Life of Sri Aurobindo

sadhana; but as to the positive way to get these things, I don't know if your mind is quite ready to proceed with it. There are in fact serveral ways. My own way was by rejection of thought 'Sit down,' I was told, 'look and you will see that your thoughts come into you from outside. Before they enter, fling them back.’ I sat down and looked and saw to my astonishment that it was so; I saw and felt concretely the thought approaching as if to enter through or above the head and was able to push it back concretely before it came inside.

"In three days – really in one – my mind became full of an eternal silence – it is still there. But that I don't know how many people can do. One (not a disciple – I had no disciples in those days) asked me how to do Yoga. I said: "Make your mind quiet first.' He did and his mind became quite silent and empty. Then he rushed to me saying: 'My brain is empty of thoughts, I cannot think. I am becoming an idiot.' He did not pause to look and see where these thoughts he uttered were coming from! Nor did he realise that one who is already an idiot cannot become one. Anyhow I was not patient in those days and I dropped him and let him lose his miraculously achieved silence.

"The usual way, the easiest if one can manage it at all, is to call down the silence from above you into the brain, mind and body."¹

"I think you have made too much play with my phrase 'an accident', ignoring the important qualification, 'it seemed to come by an accident'. After four years of prānāyama 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 and was at a loss. At this juncture I was induced to meet a man without fame whom I did not know, a Bhakta with a limited mind but with some experience and evocative power. We sat together and I followed with an absolute fidelity what he instructed me to do, not myself in the least understanding where he was leading me or where I was myself going.

¹ Sri Aurobindo, On Himself  (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1972). pp. 82-83.

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The first result was a series of tremendously powerful experiences and radical changes of consciousness which he had never intended – for they were Adwaitic and Vedantic and he was against Adwaita Vedanta – and which were quite contrary to my own ideas, for they made me see with a stupendous intensity the world as a cinematographic play of vacant forms in the impersonal universality of the Absolute Brahman."¹

"As for calm and silence, there is no need of the supramental to get that. One can get it even on the level of Higher Mind which is the next above the human intelligence. I got these things in 1908, 27 years ago, and I can assure you they were solid enough and marvellous enough in all conscience without any need of supramentality to make it more so. Again, 'a calm that looks like action and motion' is a phenomenon of which I know nothing. A calm or silence that is what I have had – the proof is that out of an absolute silence of the mind I edited the Bande Mataram for 4 months and wrote 6 volumes of the Arya, not to speak of all the letters and messages etc. I have written since."²

"I myself had my experience of Nirvana and silence in the Brahman, etc. long before there was any knowledge of the overhead spiritual planes; it came first simply by an absolute stillness and blotting out as it were of all mental, emotional and other inner activities – the body continued indeed to see, walk, speak and do its other business, but as an empty automatic machine and nothing more. I did not become aware of any pure ‘I’ nor even of any self, impersonal or other, – there was only an awareness of That as the sole Reality, all else being quite unsubstantial, void, non-real. As to what realised that Reality, it was a nameless consciousness which was not other than That; one could perhaps say this, though hardly even so much as this, since there was no mental concept of it, but not more. Neither was I aware of any lower soul or outer self called by such and such a Personal name that was performing this feat of arriving at the consciousness of Nirvana. ...

Mark that I did not think these things, there were no thoughts

¹ ibid

². ibid

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or concepts nor did they present themselves like that to any Me; it simply just was so or was self-apparently so."¹

"It was my great debt to Lele that he showed me this.; ‘Sit in meditation,’ he said ‘but do not think, look only at your mind; you will see thoughts coming into it; before they can enter throw these away from your mind till your mind is capable of entire silence.' I had never heard before of thoughts coming visibly into the mind from outside, but I did not think either of questioning the truth or the possibility, I simply sat down and did it. In a moment my mind became silent as a windless air on a high mountain summit and then I saw one thought and then another coming in a concrete way from outside; I flung them away before they could enter and take hold of the brain and in three days I was free. From that moment, in principle, the mental being in me became a free Intelligence, a universal Mind, not limited to the narrow circle of personal thought as a labourer in a thought factory, but a receiver of knowledge from all the hundred realms of being and free to choose what it willed in this vast sight-empire and thought-empire."²

During his stay at Baroda Sri Aurobindo met Chhotalal Purani in a private interview and explained to him a scheme for the revolutionary work by drawing a pencil sketch on a blank piece of paper. He then advised him to meet Barin who met C. B. Purani for three consecutive days, explaining to him the details of the revolutionary organisation. It was thus that the seeds were sown of that movement in Gqarat which became so well known afterwards. The inspiration for it came from Sri Aurobindo.

