Sri Aurobindo : Biography
THEME/S
CHAPTER II
Sri Aurobindo was born around 5.00 a.m., that is about twenty-four minutes before sunrise, on 15 August 1872. His birth took place in the house of Barrister Monmohun Ghose, in Calcutta.! The name of Monmohun Ghose's wife was Swarnalata, just as it was the name of K.D. Ghose's wife. Dr. Ghose and Monmohun Ghose were very great friends and so were the Swarnalatas.
Between 1872 and 1877 Aurobindo apparently stayed at Rangpur, where his father was serving. Occasionally the family used to go to Deoghar to stay with Swarnalata's father, Rajnarayan Bose. Aurobindo did not know Bengali for these first five years. There were a butler and a nurse in the house, and he used to talk with them in broken English and similar Hindusthani. Sj. Rajnarayan Bose was a patriot and a great exponent of Indian culture, but his views had no effect upon his son-in-law, K. D. Ghose, who had decided to give all his children a thoroughly English education. He believed, like many Indians in those days, that the English character was ideal.
An incident in childhood: Jogendra, Sri Aurobindo's eldest maternal uncle, once held up a mirror to Aurobindo and said:
"See, there is a monkey." After some time Aurobindo, the child, took the mirror to Jogendra, held it up to him and said: "Great uncle, great monkey!"
In 1877 Dr. Ghose sent his three sons to Loreto Convent School at Darjeeling, a school intended mainly for children of European officials in India. Aurobindo's age then was five. Thus very early he became accustomed to being away from family and home life. The children used to visit their parents during vacations and also visited their grandfather at Deoghar. Very little information is available about the two years Aurobindo spent at Darjeeling. Years later he remembered the roads with golden ferns, and also one or two minor incidents. One was this. There was a long dormitory where the students used to sleep. Manmohan usually slept near the door. One night someone was late and knocked at the door, requesting him to open it.
¹. See Appendix IV, Data on Birthplace, page 319-20.
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Manmohan replied, "I can't, I am sleeping"! Another incident happened at Deoghar, where Aurobindo had gone during a vacation. One night all the children were walking with their grandfather, Rajnarayan Bose. After some time they found that he was not with them. They walked back and saw that he was sleeping in a standing position!
In a talk of 1939 Sri Aurobindo said: "Your question reminds me of a story of my grandmother. She said: 'God has made such a bad world! If I could meet Him I would tell Him what I think of Him.' My grandfather said: 'Yes, it is true; but God has so arranged that you can't get near Him so long as you have any such desire in you !'"¹
Swarnalata's mental condition was not normal during these years. One day she was in a fit of anger and was screaming and beating Manmohan mercilessly. Aurobindo, who was present, became afraid and, making the excuse that he was thirsty, went out of the room.
Sri Aurobindo once described a dream at Darjeeling that he remembered: "I was lying down one day when I saw suddenly a great Tamas rushing into me and enveloping me and the whole ^universe. After that I had a great darkness always hanging on to me all through my stay in England. I believe that darkness had something to do with the Tamas that came upon me. It left me only when I was coming back to India."²
In 1879 the family travelled to England: Dr. Ghose, who was then thirty-four, Swarnalata, who was twenty-seven, and the four children, Benoybhushan, Manmohan, Aurobindo and Sarojini.
In 1880 Dr. K.D. Ghose returned alone from England to rejoin his service. He left Swarnalata and the children in England.
On January 5, a son, Barindra Kumar, was born at Croydon, England. His name is listed in the birth register as "Emmanuel Ghose"! Swarnalata later returned to India with Barin and Sarojini. Dr. Ghose stayed alone at Khulna after his return and when Swarnalata came he arranged for her to stay at Rohini, a town two miles from Deoghar, with Barin and Sarojini.
¹. Cf. A.B. Purani, Evening Talks, Third Series (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1966), p. 166.
². Cf. A.B, Purani, Evening Talks, Second Series (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1961), p. 140.
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He found it impossible to stay with her, as her mental condition had deteriorated and she was fast developing signs of insanity. Dr. Ghose sent regular remittances to his three sons during the first years, but afterwards they became more and more irregular; and when the three brothers went to stay in London they entirely; ceased.
Very little is known about the span of nearly fourteen years (1879-1892) of Aurobindo's early life in England, which seems to have been the most formative in his cultural make-up and intellectual equipment. What little is known has come mostly from him or from what I have been able to gather from talks with others. My visit to England was fruitful in obtaining some authentic information about his life. Yet we do not know, and, I am afraid, we shall never know much about even his outer life. It is practically impossible to know how he lived with the Drewetts in Manchester
All we have are some unimportant details in the life of a versatile student who became a great seer in his later life; but it is better to have something authentic rather than be left with vague conjecture.
Aurobindo's life in England falls into four distinct periods:
Manchester, from 1879 to September 1884.
London, from September 1884 to October 1890.
Cambridge, from October 1890 to October 1892.
London, from October 1892 to January 1893.
During vacations Aurobindo used to go outside London and Cambridge whenever economic conditions permitted.
Dr. K.D. Ghose was very friendly with Mr. Glazier, a magistrate at Rangpur, and when Dr. Ghose decided to send his three sons to England for studies, he arranged to leave them with Rev. William H. Drewett, a cousin of Mr. Glazier, who lived in Manchester. Mr. Drewett was congregational minister of the Stockport Road Church – now known as the Octagonal Church. He lived at 84, Shakespeare Street, near the church. Aurobindo's two elder brothers were of school-going age and joined the Manchester Grammar School, while Aurobindo, who was only seven, and probably considered too young to attend a school, was not sent to school, but was taught at home by the Drewetts. Mr. Drewett, an accomplished Latin scholar, grounded Aurobindo in that language very well, and also taught him English, history,
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etc. Mrs. Drewett taught him geography, arithmetic and French. As he was studying at home he had plenty of time to read books according to his own taste, including the Bible, Shakespeare, Shelley and Keats. He not only read poetry but wrote verses for Fox's Weekly, even at that early age. It 'seems he did not play any games, except cricket, which he tried once without much success.
During their stay in England the three brothers had practically no contact with other Indians, as Dr. Ghose had given strict instructions to Mr. Drewett not to allow his sons to mix with any Indians or to know anything about the Indian way of life. Among the people they knew at Manchester were the Bentleys; who occasionally used to visit the Drewetts from York, and a sister of Mr. Drewett who used to come to see him. These visits were returned.
Mr. Drewett's mother was a devout Christian and she wished to convert the Ghose children to Christianity, in order to save their souls. But Mr. Drewett never consented to her wish. Once, when he asked Dr. Ghose about the religious life of the children, his reply was to wait till the boys attained the age of discretion, when they could choose their own religion.
A rumour was once current that Aurobindo was converted to Christianity. This was probably due to his name being registered at St. Paul's and even at Cambridge, as "Aravinda Ackroyd Ghose". But the rumour is not true. Once, however, an amusing incident happened which Sri Aurobindo has himself described:
"There was once a meeting of nonconformist ministers at Cumberland when we were in England. The old lady in whose house we dwelt [Mrs. Drewett] took me there. After the prayers were over nearly all dispersed, but devout people remained a little longer and it was at that time that conversions were made. I was feeling completely bored. Then a minister approached me and asked me some questions. I did not give any reply. Then they all shouted, 'He is saved, he is saved', and began to pray for me and offer thanks to God. I did not know what it was all about. Then the minister came to me and asked me to pray. I was not in the habit of praying. But somehow I did it in the manner in which children recite their prayers before going to sleep in order to keep up an appearance. That was the only thing that happened. I did not
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attend the Church regularly. I was about ten at that time."¹ He felt infinitely relieved when he got back to Manchester.
