Mother's Chronicles - Book Six

49

Never a Dull Moment

To be with Sri Aurobindo you have to have a feel for adventure.

Adventure? what kind? Well, that depends.

It could be an adventure of consciousness, where you explore inner worlds. Or ...

Now one day before Amrita became familiar with Sri Aurobindo's house at rue Francois Martin, before Mother's arrival at the end of March, before Moni, Nolini, Saurin went away to Bengal in February 1914, something strange happened in that house.

You may recall that in July 1913 Nagen Nag, a relative of Bejoy's, had come to stay with Sri Aurobindo to get cured of his illness. He had brought along with him an attendant, Birendra Nath Roy. Biren was an acquaintance of Nagen's, maybe a friend, since both hailed from Khulna. He did look well after Nagen, cooked his meals, and while he was at it he did a lot of work for others also. He ended up becoming the general manager, cook, lending a hand wherever and whenever needed, a jack-of-all-trade. Being a Bengali he soon became a regular member

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of Sri Aurobindo's household. But not before Motilal Roy was consulted. "There were some legitimate doubts in some quarters owing to his unsteady nature and other defects of character, therefore I wrote to you."

It was sometime in December that suddenly one day Biren was seen with his head completely shaved. That took Moni's fancy. Although he liked being well turned out and present a smart appearance, he now was adamant on a clean-shaven head! Biren tried his utmost to dissuade him, but to no avail. After this Biren seemed rather depressed, as though an anxiety hung like a dark cloud at the back of his mind. When they strolled on the pier, he often asked Moni what he should do. He had passed about six months in Pondichery, and now Bengal was pulling him strongly. But Moni had been away for more than three years! So he told Biren dryly to decide for himself, and not to worry about Nagen.

"In those early years," records Purani, "there used to be wine sittings, when some friend was generous or when finances permitted." Biren was always one of the party.

Not much after the head shaving incidents there was a 'wine sitting' one night. Everybody was drinking and everybody was talking, laughing and joking, mellowed by their drink. The witching hour of the night was almost upon them, it was past eleven. All of a sudden Biren declared that he was going to say something startling to them. Everyone was rather light-headed, and certainly light-hearted. They thought Biren too would recount a funny story or a joke. "Out with it, out with it," they encouraged him.

"I am a C.I.D. man," he said. "I am a spy."

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No one believed him. How could he be a spy? Did he not come from Khulna? Was he not caring tirelessly for a sick man who was, moreover, Bejoy's cousin? Everyone burst out laughing. But Biren persisted in his story. He told them that he had shaved his head so that a new man who was to replace him and was to meet him at Margie's Hotel could identify him. The police had arranged for this substitute. But how was he to identify Biren from among the four or five other Bengalis living with Sri Aurobindo? Biren in his letter to the police had said to look for the man with a shaven head! Moni spoiled Biren's sport by shaving his own head!

"You don't seem to believe me," said a downcast Biren, "but I'll show you the money I got from the Department." He went to his room, opened his trunk, pulled out a note, brought it and showed it. "See, here is the proof. Where could I have got all this money? This is the reward of my evil deed."

He pressed his head on Sri Aurobindo's feet and said he had never reported anything against him or anyone else. His heart almost full to bursting, his tears streaming down his cheeks, he said, "Never, I shall never do this work again. I give my word to you. I ask your forgiveness____"

The others were dumbstruck. They kept silent and still. But Bejoy was furious. It was quite a job for others to keep him from doing something drastic. Biren, however, got frightened. When he slept he kept his room locked. After a few weeks he went away of his own accord. The others heaved a sigh of relief.

Never a dull moment with Sri Aurobindo!

When the war broke out, Biren joined the Indian army and with it was sent to Mesopotamia. When Moni went to

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Khulna in 1922, he met Biren who had a tea shop there. He received Moni very cordially and gave him a feast. He also assured him that he had given up 'Government service.'

The episode was recorded by Purani, and narrated by Va. Ra., by Nolini, by Moni. Details varied in these eyewitness versions as it always happens. But on one point there was unanimity: Sri Aurobindo did not utter a single word during the whole drama.

After returning to Bengal in February 1914, Saurin met Motilal and narrated the incident to him. Full of anxiety Motilal wrote to Sri Aurobindo. It seems that in the meantime Biren had gone back to Sri Aurobindo. A torrent of words poured out from his pen.

'You write about Biren being here, I do not hold the same opinion about Biren, as Saurin etc. do, who are inclined towards a very black interpretation of his character and actions. It seems to me," wrote Aurobindo on 5^th May 1914, "that events have corroborated all he said about his relations with certain undesirable persons. Moreover I see that he has taken Yoga earnestly and has made for him a rapid progress. I am also unaware of anything he has said to others which would help any evil-minded person in establishing a wrong interpretation of your philosophic and social activities. I fail to find in him, looking at him spiritually, those ineffable black nesses which were supposed to dwell in him, only flightiness, weakness, indiscretion, childish and erratic impulsiveness and self-will and certain undesirable possibilities present in many young Bengalis, in a certain type indeed, which has done much harm in the past. All these have recently much diminished and I hope even to eradicate them

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by the Yoga. In fact," Sri Aurobindo made a point, "the view of his presence here forced on me by that which guides us, is that he was sent here as the representative of this type and that I have to change and purify it. If I can do this in the representative, it is possible in the future to do it in the class, and unless I can do it, the task I have set for myself for India will remain almost too difficult for solution. For as long as that element remains strong, Bengal can never become what it is intended to be."

After presenting several other possibilities to Motilal, Sri Aurobindo went on. 'You must realise that my work is a very vast one and that I must in doing it, come in close contact with all sorts of people including Europeans, perhaps even officials, perhaps even spies and officials. For instance, there is Biren. There is a French man, named Shair Siddhar now in Chandernagore, who came to me and whom I had to see and sound. He is a queer sort of fool with something of the knave, but he had possibilities which I had to sound. There is Richard who is to know nothing about Tantricism. There are a host of possible young men whom I must meet and handle, but who may not turn out well. It is obviously impossible for me to do this work, if the close connection with Tantrics remains and everyone whom I meet and receive is supposed by people there to be a mighty and venerable person who is to be taken at once into perfect confidence by reason of having been for a time in my august shadow. It won't do at all. The whole thing must be rearranged on a reasonable basis." Tantrics and Tantricism were code words used by them and referred to revolutionaries and revolution.

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He also indicated that for resolving some problems he was in a difficulty—"I get no light on the question from above"— what was demanded was "for the present a spotless peace and irreproachable reputation" for the establishment of a "centre of yogic activity here."

Sri Aurobindo told Motilal plainly, "The new Yoga cannot be used as a sort of sauce for old dishes,—it must occupy the whole place, on peril of serious difficulties in the Siddhi and even disasters."

He ended his letter of 5 May 1914 with a news. "At present we have only started a new society here called L'Inde Nouvelle (the New Idea) and are trying to get an authorisation."

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