Life of Sri Aurobindo

Chapter 9: Pondicherry: 1910-1926

Moni, as we have said, arrived in Pondicherry on 31 March. He met Srinivasachari and informed him that Sri Aurobindo was expected to arrive on 4 April. But Srinivasachari and others did not trust him. They thought it most improbable that Sri Aurobindo, should select to come to a place as far south as Pondicherry, instead of to another place nearer to Bengal. Moni pressed upon them the need of a house, but they were not keen on it. At last, on the day of arrival, Moni asked them to arrange for a house in advance. They said they would manage to put Sri Aurobindo up – when he came. All along they suspected that Moni was a spy. But, in case Sri Aurobindo actually did come, they said they would give him a public reception. Moni argued with them and, in the end, prevailed upon them to drop such an idea as Sri Aurubindo was coining secretly and wanted to remain in seclusion. Moni, Srinivasachari and Bharati went to the port to receive Sri Aurobindo. The steamer arrived at Pondicherry at four o'clock on 4 April 1910. After tea Sri Aurobindo was taken to the house of Shanker Chelty in Comty Chetly Street. Sri Aurobindo remained there till October as the guest of Shanker Chetty.

Sri Aurobindo's aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Krishna Kumar Mitra, and also his grandmother, Mrs. Rajnaniyan Bose, were very anxious about him and wanted to have authentic news of his safe arrival at Pondichcrry. A week after Sri Aurobindo left Calcutta, a man came to see Krishna Kumar Mitra to inform him that Sir Charles Cleaveland, Director General of Criminal Investigation, who was slaying at the Great Eastern Hotel, had received the news in code that Sri Aurobindo was in Pondicherry. The gentleman had come to give this information assuming that Mitra must be very anxious about his safety. This shows how well the secret was kept: Sukumar Mitra, who had taken a leading part in arranging Sri Aurobindo's departure, had evidently not told his own father about it. In May 1910, Motilal Roy sent a man, Sudarshan, to inquire about Sri Aurobindo's safe arrival at Pondicherry.

Balai Devsharma has written: "After knowing that Sri Aurobindo had gone to Pondicherry, Mono Ranjan Guhathakurta and Shyam Sundar Chakravarty wrote a letter requesting him to guide them (and the party) in politics. The letter was answered: its purport was that Sri Krishna had taken the responsibility of freeing India. And so all of us must act from a firm status in yoga. This letter was read at the house of Shyam Sundar Babu, in Vidyasagar Street, Calcutta."

This year Paul Richard came to Pondicherry on behalf of M. Paul Bluyson for election to the French Chamber. Bluyson was elected. Richard came to know that Sri Aurobindo had come to Pondicherry and was doing yoga. An interview was arranged, most probably by Zir Naidu, a friend of Richard's, between Sri Aurobindo and Richard. It was in Shanker Chetty's house that they met two days for two or three hours each day. Richard asked Sri Aurobindo many questions, one of which related to the symbolic character of the lotus. Sri Aurobindo explained that the lotus stands for the opening of the conscious­ness to the Divine. It can be seen on any of the subtle planes of consciousness. Some years later (probably 1918) Richard gave a speech, published in his book, The Dawn over Asia, in which he spoke of Sri Aurobindo as the future leader of Asia.

At Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo did not want to meet anyone without a special purpose. He gave instructions to Moni and Bijoy to discourage casual visitors. He was thus living in practical solitude though in the middle of the town. He stayed in a room on the top floor of Shanker Chetty's house, corning down­stairs only for his bath.

It was here that Sri Aurobindo fasted for twenty-three days. Moni and Bijoy were the only persons who knew about it. During the fast Sri Aurobindo did all his usual work regularly – i.e. walking, meditation, writing, etc. When he broke the fast he took the same quantity of food that he used to take before; he did not begin to take food gradually as people who fast generally do. He suffered no diminution of mental or vital energy, but found that a certain diminution of material substance was taking place. He concluded that physical life would be impossible without food.

Two talks of Sri Aurobindo on the subject of fasting are reproduced below:

Disciple: “Is it possible to live without food?”

Sri Aurobindo: “Yes, it is. When I did my fast of about 23 days, while living in Chettiar’s house, I very nearly solved the problem.

“I could walk eight hours a day as usual. I continued my mental work and Sadhana also as usual and I found that I was not in the least weak at the end of the fast. But the flesh began to grow less and I did not find a clue to replacing the very material part that was reduced in the body.

“When I broke the fast, then also I did not observe the usual rule of people who go on long fasts, of beginning with little food and so on. I began again with the same quantity as I used to take before. . . .