The Rev. W. H. Drewett was in pastoral charge in 1879² but in 1881 he resigned his living on account of differences with the deacons.³ He is mentioned in the Church register in 1882 as staying in Manchester but "without pastoral charge". So he was in Manchester up to 1882, but later on, before 1884, he seems to have immigrated to Australia leaving the three Ghose brothers in the charge of his mother.
The question of why Sri Aurobindo was called Aravinda Ackroyd baffled me for some time, till an indication in M. Monod Herzen's book gave me the clue. It is now established that Miss Annette Akroyd arrived in Calcutta in December 1872, the year in which Aurobindo was born in Monmohun Ghose's house in Calcutta.4 Miss Akroyd was probably present at the ceremony of naming the child. Dr. Ghose, who was very fond of the English
1. Cf. Purani, Evening Talks, Second Series, p. 141.
2. Rev. William H. Drewett was trained at Didsbury College (for ministers). He passed in 1865 and in all probability was ordained as a minister at Manchester in 1871.
3. "The Rev. W. H. Drewett, after a ministry of nearly ten years, has resigned the pastorate of the Stockport Road Congregational Church, in this city. The cause of this step the Rev. gentleman explained, at the close of the service last evening, was his disagreement with a resolution of the Deacons' Court with regard to the erection of a new infant schoolroom and the beautifying of the present school church. The fulfilment of the original scheme, by which a church was to be built on land secured for the purpose, fronting Stockport Road, will be indefinitely postponed if the Deacons' resolution is carried out." The Manchester Guardian. Monday, March 21, 1881.
4. Letter from Indian Office Library, 24 October 1956:
"Henry Beveridge, Bengal Civil Service.
"'Arrived in India on 20 January 1858. On the 1st of December 1876 he was appointed Officiating District and Sessions Judge at Rangpur and remained there until he was appointed Officiating District and Sessions Judge at Patrea on 22 November 1879. He had previously served as Magistrate and Collector at Backer-gunge until 2nd October 1874 when he was appointed the District and Sessions Judge, Backergunge. He was granted furlough from 2 January 1875 to 28 October 1876.
"[Bengal History of Services, 1886]"
"The following information has been gathered from Lord Beveridge's book about his parents entitled India Called Them:
"Henry Beveridge married Miss Annette Susannah Akroyd on April 6th 1875. Miss Akroyd was a daughter of William Akroyd of Stourbridge, Worcestershire,
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way of life, must have wanted the child to be given an English name and so Miss Akroyd's family name was given to Aurobindo as his middle name.
Dr. Ghose used to send £360 per year for the maintenance of his three sons at Manchester. But even during the first six years of their stay in England, Dr. Ghose was unable to send regular remittances to Mr. Drewett, and so the latter, on his way to Australia, passed through Calcutta and collected his dues from Dr. Ghose. It is not known who took Aurobindo and Manmohan to St. Paul's School in London, but in the register Manmohan, who was admitted in the same month as Aurobindo, September 1884, is listed as a "Ward of W.H. Drewett". The address given is 49, St. Stephen's Avenue, Uxbridge Road, Shepherd's Bush. Sri Aurobindo later said that Mrs. Drewett, the mother of W.H. Drewett, had taken lodgings for them in London.
St. Paul's School, West Kensington, London. 1884 to December 1889.
Aurobindo was admitted to St. Paul's after being examined by Dr. Walker, the headmaster of the school. Dr. Walker was satisfied with Aurobindo's proficiency in Latin and other subjects, but he found him weak in Greek. He took a personal interest in Aurobindo and coached him in classes called "specials" where it was his practice to gather all young and promising students. Dr. Walker did not take any regular classes, but used to coach some students in the subject in which they were weak. He had an eye for a clever student and never lost sight of one once he found him.
Aurobindo's five years at St. Paul's were full of activity during which he mastered the classics and secured the Butterworth Second Prize in Literature and an Honourable Mention in the Bedford History Prize. He was pushed up rapidly to higher forms, for
where she was born On 13th December 1842. She arrived in Calcutta in December 1872 and was 'met by her Indian friends, Mr. and Mrs. Monmohun Ghose and Mr. Gupta, and went to live with the former.' (She had met them in England.)
"In 1873 Miss Akroyd formed a school for Indian ladies – the Hindu Mahila B'ldyalaya – on November 18th 1873 at 22 Baniapoorkur Lane, with some dozen pupils."
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the High Master wanted to put him in the form in which his powers might get full scope for development. This saved some years for Aurobindo. He used to take an active part in the Literary Society at St. Paul's. It is recorded that he spoke on the inconsistency of Swift's political opinions on 5 November 1889 and on Milton on 19 November of the same year.¹
It appears quite certain that the three brothers were compelled to live in a very embarrassed financial position in London because remittances from their father at first became irregular and ultimately almost stopped. This is borne out by many references in Manmohan's contemporary letters to Laurence Binyon, and also by what Sri Aurobindo stated in his memorial to the Secretary of State for India (about being given another chance to appear in the riding test for the I.C.S.) in 1892. He wrote:
"I was sent over to England, when seven years of age, with my two elder brothers and for the last eight years we have been thrown on our own resources without any English friend to help or advise us. Our father, Dr. K.D. Ghose of Khulna, has been unable to provide the three of us with sufficient for the most necessary wants, and we have long been in an embarrassed position."²
Manmohan's letters to Laurence Binyon support this statement with a wealth of detail. In a letter of July, 1887, from 49, St. Stephen's Avenue, Manmohan wrote:
"My position, by the way, is very hazy just now; I do not know whether after all I shall be able to retain my Scholarship, because my father is in some financial straits, and if he cannot help me, £80 will not be enough to keep me at Oxford. ... I am going to Oxford next week to find out if I cannot help myself in any way, or find help. ... I shall try and persuade my father to let me stay in England for good – I am sure with the tastes I have I shall be of no use in India."
A letter from Manmohan dated July 28 [probably 1887] from 49, St. Stephen's Avenue recounts a story of Dr. Ghose which is worth quoting. The reference is to a piece of news in the Daily "Yews of London. The letter is addressed to Laurence Binyon:
¹. 'The Literary Society", The Pauline, Vols. VII & VIII, No. 39 (December |1889),p 52.
². Sri Aurobindo to the Earl of Kimberley, 21 November 1892, India Office Library, London.
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"As for the piece in the Daily News about me, it was stuck in simply because it is a Radical paper. We have no family relation to Lalmohan Ghose whatever, but his brother who bears the same name as myself is a great friend of my father's. All the Ghoses came originally from the Punjaub on the Afghan border. The word means "fame", and they were a tribe of the proud warrior caste. But our family has sadly come down; the family house or palace, a very noble building, I believe, not far from Calcutta, is quite in ruins. My father, when a boy, was very poor, living almost entirely by the charity of friends; and it is only thro' his almost superhuman perseverance that we have to some degree retrieved ourselves. – You may be sure I shall try all I can to get to Oxford. But I am in a rather strange position. My father wants me to go out to India and slave as a barrister, and become a great man of the world like himself – a thing which is quite distasteful to my nature. He is just now in difficulties and if he finds he cannot help me at the University he may consent to my staying in England, and trying for some Civil Service appointment (like those in the British Museum), just to earn some money. . . . He is almost sure to want me to try the University."
The difficulty which Manmohan speaks of was common to the three brothers. There was only a slight modification in Aurobindo's case as he received a scholarship from King's College, Cambridge, and also had an allowance for the I. C. S. probationership. Even so, he was always hard up, particularly because he used to help his two brothers whenever he could.
