his mother and for Sarojini's education at Banki-pore. The two elder brothers Benoybhushan and Manmohan who had returned from England were earning also but they rendered no help to the family. When asked about this Sri Aurobindo said, "Dada is in Coochbehar state service and so he has to maintain a certain high standard of living. Manmohan is married and marriage is an expensive luxury!"

In the autumn of 1898 Sri Aurobindo managed to get Sj. Dinendra Kumar Roy as his paid tutor in order to familiarise himself with spoken Bengali. Roy came to Baroda after the Puja holidays. As already stated, Sri Aurobindo had commenced learning Bengali while at Cambridge, and he read many authors during his stay at Baroda. He wanted to make himself familiar with the growth of Bengali literature, to understand the idiom of the spoken language and to learn to speak it. Dinendra Roy tried to learn French and German from Sri Aurobindo. The study that Sri Aurobindo did with Roy was not of the nature of regular lessons, but was more of an informal arrangement. It happened at times that he would read and converse for a day and then for days there would be no learning at all.

One day Dinendra Kumar asked Sri Aurobindo why he was not so well known, that is, why he did not come forward in the life of Baroda. Sri Aurobindo replied that there was no happiness or delight in it.

D. K. found books coming by railway parcels. He saw French, German, Latin, Greek, even Russian books on Sri Aurobindo's shelf. He saw all the poets from Chaucer to Swinburne in his library.

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But he was immensely surprised to find that in spite of his prolonged residence in England there was no trace of a deep European influence on him.

D. K. writes about the economic condition: 'He was alone, he did not know what it was to run after pleasures, he never spent even a paisa in the wrong way, and yet at the end of the month he did not have a paisa in his hand."^¹

Among the subjects on which Sri Aurobindo wrote poems, D .K. Roy mentions "Savitri" – this may be the first germ of the great poem which ultimately ended as the epic.²

A Bengali painter, Shashi Kumar Hesh, came to Baroda during this period. He did a portrait of Sri Aurobindo in oils.

Sri Aurobindo's cousin Basanti, the daughter of Krishna Kumar Mitra, was the first person to receive a letter written by Sri Aurobindo in Bengali. Basanti bitterly regrets the loss of this letter during the Hindu-Muslim riots in Bengal after Pakistan came into being. Afterwards Sri Aurobindo learnt enough Bengali to conduct the weekly Dharma in it. He even wrote some Bengali poetry. His mastery over the Bengali language was not equal to his mastery over the English.

When Professor Littledale went on leave in 1898 Sri Aurobindo was appointed professor of English. In 1899 he spoke on Oxford and Cambridge on the occasion of the Baroda College Social Gathering.³ In the year 1900 Principal Tait asked the Maharaja to appoint Sri Aurobindo as permanent professor of English in the Baroda College. In his proposal the principal spoke highly of his work and ability. The Maharaja granted the request. Sri Aurobindo's pay was raised to Rs.360. Unlike his brother Manmohan (also a professor in English) Sri Aurobindo never prepared himself for the class with elaborate notes.

About his career as a professor Sri Aurobindo said in the course of a talk: "I was not so conscientious a professor as Manmohan. I never used to look at the notes and sometimes my explanations did not agree with them at all. I was professor of English and sometimes of French. What was surprising to me was that students

¹.Dinendra Kumar Roy, Aurobindo Prasanga, p. 13. Cf. statement of R. N. Patkar, pp. 61-66.

².Ibid., p. 15.

³.See Appendix III, pp. 315-18, for the speech.

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used to take down everything verbatim and mug it up by heart. Such a thing would never have happened in England. There [at Baroda] the students besides taking my notes used to get notes of some professor from Bombay, especially if any of them was to be an examiner.

"Once I was giving a lecture on Southey's Life of Nelson. My lecture was not in agreement with the notes. So the students remarked that it was not at all like what was found in the notes. I replied: I have not read the notes – in any case they are all rubbish! I could never go to the minute details. I read and left my mind to do what it could. That is why I could never become a scholar. Up to the age of fifteen I was known as a very promising scholar in St. Paul's. After fifteen I lost that reputation. The teachers used to say that I had become lazy and was deteriorating – because I was reading novels and poetry only; at examination time I used to prepare a little. But now and then when I wrote Greek and Latin verse my teachers used to lament that I was not utilising my remarkable gifts because of my laziness.

"When I went up for Scholarship at the King's College, Cambridge, Oscar Browning remarked that he had not seen such remarkable papers before."^¹

During these years (the years of teaching at Baroda) Sri Aurobindo used to pass his vacations in Bengal, especially the second vacation which generally coincided with the Puja holidays. The two vacations were from 15 April to 9 June and from 30 September to 2 January. His cousin Basanti has given her reminiscences of his visits to Deoghar. She was then a girl learning at school and used to go to Deoghar to visit the family of her grandfather Rajnarayan Bose. There were hills around and everybody enjoyed a life free from the conventions of the city. All the children were fond of uncle Jogendra, Rajnarayan's eldest son, and would sit round him and listen to stories or else make fun. Sri Aurobindo liked Jogendra whom he used to call humorously "the prophet of Isabgul", because he used to prescribe "Isabgul" as a remedy for almost all the troubles of the stomach!