“I tried fasting once in jail, but that was when I used to sleep once in three nights. I lost ten pounds in weight, but I felt stronger at the end of ten days than I was before the fast. I could lift up a weight, which I could not before”.

From Conversations, 15th June 1926: A.B. Purani

“I fasted twice: once in Alipore Jail for ten days and the other time in Pondicherry for twenty-three days. At Alipore I was in full yogic activities. I was not taking my food, and was throwing it away in the bucket. Of course, the Superintendent did not know it; only the warder knew about it and he informed others saying; “The gent;eman must be ill; he will not live long.” Though my weight was diminishing I was able to raise a pail of water above my head which I could not do ordinarily.

“At Pondicherry while fasting I was in full mental and vital vigour. I was even walking eight hours a day and not feeling tired at all, and when I broke the fast I did not begin slowly but with the usual normal food.

Disciple: “How is it possible to have such energy without food?

Sri Aurobindo: “One draws the energy from the vital plane instead of depending upon physical sustenance. Once in Calcutta I lived for a long time on rice and bananas only. It is a very good diet”.

From Conversations, 4th January 1939: A.B. Purani

During the first three months of the stay at Pondicherry there used to be séances in the evening in which automatic writing was done. The book Yogic Sadhan was written in this way. At the rate of one chapter per day, the book was finished in a week or eight days. On the last day it seemed to Sri Aurobindo that a figure that looked like Rammohan Roy disappeared into the subtle world near the comer of the ceiling of the room. It was inferred that Rammohan Roy had dictated the book. The Editor's Epilogue added after the last chapter was written by Sri Aurobindo himself. The editor's name is given as "the Uttar Yogi".

K .V. Rangaswamy Iyengar, the zamindar of Kodailam met Sri Aurobindo for the first time in Shanker Chetty's house. Up to 1906 this man represented the landlords in the Legislative Assembly of Delhi. He had come looking for Sri Aurobindo for the following reason. He had known a Yogi named Nagai Japata, who had been the guru of his family. When the time of his death was near this Yogi called his devotees to him. K. V. R. Iyengar asked him about the spiritual guide he must take for his future progress. The Yogi remained quiet for a time and then said that a great Yogi would come from the North whose help he could take. Iyengar then asked him how he would recognise that particular great Yogi, as so many yogis came to the South from the North. Japata replied that the great Yogi would come seeking refuge in the South, and he would make a declaration of three things before his arrival.

When K. V. R. Iyengar came to know that Sri Aurobindo had come to Pondicherry and retired from politics, he had one clue for identifying him as the "Yogi from the North" – Uttar Yogi – about whom Nagai Japata had spoken. Moreover, one of the letters of Sri Aurobindo to Mrinalini Devi that were produced in the Alipore court, contained a statement of "three madnesses" that were a part of Sri Aurobindo's personality. This was understood to be the declaration of the "three things" that had been predicted by the Yogi.

What transpired between the two at the interview is not known. It is known that K. V. R. Iyengar gave Sri Aurobindo a promise of economic help and besides this actually gave some money. Those were days of great danger to anyone who dared to render any kind of help to a revolutionary political leader. That is why nothing was spoken about the details of the interview or about the exact extent of the help rendered. K. V. R. Iyengar came twice again to Pondicherry to see Sri Aurobindo. It was he who had the small book Yogic Sadhan printed at the Vani Vilas Press for Sri Aurobindo.

Sri Aurobindo once spoke of Iyengar in an evening talk:

Sri Aurobindo: “There was a famous Yogi in the South who while dying said to his disciples that a Purna Yogi from the North would come down to the South and he would be known by his three sayings. The three sayings were those I had written to my wife. A Zamindar disciple of that Yogi found me out and bore the cost of the book Yogic Sādhan”.

From Conversations, 10th December 1938: A.B. Purani

V. Ramaswamy Iyengar, later known as "Va-Ra" in the Tamil literary world, had come to Pondicherry with K. V. R. Iyengar. He afterwards came and stayed with Sri Aurobindo for some time. A remarkable thing about this was that Sri Aurobindo had seen V. Ramaswamy in the subtle vision before he actually met him. He once mentioned this and another prophetic vision in a letter:

“I myself have these visions, only I don’t usually try to remember or verify them. But there were two curious instances which were among the first of their kind and which therefore I remember. Once I was trying to see a recently elected deputy here and saw someone quite different from him, someone who afterwards came here as Governor. I ought never to have met him in the ordinary course, but a curious mistake happened and as a result I went and saw him in his bureau and at once recognised him. The other was a certain V. Ramaswamy whom I had to meet, but I saw him not as he was when he actually came, but as he became after a year’s residence in my house. He became the very image of that vision, a face close-cropped, rough, rude, energetic, the very opposite of the dreamy smooth-faced enthusiastic Vaishnava who came to me. So that was the vision of a man I had never seen, but as he was to be in the future—a prophetic vision”.

Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram: Visions of Unknown People

Life at Pondicherry was hard while Sri Aurobindo and his young companions lived in Comty Chetty Street. Moni or Bijoy, or both, used to make tea for Sri Aurobindo in the morning. The food for the afternoon meal was cooked in the house: usually there was rice, vegetables, rasam and sambar. At night Sri Aurobindo took a cup of payas (sweet milk and rice). They all used to sleep on the ground. For Sri Aurobindo there was a thin mattress; Moni and Bijoy used to lie on straw mats. In the later days at Comty Chetty Street, Moni and Bijoy bought eggs and prepared them for Sri Aurobindo.

In October there was a change of lodgings from Shanker Chetty's house; Sri Aurobindo moved to a house on Rue Suffren, in the southern part of the town. This house belonged to one Sunder Chetty. He remained here until April 1911. In late September, just before the removal, Saurin Bose, a cousin of Mrinalini Devi, came to Pondicherry. In November Nolini Kanta Gupta came. There were now four young men in all: Moni, Bijoy, Saurin and Nolini.

On 7 November 1910 Sri Aurobindo wrote to The Hindu, a Madras paper, about his retirement from politics:

“I shall be obliged if you will allow me to inform every one interested in my whereabouts through your journal that I am and will remain in Pondicherry. I left British India over a month before proceedings were taken against me and, as I had purposely retired here in order to pursue my Yogic sadhana undisturbed by political action or pursuit and had already severed connection with my political work, I did not feel called upon to surrender on the warrant for sedition, as might have been incumbent on me if I had remained in the political field. I have since lived here as a religious recluse, visited only by a few friends, French and Indian, but my whereabouts have been an open secret, long known to the agents of the Government and widely rumoured in Madras as well as perfectly well-known to every one in Pondicherry. I find myself now compelled, somewhat against my will, to give my presence here a wider publicity. It has suited certain people for an ulterior object to construct a theory that I am not in Pondicherry, but in British India, and I wish to state emphatically that I have not been in British India since March last and shall not set foot on British territory even for a single moment in the future until I can return publicly. Any statement by any person to the contrary made now or in the future, will be false. I wish, at the same time, to make it perfectly clear that I have retired for the time from political activity of any kind and that I will see and correspond with no one in connection with political subjects. I defer all explanation or justification of my action in leaving British India until the High Court in Calcutta shall have pronounced on the culpability or innocence of the writing in the KARMAYOGIN on which I am indicted”.

Sri Aurobindo, Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest: To the Editor of the Hindu

On 7 November judgment was delivered at the Calcutta High Court on the Karmayogin and Manmohan Ghose, the printer of the journal, was acquitted. (He had been convicted by the Chief Presidency Magistrate.) The article in question, "To My Countrymen", was considered not seditious.

After the removal to the hired house in Rue Suffren, each of the four members of the household had to cook by turns. In the morning tea, milk, sugar and bread (loaf) were given to all. Lunch, consisting of three pounds of meat divided between the five persons, or else curry, along with some other food, was served between 11.30 and 12.30. Between three and four o'clock in the afternoon, a cup of tea was given to Sri Aurobindo. At night, fish, rice and one vegetable or curry dish were prepared. The only furniture was a camp cot for Sri Aurobindo, one table and two chairs. There was no servant.

Sri Aurobindo remained in Sunder Chetty's rented house up to April 1911. From April 1911 to April 1913 he stayed in the house of Raghav Chetty in Rue St. Louis.

During the year 1911 Motilal Roy came to Pondicherry. He stayed for a month and a half. It was arranged that he should meet Sri Aurobindo twice a week. Sri Aurobindo asked Motilal about his sadhana. He had given Motilal a mantra which Motilal was repeating. Motilal asked Sri Aurobindo whether he should continue the Japa. Sri Aurobindo told him to stop it. In order to maintain secrecy Motilal used to come by the back door of the house.

Motilal has described his visit of 1911 in one of his books. The details given there are highly coloured by his imagination. One thing he speaks of is true: the great economic hardship during this period.

In this year (1911) cooking was done by turns. All other members of the household used to finish their baths and wait for lunch in the kitchen, which was also the dining room. Sri Aurobindo used to take his bath last and come directly to the dining room. There were only two lamps in the house – a candle lamp in Sri Aurobindo's room and a small kerosene lamp in the kitchen. When dinner was ready at night the candle lamp was taken to the kitchen.

