Bhawani Mandir : a brochure written by Sri Aurobindo around 1902-05) for his brother Barindra to circulate among patriotic Indians willing to dedicate their lives & works to Bhawani – Mother of the Universe, Infinite Energy, Shakti, who is divine Knowledge & Love, Durga & Kali & Radha & Lakshmi. During his stay in Baroda in Sri Aurobindo’s house Barindra began experimenting with occultist practices like planchette & table-tapping. At times, Sri Aurobindo also joined. Once Sri Ramakrishna was called; he kept silent for a long time, then, while going he said, Mondir Gḥodo, Mondir Gḥodo – Make a temple, make a temple. Barindra took this mean that Sri Ramakrishna had advised them to build a temple to Bhawani Bhārati. At that time the idea of independence was dominant & it is possible that, influenced by Bankim Chandra’s inspiring historical fiction Ananda Math, Barindra decided to search for a suitable place in a forest or a mountain-top. He set out to find such a site in the Vindhya Mountains where they could build a temple to Bhawani & beside that an ashrama where dedicated freedom-fighters could reside in a spirit of complete sanyāsa helped in their work by those who could not renounce everything but were committed to the freedom of the motherland. But he could not find a suitable site & returned to Baroda with a severe mountain fever. However, his scheme eventually took shape in a miniscule form for the core of his revolutionary group at Manicktolla in a plot of land owned by him & his brothers. According to Sri Aurobindo Sri Ramakrishna’s exhortation was: “Make in yourself a temple to the Divine Mother; effect such a transformation of yourself that you become a living temple to Her.” Inevitably British C.I.D. added the booklet in its Rowlett Committee Report of 1917. [A.B. Purani’s Life of Sri Aurobindo, 1978]
... Of the genesis of the pamphlet, Sri Aurobindo wrote: " Bhawani Mandir was written by Sri Aurobindo but it was more Barin's idea than his." Barindra Kumar Ghose, Sri Aurobindo's younger brother, actually went to central India to choose a site for the Temple to the Mother (Bhawani Mandir). Sri Aurobindo continued, "The idea of Bhawani Mandir simply lapsed of itself. Sri Aurobindo thought no more about... against the partition of Bengal began to pick up steam, he again saw an opening for serious political journalism. Around this time he wrote and had printed two or three pamphlets, one of which, Bhawani Mandir , survives. All available political writings from the pre-1906 period are published in Part One of these volumes. In February 1906, Sri Aurobindo left his job in Baroda and settled in... Trial and subsequently reproduced in a government file containing transcripts of documentary evidence. 13 Published here for the first time in a book of Sri Aurobindo's writings. Bhawani Mandir . 1905. This famous pamphlet was written by Sri Aurobindo not long before August 1905, when a copy was received by a British official in Broach (a town not far from Baroda) and reported to the ...
... series of works for the use of students of Bhawani Mandir, a "temple to the goddess Bhawani" where young men would be trained to do selfless work for Mother India. The idea of Bhawani Mandir was primarily that of Barindra Kumar Ghose, Sri Aurobindo's younger brother, though Sri Aurobindo did write a manifesto setting forth its ideals around 1905 (see Bhawani Mandir in Bande Mataram: Political Writings ...
... pamphlet Bhawani Mandir. (‘Mandir’ means temple, and Bhawani, like Kali and Durga, is a warlike, terrible aspect of the Universal Mother.) Part of the inspiration behind this pamphlet was Bankim Chatterjee’s Anandamath (Monastery of Joy), a famous novel about an order of monks who were to undertake military operations and sacrifice their lives for the freedom of their country. Bhawani Mandir , with... Aurobindo went on a visit to Bengal, ‘he found the once apathetic province in the grip of an unprecedented enthusiasm’ for the national cause. He at once saw that this was ‘a golden opportunity.’ Bhawani Mandir had already been printed in Baroda and was now printed and distributed in Calcutta. And when someone made the money available for the establishment of a Bengal National College, Aurobindo at last ...
