Sri Aurobindo : Biography
THEME/S
CHAPTER - VI
On 2 May 1908, Sri Aurobindo's residence, 48, Grey Street, Calcutta, was searched by the police. He himself was arrested.
It has been stated by some magazines that earth from Ramakrishna's hut which was brought by Sri Aurobindo, was with him when he was arrested. Here is what Sri Aurobindo says about it: "The earth was brought to me by a young man connected with the Ramakrishna Mission and I kept it; it was there in my room when the police came to arrest me."¹
Many members of the secret society were simultaneously arrested: Barin, Ulaskar Dutt, Indra Bhushan, Upendra Nath Banerjee, were all arrested at Murari Pukur Bagan. This, the property of Sri Aurobindo and his brothers, was a plot of seven bighas [approximately one hectare] having in its centre a building of three rooms with an outside verandah. All around were coconut, mango and betelnut trees.
The same day Prafulla Chaki was arrested at Wanai. He committed suicide by shooting himself so that the secret of the party might not leak out through him. On 8 May the house of Subodh Mullick at Banaras was searched.
On 17 May the case was brought up before Mr. Birley and on 18 May the case was officially begun.
Sarojini issued an appeal for funds for the defence of Sri Aurobindo :
"My countrymen are aware that my brother Aravinda Ghose stands accused of a grave offence. But I believe, and I have reason to think that the vast majority of my countrymen believe, that he is quite innocent. I think if he is defended by an able counsel he is sure to be acquitted. But as he has taken a vow of poverty in the service of the Motherland, he has no means to engage the services of an eminent Barrister-at-law. I am, therefore, under the painful necessity of appealing to the public spirit and generosity of my countrymen on his behalf. I know all my countrymen do not hold the same political opinions as he. But I feel some
¹ Sri Aurobindo, On Himself'(Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1972), p. 59.
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delicacy in saying that probably there are few Indians who do not appreciate his great attainments, his self-sacrifice, his single-minded devotion to the country's cause and the high spirituality of his character. These embolden me, a woman, to stand before every son and daughter of India for help to defend a brother, – my brother and theirs too.
"Contributions should be sent either to me at 6, College Square, Calcutta or to my Solicitors Messrs. Mamal and Agarwala, No. 3, Hastings Street, Calcutta."
SAROJINI GHOSE
"Ferrar who had been my classmate could not come to see me in Court when the trial was going on and we were put in a cage lest we should jump out and murder the judge. He was a barrister practising at Sumatra or Singapore. He saw me in the cage and was much concerned and did not know how to get me out. It was he who had given me the clue to the hexameter in English. He read out a line from Homer which he thought was the best line and that gave me the swing of the metre."¹
December1939
On 31 August 1908 Narendranath Gossain, who had turned approver, was assassinated in the hospital by Kanailal Dutt. After this incident the prisoners were separated, and on 14 September Kanailal Dutt was hanged in the jail.
On 19 October the Alipore case was committed to sessions. In the case there were two groups of accused: in one there were 33 and in the other 9. Exhibits produced were 4000, and other objects constituting the evidence, 300 to 400. Altogether 222 witnesses were examined; in the sessions court 208 witnesses were called. The case lasted up to 13 April 1909. The jury summed up its opinion on 13 and 14 April, and on 6 May 1909 judgment was delivered.
During the period of the trial Sri Aurobindo resigned his Principalship of the National College in order to save embarrassment to the Council and to enable them to run the institution. There were differences with the National College Committee. The Committee wanted to make the National College a place of learning; Sri Aurobindo wanted to make it a centre of life.
¹.Cf. A.B. Purani, Evening Talks, First Series (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1959), p. 280.
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In Alipore Jail: 2 May 1908 to 5 May 1909.
During this period Sri Aurobindo was an undertrial prisoner. Before the assassination of Gossain all the undertrial accused were kept in one hall. Sri Aurobindo passed most of his time in meditation. When the accused were brought to the court for the hearing, he hardly attended to the evidence or the conduct of the case. C. R. Das was engaged to defend Sri Aurobindo and Sri Aurobindo was guided by an inner voice to leave the defence completely in Das's charge. His view of life was thus undergoing a radical change in jail. In the beginning of the sadhana the idea was to take the Divine's help in the mission that he had undertaken, but the nature of his experiences during the jail life completely changed his outlook. He decided to dedicate himself entirely to the spiritual life and his outer life thenceforward became a part of his sadhana and its result. The field of action was enlarged enormously afterwards, – from the service of the country and its freedom it became a world-wide work touching intimately the future of humanity.