Sri Aurobindo used to join them all during the Puja holidays. He generally stayed at Deoghar but also passed a few days with

¹. Cf. A.B. Purani, Evening Talks, First Series (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1959), pp. 245-46.

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his aunt at Calcutta. Indeed, whenever Sri Aurobindo passed through Calcutta during this period (before 1906) he used to stay with her and Krishna Kumar Mitra at 6, College Square.

Basanti Devi writes: "Auro Dada used to arrive with two or three trunks. We always thought they would contain costly suits and other luxury items like scents, etc. When he opened them I used to look and wonder. What is this? A few ordinary clothes and all the rest books and nothing but books! Does Auro Dada like to read all these? We all want to chat and enjoy ourselves in vacations. Does he want to spend even this time in reading these books? But because he liked this reading did not mean that he did not join us in our talks and chats and our merrymaking. His talk used to be full of wit and humour."^¹

In September 1899 Rajnarayan Bose, Sri Aurobindo's grandfather, died. Sri Aurobindo wrote a sonnet on him after his death.

In 1899 or possibly 1898 Jatindranath Banerjee (afterwards Niralamb Swamy) came to Baroda for military training in the Baroda army in order to prepare himself for revolutionary work. Sri Aurobindo, with the help of Khaserao and Madhavrao Jadhav, got him admitted to the army for training. Jatin was declared as a U .P. man, not a Bengali. Sri Aurobindo persuaded him to join the revolutionary movement he intended to launch in Bengal. Jatin agreed.

He was sent to Calcutta to get men and materials for the revolutionary work in Bengal in 1900. He met P. Mitra and Bibhuti Bhushan Bhattacharya and introduced them to Sri Aurobindo.

Probably this same year Barin passed his Entrance Examination. He spent six months with Manmohan at Dacca and then tried to learn agriculture but received no monetary support. He tried to run a tea shop in Patna but there also he did not succeed and so he went to Baroda to stay with Sri Aurobindo.

One day even before he had got up from his bed, Sri Aurobindo found Barin with a dirty canvas bag and very dirty clothes. He exclaimed, "How is it that you are here in this state-?" He sent him straight to the bathroom! Even before this time, whenever

¹. Basanti Chakravarty, "Amader Aurodada", Galpa Bharati, Vol. VI, No 7 (Paush 1357), pp. 776-77.

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Sri Aurobindo used to go to Deoghar, he used to inculcate the revolutionary spirit in Barin. When Barin came to Baroda it was an opportunity to prepare him for the revolutionary work.

Sri Aurobindo continued to be a member of the College Union. After April 1901 he drew his salary from the Sar Subha's office.

In April 1901 Sri Aurobindo was married to Mrinalini Bose, daughter of Bhupal Chandra Bose. Her age was fourteen years (birthday 6 March 1888). Sri Aurobindo had had many prospective offers from which he selected Mrinalini. Principal Girish Chandra Bose, a friend of Bhupal Chandra Bose, arranged the match. The marriage took place at Baithakkhana Road, Calcutta, in one of the houses belonging to the Hatkhola Dutt family. As Sri Aurobindo had gone to England the question of purificatory rites was raised. Sri Aurobindo flatly refused, even as his father Dr. K .D. Ghose had in his day. At last there was a proposal of shaving the head. When that was turned down "an obliging Brahmin priest satisfied all the requirements of the Shastra for a monetary consideration!"

Byomkesh Chakravarty, Lord Sinha and Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose and his wife attended the marriage. It was performed according to Hindu rites. The bride was given away by Girish Chandra Bose. Sri Aurobindo was twenty-nine.

Sri Aurobindo went to Deoghar after his marriage. From there Mrinalini, Sarojini and himself went to Naini Tal. While there Sri Aurobindo wrote a postcard to Bhuvan Chakravarty:

Dear Bhuvan Babu,

I have been here at Naini Tal with my wife and sister since the 29th of May. The place is a beautiful one, but not half so cold as I expected. In fact, in daytime it is only a shade less hot than Baroda except when it has been raining. The Maharaja will probably be leaving here on the 24th,– if there has been rain at Baroda, but as he will stop at Agra, Mathura and Mhow he will not reach Baroda before the beginning of July. I shall probably be going separately and may also reach on the 1st of July. If you like, you might go there a little before and put up with Deshpande. I have asked Madhavrao to get my new house furnished but I don't know what he is doing in that direction.

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Banerji is, I believe, in Calcutta. He came up to see me at Deoghar for a day.

Yours sincerely,

Aurobindo Ghose

It was most probably during the year 1901 that Mr. Mandavale, a Marathi gentleman, gave the oath of the revolutionary party to Sri Aurobindo. This ceremony was considered important at that time.

