Mother's Chronicles - Book Five

7

Auro-dada

In Bengal, the Puja season in autumn is the time for fun, frolic and family gatherings. Whenever he could, Sri Aurobindo would take time off from his Baroda job to rejoin his family at Deoghar. He had a large family on his mother's side : uncles and aunts and cousins. One of the cousins, Basanti Chakraborty, gave reminiscences of her 'Auro-dada' in a Bengali magazine, Galpa Bharati. Sri Aurobindo was very close to her family, and whenever he passed through Calcutta he always dropped in to see his aunt Lilabati, 'Na-mesi,' and Krishna Kumar Mitra, his 'Na-mesi,' at their residence. K. K. Mitra and Lilabati were married at Calcutta in April 1881. A large number of guests attended the marriage party, but the bride's father, Rajnarain Bose, did not. Rabindranath Tagore composed a song for the occasion, and Narendranath Dutta, better known as Swami Vivekananda, sang at the ceremony. The Mitras had three children: Kumudini, Basanti and Sukumar.

Kumudini (1882-1943) was beautiful and straightforward. She was to become one of the first two women councillors of the Calcutta Corporation. That was in 1933, the year my

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Sri Aurobindo at Deoghar (c. 1894)

uncle Bijoy Singh Nahar also became a councillor— the first from the Jain community. Kumudini wrote several books in Bengali and was the editor of an illustrated Bengali monthly, Suprabhat, which ran for nine years. Tagore, a family friend, wrote a poem of the same name for the first issue (July-August 1907). Again, two years later, it was at Kumudini's request that Sri Aurobindo began to contribute in Suprabhat articles on his experiences in prison: Karakahini. A review of the magazine published in the Karmayogin in August 1909 is very interesting. We quote a good part of it,

"The paper Suprabhat, a Bengali monthly edited by Kumari Kumudini Mitra, daughter of Sj. Krishna Kumar Mitra, enters this month on its third year. The first issue of the new year is before us. We notice a great advance in the interest and variety of the articles, the calibre of the writers and the quality of the writing. From the literary point of view the chief ornament of the number is the brief poem Dukhabhisar, by Sj. Rabindranath Tagore. It is one of those poems in which the peculiar inimitable quality of our greatest lyric poet comes out with supreme force, beauty and sweetness. Rabindra Babu has a legion of imitators and many have been very successful in catching up his less valuable mannerisms of style and verse, as is the manner of imitators all the world over. But the poignant sweetness, passion and spiritual depth and mystery of a poem like this, the haunting cadences subtle with a subtlety which is not of technique but of the soul, and the honeyladen felicity of the expression, these are the essential Rabindranath and cannot be imitated, because they are things of the spirit and one

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must have the same sweetness and depth of soul before one can hope to catch any of these desirable qualities. We emphasise this inimitableness because the legion of imitators we mention are doing harm to the progress of our poetry as well as to the reputation of their model and we would suggest to them to study this poem and realise the folly of their persistent attempt. One of the most remarkable peculiarities of Rabindra Babu's genius is the happiness and originality with which he has absorbed the whole spirit of Vaishnav poetry and turned it into something essentially the same and yet new and modern.... These poems are of the essence of poetry and refuse to be rendered in any prose equivalent. Poetry is created not from the intellect or the outer imagination but comes from a deeper source within to which men have no means of access except when the divine part within seizes on the brain and makes it a passive instrument.... This is the divine mania and enthusiasm which the subtle spiritual discernment of Plato discovered to be the real meaning of what we call inspiration. And of this unattainable force the best lyrics of Rabindranath are full to overflowing." There spoke the poet Sri Aurobindo.

"The article Shantiniketane Rabindranath by Sj. Jitendranath Banerji is another feature of great interest. The writer has a good descriptive gift and the passages which describe the Shantiniketan are admirable; but the chief interest naturally centres in the conversation with the poet which is recorded with great fullness. The private talk of a rich and gifted nature with a power of conversational expression is always suggestive and we await with interest the future issue of this article. We

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hope Jitendra Babu will give us a fuller view of the remarkable educational experiment which this original mind is developing in the quiet shades of Bolpur."

