Sri Aurobindo : Biography
THEME/S
PART THREE
CHAPTER X
Note
A. B. Purani's Life of Sri Aurobindo ends with his account of the descent of 24 November 1926 and, in fact the external life of Sri Aurobindo, of which his book is a record, can be said to have ended at this point. As Purani has written in the introduction to his Evening Talks, "After November 24, 1926 the [evening] sitting began to get later and later, till the limit of one o’clock at night was reached. Then the curtain fell. Sri Aurobindo retired completely after December 1926. . . ."¹
On 8 February 1927 Sri Aurobindo and the Mother moved from 9, Rue de la Marine to 28, Rue François Martin, a house on the north-east corner of the same block as the Rue de la Marine house. Sri Aurobindo never went out of this new residence. For twenty-four years he lived in almost complete seclusion, wholly concentrated on his sadhana – a sadhana done not for himself but "for the earth-consciousness”.
What could be written about this period of Sri Aurobindo’s life? If even before the day of siddhi his life was not on the surface for men to see', what could one hope to say about these years when his concentration on the inner life was much more complete? But to say nothing about this span of twenty-four years would be to leave a considerable gap. We will therefore give here a summary account of the life of Sri Aurobindo from 1927 to 1950, taking note in passing of the Ashram which grew up around him during this period.
An ashram is the dwelling place of a spiritual master where he receives and gives shelter to those who come to him to obtain his teaching and guidance. Sri Aurobindo’s house in Pondicherry was certainly this, for, if the first batch of young men who came to live with him had met him in the political field, spriritual relations were gradually developed : they who had looked on Sri Aurobindo
¹ A.B. Purani, Evening Talks, Second Series (Pondicherry) Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1961) , p. 12.
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as a friend and companion began to regard him as their guru and master. Nevertheless, in those early years and even after 1923 Sri Aurobindo "did not like his house to be called an 'Ashram', as the word had acquired the sense of a public institution to the modern mind."¹
After the Mother returned to India in 1920 "the number of disciples . . . showed a tendency to increase rather rapidly.”² More and more aspirants seeing that "the flower of Divinity had blossomed in him" came to Sri Aurobindo "like bees seeking honey."³ Some of those who came were allowed by Sri Aurobindo to live in his house (or in one of the other houses that were bought or rented as the numbers began to increase) to do sadhana under his direct guidance. As the Ashram thusslowly took shape "it fell to the Mother to organise it."4 We have seen how, as Sri Aurobindo began gradually to withdraw,the Mother spontaneously began to come forward to take up the work of guidance of the sadhaks as she had, even in the semi-retirement she observed during her first years in Pondicherry, taken upon herself the material charge of the household. WhenSriAurobindo retired completely after 24 November 1926, "the whole material and spiritual charge" of the Ashram devolved on the Mother.5 It is for this reason that 24 November is regarded not only as the day of Sri Aurobindo's siddhi but also as the birthday of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
Sri Aurobindo had retired from the physical atmosphere in order to bring about the descent of what he called the Supermind.
"By the supermind is meant the full Truth-Consciousness of the Divine Nature in which there can be no place for the principle of division and ignorance; it is always a full light and knowledge superior to all mental substance or mental movement. Between the supermind and the human mind are a number of ranges, planes or layers of consciousness – one can regard it in various ways – in which the element or substance of mind
1 Ibid. p. 8
2 Sri Aurobindo, On Himself (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1972), p. 479.
3 Purani, Evening talks. Second Series, p. 8.
4 Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, p. 479.
5 Ibid.
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and consequently its movements also become more and more illumined and powerful and wide. The overmind is the highest of these ranges; it is full of lights and powers; but from the point of view of what is above it, it is the line of the soul's turning away from the complete and indivisible knowledge and its descent towards the Ignorance. For although it draws from the Truth, it is here that begins the separation of aspects of the Truth, the forces and their working out as if they were independent truths and this is a process that ends, as one descends to ordinary Mind, Life and Matter, in a complete division, fragmentation, separation from the indivisible Truth above. There is no longer the essential, total, perfectly harmonising and unifying knowledge, or rather knowledge for ever harmonious because for ever one, which is the character of supermind. In the supermind, mental divisions and oppositions cease, the problems created by our dividing and fragmenting mind disappear and Truth is seen as a luminous whole."¹
This Supermind, "the truth of that which we call God",² exists in its perfection above our lower nature of mind, life and body and is also involved, latent, within it. Sri Aurobindo's task was, by bringing about the descent of this Truth-Consciousness of the supreme divine Nature into one individual, himself, to prepare for its general manifestation in this apparently undivine lower nature. The ultimate result of this manifestation would be the transformation and divinisation of mind, life and matter. It would mean for man his transfiguration into Superman.
