Mother's Chronicles - Book Five

40

The Man and the Moment

"God prepares the man and the moment," wrote Sri Aurobindo in Historical Impressions. "Without the man the moment is a lost opportunity; without the moment the man is a force inoperative. The meeting of the two changes the destinies of nations and the poise of the world is altered by what seems to the superficial an accident." He was giving his impressions of the French Revolution of 1789 and its four central personalities.

In India the 'moment' was the partition of Bengal. From the spontaneous outpourings from his countrymen Sri Aurobindo stands out as the 'man.' Some of his greatest contemporaries and the most ordinary of them alike, as well as his associates, biographers and historians —all have commented on the uniqueness of Sri Aurobindo, and his unique place in India's political movement for freedom.

"He was the outstanding personality in the great National Movement of Bengal," wrote Professor Jyotishchandra Ghose in Life- Work of Sri Aurobindo. "The coming of Sri Aurobindo to Bengal marks an epochmaking period in the annals of the

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country. Never before in the history of the political evolution of the country had there been such a precious acquisition in the cause of the country's fight for freedom ... because there was no equal to him in the supreme self-consciousness he possessed of his God-ordained mission of which he was to be the chosen instrument some day to work out this Divine will ....... as a spark of fire to burn up all that was base and false in the national life of the country and turn it into true gold.........Everybody felt in his heart of hearts that the man for Bengal who had been long overdue ... had at last come and the honour of Bengal and her interest, and, for the matter of that, of all India would be safe in his keeping.

"This 'Fire-Spark' as we know him was a man of medium height and could be called short of stature and of average weight, looking almost like a child. He was amiable in disposition and was mild, gentle in his manners; when he would speak, he would do so in soft musical accents and his words in a private conversation had the effect of soothing the troubled nerves of the hearer, not by virtue of their intellectual impressiveness but by a sort of ethereal transmission of psychic, spiritual fluid, so to say.... Meek as a lamb in the ordinary pursuits of life, he roared as a lion, a man divinely inspired, when he had to work as a public man. This even balance between the two extremes was the great secret of his popularity and his power over the politically-minded, middle-class intelligentsia and specially over the patriotic youths of the country."

When he gave up his professorship, from being 'a tutor of a few hundred youths' Sri Aurobindo became 'the teacher of

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a whole nation,' as B.C. Pal said.

"We of the generation that grew up under his piercing eyes, caught fire from his flaming words.... He showed us the way out of bewilderment; we learnt to understand what Indian Nationalism stood for and the ideal of the 'Karma-Yogin.'" That was from Suresh Chandra Deb, who was one of the volunteers accompanying Bepin Pal, Subodh Mullick and Sri Aurobindo when they toured East Bengal for forty-five days after the Barisal Conference in April 1906.

"Sri Aurobindo stood out and drew the admiration of the young," wrote Jawaharlal Nehru, bringing to mind his boyhood days. "... The brilliant champion of Indian nationalism ... he shone like a brilliant meteor and created a powerful impression on the youth of India."

Nehru's political rival Subhash Chandra Bose said much the same thing with more fervour.¹ "In my undergraduate days Arabindo Ghosh was easily the most popular leader in Bengal, despite his voluntary exile and absence from 1909. His was a name to conjure with.... On the Congress platform he had stood up as ... a fearless advocate of independence at a time when most of the leaders, with their tongues in their cheeks, would talk only of colonial self-government. A mixture of spirituality and politics had given him a halo of mysticism.... When I came to Calcutta, Arabindo was already a legendary figure. Rarely have I seen people speak of a leader with such rapturous enthusiasm...." All the three young men expressed

1. An Indian Pilgrim.

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regret and puzzlement at Sri Aurobindo's withdrawal from political life.

"Aurobindo shone for years as the brightest star on the Indian firmament. His association with the National Education movement at its inception lent dignity and charm to the cause.... He flooded the land from Cape to Mount with the effulgence of his light." That is Pattabhi Sitaramayya writing in the History of the Congress.

"The youngest in age among those who stand in the forefront of the Nationalist propaganda in India but in endowment, education, and character, perhaps, superior to them all — Aravinda seems distinctly marked out by Providence to play in the future of this movement a part not given to any of his colleagues and contemporaries.... His only care is for his country —the Mother, as he always calls her.... By the general verdict of his countrymen Aravinda stands today among these favoured sons of God...." Thus wrote Bepin Chandra Pal, in his Character Sketches.

"Aravinda's contribution to Indian politics is beyond measure," wrote R. C. Majumdar in the History of Freedom Movement. "Above all, the Extremist Party had an accession of immense strength when it was joined by Aravinda Ghose, who proved to be a host in himself. Indeed, the entry of this new personality in the Congress arena may be regarded as a major event in Indian politics. Aravinda's articles in the Bande Mataram put the Extremist Party on a high pedestal all over India. He expounded the high philosophy and national spirit which animated the Party, and also laid down its programme of

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action. But far more valuable to the Extremist Party than even his discourses, was his striking personality. Fired with religious fervour he preached nationalism as a religion, and he, the prophet of this new religion, infused by his precept and example, courage and strength into everyone that came in touch with him. His emergence in Indian politics was as sudden as it was unexpected He rose like a meteor and vanished like it—from the

political atmosphere. But unlike the meteor the dazzling light he shed on Indian politics did not vanish with him."