The Santiniketan School was established in the wide open spaces of Bolpur in 1901 by Rabindranath Tagore. He had seen the great harm done by a system of education which was cut off from Indian life, for its sources lay outside India. "In every nation," he pointed out, "education is intimately connected with the life of the people. But for us modern education is relevant only to turning out clerks, lawyers, doctors, magistrates, munsiffs and policemen, the few favourite professions of gentle folk. This education has not reached the farmer, the oil-grinder, nor the potter. No other educated society has been struck with such disaster. The reason for this is that our new universities have not been a growth from the soil but have been parasites feeding on foreign oaks." The Visionary set out to relate education closely to life beyond the confines of the class-room. A complete education that comes through communing with Nature. A child to develop into a complete man. And freedom to develop. A simple life and an ideal of self-discipline were what he endeavoured to inculcate in the schoolchildren. Waking with dawn, cleaning up, doing exercises, bathing by the well, and prayer. Cleanliness of mind and body. Emphasis on Indian culture was strong in Santiniketan. After prayer, classes, which were held in the open air, underneath trees, with only a small square carpet for seat. And work. Work together for the common weal. And everything done with a joyous spirit, with a song in one's heart.

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"The brief hints given of the moral training and the method of education followed," the review continued, "point to a system far in advance of the National Council of Education which is still tyrannised over by a tradition and method not only European but unprogressively European. A brief instalment of Sj. Aurobindo Ghose's Karahahini is also given which describes the identification parades of the Bomb Case, gives some glimpses of the approver Noren Gossain and deals with the personal character of some of the jail's officials."

Sri Aurobindo, although his review was unsigned, was too modest to say more about his own articles!

After this pleasant digression let us return to the Mitra family. Sukumar Mitra (1885-1973) was intimately associated with Sri Aurobindo's revolutionary work. He had been a messenger of the leader from a very young age, and was a repository of the stream of events of the time; he had also close links with several other revolutionary institutions. Sukumar's eight-part article on Sri Aurobindo, published in the Bengali magazine Basumati (1951), alludes to a phonograph recording of Sri Aurobindo. He was in Baroda when their grandfather, Rajnarain Bose, died, and wrote a poem on his passing. The next time he went to Calcutta, Sri Aurobindo stayed with his cousins for a few days, and readily agreeing to their request, recited his poem, Transiit, non Periit. That is how the phonograph recording was made. But unfortunately, it does not seem to have been preserved.

Sukumar's father K. K. Mitra (1852-1936) was a well-known professor; a journalist, he was also the editor of a weekly,

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Sanjibani, in which he exposed the barbarian and ruthless activities of the Europeans owners of tea estates of Assam and of the indigo planters. His initial disgust at British justice —which let off scot-free English murderers of breastfeeding infants and pregnant women —turned to a profound hatred for the foreign government; with the result that he did not hesitate to take full part in the movement of 1905-10 —a participation which the government cut short by imprisoning him in the Agra fort from December 1908 to February 1910. Afterwards, K. K. Mitra continued to support the Congress but he did not believe in the non-cooperation movement of NL K. Gandhi. Another political leader who did not believe in that movement was Bepin Chandra Pal.

Sri Aurobindo's 'Na-masi' Lilabati (1864-1924) was Swarnalata's younger sister. Given the social atmosphere of the times, she showed a lot of courage by getting many widows —who were sent to her by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar — to marry again. Many distressed women found a refuge in her. It never occurred to her to put a label —or use big words like 'social service' —on the help she gave spontaneously, unstintedly. What is there to make a fuss about when we help a fellow-human in his or her hour of need ? Lilabati was exceedingly fond of her nephew Auro. In fact, her son Sukumar says that she nursed her sister's third son when Swarnalata's fourth child died.

As for Basanti (1884-1965) she was a good writer, and edited with distinction for ten years a Bengali magazine for children, Mukul. She, in her article 'Our Auro-dada,' recalled her childhood's joy-filled days at Deoghar when all the family

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would reunite during the Puja holidays. "There were hills all around and we enjoyed the wide open spaces, the fields, walks along the river banks, and the loving care of our relatives." One of the spots they were certain to visit was the village of Rohini, five kilometres away, where lived their eldest aunt, Auro-dada's mother. The bungalow with so many big, shading trees was an ideal place for a day-long picnic. "We would sit around our dear Boromama, listen to stories, and make fun. Auro-dada was very fond of Boromama." Auro-dada used to call him 'the prophet of Isabgul' because that was Boromama's invariable prescription for almost all types of stomach trouble. He even seems to have brought round his nephew to his own way of thinking. For, every morning at Baroda, Sri Aurobindo would drink a glass of cold water in which a handful of Isabgul¹ had been left soaking overnight. He never missed it, noted D. K. Roy. Reportedly there were two other objects of daily use at Baroda. One was Cuticura soap —"he did not use any other variety." The other was 'Cigars of the Pharaoh.' As a student in England Sri Aurobindo had picked up the habit of smoking, and he had become a heavy smoker. Always to be found on his table was a box of Egyptian cigars. If that brand was not available in the local market, the special cigars were brought from Bombay, as Sri Aurobindo did not then smoke any other make. At Pondicherry it was 'Flor' of Spencer's that he smoked.