A letter from Manmohan to Laurence Binyon, Hastings, Sussex, 1887:
"I have just had a letter from my father, and I wanted to tell you the joyful news that he has willingly consented to my staying in England, and working at literature since it is so in my line. He also says that he would like me to go to Oxford, but his means are not sufficient to keep me there long. But he may be able (he will write soon and tell me his decision) to keep me there a little while, in order (as he phrases it) 'to have still greater chances of acquiring literary tastes, make friends among those who are aspirants in the same field.' So he is going to try his best to give me a year or two at Oxford. As to the British Museum appointment, he would not mind my taking it at all, tho' he does think there are objections to it. ... 'However,' he says, I am ready that
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you should take your chance and depend on your own enterprise in the literary world. . . . But you must not give up the Scholarship in the prospect of getting an appointment. You have to pass in Sanskrit and you must learn that. So I will try my best to give you a year or two at the University where you can learn Sanskrit, and improve your classics, get facility in writing and speaking and make interests and form friendships. When you have done that it will be easier for you not only to get an appointment in the Museum but to ensure rapidity to your promotion to a high appointment. So you see I have no objection to this, provided you can be sure of getting speedy promotion. Perhaps if you can do that and have a home for your brother and sister in London they will have excellent facilities for education.' I have given this in my father's own words, as you will be able to understand the position better. Perhaps you did not know I have a little sister (she is about eleven years old now) and a brother eight years old in India at present. My father's character may well be called 'thorough'. He is determined to give them a good education, tho' he is toiling under difficulties. He must be a man of iron nerves. I could not tell you half the things he has suffered, but he is bent to go on. Indeed he says, 'my body is as stern as my mind to have survived all the trouble which I have endured.' I cannot but be proud with admiration at the sight of such dauntless self-sacrifice and heroic perseverance.
"Tell me what you think of these prospects with regard to the satisfaction of my literary tastes? You see my aim is also to gratify my father in one project – try my best to make a home for my sister and brother as he suggests (after I have been to Oxford) – for I know their education is closest to his heart, tho' he does not say much about it. At the same time I want to get myself off his hands, and lessen his burden."
This letter is important because it makes a useful addition to the very scanty material available about the relation between Dr. Ghose and his sons. Even in 1887 the financial condition was strained.
In another letter to Laurence Binyon, Manmohan, when he was pressed for payment by Zacharias & Co., refers to his father: "I am growing as stern as my father, who is so strangely unsentimental that I am assured he would vivisect me if he thought that my highest good."
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Apart from Manmohan's letters there is other evidence to throw light on the strained condition under which the three brothers had to carry on their studies in England. One is a letter written to James Cotton by G. W. Prothero, a tutor and senior Fellow of King's College, on hearing about Aurobindo's rejection from the I. C. S. on the ground of Aurobindo's non-appearance for the riding test. It is a letter worthy of a university man vindicating the values of culture and learning against the lifeless red tape of a government department. We give it in full in Appendix V (Document IX); here we may quote part of it. Prothero says:
"His pecuniary circumstances prevented him from resigning this [his scholarship], when he became a Selected Candidate. . Moreover the man has not only ability but character. He has had a very hard and anxious time of it for the last two years. Supplies from home have almost entirely failed, and he has had to keep his two brothers as well as himself, and yet his courage and perseverance have never failed. I have several times written to his father on his behalf, but for the most part unsuccessfully. It is only lately that I managed to extract from him enough to pay some tradesmen who would otherwise have put his son into the County Court. I am quite sure that these pecuniary difficulties were not due to any extravagance on Ghose's part: his whole way of life, which was simple and penurious in the extreme, is against this. ... I can fully believe that his inability to keep his appointment at Woolwich was due to the want of cash."¹
In a letter to Sir Arthur Macpherson, James S. Cotton writes:
"It happens that I have known Mr A. A. Ghose and his two brothers for the past five years, and that I have been a witness of the pitiable straits to which they have all three been reduced through the failure of their father, a Civil Surgeon in Bengal and (I believe) a most respectable man, to supply them with adequate resources. In addition, they have lived an isolated life, without any Englishman to take care of them or advise them."²
Though these letters were expressly written to influence the I. C. S. Commissioners, they yet throw sufficient light on the embarrassing
¹. Prothero to Cotton. 20 November 1892. India Office Library, London.
². Cotton to Macpherson. 19 November 1892. India Office Library, London.
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economic pressure under which the three brothers lived for almost eight years;
When Aurobindo, Manmohan and Benoybhushan came to stay in London, Mrs. Drewett took lodgings for them at 49, St. Stephen's Avenue, Shepherd's Bush, and stayed with them there. During his six years stay in London, Aurobindo lived at three or four different places. All the brothers stayed at 49, St. Stephen's Avenue from September 1884 to July 1887. Then, after a holiday at Hastings, Aurobindo and Benoybhushan moved, in August or September 1887, to rooms at the top of the building at 128, Cromwell Road where the office of the South Kensington Liberal Club was situated. They seem to have stayed there from September 1887 to April 1889. From there they moved to private lodgings at 28, Kempsford Gardens, Earl's Court. Aurobindo was at King's College, Cambridge from October 1890 to October 1892. After October 1892 he stayed at 6, Burlington Road, Bays-water, London. This place is now known as 68, St. Stephen's Gardens.¹ Aurobindo left for India in January 1893.
An incident reported by Sri Aurobindo gives us the reason for changing his residence from 49, St. Stephen's Avenue to 128, Cromwell Road. Mrs. Drewett was a pious Christian and every day there used to be family prayers. Passages from the Bible were read; the three brothers had to participate. Sometimes the eldest brother used to conduct the worship. One day at prayer time Manmohan was in an insolent mood and said that old Moses was well served when the people disobeyed him. This enraged the old lady beyond measure and she said she would not live under the same roof with heretics as the house might fall down, and she went to live somewhere else. Sri Aurobindo says: "We felt relieved and I felt infinitely grateful to Dada [Manmohan]. Her son never used to meddle in these affairs because he was a man of strong common sense. But he was away in Australia. I In those days I was not particular about telling the truth and I was a great coward. Nobody could have imagined that later on I could face the gallows or carry on a revolutionary movement. In my case I it was all human imperfection with which I had to start, feel all the difficulties before embodying the Divine Consciousness.”²
¹. See Appendix VI, Houses in England, pp. 348-49.
². Cf. Purani, Evening Talks, Second Series, pp. 141-42.
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The period at 128, Cromwell Road was perhaps the most trying of Aurobindo's stay in England. They were all so hard pressed that Benoybhushan had to agree to be an assistant to James S. Cotton, who was Secretary of the Club, for five shillings a week. Cotton's help to the three brothers in their difficulty is an unforgettable obligation. During this period Aurobindo used to get a slice or two of bread and butter and a cup of tea in the morning and in the evening only a penny saveloy (a kind of sausage). For nearly two years he had to go practically without dinner at that young age. He had no overcoat to protect him from the rigours of the London winter and there was no heating arrangement in the office where he slept, nor had he a proper bedroom.
The description of 128, Cromwell Road from one of Manmohan's letters might be interesting: "I write to tell you my new address to which we have just moved from St. Stephen's Avenue. I will show it you some day: it is very different from the old place – but I dare say my brothers will get accustomed to it in time. Of course I (probably) will be going to Oxford in a month's time. There is a confounded railway behind – but as the trains go more gently than I have a right to expect, I can put up with that. There is here a reading-room, a library (in embryo), a smoking-room, a club-room where the members meet and lectures are held and I don't know what not. . . . This place, you must remember, is off the Gloucester Road which is of course opposite the Broad Walk in Kensington Gardens."