But this supramentalisation was not sought by Sri Aurobindo in any egoistic spirit of self-aggrandisement or even with the larger but still egoistic aim of aggrandising or colossalising all humanity. "It is a higher Truth I seek," wrote Sri Aurobindo once to one of his disciples, "whether it makes men greater or not is not the question, but whether it will give them truth and peace and light to live in and make life something better than a struggle with ignorance and falsehood and pain and strife. Then, even if they are less great than the men of the past, my object
¹ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, Part One (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1970), p. 257.
² Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Book One Part One & Book Two Part One (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1970), p. 132.
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will have been achieved. For me mental conceptions cannot be the end of all things. I know that the Supermind is a truth.
"It is not for personal greatness that I am seeking to bring down the Supermind. I care nothing for greatness or littleness in the human sense. I am seeking to bring some principle of inner Truth, Light, Harmony, Peace into the earth-consciousness; I see it above and know what it is – I feel it ever gleaming down on my consciousness from above and I am seeking to make it possible for it to take up the whole being into its own native power, instead of the nature of man continuing to remain in half-light, half-darkness. I believe the descent of this Truth opening the way to a development of divine consciousness here to be the final sense of the earth evolution. If greater men than myself have not had this vision and this ideal before them, that is no reason why I should not follow my Truth-sense and Truth-vision. If human reason regards me as a fool for trying to do what Krishna did not try, I do not in the least care. There is no question of X or Y or anybody else in that. It is a question between the Divine and myself –whether it is the Divine Will or not, whether I am sent to bring that down or open the way for its descent or at least make it more possible or not. Let all men jeer at me if they will or all Hell fall upon me if it will for my presumption, – I go on till I conquer or perish. This is the spirit in which I seek the Supermind, no hunting for greatness for myself or others."¹
It is clear that although Sri Aurobindo had retired from the outward life he had not retired into an inert and ineffective state of personal beatitude.
"No, it is not with the Empyrean that I am busy: I wish it were. It is rather with the opposite end of things; it is in the Abyss that I have to plunge to build a bridge between the two. But that too is necessary for my work and one has to face it."²
The work went on through the thirties. In 1933 Sri Aurobindo wrote: "No, the supramental has not descended into the body or into- Matter – it is only at the point where such a descent has become not only possible but inevitable; I am speaking,
¹ Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, pp. 143-44.
² Ibid., p. 153.
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of course, of my experience."¹ And again in 1934: "The supramental Force is descending, but it has not yet taken possession of the body or of matter – there is still much resistance to that. It is supramentalised Overmind Force that has already touched, and this may at any time change into or give place to the supramental in its own native power."²
Meanwhile the external life of the Ashram was undergoing great changes. Between 1927 and 1933 the number of sadhaks increased from 24 to 150 and continued to grow. Nearly all newcomers were assigned some work in one or another of the services that were developing: the dining room, the atelier (workshop), the building service, the furniture service, the godowns etc. Sadhana through this work as well as through meditation and bhakti was intensely pursued under the direct supervision of the Mother, who had behind her the silent support of Sri Aurobindo.
More direct help from Sri Aurobindo was received in two ways: though darshan and through correspondence. On the three occasions of darshan: 21 February, the birthday of the Mother; 15 August, the birthday of Sri Aurobindo; and 24 November, the day of siddhi; Sri Aurobindo allowed himself to be seen by his disciples and selected outsiders. On these days he and the Mother sat together in a small room near his, while their devotees, one by one, approached, offered flowers and prostrated themselves at their feet. At darshan Sri Aurobindo had the opportunity of observing firsthand the inner state of his disciples, and of acting upon their inner and outer beings with his spiritual force. They, on their side, had the opportunity, to them most joyful, of seeing the embodied perfection towards which they aspired.
Sri Aurobindo wrote a few letters to some of his disciples in the late twenties, but correspondence with him did not become a regular part of the sadhana of the Ashram until around 1930. By 1933 "piles and piles of note-books and letters used to be written, the Mother and Sri Aurobindo poring over them the whole night month after month, answering all sorts of questions, sublime and ridiculous, put by the sadhaks and sadhikas. . . .
¹ Ibid., p. 147.
² Ibid., p. 470.
