Mother's Chronicles - Book Six

5

The Uttara Yogi

What Moni and Bejoy must have enjoyed the most were the seances or sessions of 'automatic writings.' They could be exhilarating.

Yes, for some years at Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo continued the practice of automatic writing until he found out fully what was behind it.

For the first three months, it seems, the seances were regularly held. Apart from Moni and Bejoy, both Bharati and Srinivasachari were regulars too. Well, they were witness to the writing of Yogic Sadhan in that way. Every day one chapter was written, notes Purani. The book with its nine chapters was finished quickly. From whom did Sri Aurobindo 'receive' it? "When I was writing it," Sri Aurobindo once said, "every time at-the beginning and at the end the image of Rammohan Roy came before me." A detail from Purani: "On the last day a figure that looked like Rammohan Roy seemed to be disappearing in the subtle by the side of the corner of the ceiling. It was inferred that Rammohan Roy had dictated these chapters." Confirmed several times by Sri Aurobindo. "As for Yogic Sadhan it was not I exactly who wrote it ... " Again, "The Yogic Sadhan is

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not Sri Aurobindo's own writing, but was published with a note by him, that is all ..."

Once more he wrote saying, "But Yogic Sadhan is not my composition, nor its contents the essence of my Yoga, whatever the publishers may persist in saying in their lying blurb, in spite of protests." Honest to the least detail of life, Sri Aurobindo finally withdrew the book from circulation, sometime late 1934. He had taken care not to put his own name as the book's author, but used Uttara Yogi as the author's name. Uttara Yogi means the Yogi from the North. And thereby hangs a tale .

Once upon a time, in the nineteenth century, in Tiruchirapalli district of South India, there was a family with large land holdings, in other words, a zamindar family. They lived in Kodiyalam (or Kodailam or Kodairam as variously spelt by different authors). It was a prosperous village. As was customary in those days, the zamindar had a family preceptor. The preceptor was born to Sri Rangachariar and Janaki Ammal in the hamlet Sam-bodai in Vedaranyam section of Tanjore District in September 1829. Quite young he began a nomadic life. Soon, however, he settled down in Nagai village to do his sadhana. That is how he came to be known as Nagai Swami. He did not practise rites or rituals but repeated continuously a japa evolved by him and which comprised elements from the Gayatri mantra woven into the Ashtakshara mantra (or Om Namo Narayanaya) . This is what he taught his followers who did not tarry to cluster around him. Thus Nagai Swami's disciples came to be known as Nagai Japatas.

When Nagai Swami was ready to enter into samadhi (around 1880, we understand), he called his disciples and declared that

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in future they would follow a great Guru from the North. "The Yogi from the North (Uttara Yogi) was my own name," wrote Sri Aurobindo, "given to me because of a prediction made long ago by a famous Tamil Yogi, that thirty years later (agreeing with the time of my arrival) a Yogi from the North would come as a fugitive to the South and practise there an integral Yoga (Poorna Yoga), and this would be one sign of the approaching liberty of India. He gave three utterances as the mark by which this Yogi could be recognised and all these were found in the letters to my wife." The 'three utterances' were the 'three mad nesses' of which Sri Aurobindo had written to Mrinalini Devi in 1905, on 30 August.

The new zamindar of Kodiyalam was but a babe of two or three when Nagai Swami attained samadhi. But he was brought up in that lore. Nor did he forget to pass on the Guru's prediction to his children. He had nine. Two of his sons were K. V. Rangaswami Iyengar and K. V. Srinivasa Iyengar (K for Kodiyalam and V for Vasudeva, their father). Several months after Sri Aurobindo came to Pondicherry, when very few people knew—or were supposed to know—of his presence there, a person in the know blurted out the secret to K. V. Rangaswami. Immediately K. V. R. sent a friend, V. Ramaswamy to find out the truth or otherwise of this piece of news. With the help of Bharati and Srinivasachari, V. Ramaswa my was able to pay his respects to Sri Aurobindo.

The good news confirmed, K. V. R. hurried to Pondicherry and had a meeting with Sri Aurobindo. His hope became a certainty. Yes, here indeed was the Uttara Yogi of whom the family Guru had spoken. Narrating the episode to his disciples,

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Sri Aurobindo added, "A Zamindar disciple of the Yogi found me out and bore the cost of the book Yogic Sadhan. "The book, according to Amrita, was printed at Srirangam Vani Vilas Press in 1911. Reprinted several times over the years its last edition came out in 1933. K. Y. R. not only bore the cost of the printing of Yogic Sadhan, but also promised financial help to his newfound guru. The belief was that their own guru had taken a new birth in Sri Aurobindo. He kept his promise. He sent money whenever he could. He had to be so very careful not to let anybody know about his help to a revolutionary. And what a revolutionary! The 'most dangerous man' according to the British government. If K. Y. R. was caught proffering his assistance to such a revolutionary it would spell danger for him. He was a big landholder, was K. Y. R. ; and as an elected member of British State council he represented the landlords in the Legislative Assembly of Delhi during the imperial rule. His meetings with Sri Aurobindo were kept a dead secret, he met him but two more times. KY. Rangaswami Iyengar was a man with nationalist sympathies and was well acquainted with Tilak, Khaparde, Lala Lajpat Rai, and others.

A word here on V. Ramaswamy may not be without interest. In a letter of 1934 (24 October), in which Sri Aurobindo dwelt on the subject of inner vision, and the faculty of seeing unknown people, he said that "not only Yogins have it, but the ordinary clairvoyants, crystal-gazers, etc." Mother, whose inner faculties were highly developed, had 'prevision,' 'telepathic vision,' and numerous other kinds as well. "The Mother is always seeing people whom she does not know; some afterwards come here or their photographs come here." Sri Aurobindo

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then spoke of his own experiences. "I myself have these visions, only I don't usually try to remember or verify them. But there were two curious instances which were among the first of this kind and which therefore I remember. Once I was trying to see a recently elected deputy here and saw someone quite different from him, someone who afterwards came here as Governor. I ought never to have met him in the ordinary course, but a curious mistake happened and as a result I went and saw him in his bureau and at once recognised him."

He then described his second vision. "The other was a certain V. Ramaswamy whom I had to meet, but I saw him not as he was when he actually came, but as he became after a year's residence in my house. He became the very image of the vision, a face close-cropped, rough, rude, energetic, the very opposite of the smooth-faced Vaishnav who came. So that was the vision of a man I had never seen but as he was to be in future —a prophetic vision."

V. Ramaswamy Iyengar came to live with Sri Aurobindo sometime in 1911, and left by the middle of 1913. He became a writer of repute in Tamil literary world as an author of short stories. He is the Va. Ra. of Tamil literature. It was with the help of K. V. R. that he had been able to go through his college studies. In 1910 he had gone to Calcutta. He even

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tried to meet Sri Aurobindo at K.K. Mitra's house at College Square, but without success.

This is how Va. Ra. describes his first meeting with Sri Aurobindo in the room on the top floor of Shankar Chetty's house. "That day was ever memorable to me." wrote Va. Ra. in December 1950. "It was a sumptuous treat to me to see Aurobindo and Bharati talk. The conversation was a sort of variety entertainment. Only the level was very high, both of them being, in the cricket language, 'all-rounders.' "

Va. Ra. also says that Sri Aurobindo was informed every now and then about the activities of the Nationalist movement "from all over India, especially from Bengal and the Punjab." All present would hear the stories. "No oath of secrecy was administered to us and this is a very remarkable trait in Aurobindo's character. He trusted our honour and sense of patriotism, not to divulge such things even to our nearest and dearest."

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