During the year Sri Aurobindo gave Latin, Greek and French lessons to Moni and Nolini. Books worth ten rupees were ordered every month. Sri Aurobindo went to Srinivasachari's house on the occasion of his daughter's marriage.

It was Sri Aurobindo's intention to return to the field of work after a certain poise of the sadhana was established. In an entry of a sadhak's diary dated 30 March 1924, it is noted: "When Sri Aurobindo came to Pondicherry the idea was that the sadhana might take about six months after which time all those who were here would go back and restart the work. Then one year passed and yet Sri Aurobindo did not go back. Then a period of four years was put down as the limit. In the meantime, the first world war intervened."

K. V. R. Iyengar met Sri Aurobindo in the Rue St. Louis house. He seems to have promised financial help but evidently it was irregular and inadequate. V. Ramaswamy (Va-Ra), who had come from Tanjore to stay with Sri Aurobindo, used to meet Sri Aurobindo daily in the evening. K. Amrita used to visit V. Ramaswamy.

An incident which threatened to happen but did not come about deserves to be mentioned in order to give an idea of the atmosphere and the difficulties of those days. There was one Nand Gopal Chetty whose family, which provided steve­dore service to steamers touching not only Pondicherry but also Madras, Nagapattam, etc., was rich and influential. Nand Gopal was taking a prominent part in the politics of French India. He seems to have agreed to participate in a plan of the British government agents to carry Sri Aurobindo out of the limits of French India with the help of goondas, so that Sri Aurobindo might be arrested by the British authorities and held up on some fabricated charge. The information of this intended plan reached Sri Aurobindo through Moni, Bijoy and others. To foil the plan the young men armed themselves with acid bottles to prevent any forcible entry into the house. Fortunately no one turned up. It was known afterwards that a warrant of arrest was issued against Nand Gopal on the same day as the projected abduction by the leaders of the opposite political party (in a matter connected with local elections) and he had to flee from Pondicherry to Madras to evade arrest. The plan thus completely miscarried.

When Sri Aurobindo was in the St. Louis house the French police came and searched it. The circumstances were as follows. Many political refugees and revolutionaries from British India had crossed over as refugees to Pondicherry because it was a French territory. Before the First World War, the French generally looked upon the English as rivals and they jealously asserted the right of giving asylum to political workers who were against the British rule in India. V. V. S. Aiyar, the revolutionary, Subramanya Bharati, the patriot-poet, and Srinivasachari were already there in 1910. Then Nagaswamy Aiyar came, and from Bengal Sri Aurobindo and four other persons. V. V. S. Aiyar being implicated in revolutionary activity came in the year 1912. The British government, in consequence, increased the number of its secret agents, C. I. D. men, in Pondicherry.

In July 1912 some secret service men threw a tin containing seditious literature into the well of V. V. S. Aiyar's house. As the British agents could not openly act in French territory, they employed Mayuresan, a French Indian, to complain against Bharati and other patriots, alleging that they were engaged in dangerous activities and that, if a search of their house was made, proof of the complaint would be found. He had not mentioned Sri Aurobindo by name but as Bharati, V. V. S. Aiyar and Srinivasachari were friends of Sri Aurobindo, the French govern­ment included his name on a list of those whose houses were to be searched.

But the scheme of the secret agents fell through, because the tin came up from the well when V. V. S. Aiyar's maid-servant drew water. Bharati went to Sri Aurobindo immediately and asked his advice. Sri Aurobindo told him to inform the French police and to ask them to come and see the tin to find what it contained. The French government took charge of the tin and found that it contained seditious pamphlets and journals. On some there was the image of Kali and some writing in Bengali. The suspicion was supposed to be created that all these refugees were carrying on correspondence with Shyamji Krishna Varma, Madame Cama and other leaders of the revolutionary movement in Europe and were trying to hatch an Indian conspiracy with their help.

The investigating magistrate who came to search Sri Aurobindo's house was one M. Nandot, who arrived with the chief of police and the public prosecutor. He found practically no furniture in the house, only a few trunks, a table and a chair. On opening the drawers of the table he found only books and papers. On some of the papers Greek was written. He was very much surprised and asked if Sri Aurobindo knew Greek. When he came to know that he knew Latin, Greek and other European languages, his suspicion waned, yielding place to a great respect for Sri Aurobindo. He invited Sri Aurobindo to meet him in his chambers later and Sri Aurobindo complied with his request.

Mayuresan, threatened with a charge of making a false complaint, disappeared from Pondicherry and took refuge in British India.

