SRI AUROBINDO AND WORLD WAR II

1939-1947

IT was not in Sri Aurobindo's nature to show extraordinari-ness or trumpet forth his achievements in order to rise in the estimation of the world. Even when things went against his expressed will he kept silent. He was an unfathomable and imperturbable sea of patience and tolerance.

But he was not against the use of spiritual powers whenever an occasion demanded it or served a divine purpose.¹

We shall discuss, in short, what he did to save civilisation from destruction. Though the World War II had no apparent bearing on the accident to his right leg yet the world little knows what fights he had to give to save the path of human progress. To the surprise of us all, it happened on the eve of the Darshan day— November 24,1938. Why it so happened we have Sri Aurobindo's own explanation, as noted down by Nirodbaran from the talks he and others had with him in those days :

"The hostile forces have tried many times to prevent things like the Darshan but I have succeeded in warding off all their attacks. At the time the accident to my leg happened, I was occupied with guarding the Mother and I forgot about myself. I didn't think the hostiles would attack me. That was my mistake."

1. I might say a word about Ramakrishna's attitude with regard to the body. He seems always to have regarded it as a misuse of spiritual force to utilise it for preserving the body or curing its ailments or taking care for it......I have never had any hesitation in the use of a spiritual force for all legitimate purposes including the maintenance of health and physical life in myself and in others—that is indeed why the Mother gives flowers not only as a blessing but as a help in illness...... Sri Aurobindo on Himself and on the Mother, p-284.

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About the earlier Sadhana that had been going on here, Sri Aurobindo observed : "When I was doing sadhana on the mental plane things came so easily. It was child's play. With the vital being though it was not easy, yet it was interesting. But this physical is absolutely hard. It has been left untried by the ancient Yogis, it has been neglected... All the accumulated difficulty is lying there. Any attempt made to conquer them is full of drudgery and labour. It is like the trench-war and no truce. You must either fight and win or collapse."²

Sri Aurobindo spoke about the same thing on another occasion : "It is when the sadhana came down in the physical and the subconscient that things became very difficult. I myself had to struggle for two years; for the subconscient is absolutely inert, like stone. Though my mind was quite awake above, it could not exert any influence down below. It is a Herculean labour, for, when one enters there, it is a sort of an unexplored continent... And once the physical is conquered, things become easy for people who come after me, which is what is meant by realisation of one in all."³

Before the accident only Champaklal, among the sadhaks, used to go regularly into Sri Aurobindo's room when Sri Aurobindo himself was in it. Soon after he had joined the Ashram, he was taken up into the personal service of the Master. One or two others would help to clean the room and keep things ready for Sri Aurobindo's use, but they could do so only while he was in the bathroom. Even when they were cleaning the adjacent room where he used to walk in their absence, the doors of his room would be kept shut. After the accident, Ashram doctors, including Dr. Manilal of Baroda, and non-doctors like Purani and others were let into his room. At 5 o'clock several of his attendants gathered round him and listened to his talk.

2.Life of Sri Aurobindo by A. B. Purani, p. 230.

3.Ibid, p. 231.

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We had no idea of all this and outwardly there was no effect of it in the Ashram atmosphere. A change was markedly felt with the breaking out of the Second World War. When Sri Aurobindo began to intervene, it caused a stir in the whole Ashram.

Before 1939 we were shut up in our "little world" and occupied with our own concerns though that did not mean that we ceased to take any interest in the goings-on of the world.

There was never a period when Sri Aurobindo did not take interest in world-affairs. There was not an important political event which escaped his notice. Several dailies—and even monthlies like The Modern Review—were regularly sent up to him and he himself read them, especially The Hindu. Years later he got them read out to him.

From Nirodbaran's record we learn that for years Sri Aurobindo had been directly working not only on the circle of his disciples but also on the international scene. Thus the Master said in continuation of his remarks about his own accident:

"As for the Ashram, I have been extremely successful, but while I have tried to work on the world the results have been varied. In Spain, in Madrid, I was splendidly successful. General Miaja was an admirable instrument to work on. Basque was an utter failure. Negus was a good instrument but the people around him, though good warriors, were too ill-organised and ill-equipped. The work in Egypt was not a success. In Ireland and Turkey the success was tremendous. In Ireland I have done exactly what I wanted to do in Bengal."