... With a lion's roar filling the universe awoke the Mother To awaken the world." Barin, in a statement on 12 June 1943, recalled how Bhawani Mandir was printed. "I came to Calcutta from Baroda, with the ms. of Bhawani Mandir, written by Sri Aurobindo in English. It was printed secretly at night in D. Gupta's Press at Kalitola under the supervision of Sudhir Sarkar of Khulna,... wide Narmada rift which starts at Amarkantak and its entire length of 1,312 kilometres to be a highly earthquake-prone zone, which one day may split India into two. The basic idea of the Bhawani Mandir was in all likelihood derived from Bankim Chandra Chatterji's revolutionary novel, Anandamath. 1 Its central theme was actually based on a revolt of North Indian Sannyasins against the British ...
... - Book Five 28 Bhawani Mandir Needless to say that Bhawani Mandir was sure to be adjudged seditious matter by the British Government of India. The revolutionaries' chief means of propaganda was the publication of books and periodicals. The pamphlet Bhawani Mandir provided them with a golden opportunity. "The pamphlet opened with... religious ideas underlying the Bhawani Mandir pamphlet and developed the terroristic side with its necessary accompaniments of dacoity and murder." But, in spite of himself, Justice Rowlatt had to praise Bhawani Mandir: "It was remarkable in more ways than one." Page 265 Lord Ronaldsey in his book The Heart of Aryavarta, writes this about Bhawani Mandir. "Couched in sparkling English... with Mr. Justice Rowlatt as President. The Commitee submitted its report on 15 April 1918. Among the pile of materials it studied, three books in particular drew its attention. Bhawani Mandir was the first. "The Bhawani Mandir Page 264 (temple to Bhawani, one of the manifestations of Goddess Kali)" ran the Report, "exalt Bhawani as the manifestation of Sakti. Indians must acquire ...
... the Ruling Race. No mere analysis or comment, however, can really measure the impact of Bhawani Mandir on the generation that passed from adolescence to early manhood during 1905-6 and the years immediately following. Sri Aurobindo had succeeded in conveying much though saying little, he had made Bhawani Mandir both the Virgin and the Dynamo, both a Manifesto for Change and Transformation and an... there was some considerable stress on physical training as well - team games, drill, marching, attack-and-defence with bamboo sticks - supervised by a retired Havildar. On Sri Aurobindo's part, Bhawani Mandir was the result, a piece of writing done probably in 1905, and better described as a tiny packet of political and spiritual dynamite that was to cause endless nightmares to high British officials... How they early lost their balance, their sense of measure, their very common sense almost! Mr. Denham, the Superintendent of Police, Special Branch, Calcutta, thought it fit to observe: Bhawani Mandir was nothing but a gigantic scheme establishing a central religious Society, outwardly religious, but in spirit, energy and work political. From this centre, missionaries well-versed in reli ...
... to this time Sri Aurobindo had met Shri Charu Chandra Dutt, I. C .S., who was working at Thana. The Bhawani Mandir scheme was explained to Dutt and he joined the revolutionary party. In September 1904 Sri Aurobindo again passed through Thana, met Charu Chandra Dutt and discussed the Bhawani Mandir scheme with Haribhai Modak, editor of Rastramat , Kaka Saheb Patil, a pleader of Vasai, and one or... few thousand copies of the pamphlet printed and later distributed them freely.¹ It was around this same time that Sri Aurobindo wrote the famous revolutionary booklet Bhawani Mandir . We have already mentioned the Bhawani Mandir scheme. The idea for it was mostly Barin's. A temple of Mother India was to be built somewhere in the forest or on some mountain-top. Here workers, who would dedicate themselves... going he said, "Make a temple, make a temple ( Mandir karo )." At that time the idea of independence for India was dominant and so all believed that Ramakrishna had given his consent to the "Bhawani Mandir" scheme. But the true significance of Ramakrishna's statement was interpreted by Sri Aurobindo years later as a command to make in ourselves a temple to the Mother, to effect such a transformation ...