There were very few among the accused whom Sri Aurobindo knew personally. All around him in the jail talking and singing were going on; in the midst of it Sri Aurobindo pursued his sadhana unconcerned. Among those around him some knew that Sri Aurobindo was doing yoga but they had no idea of the kind of sadhana. He speaks about this himself as follows:
"I spent the first part of my imprisonment in Alipore jail in a solitary cell and again after the assassination of Noren Gossain to the last days of the trial when all the Alipore case prisoners were similarly lodged each in his own cell. In between for a short period we were all put together. There is no truth behind the statement that while I was meditating they gathered around me, that I recited the Gita to them and they sang the verses, or that they put questions to me on spiritual matters and received instructions from me; the whole description is quite fanciful."¹
"While I was in solitary confinement in the jail, Dr. Daily and the Assistant Superintendent, who was also an Englishman, used to come to my cell practically every day for a little chat. I do not know why I was able to receive their special favour and
¹ Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, p. 67.
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sympathy from the beginning. I did not speak to them much – only gave answers to what they asked. I would either listen in silence to the topics they raised or stop after just a few words. Yet they would not give up coming to me. Dr. Daily said to me one day, 'I have spoken to the Assistant Superintendent and got the Chief to agree that you will be allowed to take a stroll in front of the "decree" [cell] every day, in the morning and in the afternoon. I do not want you to remain cooped up in a little cell the whole day. It is bad for both mind and body.' From that day onwards, I used to take a stroll every morning and afternoon in the open space in front of the 'decree'. In the afternoon it would be for ten, fifteen or twenty minutes; but in the morning I would stay out in the open for an hour, on some days up to two hours. There were no restrictions as to the time; I enjoyed it very much. On one side was the jail workshop, on the other the cowshed; these were the limits of my free domain. Moving to and fro between the workshop and the cowshed, I would either recite the profoundly evocative and eternally strength-giving words of the Upanishads, or, as I watched the movements and activities of the prisoners, I would try to realise the fundamental truth that the Lord dwells in all. Uttering silently in my mind the words, 'All this is verily the Eternal', sarvam khalu idam brahma, I would project that realisation on everything in existence, – trees and houses and walls, man, beast and bird, metals and clay. As I did this, I would get into a state in which the prison no longer appeared as a prison at all."¹
Sri Aurobindo spoke about this experience subsequently in his epoch-making Uttarpara speech.
Some other reminiscences of jail life are given here:
"This reminds me of a compliment given to my eyes by Sir Edward Baker, Governor of Bengal. He visited us in Alipore Jail and told Charu Chandra Dutt, 'Have you seen Aurobindo Ghose's eyes? He has the eyes of a mad man!' Charu Dutt took great pains to convince him that I was not at all mad but a Karma Yogi."²
¹ Sri Aurobindo, Bangia Rachana (Pondicheny: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1972), Pp. 280-81 (new translation).
² Talk of 3 January 1939, cf. Nirodbaran, Talks with Sri Aurobindo (Calcutta: Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir, 1966), p. 147.
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"In my own case I once saw anger coming up and possessing me. I was very much surprised as to my own nature. Anger has always been foreign to me. At another time while I was an undertrial prisoner in Alipore, my anger would have led to a terrible catastrophe which luckily was averted. Prisoners there had to wait outside for some time before entering the cells. As we were doing so the Scotch warder came and gave me a push. The young men around me became very excited and I did nothing but gave him such a look that he immediately fled and called the jailor. It was a communicative anger and all the young men rallied round to attack him. When the jailor who was rather a religious man arrived, the warder said I had given him an 'insubordinate look'. The jailor asked me and I told him I had never been used to such treatment. The jailor pacified the whole group and said while going: 'We have each to bear our cross.' But by anger such as I had, I do not mean the Rudrabhava which I have experienced a few times."¹
"Now what you call pity is something quite different from compassion and both are different from Samata. Pity and human sentimentalism are a result of nervous repulsion – some movement in the vital being. I myself, when I was young, could not read of any act of cruelty without feeling that repulsion and a feeling of hatred for those who did it. I could not kill an insect, say a bug or a mosquito. This was not because I staunchly believed in Ahimsa, but because I had that pity and nervous repulsion. Later on, even when I had no mental objection, I could not harm anything because the body rejected the act. When I was in jail, I was mentally subjected to all sorts of torture for the first fifteen days. I had to look upon scenes of all sorts of suffering before me and then the thing passed away."²
Panchanan Tarkachudamani, a great Sanskrit scholar, was also in jail with some of his disciples. One day Abinash Bhattacharya
. ¹ Cf. A.B. Purani, Evening Talks, Third Series (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1966), pp. 121-22.
.² Cf. Purani, Evening Talks, Second Series, p. 53.
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requested Sri Aurobindo to explain certain passages from the Upanishad, which he did. Abinash recounted the explanation to Panchanan Babu. After hearing it Panchanan said: "Well, Abinash, I would not have been able to explain this portion as simply as Sri Aurobindo has done."