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On some the writing was obligatory, for others voluntary; but nobody wanted to miss such an opportunity."¹
In the letters and notebooks the disciples related the course of their sadhana and reported on the progress of their work in the services. It took Sri Aurobindo "all the night and a good part of the day"² to reply. He wrote in 1933 to a sadhak who was upset about not getting an immediate answer: "You do not realise that I have to spend 12 hours over the ordinary correspondence, numerous reports, etc. I work 3 hours in the afternoon and the whole night up to 6 in the morning over this. So if I get a long letter with many questions I may not be able to answer it all at once. To get into such a disturbance over it and want to throw off the Yoga is quite unreasonable."³
Sri Aurobindo considered this correspondence an important part of his work with the sadhaks. "If I have given importance to the correspondence, it is because it was an effective instrument towards my central purpose. . . . No doubt also it was not the correspondence in itself but the Force that was increasing in its pressure on the physical nature which was able to do all this, but a canalisation was needed, and this served the purpose."4
In the published portion of Sri Aurobindo's correspondence, which runs to over 2000 printed pages, are found many letters written in an elevated style which touch upon the deepest concerns of humanity. In the unpublished portion, which is also very large, we find many notes like the following: "All the houses have been damaged [by a cyclone] and are being repaired one after the other. The house is someone else's and we can't deal drastically with the tin shields (they must have been put from necessity, for when Mother was living there, the rooms used to become lakes when there was rain), but you can show to C. He may get some happy idea." Even the most mundane details of the Ashram's day to day life were referred to Sri Aurobindo.
Another major feature of the sadhana in those days was pranam. Each morning the sadhaks assembled in the Pranam Hall
¹ Nirodbaran, Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1969), p. 1.
² Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, p. 489.
³ Ibid. p. 186.
4 Ibid., p. 180.
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(now called the Meditation Hall) and, after the Mother had seated herself, approached one by one and made obeisance (pranāma, literally "bowing"). The Mother looked deeply at each sadhak before and after he made pranam and gave him her blessings, sometimes by placing both of her hands on his head. Before the sadhak left the Mother gave him a specially chosen flower. To the Mother each flower had a particular significance or power and could be used by her as a vehicle of her force. The whole purpose of pranam was to give the Mother an occasion to infuse her force into the sadhaks. At the same time it gave them a chance to open themselves to her influence and to offer themselves to the Divine through her. This twofold action took place more collectively at "balcony darshan". Every morning from the early 1930's until 1962, the Mother came out onto her first-floor balcony while many sadhaks, anxious to begin the day with her blessings, stood below in respectful silence. The life of the Ashram provided many such opportunities for the sadhaks to approach the Mother. Even the most everyday activities – receiving the necessities of the month from "Prosperity", the Ashram's stores, for instance, or the daily taking of food – were made means of spiritual communion.
The life of the Ashram – the sadhana and the work of the sadhaks, and the greater, unseen sadhana of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother – went on rhythmically until the eve of the darshan of 24 November 1938. Then, in the words of A. B. Purani, in the early morning of the twenty-fourth, "between 2.20 and 2.30 the Mother rang the bell. I ran up the staircase to be told suddenly that an accident had happened to Sri Aurobindo's leg and that I should fetch the doctor. This accident brought about a change in his complete retirement, and rendered him available to those who had to attend on him. This opened out a long period of 12 years during which his retirement was modified owing to circumstances, inner and outer, that made it possible for him to have direct physical contacts with the world outside."¹
Because of the accident, the darshan of 24 November and also that of 21 February 1939 were not held. In response to the desire of his disciples Sri Aurobindo gave a special darshan on
¹ Purani, Evening Talks, Second Series, pp. 12-13.
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24 April 1939, the anniversary of the Mother's second and final arrival in Pondicherry, which had taken place in 1920. This day henceforward became a regular darshan day. But the routine of the darshan was changed: devotees could now only file past Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in silence. Also as a result of the accident Sri Aurobindo's correspondence with the sadhaks, one or two of them excepted, was discontinued. But a new form of contact with him, more limited but also more intimate, was begun. Six or seven disciples, most of them doctors, were chosen to attend on Sri Aurobindo while he was recovering from his accident. With them Sri Aurobindo had conversations on a wide variety of subjects.
Many of the talks dealt with the current world situation. Through newspapers and other periodicals and later by radio Sri Aurobindo kept himself informed about the events which in 1939 led to the declaration of war in Europe.
At first Sri Aurobindo "did not actively concern himself” with the war "but when it appeared as if Hitler would crush all the forces opposed to him and Nazism dominate the world, he began to intervene. He declared himself publicly on the side of the Allies, made some financial contributions in answer to the appeal for funds and encouraged those who sought his advice to enter the army or share in the war effort."¹
One of his contributions was to the Governor of the Madras Presidency. It was accompanied by the following letter:
"We are placing herewith at the disposal of H. E. the Governor of Madras a sum of Rs.500 as our joint contribution to the Madras War Fund. This donation which is in continuation of previous sums given by us for the cause of the Allies (10,000 francs to the French Caisse de Defense Nationale before the unhappy collapse of France and Rs.1000 to the Viceroy's War Fund immediately after the Armistice) is sent as an expression of our entire support for the British people and the Empire in their struggle against the aggressions of the Nazi Reich and our complete sympathy with the cause for which they are fighting.