During his stay at Baroda, Barin read a book on spiritualism and began experimenting with the planchette and with table-tapping. Sri Aurobindo also used to join in the evenings. Two or three experiences are remarkable. Once Barin called his father Dr. K .D. Ghose. A reply came that his spirit was there. He was asked to give a sign or proof of his identity. He reminded Barin about a gold watch which he had presented to him. Barin had completely forgotten this fact but said it was true. Then he was asked to give another proof. He mentioned the existence of a certain picture on the wall in the house of Mr. Devdhar, who was an engineer. An enquiry was made but no such picture was found. The matter was reported to the spirit that claimed to be Dr. K .D. Ghose. In reply he said that they should enquire again. Then they made another and more detailed effort, and found that there was a picture which had been covered over by whitewash. At another séance Tilak was present. The spirit of Dr. K. D. Ghose was called and asked "What kind of man is this?" He answered: "When all your work is ruined and many men bow their heads down, this man will keep his head erect." This proved true.

Once Ramakrishna Paramahansa was called and was asked questions. But he kept silent for a long time. Then while going he said, "Make a temple, make a temple (Mandir karo)."

At that time the idea of independence for India was dominant and so all believed that Ramakrishna had given his consent to the "Bhawani Mandir" scheme. But the true significance of Ramakrishna's statement was interpreted by Sri Aurobindo years later as a command to make in ourselves a temple to the Mother, to effect such a transformation of ourselves that we become the temple of the Mother.

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These séances have not much value from the point of view of Yoga. But they show clearly the limitation of the view that the physical is the only reality. Their importance to Sri Aurobindo lies in the fact that they showed him the existence of supra-physical agencies and planes of consciousness, and the possibility of attaining them.

Sri Aurobindo kept a horse-carriage at Baroda. For a description of it see page 33 of D. K. Roy's book, Aurobindo Prasanga. An incident involving this carriage is important. Once Sri Aurobindo was going from the Camp Road towards the city. Just by the side of the public gardens an accident was narrowly averted. As he saw the possibility of the accident he found that, with the will to prevent it, there appeared a Being of Light in him who was as it were the master of the situation and was able to control the details. This experience, which came before the beginning of Sri Aurobindo's sadhana, may be the seed of the following poem:

THE GODHEAD

I sat behind the dance of Danger's hooves

In the shouting street that seemed a futurist's whim,

And suddenly felt, exceeding Nature's grooves,

In me, enveloping me the body of Him.

Above my head a mighty head was seen,

A face with the calm of immortality

And an omnipotent gaze that held the scene

In the vast circle of its sovereignty.

His hair was mingled with the sun and breeze;

The world was in His heart and He was I:

I housed in me the Everlasting's peace,

The strength of One whose substance cannot die.

The moment passed and all was as before;

Only that¹ deathless memory I bore.^²

In 1902 Sri Aurobindo was occupied in teaching French and English at the college. Southey's Life of Nelson and Burke's

¹ Alternate reading: its.

². Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1972), p. 138.

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reflections on the French Revolution were the text books in the first two classes. Sri Aurobindo presided over Sarat Chandra Mallick's lecture in the college.

This year Sri Aurobindo went to Midnapur for the first time during the vacation. There he met Hemchandra Das. There was Practice of rifle shooting on Das's lands. It was resolved to form six centres of revolutionary work in Bengal. Jatin Banerjee and Barin accompanied Sri Aurobindo to Midnapur. Jatin had already started an organisation of young men at Calcutta in the compound of P. Mitra. When Sri Aurobindo went to Calcutta, Jatin arranged an interview between the two. Sri Aurobindo gave the oath of the revolutionary party to P. Mitra.

Sri Aurobindo later went to Midnapur for a second time and gave the oath to Hemchandra Das who, during the ceremony, held a sword in one hand and the Gita in the other. The content of the oath was to secure the freedom of Mother India at any cost and to declare the secret of the society to no one.

The idea of forming secret revolutionary societies had been in the air in Bengal for a long time. Even Rajnarayan Bose, Sri Aurobindo's grandfather, had started a society which Tagore had joined when young! But these efforts did not result in any achievement. There was a secret society in Maharashtra presided over by Thakur Ramsingh, the Rajput prince. The Bombay branch was managed by a council of five. Sri Aurobindo was able to contact this body and joined it. This was after he had already started his activity in Bengal.

During this year (1902) a society was started at Deoghar under Satyen Bose. The revolutionary spirit was so rampant that even government servants were sympathetic to it and men like Jogendranath Mukherji, a magistrate, actively joined the movement.

From 28 April 1902 to 29 May 1902 Sri Aurobindo was on Privilege leave in Bengal. It was mainly for the revolutionary work that Sri Aurobindo visited Bengal during these years.