Hem Sen was a co-accused. He used to get biscuits and other eatables from outside. He kept these things under his pillow at night. There were thefts of them by the other accused. Those who were awake at the time of the theft would get a share! Hem Sen generally used to quarrel during the day about these little thefts at night. One day the theft was being committed and the thief saw that Sri Aurobindo was awake. Abinash took a few biscuits and put them in his hand. He smiled and began to eat them lying down.
Upen Banerjee was very much struck by the brilliance of Sri Aurobindo's hair and he thought that it was due to oil. On inquiry he found that there was no oil with Sri Aurobindo. So he asked Sri Aurobindo, who replied that it was due to sadhana.
There were experiences during this period in jail that may be called extraordinary and miraculous. About how the faculty to appreciate painting came to him Sri Aurobindo says: "I ... knew something about sculpture, but [was] blind to painting. Suddenly one day in the Alipore jail while meditating I saw some pictures on the walls of the cell and lo and behold! The artistic eye in me opened and I knew all about painting except of course the more material side of the technique. I don't always know how to express though, because I lack the knowledge of the proper expressions, but that does not stand in the way of a keen and understanding appreciation. So, there you are: all things are possible in Yoga."¹
Another experience was that of levitation. (It is strange that all over India people used to believe that Sri Aurobindo usually remained above the ground!) When asked about this he said: "That was once in jail. I was then having a very intense Sadhana on the vital plane and I was concentrated. And I had a questioning mind: 'Are such siddhis as utthapana [levitation] possible?' I then suddenly found myself raised up in such a way that I could not have done it myself with muscular exertion. Only one part
¹ Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, pp. 226-27.
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of the body was slightly in contact with the ground and the rest was raised up against the wall. I could not have held my body like that normally even if I had wanted to and I found that the body remained suspended like that without any exertion on my part. That is the only thing that happened. In the jail there were many such extraordinary and, one may say, abnormal experiences. As I was doing Sadhana intensely on the vital plane I think these might have come from there. All these experiences passed away and did not repeat themselves."¹
It was during his jail life that Sri Aurobindo resorted to fasting to see how far spiritual results could be attained by it. In Alipore jail he fasted for eleven days. He lost ten pounds during that period, though he felt no worse for it.
He used to hear the voice of Vivekananda during meditation. Here is what he wrote about this later: "It is a fact that I was hearing constantly the voice of Vivekananda speaking to me for a fortnight in the jail in my solitary meditation and felt his presence, but this had nothing to do with the alleged circumstances narrated in the book, circumstances that never took place, nor had it anything to do with the Gita. The voice spoke only on a special and limited but very important field of spiritual experience and it ceased as soon as it had finished saying all that it had to say on that subject."²
Regarding this Alipore period he wrote: "I was carrying on my Yoga during these days, learning to do so in the midst of much noise and clamour but apart and in silence and without any participation of the others in it. My Yoga begun in 1904 had always been personal and apart; those around me knew I was a Sadhak but they knew little more as I kept all that went on in me to myself. It was only after my release that for the first time I spoke at Uttarpara publicly about my spiritual experiences."³
Some people have said that Sri Aurobindo received spiritual help from other persons and from religious books. This is not quite true, for as he says in a letter: "I began my Yoga in 1904 without a Guru; in 1908 I received important help from a
¹ Cf. Purani, Evening Talks, Second Series, p. 140.
²Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, p. 68.
³Ibid., pp. 67-68.
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Mahratta Yogi and discovered the foundations of my Sadhana; but from that time till the Mother came to India I received no spiritual help from any one else. My Sadhana before and afterwards was not founded upon books but upon personal experiences that crowded on me from within. But in the jail I had the Gita and the Upanishads with me, practised the Yoga of the Gita and meditated with the help of the Upanishads; these were the only books from which I found guidance; the Veda which I first began to read long afterwards in Pondicherry rather confirmed what experiences I already had than was any guide to my Sadhana. I sometimes turned to the Gita for light when there was a question or a difficulty and usually received help or an answer from it. . . ."¹
On 6 May 1909 Mr. Beachcroft delivered his judgment. Sri Aurobindo and most of the others were acquitted. After they had been released, according to S. R. Das, cousin of C. R. Das, "Those who were acquitted came straight to my cousin's house .... Sri Aurobindo sat among them – the same wistful, distant look in his eyes – outwardly unconcerned and unperturbed. He had, as it were, drawn his mind into the depth of his being."²
On 14 May Sri Aurobindo issued the following letter to the Editor of the Bengalee:
Sir,
Will you kindly allow me to express through your columns my deep sense of gratitude to all who have helped me in my hour of trial? Of the innumerable friends known and unknown, who have contributed each his mite to swell my defence fund, it is impossible for me now even to learn the names, and I must ask them to accept this public expression of my feeling in place of private gratitude; since my acquittal many telegrams and letters have reached me and they are too numerous to reply to individually. The love which my countrymen have heaped upon me in return for the little I have been able to do for them, amply repays any apparent trouble or misfortune my public activity may have
¹ Ibid., p. 68.