"We feel that not only is this battle waged in just self-defence and in defence of nations threatened with the world domination
¹ Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, p. 38.
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of Germany and the Nazi system of life, but that it is a defence of the civilisation and its highest attained social, cultural and spiritual values and of the whole future of humanity. To this cause our support and sympathy will be unswerving whatever may happen; we look forward to the victory of Britain and as the eventual result, an era of peace and union among the nations and a better and more secure world-order."¹
It is important to note that at the time of this declaration practically the whole of India was strongly in support of the Axis powers. "The Indian national feeling against the British was so bitter that every victory of Hitler was acclaimed as ours.”²
Sri Aurobindo's will was as much for the liberation of India in 1942 as it had been in the days of the Bande Mataram; but this did not blind him to the true nature of the Nazi aggression.
"He saw that behind Hitler and Nazism were dark Asuric forces and that their success would mean the enslavement of mankind to the tyranny of evil, and a set-back to the course of evolution and especially to the spiritual evolution of mankind: it would lead also to the enslavement not only of Europe but of Asia, and in it of India, an enslavement far more terrible than any this country had ever endured, and the undoing of all the work that had been done for her liberation."³
A. B. Purani, who was one of Sri Aurobindo's attendants, writes: "It was a priceless experience to see how he devoted his energies to the task of saving humanity from the threatened reign of Nazism. It was a practical lesson of solid work done for humanity without any thought of return or reward, without even letting humanity know what he was doing for it! Thus he lived the Divine and showed us how the Divine cares for the world, how he comes down and works for man. I shall never forget how he who was at one time – in his own words – 'not merely a non-co-operator but an enemy of British Imperialism' bestowed such anxious care on the health of Churchill, listening carefully to the health-bulletins!
¹ Sri Aurobindo, "Sri Aurobindo and The Mother on The Second World War", Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of
Education, Vol. XXVIII, No. 1 (February 1976), pp. 24-26.
² Narayan Prasad, Life in Sri Aurobindo Ashram (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1968), p. 288.
³ Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, p. 39.
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It was the work of the Divine, it was the Divine's work for the world."¹
But Sri Aurobindo's participation was not confined to following the war news or to making contributions and public statements:" Inwardly, he put his spiritual force behind the Allies from the moment of Dunkirk [May 1940] when everybody was expecting the immediate fall of England and the definite triumph of Hitler, and he had the satisfaction of seeing the rush of German victory almost immediately arrested and the tide of war begin to turn in the opposite direction."²
We cannot hope to treat here adequately of Sri Aurobindo's spiritual force. Suffice it to say that as a result of his sadhana .Sri Aurobindo had attained not only the Peace, Light and Bliss of the Divine, but also mastery of the Divine's dynamic Energy. With this Energy Sri Aurobindo was able to bring about concrete results on the material plane; indeed, "the invisible Force producing tangible results both inward and outward is the whole meaning of the Yogic consciousness."³ We have seen that Sri Aurobindo had long been using his force on his sadhaks, to cure them of illness, for example, or to help them progress in their sadhana. But the range of a spiritual force cannot be determined by material distance. "Certainly, my force is not limited to the Ashram and its conditions," he once wrote. "As you know it is being largely used for helping the right development of the war and of change in the human world. It is also used for individual purposes outside the scope of the Ashram and the practice of Yoga; but that, of course, is silently done and mainly by a spiritual action."4
Sri Aurobindo "had not, for various reasons, intervened with his spiritual force against the Japanese aggression until it became evident that Japan intended to attack and even invade and conquer India."5 "Impregnable" Singapore fell on 15 February 1942 and the Japanese quickly overran Malaya and Burma. On 11
¹ Purani, Evening Talks, Second Series, p. 13.
² Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, pp. 38-39.