Sometime in 1889 (apparently) Aurobindo moved to private lodgings at 28, Kempsford Gardens, Earl's Court, South Kensington, and remained there till he went to Cambridge.
In a letter of 1890, Manmohan describes this house:
"Kempsford Gardens, I must tell you, looks out upon Brompton Cemetery and funerals pass down it every day."
This glimpse of Aurobindo's literary interest at about this time comes from something he said long afterwards:
"The Revolt of Islam was a great favourite with me even when I was quite young and I used to read it again and again, of course, without understanding everything. But evidently it appealed to some part of the being. There was no other effect of reading it
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except this, that I had a thought that I would dedicate my life to a similar world change and take part in it."¹
Both at Manchester and at St. Paul's Aurobindo gave his attention to the study of classics, but even at St. Paul's in the last three years he simply went through his school course without labouring over it and spent most of his time in general reading, especially of English poetry, literature and fiction, French literature and the history of mediaeval and modem Europe. He also spent some time learning Italian, some German and a little Spanish. This he could do as he was at ease in his school studies. Though some of his teachers used to regret his preoccupation with general reading, he was nevertheless able to win many prizes. He had with him for many years an illustrated edition of the Arabian Nights which he had himself selected as a prize. He was also able to secure an open scholarship to King's College.
Aurobindo began writing poetry at a very early age. Even while he was at Manchester he wrote a poem for the Fox's Weekly, "an awful imitation" as he used to call it. At St. Paul's, between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, he began to write more English poetry. This activity continued when he went to Cambridge, and indeed throughout his life. His brother Manmohan was a classmate of Laurence Binyon and a friend of Oscar Wilde. He was also very intimate with Stephen Phillips, and was himself a promising poet, having written verses which were published from Oxford in a collection entitled Primavera. It is likely that, apart from Aurobindo's own classical studies and poetical bent, Manmohan's influence stimulated him to write poetry. At the age of seventeen he translated from the Greek a passage entitled "Hecuba". Laurence Binyon, who happened to read it, asked Aurobindo why he was not writing more poetry. Occasionally Aurobindo used to write Greek and Latin verses.
During those days games did not form an important item of school life as they do today. Football and cricket were just being introduced. It was Shepard, one of the masters, who made the games popular at St. Paul's. Dr. Walker, the High Master, was rather indifferent to sports in the beginning.
As already stated, the three brothers used to go out of London during the vacations whenever they could afford it. In August
¹. Cf. Purani, Evening Talks, Second Series, p. 142.
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1886 they went to Keswick.
There are three letters of Manmohan describing their visit to Keswick, which must have lasted for at least three weeks. The first letter is dated 10 August and the last 23 August. In the last he writes about remaining one week more – which means till the end of August 1886.
c/o Miss Scott
Ambleside Rd.
Keswick.
Aug. 10th, Tuesday [1886]
. . . And Derbyshire, I can tell you from my own experience, is one of the loveliest counties in England if you only go to the right part. I stayed one whole summer at Matlock Bank, and from there had a splendid walking tour. My brother, I and another gentleman took the train to Monsel Dale and walked from there into Castleton Valley, slept at a very comfortable inn there, and next morning walked over Kinder Scout and into Hayfield and Chapel-on-the-Frith from where we took the train back. . . .
Friday Aug. 13th [1886]
. . .You see we have changed our address, but it is only a few doors off our old place in Eskin Str.: so you can send to whichever address you please. However we are only thinking of staying here till next Tuesday and then going off to the seaside to St. Bees, where we went last year; for we have had great trouble, in getting lodgings in Keswick. . . .
. . . We have been having very rainy and unsettled weather of late – that is the worst of the Lake District – when the weather once becomes unsettled, there's no telling when it will be fine again. I have seen Borrowdale, the Honister Pass, Buttermere, Newland's Vale, and a little while ago I and my younger brother went together to Thirlmere, with Helvellyn looming up on one side all the way, but we did not see the lake which is a very pretty one – for, being a bleak, misty day, it came on to rain when we were a mile from it and we had to turn back. ..
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Miss Scott's.
Mon. Aug. 23 [1886]
. . . All last week was so much taken up with walks, that I really had no time to sit down and write even a few lines to you. On Friday we went all three of us with a gentleman to Thirlmere – up to the middle of it along the western side which is wooded with firs. Thirlmere is a lovely lake, and wonderfully placid and calm, lying between Helvellyn on the east and a high range of fells on the west, and its banks all round the brink are beautifully wooded, the trees going some distance up the hillsides. Helvellyn that day was shrouded in a white mist and could not very well be seen. We crossed the lake in the middle by the Bridges, and came back by the beautiful Vale of St. John and a path round Naddle Fell, getting home at 6 p.m. and eating a tremendous tea (the four of us getting through two considerable loaves).
On Saturday we went to Watendlath which is certainly the loveliest place I have yet seen in the Lake District. It was a very fine day, and the whole party of us started at 9.40. We had two ladies, and of course not much walking could be done. They went with my eldest brother for an escort by coach through Borrowdale to Rosthwaite, and then walked over the fell towards Watendlath. My younger brother, myself, and the same gentleman walked along Lake Derwentwater and then up the Barrow woods, a steep hill-climb into Watendlath. The scenery in these woods is quite Alpine (with only the absence of snow) being a sheer rock at one place, densely wooded from top to bottom rising one thousand feet from the Borrowdale Valley. ... In a pool here I had a splendid dip, only the current was very strong, and the water in some parts quite deep enough to drown me. We all met at a hill above Watendlath, had tea at a farm-house, and returned very leisurely by the Barrow woods, reaching home at 10 p.m.
Today has turned out very fine and we intend to have a walk somewhere, though I don't know where as yet.
. . . We are not going to stay at Keswick much longer, most likely till the end of this week. We shall be all broken up. My eldest brother will to London to coach for an exam, and we two to some place on the coast – most likely not to St. Bees. ...
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In the letter of 10 August 1886 from Keswick, Manmohan writes of Derbyshire, which means he must have visited it before 1886, in all probability with his two brothers.
In the second letter (dated 13 August) he writes: "However we are only thinking of staying here till next Tuesday and then going off to the seaside to St. Bees, where we went last year." So, in 1885 the three brothers had gone to St. Bees. In the same letter he refers to Aurobindo: ". . . and a little while ago I and my younger brother went together to Thirlmere. ..."
The third letter (dated 23 August 1886) gives a vivid and detailed description of a two days' programme at Keswick.
He writes: "On Friday we went all three of us" to Thirlmere – evidently a second walk to it. He also hints that "we two", meaning himself and Aurobindo, would be going to some place on the coast.
In the two letters of Manmohan given below, he discusses the prospect of a visit outside London, in 1887.
49 St. Stephen's Avenue
Uxbridge Rd.
London.W.
July [1887]
... I believe my brother has already written; but we shall not be able to leave London till the end of the next week at the earliest. ...
July 28th [1887]
... I am sorry to say that the place you recommended at St. Leonard's was full; we have written to the one at Hastings but we have not yet received a reply. . . .
Almost immediately after this letter they must have received a reply from Hastings as the three brothers went there on 2 August 1887 and stayed for almost a month. There are four letters from Manmohan to Binyon from the new address.
Binyon evidently went to Keswick in July 1887. In Manmohan's letter dated 28 July there is a reference to it.
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"Your description of your Grisedale walk I appreciated very much. It is one of the places I did not go to: but my brothers went, and they at once remembered, when I told them, of the wrong way up which you describe, only they came down that way instead of going up."
2 Plynlimmon Terrace
Hastings.