² S.R. Das, "A Reminiscence of Sri Aurobindo', Mother India, Vol. X, NO. 11 (January 1959), p. 51.
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brought upon me. I attribute my escape to no human agency, but first of all to the protection of the Mother of us all who has never been absent from me but always held me in Her arms and shielded me from grief and disaster, and secondarily to the prayers of thousands which have been going up to Her on my behalf ever since I was arrested. If it is the love of my country which led me into danger, it is also the love of my countrymen which has brought me safe through it.
Aurobindo Ghose
6, College Square, May 14, 1909¹
After his acquittal Sri Aurobindo remained with Krishna Kumar Mitra's family. Mitra himself was in jail in Agra. Sri Aurobindo's aunt had become very weak, so the doctor advised her to bathe in the Ganges. Generally somebody accompanied her to the Ganges. The old lady sometimes went up to Sri Aurobindo when he was writing and said, "Auro, please just come along with me, I am going for my bath in the Ganges." Sri Aurobindo would leave the writing and accompany her.
Basanti Chakravarty (daughter of Krishna Kumar Mitra) writes: "I never saw [Sri Aurobindo] getting angry. Auroda is sitting and writing. His sandals are lying at a little distance. My mother comes, puts on his sandals and goes up to the terrace to take her constitutional walk. After some time people come to see Auro. He gets up, searches all around for his sandals. In the meantime he sees his aunt, smiles and asks her: 'Little aunty! have you put on my sandals? There are visitors who have come to see me.' His aunt gives him his sandals that she took them away – that he had to wait – nothing of this has made him angry. "²
On 30 May 1909 Sri Aurobindo delivered the historic Uttarpara speech. It was Amarendranath Chatterji who went to Calcutta from Uttarpara to fetch Sri Aurobindo to speak to the Dharma Rakshini Sabha. He knew Sri Aurobindo through the secret society organisation and because of his previous initiation by
¹ Sri Aurobindo, Karmayogin (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1972), before text.
² Basanti Chakravarty, "Amader Aurodada", Galpa Bharati, Vol. VI, No. 7 (Paush 1357), p. 783.
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him. Amar went to the Sanjivani office to fetch Sri Aurobindo. He found him absolutely quiet, as if in meditation, so he did not speak long with him. They went by train to Uttarpara. Many of the audience also went by the same train. They arrived at Uttarpara at three o'clock. The meeting was to be held at five. The zamindar of Uttarpara, Raja Piyari Mohan, and his son Michhari Babu came to the station to receive Sri Aurobindo. After taking a little rest and tea at the house of Surendranath Chattopadhyaya, a procession was organised. The meeting was held in the open courtyard on the eastern side of the library, on the west bank of the Ganges. Sri Aurobindo was the only speaker. There were about ten thousand people in the audience. Sri Aurobindo's voice was not voluminous and so the audience kept pin-drop silence in order to be able to hear him, for there were no loudspeakers in those days.¹ He was heard in the pin-drop silence.
The Uttarpara speech is openly a description of Sri Aurobindo's spiritual experience while in jail:
"I remembered then that a month or more before my arrest, a call had come to me to put aside all activity, to go into seclusion and to look into myself, so that I might enter into closer communion with Him. I was weak and could not accept the call. My work was very dear to me and in the pride of my heart I thought that unless I was there, it would suffer or even fail and cease; therefore I would not leave it. It seemed to me that He spoke to me ... and said, The bonds you had not the strength to break, I have broken for you, because it is not my will nor was it ever my intention that that should continue. I have had another thing for you to do and it is for that I have brought you here, to teach you what you could not learn for yourself and to train you for my work.' Then He placed the Gita in my hands. His strength entered into me and I was able to do the Sadhana of the Gita. I was not only to understand intellectually but to realise what Sri Krishna demanded of Arjuna and what He demands of those who aspire to do His work, to be free from repulsion and desire, to do work for Him without the demand for fruit, to renounce self-will and become a passive and faithful
¹ Amarendranath Chatterji, "Sri Aurobinder Sange Sakshatkar", Galpa Bharati, Vol. VI, No. 7 (Paush 1357), pp. 820-22.