As stated before, in the trail of the Second World War there came about several changes in the Ashram affecting the atmosphere.

We all know that when the war broke out Sri Aurobindo did not "actively concern himself with it", but as it progressed he came forward with all his spiritual powers for the protection of

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the British and the Allied Cause.

This was completely misunderstood by his countrymen, even by some of his disciples. Very few could discern his unerring vision and appreciate his high purpose.

Among the members of the Ashram there were a number who had suffered and sacrificed a lot for the sake of the country and some had taken active part in the revolutionary movement. Naturally they were all eager to see the country free from the foreign grip. Even those who had never taken any interest in politics were taken aback by Sri Aurobindo's open support to the British. He who had taken his stand against British rule even from his early college days, whom Nevinson had characterised in 1907 as "the most dangerous⁴ man in India", now decided to throw the whole weight of his spiritual powers on the side of the Allies when Britain was about to be smashed and enslaved by Hitler! That he did so and why is yet a mystery to the outside world.

To reassure the wavering among us, the Mother wrote on May 6,1941: "It has become necessary to state emphatically and clearly that all who by their thoughts and wishes are supporting and calling for the victory of the Nazis are by that very fact collaborating with the Asura against the Divine and helping to bring about the victory of the Asura."

The Indian national feeling against the British was so bitter that every victory of Hitler was acclaimed as ours. The atmosphere of the whole country was such that those who were in sympathy with the British—though they could be counted on the tips of one's fingers—were looked down upon as traitors to the country.

In the teeth of such country-wide feeling Sri Aurobindo

4. Also Minto wrote to Morley, the Secretary of state for India: "As to the celebrated Arbinda ... I can only repeat.... that he is the most dangerous man we have to reckon with ..." (May 26, 1910)—India Under Morley and Minto by M. N.Das, p. 114.

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addressed a letter to the Governor of Madras covering a contribution made to the Viceroy's War Purpose Fund, in token of acom-plete adhesion to the Allied Cause. The letter runs:

"We feel that not only is this a battle waged in just self-defence and in defence of the nations threatened with the world domination of Germany and the Nazi system of life, but that it is a defence of civilisation and its highest attained social, cultural and spiritual values and of the whole future of humanity. To this cause our support and sympathy will be unswerving whatever may happen; we look forward to the victory of Britain and, as the eventual result, an era of peace and union among nations and a better and more secure world-order."⁵

Sri Aurobindo not only made a contribution to the War Fund -but "encouraged those who sought his advice to enter the army or share in the war effort."

Two young brilliant sons of the Mother's devoted disciples joined the Air Force in England and were killed in action. Another joined the Navy. Now he is here in the Ashram.

When some of the Mother's disciples wanted to come to Pondicherry for safety against the fear of Japanese bombing, Sri Aurobindo wrote:

"Calcutta is now in the danger zone. But the Mother does not wish that any one should leave his post because of the danger. Those who are very eager to remove their children can do so...."

After the fall of Dunkirk, France capitulated and England had no choice but to surrender or be a shambles. When Churchill proposed to France a union with Britain so that they might carry on the fight as one country, General Weygand convinced Petain that England was lost. "In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken." To form a union with Great Britain was, according to Petain, "fusion with a corpse."

When Churchill warned Russia, by sending "message after

5. The letter was signed by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

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message", two months before Germany invaded her, that Hitler was planning to attack her, it was taken by Moscow as a "device of a beaten power to inveigle another power into sharing its doom."⁶

Not that Churchill did not realise the extremity of England's situation. Yet the Force working in him made him take a grim stand against the onrush of the Asuric Forces and send forth a strong appeal to France never to accept defeat but come over to England and give a joint fight as One Nation.

The French Premier Reynaud and men like General de Gaulle welcomed this plan but the "defeatist section led by Marshal Petain refused even to examine it" and it was rejected by the cabinet. All this is history but history does not know how an unseen Power has worked from afar and saved civilisation.