Sri Aurobindo also net the Maharaja at the latter's request. When the Maharaja wanted to meet Sri Aurobindo a second time, Lele asked Sri Aurobindo not to meet him and so he did not.

Sri Aurobindo gave three lectures at Baroda on the political situation – two at Bankaner Theatre and one at Manik Rao's gymnasium. Sardar Mazumdar presented Sri Aurobindo with a Pashmina shawl as it was severe winter then and Sri Aurobindo was going about in a shirt with no covering over it. He kept no

¹ Ibid,, p. 116.

² Ibid., pp. 83-84.

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bedding. While travelling he slept on the Sitting board and used his hand for pillow.

In the second week of January Sri Aurobindo went to Poona from Baroda. Sri Aurobindo asked Lele to come with him and Lele agreed. Sri Aurobindo gave a lecture at the Gaekwad Wada, Poona, on the thirteenth. Then he went to Bombay. At Girgaum (Bombay) he delivered a lecture on the fifteenth.

In Bombay the spiritual experience that had begun at Baroda became more intense. The vacant condition of the mind turned into the experience of the silent Brahman Consciousness. The multifarious activities of the city of Bombay, the rows of tall houses, etc. – all became as if things moving on the surface, mere appearances, things unreal against the background of the silent Infinite which alone seemed real.

"When I was in Bombay, from the balcony of the friend's house I saw the whole busy movement of Bombay as a picture in a cinema show, all unreal and shadowy. Ever since I have maintained that poise of mind – never lost it even in the midst of difficulties."¹ This sonnet, written in the 1930's, is a poetic expression of the same experience:

NIRVANA

All is abolished but the mute Alone.

The mind from thought released, the heart from grief

Grow inexistent now beyond belief;

There is no I, no Nature, known-unknown.

The city, a shadow picture without tone,

Floats, quivers unreal; forms without relief

Flow, a cinema's vacant shapes; like a reef

Foundering in shoreless gulfs the world is done.

Only the illimitable Permanent is here.

A Peace stupendous, featureless, still,

Replaces all, – what once was I, in It

A Silent unnamed emptiness content

Either to fade in the Unknowable

Or thrill with the luminous seas of the Infinite. ²

¹. Cf. Purani, Evening Talks, Second Series (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1974), p. 62.

². Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1971), P.161.

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When Sri Aurobindo got an invitation from the Bombay National Union to address a meeting at the Mahajan Wadi on the nineteenth, he was in a fix. His mind had become calm, blank – how was he to deliver a speech? He could not very well decline the invitation as he was an active political worker and a prominent all-India leader. He asked Lele, who said that it would be all right to accept and that all would be well. Here is a description of what happened in Sri Aurobindo's own words: "In that silent condition – without any thought in the mind – I went to Bombay. There I had to lecture at the National Union and so I asked Lele: 'What should I do?' He asked me to pray. But I was so absorbed in the silent Brahman Consciousness that I could not pray. So I said to him that I was not in a mood to pray. Then he replied that it did not matter. He and some others would pray and I had simply to go to the meeting and make Namaskar to the audience as Narayana and then some voice would speak. I did exactly as he told me. On my way to the meeting somebody gave me a paper to read. When I rose to speak the impression of the headline flashed across my mind and then all of a sudden something spoke out. That was my second experience from Lele. . ."¹

It was thus that Sri Aurobindo got the clue not only to the practicality of the yoga but to its dynamism. To the sadhana leading to passivity or inactivity was added the important element of divine dynamism. Not only did he understand it, but he put it to the test throughout his tour from Bombay to Calcutta. As already mentioned above, all activities initiated afterwards were taken up in the same way. The basis of his ideal of divine life as a result of complete transformation of human nature was derived from solid experience gained in the midst of a stormy political activity.

Thus, Sri Aurobindo's yoga does not rest upon the basis of a miracle, or a blind faith in something occult or some intellectual abstract principle of philosophy. It is based on concrete experience and tested in the struggle of life.