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instrument in His hands, to have an equal heart for high and low, friend and opponent, success and failure, yet not to do His work negligently. I realised what the Hindu religion meant. We speak often of the Hindu religion, of the Sanatan Dharma, but few of us really know what that religion is. Other religions are preponderatingly religions of faith and profession, but the Sanatan Dharma is life itself; it is a thing that has not so much to be believed as lived. This is the Dharma that for the salvation of humanity was cherished in the seclusion of this peninsula from of old. It is to give this religion that India is rising. She does not rise as other countries do, for self or when she is strong, to trample on the weak. She is rising to shed the eternal light entrusted to her over the world. India has always existed for humanity and not for herself and it is for humanity and not for herself that she must be great.
"Therefore this was the next thing He pointed out to me, – He made me realise the central truth of the Hindu religion. He turned the hearts of my jailors to me and they spoke to the Englishman in charge of the jail, ‘He is suffering in his confinement;
let him at least walk outside his cell for half an hour in the morning and in the evening.' So it was arranged, and it was while I was walking that His strength again entered into me. I looked at the jail that secluded me from men and it was no longer by its high walls that I was imprisoned; no, it was Vasudeva who surrounded me. I walked under the branches of the tree in front of my cell but it was not the tree, I knew it was Vasudeva, it was Sri Krishna whom I saw standing there and holding over me his shade. I looked at the bars of my cell, the very grating that did duty for a door and again I saw Vasudeva, It was Narayana who was guarding and standing sentry over me. Or I lay on the coarse blankets that were given me for a couch and felt the arms of Sri Krishna around me, the arms of my Friend and Lover. This was the first use of the deeper vision He gave me. I looked at the prisoners in the jail, the thieves, the murderers, the swindlers, and as I looked at them I saw Vasudeva, it was Narayana whom I found in these darkened souls and misused bodies. . . .
"When the case opened in the lower court and we were brought before the Magistrate I was followed by the same insight. He said to me, 'When you were cast into jail, did not your heart fail and did you not cry out to me, where is Thy protection? Look
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now at the Magistrate, look now at the Prosecuting Counsel.' I looked and it was not the Magistrate whom I saw, it was Vasudeva, it was Narayana who was sitting there on the bench. I looked at the Prosecuting Counsel and it was not the Counsel for the prosecution that I saw; it was Sri Krishna who sat there, it was my Lover and Friend who sat there and smiled. 'Now do you fear?' He said, 'I am in all men and I overrule their actions and their words. My protection is still with you and you shall not fear. This case which is brought against you, leave it in my hand. It is not for you. It was not for the trial that I brought you here but for something else. The case itself is only a means for my work and nothing more.' Afterwards when the trial opened in the Sessions Court, I began to write many instructions for my Counsel as to what was false in the evidence against me and on what points the witnesses might be cross-examined. Then something happened which I had not expected. The arrangements which had been made for my defence were suddenly changed and another Counsel stood there to defend me. He came unexpectedly, – a friend of mine, but I did not know he was coming. You have all heard the name of the man who put away from him, all other thoughts and abandoned all his practice, who sat up half the night day after day for months and broke his health to save me, – Srijut Chittaranjan Das. When I saw him, I was satisfied, but I still thought it necessary to write instructions. Then all that was put away from me and I had the message from within, 'This is the man who will save you from the snares put around your feet. Put aside those papers. It is not you who will instruct him. I will instruct him.' From that time I did not of myself speak a word to my Counsel about the case or give a single instruction, and if ever I was asked a question, I always found that my answer did not help the case. I had left it to him and he took it entirely into his hands, with what result you know. I knew all along what He meant for me, for I heard it again and again, always I listened to the voice within; 'I am guiding, therefore fear not. Turn to your own work for which I have brought you to jail and when you come out, remember never to fear, never to hesitate. Remember that it is I who am doing this, not you nor any other. Therefore whatever clouds may come, whatever dangers and sufferings, whatever difficulties, whatever impossibilities, there is nothing impossible, nothing difficult. I am in the
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nation and its uprising and I am Vasudeva, I am Narayana, and what I will, shall be, not what others will. What I choose to bring about, no human power can stay.'
"Meanwhile He had brought me out of solitude and placed me among those who had been accused along with me. You have spoken much today of my self-sacrifice and devotion to my country. I have heard that kind of speech ever since I came out of jail, but I hear it with embarrassment, with something of pain. For I know my weakness, I am a prey to my own faults and backslidings. I was not blind to them before and when they all rose up against me in seclusion, I felt them utterly. I knew then that I the man was a mass of weakness, a faulty and imperfect instrument, strong only when a higher strength entered into me. Then I found myself among these young men and in many of them I discovered a mighty courage, a power of self-effacement in comparison with which I was simply nothing. I saw one or two who were not only superior to me in force and character, – very many were that, – but in the promise of that intellectual ability on which I prided myself. He said to me. ‘This is the young generation, the new and mighty nation that is arising at my command. They are greater than yourself. What have you to fear? If you stood aside or slept, the work would still be done. If you were cast aside tomorrow, here are the young men who will take up your work and do it more mightily than you have ever done. You have only got some strength from me to speak a word to this nation which will help to raise it.' This was the next thing He told me.