As regards Churchill's plan, so far as my information goes, Sri Aurobindo appreciated it very much. According to him and the Mother, its rejection by France at that hour was a rejection of the Divine Grace itself that had come to the help of France at the most opportune moment. But France could not rise to the occasion.

Such was again the case with India. On March 11, 1942 Churchill announced that a new Indian Union would be created as a fully independent dominion. As soon as the war ended, a New Constitution would be framed consisting of elected representatives. Then he sent out to India Sir Stafford Cripps, a Member of his Cabinet, with these proposals worked out in detail.

Sri Aurobindo urged upon the leaders the acceptance of the offer, without minding the defects. But human logic and apprehension prevailed over Divine Wisdom. The proposals were rejected. The Mother is reported to have remarked that, as in the case of France, this rejection by India was the rejection of the Divine Grace itself. And she saw before her the possibility of a grave calamity and a blood bath that India would have to pass

6. Sir Winston Churchill by Herbert Leslie Stewart, p.

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through. Now it is admitted on all hands that had the Cripps' proposals been accepted India could have been spared the curse of Partition and its concomitant blood bath.

Despite the failure of France to rise to the occasion, the Mother and Sri Aurobindo stood at the back of the Allied Cause. Why they intervened is clear from their letter and statements. But even most of the Ashramites did not know how deeply and predominantly Sri Aurobindo was concentrated on the war. Serving nation and humanity, himself in the background, was Sri Aurobindo's way; so too is the Mother's. They gave absolutely no indication of how they were working on the fateful war situation. Such is the traditional way of spiritual leaders. Even to-day neither Britain nor France, nor even India, knows that there was one who did so much for them.

We can understand a scientist, seated in a room watching and controlling a spaceman, but we cannot define how the action of a Yogi can effect a revolutionary change in a world war.

Sri Krishna assured Arjuna—"All have already been slain by me. Now act as my instrument." This implies that all had been slain on the subtle plane or it would have been impossible for Arjuna to triumph over Kama, Bhishma and their forces.

To-day scientific marvels are becoming less marvellous because we now believe in the height of man's mental power. We have yet to believe that infinitely higher than the mental are spiritual heights and their powers. One day the fact of the spiritual forces vanquishing the organised Asuric power will be freely acknowledged. And that day perhaps is not very far off.

Upon this war depended whether the path of evolution would remain open and all that man had achieved so far would survive, or everything would be brought to ruin by the monstrous strength of the Nazi war machine.

Man is weak by nature. Hence he needs the help of God. By himself alone he cannot stand the fury of the Rakshasa and the Asura.

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In Hitler the Rakshasa and the Asura found a most effective instrument in order to engulf the earth and establish the rule of Darkness. To-day's suffering is nothing in relation to what it would have been if Hitler had won. To take just a glimpse of his dark intent: he declared that it was a crime to educate the coloured peoples and they should be kept as serfs and labourers.

The fate of India also hung in the balance,⁷ "because of her people's leanings towards Hitler, during the War". When the Allies finally won, our people thought that as a powerful nation like the Germans had suffered defeat at the hands of Britain, no hope was left to India to wrest her freedom from the grip of a diehard like Churchill. And we know when the divine purpose was served and Churchill lapsed into his former self and indulged in his blusters: "I have not become the King's First Minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire."—"We mean to hold our own."—"We have no intention of casting away that most truly bright and precious jewel in the crown of the King ..."⁸ he found himself thrown out of power and the Labour Government was installed in August 1945, and the next divine purpose - the liberation of India—got carried out.

Thus the lesson of the Mahabharata we see repeated in the present age. It is well known that as an instrument of Sri Krishna, powerful with his power, Arjuna was invincible at Kurukshetra, and overcame mighty heroes and achieved victory. But after the victory his sense of vanity that none on earth was his match lost him his power. He could not even prevent the treasures of the disconsolate women he was escorting from Dwaraka to

7....he (Sri Aurobindo) saw that behind Hitlar and Nazism were dark Asuric forces and that their success would mean...the enslavement not only of Europe but of Asia, and in it India, an enslavement far more terrible than any this country had ever endured, and the undoing of all the work that had been done for her liberation.—Sri Aurobindo and His Ashram,pp. 31-32.