Sister Nivedita came to Baroda in October of this year. She had identified herself with the political ideology of Vivekananda. She had an ardent aspiration for India's freedom. She had ultimately to sever her connection with the Ramakrishna Mission on account of her political activity. The relation between Sister Nivedita and Sri Aurobindo is not well known and many conjectures and rumours have appeared

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in the Indian press. We give here in Sri Aurobindo's own words the truth of the matter.

"Then about my relations with Sister Nivedita – they were purely in the field of politics. Spirituality or spiritual matters did not enter into them and I do not remember anything passing between us on these subjects when I was with her. Once or twice she showed the spiritual side of her but she was then speaking to someone else who had come to see her while I was there. . .

I met Sister Nivedita first at Baroda when she came to give some lectures there. I went to receive her at the station and to take her to the house assigned to her; I also accompanied her to an interview she had sought with the Maharaja of Baroda. She had heard of me as one who 'believed in strength and was a worshipper of Kali' by which she meant that she had heard of me as a revolutionary. I knew of her already because I had read and admired her book Kali the Mother. It was in these days that we formed our friendship. After I had started my revolutionary work in Bengal through certain emissaries, I went there personally to see and arrange things myself. I found a number of small groups of revolutionaries that had recently sprung into existence but all scattered and acting without reference to each other. I tried to unite them under a single organisation with the barrister P. Mitra as the leader of the revolution in Bengal and a central council of five persons, one of them being Nivedita. ... I had no occasion to meet Nivedita after that until I settled in Bengal as Principal of the National College and the chief editorial writer of the Bande Mataram. By that time I had become one of the leaders of the public movement known first as extremism, then as nationalism, but this gave me no occasion to meet her except once or twice at the Congress, as my collaboration with her was solely in the secret revolutionary field. I was busy with my work and she with hers, and no occasion arose for consultations or decisions about the conduct of the revolutionary movement. Later on I began to make time to go and see her occasionally at Bagbazar.

"In one of these visits she informed me that the Government had decided to deport me and she wanted me to go into secrecy or to leave British India and act from outside so as to avoid interruption of my work. There was no question at that time of danger to her; in spite of her political views she had friendly relations with high Government officials and there was no question

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of her arrest. I told her that I did not think it necessary to accept her suggestion; I would write an open letter in the Karmayogin which, I thought, would prevent this action by the Government. This was done and on my next visit to her she told me that my move had been entirely successful and the idea of deportation had been dropped. The departure to Chandernagore happened later and there was no connection between the two incidents. . . ."^¹

In her interview Sister Nivedita pressed the Maharaja to join and help the revolutionary movement. The Maharaja did not commit himself. He said merely that he would send his reply through Sri Aurobindo. He gave this answer only to evade the question: he never sent any reply through Sri Aurobindo. He was surprised however to learn that Sri Aurobindo was taking such a keen interest in the movement.

Most probably it was during this year (1902) that Barin was sent to Calcutta to help Jatin Banerjee. Barin had been staying at Baroda since 1900 or 1901. The work at Calcutta was begun at 106, Upper Circular Road. Jatin, Barin and Abinash Bhattacharya were the workers. Jatin used to work among the educated classes – pleaders, doctors, etc. – and Barin and Abinash among college students. Wherever they found an open ground they tried to organise young men there, and to teach them lathi-play, fencing and even riding. Having worked together for six months the three separated. Barin and Abinash shifted to Madan Mitter Lane and Jatin moved to Sitaram Ghose Street.

Sri Aurobindo took one month's leave from 22 February 1903. The reason for the leave was to patch up the differences that had arisen between Jatin Banerjee and Barin at Calcutta. It appears that Jatin, after his military training at Baroda, had become a srrict disciplinarian and insisted on imposing discipline on the young men in the organisation. Barin was not capable of working under anyone except the topmost leaders. Jatin became unpopular because of his strictness. One may say that there was rivalry between him and Barin for leadership. When Sri Aurobindo went to Bengal he stayed with Jogendra Vidya Bhushan, who was a Government servant and a sympathiser of the revolutionary movement. Devavrata and Suresh Samajpati were on Barin's side. Even Hemchandra Das was for Barin. Hemchandra Das

¹. Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, pp. 68-70.

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writes; He [Jatin] had an intense desire for doing work. He was, besides, a military man. For a Bengali this fact of becoming a military man is such an unimaginable thing that his temper became that of 'general'. Jatin used to exercise his generalship fully upon his young men."

Sri Aurobindo heard both the sides and gave his ruling that Jatin must continue to work. The final authority was not to be vested in either Jatin or Barin but in a committee of five members including P. Mitra and Sister Nivedita. It should be noted here that the differences were not really removed and occasional bickerings continued. Sri Aurobindo took no interest in the affair. He met the members only for work.