The financial condition was very hard during this year – sometimes for three or four days in the week all the members of the household had to go without fish or meat. A letter written to Motilal Roy on 3 July 1912 gives an idea of the stringent econo­mic situation:

Dear M.

Your money (by letter and wire) and clothes reached safely. The French Post Office here has got into the habit (not yet ex­plained) of not delivering your letters till Friday; that was the reason why we wired to you thinking you had not sent the money that week. I do not know whether this means anything, – for­merly we used to get your letters on Tuesday, afterwards it came to Wednesday, then Thursday and finally Friday. It may be a natural evolution of French Republicanism. Or it may be. Some­thing else. I see no signs of the seals having been tampered with, but that is not an absolutely sure indication of security. The postman may be paid by the police. Personally, however, I am inclined to believe in the Republican administration theory, – the Republic always likes to have time on its hands. Still, if you like, you can send Important communications to any other address here you may know of, for the present (of course, by French post and a Madrasi address). All others should come by the old address, – you may be sure, I think, no letter will be actually intercepted, on this side. By the way, please let us know whether Mr. Banomali Pal received a letter by French post from Achari enclosing another to Parthasarathi.

I have not written all this time because I was not allowed to put pen to paper for some time, – that is all. I send enclosed a letter to our Marathi friend. If he can give you anything for me, please send it without the least delay. If not, I must ask you to procure for me by will-power or any other power in heaven or on earth Rs.50 at least as a loan. If you cannot get it elsewhere, why not apply to Barid Babu? Also, if Nagen is in Calcutta, ask him whether the Noakhali gentleman can let me have anything. I was told he had Rs.300 put aside for me if I wanted it; but I did not wish to apply to him except in case of necessity. The situation just now is that we have Rs. 1 ½ or so in hand. Srinivasa is also without money. As to Bharati living on nothing means an uncertain quantity. The only other man in Pondicherry whom I could at present ask for help is absent sine die and my messenger to the South not returned. The last time he came, he brought a promise of Rs.1000 in a month and some permanent provision afterwards, but the promise like certain predecessors has not yet been fulfilled and we sent him for cash. But though he should have been here three days ago, he has not returned, and even when he returns, I am not quite sure about the cash and still less sure about the sufficiency of the amount. No doubt, God will provide, but He has contracted a bad habit of waiting till the last moment. I only hope He does not wish us to learn how to live on a minus quantity like Bharati.

Other difficulties are disappearing. The case brought against the Swadeshis (no one in this household was included in it although we had a very charmingly polite visit from the Parquet and Juge d'Instruction) has collapsed into the nether regions and the complainant and his son have fled from Pondicherry and become, like ourselves "political refugees" in Cuddalore. I hear he has been sentenced by default to five years imprisonment on false accusation, but I don't know yet whether the report is true. The police were to have left at the end of Pondicherry⁴⁸ but a young lunatic (one of Bharati's old disciples in patriotism and atheism) got involved in a sedition-search (for the Indian Sociologist of all rubbish in the world!) and came running here in the nick of time for the police to claim another two months' holiday in Pondicherry. However, I think their fangs have been drawn. I may possibly send you the facts of the case for publication in the Nayak or any other paper, but I am not yet certain.

I shall write to you about Sadhana etc. another time.

Kali

Sri Aurobindo, Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest: To Motilal Roy

It can be seen from the above letter that there had been a search in the Rue St. Louis house. Sri Aurobindo also refers in it to the escape of Mayuresan to Cuddalore.

On 15 August Sri Aurobindo's birthday was celebrated. Some local people – Sada, Pitrus, David and four others – besides the members of the household, took part in the celebration. Sri Aurobindo sat in a chair in the outer verandah of the new house and all those who had come passed one by one in front of him. Some sweets were distributed.

Once it seemed likely that the French government might yield to the pressure of the British government in the matter of handing over the political refugees. This was a very crucial time for all of them. Subramanya Bharati got very excited and disturbed over the news as was usual with him. One day he came all excited and agitated and asked Sri Aurobindo what he proposed to do in case the French government would not shield them. Bharati asked, "Do you not prefer to go out of India in that case? What is your view?" Sri Aurobindo turned his back to him and sat quietly for a few minutes. He then turned to Bharati and said, "Mr. Bharati! I am not going to budge an inch from Pondicherry. I know nothing will happen to me. As for yourself you can do what you like." After that he sat silent in his chair. Bharati and others dropped the idea of going either to Djibuti, or Indochina or Tripoli, which was in their minds.