8,Sir Winston Churchill by Herbert Leslie Stewart, p. 136.

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Hastinapore from being looted by highwaymen.

The Guardian Angel of the Allied Cause

Peace is in great demand everywhere but how many are there to care for the Giver of peace?⁹ That is why humanity needs a wholesome hammering from time to time:

"Wherefore God hammers so fiercely at his world, tramples and kneads it like dough, casts it so often into the blood-bath and the red hell-heat of the furnace? Because humanity in the mass is still a hard, crude and vile ore which will not otherwise be smelted and shaped; as is his material, so is his method. Let it help to transmute itself into nobler and purer metal, his ways with it will be gentler and sweeter, much loftier and fairer its uses."¹⁰

Because we are dominated by our lower nature, we are easily possessed by anti-divine forces. We suffer till the Divine comes to our help in some way or other. If it is the collectivity that suffers, then either He comes to our rescue through a vibhuti or a Prophet or incarnates Himself in a human mould and acts from behind the veil or in the open.

An evidence of Sri Aurobindo's active intervention in the war was first available in the Mother's letter of May 6,1941, already quoted.

On coming to power, Churchill openly stated in his speech that the whole western seaboard of Europe from North Cape to the Spanish frontier was in German hands; all the ports, all the airfields on this immense front would be employed against the single-handed British as the potential springboard of an invasion.

Hence his words— "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil,

9."God has made the world a field of battle and Filled it with the trampling of combatants and the cries of a great wrestle and struggle. Would you filch His peace without paying the price He has fixed for it ? "— Sri Aurobindo, Thoughts and Glimpses, p. 33.

10.Thoughts and Glimpses, pp. 36-37.

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tears and sweat."—cannot be taken as mere rhetoric. They were a grim picture of the real situation.

The first big attack began on August 12th and the 15th of August was for Britain the most crucial day when she was subjected to an attack from "about a hundred bombers and eight hundred planes to pin her down in the South."

According to Churchill that was "the largest air-battle of that period."

Apropos of this battle and its date - August 15 which is Sri Aurobindo's birthday - the editor of Mother India wrote in 1950 while considering the world-significance of this date: "Hitler fixed in 1940 the 15th of August, as the day on which he would complete his conquest of Western Europe by broadcasting from Buckingham Palace the collapse of Britain. The fall of Britain would have signed the death-warrant of the whole world outside America. August 15 was meant to be the end of World War II, with a decisive victory of the forces intent on putting the clock back and establishing on earth the reign of the Asura, the Titan, over the evolving god in humanity. But instead of resounding triumph, August 15 found Britain still full of fight and on that day the largest toll so far was taken of the Luftwaffe—180 German planes shot down from the British skies ! We might well designate it as the turning-point in the Battle for Britain."

"From September 7 to November 3 an average of two hundred German bombers attacked London every night."¹¹ In this desperate condition, for more than a year, Britain stood alone.

Was it humanly possible for a small island to sustain itself in this terrible plight?

In reply to a query why Britain was losing ground every day notwithstanding Sri Aurobindo's full support, the Mother is reported to have said that if Sri Aurobindo had not helped

11. The Second World War by Winston Churchill, p. 343.

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Britain, she would have been swallowed up by Hitler long ago.¹²

To appreciate the force of the Mother's statement, let us recall Sir Winston Churchill's speech of May 9,1940:

"It would be foolish, however, to disguise the gravity of the hour. It would be still more foolish to lose heart and courage or to suppose that well-equipped armies numbering three or four millions of men can be overcome in the space of a few weeks, or even months, by a scoop, or raid of mechanized vehicles, however formidable."¹³

Hitler had thought that Britain could be bombed into submission. So he made the German Air Force concentrate its fury upon her and maintain the blitz throughout the winter of 1940. He wanted to see whether heavy German raids combined with the threat of invasion would " shake British resolution to continue the war."¹⁴

What was it that, far from shaking her resolution, stiffened and steeled it all the more so as to enable Churchill to declare just five days after August 15 that "Britain would continue the struggle as long as the enemy pleases."