Aug. 8th Monday [1887]
We came here last Tuesday, all right, only by a dreadfully slow train. I like Hastings very much – it is delightful on this cliff especially where we are staying. But I confess the sea is better than the land. . . I have seen Ecclesbourne and Fairlight which are pretty. . . .
Sussex. [1887]
... We are going to stay at Hastings a little more than a week from today. I should like to go home earlier, but money has to come from my father, before we can pay our rent here. So we stay a little longer. ...
It is in the last two letters that Manmohan writes about Dr. K. D. Ghose's inability to keep him long at Oxford. On their return from Hastings the three brothers changed their lodgings. A letter of Manmohan which has already been quoted from, mentions this fact:
South Kensington Liberal Club.
128 Cromwell Rd.
London. S. W.
Monday.
I write to tell you my new address to which we have just moved from St. Stephen's Avenue. I will show it you some day: it is wry different from the old place – but I dare say my brothers will get accustomed to it in time. Of course I (probably) will be going to Oxford in a month's time. . . ¹
¹ They must have moved to this house in September 1887. Manmohan's letter from Oxford proves it:
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This place, you must remember, is off the Gloucester Road which is of course opposite the Broad Walk in Kensington Gardens.
It appears from a letter of Manmohan from Christ Church College, dated June 2 [1888], that Aurobindo may have gone to Galway for holidays, "my brother is probably going to Galway for his holidays on the invitation of a friend we have made in the Club."
During his last year of study at St. Paul's, Aurobindo was a member of the "I. C .S. Class". This was a group of senior boys who were working for the Indian Civil Service examination. He passed the I. C .S. test, obtaining eleventh place and securing very high marks in classics. It may be noted that Benoybhushan also took the test but did not pass.
Towards the end of his career at St. Paul's Aurobindo won an open scholarship for classics to King's College, Cambridge. This scholarship carried £80 a year, a sum which was not sufficient to cover the expenses at Cambridge, but which was a great help to Aurobindo. He also received an allowance as an I. C .S. probationer. Even so, he was always hard pressed because he used to help his brothers occasionally. It goes without saying that the double work of keeping up his studies in classics and the I. C .S. preparation must have been a great strain upon him. Mr. G. W. Prothero in a letter to James Cotton, (already quoted from in part and given in full on pages 327-28) writes about Aurobindo's studies:
"He performed his part of the bargain, as regards the College, most honourably, and took a high place in the 1st class of the Classical Tripos at the end of the second year of his residence. He also obtained certain college prizes, showing command of English and literary ability. That a man should have been able to do this (which alone is quite enough for most undergraduates), and at the same time to keep up his I. C .S. work, proves very unusual industry and capacity.
Ch. Ch. [Christ Church]
Oxford.
Sat. night. [Oct. 1887]
.. .We started from Paddington, my brother and myself, at – I think it was 10 a.m....
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Besides his classical scholarship he possessed a knowledge of English literature far beyond the average of undergraduates, and wrote a much better English style than most young Englishmen."¹
Coming from one of the senior tutors of King's this unsolicited testimonial to Aurobindo's literary capacity as a student is a precious document among the very scanty material available about his life in England.
The same letter has been already quoted from to show how Mr. Prothero had written to Dr. Ghose for money, but without much success. It was only when a few tradesmen threatened to take legal action against Aurobindo that Prothero "succeeded in extracting some money out of him". There was however a humorous sequel to this. After sending the money Dr. Ghose wrote an angry letter to Aurobindo chiding him for being extravagant! While relating this Sri Aurobindo laughed and said, "There was no money to be extravagant with."
In spite of what to us appears to be the lack of a sense of parental duty on the part of Dr. Ghose, It is surprising that neither Manmohan nor Aurobindo seems to have had any bitterness towards their father. On the contrary, every time they wrote or spoke of him it was with great admiration and pride. And Dr. Ghose knew very well that Aurobindo was making excellent progress by his own efforts. In a letter (dated 2 December 1891) to Jogendra Bose, his brother-in-law, he writes about his sons:
"The three sons I have produced, I have made giants of them. I may not, but you will live to be proud of three nephews who will adorn your country and shed lustre to your name. . . . Ara, I hope, will yet glorify his country by a brilliant administration. I shall not live to see it, but remember this letter if you do. ... (He is at King's College, Cambridge, now, borne there by his own ability.)"²
The evidence of Mr. Prothero and of K. D. Ghose is supported by a letter to his father from Aurobindo himself in which the remarks of "the great O .B." (Oscar Browning) are quoted.
"Last night I was invited to coffee with one of the Dons and in his rooms I met the great O. B.;" otherwise Oscar Browning,
¹. Prothero to Cotton, 20 November 1892, India Office Library, London.
². "Father's Prophecy Baffled by the Son", Orient Illustrated Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 21 (27 February 1949), pp. 6-7.
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who is the feature par excellence of King's. He was extremely flattering, passing from the subject of cotillions to that of scholarships he said to me, 'I suppose you know you passed an extraordinarily high examination. I have examined papers at thirteen examinations and I have never during that time [seen] such excellent papers as yours (meaning my Classical papers, at the scholarship examination). As for your essay, it was wonderful.' In this essay (a comparison between Shakespeare and Milton), I indulged in my Oriental tastes to the top of their bent; it overflowed with rich and tropical imagery; it abounded in antitheses and epigrams and it expressed my real feelings without restraint or reservation. I thought myself that it was the best thing I have ever done, but at school it would have been condemned as extraordinarily Asiatic and bombastic. The great O .B. afterwards asked me where my rooms were and when I had answered he said, 'That wretched hole!' then turning to Mahaffy, 'How rude, we are to our scholars! We get great minds to come down here and then shut them up in that box! I suppose it is to keep their pride down.'"¹
Aurobindo passed the First Part of the Classical Tripos examination in the first class at the end of his second year at Cambridge. It is on passing this First Part that the degree of B.A. is usually conferred. But the degree is only given if the examination is taken in the third year. Aurobindo had only two years at his disposal, and so had to take the examination in his second year. To qualify for the degree he would have had to take the Second Part of the Tripos after completing four years of study; but it was not possible for him to do this. Nevertheless, he might have got the degree if he had applied for. it, but he did not care to do so.
After the Irish leader Pamell died in 1891, Aurobindo wrote a poem on him.² He took an intelligent interest in all public questions of those days and formed his own independent judgment and opinion about them.
It was during his stay at Cambridge that the "Indian Majlis", an association of Indian students, was started. It played an important role in the social life of Indian students in England and
¹ Ibid.; also cf. Sri Aurobindo, Supplement (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1973), p. 419.
² The poem, "Charles Stewart Parnell", is reproduced in Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1972), pp. 15-16.
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very often moulded their political outlook. Aurobindo took a leading part in it and was for some time its secretary. He advocated the cause of Indian freedom in the "Majlis" in very strong language, and it is very likely that reports of his revolutionary speeches might have reached the Indian Civil Service Commissioners at Whitehall, and might have had something to do with their final decision to reject him from the I. C .S.
A photograph of the room which Aurobindo occupied as a scholar at King's is reproduced here. It is much changed now, as alterations have been made to it since 1890.
The chief preoccupations of Aurobindo at Cambridge were:
(1) studies, for the Tripos and the I. C .S., (2) participation in the Indian Majlis and zeal for Indian independence, (3) writing poetry. A few months after his Tripos success, Aurobindo won a prize for Greek iambics and another for Latin hexameters. He also passed all the I. C. S. examinations, though he does not seem to have cared to keep up his high rank. His low standing may have been due to his inability to engage a tutor as I.C.S. candidates usually did; but more likely it was due to his flagging interest in the I. C. S. career on account of his preoccupation with the idea of Indian independence. In fact, writing poetry and participating in the Indian Majlis were the two activities that interested him. Study and success in examinations were necessities. Most of the poems written at Cambridge by Aurobindo were published at Baroda in 1895 in his book Songs to Myrtilla.