... period (1900-1903). Bhavānī Bhāratī . Sri Aurobindo wrote this Sanskrit poem sometime between 1904 and 1908, quite possibly around the time when he wrote in English the text of the pamphlet Bhawani Mandir , issued in 1905. He did not give the poem a title, nor did he get a chance to revise and polish it; the notebook in which it was written was confiscated by the Calcutta police in May 1908 and... references in the poem to Bhavānī (verses 22,70, 78, 84), Bhāratī (verse 73), Bhāratamātaram (verse 30) and MātāBhāratānām (verses 12, 33). Sri Aurobindo used the name “Bhawani Bharati” in Bhawani Mandir , where the following “message of the Mother” sums up the central idea developed in the Sanskrit poem: When, therefore, you ask who is Bhawani the mother, She herself answers you, “I am the ...
... Corrections of Statements Made in Biographies and Other Publications Autobiographical Notes Bhawani Mandir Bhawani Mandir was written by Sri Aurobindo but it was more Barin's idea than his. It was not meant to train people for assassination but for revolutionary preparation of the country. The idea was soon dropped as far as Sri Aurobindo was concerned... and it is to this evidently that Hemchandra refers. [An attempt was made to find a site where the Bhawani Mandir idea could be put into operation; later the plan was dropped.] Sri Aurobindo does not remember anything of this kind nor of any formal decision to abandon the Bhawani Mandir idea. This selection of a site and a head of the monastery must have been Page 74 simply an... mad dog which he had reduced to inactivity by a process of his Yogic will; but Sri Aurobindo would not have chosen him for any control of the political side of such an institution. The idea of Bhawani Mandir simply lapsed of itself. Sri Aurobindo thought no more about it, but Barin who clung to the idea tried to establish something like it on a small scale in the Maniktala Garden. ...
... 32. Girija says that a place on the Shone River was selected by Sri Aurobindo as a centre for the Bhawani Mandir scheme. The fact is, it was Barin who went to select the place and not Sri Aurobindo. Barin had also gone to the Vindhya mountains to select a centre for the Bhawani Mandir, but he returned to Baroda with hill-fever. It must be remembered that Sri Aurobindo gave Diksha for the... Banglay Biplava Pracheshta , and takes it for granted that Hem Chandra's versions, information, etc. are accurate. But they are not. One instance will suffice, – Hem actually believes that the Bhawani Mandir pamphlet was written by Devavrat! Everyone knows it was written by Sri Aurobindo. More staggering is the principle which Girija enunciates, "The account given by Hem being not contradicted... quarrel between Jatin Banerji and Barin is not borne out by facts. 35. Another instance of wrong inference based on false evidence is furnished by several people ascribing the authorship of the Bhawani Mandir scheme to different persons. Some have ascribed the authorship to Devavrata and some to Barin. If a wrong statement like this remains uncontradicted, is it to be accepted as true? If this ...
... readable form will be printed and published in the form of a book. The book was out in a few days under the title 'Bhawani Mandir,' or 'The Message of the Goddess.' It was for private circulation only." In a letter Sri Aurobindo clears up some points. Page 252 "Bhawani Mandir was written by Sri Aurobindo but it was more Barin's idea than his. It was not meant to train people for a... Sri Aurobindo went on, "a spirit purporting to be that of Ramakrishna came and simply said, 'Build a temple.' At that time we were planning to build a temple for political Sannyasis and call it Bhawani Mandir. We Page 251 thought he meant that, but later I understood it as 'Make a temple within.'" Bhawani is one of the names of the Supreme Mother. "This," revealed Sri Aurobindo... deep. The youth's pent-up love for a mother found a channel in his Motherland. He loved India deeply and passionately. It was that love that led Sri Aurobindo to Yoga. He wrote the pamphlet Bhawani Mandir, in 1905 I reckon. R. N. Patkar disclosed the following fact. "In the beginning of 1905 Sri Aurobindo, Deshpande and Jadhav were meeting in the evenings." We suppose it really was Khaserao, as ...
