Search e-Library

Lele : (1) Vishnu Bhāskara Lele (1876-1938) a Mahārāshtrian yogi under whose guidance Sri Aurobindo achieved complete silence of the mind & immobility of the whole consciousness in three days’ time, probably during the first week of January 1908. Barindra Kumar, Sri Aurobindo’s younger brother, called Lele to Baroda for this purpose. Lele was by profession a clerk. He had practised a certain form of Bhakti-yoga, & had achieved some realisation. [See SABCL 24: 1258; 26:83-84] In February 1908 Lele came to Calcutta, where he again met Sri Aurobindo. Abinash Bhattacharya: “Vishnu Bhāskara Lele came to our house with one of his disciples. The practice of yoga increased noticeably after his coming. Aurobindo-babu normally ate rice & dal with us, but after Lele’s arrival he just took a boiled potato or a boiled plantain with a small portion of rice. I conferred with Baudi (Mrinālini Devi) & arranged to have some ghee put in his rice.” [“Sri Aurobindo” in Mother India, July 2012, pp.528-39] At this time the guru-disciple relationship – if it may be so called – between Sri Aurobindo & Lele came to an end. Afterwards Lele went to Deoghar to give initiation & yogic training to Barin’s associates in revolutionary work. When he came to know that they had accepted the cult of the bomb, he declined to initiate them saying that yoga & terrorism could not go together. He warned them of the dangers of the method, & foretold that India would attain freedom without bloodshed. (2) A Mahārāshtrian who translated Mahābhārata or part of it. (3) Balkrishna Lele invented by Madras Times in an issue of 1911 as agent of Mr Tilak sent to Pondicherry to spread anarchy. The Hindu published Sri Aurobindo’s refutation of this fabrication.