³ Ibid., p. 197
4 Ibid., p. 196.
5 Ibid., p, 39.
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March, three days after the fall of Rangoon, the British government announced that they were sending Sir Stafford Cripps, a member of the War Cabinet, to India. In a Draft Declaration, issued shortly after Cripps' arrival in Delhi on 27 March 1943, the government offered to take steps "for the earliest possible realisation of self-government in India" through "the creation of a new Indian Union which shall constitute a Dominion associated with the United Kingdom and other Dominions by a common allegiance to the Crown but equal to them in every respect, in no way subordinate in any respect of its domestic and external affairs." A body to frame the constitution of this new union was to be set up as soon as the war was over. Besides this, certain guarantees were given to the provinces and to racial and religious groups. Finally, the British invited Indian cooperation in the war effort.¹
Sri Aurobindo "supported the Cripps' offer because by its acceptance India and Britain could stand united against the Asuric forces and the solution of Cripps could be used as a step towards independence."² On 31 March 1942 he sent the British diplomat the following message:
"I have heard your broadcast. As one who has been a nationalist leader and worker for India's independence, though now my activity is no longer in the political but in the spiritual field, I wish to express my appreciation of all you have done to bring about this offer. I welcome it as an opportunity given to India to determine for herself, and organise in all liberty of choice, her freedom and unity, and take an effective place among the world's free nations. I hope that it will be accepted, and right use made of it, putting aside all discords and divisions. I hope too that friendly relations between Britain and India replacing the past struggles, will be a step towards a greater world union in which, as a free nation, her spiritual force will contribute to build for mankind a better and happier life. In this light, I offer my public adhesion, in case it can be of any help in your work."³
¹ Draft Declaration of the Cripps' Mission, summarised in R. C. Majumdar, History of the Freedom Movement in India, Vol. Ill (Calcutta: Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1963), p. 622.
² Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, p. 39.
³ Ibid., p. 399.
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Sri Aurobindo also, by telegram and by personal envoy¹ pressed the leaders of the Congress to accept Cripps'offer. His efforts, however, were in vain. The offer was rejected and Sri Aurobindo having done his "bit of niskama karma" [desireles work] ² returned to his reliance on the use of spiritual force alone against the aggressor and had the satisfaction of seeing the tide of Japanese victory, which had till then swept everything before it, change immediately into a tide of rapid, crushing and finally and overwhelming defeat."³
In 1942, as the war approached nearer and nearer to India, many disciples who were living away from the Ashram desired to come to Pondicherry to put themselves under the direct protection of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. About this Sri Aurobindo, conceding the possibility of bombing by the Japanese wrote: "Calcutta is now in the danger zone. But the Mother does not wish that anyone should leave his post because of the danger. Those who are very eager to remove their children can do so. . . ." 4 In fact many disciples were granted admittance. Some brought their entire families with them when they came. There had been before this time only a small number of children, none of whom were very young, at the Ashram; now there was a significant and growing number. After some time it became evident that some provision had to be made for their education. Accordingly on 2 December 1943 the Mother opened a school for some twenty students.
In May 1945 the Germans surrendered to the Allied forces and on 14 August of the same year the Japanese capitulated. The Second World War, "the Mother's war", 5 as Sri Aurobindo
¹ Sri Aurobindo's envoy was his longtime disciple Duraiswami lyer, a highly respected member of the Madras Bar. For details about Sri Aurobindo's intervention see "Sri Aurobindo and the Cripps Proposals", Mother India, Vol. XXVII, No. 4 (April 1975), pp. 287-90.
² Nirodbaran, Twelve Years with Sri Aurobindo (Pondicherry: Sri Aurol Ashram, 1973), p. 159.
4 Sri Aurobindo "Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on the Second World War”, Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Vol. XXVIII, No. (April 1976), p. 58.
5 Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, p. 394.
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Sri Aurobindo (April 1950)
Sri Aurobindo (Mahasamadhi, December 1950)
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's Samadhi
Sri Aurobindo Ashram
called it, was over. On 16 August 1945 The Mother issued the following declaration:
"The Victory has come. Thy Victory, O Lord, for which we render to Thee infinite thanksgiving.
"But now our ardent prayer rises towards Thee. It is with Thy force and by Thy force that the victors have conquered. Grant that they do not forget it in their success and that they keep the promises which they have made to thee in hours of danger and anguish. They have taken Thy name to make war, may they not forget Thy grace when they have to make the peace." ¹
The progress of the war had been followed closely by the sadhaks of the Ashram and when news of the final victory was received they came together to celebrate.
In India, the struggle for freedom continued. In February 1946 in response to increasing Indian demands for independence complicated by serious Hindu-Muslim disturbances in Bengal and other places, the British government announced it intention to leave the country by June 1948. ON 1 July 1947 The Indian Independence Bill was passed by Parliament; the date fixed by it for the transfer of authority into Indian hands was 15 august 1947.
For that day, his seventy-fifth birthday Sri Auroindo issued the following statement:
"August 15th, 1947 is the birthday of free India. It marks for her the end of an old era, the beginning of a new age. But we can also make it by our life and acts as a free nation an important date in a new age opening for the whole world, for the political, social, cultural and spiritual future of humanity
August 15th is my own birthday and it is naturally gratifying to me that it should have assumed this vast significance. I take this coincidence, not as a fortuitous accident, but as the sanction and seal of the Divine Force that guides my steps on the work with which I began life, the beginning of its full fruition Indeed, on this day I can watch almost all the world-movements which I hoped to see fulfilled in my lifetime, though then they looked like impracticable dreams, arriving at fruition or on their way
¹ "Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on the Second World War” p. 76
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to achievement. In all these movements free India may well play a large part and take a leading position.