When Hitler had "signed the first directive for the invasion of Britain," when all Britain thought "the enemy would cross by night and land at dawn,"¹⁵ what led Hitler away from his target?

Here was the master-stroke of Sri Aurobindo's divine diplomacy. It reminds one of Sri Krishna's move in killing Jarasandha and thus saving his army for the battle of Kuruksetra. Sri Aurobindo saw that Stalin's Russia alone could stand the might

12.(a) "...when London first became the main target there were but ninety guns in position." The Second World War by Winston Churchill, p. 342. (b) "For fifty-seven nights the bombing of London was unceasing" Ibid., p. 343.

13.The War Speeches by Winston Churchill, Vol.1, p. 183.

14."Goering's boastful promise that he could finish off the British from the air." Hitler: A study in Tyranny by Alan Bullock, 6th Printing, p. 290.

15.The Second World War by Winston Churchill, p. 298.

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of Germany on lands as Britain in air and on sea. Hence he pressed the occult button, as it were, to bring about the villain's buddhibhramsa,¹⁶ mental aberration, and send him straight to his doom at the proper hands. To substantiate this point, let us first quote the closing lines of Sri Aurobindo's poem about Hitler written on October 16,1939, just one month after the outbreak of the war. He refers to the preternatural force driving the German Dictator and continues:

Thus driven he must stride on conquering all,

Threatening and clamouring, brutal, invincible,

Until he meets upon his storm-swept road

A greater devil—or thunderstroke of God.¹⁷

How these prophetic words turned into a fact is well-known history.

Next let us see what Churchill says :

it is the Russian armies who have done the main work in tearing the guts out of the German army. In the air and on the ocean we could maintain our place, but there was no force in the world which could have been called into being, except after several more years, that would have been able to maul and break the German army unless it had been subjected to the terrible slaughter and manhandling that has befallen it through the strength of the Russian Soviet armies."¹⁸

Hitler was so sure of victory that he did not even provide his army with adequate winter clothing. But the more he tried to wriggle out of the bog, the deeper he sank into it.

Had Hitler invaded Britain first, the very backbone of the Allied resistance would have been broken. Then nothing could

16."He (Hitler) then made up his mind to invade Britain, but rapidly lost faith in it, largely on account of growing preoccupation with Rusia." —Hitler by Alan Bullock, p. 296.

17.More Poems, "The Dwarf Napoleon", P. 58.

18.The Wisdom of Winston Churchill by F.B. Czarnomski, p. 157.

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have saved the world from being flung back into barbarism and darkness.

People wondered why Sri Aurobindo was giving so much support to a sworn enemy of India like Churchill. Sri Aurobindo's concern was not for Britain, the United States, or India. We must understand the significance of his support from his global viewpoint.¹⁹ His concern was for the whole of humanity. Because Churchill at that time stood as the sturdy champion of the cause of human freedom,²⁰ he was chosen as a fit instrument.

Sri Aurobindo has written: "What we have to see is on which side men and nations put themselves; if they put themselves on the right side they at once make themselves instruments of the Divine purpose in spite of all defects, errors, wrong movements."

'The victory of one side (the Allies) would keep the path open for the evolutionary forces : the victory of the other side would

19.Sri Aurobindo wrote to a disciple (29.7.1942) "....You should not think of it as a fight for certain nations against others or even for India; it is a struggle for an ideal that has to establish itself on earth in the life of humanity, for a Truth that has yet to realise itself fully and against a darkness and falsehood that are trying to overwhelm the earth and mankind in the immediate future. It is the forces behind the battle that have to be seen and not this or that superficial circumstance... There cannot be the slightest doubt that if one side wins, there will be an end of all such freedom and hope of light and truth and the work that has to be done will be subjected to conditions which would make it humanly impossible; there will be a reign of falsehood and darkness, a cruel oppression and degradation for most of the human race such as people in this country do not dream of and cannot yet at all realise. If the other side that has declared itself for the free future of humanity triumphs, this terrible danger will have been averted and conditions will have been created in which there will be a chance for the Ideal to grow, for the Divine Work to be done, for the spiritual Truth for which we stand to establish itself on the earth. Those who fight for this cause are fighting for the Divine and against the threatened reign of the Asura.