Commenting on the 'sudden emergence' of Sri Aurobindo in the political arena, Girija Shankar Roy Choudhuri exclaimed, "His first advent is not lit up by the rays of the morning sun; rather he enters with hidden steps by a terrible path concealed in darkness. This advent is novel, awe-inspiring, yet extraordinary."¹

Lala Lajpat Rai said of Sri Aurobindo: "... A quiet, unostentatious young Hindu, who was till then obscure, holding his soul in patience and waiting for oportunities to send currents of the greatest strength into the nation's system." In his Presidential address at the 1920 special Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress, he added: "It was at Calcutta that the ideas of new Nationalism that have since then grown into a mighty tree, were first expounded and explained by one of the purest minded and the most intellectual of Bengal's gifted sons, I mean Sri Arabindo Ghosh."

Professor of Philosophy, M. A. Buch's assessment is interesting. "The most typical representative of Bengal Nationalism,

1. Translated from the Bengali.

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in its most intense metaphysical and religious form, was Aravinda Ghosh. Nationalism with him is not a political or economic cry; it is the innermost hunger of his whole soul for the rebirth in him and through men like him, in the whole of India, of the ancient culture of Hindustan in its pristine purity and nobility.... The nationalism of Aravinda Ghosh was a burning religious emotion, the voice of God in man, the invincible demand on the part of the great Indian spiritual culture for expression through the reawakened soul to the world.... The supreme regeneration which India demands can only come from this supreme call of the Motherland—so deep, so religious, so passionate that it carries all before it....'

Those who had seen Sri Aurobindo from afar were struck by his earnestness and dignified appearance. Those who came in close contact with him were moved to the core.

"So pure and complete a man," described B. B. Upadhyaya with moist eyes, "a fire-charged thunder yet tender and delicate as the lotus petal."

Writing an editorial in his paper Kesari, B. G. Tilak said, "If one sees him, one won't think it was Aravinda ... so weak of body and so simple in dress and bearing.... He writes from divine inspiration, sattwic intelligence, and unshakable determination.... None equal to Aravinda in self-sacrifice, knowledge and sincerity."

H. W. Nevinson (as quoted in the Indian Patriot) on Sri Aurobindo : "A man of very fine culture, his is a lovable nature,

1. Rise and Growth of Indian Militant Nationalism.

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merry sparkling with wit and humour, ready in refined repartee. He is one of those men, to be in whose company is a joy; and behind whose exterior, is a steadily glowing fire of unseen devotion to a cause."

Professors Haridas and Uma Mukherjee are a pair of historians who have done much scrupulous research on the movement of 1905-10, and have written several books on Sri Aurobindo's political life. "At first he stayed behind the scenes. Then when appeared [on the stage] he at once demanded swaraj. No middle path, no compromise — full independence." It was a revolution. They call Sri Aurobindo "a hero of that revolution." They assert: "Sri Aurobindo was, in the strictest sense of the term, a true prophet, path-finder and pioneer of India's Freedom Movement. Of all the statesmen modern India has produced, he had the clearest vision of Indian Swaraj in its fullness as well as of the practical means to attain it by strenuous and sustained struggle."

In other words, perseverence. "In the Yoga as in life," to quote Sri Aurobindo, "it is the man who persists unwearied to the last in the face of every defeat and disillusionment and of all-confronting, hostile and contradicting events and powers who conquers in the end and finds his faith justified because to the soul and Shakti in man nothing is impossible."

Each commented on some aspect or the other of the diamond-faceted personality of Sri Aurobindo, but it was left to the Poet Tagore to have the widest and deepest insight into the Man of the Moment.

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"O Friend, O my country's friend, you are the voice incarnate of India's soul!...

Unobstacled, you are awake for the fullness of perfection

God's greatest gift, our birthright,

You have asked for the country

In flaming words of noble truth, in boundless faith.

Has God today heard your prayer ?

Is that why His victory-trumpet sounds blast on blast ?

Has He put in your right hand, with austere love,

The dreadful lamp of sorrow,

Whose light pierces the country's gloom, like the

Northern star ?...

The fiery messenger

Who has come on Earth with the lamp of God ...

O Poet, the Muse of India,

Fixing her eyes upon your face, has struck vast chords ...

Today I hear the ocean's roar mingled with the raging

storm;

In a blind impetuosity the fierce dance of the fountain

breaking its rocky cage."¹

1. Instead of taking the official English translation of Salutation, I have taken a few verses to try to convey in simpler language a little of its original feeling.

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