From Bombay Sri Aurobindo began his journey back to Calcutta. He gave speeches in several cities on the way: 24 January

¹ Cf. Purani, Evening Talks, Second Series, p. 62.

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1908 at Nasik, 26 January at Dhulia, 28 and 29 January at Amravati, 30 and 31 January and 1 February at Nagpur (Shyam Sunder Chakravarty was present).

"All the speeches I delivered on my way to Calcutta were of the same nature – with some mixture of mental working m some parts.

"Before parting from Lele I asked for his instructions. He was giving me detailed instructions. In the meantime I told him of a Mantra that had arisen in my heart. Suddenly while giving instructions he stopped and asked me if I could rely absolutely on Him who gave me the Mantra. I replied that I could always do that. Then Lele said that there was no need of further instructions."¹

"The final upshot", as Sri Aurobindo wrote to a disciple many years later, "was that he was made by a Voice within him to hand me over to the Divine within me enjoining an absolute surrender to its will – a principle or rather a seed force to which I kept unswervingly and increasingly till it led me through all the mazes of an incalculable Yogic development bound by no single rule or style or dogma or Shastra to where and what I am now and towards what shall be hereafter,"²

In his further development in yoga, Sri Aurobindo saw that all the voices heard in sadhana are not from the Divine. Not only so, but there are voices coming from Ignorance and even Asuric voices, which the sadhak has to be on his guard against. In the light of his later development Sri Aurobindo declared that a direct Divine Guidance was possible after the attainment of the Divine and that then one could dispense with the need of the guidance (or working) of the voice.

In February 1908 Barin wrote a letter to Lele inviting him to Calcutta. It was considered necessary for revolutionary youths to have training in the spiritual life. It was when Lele visited Calcutta that he came to know about the secret political movement of Barin and others. He became very serious and drew their attention to the grave dangers, but nobody listened to his warning. All were full of enthusiasm and unmindful of consequences. Prafulla Chaki was then in Calcutta and Lele wanted

¹. Cf. ibid.

² Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, p. 79.

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to take him to Bombay with him for sadhana. The proposal was referred to Sri Aurobindo who left it to Prafulla's own choice. Prafulla refused to be parted from Sri Aurobindo.

Lele also went to Deoghar, where he stayed at Seal's Lodge. He wrote a letter to Sri Aurobindo on 10 February. When they met, Lele asked him not to follow the path he was pursuing. He warned him that the voice that was guiding him was Asuric. He also said he would not be responsible for the consequences if he continued the same practice. Sri Aurobindo freed him from the responsibility of his sadhana.

"When Lele came to Calcutta in February 1908 he asked me about my yoga. I had stopped the old kind of meditation as it was practically going on all the time. Then he said that the Devil had taken possession of me and wanted to give me instructions. I did not act upon his advice – but I did not want to insult him. I then received the command from within that a human Guru was no longer necessary for me now."¹

He thenceforward relied entirely on the inner guidance. Here in fact ended his relation with Lele as Guru. Sri Aurobindo ever afterwards felt greatly indebted to Lele and acknowledged his debt with deep gratitude. In March (most probably) Lele returned to Bombay.

After returning to Calcutta from western India, Sri Aurobindo took a room at 23, Scotts Lane. It was here that he met Amarendranath Chatterji, afterwards a well-known revolutionary leader. The interview for giving Amar the initiation was arranged by Upendranath Banerjee. Amar wrote in 1950 about this first meeting in the following terms: "I was not merely enchanted by my first meeting with him, – I became powerful. I was given personal proof that Diksha [initiation] can be given merely by Darshan [sight] and does not require either touch or Mantra."²

The two sat alone together. Sri Aurobindo began: "I suppose Upen has talked to you about the work that is to be done for the country. Have you heard everything?  I hope there is no doubt or vacillation or fear in your mind about it."

Amar: "Will you not say something yourself? Is what Upen has said the last word?

.¹ Cf. Purani, Evening Talks, Second Series, pp. 62-63.

.² Amarendranath Chatterji, "Sri Aurobinder Sange Sakshatkar", Galpa Bharati, Vol. VI, No. 7 (Paush 1357), p. 816.