One of those he met was Abinash Bhattacharya, a young man who was among the first to join the nationalist movement in Bengal. Abinash got his chance to see Sri Aurobindo when one day Barin took him to Jatin's house, where Sri Aurobindo was talking with Jatin. Sri Aurobindo spoke with Abinash and welcomed him into the movement.^¹

Sri Aurobindo has written: "The work under P. Mitra spread enormously and finally contained tens of thousands of young men and the spirit of revolution spread by Barin's paper Yugantar became general in the young generation; but during my absence at Baroda the council ceased to exist as it was impossible to keep up agreement among the many groups."^²

After returning from leave in March Sri Aurobindo took his classes at his home in the afternoon. Later he went to Kashmir on the order of the Maharaja. On 26 March the Principal made a strong report against Sri Aurobindo's absence to the Dewan, who wrote that Sri Aurobindo should be made to provide an explanation. After two months a note dated 6 June was received, in which the following points were mentioned:

"1. From the 22nd February I was absent on leave for a month. I had written to the Principal reporting my departure, but it appears the letter was not received.

"2. Previous to that for two or three days I was called to the Palace on urgent work.

1. Abinash Bhattacharya, "Aurobindo", Galpa Bharati, Vol. VI, No. 7 (Paush 1357), pp. 832-33.

2. Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, p. 69.

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Sri Aurobindo in Baroda

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---

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Khaserao Jadhav's Bungalow, Baroda

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"3. Subsequent to my return from leave I was taking the classes in the afternoon at my own house, as three-quarters in the morning were insufficient. I may mention that I was always in the habit of making my own arrangements with the studnts, which was the more necessary as I had several branches of work to attend to. .

"4. As I am now attached to the Swari in charge of the secretary's work during the Cashmere trip, I shall not be able to take the French classes this term."

When Sri Aurobindo was on tour in Kashmir he visited Takht-i-Suleman or "hill of Shankaracharya". Tkhere without any effort he experienced the vacant Infinite in a very tangible way. This experience left a deep impression upon his mind.

Poetry is not autobiography except in the sense of being an expression of the experience of the inner being. Sri aurobindo’s visit to Kashmir seems to have given him the inspiration for the poem which is reproduced here:

ADWAITA

I walked on the high-wayed Seat of Solomon ¹

Where Shankaracharya's tiny templ e stands

Facing Infinity from Time's edge, alone

On the bare ridge ending earth's vain romance.

Around me was a formless solitude:

All had become one strange Unnamable,

An unborn sole Reality world-nude,

Topless and fathomless, for ever still.

A Silence that was Being's only word,

The unknown beginning and the voiceless end

Abolishing all things moment-seen or heard,

On an incommunicable summit reigned,

A lonely Calm and void unchanging Peace

On the dumb crest of Nature's mysteries ²

During the year 1904 Sri Aurobindo began yoga somewhat seriously.

¹.Takht-i-Suleman.

² Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, p. 153.

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"No, I had no knowledge. I did not know what God was", said Sri Aurobindo later about the beginning of his sadhana. "Deshpande at that time was doing Hatha Yoga, Asanas and other such Kriyas and as he had a great proselytising tendency he wanted to convert me to his view. But I thought that a Yoga which required me to give up the world was not for me. I had to liberate my country. I took to it seriously when I learnt that the same Tapasya which one does to get away from the world can be turned to action. I learnt that Yoga gives power, and I thought why the devil should I not get the power and use it to liberate my country? ... It was the time of 'country first, humanity afterwards and the rest nowhere'. It was something from behind which got the idea accepted by the mind; mine was a side-door entry into the Spiritual Life."

Sri Aurobindo consulted engineer Devdhar, who was a disciple of Swami Brahmananda of Chandod, for details about Pranayama. There was an idea current that yoga could not be done without Pranayama. Sri Aurobindo describes the results of his practice as follows:

"My own experience is that the brain becomes Prakashmaya – full of light. When I was practising Pranayama at Baroda, I used to do it for five to six hours in the day, three hours in the morning and two in the evening. The mind worked with great illumination and power. At that time I used to write poetry. Usually I wrote five to eight or ten lines per day, about two hundred lines in a month. After the Pranayama I could write two hundred lines within half an hour. Formerly my memory was dull, but afterwards when the inspiration came, I could remember the lines in their order and write them down conveniently at any time. Along with this enhanced mental activity I could see an electric energy all around the brain."^²

On another occasion he spoke of Pranayama as follows: "The results were remarkable. Many visions of scenes and figures I used to see. I felt an electric power around my head. My powers of writing were nearly dried up; they revived with a great vigour. I could write prose and poetry with a flow. That flow has never

¹.Cf. A.B. Purani, Evening Talkś Second Series (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1961), p. 171.

². Cf. Purani, Evening Talks, First Series, p. 204.

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ceased since then; if I have not written afterwards it is because I had something else to do. But the moment I want to write it is there. Thirdly great health: I grew stout and strong, the skin became smooth and fair and there was a flow of sweetness in the saliva. I used to feel a certain aura round the head. There were plenty of mosquitoes but they did not come to me. . . .

