Mother's Chronicles - Book Five

54

The Karmayogin

Sukumar Mitra had gone to Agra to see if he could do something for his father, Krishna Kumar Mitra, held a prisoner in the Agra Fort from December 1908. So he was not at home to welcome his cousin when he was released from Alipore Jail. Upon his return he found his Auro-dada at home in N°6 College Square which was their house as well as the Sanjibani office. It was to remain Sri Aurobindo's anchor from then on until he left Calcutta and politics behind in February 1910. Saro was living there as well. For after Sri Aurobindo's arrest she had gone to live with Na'masi, and not with her elder brothers, Beno or Mano.

Needless to say that it was not in Sri Aurobindo's nature to sit idle. Oh, no I Barely a month after his release from jail he began a new English weekly, the Karmayogin. He was not inclined to revive the defunct Bande Mataram as asked by many. The Karma yogin's first number hit the stands on 19 June 1909, and every Saturday thereafter. The Karmayogin (Registered N°C. 532) was: "A weekly Review of National Religion, Literature, Science, Philosophy, etc. Contributors:

Page 499

Sj. Aurobindo Ghose and others. Office : 14 Sham Bazar Street, Calcutta." The office was shifted to 4 Shyampukur Lane in December 1909, which was commonly known as the 'Karmayogin Office.' The weekly, which filled the gap left by the closure of the Bande Mataram, knew an instant success and, unlike its predecessor, was easily self-supporting. Priced at 2 annas (i.e., one eighth of a rupee), it had a very large circulation and brought a rich and varied fare to its readers. "The Karmayogin and Dharma, the two weeklies preaching a new Nationalism, were more in my line," recalled Suresh Chandra Deb. "These brought to our thoughts and activities some sort of a coherence out of the confusion created by the repression by the Government and the safe policy of our elder politicians. He [Sri Aurobindo] showed us the way out of bewilderment; we learnt to understand what Indian Nationalism stood for and the ideal of the 'Karma-Yogin': 'It [Indian Nationalism] must be on its guard against any tendency to cling to every detail that has been Indian. That has not been the spirit of Hinduism in the past....' " S. C. Deb admitted, "Many of us who had been carried away by this spirit of revivalism needed this warning so that we could devote ourselves to the service of our people with a becoming spirit of humanity." He then goes on to say, "The Karmayogin and the Dharma gave us intimations, faint and obscure of the 'human dream of perfectibility,' of 'aspiration to a heaven on earth common to several religious and spiritual seers and thinkers.' ... The majority of us looked to the Karmayogin and the Dharma to give us a new lead in our political bewilderment."

Page 500

But every Bengali was not so familiar with the English tongue. A demand grew up for its Bengali version. Amarendra Nath Chattopadhyya of Uttarpara —a revolutionary initiated by Sri Aurobindo himself—broached the matter to him. He at once got Sri Aurobindo's consent. Thus the Bengali Karmayogin was begun. That was a Friday weekly. It came out from July 1909. It was published from N°4 Telkal Ghat Road, Howrah ('Manager-cum-Proprietor: Gyanendra Nath Bandopadhyay, B.A.'). Amar notes that a Hindi Karmayogin was published from Allahabad under the editorship of Prof. Sundarlal.

But then Sri Aurobindo had become the centre of life and hope to the Bengalis. They clamoured to read him in his and their mother-tongue. Not translation, but original Bengali from Sri Aurobindo was the only thing that would satisfy them! Diffident, he hesitated, but was persuaded to take up his pen and let the Bengali Muse use it. Thus Dharma came into being. This one was a Monday weekly. It was priced at 2 paisa a copy (Registered N°C.550). The first number is dated 7 Bhadra 1316 (23 August 1909). The name of its editor is 'Srijukta Aurobindo Ghose'; he had turned thirty-seven but a week earlier. So, Sri Aurobindo ran two weeklies single-handedly?

Well, yes, almost. A few young men —such as Nolini K. Gupta, Bejoy Nag, Suresh Chakrabarty (Moni), Ramchandra Majumdar helped with the proof-reading and news reporting, and ... But let us hear from Nolini himself.

"On coming out of jail, Sri Aurobindo found shelter in the house of his maternal uncle, Krishna Kumar Mitra; the

Page 501

place was known as the Sanjibani Office. Bejoy Nag and myself had got our release along with him, but we could not yet make up our minds as to what we should do next; we were still wandering about like floating weeds or moss. But both of us used to go and see him every afternoon."