It was Norman Ferrers, who later practised as a barrister in the Straits Settlement, who gave to Aurobindo, while at Cambridge, the clue to the discovery of the true quantitative hexameter in English. He was reading out a very Homeric line from Clough and his recitation of it gave Aurobindo the real swing (or "tilt") of the metre. Norman Ferrers passed through Calcutta on his way to Singapore in 1908 when the political prosecution against Sri Aurobindo (Alipore Bomb Case) was going on. He went to the High Court and was anxious to render help to Sri Aurobindo, but did not know how to do it.
Among Aurobindo's contemporaries at Cambridge may be mentioned Ferrers, Robert Pentland Mahaffy, Felix Xavier De Souza, K. G. Deshpande and Sir Harisingh Gaur. K.G. Deshpande met Sri Aurobindo again in Baroda.
Being brought up in a foreign country without a background
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of home life in India or, once they had left the Drewetts in Manchester, of family life in England, must have been a great trial for the three brothers.
Benoybhushan who was generous by temperament seems to have felt his responsibility keenly, particularly in the beginning when remittances from India became irregular. It is evident that Aurobindo had the same sense of responsibility. Manmohan, romantic and poetic, enamoured of England and English life, a little prone to luxury, felt very strongly the want of a family and parental love. In his correspondence one can clearly see that he was trying hard to stretch out his hands to someone so as to make good this loss. Aurobindo, shy and reserved temperamentally but firm in his will and hard-working, does not express himself with the same emotional exuberance. It seems to me that the difficult circumstances steeled his will to face life with an inflexible resolution. We have seen before that Manmohan in one of his letters expresses his wish to have a home in England where he could bring his sister and brother for education. This never came to anything. In fact Aurobindo had to support his sister Sarojini at Bankipore after his return to India in 1893, when he joined the Baroda state service. He used to send money regularly from Baroda to' his mother at Rohini. Later on (in 1901) Barin also came and stayed with him.
But what Manmohan describes as his great loss in his own childhood must have been felt as a loss by all the three brothers. This becomes clear in one of Manmohan's letters to Binyon.
Christ Church
Feb. 18th 1888
All childhood and boyhood is expansive. This human ivy stretches passionately forth its young tendrils, and the warm feelings are at the forefront, yearning to bestow and to be reciprocated: it is all heart; its brain lies undeveloped. It is the wise forethought of Nature that this should be so; but, in my case, Fate came between and cancelled her decrees; and, what to others is the bright portion of their life, its heaven and refuge, was for me bitterly and hopelessly blighted. You will not understand me, unless I tell a circumstance of my life which is unhappily both painful for me to reveal, and for you to hear. I had no
Page 24
Sri Aurobindo in England
House in Manchester
Saint Paul's School, London
(North Front about 1886)
Sri Aurobindo's Room.
King's Lane, Cambridge
Kings Lane, Cambridge
mother. She is insane. You may judge the horror of this, how I strove to snatch a fearful love, but only succeeded in hating and loathing, and at last becoming cold. Crying for bread I was given a stone. My father was kind but stern, and I never saw much of him. Thus from childhood I was subject to fits of gloom and despondence which grew with my age. ... I only relate this because I can't otherwise explain the peculiar melancholy which now partly composes my character. Also, I believe, there is something repulsive about me. Nobody ever took a liking to me. You are the only one who ever appreciated me. As a boy I often perceived with jealousy that my brothers were always preferred to me. .. .
The quotation makes sad reading but it serve relief a part of the psychological background of the three brothers. It also does much to explain Dr. Ghose's life, including his inability to send money to his sons in England. He had to maintain one house where he was serving and another for his insane wife at Rohini. Young Barin and Sarojini had also to be sent to school. Add to this his generous temperament and one can understand why he was unable to meet the financial needs of his children.
Aurobindo left Cambridge in October 1892 and stayed in London up to 12 January 1893, when he embarked for India. He had passed his Tripos (Part I) and also the I. C .S. examination. But he wanted to engineer his rejection from the I. C .S. as he told us told us afterwards at Pondicherry, and so absented himself from the riding test. He said in one of his communications that he felt no call for the I.C.S. and was seeking some way to get himself disqualified without himself rejecting the service, which his father would not have allowed him to do. The full correspondence relating to Sri Aurobindo's riding examination is published in Appendix V.
Although he was rejected, Sri Aurobindo was ultimately given the I. C .S. stipend of £150. This enabled him to pay off some of his accumulated debts. "Our landlady was an angel”, Sri Aurobindo once said. "She came from Somerset and settled in London, perhaps after she was widowed. She was longsuffering and never asked us for money even if we did not pay for months and months.
Page 25
I wonder how she managed. We had two such landladies. The other also was nice to us. I paid her from my I.C.S. stipend."1
It is interesting to know how the brothers took the decision of the I. C .S. Commissioners and the Secretary of State with regard to Sri Aurobindo's memorial which he was urged to write by James S. Cotton and Benoybhushan (see Appendix V, Document X; quoted in part on page 9). Sri Aurobindo later recounted that he was wandering in the streets of London when he knew he should have been at Woolwich. When he came home late in the evening he told Benoy "I am chucked", with an almost derisive smile. Benoy took it rather philosophically and offered to play cards. After some time Manmohan dropped in and on learning about his rejection from the I. C S. set up a howl as if the heavens had fallen. After that all three sat down to smoke and began to play cards.
Sri Aurobindo's sister Sarojini seems once to have said that Sri Aurobindo was playing cards at the time appointed for the riding test. This is not true. He was not playing cards at the time of the test; he was only wandering in the streets of London to pass the time. When he at last got to Woolwich it was too late; the examiner had come and gone.
"It was partly father's fault that I failed in the riding test," Sri Aurobindo once somewhat jocularly remarked. "He did not send money and riding lessons at Cambridge at that time were rather costly. And the Master was also careless; so long as he got money he simply left me with the horse and I was not particular. I tried again at Baroda with Madhavrao – but was not successful. It was a disappointment to my father because he had arranged everything for me through Sir Henry Cotton. He had arranged to get me placed in the district of Arrah which is regarded as a very fine place and also arranged for Sir Henry Cotton to look after me.
"All that came down like a wall. I wonder what would have happened to me if I had joined the Civil Service. I think they would have chucked me for laziness and arrears of my work!"²
¹. Cf. A. B. Purani, Evening Talks, Third Series (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1966), p. 135-36.
² Cf. ibid., p. 136.
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The following questions and answers cast further light on Sri Aurobindo's I. C .S. rejection.
Question: "You did not appear in the riding test in your I. C .S.?"
Sri Aurobindo: "No. They gave me another chance, but I again did not appear and finally they rejected me."
Question: "But then why did you appear for the I. C S.? Was it by some intuition that you did not take the riding test?"
Sri Aurobindo: "Not at all. I knew nothing about Yoga at that time. I appeared for the I. C .S. because my father wanted it and I was too young to understand. Later, I found out what sort of work it is and I had disgust for an administrator's life and I had no interest in administrative work. My interest was in poetry and literature and study of languages and patriotic action."¹
The question of Aurobindo's career had to be solved after his rejection from the I .C .S. In fact, James S. Cotton had already started negotiations with the Maharaja of Baroda, Sir Sayajirao Gaekwar, who was then in London. There is a reference to this in the correspondence with the India Office. (See Appendix V; Document XXIV.)
