43 Calling All Nationalists No, he did not return in the first days of the New Year as expected. After returning to Calcutta from Midnapore, and before leaving for Gujarat, Sri Aurobindo delivered speeches at College Square on 14 December and at Beadon Square on the 15th. At the latter the audience would not rest till it heard Aurobindo Babu. He gave in, saying "I have made it a rule not to speak in public and I have good reasons for it. I went to England when too young to learn my mother tongue and I can't speak it. And rather than address you, my countrymen, in a language which is not mine and which is not yours I kept 'self-silent'...." In both sp

34 The National College Sri Aurobindo had an abiding interest in education. He had himself passed through school and college in England. He was therefore amply qualified to evaluate the education as it was imparted in India. Its calculated poverty, its antinational character, its inculcation of loyalty to the British Government, proved that its aim was to churn out clerks and low-rung bureaucrats. Quite apparent to him were the disastrous effects of the system on body, mind and character of the Indians. These effects were apparent to others as well. To counter them Rabindranath Tagore established the Santiniketan School at Bolpur in 1901; B. B. Upadhyay was o

52 Jail Experiences Dilip Kumar Roy was an eternal sceptic. He had heard stories about levitation, and such other claims by sannyasis. He very much doubted the authenticity of such phenomena. But Sri Aurobindo told him not to dismiss these occurrences out of hand, nor term them as fraud, but to become competent to judge; for, said he, an ounce of experience is worth a ton of theory. That is why Sri Aurobindo could tell Dilip, "I take levitation as an acceptable idea, because I have had experience of the natural energies which, if developed, would bring it about and also physical experiences which would not have been possible if the principle of levitation were untr

6 Deoghar Although more than a year had passed since his return to India, A. Ghose had neither gone to his natal land nor met any member of his family. Bengal now beckoned him. "I was at Deoghar several times," wrote Sri Aurobindo, "and saw my grandfather there, first in good health and then bedridden with paralysis." It was, we guess, sometime between April and August of 1894 —during the summer vacation —that Sri Aurobindo first visited his family at Deoghar, in Bihar. Deoghar, 'God's abode,' has as its presiding deity Shiva. His consort there is known as Bagala; and Shiva himself as Vaidyanath, the Lord of physicians. So Deoghar is also called Baid

-06_Bankim^s Bengal.htm 4 Bankim's Bengal At the intervention of the Maratha leader M. G. Ranade (1852-1904), the political series New Lamps for Old came to an end. Ranade, however, was keen to meet the intelligent and promising young critic. An interview was arranged that very year, and they met at Bombay. "I remember," wrote Sri Aurobindo in Karakahini {Tales of Prison Life), "when, back home from England fifteen years ago, I started writing articles in the Indu Prakash of Bombay, strongly protesting against the Congress policy of prayers and petition, the late Mahadeo Govind Ranade, seeing how these articles were acting on the minds of the youths, exhorted me, from the moment I met

60 Sister Nivedita "I hear, Mr. Ghose, you are a worshipper of Shakti." That is how Sister Nivedita greeted Sri Aurobindo when they first met at Baroda in 1902. Nivedita has flitted in and out of our narrative; a longer look at her will enrich us. Sister Nivedita. Daughter-disciple of Swami Vivekananda. That is how she came to India on 28 January 1898. Miss Margaret Noble was born in North Ireland on 28 October 1867. Her parents were Reverend Samuel Richmond Noble and Mary Isabelle Hamilton. Samuel's father, John Noble, was by profession a Protestant priest. But he was a rebel at heart. He rebelled against the subjugation of his motherland by the B

10 Astrology "Aurobindo had a profound faith in astrology," averred D. K. Roy. "He admitted the influence of the planets on human life. He had not the least doubt that one can know about the auspicious and inauspicious events of a man's life by studying his horoscope.... I got a horoscope of Aurobindo's life prepared by Sri Kalipada Bhattacharya, who was well-versed in astrology.1 ... When I met him afterwards, Sri Bhattacharya told me, 'Your pupil is an extraordinary man. Although he stands high in the Maharaja's favour, there is a lot of hardship and suffering in store for him. He is not destined to enjoy much of worldly life.'" D. K. Roy was a bit sceptic of this f

31 Evolving the Genius of the Race "If the truth which the yoga [of Sri Aurobindo] wants to achieve is attained and if India accepts it, then it will give quite a new turn to Indian politics —different from European politics. It would be a profound change." Sri Aurobindo had said that in an informal talk on 21 January 1925. It was the evening of 14 December 1938. Nirod asked Sri Aurobindo, "What about India's independence? Is it developing along your lines?" "Surely not," Sri Aurobindo was categorical. "India is now going towards European Socialism, which is dangerous for her, whereas we were trying to evolve the genius of the r

61 Swami Vivekananda Vivekananda was born on: 12 January 1863. Nivedita was born on: 28 October 1867. Sri Aurobindo was born on: 15 August 1872. Does something strike you? Now, if we look closely at these dates we find that: a)Vivekananda is older than Nivedita by 4 years 290 days, b)Sri Aurobindo is younger than her by 4 years 291 days. As though the three formed an equilateral triangle in Time. We have seen two sides of the triangle; let's now take a brief look at the third. Noren was born in Calcutta to Bishwanath Dutta and Bhubaneswari Devi. His grandfather, Durgacharan Dutta, left his home to become a sann

MOTHER'S CHRONICLES - BOOK FIVE - Mother's Chronicles book five MIRRA MEETS THE REVOLUTIONARY SUJATA NAHAR INSTITUT DE RECHERCHES EVOLUT1VES, Paris & MIRA ADITI, Mysore Already published in the series: Book One:MIRRA Book Two:MIRRA THE ARTIST Book Three:MIRRA THE OCCULTIST Book Four:MIRRA - SRI AUROBINDO To be published: Book Six: MIRRA IN JAPAN Book Seven: MIRRA THE MOTHER Mother's Chronicles-Book Five: MIRRA MEETS THE REVOLUTIONARY. © 1997 by Sujata Nahar. All rights reserved. For inform