"Then a thing happened suddenly and in a moment I was hurried away to the seclusion of a solitary cell. What happened to me during that period I am not impelled to say, but only this that day after day, He showed me His wonders and made me realise the utter truth of the Hindu religion. I had had many doubts before. I was brought up in England amongst foreign ideas and an atmosphere entirely foreign. About many things in Hinduism I had once been inclined to believe that they were imaginations, that there was much of dream in it, much that was delusion and Maya. But now day after day I realised in the mind, I realised in the heart, I realised in the body the truths of the Hindu religion. They became living experiences to me, and things were opened to me which no material science could
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explain. When I first approached Him, it was not entirely in the spirit of the Bhakta, it was not entirely in the spirit of the Jnani. I came to Him long ago in Baroda some years before the Swadeshi began and I was drawn into the public field.
"When I approached God at that time, I hardly had a living faith in Him. The agnostic was in me, the atheist was in me, the sceptic was in me and I was not absolutely sure that there was a God at all. I did not feel His presence. Yet something drew me to the truth of the Vedas, the truth of the Gita, the truth of the Hindu religion. I felt there must be a mighty truth somewhere in this Yoga, a mighty truth in this religion based on the Vedanta. So when I turned to the Yoga and resolved to practise it and find out if my idea was right, I did it in this spirit and with this prayer to Him, 'If Thou art, then Thou knowest my heart. Thou knowest that I do not ask for Mukti, I do not ask for anything which others ask for. I ask only for strength to uplift this nation, I ask only to be allowed to live and work for this people whom I love and to whom I pray that I may devote my life.' I strove long for the realisation of Yoga and at last to some extent I had it, but in what I most desired I was not satisfied. Then in the seclusion of the jail, of the solitary cell I asked for it again. I said, 'Give me Thy Adesh. I do not know what work to do or how to do it. Give me a message.' In the communion of Yoga two messages came. The first message said, T have given you a work and it is to help to uplift this nation. Before long the time will come when you will have to go out of jail; for it is not my will that this time either you should be convicted or that you should pass the time, as others have to do, in suffering for their country. I have called you to work, and that is the Adesh for which you have asked. I give you the Adesh to go forth and do my work.' The second message came and it said, 'Something has been shown to you in this year of seclusion, something about which you had your doubts and it is the truth of the Hindu religion. It is this religion that I am raising up before the world, it is this that I have perfected and developed through the Rishis, saints and Avatars, and now it is going forth to do my work among the nations. I am raising up this nation to send forth my word. This is the Sanatan Dharma, this is the eternal religion which you did not really know before, but which I have now revealed to you. The agnostic and the sceptic in you have been answered,
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for I have given you proofs within and without you, physical and subjective, which have satisfied you. When you go forth, speak to your nation always this word, that it is for the Sanatan Dharma that they arise, it is for the world and not for themselves that they arise. I am giving them freedom for the service of the world. When therefore it is said that India shall rise, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall rise. When it is said that India shall be great, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall be great. When it is said that India shall expand and extend herself, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall expand and extend itself over the world. It is for the Dharma and by the Dharma that India exists. To magnify the religion means to magnify the country. I have shown you that I am everywhere and in all men and in all things, that I am in this movement and I am not only working in those who are striving for the country but I am working also in those who oppose them and stand in their path. I am working in everybody and whatever men may think or do they can do nothing but help in my purpose. They also are doing my work, they are not my enemies but my instruments. In all your actions you are moving forward without knowing which way you move. You mean to do one thing and you do another. You aim at a result and your efforts subserve one that is different or contrary. It is Shakti that has gone forth and entered into the people. Since long ago I have been preparing this uprising and now the time has come and it is I who will lead it to its fulfilment.' . . .
"This is the word that has been put into my mouth to speak to you today. What I intended to speak has been put away from me, and beyond what is given to me I have nothing to say. It is only the word that is put into me that I can speak to you. That word is now finished. I spoke once before with this force in me and I said then that this movement is not a political movement and that nationalism is not politics but a religion, a creed, a faith. I say it again today, but I put it in another way. I say no longer that nationalism is a creed, a religion, a faith; I say that it is the Sanatan Dharma which for us is nationalism. This Hindu nation was born with the Sanatan Dharma, with it it moves and with it it grows. When the Sanatan Dharma declines, then the nation declines, and if the Sanatan Dharma were capable of perishing, with the Sanatan Dharma it would perish. The Sanatan
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Dharma, that is nationalism. This is the message that I have to speak to you."¹
The Uttarpara speech is a public document of Sri Aurobindo's spiritual life and contains in seed form some of the basic principles of the yoga he evolved. The human in him yet spoke of the Divine and then the human was completely transformed into the Divine. The Light that he shed was the Light Divine and it is for humanity to follow it and profit by it.