"It is strange how things arrange themselves at times, for example I failed in the I. C. S. and was looking for a job exactly when the Gaekwar happened to be in London. I don't know whether he called us or we met him but an elderly gentleman whom we consulted was quite willing to propose Rs.200 per month, that is, he thought £10 was a good enough sum, and the Gaekwar went about telling people that he had got a civilian for Rs.200. It is surprising the authority was quite satisfied with Rs. 200 per month. But I left the negotiations to my eldest brother and James Cotton. I knew nothing about life at that time."²
So by January 1893 everything seemed to be settled, and Aurobindo sailed on the Carthage to join the Baroda state service. As we learn from the above quotation, the meagre salary on which he was appointed was not proposed to His Highness by Aurobindo. He had no experience of worldly life and so left the negotiations
¹. Cf. ibid. pp. 35-36.
². Cf. ibid. p. 135.
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to other people. It was on their advice that he accepted the offer. His Highness was very pleased to have an I. C .S. man for Rs. 200 per month. Aurobindo reached India in February 1893.
There was a sequel which Sri Aurobindo found humorous when he related it many years later. A certain tailor in Cambridge was not to be deprived of what he believed to be his dues, in this case £4, even when Sri Aurobindo had left England and joined the Baroda state service. Sri Aurobindo said he never felt bound to pay the sum, firstly because Manmohan used to buy costly stuff and leave bills unpaid, and secondly because he knew the tailor was always charging double because he sold on credit, as the boys lacked hard cash. He knew that the tailor had more than his due already. The tailor wrote to the Bengal government and even to the Baroda state and when Sri Aurobindo explained the situation His Highness persuaded him to pay and the money was sent.
The incident has been related by Sri Aurobindo himself:
". . . Then I went to London. The tailor somehow traced me there and found Manmohan also. Then he canvassed orders from him. Manmohan went in for a velvet suit, not staring red but aesthetic brown. He used to visit Oscar Wilde in that suit. Then he came away to India. But the tailor was not to be deprived of his dues. He wrote to the Government of Bengal and to the Baroda government for recovering the sum from Manmohan and me. I had paid up all my dues and kept £4 or so and I did not think that I was bound to pay it since he always charged me double. But as His Highness said I had better pay it I paid."¹
The relation between the three brothers during their stay in England is an obscure chapter in their lives. There is no authentic clue about it, except the letters written by Manmohan to Laurence Binyon. It emerges from these letters that Manmohan felt himself a little out of tune with the other two – he went into different lodgings when they went to 128, Cromwell Street, the office of the South Kensington Liberal Club.
In a letter of 20 April 1887 he writes to Binyon about his poetic efforts: "You are the only one who gives me any encouragement to write. .. My brothers are quite apathetic about them." And
1. Cf. ibid. pp. 111-12.
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yet Manmohan's preoccupation with poetry must have stimulated Aurobindo who had the incipient poet in him already trying to come to his own.
In another letter from Hastings, Manmohan evidently refers to Aurobindo when he writes, "You have not been the only one to think some to my verses have a similarity to Matthew Arnold's. My brother once remarked to me that he thought I imitated Matthew Arnold in many of my poems. You may believe me when I say, if I have imitated him, it is perfectly unconsciously. ..."
On 8 January 1890, he gives an account of his illness in a letter and describes his miserable condition. There is a reference to his brother – evidently to Benoybhushan, for Aurobindo must have been at Cambridge at the time – from which it is also certain that Manmohan must have been staying in separate lodgings:"At last, to my joy, my brother came to see me, who, as you know, is a very matter-of-fact person, with a purely commercial mind, a person who looks at everything from a business point of view. And he began comforting me very cheerfully with the reflection that everybody must die some day, remarking how conveniently near the Cemetery was, (Kempsford Gardens, I must tell you, looks out upon Brompton Cemetery and funerals pass down it every day) and hoping that undertakers did not charge very high, as he had nearly come to the end of his last remittance."
Perhaps Benoy could not, due to the economic stringency in London, be anything else than matter-of-fact, especially when the remittances had come to an end and he had to learn, perforce, to look at everything from "a business point of view".
In a letter of 13 July 1890, he again writes to Binyon: "I intend to do some tutoring work, and writing, in the meantime, which will give me enough to live on, with a little help from my brothers. . . ." So Benoy and Aurobindo were rendering help to Manmohan to the extent possible from the remittances. In this letter Manmohan also asks for a copy of Primavera for his brother from Binyon. This, very likely, was for Aurobindo.
Sri Aurobindo once said of his brother: "Manmohan used to play the poet in England. He had poetical illness and used to moan out his verses in deep tones. We were passing through Cumberland. We shouted to him but he paid no heed and came
Page 29
afterwards leisurely at his own pace. His poet-playing dropped after he came to India."¹
From Manmohan's correspondence it appears clear that he had a romantic temperament and the outer exuberance of a poetic nature, and also that he had great attraction for England and desired not only to make it his adopted country for a time, but would have loved to settle there permanently. On the other hand, Aurobindo had no regrets about leaving England. He had formed few friendships there and none very intimate. He did not find the mental atmosphere congenial. Someone, referring to his poem "Envoi",² stated that it showed his attachment to England. Sri Aurobindo replied, writing of himself in the third person: "There was an attachment to English and European thought and literature, but not to England as a country; he had no ties there and did not make England his adopted country, as Manmohan did for a time."³
Manmohan's letters breathe high patriotism, but at the end he gives it up and writes:
Sussex.
[1887]
... As for me I am going to throw politics overboard and have nothing more to do with them. ... I must leave my unhappy country to her own woes; she will go the way she is destined whatever that be, and indeed I could help her little. I shall bury myself in poetry simply and solely. . . .
He did so. But this is in striking contrast to Aurobindo's powerful advocacy of Indian independence and his revolutionary attitude even when he was at Cambridge. In fact, Sri Aurobindo himself answers the question of how and when he got interested in Indian politics:
"His father began sending the newspaper The Bengalee with
¹ Cf.ibid-.p. 112.
². Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1971), p: 28.
³. Sri Aurobindo On Himself (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1972), p. 7.
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passages marked relating cases of maltreatment of Indians by Englishmen and he wrote in his letters denouncing the British Government in India as a heartless Government. At the age of eleven Aurobindo had already received strongly the impression that a period of general upheaval and great revolutionary changes was coming in the world and he himself was destined to play a part in it. His attention was now drawn to India and this feeling was soon canalised into the idea of the liberation of his own country. But the 'firm decision' took full shape only towards the end of another four years. It had already been made when he went to Cambridge and as a member and for some time secretary of the Indian Majlis at Cambridge he delivered many revolutionary speeches which, as he afterwards learnt, had their part in determining the authorities to exclude him from the Indian Civil Service; the failure in the riding test was only the occasion, for in some other cases an opportunity was given for remedying this defect in India itself."¹
That the decision to liberate the country was taken by him is shown by his joining the "Lotus and Dagger" society before he left for India. It was a "secret society. . . in which each member vowed to work for the liberation of India generally and to take some special work in furtherance of that end. Aurobindo did not form the society, but he became a member along with his brothers. But the society was still-born."2 This happened immediately before his return to India and when he had finally left Cambridge – that is, between October 1892 and January 1893. The seven articles he wrote on Indian independence in the Indu-prakash entitled New Lamps for Old immediately on his return to India, articles which advocated a new ideal, a new approach and a new method to be adopted by the Indian National Congress, are a further sign that his interest in India's freedom was not merely academic but dynamic: it was an intense flame that touched many Indian hearts and set them ablaze.