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Smiling, Sri Aurobindo answered, "The last word is fearlessly taking the oath to serve the Motherland. If we want to free the country we have to conquer the fear of death."

Remembering the line where Bankimchandra says that as death is one day inevitable, it need not be feared, Amar continued, "My fear comes from another quarter. I feel at present that I am not worthy of such a great mission. Is there any means of attaining fitness?"

Sri Aurobindo: "Surrender yourself to God and in the name of the Mother go ahead with the service of India. That is my Diksha to you."¹

According to Amar, Sri Aurobindo's Diksha moulded his life. He was given the work of collecting money for the maintenance of the young men of the party.

On 17th February 1908 Sri Aurobindo wrote a letter to Mrinalini Devi.

23 Scott's Lane,

Calcutta.

17th Feb 1908 ²

Dear Mrinalini,

I have not written to you for a long time. This is my eternal failing; if you do not pardon me out of your own goodness, what shall I do? What is ingrained in one does not go out in a day. Perhaps it will take me the whole of this life to correct this fault. I was to have come on the 8th January, but I could not. This did not happen of my own accord. I had to go where God took me. This time I did not go for my own work; it was on His work that I went. The state of my mind has undergone a change. But of this I shall not speak in this letter. Come here, and I shall

.¹ Amarendranath Chatterji, "Sri Aurobindo Mahaprayane", Prabartak, Vol. XXXV, No. 9 (Paush 1357), p. 363. See also Amarendranath Chatterji, "Sri Aurobinder Sange Sakshatkar", pp. 818-19

². The manuscript of this letter bears the date 17 February 1907. This is evidently a slip. In February 1907 Sri Aurobindo was staying in Deoghar. The house in Scott's Lane does not seem to have been taken till after Sri Aurobindo's return from Surat in February 1908. In 1909 the judge in the Alipore bomb case, evaluating the letter as evidence, said of it, "dated 17th February 1907 – obviously a mistake for 1908". (Bijoy Krishna Bose, Ed. The Alipore Bomb Trial [Calcutta: Butter-worth & Co., 1922] p. 157)

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tell you what is to be told. But there is only one thing which must be said now, and that is that from now on I no longer am the master of my own will. Like a puppet I must go wherever God takes me; like a puppet I must do whatever He makes me do. It will be difficult for you to grasp the meaning of these words just now. But it is necessary to inform you, otherwise my movements may cause you regret and sorrow. You may think that in my work I am neglecting you, but do not do so. Already, I have done you many wrongs and it is but natural that this should have displeased you. But I am no longer free. From now on you will have to understand that all I do depends not on my will but is done at the command [ādesa] of God. When you come here, you will understand the meaning of my words. I hope that God will show you the Light he has shown me in his infinite Grace. But that depends upon His Will. If you wish to share my life and ideal you must strive to your utmost so that, on the strength of your ardent desire, He may in his Grace reveal the path to you also. Do not let anyone see this letter, for what I have said is extremely secret. I have not spoken about this to anyone but you; I am forbidden to do so. This much for today.

Your husband

P. S. I have written to Sarojini about household matters. When you see the letter you will understand that it is unnecessary to write to you separately about them.

A reminiscence of the Bande Mataram days: Sri Aurobindo is sitting in his house at Scott's Lane. Shyam Sundar Chakra-varty comes and asks for the editorial. Sri Aurobindo draws out a piece of old packing paper from the pile of papers on his table and begins writing on one end of it. He finishes the article in fifteen minutes – not a scratch, not a change, not a moment's pause! Next day that article fans the fire of patriotism in the hearts of Nationalists all over India.

On 4 April 1908 a meeting of the Nationalists in Chandernagore was banned by Tardevell, the mayor of this French colony. On 8 April a meeting at Chitala (near Chandernagore) was

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addressed by Sri Aurobindo. On 11 April a bomb which did not explode was thrown into Tardevell's house.

On Good Friday (17 April) Sri Aurobindo left Calcutta for Kishoregunj. He reached Kishoregunj on Saturday: there was a meeting and an address.

On 30 April a bomb intended for Mr. Kingsford, the District Magistrate of Muzaffarpur was thrown at Mrs. and Miss Kennedy by mistake. Both the ladies died. On 1 May many revolutionaries were arrested.

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