... the pamphlet, Bhawani Mandir, and this 'packet of political dynamite' circulated privately and rattled the bureaucracy. Recovered but recently, the 'scheme' is reproduced in full in A.B. Purani's Life of Sri Aurbindo, and reading it today we can see both why Sri Aurobindo could not but write that pamphlet and why the bureaucracy tried to suppress it. Bhawani Mandir is partly a diagnosis... "really contains the germs of the Hindu revolutionary movement in Bengal". Anyhow, soon after writing Bhawani Mandir, Sri Aurobindo was in the 'thick of the fight' and no wonder the bureaucracy interpreted the pamphlet in the worst possible light. There was much reading between the lines, and Bhawani Mandir was freely (though wrongly) thought to be an invitation to political extremism and even the cult ...
... Writings and a Resolution 1890-1906 Bande Mataram Bhawani Mandir: Appendix The work and rules of the new Order of Sannyasis will be somewhat as follows GENERAL RULES. 1) All who undertake the life of Brahmacharya for the Mother, will have to vow themselves to Her service for four years, after which they will be free to continue the work ...
... 241-242 awakening of, 21,22, 67(fn), 180 partition of, 17, 18, 54 (fn) Bengal National College, 27 Bhaga vat Gila, 46 , 48 ,52, 125-126, 170,171, 176, 183 ,201,206 Bharati. Subramania, 100(fn) Bhawani Mandir, 13 Bible, 68 , 170. 176, 190 birth control, 185-186 see also overpopulation Bolshevism, 151, 183 ,200,203 Bose , Sub has Chandra, 223 , 230, 231,237(fn) Brahrnanas, 95 , 105 brahrnateja ...
... Maharashtra and Bengal. 1901,April 30 - Sri Aurobindo marries Mrinalini Bose. 1902,July 4 -Swami Vivekananda passes away. 1905 -Sri Aurobindo writes Bhawani Mandir, a revolutionary pamphlet. - Partition of Bengal, beginning of the Swadeshi movement. 1906, June - Sri Aurobindo leaves Baroda for good. Page 256 ...
... edition the references to Sri Aurobindo's writings are from the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library: Volume 1 — Bande Mataram, EARLY POLITICAL WRITINGS — I (1893-1908): New Lamps for Old; Bhawani Mandir; The Doctrine of Passive Resistance; editorials and comments from the Bande Mataram; Speeches. Volume 2 — Karmayogin, EARLY POLITICAL WRITINGS —11(1909-1910): Uttarpara Speech; ...
... worldly prudence whisper too closely in thy ear; for it is the hour of the unexpected. 7 It is difficult to say when exactly this was written, but it certainly breathes the fierce spirit of Bhawani Mandir and is vibrant with the electric fervour and faith generated during 1905-6. The "partition" was truly "a moment in time and of time", yet a moment when (as T.S. Eliot might put it) "time was made ...
... of individual salvation and of national mukti. He invoked Shiva's tandav death-dance so that Sati might achieve resurrection. Was he not the author of that notorious political dynamite, Bhawani Mandir? Did he not cause the split at Surat? And Sri Aurobindo didn't even hesitate to preach insurrection. The language of warfare and revolution came as second nature to him. There was the stamp ...
... Writings and a Resolution 1890-1906 Bande Mataram Bhawani Mandir OM Namas Chandikayai. A temple is to be erected and consecrated to Bhawani, the mother, among the hills. To all the children of the mother, the call is sent forth to help in the sacred work. WHO IS BHAWANI? Who is Bhawani, the mother, and why should we erect a temple to ...
... by the spirit of Sita, Tara, Savitri and Mandodari, to India herself as woman, and the further linking of India as Mother with the Mother Goddess, was natural and inevitable. Sri Aurobindo's Bhawani Mandir is an articulation of this idea. As I pointed out earlier the Shakti cult in many parts of India provided the necessary spiritual foundations for this nationalist conception. And yet it is ...
... the training of revolutionary Sannyasins, to be situated in some remote spot away from the cities. (An outline of this institution, written by Sri Aurobindo, was published in a pamphlet entitled "Bhawani Mandir" early in 1905.) Barin searched in the Vindhya mountains for a suitable place tc set up an Ashram, but could not find one. The scheme eventually took shape in a modified form in the centre at Maniktola ...