The reception Sri Aurobindo got at Uttarpara was extraordinary. A heap of garlands, most of them of jasmine flowers, was on the table. One of them had been specially prepared by Michhari Babu and reached to the feet. When the lecture was over, Sri Aurobindo, as was usual with him, left the heap of garlands on the table and went away. The long garland prepared by Michhari Babu was taken by somebody – of course not stolen but taken as a token of the occasion. Amar writes: "Who would not desire to have a garland offered to Sri Aurobindo?" Still Nichhari Babu was very angry. Amar explained to him that such greed was natural, therefore he should not be angry.
The next morning Michhari Babu got the garland back. By now he had grown quiet. He only told the man who had taken it, "Go and beg pardon from God, I have pardoned you already." The thief fell at Michhari Babu's feet and begged his forgiveness. Amar commented that if he had been caught the day before, he would have got a big thrashing, but that today the iron hand had turned to gold! Michhari Babu agreed with him, saying "Yes, you are right. Sri Aurobindo's speech has produced an immediate result."²
When Panch Koti Banerji, editor of the Hitavadi, read Sri Aurobindo's speech, he told Amar Chatterji that Sri Aurobindo did wrong to speak about his spiritual experiences. Panch Koti quoted a line of scripture to support his view. Amar replied to him, "My Guru creates Shastra, he does not follow it." ³
¹ Sri Aurobindo, Karmayogin, pp. 3-10.
² Amarendranath Chatterji, "Sri Aurobinder Sange Sakshatkar", Galpa Bharati, Vol. VI, No. 7 (Paush 1357), pp. 825-26.
³ Amarendranath Chatterji, "Sri Aurobindo Mahaprayane", Prabartak, Vol. XXXV, No. 9 (Paush 1357), p. 364. See also Amarendranath Chatterji, "Sri Aurobinder Sange Sakshatkar", pp. 818-19.
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At that time some young men of the Yugantar party used to come to Sri Aurobindo at 6, College Square for reading the Gita. Sri Aurobindo sat on the verandah with hands crossed, in the freezing cold of the winter, with only a dhoti and a shirt on. One day he got so absorbed while expounding the Gita that he went on until one o'clock. Sarojini came out with the food. Then the young men knew that it was his lunch time and they left him; only then did he eat.
When Sri Aurobindo came out of jail the whole political atmosphere had changed completely. Almost all the leaders of the nationalist party were either in jail or in self-imposed exile. Everywhere there was depression and hopelessness – though the feeling against the foreign rule had not abated. It had, on the contrary, increased by repression. Sri Aurobindo decided to continue the fight single-handed. Every week there used to be a meeting in Calcutta where, in place of thousands that thronged before, there were hardly a few hundred. And even these had no enthusiasm, no spirit, no life. Once while describing his experience of the ebb of political enthusiasm he said humorously: "The experience I had in Bengal gave me a good insight into our people's psychology. Even when all the leaders were jailed and some deported we continued to hold our political meetings in College Square. But in all there used to be about a hundred persons, that too mostly passers-by. And I had the honour to preside over several such meetings!"¹
It was after his release that Sri Aurobindo started the journals Dharma and Karmayogin, one in Bengali, the other in English. These had a very wide circulation and had no financial difficulties like the Bande Mataram.
Sri Aurobindo addressed the Jhalakati Conference on 19 June 1909. Speaking about the nine deportations, he said:
"What is this storm that is so mighty and sweeps with such fury upon us? ... I said in my heart, ‘It is God who rides abroad on the wings of the hurricane, – it is the might and force of the Lord that manifested itself and his almighty hands that seized and shook the roof so violently over our heads today.' A storm like this has swept also our national life. That too was the manifestation of the Almighty. We were building an edifice to be
¹ Talks of 14 March 1934.
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the temple of our Mother's worship – were rearing her a new and a fair mansion, a place fit for her dwelling. It was then that He came down upon us. He flung himself upon the building we had raised. He shook the roof with his mighty hands and part of the building was displaced and ruined. Why has He done this? Repression is nothing but the hammer of God that is beating us into shape so that we may be moulded into a mighty nation and an instrument for his work in the world. We are iron upon his anvil and the blows are showering upon us not to destroy but to recreate. Without suffering there can be no growth. . ..
"The rulers of the country in their scanty wisdom have thought that by lopping off the heads the movement will cease. They do not know that great as he is, Ashwini Kumar Dutt is not the leader of this movement, that Tilak is not the leader, – God is the leader. They do not know the storm that has been sweeping over the country was not sent by them, but by him for his own great purpose. ...