"When I went to Bengal and took to political work [in 1906] Pranayama became irregular and I had a great illness which nearly carried me off."¹

And in a letter of May 1932 he referred to Pranayama in the following terms: "After four years of prānāyāma and other practices on my own, with no other result than an increased health and outflow of energy, some psycho-physical phenomena, a great outflow of poetic creation, a limited power of subtle sight (luminous patterns and figures, etc.) mostly with the waking eye, I had a complete arrest. ... "²

During this period of the beginning of sadhana Sri Aurobindo used to see things on the subtle planes, as mentioned in the letter above. He describes in the following letter how he began to see inwardly: "I remember when I first began to see inwardly (and outwardly also with the open eye), a scientific friend of mine began to talk of after-images – 'these are only after-images'! I asked him whether after-images remained before the eye for two minutes at a time – he said, 'no', to his knowledge only for a few seconds; I also asked him whether one could get after-images of things not around one or even not existing upon this earth, since they had other shapes, another character, other hues, countours and a very different dynamism, life-movements and values – he could not reply in the affirmative. That is how these so-called scientific explanations break down as soon as you pull them out of their cloudland of mental theory and face them with the actual phenomena they pretend to decipher."³

Barin went away into the Vindhya mountains to search for a "place far away from the atmosphere of cities, into solitude, to find a peaceful and ennobling atmosphere" to establish there a

1. Cf, A. B. Purani, Evening Talks, Third Series (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram. 1966), pp. 95-96.

2. Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, pp. 78-79.

3. Ibid - P- 90.

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temple of Mother India (Bhawani Mandir). He came back with very persistent mountain fever! He was being treated, but not being cured, when a Naga Sannyasi came, from whom Sri Aurobindo had a direct proof of the powers and utility of Yoga. Sri Aurobindo later said about this incident: "I first knew about Yogic cure from a Naga Sadhu or Sannyasi. Barin had mountain fever when he was wandering in the Amarkantak. The sadhu took a cupful of water and cut it crosswise with a knife while repeating a Mantra. He then asked Barin to drink it; saying he wouldn't have fever the next day, and the fever left him."¹ It was perhaps the same Sannyasi who gave Sri Aurobindo a Stotra of Kali. "It was a very violent Stotra with 'Jahi, Jahi' in it. I used to repeat it, it did not give any results. ... It was at this time that I gave up meat diet and found a great feeling of lightness and purification in the system."^²

Sometime during his stay at Baroda Sri Aurobindo had another personal experience of the power of occult knowledge when Narayana Jyotishi, without any reference to the horoscope, foretold his three politicial trials and also his release by saying that he would come to trouble while fighting against "white enemies". At that time Sri Aurobindo had not seriously thought of taking up open political activity.

On 28 September 1904 Sri Aurobindo was appointed Vice-Principal of the college; his pay was raised toRs.550 per month. He was very popular with the students and the principal also liked him very much. The Maharaja kept a provision for his personal work even while making this permanent appointment.

Previous to this time Sri Aurobindo had met Shri Charu Chandra Dutt, I. C .S., who was working at Thana. The Bhawani Mandir scheme was explained to Dutt and he joined the revolutionary party. In September 1904 Sri Aurobindo again passed through Thana, met Charu Chandra Dutt and discussed the Bhawani Mandir scheme with Haribhai Modak, editor of Rastramat, Kaka Saheb Patil, a pleader of Vasai, and one or two other men. Their viewpoint was that the spiritual element should be left out, the political side stressed and, on the material side, that bombs and pistols should be gathered.

1.Cf. Purani, Evening Talks, First Series, pp. 132-33.

2 Cf. Purani, Evening Talks, Third Series, p. 96.

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During the years 1904 and 1905 Sri Aurobindo stayed in Grey Street when he went to Calcutta during vacations. Barin did the cooking and Devabrata, later Swami Prajnananda, used to come and go. All those who were to be recruited to the revolutionary organisation used to come to this Grey Street house and meet either Barin, Jatin or Devavrata. Sri Aurobindo used to meet only those who were of importance. They used to survey the day's work and exchange ideas at meal time. This recruiting work had begun from 1899-1900. Sri Aurobindo wanted to remain in the background and work. He had an aversion to coming out before the public.

Around this time revolutionary centres, not altogether well organised, were started at Khulna, Rangpur, Midnapur, Dacca etc. Years later, commenting on this work of revolutionary organisation, Sri Aurobindo said:

"Barin does not give the true state of things [in his book]. I was neither the founder nor the leader. It was P. Mitra and Miss Ghosal who started it at the inspiration of Baron Okakura. They had already started and when I visited Bengal I came to know about it. I simply kept myself informed of their work. My idea was an armed revolution in the whole of India. What they did at that time was very childish, killing a Magistrate and so on. Later it turned into terrorism and dacoities which were not at all my idea or intention. Bengal is too emotional, wants quick results and can't prepare through a long course of years. We wanted to give battle by creating a spirit in the race through guerilla warfare. But at the present stage of the science such things are impossible and bound to fail."¹.