... numerous towns and villages, where young men were given intellectual, moral and physical training, and were inspired to work for India's liberation. Around this time, Sri Aurobindo wrote Bhawani Mandir, a pamphlet "for, the revolutionary preparation of the country." Thousands of copies of it were distributed clandestinely. A few excerpts:) 1905 India, the ancient Mother, is ...
... On another occasion a spirit purporting to be that of Ramakrishna came and simply said, "Build a temple." At that time we were planning to build a temple for political Sannyasis and call it Bhawani Mandir. We thought he meant that, but later I understood it as "Make a temple within." This gave me the final push to Yoga. I thought: great men could not have been after a chimera, and if there was ...
... of the Narmada.' All this shows that the ordinary norms of age or indeed the usual consideration of everyday life can scarcely be applied to great yogis. Let me now tell you of the booklet Bhawani Mandir which Sri Aurobindo wrote at this time. It was Barin who conceived the idea that a temple consecrated to the Divine Mother, invoking Mother India as Bharat Shakti, Bhawani Bharati, would be ...
... ground reached. He spent many long years, even as Agastya had done, in this spade-work. For he was to erect a huge edifice, a Temple dedicated to God. He had once dreamed of a Temple for Bhawani, Bhawani Mandir, where he would install Mother India. Now too he desired the same thing, a Temple for Bhawani, a Temple-city in fact. That needed a solid, firm and immovable foundation. For this .he had to ...
... ground reached. He spent many long years, even as Agastya had done, in this spade-work. For he was to erect a huge edifice, a Temple dedicated to God. He had once dreamed of a Temple for Bhawani, Bhawani Mandir, where he would install Mother India. Now too he desired the same thing, a Temple for Bhawani, a Temple-city in fact. That needed a solid, firm and immovable foundation. For this he had to ...
... Page 493 Bharati, Subramania 376 Bhartrihari 45 Bhasa 48,376 Bhavabhuti 376 Bhave, Vinoba 25 Bhawani Mandir 27,28 Blake, William 310,311,333,424,462 Boehme.Jacob 20,333,361 Boodin, John Elof 435,439,448,457 Bowra,C.M.375,380,383 Bradley, A.C. 425 ...
... CONTENTS OF THE SRI AUROBINDO BIRTH CENTENARY LIBRARY Volume 1 Bande Mataram , EARLY POLITICAL WRITINGS — I (1893-1908): New Lamps for Old ; Bhawani Mandir; The Doctrine of Passive Resistance; editorials and comments from the Bande Mataram; Speeches. Volume 2 Karmayogin, EARLY POLITICAL WRITINGS — II ( ...
... March 3 Becomes acting Principal of the College. October 16 The Partition of Bengal becomes an "accomplished fact". Sri Aurobindo writes the pamphlets "No Compromise" and "Bhawani Mandir" during the agitation that precedes the Partition December At the Benares session of the Indian National Congress. 1906 February 19 Applies for privilege leave ...
... March 3 Becomes acting Principal of the College. October 16 The partition of Bengal becomes an "accomplished fact". Sri Aurobindo writes the pamphlets "No Compromise" and "Bhawani Mandir" during the agitation that precedes the Partition. December At the Benaras session of the Indian National Congress. 1906 — February 19 Takes privilege leave; goes to Bengal. ...
... dangerous trap - was suspected in the change itself. Chafing at the earlier defeat in their attempt to get Sri Aurobindo convicted and now fuming and fretting because the incendiary author of Bhawani Mandir was back among his young men and was doubtless engaged in some explosive new mischief, the bureaucracy wondered whether it would not be a good idea - since he couldn't be sent to the Andamans ...
... Aurobindo attends the Bombay session of the Con- gress. 1905 - Einstein sets forth the special theory of Relativity and postulates the existence of the photon. - Sri Aurobindo writes Bhawani Mandir. -Mother meets Max Theon. January — Sri Aurobindo becomes Vice-Principal of the Baroda College. January 22 -"Bloody Sunday" massacre in St. Petersburg: repression from the Czar ...
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