"The first of these dreams was a revolutionary movement which would create a free and united India. India today is free but she has not achieved unity. At one moment it almost seemed as if in the very act of liberation she would fall back into the chaos of separate States which preceded the British conquest. But fortunately it now seems probable that this danger will be averted and a large and powerful, though not yet a complete union will be established. Also, the wisely drastic policy of the Constituent Assembly has made it probable that the problem of the depressed classes will be solved without schism or fissure. But the old communal division into Hindus and Muslims seems now to have hardened into a permanent political division of the country. It is to be hoped that this settled fact will not be accepted as settled for ever or as anything more than a temporary expedient. For if it lasts, India may be seriously weakened, even crippled: civil strife may remain always possible, possible even a new invasion and foreign conquest. India's internal development and prosperity may be impeded, her position among the nations weakened, her destiny impaired or even frustrated. This must not be; the partition must go. Let us hope that that may come about naturally, by an increasing recognition of the necessity not only of peace and concord but of common action, by the practice of common action and the creation of means for that purpose. In this way unity may finally come about under whatever form – the exact form may have a pragmatic but not a fundamental importance. But by whatever means, in whatever way, the division must go; unity must and will be achieved, for it is necessary for the greatness of India's future.
"Another dream was for the resurgence and liberation of the peoples of Asia and her return to her great role in the progress of human civilisation. Asia has arisen; large parts are now quite free or are at this moment being liberated: its other still subject or partly subject parts are moving through whatever struggles towards freedom. Only a little has to be done and that will be done today or tomorrow. There India has her part to play and has begun to play it with an energy and ability which already indicate the measure of her possibilities and the place she can take in the council of the nations.
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"The third dream was a world-union forming the outer basis of a fairer, brighter and nobler life for all mankind. That unification of the human world is under way; there is an imperfect initiation organised but struggling against tremendous difficulties. But the momentum is there and it must inevitably increase and conquer. Here too India has begun to play a prominent part and, if she can develop that larger statesmanship which is not limited by the present facts and immediate possibilities but looks into the future and brings it nearer, her presence may make all the difference between a slow and timid and a bold and swift development. A catastrophe may intervene and interrupt or destroy what is being done, but even then the final result is sure. For unification is a necessity of Nature, an inevitable movement. Its necessity for the nations is also clear, for without it the freedom of the small nations may be at any moment in peril and the life even of the large and powerful nations insecure. The unification is therefore to the interests of all, and only human imbecility and stupid selfishness can prevent it; but these cannot stand for ever against the necessity of Nature and the Divine Will. But an outward basis is not enough; there must grow up an international spirit and outlook, international forms and institutions must appear, perhaps such developments as dual or multilateral citizenship, willed interchange or voluntary fusion of cultures. Nationalism will have fulfilled itself and lost its militancy and would no longer find these things incompatible with self-preservation and the integrality of its outlook. A new spirit of oneness will take hold of the human race.
"Another dream, the spiritual gift of India to the world has already begun. India's spirituality is entering Europe and America in an ever increasing measure. That movement will grow; amid the disasters of the time more and more eyes are turning towards her with hope and there is even an increasing resort not only to her teachings, but to her psychic and spiritual practice.
"The final dream was a step in evolution which would raise man to a higher and larger consciousness and begin the solution of the problems which have perplexed and vexed him since he first began to think and to dream of individual perfection and a perfect society. This is still a personal hope and an idea, an ideal which has begun to take hold both in India and in the West on forward-looking minds. The difficulties in the way are more
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formidable than in any other field of endeavour, but difficulties were made to be overcome and if the Supreme Will is there, they will be overcome. Here too, if this evolution is to take place, since it must proceed through a growth of the spirit and the inner consciousness, the initiative can come from India and, although the scope must be universal, the central movement may be hers;
"Such is the content which I put into this date of India's liberation; whether or how far this hope will be justified depends upon the new and free India."¹
The period of Sri Aurobindo's retirement was a time of intense literary activity. The magnitude of his correspondence with his disciples during the 1930's did not prevent him from producing at the same time a large body of poetry and prose. During these years many short poems, especially sonnets, were written, and the epic Savitri, upon which Sri Aurobindo had been working since the early years of his stay in Pondicherry, began to assume its massive proportions.
