Life of Sri Aurobindo

CHAPTER VII

Chandernagore

From May 1909 to February 1910 Sri Aurobindo stayed at the house of his uncle Krishna Kumar Mitra at 6, College Square, Calcutta. He used to go to the office of the Karmayogin and the Dharma at 4, Shyam Pukur Lane every day at four o'clock in the afternoon. It was winter and Sri Aurobindo came wrapped in his shawl. There was not much work to do in the office; often four or five people would sit together and try automatic writing. One has, in that experiment, to sit with a blank mind, pen in hand, and allow a free action to some force that may intend to write through one. When Sri Aurobindo went to Pondicherry he spent some time there as well experimenting with automatic writing. He discovered that what one receives in this way is not necessarily always correct; but that the experience is useful for a contact with occult levels and for a knowledge of the working of subtle forces. Sometimes Sri Aurobindo was so late at the automatic writing sittings in Calcutta that the trams stopped plying and a horse carriage had to be hired for him to take him to his uncle's house in College Square.

This is how he describes the circumstance of his going to Chandernagore: "I was in the Karmayogin office [trying some automatic writing] and we knew about the search that was going to be made with the object of arresting me. There were some people there [Ramchandra Mazumdar, Suresh Chakravarty (Moni), Biren Ghose, Bijoy Nag and Nolini Kanta Gupta]. Ramchandra was there preparing to give fight to the police and many other ideas were flying about when suddenly I heard a voice from above saying­ – No, go to Chanderangore.” ^¹

After hearing the voice, Sri Aurobindo decided to act immedi­ately. They started from the Karmayogin office at about 8 o'clock at night, Sri Aurobindo and Ramchandra Mazumdar leading. About fifty paces behind them was Biren, and about the same distance behind Biren, Suresh followed. They went zig-zag in order to evade the surveillance of the C .I.D. men who were posted

^¹. Cf. A. B. Purani, Evening Talks, Second Series (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo .Ashram, 1961), p. 142.

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at the Karmayogin office, and reached the Ganges in about ten minutes. That day the C. I .D. men seemed to have been conspicu­ous in their absence. A boat was called and engaged for Chandernagore. Sri Aurobindo boarded the boat with Biren and Suresh.

There are many stories current about Sri Aurobindo's departure for Chandernagore. Some have been published in magazines by persons who have written on wrong information or accepted rumour as fact and thereby created confusion. In order to set the question to rest once and for all we give here Sri Aurobindo's own description even at the risk of repetition:

"It was not Gonen Maharaj who informed me of the impending search and arrest, but a young man on the staff of the Karmayogin, Ramchandra Majumdar, whose father had been warned that in a day or two the Karmayogin Office would be searched and myself arrested. There have been many legends spread about on this matter and it was even said that I was to be prosecuted for participation in the murder in the High Court of Shamsul Alam, a prominent member of the C .I.D., and that Sister Nivedita sent for me and informed me and we discussed what was to be done and my disappearance was the result. I never heard of any such proposed prosecution and there was no discussion of the kind; the prosecution intended and afterwards started was for sedition only. Sister Nivedita knew nothing of these new happenings till after I reached Chandernagore. I did not go to her house or see her; it is wholly untrue that she and Gonen Maharaj came to see me off at the Ghat. There was no time to in­form her; for almost immediately I received a command from above to go to Chandernagore and within ten minutes I was at the Ghat; a boat was hailed and I was on my way with two young men to Chandernagore. It was a common Ganges boat rowed by two boatmen, and all the picturesque details about the French boat and the disappearing lights are pure romance."¹

There was no mishap on the way except that the boatmen had to drag the boat in shallow waters once or twice during the night.

The boat anchored at the Strand at Chandernagore. Suresh and Biren got out and informed Charu Chandra Roy of Sri Aurobindo's arrival and asked him if he could make arrangements

¹.Sri Aurobindo, On Himself(Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1972), pp. 70-71.

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for his stay. Charu Chandra was afraid and did not know what to do. In the meantime, while Biren and Suresh were thinking of going back to the boat with a disappointing reply, a certain Sishir Ghose took them to Motilal Roy. Motilal on coming to know about Sri Aurobindo's predicament readily agreed to accommodate him. Motilal went to the boat and brought it near the place where he stayed. Sri Aurobindo disembarked and was taken to the house. His request to Motilal to keep his arrival secret was complied with. Motilal made arrangements to keep him underground.

Suresh and Biren returned to Calcutta the next day in order not to arouse any suspicion. Thus nobody, not even his closest co-workers, knew where Sri Aurobindo had gone.

"I sent someone from the office to Nivedita to inform her and to ask her to take up editing of the Karmayogin in my absence. She consented and in fact from this time onward until the suspension of the paper she had the whole conduct of it; I was absorbed in my Sadhana and sent no contributions nor were there any articles over my signature. There was never my signature to any articles in the Karmayogin except twice only, the last being the occasion for the prosecution which failed. There was no arrangement for my staying in Chandernagore at a place selected by Nivedita. I went without previous notice to anybody and was received by Motilal Roy who made secret arrangements for my stay; nobody except himself and a few friends knew where I was."¹

On the first day Motilal Roy made an arrangement in his Baithakkhana (sitting room); from there he took Sri Aurobindo to a godown where he used to keep chairs (from his furniture workshop), which was on the first floor of the house. Motilal went to bring some tiffin for Sri Aurobindo to eat. When he came he saw that Sri Aurobindo was in meditation! He gave him the tiffin; Sri Aurobindo took it mechanically. In the afternoon Motilal took Sri Aurobindo to his parlour and gave him a bath. It was winter; the cold-water bath made Sri Aurobindo shiver. Motilal had to buy food from a shop to avoid suspicion. Sri Aurobindo spoke with Motilal, telling him to surrender everything to God.