1, Plantago ovata (or Plantago psyllium). The fibrous husk, separated from the seed, is endowed with a few remarkable properties: it controls diarrhoea as well as constipation, and reduces blood cholesterol levels. Isabgul has been used in India since ancient times.

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"I was then a schoolgirl," wrote Basanti looking back upon things past, "young in age, alive with curiosity. Auro-dada used to arrive with two or three trunks. I would think, 'Who knows how many costly suits and coats and what varieties of luxury items these must contain!' But when he would open the trunks I would look with amazement, 'What is this? Only a few clothes for daily wear, and all the rest books and more books 1 Does Auro-dada love so much to read books? We all like only to chat and enjoy ourselves in vacations, does Auro-dada want to spend this jolly time reading these books!...' But because he was so fond of reading books did not mean that he did not join us in our chit-chats and merry-making. His talks used to be full of wit and humour." Her brother Sukumar recalls wistfully that in one of the Puja holidays he found Auro-dada daily practising dands and baithaks (push-ups and knee-bending exercises). "He used to treat me as though we were the same age," although Sukumar was his junior by thirteen years, "and he always repaid me in kind my childish playfulness, so that often we would both roll in the dust. He was never annoyed, his dignity never offended."

But Auro-dada did not simply beguile the time with his cousins, he read all the trunkfuls of books he had brought along with him. Nor was he so lost in the world of books that he remained unaware of what went on around him. Quite the contrary. Nothing was neglected in his observation. Decades later, replying to a disciple ("Can one do as one likes?"), Sri Aurobindo said, "One acts according to one's nature. Your question reminds me of the story of my grandmother. She

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said: 'God has made such a bad world. If I could meet Him I would tell Him what I think of Him.' At this my grandfather said: 'Yes, that is true. But God has so arranged it that you can't get near Him so long as you have any such desire in you.'" That was Rajnarain Bose and Nistarini.

Rajnarain always defended God. Once, when he was in a friend's house, his friend, a pandit, saw a spider being chased by a lizard and soon ending up in the jaws of the latter. The pandit cried out, "Look here, Rajnarain Babu, you speak so often of the goodness of your God, will you tell me what goodness is there in making that poor spider fall into the jaws of that lizard?" The narrator reported, "Whereupon Rajnarain Babu looked up, laughed heartily, making the house ring with his laughter and said, 'Ah, poor God, he must establish his goodness after giving satisfactory answers to all the questions that may arise in the minds of doubters —a harder lot surely than is generally meted out to mortal men! My friend, Divine goodness is established on another basis than that. Ha! Ha! You think you have got a crushing argument! Not a bit of it. I believe God is good even if thousands of lizards eat up thousands of spiders.'" The narrator who had witnessed it said, "I shall never forget that occasion and that laughter." He concluded, "His very laugh shows he is not of this world.... He is a devata."

Even the priests of the Vaidyanath temple would fold their hands with reverence whenever Rajnarain's name was mentioned in their presence: 'He is our second Vaidyanath.' Indeed, many a high-caste Brahmin considered this remarkable

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Kayastha to be a better Brahmin than himself.

Rajnarain dearly loved this grandson of his, Auro, who was a man after his own heart. They talked of many things: "of cabbages —and kings —and why the sea is boiling hot —and whether pigs have wings."

And oh! so often their hearty laughs would mingle filling the air with joy; for, both grandfather and grandson were full of roaring laughter. When Dinendra Kumar Roy first went to Deoghar in 1898, the old man was already bedridden, but had lost nothing of his scintillating spirit nor his ringing laugh. A wonderstruck D. K. Roy remarked to Boromama Jogindra, "Your father can laugh a lot. I haven't met anyone who can laugh in such an open-hearted manner. Despite the pain inflicted by the illness how much he laughs!" Jogindra replied, "This is nothing! When Father talks with Dwijenbabu [Tagore's eldest brother] and the two friends go on laughing, the very roof of the house seems about to be swept away by the waves of their laughter!"

All those waves of laughter floated away to rejoin their source: the ocean of eternal Ananda.

Today's visitor will see many things at Deoghar, but not that hallowed house, hallowed by so many noble sons of India — including Vivekananda¹ — its every brick so full of sweet

1. Swami Vivekananda met Rajnarain Bose several times at Deoghar. So far as we can ascertain, his very first visit was in December 1889, that is about three and half years before he sailed for the United States on 31 May 1893 to attend the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. It is in January 1898 that we next see him at Deoghar. Again on 19 December 1898 he goes to

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memories. The bricks became rubble, for the house was auctioned and razed to the ground by a new owner who built another house in its place.

Rajnarain's house at Deoghar

Deoghar to restore his broken health and stays through January 1899. Rajnarain Bose passed away in September 1899.

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