About this poem Sri Aurobindo wrote in 1934: "I made some eight or ten recasts of it originally under the old insufficient inspiration. Afterwards I am altogether rewriting it, concentrating on the first book and working on it over and over again with the hope that every line may be of a perfect perfection – but I have hardly any time now for such work."²
Sri Aurobindo used Savitri "as a means of ascension": "I began with it on a certain mental level, each time I could reach a higher level I rewrote from that level. ... In fact Savitri has not been regarded by me as a poem to be written and finished, but as a field of experimentation to see how far poetry could be written from one's own yogic consciousness and how that could be made creative."³ With each revision Sri Aurobindo tried to lift the level of the poem higher and higher towards what he called "Over-mind poetry", the mantric, revelatory utterance of that highest of the spiritual mind ranges.
¹Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, pp. 404-06.
² Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Parts Two and Three (Pondicherry : Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1970), p. 728 .
³ Ibid., pp.727-28.
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Before 1938 many of Sri Aurobindo's writings from the Arya and the Karmayogin had been brought out in book-form, some after being revised to a greater or lesser degree. But the book-publication of his philosophical magnum opus, The Life Divine, which had first appeared in the Arya between 1914 and 1919, and of several other works was not undertaken due to want of time for the thorough recasting which Sri Aurobindo desired to give them.
During the period of his recovery from the accident of November 1938, Sri Aurobindo had the opportunity to work on The Life Divine. The first edition, in two parts, was published in 1939 and 1940. In the years that followed other books were brought out. In 1942 all of Sri Aurobindo's published poetical writings were issued as Collected Poems and Plays and in 1946 a selection of Vedic hymns to Agni, translated in their esoteric, psychological sense, was published as Hymns to the Mystic Fire. In 1949 and 1950 revised editions of Sri Aurobindo's major social and political works, The Human Cycle and The Ideal of Human Unity were brought out after revision. Sri Aurobindo's letters on yoga, some of which had first been printed in the thirties in small guidebooks such as Lights on Yoga and Bases of Yoga, were collected and published as Letters of Sri Aurobindo (in three series) in 1947, 1949 and 1951. A separate collection, Letters on Poetry and Literature, was issued in 1949. But the focal point of Sri Aurobindo's literary endeavour between 1940 and 1950 was Savitri. The earlier versions of the poem were revised and considerable portions were added to it until, when finally published, it had developed from a short narrative based directly on an episode of the Mahabharata into an epic of cosmic dimensions running to almost 24,000 lines of blank verse.
Savitri appeared in book-form in two parts in 1950 and 1951. Before this it had been brought out canto by canto in small fascicles and in periodicals published by the Ashram or groups connected with it. The first of these publications to appear was the Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual, whose first number was published from Calcutta in 1942. In 1944 The Advent, a quarterly "devoted to the exposition of Sri Aurobindo's vision of the future", was begun. This journal was followed two years later by the Sri Aurobindo Circle, an
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annual.¹ These journals contained, besides instalments of Savitri and other writings of Sri Aurobindo, essays and poems written by his disciples and devotees and by students of his thought.
In February 1949 two other journals were begun: the quarterly Bulletin of Physical Education and the fortnightly Mother India. The first of these was the organ of the Jeunesse Sportive de l'Ashram de Sri Aurobindo, the Ashram's sports programme, in which not only school children but also the younger and even many of the older sadhaks took part. This association had been formed by the Mother, who took great interest in its activities, spending much time during the late forties and the fifties at the Ashram's playground and tennis ground. In 1949 and 1950 Sri Aurobindo contributed eight articles – his last prose writings – to the Bulletin. Sri Aurobindo did not write in Mother India, but his continuing interest in the vital issues of the day was reflected in the writings of his disciple K. D. Sethna, the editor of the journal, who submitted all his editorials to Sri Aurobindo for approval.
A few times between 1927 and 1950 Sri Aurobindo granted interviews to certain eminent men of the times. The poet Rabindranath Tagore came to Pondicherry on 29 May 1928. After meeting Sri Aurobindo he wrote:
"At the very first sight I could realise that he had been seeking for the soul and had gained it, and through this long process of realisation had accumulated within him a silent power of inspiration. His face was radiant with an inner light and his serene presence made it evident to me that his soul was not crippled and cramped to the measure of some tyrannical doctrine, which takes delight in inflicting wounds upon life. . . .
"I felt that the utterance of the ancient Hindu Rishi spoke from him of that equanimity which gives the human soul its freedom of entrance into the All. I said to him, 'You have the Word and we are waiting to accept it from you. India will speak through your voice to the world, "Hearken to me". . . .
"Years ago I saw Aurobindo in the atmosphere of his earlier heroic youth and I sang to him,
¹ The Advent was first brought out from Madras and Sri Aurobindo Circle from Bombay. At present both are being published from Pondicherry.
