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Pondicherry : In the 9th century “Pallava kings extended their patronage to educational institutions at Kāṅchī & Bāhur. Bāhur had a College where provision was made for the study of the Vedas, Vedāṇgas, Mīmāṁsā, Nyāya, Purāṇas, & Dharmashāstras (9th century AD).” – Dr H.C. Raychaudhuri [Majumdar et al’s Advanced History, 1973-74, p.191] J-Dubreuil: “Each time Ananda Ranga Pillai spoke of the temple destroyed in 1748, which was located on the present site of the Catholic cathedral [on Mission Street], he called it ‘The Vedapuri Īshwaran Temple’…. Thus from time immemorial, the city of Pondicherry, inhabited by sages, has been dedicated to the Vedas, i.e., to ‘Knowledge’. – Today, now that we know that the cemetery of Pondicherry goes back to the prehistoric epoch, that the lingam was swayambhu & that the sage Agastya worshipped it, that the city…was consecrated to the Vedas, today we have absolute proof that a temple covered with inscriptions, & already old, existed in the 10th century…. At the Pondicherry Cathedral [in Mission Street] there are two stones that have written on them the name of god Agastishwara (Shiva adored by Agastya); so it is certain that these are parts of the ruins of the temple of Agastishwara that existed in the same place.” [Extracts from P. Heehs’ Archives & Research Journal, Vo.13, Dec.1989, pp.212-16] Purani: Bālai Devasharma has written: “After knowing that Sri Aurobindo had gone to Pondicherry, Mono Ranjan Guhāthākurtā & Shyam Sundar Chakravarty wrote a letter requesting him to guide them (& the party) in politics. The letter was answered: its purport was that Sri Krishna had taken the responsibility of freeing India; & so all of us must act from a firm status in yoga. This letter was read out at the house of Shyam Sundar Babu in Vidyāsāgara Street Calcutta.” [Purani, Life of Sri Aurobindo, 1978, 141-42] Sri Aurobindo: When I came to Pondicherry (4th April 1910), the Guru of the world who is within us then gave me the complete directions of my path – its full theory, the ten limbs of the body of this Yoga. These ten years He has been making me develop it in experience. But it is not yet finished. [CWSA 36:94; Letter to Barindra, Apr.1920, Champaklal’s Treasures, 2008: 170] ― I need some place of refuge in which I can complete my Yoga unassailed and build up other souls around me. It seems to me that Pondicherry is the place appointed by those who are Beyond…. – Pondicherry is my cave of tapasyā, not of the ascetic kind, but a brand of my own invention. [SABCL 26:423, 429-30] Nolini: …they said, “Sri Aurobindo has fixed a cemetery for his sādhanā.” [Inaccessible caves & deserted cemeteries are chosen by Shiva (q.v.) for his all-creating tapasyās; s/a “Epiphany”, SABCL 5:73]. CWSA editors: “The Record of Yoga is a diary of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga…. He kept it fairly regularly from 1912 to 1920, & also a few entries in 1909, 1911, & 1927…. [He] wrote the diary & related materials by hand… [in] a special terminology which included words from Sanskrit & other languages, as well as abbreviations, symbols & markings…. The special terminology is explained (

) in a separate glossary…. The text of the diary entries & related materials, transcribed & arranged by the editors, appears here for the first time (

)….” [Publisher’s Note, CWSA Vol. 10-11] Sri Aurobindo: [When he left Calcutta on 1st April 1910] Sri Aurobindo had already realised in full two of the four great realisations on which his Yoga & his spiritual philosophy are founded. The first he had gained while meditating…in January 1908; it was the realisation of the silent, spaceless & timeless Brahman gained after a complete & abiding stillness of the whole consciousness & attended at first by an overwhelming feeling & perception of the total unreality of the world, though this feeling disappeared after his second realisation which was that of the cosmic consciousness & of the Divine as all beings & all that is, which happened in the Alipore jail (2May1908-2May1909) & of which he has spoken in his speech at Uttarpāra (30May1909). To the other two realisations, that of the supreme Reality with the static & dynamic Brahman as its two aspects & that of the higher planes of consciousness leading to the Supermind he was already on his way in his meditations in the Alipore jail. [CWSA 36:94] Nolini: Like Agastya Sri Aurobindo journeyed south & set up a permanent seat here to emanate a new Light – he was even known in these parts as the Uttara Yogi. In his lines of work & sādhanā too we find a strange affinity with Agastya’s effort, at least in one respect…. The first few years were spent in establishing a seat…where he could work undisturbed. This point about selecting a ‘seat’ occurs in the story of all great spiritual aspirants & in all the disciplines. The Tantriks had need of their ‘seat of five skulls’…Ramakrishna had his pañchavaṭī, the grove of five bunyans. But why this insistence on five? Perhaps the number stood for the five main elements