Mother's Chronicles - Book Four

31

The Return

In one of his letters Sri Aurobindo wrote to his wife: "At fourteen the seed sprouted and at eighteen it established itself firmly." Commenting on it, many years later, Sri Aurobindo said, "At eighteen, I think we started in London the secret Lotus and Dagger Society. ... It lasted only for a day."

Correcting a wrong piece of information given by a biographer, Sri Aurobindo developed the point. "The Indian students in London did once meet to form a secret society called romantically the 'Lotus and Dagger'," wrote Sri Aurobindo, "in which each member vowed to work for the liberation of India generally and to take some special work in furtherance of that end. Aurobindo did not form the society, but he became a member along with his brothers. But the society was still-born. This happened immediately before the return to India and when he had finally left Cambridge. Indian politics at that time was timid and moderate and this was the first attempt of the kind by Indian students in England." Sri Aurobindo was to change that 'timid and moderate' approach in Indian politics. He had sharpened his pen to such a cutting edge that soon it

Page 231

would start smiting the Moderates and the foreign masters with 'an edge surpassing swords'!

Sri Aurobindo's first turn towards spiritual seeking came in England in the last year of his stay there. The Bible was the only scripture with which he had been acquainted in his childhood. The narrowness and intolerance of Christianity repelled him considerably. "After a short period of complete atheism, he accepted the Agnostic attitude. In his studies for the I.C.S., however, he came across a brief and very scanty and bare statement of the 'six philosophies' of India and he was especially struck by the concept of the Atman in the Adwaita. It was borne in upon his mind that here might be a true clue to the reality behind life and the world." This referred to Max Müller's Sacred books of the East series. "At London," said Sri Aurobindo, "when I was reading Max Müller's translations of Vedanta I came upon the idea of Atman, the Self, and thought that this was the true thing to be realized in life. How do you explain this? You can't say it was the atmosphere of the place. It was in the blood or perhaps carried over from a past life." Otherwise, Sri Aurobindo made no study of Indian Philosophy. In fact, there was no positive religious or spiritual element in the education he received in England. "The only personal contact with Christianity (that of Nonconformist England) was of a nature to repel rather than attract. The education received was mainly classical and had a purely intellectual and aesthetic influence; it did not stimulate any interest in spiritual life. My attention was not drawn to the spirituality of Europe of the Middle Ages; my knowledge of it was of a general character

Page 232

and I never underwent its influence." Sri Aurobindo "never once" attended the weekly meetings of the Fabian Society. Nor was he ever a Freemason. "My eldest brother was; from him I gathered that it was nothing. But Freemasonry had something when it was started."

It is strange that as soon as he reached India, a deliberate will for renationalization came "by natural attraction to Indian culture and ways of life and a temperamental feeling and preference for all that was Indian," as Sri Aurobindo put it. Incidentally, he who was left indifferent by European philosophy, was profoundly stirred by the Indian. "The first Indian writings that took hold of me were the Upanishads and these raised in me strong enthusiasm . . ." And he repeated, "I remember when I first read the 'Om Shanti Shanti' of the Upanishads it had a powerful effect on me."

Sri Aurobindo was not one to take his attraction or feelings upon trust. He would always test them to find out if they had any foundation upon truth. For he was that rarity who could winnow out junk from the good stuff.

He had grown up among the "hard-headed, Pharisaic, shop-keeping Anglo-Saxon . . . His institutions," of which Sri Aurobindo had a first-hand experience, "are without warmth, sympathy, human feeling, rigid and accurate like his machinery, meant for immediate and practical gains." About the Western civilization itself he said that it had 'lowered' the moral tone of humanity. But his completely European education had fitted him admirably for his future tasks.

*

* *

Page 233

The year 1892, like its predecessors, had gone with its burden of 'trifles light as air.' Singing its swan song it had disappeared for ever, giving place to the smiling new child: 1893. The youth was soon to pick up its drum of victory and the call of Mother India was to be echoed and re-echoed as it went forth. For this was the year when Swami Vivekananda went to America to take part in the Parliament of Religions at Chicago, in September, and Sri Aurobindo returned home in February. "The one to illuminate the West with the light of the East. The other to liberate the Mother and through her liberate the world," observed S. K. Mitra. Then in November 1893 came to India Annie Besant (1847-1933), who was to spearhead the country's Home Rule movement. A landmark year for India.

A view of the Thames, London, late last century

Page 234

Sri Aurobindo was in the mailboat Carthage when she set sail for India on 12 January, Vivekananda's thirtieth birth anniversary.

He had driven from 6 Burlington Road, where he had taken lodgings after leaving Cambridge in October 1892, to the docks of Thames where his ship was anchored. The Carthage left the London's Royal Albert docks around 9 A.M. On her deck stood A. A. Ghose. After she reached the open sea, he gazed at the receding English coast. It was to be his last look at the country where he had passed his childhood and adolescence. He had been taken there when he was but a child of seven, and now he was returning to his own motherland, a young man of twenty. But he had not spread his roots in England. His being was like the sacred tree of the Upanishads: roots in heaven, branches spread downward.

No, there was "no such regret in leaving England, no attachment to the past or misgivings for the future. Few friendships were made in England and none very intimate .... There was an attachment to English and European thought and literature, but not to England as a country." Ara had no ties there and did not make England his adopted country, as his poet-brother Mano did for a time. "If there was attachment to a European land as a second country, it was intellectually and emotionally to one not seen or lived in in this life, not England but France."

France. Mirra was growing up there. She was almost fifteen now.

Here is the itinerary of Carthage:

Page 235

London, 12 January 1893, 8:50 A.M.

Gibraltar, 17 January

Malta, 20 January

Brindisi, 22 January

Port Said, 26 January

Suez, 27 January

Aden,1 February

Bombay,6 February 1893, 10:55 A.M.

*

* *

After fourteen years Sri Aurobindo set foot again on Indian soil. The darkness which had enveloped him in Darjeel-ing and was always hanging on to him all along his stay in England "left me only when I was coming back to India."

A curious thing happened as soon as Ara landed at Bombay. He began to get the experience of' the Self. "A vast calm descended upon him at the moment when he stepped first on Indian soil after his long absence, in fact with his first step on the Apollo Bunder in Bombay (this calm surrounded him and remained for long months afterwards)."

Sri Aurobindo explained, "I did not know, of course, that it was an experience. It was a sense of calm and vastness pervading everywhere, and I had not got it in the steamer."

That was how India welcomed her returning son Ara.

6 February 1893 is a date to remember.

Page 236