Some people have supposed that Aurobindo studied Greek philosophy while he was in England. This is not true. He read Plato's Republic and Symposium, but he did not study Greek Philosophy. He had heard of Heraclitus while in England, but
¹Ibid pp. 1 - 4.
² Ibid. p. 4.
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read his work after coming to India. He did not read the German philosophers. The fact is that his philosophy developed after the practice of Yoga. Thoughts used to come down upon him as a result of Sadhana. If anything can be said to have helped him in that direction it was the reading of the Gita and the Upanishads, and his knowledge of the basic ideas of the Vedanta.
Aurobindo began the study of Bengali while he was at Cambridge. The teacher for Bengali then was a certain Mr. Towers.¹ Sri Aurobindo said that he was called "Pandit Towers". His knowledge of Bengali was limited to the works of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and other early writers of Sanskritised prose. He knew the Bodhodaya and other elementary works. Once Aurobindo took a passage of Bankim Chandra to him. After reading it carefully "Pandit Towers" turned round and said, "But this is not Bengali!"
In the Majlis there was enough room for humour. The question of independence of subjected nations was once being discussed. One undergraduate spoke eloquently and, citing the example of Egypt, repeated two or three times during his speech: "The Egyptians rose up like a man." When he said this for the third time, somebody from the audience demanded, "But how many times did they sit down?"
A funny anecdote was once recalled by Sri Aurobindo about his life at Cambridge: "Well, a Punjabi student at Cambridge once took our breath away by the frankness and comprehensive profundity of his affirmation: 'Liars! But we are all liars!' It appeared that he had intended to say 'lawyers', but his pronunciation gave his remark a deep force of philosophic observation and generalisation which he had not intended! But it seems to me the last word in human nature. "²
1. "Towers, Robert Mason, M. A. 1889, incorporated from Dublin, I. C. S., University Teacher of Bengali 1888-1907. Admitted at Gains 1889. Son of Rev. Robert Towers, deceased, of Affane, Co. Waterford, Born, June 27, 1840 at Grange, Country Tipperary. School, Kilkenny. (M. A. Trinity College, Dublin), died by his own hand April 6th 1907, at Cambridge." (Venn Alumini Cantabrigenses, Part II, Vol. VI, p. 214)
² Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, p. 351.
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In an article entitled "Sri Aurobindo, a Study", Harihar Das refers to Sri Aurobindo's career in England:
"In concluding this short account of Sri Aurobindo some reference must be made to his academic distinctions. He was for some time at St. Paul's School, London, where in 1889, he gained the Butterworth Second Prize. He left school the following year having gained a scholarship at King's College, Cambridge, where he was considered the most distinguished Indian student of his day, showing a marked taste for the European classics. He was also preparing for the Indian Civil Service, and in July, 1890, he secured eleventh place in the competitive examination. In 1892, he obtained First Class (Division III), Classical Tripos, Part I. The same year he was awarded the Rawley Prize for Greek Iambics.
"As a further proof of his scholastic and literary attainments, extracts from two letters addressed to the present writer are inserted here. The first is from an Irishman, Professor R .S. Lepper, M.A., who was an undergraduate with Aurobindo at King's College during 1890-91, and formerly in the service of His Highness the Maharajah of Travancore. He writes:
" I knew him in those days quite well, and have happy recollections of him as a brilliant young classical scholar, an open Entrance Scholar of the College, of marked literary and poetic taste, and as far as I ever saw a young man of high character and modest bearing, who was liked by all who knew him. He was, of course also a student of Sanskrit, and having passed his Entrance Examination for the Indian Civil Service, was reading for the later examination in that course, as well as for Part I of the Classical Tripos.
" In the latter he secured a First Class at the end of his second year, a highly creditable success. Unfortunately for him he was, I understand, a very bad horseman, and proficiency in horse-riding was obligatory for Indian Civil Servants (convenanted). I believe he was given three separate trials, in one of which he fell off the horse (a not unusual end of his practice rides, I underhand) and at the two other trials he failed to appear. Not altogether unnaturally the Examiners, considering him hopeless on horseback, disqualified him.
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" This was a serious misfortune for Ghose, as it meant the loss of his anticipated career in the Indian Civil Service; but his misfortune became a disaster through the death of his father about this time, which, I understand, deprived him of the means of continuing his residence at Cambridge for the third year,1 which was, of course, necessary to enable him to obtain his degree. Apparently none of his friends was in a position to maintain him at Cambridge for that third year,
" It was in these circumstances of disappointment that he obtained a post in H. H. the Gaekwar of Baroda's service, from which he was, I believe, transferred to the Baroda Educational service as Professor or Lecturer in English Literature, a post for which, I should think, his natural tastes and disposition, as well as his high literary accomplishments and scholarship, fitted him much better than for the laborious routine and heavy executive responsibilities of the Indian Civil Servant.
" Mr Ghose, I understand, left India when quite a child and knew practically nothing of Indian conditions except by hearsay; so his information and opinions on India were at times grotesquely inaccurate, especially on Europeans living there.
" He was also, I think, suffering from a sort of religious or spiritual nausea, due apparently to long continued overdoses of a narrow type of Christianity inflicted on him, doubtless with excellent intentions, by some probably devout old ladies, into whose care, I believe, he had been committed when a young boy at school in London. The effect of this dosing was naturally to make him a confirmed pantheist, with a quite understandable dislike of Christian Missionaries.'
The second extract is from a letter by an Englishman who was a fellow-scholar of Sri Aurobindo, and reads as follows:
“As to Mr. Aravinda Ackroyd Ghose,2 though he was in my year, I saw but little of him, so that I can give no information of interest. At the same time I did occasionally come across him. He was a very able Classical Scholar, easily first in this subject in the Entrance Scholarship Examination, and probably
1 Sri Aurobindo voluntarily chose to forgo his third year at Cambridge. Cf, Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, pp. 2-3. [Ed.]
2 Sri Aurobindo evidently used the personal names when at St. Paul's School and at King's College. [Harihar Das's note.]
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onlv the fact that, to satisfy the regulations of the Indian Civil Service, he had to take the University Tripos after two years (instead of the usual three) prevented him from being in the top division of the First Class in the final test.
“With regard to his life at Cambridge a complete lack of interest in games must have lessened his enjoyment of the life of the place. His interests were in literature: among Greek poets for instance he once waxed enthusiastic over Sappho, and he had a nice feeling of English style. Yet for England itself he seemed to have small affection; it was not only the climate that he found trying: as an example, he became quite indignant when on one occasion I called England the modem Athens. This title, he declared, belonged to France: England much more resembled Corinth, a commercial state, and therefore unattractive to him.
"I only hope that his views of the English race are more charitable now than they were in the 'nineties', for some of his mental and moral virtues may surely be imputed to his English education.”
No more information about Sri Aurobindo's stay in England is available except what is set forth here. One is not likely to unearth more. However, it is satisfactory that the testimony of three different men – Dr. K. D. Ghose, G. W. Prothero and Oscar Browning – is available not only about his brilliant academic career, but about his character even as a student. It is very likely that Dr. F. W. Walker, headmaster of St. Paul's, must have impressed Aurobindo profoundly during his years at the school. Dr. Walker's deeply sympathetic nature could not have escaped Aurobindo even at his young age.
Sri Aurobindo did recollect one or two inner changes that had taken place in him while he was in England. At the age of thirteen he became conscious that he was selfish and he felt from inside that he should give up selfishness. He tried to carry out that idea in his own way in life. Another time, while reading Max Miiller's translations in the Sacred Books of the East series, he came across the idea of self or Atman. This struck him as some reality and he decided in his mind that Vedanta has something that is to be realised in life.
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