In April 1913 Sri Aurobindo changed his residence from St. Louis Street to Mission Street. The rent of the house was Rs.15 per month. The reason of the change was economic stress.

15 August was celebrated in the Mission Street house. Sri Aurobindo was not well on that day, he had fever. But he came out and sat in the verandah and all those who had come passed before him. Moni had composed a Bengali poem which he read. Sri Aurobindo liked it and gave him a garland.

During this year, apparently, Sri Aurobindo translated C. R. Das's Sagar Sangit into English verse. For this the latter sent Rs.1000. V. Ramaswamy (Va-Ra) went back to Tanjore during the year.

In October 1913 Sri Aurobindo moved to 41 (afterwards 10), Rue Francois Martin. This house was better lighted and venti­lated. Up till this point there had been no furniture worth the name: no bedding, only mats with pillows; only two chairs one of which Sri Aurobindo used while writing and another outside which he used while receiving someone or giving an interview. Only one writing table and one camp-cot were there. The canvas of the camp-cot had been torn on one side, so Sri Aurobindo used to lie down carefully on the untom side and sleep! In 1914 this house became the office of the Arya. Sri Aurobindo remained here up to 1922.

An incident which took place in the new house during November-December is worth noting. A cousin of Bijoy Kumar Nag named Nagen Nag, who was suffering from tuberculosis, came to Pondicherry sometime in the month of July. The doctors had advised him to try a change of climate at the seaside as a stay in the hills had done him no good. Bijoy persuaded him to come to Pondicherry so that he might be near the sea and also profit by Sri Aurobindo's spiritual help. Nagen's coming partly eased the economic strain: they left the old house and hired the one at 41, Rue Francois Martin.

With Nagen Nag had come a servant called Birendranath Roy, who was employed as Nagen's cook. After coming to Pondicherry, Biren became the general manager, cook etc., of Sri Aurobindo's house. Being a Bengali, he became, like the others, a member of the household. One day, after they had been living in 41, Rue Francois Martin for some time, Biren had his head shaved completely. Suresh Chakravarty – alias Moni – took a fancy to give himself a similar complete shave. Generally, Moni was known to be very keen on dressing well and keeping up a good apprearance. Biren tried to dissuade him from shaving himself, but Moni was insistent and carried out his resolve.

This was, or looked, accidental. But its result was very strange. Biren was in fact a secret agent of the Bengal government. As he had joined Nagen Nag at Khulna there was no chance of any suspicion being aroused against him. Biren wanted to return to Bengal as he had passed six to eight months at Pondicherry. He asked the police department to send a substitute and the new man was expected shortly. The arrangement was that the new man should come to the Magry Hotel to meet Biren. As there were four or five Bengalis living with Sri Aurobindo, Biren had identified himself in a letter as the man with the shaven head. If the new man inquired about Biren, the fact of their being secret agents would perhaps become known!

When Moni got his head shaved, Biren felt sure that all the inmates staying with Sri Aurobindo knew him to be a secret agent, because otherwise Moni would not have shaved his head in spite of his attempt to dissuade him. From that day he became frightened and depressed. He sometimes went for a walk along the seaside with Moni and used to ask his advice as to what he should do, as he did not want to continue staying in Pondicherry. Moni used to tell him to return to Bengal and not be anxious about Nagen. Biren used to conclude from this that Moni was pulling his leg and pretending he did not know him to be a secret agent.

In these early years at Pondicherry there used to be wine-sittings when some friend was generous or when finances permitted. One night there was such a party. All were talking and enjoying themselves at about ten or eleven at night when Biren did something extraordinary. He declared that he wanted to say something quite startling to the company. The atmosphere was rather light. Everyone believed that it would be some joke, and asked him to come out with it. Biren said: I am a C. I .D. man"! No one believed him in the whole company; everyone began to laugh. Biren thought that as they knew the facts already they were only fooling him. So he said, "You do not seem to believe, but I am just going to bring the money I have received." He went down and brought Rs.50. He embraced every one who was present and at last sat down at the feet of Sri Aurobindo and offered him the money. He assured Sri Aurobindo that he had not sent any report against him or anyone else. He was much moved and began to weep. The whole atmosphere changed. Everyone became serious. Sri Aurobindo did not say anything.

This shows how the atmosphere in those days was full of suspicion and also how great was the number of secret agents in Pondicherry. The way in which Biren's confession came out was a miracle. He remained for some time after this, but he was afraid and used to close the doors of his room while he slept. He went to Bengal after about a month. He went to Mesopotamia during the First World War so that the revolutionaries might not take their revenge on him! He finally left the police department in 1921 or 1922. From 1924 even the occasional taking of wine was given up.