When he went out on a tour for a short while in the East Bengal area in connection with political work Sri Aurobindo took the two of them along. On return from the tour he asked Nolini if he had any practice in writing. "I said that I had never written anything beyond College essays, but I could try. 'Then get hold of an English newspaper tomorrow,' he said, 'pick out some of the important items of news, write them out in Bengali and bring them to me. I shall see.' I did that the next day. He seemed to be pleased on seeing my writing and said that it might do. He gave me the task of editing the news columns of his Bengali paper Dharma. Half of it would be articles, etc., and the rest would be news. Needless to say, I accepted the offer. He added that for this work he would give me a stipend of ten rupees per month and that I should not take that amiss. For, he explained, this was for him a matter of principle as he did not consider it fair to exact work without giving its due reward. That was why he offered this token payment and I should accept it as part of my pocket-expenses. This was the first time I was going to earn any money."

Sri Aurobindo also offered them the journal's office to live in. "So we came to stay at Shyampukur, on the Dharma and Karmayogin premises. There were two flats or sections. In the front part were set up the press and the office; and at the

Page 502

back, in the inner appartments, so to say, we set up our household. There were three or four rooms on the first floor and downstairs there were the kitchen and stores and things.

"Sri Aurobindo used to come here every afternoon from his uncle's place. He would first look to the work in the office and then come to our rooms. Till about ten in the evening he used to spend his time with us."

From College Square, Sejda, as the boys called him, would take a tram or a long solitary walk to come to Shyam-pukur Lane every afternoon at about four or five. The boys had not got into the habit of taking tea. But when Sejda was there they served him with a cup of tea and a plate full of luchis, potatoes with thick gravy highly seasoned with curry, and, respecting our shastras, with sweets — halua in this case-to wind up; all bought from a corner sweetmeat shop in Grey Street.

After he had finished with his work connected with the two papers, he would drop in on the young men, join in their talks or teach them languages, like French. Nolini began straight away with Moliere's L'Avare. Nolini and Moni and Bejoy were the permanent residents. Ganen Maharaj, of Ramakrishna Mission, was a frequent visitor. Biren Ghosh, Saurin Bose and Ramchandra Majumdar turned up almost daily. Amar Chatterji, Hem Sen and several others came once in a while. Almost every evening Sri Aurobindo would do some automatic writing—or, as Nolini puts it, automatic speech. Then by nine-thirty or ten he would leave for College Square. The young men would see him off at the Grey Street corner

Page 503

where he caught the tram. But occasionally he would be so late that the last tram had left, then a horse carriage was hired for him.

Can you guess under what conditions Sri Aurobindo was producing those weekly articles for the Karmayogin and the Dharma? B. G. Tilak was writing his Gita-Rahasya in the undisturbed quiet of Mandalayjail in Burma. But Sri Aurobindo was living with his aunt and family, amidst constant comings and goings. Here is Sukumar Mitra to tell us. "In deep absorption he wrote or typed articles for the weeklies in the first-floor sitting room while, in the same room, somebody played the gramophone, or others talked loudly, and all kinds of hubbub went on. To all of which he paid no heed; he continued his writing without an interruption to his thought."

Luckily he was not dependent on brain-thought like us! Interruptions? Well, yes, there was no lack of that I He met a lot of visitors. Young men also came regularly in groups to meet him.

Basanti Chakravarty, Sukumar's sister, recounts an anecdote or two. Father was in jail in Agra. Mother, always sickly, became very sick with worry. Their doctor, Dr. Col. U.N. Mukherji, Surendranath's son-in-law, advised Lilabati to have a daily bath in the Ganges. Somebody always went with her. She seemed to prefer her nephew. Na-masi would come up to Auro-dada when he was writing an article for the Dharma or the Karmayogin and say, "Auro, please come along with me, let's go for a bath in Ganga." At once Auro-dada would put down his pen and leaving the writing in the middle, accompany her.

Page 504

"I never saw Auro-dada getting angry," marvelled Basanti. "He is sitting in the hall 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 walk. After some time people come to see Auro-dada. He gets up, searches all around for his sandals. In the meantime he sees Ma, smiles and asks her, 'Na-masi, have you put on my sandals? There are visitors who have come to see me.' Ma gives him his sandals. That she took them away —that he had to wait —nothing of it made him the least bit annoyed."

But sister Sarojini used to get pretty annoyed at Sejda's lack of anger. When they lived in Deoghar she frequently asked him to scold their cook who, she said, never listened to her. One day she got exasperated. Sejda then called the cook and said, 'Thakur, why don't you listen to my sister? Please listen to my sister.' Saro never asked her brother again to scold anybody.

Page 505