That night, for the sake of safety, Sri Aurobindo was taken

¹ Ibid., p. 71.

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to a friend's house to sleep. The second day passed. In the even­ing, when Motilal met him, Sri Aurobindo asked him to make an arrangement somewhere else, so Motilal brought him back to his own house at night. Because Motilal's house still proved unsuitable, several other houses, including one in "Coolie-lines" in the northern part of Chandernagore (Gondalpara) were tried. Finally a house was rented near a Jagannath temple close to the Ganges.¹

Altogether Sri Aurobindo stayed in Chandernagore for a month and a half. Motilal saw Sri Aurobindo regularly and had many talks with him about yoga. Sri Aurobindo gave sadhana to Motilal. Thus were sown the seeds of what afterwards became the Prabartak Samgha. This group separated from Sri Aurobindo after August 1920.

Motilal describes the impression Sri Aurobindo made on him:

"a completely surrendered individual – one felt when he spoke as if somebody else was speaking through him. ... I placed the plate of food before him – he simply gazed at me and then ate a little – just mechanically!" Sri Aurobindo appeared to be absorbed even when he was eating. He used to meditate with open eyes, and see subtle forms and spiritual visions.²

Sri Aurobindo's sadhana at Chandernagore went on with intensity. He saw many visions on the subtle planes. He used to see figures of three Goddesses at the time of meditation. They were seen going away at the end. It was later when he went to Pondicherry that he knew them to have been Ila, Mahi (Bharati) and Saraswati, the Vedic goddesses. Sri Aurobindo did not meet anyone at Chandernagore except Motilal and one or two people who attended on him for his needs.

After his departure many anonymous letters were received at Sri Aurobindo's Calcutta address. In one of them he was asked to come out in public. In a challenging note he replied that he had not gone away out of fear and that there was no warrant against him. He said if there was one he would come out. It was then heard that the government had issued a warrant, which

¹ Motilal Roy, "Sri Aurobindo Prasanga", Prabartak, Vol. XXXV, No. 6

(Paushl357),p.375.

² Motilal Roy, "Sri Aurobindo Prasanga", Nirnay, Paush-Magh 1357,

pp. 31-34.

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only confirmed Sri Aurobindo's suspicion that the letter had been written by an agent of the government. In reality there was no ground for any warrant.

At the end of March (most probably the third week) Sri Auro­bindo received an inner indication to go to Pondicherry, which he later called in his letter to Baptista of 1920 "my place of retreat, my cave of tapasya, not of the ascetic kind, but of a brand of my own invention."¹

About his deciding to go to Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo once said: "While the prosecution was pending I went away secretly to Chandernagore and there some friends were thinking of sending me to France. I was thinking what to do next. There I heard the Adesh [command] to go to Pondicherry."²

At the end of March Motilal Roy sent word to Sukumar Mitra at Calcutta about Sri Aurobindo's intended departure for Pondicherry. Towards the end of the same month Moni (Suresh Chakravarty) received a note from Chandernagore telling him to go to Pondicherry and arrange for a house. A Tamil weekly called India used to be published from Pondicherry by some Nationalists. One Srinivasachari, who was known to the revolutionary group, was connected with it. Subramania Bharati ³ was working with him and Krishnamachari was his partner. The paper supported the Nationalist and revolutionary outlook.

Moni started on the 28th. A letter of introduction addressed to Srinivasachari was given to him. He walked to the Howrah station and took his seat in the second class. He was dressed as an Anglo-Indian. Saurin Bose, Mrinalini Devi's cousin and Sukumar Mitra, Krishna Kumar's son, were on the platform to see him off. They gave him his second class ticket and Rs. 30 in cash. He reached Pondicherry on the 31st.

Some people thought then – and even now there may be some who might think – that Sri Aurobindo left politics because he felt that he could do nothing or that he was afraid. Here is his own explanation: "I may also say that I did not leave politics

.¹ Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, p. 430. See below pp. 167-70.

² Cf. Purani, Evening Talks, Third Series (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1966), p. 39.

.³ The noted Tamil poet and patriot.

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because I felt I could do nothing more there; such an idea was very far from me. I came away because I did not want anything to interfere with my yoga and because I got a very distinct ādesa in the matter. I have cut connection entirely with politics, but before I did so I knew from within that the work I had begun there was destined to be carried forward, on lines I had fore­seen, by others, and that the ultimate triumph of the movement I had initiated was sure without my personal action or presence. There was not the least motive of despair or sense of futility behind my withdrawal."¹

Some people believed that there was a ban imposed on Sri Aurobindo's entry into British India. That this is not correct is clear from his letter to Baptista of January 1920.² In an evening talk he said: "There never was any ban on my entering British India. On the contrary Lord Carmichael sent me an invitation to return to India and settle down at some place like Darjeeling and discuss philosophy with him. I rejected the offer."

¹ Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, p. 55.

² See pp. 167-70.

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