Also in November or December Motilal Roy came to Pondicherry incognito. He remained a month and a half at 10, Rue Francois Martin. He went back by steamer as there was some apprehension that he might be arrested at Madras.

Motilal was sending money to Sri Aurobindo from Chandernagore. It was easy for him to do this from there since both Chandernagore and Pondicherry were French possessions. Durgadas Seth, a moneyed man of Chandernagore, is reported to have given large sums of money to Motilal Roy to send to Sri Aurobindo. Motilal was also publishing all Bengali as well as some English books of Sri Aurobindo.

K. Amrita used to stay in Pondicherry during his school vacations. At one point he got into economic difficulties and had to stop his studies. Sri Aurobindo, in spite of his own difficulties, helped him with money and also used his influence with some well-known people in Madras on Amrita's behalf. Amrita was able to take his matriculation. Sri Aurobindo sometimes used to read to him from Browning, Kalidasa, Shakespeare and the Mahabharata. At times he read his own poem Savitri and his drama Eric.

Moni, Nolini and Saurin went to Bengal in February 1914. They returned in September.

On 29 March 1914 at 3.30 p.m., the Mother met Sri Aurobindo at 10, Rue Francois Martin. Her age at that time was 37. She and Paul Richard, her husband, remained in Pondicherry. Sri Aurobindo was persuaded to start a philosophical magazine in order to give to the world his grand synthesis of knowledge and yogic experience in terms of a rational exposition. It was decided to start the review, which was called the Arya, on the fifteenth of August, Sri Aurobindo's birthday.

In order to spread the idea in France, a French edition of Arya, subtitled Revue de la Grande Synthèse, was published simultane­ously. But the First World War intervened and after seven issues the French magazine was discontinued.

Once Sri Aurobindo wrote to a disciple about the Arya :

“It will be the intellectual side of my work for the world”.

Sri Aurobindo, Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest: To Motilal Roy

In another letter to Dilip Kumar Roy he said :

“And philosophy! Let me tell you in confidence that I never, never, never was a philosopher—although I have written philosophy which is another story altogether. I knew precious little about philosophy before I did the Yoga and came to Pondicherry—I was a poet and a politician, not a philosopher! How I managed to do it? First, because Richard proposed to me to cooperate in a philosophical review—and as my theory was that a Yogi ought to be able to turn his hand to anything, I could not very well refuse: and then he had to go to the War and left me in the lurch with 64 pages a month of philosophy all to write by my lonely self. Secondly, I had only to write down in the terms of the intellect all that I had observed and come to know in practising Yoga daily and the philosophy was there, automatically. But that is not being a philosopher!”

Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram: Writing Philosophy

It is clear from his letter quoted above that the Arya was not written from the intellect though it was written for it. The aim of the Arya as declared by Sri Aurobindo was:

“… to feel out for the thought of the future, to help in shaping its foundations and to link it to the best and most vital thought of the past. . . .”

Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga: Appendix: Passages Omitted from "Our Ideal"

“The earth is a world of Life and Matter, but man is not a vegetable nor an animal; he is a spiritual and a thinking being who is set here to shape and use the animal mould for higher purposes, by higher motives, with a more divine instrumentation. . .

“The problem of thought therefore is to find out the right idea and the right way of harmony; to restate the ancient and eternal spiritual truth of the Self so that it shall re-embrace, permeate, dominate, transfigure the mental and physical life; to develop the most profound and vital methods of psychological self-discipline and self-development so that the mental and psychical life of man may express the spiritual life through the utmost possible expansion of its own richness, power and complexity; and to seek for the means and motives by which his external life, his society and his institutions may remould themselves progressively in the truth of the spirit and develop towards the utmost possible harmony of individual freedom and social unity.

“This is our ideal and our search in the Arya. . . . .

“Philosophy is the intellectual search for the fundamental truth of things, religion is the attempt to make the truth dynamic in the soul of man. They are essential to each other. . . .”

Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga: Our Ideal

“Our first preoccupation in the “Arya” has therefore been with the deepest thought that we could command on the philosophical foundations of the problem; and we have been so profoundly convinced that without this basis nothing we could say would have any real, solid and permanent value that we have perhaps given too great a space to difficult and abstruse thought whether in the shaping of our own ideas or in the study and restatement of the ancient Eastern knowledge”.

Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga: Appendix: Passages Omitted from "Our Ideal"

Sri Aurobindo used to correct the proofs of the Arya and see that they were dispatched regularly on the fifteenth of every month. The review was printed at the Modem Press, Pondicherry. He used to write out the matter himself, at times composing it straight on the typewriter. Sometimes even at night he would go on typing the articles for the press.