Points from a statement of R.N. Patkar, advocate, Baroda, are reproduced here to give an idea of Sri Aurobindo's life at Baroda:

…. When I came to Baroda – I was a school-going lad hardly sixteen in age and as such I cannot be expected to give a detailed account of [Sri Aurobindo's] life during this short period. However

¹ Cf. Purani, Evening Talks, Third Series, p. 35.

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I note down a few points that struck me and made a vivid impression on me. ...

He was remarkably simple in his mode of living. He was not at all fastidious in his tastes. He did not seem to care much either for his food or dress, because he never attached any importance to either. Any dish served to him at his meal time was welcome to him. Similarly about his dress – I never saw him visiting the cloth market for making selection of cloth for his dress as he had no choice to make. At home he was clad in plain white sadara and dhoti and outside invariably in white drill suits. He never slept on a soft cotton-bed, as most of us do, but on a bed made of coir (coconut fibres) on which was spread a Malbar grass-mat which served as a bed-sheet. Once I asked him why he used such a coarse hard bed and he said with his characteristic laugh, "My boy, don't you know that I am a Brahmachari? Our shastras enjoin that a Brahmachari should not use a soft bed, which may induce him to sleep." I was silenced but I thought to myself that he must be a great man. . . .

Another important thing I observed about him was his total absence of love for money, for which he never seemed to care. We all know that he was working as Professor of English Literature in the Baroda College. He was getting a decent salary of Rs.500 a month. It was his practise to receive his salary once in three months. In those days, payment was made in cash and not in currency notes as now. He used to get the lump sum for the three months in a bag which he emptied in a large tray lying on the table in his room. He never bothered to keep it in a safe box, under lock and key as most of us do, and it lay there open until it was consumed. He never cared to keep an account of what he spent. This struck me and one day I casually asked him why he kept his money like that. He simply laughed and I still remember – though after a lapse of over fifty years – the reply that was given by him. He said, "Well, it is a proof that we are living in the midst of honest and good people." I asked him again, "You never keep any account which may testify to the honesty of the people round about you?" Then with a serene face he said, "It is God who keeps an account for me. He gives me as much as I want and keeps the rest to Himself. At any rate He does not keep me in want; then why should I worry?". . .

His passion for reading was very great. He was a huge reader

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and his reading was not confined to any particular subject but it was diverse and extended to various compartments of human knowledge. He was not a mere reader as a majority of us are, but a great thinker and a writer too. After reading any book he used to brood over what he had read for a time and then commit his views to paper. I had seen volumes of such writings in his room in different languages such as Greek, Latin, French and English.

Being a man of retiring disposition I invariably used to find him confined to his room, fully absorbed in reading. His concentration was so great that he felt himself the least perturbed by any outside disturbance. Once I had to communicate a message to him when he was engrossed in a book. I had to wait for over fifteen minutes just in front of him before he diverted his attention to me. One evening his servant brought his meal dish consisting of rice and curry with some vegetables and addressed to him, "Sab, khana rakha hai." ["Sir, the meal is served."] Aravind Babu simply said "Accha" ["Very well"] without even moving his head. After about an hour or so, the servant came again to remove the dish, but to his surprise he found the dish untouched lying on the table as it was. He dared not disturb his master and he quietly came to me and told me about it. Then I had to go to his room to do the unpleasant task of reminding him of the waiting meal. He then gave a pleasant smile and hurriedly went to the table and within about ten minutes finished his job of feeding his belly and resumed his work. Such was his love for reading. When he was enjoying his intellectual feast, which was certainly more palatable to him than his everyday rice and curry, there was no wonder that he should care more for the former.

….. I had the good fortune to be his student when I was in the Inter Class. His method of teaching was a novel one. In the beginning he used to give a series of introductory lectures for initiating the student into the subject-matter of the text, which gave a fair idea about the author and his views on particular items bearing on the text. After preparing the student to understand the text in this manner, he used to start reading the text in the classroom, stopping wherever necessary to explain the meaning difficult and obscure sentences. Then after finishing the text, he used  to dictate general lectures bearing on the various aspects pertaining to the text. These lectures, which were given at the

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close of the term, were availed of by many students belonging to other colleges.

But more than his college lectures, it was a treat to hear him on the platform. He used to preside occasionally over the meetings of the College Debating Society. When he was to preside, the College Central Hall which is sufficiently large was almost packed to the full with the audience which not only consisted of the College students but many educated persons from the out side public especially when the subject selected for the debate was interesting. Mr. Ghose was never an orator but a speaker of a vary high order, and when he rose to speak, there was a pin-drop silence and the audience used to listen to him with rapt attention. Without any gestures or the movements of the limbs, he stood like a statue – motionless – and the language used to flow like a stream from his lips with a natural ease and melody that kept his audience almost spell-bound. Every sentence that he uttered was full of meaning and set the audience thinking for days together. He was at his best when the subject matter pertained to religion or philosophy. He rarely dabbled in politics but references were made now and then to the down-trodden conditions of India, and illiteracy and ignorance of the masses. Though it is more than five decades now since I heard him on the Baroda College platform, I still remember his figure with the metallic ring of his sweet melodious voice as if I heard him yesterday. . . .