"We are the descendants of those who performed Tapasya and underwent unheard-of austerites for the sake of spiritual gain and of their own will submitted to all the sufferings of which humanity is capable. We are the children of those mothers who ascended with a smile the funeral pyre that they might follow their husbands to another world. We are a people to whom suffering is welcome and who have a spiritual strength within them, greater than any physical force, we are a people in whom God has chosen to manifest himself more than in any other at many great moments of our history. It is because God has chosen to manifest himself and has entered into the hearts of his people that we are rising again as a nation. ..."
Swaraj means "the fulfilment of our life as a nation."
He refused to bow down to repression and said: "It is by looking the storm in the face and meeting it with a high courage, fortitude and endurance that the nation can be saved. It is that which the Mother demands from us, – which God demands from us. ...
"The storm may come down on us again and with greater violence. Then remember this, brave its fury, feel your strength, train your strength in the struggle with the violence of the wind,
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and by that strength hold down the roof over the temple of the Mother."¹
We see already how much spirituality is breathed into this address. To Sri Aurobindo life was already a field of the Divine, God was the leader of the political awakening, and it was He who was working through all contrary external appearances for the fulfilment of His purpose. Man is only an instrument of the Divine.
In September 1909 Sri Aurobindo piloted the Bengal Provincial Conference at Hooghly. The political situation was similar to that at the Surat Congress in 1907. The reception committee was formed of the Moderates who had framed draft-resolutions welcoming the reforms granted by the British government. Sri Aurobindo took up the Nationalist Party's cause single-handedly. He established the Bengal Nationalist association. He removed the age-limit clause from the admission rules and completely changed the form of the certificates given to the delegates. He also changed the draft resolutions and brought in new ones and got a majority to accept them. The Moderates were defeated and thought of leaving the Congress. Sri Aurobindo again used his statesmanship and softened the resolutions a little and ordered his party, which was in the majority, not to oppose those resolutions which the Moderates were persuaded to propose. He took this move to preserve the political unity of Bengal. His own partisans were not quite happy about it, so he asked them to absent themselves from the session. In fact, when the Moderate leaders had risen to speak, they were not heard, the audience became unruly and shouted. It was only when Sri Aurobindo came and asked them either to keep silent or go out that peace was restored. The party that was in the majority left the meeting in obedience to their leader. The bitter complaint of the Moderates was that people were listening to young and inexperienced leaders – like Sri Aurobindo – and turning a deaf ear to the old and tried ones.
Around this time, Surendranath Banerji called a private meeting on behalf of the Moderates of Bengal, to which he invited
¹ Sri Aurobindo, Karmayogin, pp. 61-66.
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Sri Aurobindo and other prominent Nationalists of Bengal in order to present a united front at a congress to be held at Benares. Thus the Moderates wanted to remain with the Nationalists in Bengal. This was due to the fact that Surendranath Banerji was very anxious to be the leader of united Bengal in Indian politics. This could only happen if the Moderates voted for the Nationalists and sent them as delegates! But the Nationalists would have been obliged to accept the constitution passed at Surat. Sri Aurobindo refused to accept those terms as it would amount to compromise on essentials. He did not want to maintain unity that way. He proposed a change in the constitution of the Congress and pleaded for the freedom of the new political bodies that had been formed to send in their representatives so that the Nationalists could have their own men in the Congress. The negotiations broke down on these issues.
Sri Aurobindo thought of continuing his own work independently. He saw that a movement like the one for Home Rule was a possibility. Mrs. Besant, in fact, later carried that idea into effect. But Sri Aurobindo felt this would mean the abandonment of the ideal of total independence – free India within the British Empire would be the goal of the Home Rule movement – and therefore he did not execute it. He thought about passive resistance at this time, but he knew that he could not be the leader of such a movement.
The British government had declared some reforms in which he saw some signs of yielding, so he declared his opinion by inaugurating the principle "No cooperation without control." This, he thought, would enable the Nationalists to take hold of those departments wherein the nation was given the control and to introduce their own programme through them.
But in the meantime repression was in full swing. Sri Aurobindo found no scope for carrying out his ideas. He conducted the two papers – Dharma and Karmayogin – and in the latter he published an article entitled "An Open Letter to My Countrymen", in which he enunciated the main lines along which the Nationalists must continue the work in case he was imprisoned. There were many rumours about his impending arrest at this time.
On 25 December another letter, "To My Countrymen", was
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published in the Karmayogin. There is a small history behind these letters connected with Sri Aurobindo's contact with Sister Nivedita.¹
¹ See p. 55, The reference here is to the earlier letter; see also p. 260.
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