in man & the five worlds that constitute the universe, – what the Upanishads term body, life, mind, supermind & spirit. The Vedas too speak of pañcakṣiti, the five abodes, pañcakṣiti, the five fields of culture, pañcajana, the five births or worlds. Sri Krishna’s conch of pāñchajanya may well occur to mind…. The site once chosen & the seat established, he had now to prepare the ground. There were, as I have said, shifting sands all around, symbolising a changing world where all is in a state of flux. All that had to be cleared & firm 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…. That needed a solid, firm & immovable foundation. For this he had to dig into the farthest abyss, to fix, one might say, the ‘five supporting pillars’. All this he did single-handed during the first four years. Then the Mother came. And, although that was only for a short time, it was then that the plans were laid for the thing that was to be & the shape it was to take, – this new creation of theirs. The work of building the foundation took him till 1920. [Reminiscences, 2015, p.47, 53-55] The Seven Houses of Sri Aurobindo: (1) Calve Shankara Chettiar’s, Rue Calve Subraya Chettiar: Apr.–Oct.1910. (2) Sunder Chetty’s, Rue Suffren: Oct.1910–Apr.1911. (3) Rāghava Chetty’s, Rue St. Louis: Apr.1911–Apr.1913. (4) On Rue Mātakoil or Rue des Missions Etrangères: Apr.1913–Oct.1913. (5) No. 41, Rue Francois Martin: Oct.1913–Sept.-Oct.1922 – later called The Guest House; a relevant ‘jotting’ in CWSA’s ‘Record of Yoga’ dated 8 July 1914: “Krishnadarshana: Strong sukshma-physical perception at meals of the universal bhokta, Bala Krishna, behind all taking the bhoga of the ego for himself without the knowledge of the ego.” [Note: “perception at meals” refers to the four boys then living in Guest House, taking their bhoga (dinner) after returning from their game of football (see A&R: Apr1990:14)]. (6) No. 9, Rue de la Marine: Sept.-Oct.1922–February 1927 – later called The Library House. (7) No. 10, Rue Francois Martin: 8 Feb.1927 – later called The Meditation House. [Note: (a) The first entry in CWSA’s RoY is dated 17th June 1909 – Sri Aurobindo was in Alipore Jail from 2 May 1908 to 2 May 1909; (b) He first spoke of his Krishna Darshana (q.v.) there see his speech in 30 May 1909. The last entry of CWSA’s RoY dated 31 October 1927 – Sri Aurobindo & the Mother moved into the Meditation House in February 1927; (c) in the talk of 9th November 1926 in Purani’s Evening Talks… , Sri Aurobindo speaks of the descent of the Gods.] Significances of Numbers 1 to 7 given by the Mother: (1) The One; The Origin. (2) Decision for Creation; Appearance of the Creative Consciousness. (3) Sachchidananda; Beginning of Creation. (4) Manifestation. (5) Power. (6) Creation; New Creation. (7) Realisation. [CWM 15:39-40] Sri Aurobindo: 24th [November 1926] was the descent of Krishna into the physical. Krishna is not the supramental Light. The descent of Krishna would mean the descent of the Overmind Godhead preparing, though not itself actually bringing, the descent of the Supermind and Ananda. Krishna is the Anandamaya; he supports the evolution through the Overmind leading it towards the Ananda. 29 October 1935 ― If you reach Krishna you reach the Divine; if you can give yourself to him, you give yourself to me. Your inability to identify may be because you are laying too much stress on the physical aspects, consciously or unconsciously…. You can’t expect me to argue about my own spiritual greatness in comparison with Krishna’s…. And then what Krishna must I challenge, – the Krishna of the Gita who is the transcendent Godhead, Paramātma, Parabrahma, Purushottama, the cosmic Deity, Master of the universe, Vāsudeva who is all, the Immanent in the heart of all creatures, or the Godhead who was incarnate at Brindāvan & Dwārkā & Kurukshetra & who was the guide of my Yoga & with whom I realised identity? [SABCL 26:136; CWSA 35:431-32] Sri Aurobindo: …most people whose minds have been rationalised by a modern European education…seek the explanation for everything in their ignorant reason, their surface experience and in outside happenings. They do not see the hidden forces and inner causes which…find their point d’appui in the sadhak himself, in…the extreme sensitiveness of the lower vital ego and now also the physical consciousness with all its fixed or standing opinions, prejudices, prejudgments, habitual reactions, personal preferences, clinging to old ideas and associations, its obstinate doubts and its maintaining these things as a wall of obstruction and opposition to the larger light. This activity of the physical mind is what people call intellect and reason, although it is only the turning of a machine in a circle of mental habits and is very different from the true and free reason, the higher Buddhi, which is capable of enlightenment and still more from the higher spiritual light or that insight and tact of the psychic consciousness which sees at once what is true and right and distinguishes it from what is wrong and false. [CWSA 31:772-73; s/a As(h)ram]