After August Bijoy Nag started from Pondicherry for Calcutta. At Villupuram he was taken in custody under the Defence of India Act. He was taken to Calcutta and kept in "A" class confinement till the end of the war.

As mentioned previously Moni, Nolini, and Saurin returned in September from Bengal. Saurin was given charge of the Arya office; Moni was managing the house and the kitchen. The Arya office was in the house where the Mother was staying. In the beginning Arya had two hundred subscribers.

During this year the Mother used to come to Sri Aurobindo's house every day between 4 and 4.30 p.m. She brought sweets prepared from coconut. Moni and Nolini and others used to go to play football at five o'clock. The Mother used to prepare cocoa for Sri Aurobindo. Paul Richard used to come up and join them.

Every Sunday there was a standing invitation to Sri Aurobindo and all the members of the house to have dinner at the Mother's house. Sri Aurobindo used to go to the Mother's house (which was very near) at about 4.30 in the afternoon. The other members of the household joined after coming from the football ground. The talk used to be prolonged up to nine or ten at night.

Money from the sale of Murari Pukur Bagan seems to have reached Sri Aurobindo during this year (1914). A letter was written to Motilal Roy asking him to stop all political activities.

Sri Aurobindo's daily routine during this year was: reading The Hindu at nine o'clock and meeting persons who may have come to see him. Meeting outsiders was the only change from the programme of previous years. Lunch was between 12 and 12.30. In the evening at four o'clock, Bharati came, and at five V. V. S. Aiyar and Srinivasachari came and remained till eight o'clock, by which time Nolini would return from the football ground. The evening meal was taken at nine.

Events from 1913 to 1920 are not available in a very connected form. Whatever has been found is presented here. After 1913, Sri Aurobindo very rarely went out to see people or attend functions. The occasions on which he went out between 1913 and 1920 are as follows: (1) to the house of Joseph David (afterwards Mayor of Pondicherry) on the occasion of his marriage (1914 ?); (2) to David's place on the occasion of his daughter's baptism; (3) on the occasion of the marriage of Sada Oudiyar, a Tamil Christian, who was a supervisor of the jail; (4) to meet one Mr. Shastri, a man of letters, two or three times; (5) to attend the opening ceremony of the "Aryan Stores", 1916; (6) to the house at 2, Line Beach, where Motilal Roy stayed (1920?). After 1920, Sri Aurobindo paid no visits to anyone. In fact, he went out of the house only when he changed his residence.

From 1913 to 1920, Sri Aurobindo was staying in 41, Rue Francois Martin, with four or five young men. In those days, there was no separate bathroom. There was one tap in the open courtyard. The inmates took their bath under the tap. Sri Auro­bindo used to take his bath last, a few minutes before lunch.

The one towel used by the inmates of the house served him also!

During these years, it seems, Sri Aurobindo used to lead his daily life according to some ideal. He used to carry out the dominating ideal in every detail of his life. At one time it was freedom of the individual and democracy. At this time he considered everyone else his equal and acted accordingly. Once his foot touched Amrita's inadvertently. Sri Aurobindo sat up in the chair and said, "I beg your pardon."

Sometimes the proofs of the Arya were delayed because the compositor used to drink. When the proofs arrived late Amrita used to scold him for drinking. Once Sri Aurobindo came out of his room on hearing the talk and said: "You have no right to interfere in his personal life. It is meaningless to advise him. He has perfect freedom to drink. What you should tell him is to observe the terms of the contract and give the proofs regularly." At this time democracy was dominant in his mind. In 1915 the Arya was brought out regularly. On 21 February of this year, the Mother's birthday was celebrated for the first time in Pondicherry. On 22 February, the Mother had to go to France on account of the war.

On 1 September 1915, Prabartak began publication with a view to put Sri Aurobindo's ideals before Bengal. After 1920, when Motilal Roy separated from Sri Aurobindo, it became the mouthpiece of the Samgha at Chandernagore of which Motilal was the leader.

In September 1916 the "Aryan Stores" was opened on Rue Dupliex. The shop was in the Bazar. The capital for it was given by the Mother. Saurin Bose looked after the management. Haradhan Baxi of Chandernagore was now in Pondicherry undergoing military training to join the force in France in the First World War. He used to visit the house and meet Sri Aurobindo. Khaserao Jadhav came to Pondicherry and met Sri Aurobindo. He was put up at the Magry Hotel.

The following seven letters written in 1915 and 1916 clearly express the mission that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother had in common, the trials they had in their work for humanity, and their unshakeable faith in the ultimate victory.