23 Neglected Childhood It must have been sometime in 1933 that I saw my father reading a book several times. He then passed it on to me, saying, "Read it." It was a Bengali book written by Rabindranath Tagore, and entitled: Aurobindo Ghose. That was my first acquaintance with Sri Aurobindo, if my memory serves me right, for I was only running eight, and we were living in Santiniketan. I can't say that I understood all I read (I), but I did understand that Rabindranath was addressing Aurobindo Ghose as a Rishi. The childish impression persisted for long years in my life, and I took him as I found him: a Rishi. It never occurred to me that before becoming

13 His Large Sympathies Rajnarain, who had grown very fond of his son-in-law, wrote a set of four sonnets expressing his fervent hope that the latter would learn from the West without losing his own Indian identity. We quote a part of the first sonnet. "Go, son belov'd! as pilgrim bold to lands Beyond the stormy ocean's wide domain, — Where Commerce, Art and Science freely rain On freeman blessings rare with liberal hands.... Thy freedom I esteem though thy excess I check oft. Go, but still as ours remain. Be not like apes who change their manners, dress And language, of their trip becoming vain.

Acknowledgements To depict Sri Aurobindo's childhood and his life in England, I have drawn liberally from his own letters, in particular those published under the title Sri Aurobindo on Himself. I also found much information in his talks with disciples, recorded by Purani in Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo and by Nirodbaran in Talks with Sri Aurobindo. My thanks to them for these precious records. Ambalal Balkrishna Purani (1895-1965) was a revolutionary from Gujarat, who became a disciple of Sri Aurobindo's and stayed with him in his Ashram from 1923. He was also one of Sri Aurobindo's personal attendants from November 1938 to December 1950. Our Purani, eager to pr

To pull her out of that tomb was somehow our ambition. Sujata — Satprem April 30, 1984 A Word With You, Please! Salutations! We meet once again to walk a little more with Mother on her journey on this Earth. It has indeed been long since we last met. If I was compelled to leave you so long without any news you must acknowledge that I am making up for lost time, and that I have brought you a right royal fare! At least that was my original intention. But not wishing to give you an indigestion, dear Reader, we shall serve first just the entree, the real feast is to follow soon. This is what happe

22 Darwinian Evolution Dr. Krishna Dhan Ghose's letter set me thinking. Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species was published in 1859. It was the most important book to come out in the second half of the nineteenth century; for it not merely opened a new era in biology but, causing a sensation as it did, it helped transform attitudes to God and to the human race. To men of intelligence Darwin's theory of evolution — 'natural selection' or 'the survival of the fittest' —carried conviction. They shuddered to visualize what could happen in future under certain circumstances. Dr. Ghose speaks of the very real danger of multiplying to infinity beasts and idi

28 The Brilliant Student Who could believe that the shy young man, poet, brilliant scholar, with such a fine sense of quiet humour and so frail could ever be a revolutionary? Most of his school and college mates had a very high regard for A. A. Ghose both as a person and as a scholar. "The present writer was at school with him," wrote an ex-Pauline, Phillip W. Seargent, "and can bear witness to his brilliant attainments as a boy. It would have been difficult in those days to regard him as a firebrand!" "Fancy Ghose a ragged revolutionary!" exclaimed an Englishman in utter disbelief to his colleague C. C. Dutt, another I.C.S. who knew Sri Aurob

11 Midnapore The Seed of Revolution The fire that burned in Rajnarain's heart from a young age had reduced to ashes all moral fear that he may have had. When widow remarriage became a law in 1856, he at once got his cousin and his younger brother married to widows —the third and fourth such marriages. It was specially this act of his that his uncle Harihar resented most. On 12 May 1849, Rajnarain was appointed to the post of Second Master in the English department of the Sanskrit College at Calcutta with a monthly salary of Rs.70. There he taught English not only to students but to men like Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. After two ye

14 Darjeeling "Up to the age of five I was in Rangpur," Sri Aurobindo remarked, contradicting a statement by a biographer, "as my father was in Rangpur, not in Khulna. I went to Khulna long after returning from England." Sri Aurobindo reminisced. "Before the Swadeshi movement started, Debabrata Bose1 and myself went on a tour of Bengal to study the conditions of the people. We lived simply on bananas. D. Bose was very persuasive and could win anybody round. We found the people steeped in pessimism, a black weight of darkness weighing over the whole country. Only four or five of us stood for independence. We had great difficulty in convincing people. At Khulna,

6 The Veda OM BHŪR BHUVAH SWAH TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM BHARGO DEVASYA DHĪMAHI DHIYO YO NAH PRACHODAYĀT Thus runs the Gayatri mantra,1 the chosen formula of the ancient Vedic search. It is addressed to Surya, the Sun, "as a God of revelatory knowledge by whose action we can arrive at the highest truth." This "sacred Vedic formula, of the Gayatri," observes Sri Aurobindo, "was for thousands of years repeated by every Brahmin in his daily meditation; and we 1. A translation: "O Lord, who pervades the earth, the intermediate world and the world of light, we meditate on the supreme light of the illumining Sun-god, that he may impel our

30 Dream or Destiny ? "It was father's fault that I failed in the riding test," Sri Aurobindo said, recalling that particular episode in his life. It was 16 January 1939, and the conversation was recorded by Purani. "He did not send money and the riding lessons at Cambridge then were rather costly. The teacher was also careless ; so long as he got his money he simply left me with the horse and I was not particular." The final rejection of A. A. Ghose's candidature by the India Office was conveyed to him in a letter dated 7 December 1892. By the time the news reached Calcutta, Dr. K. D. Ghose was dead. The Bengalee, "We are very much concerned," i