On another occasion I casually said to Aravind Babu that Bengal was far in advance of other provinces in India in Education, that it had produced many great writers and poets. For example, Romeshchandra Dutt had composed Ramayan and Mahabharat in verse and that he was a great poet. Then he said, "Do you call Romesh a poet? No – you can call him a rhymist the most, but not a poet. Poets are born and not made. It is not that all those who write verses are poets – even a prose writer can be a poet if he has a poetic gift in him.". . .

One day ... in the beginning of 1905, Messrs Arvind Babu, Deshpande and Jadhav went to Chandod, a small town on the bank of the Narmada, and a place of pilgrimage. There they passed a day with a Yogi and then proceeded to Ganganath, a place a few miles distant from Chandod. There is a beautiful Ashram there where Swami Brahmanand spent his life. At that place they passed another day, discussed some spiritual problems

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with the disciple of Brahmanand Swami and then returned to Baroda. After this trip I saw a marked change both in Aravind Babu and Deshpande. Both of them changed their life altogether. They started worshipping the Goddess and taking only one meal – a pure vegetarian meal – a day; both started living a life of austerity. But between the two I saw a greater change in Aravind Babu. He was never as free with me as he used to be before. He looked serene and calm with the gravity of a man of ripe old age. I always found him alone in his own room in a contemplative mood or closeted with his friends Deshpande and Jadhav. One evening I saw Barindra going with the planchette into the room where all the three used to meet. Successively for three days they met in that very room, along with Barindra with the planchette. On the fourth day I met Barindra and asked him what all of them were doing. Without the least hesitation he told me that a message from the Goddess has been received with detailed directions, which after being put in a readable form will be printed and published in the form of a book. The book was out in a few days under the title of "Bhawani Mandir", or The Message of the Goddess. It was for private circulation only. . . .

The day of his departure came at last and it was extremely touching. ... In the evening, Aravind Babu, though he had a very busy time, called me in his room and I sat by his side. With a caressing touch of his hand on my shoulder he affectionately said to me, "Well, Rajaram, we part after all. We part in body but not in soul – which is omnipresent. I leave Baroda because Supreme Duty demands my presence elsewhere and I cannot shirk. ... You will come out successful and triumphant only if you remain honest and good and obey the dictates of your conscience. If you observe this dictum your path will be smooth and you will be happy." He finished these words and got up. He went straight to his book case, and knowing my love for Sanskrit picked up two books – Kalidas's Shakuntala and Vikramorvashi – and presented them to me as a token of his love for me. He also gave me a few verses composed by himself, one styled Songs to Myrtilla and Other Poems and the other Urvashi – a translation in verse of Poet Kalidas's drama.^¹ I quietly bowed, touched his feet and left the room with a heavy heart and wet eyes. Though

¹. This book must have been Urvasie, a poem based on the legend of Urvasie

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an old man now – with one foot in the grave, – I still remember the parting scene with a heaving heart.

From March 1905 to February 1906, Sri Aurobindo acted for the Principal, who was on leave; his pay was Rs.550 plus an acting allowance of Rs.160, or a total of Rs.710. He was liked very much by the students.

The government announced the partition of Bengal on 20 July 1905. This was the signal for tremendous agitation throughout India and particularly in Bengal. From Baroda Sri Aurobindo wrote to the revolutionary workers in Calcutta, "This is a fine opportunity. Carry on the anti-partition agitation powerfully. We will get many workers for the movement." Later Sri Aurobindo wrote and sent them a pamphlet entitled "No Compromise". No press in Calcutta was willing to print it. Finally Abinash and his friends got it composed at their house by Kulkarni, a Marathi revolutionary who was staying with them. At night they had a few thousand copies of the pamphlet printed and later distributed them freely.¹

It was around this same time that Sri Aurobindo wrote the famous revolutionary booklet Bhawani Mandir. We have already mentioned the Bhawani Mandir scheme. The idea for it was mostly Barin's. A temple of Mother India was to be built somewhere in the forest or on some mountain-top. Here workers, who would dedicate themselves, in the spirit of complete renunciation, to India's freedom, would be prepared. Others who could not rise to this pitch of renunciation of everything were to help these political Sannyasins in other ways. It is possible that the basic conception of this scheme was derived from Ananda Math of Bankim Chandra. The booklet, which is mentioned in the Rowlett Committee report (of 1917), is reproduced on the following pages.

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and Pururavus. Sri Aurobindo's translation of Kalidasa's drama was not published until 1911.

¹ Abinash Bhattacharya, "Aurobindo", pp. 832-33.

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