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‘Aurobindo, accept the salutation from Rabindranath.’¹
"Today I saw him in a deeper atmosphere of a reticent richness of wisdom and again sang to him in silence,
'Aurobindo, accept the salutation from Rabindranath.’ ”²
In 1929 Sylvain Levy, the French indologist, met Sri Aurobindo and in September 1947 Maurice Schumann, a representative of the French government, and Monsieur Baron, the Governor of French India, spoke with Sri Aurobindo about a proposed Franco-Indian cultural institution they hoped to set up under the directorship of Sri Aurobindo.
On 20 December 1948 Dr. C. R. Reddy of the Andhra University presented the University's National Prize to Sri Aurobindo³ and spoke with him for half an hour. Interviews were granted to K. M. Munshi, the Congress leader, in July 1950, and to the Maharaja of Bhavanagar, then the Governor of Madras, in November of the same year.
The first photographs to be taken of Sri Aurobindo since the early 1920's were made by Henri Cartier-Bresson, the famous French photographer, in April 1950. Among the Cartier-Bresson photographs is one taken on the occasion of the darshan of 24 April 1950. This photograph is reproduced as the frontispiece of this book.
Sometime in 1948 or 1949 Sri Aurobindo developed symptoms suggestive of prostatic enlargement. The symptoms disappeared but in the middle of 1950 recurred. By November it was clear that Sri Aurobindo had developed a kidney infection and was suffering from uraemia. Doctors were in consultation but no major treatment was accepted and at 1.26 a.m. on 5 December 1950 Sri Aurobindo withdrew from his body.
Arrangements were made for the burial, but on the evening of the sixth the following message was issued by the Mother:
"The funeral of Sri Aurobindo has not taken place today. His body is charged with such a concentration of supramental light that there is no sign of decomposition and the body will
¹ A line from "Homage to Aurobindo", a poem published in 1907 (see p. 93).
² Rabindranath Tagore, "Aurobindo Ghosh", Modem Review, Vol. XLIV, No. 1 (July 1928), p. 60.
³ The prize had been awarded to Sri Aurobino on 11 December. His message to the university is published in On Himself, pp. 407-13.
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be kept lying on his bed so long as it remains intact."¹
Many thousands came to have darshan of Sri Aurobindo's body. On 7 and 8 December the Mother issued the following two statements:
"Lord, this morning Thou hast given me the assurance that Thou wouldst stay with us until Thy work is achieved, not only as a consciousness which guides and illumines but also as a dynamic Presence in action. In unmistakable terms Thou hast promised that all of Thyself would remain here and not leave the earth atmosphere until earth is transformed. Grant that we may be worthy of this marvellous Presence and that henceforth everything in us be concentrated on the one will to be more and more perfectly consecrated to the fulfilment of Thy sublime Work."²
"The lack of receptivity of the earth and men is mostly responsible for the decision Sri Aurobindo has taken regarding his body. But one thing is certain: what has happened on the physical plane affects in no way the truth of his teaching. All that he has said is perfectly true and remains so. Time and the course of events will prove it abundantly."³
On 9 December Sri Aurobindo's body was placed in a vault in the courtyard of the Ashram. That day the following message, which was later engraved on a marble slab and affixed to the samādhi, as the vault is known, was issued by the Mother:
"To THEE who hast been the material envelope of our Master, to THEE our infinite gratitude. Before THEE who hast done so much for us, who hast worked, struggled, suffered, hoped, endured so much, before THEE who hast willed all, attempted all, prepared, achieved all for us, before THEE we bow down and implore that we may never forget, even for a moment, all we owe to THEE." 4
¹ K. D. Sethna, The Passing of Sri Aurobindo (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashrams 1951), p. 5.
² Sri Aurobindo and His Ashram (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1969), p. 74.
³ Ibid., p. 75. . .
4 Ibid.
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Several other messages were given by the Mother on subsequent days:
"To grieve is an insult to Sri Aurobindo who is here with us, conscious and alive."¹
14 December 1950
"We must not be bewildered by appearances. Sri Aurobindo has not left us. Sri Aurobindo is here, as living and as present as ever and it is left to us to realise his work with all the sincerity, eagerness and concentration necessary."²
15 December 1950
"Our Lord has sacrificed himself totally for us. ... He was not compelled to leave his body; he chose to do so for reasons so sublime that they are beyond the reach of human mentality. . . . And when one cannot understand, the only thing to do is to keep a respectful silence."³
26 December 1950
"Lord, we are upon earth to accomplish Thy work of transformation. It is our sole will, our sole preoccupation. Grant that it may be also our sole occupation and that all our actions may help us towards this single goal."4
1 January 1951
"We stand in the Presence of Him who has sacrificed his physical life in order to help more fully his work of transformation.
"He is always with us, aware of what we are doing, of all our thoughts, of all our feelings and all our actions."5
18 January 1951
¹ Ibid.
² Ibid., pp. 75-76.
³ Ibid., p. 76.
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