20."We are fighting by ourselves alone, but we are not fighting for ourselves alone," - Churchill.

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drag back humanity, degrade it horribly and might lead even, at the worst, to its eventual failure as a race, as others in the past evolution failed and perished. That is the whole question..."²¹

Addressing Parliament in those darkest days Churchill said:

"Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life... If we stand up to him (Hitler) all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward .. But if we fail, then the whole world including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for will sink into the abyss of a new dark age..."²²

This occasion was characterised by Churchill as "the finest hour." Who was behind these inspired words ?

And Churchill's post-war stand was no less lofty :

'The first step in the recreation of the European family must be partnership between France and Germany. In this way only can France recover the moral and cultural leadership of Europe. There can be no revival of Europe without a spiritually great France and a spiritually great Germany." (Zurich,Septemberl9,1946)

It must not be mistaken that Sri Aurobindo was against Germany or Russia or any other country. He was against whoever blocked human evolution. Now let us look at the other side.

The German politics was based on the principle that every citizen was directly or indirectly responsible to Hitler for his life and conduct ? ²³

21.On 3.9.1943 Sri Aurobindo wrote : "The Divine takes men as they are and uses men and his instruments even if they are not flawless in virtue, angelic, holy and pure. If they are of good, will, if, to use the Biblical phrase, they are on the Lord's side, that is enough for the work to be done. Even if I knew that the Allies would misuse their victory........I would still put my force behind them.

"At any rate things could not be one-hundredth part as bad as they would be under Hitler. The ways of the Lord would still be open—to keep them open is what matters..."

22.The War Speeches by Winston Churchill, Vol. I, pp. 206-7.

23.The Substance of Politics by A. Appadorai (Secretary General, India Council of World Affairs), p. 387.

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Hitler told his generals on August 22, 1939 : "On the whole there are only three great statesmen in the world: Stalin, myself and Mussolini. Mussolini, the weakest, has not been able to break with either the power of the crown or of the church. Stalin and I are

Nothing else mattered but the expansion of German power. Once declared Ernst Rohm, "Europe, the entire world may go up in flames. What do we care ? Germany must live and be free."

"Hitler... was sure of himself, stubborn and full of mistrust of everyone. There were only two or three people with whom he was on sufficiently friendly terms. One of these was Ernst Rohm, whom he got shot on June 30, 1934."²⁵

In this context let us read Hitler's commandment to the nation: "Thou shalt have no other God but Germany."²⁶

In the year 1934, five years before the outbreak of war, Sri Aurobindo had characterised Hitler as an Asura: "Outside are earthquakes and Hitlers and a collapsing civilisation..."²⁷

Hitler was taking the Asuric instigation for the divine inspiration. He felt elated that his decisions would shape the destiny of millions. Declaring war on America in the speech of December 11 he said: "I can only be grateful to Providence that it entrusted me with the leadership in this historic struggle.... A historical revision on a unique scale has been imposed on us by the Creator."²⁸

"Most of Hitler's speech was devoted to abuse of the America of President Roosevelt, whom he depicted as the creature of the Jews"²⁹

24.Modern Germany by Koppel S. Pinson, p.486.

25.Ibid.p.482.

26.Ibid, p.497.

27.Letters of Sri Aurobindo, Second Series, P.342.

28.Hitler by Alan Bullock, p.334.

29.Hitter by Alan Bullock, p.334.

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The way the Jews ³⁰ were treated by Hitler illustrates the might of the Rakshasa and the Asura. Ruthlessness is the law of their being. Hitler thought that without a solution of the Jewish problem there was no salvation of mankind. And as a solution three³¹ million Jews were killed in a way unknown so far in history.³²

Sri Aurobindo declared the war to be the Mother's war. What did it signify ?

Nolini Kanta Gupta's article on the occasion gives the answer. Part of it was broadcast from the All India Radio, Delhi:

"...There is no insurmountable disparity between spirituality and worldliness, between meditation and the most terrible work —ghore karmani: The Gita has definitively proved the truth of the fact millenniums ago. War has not been the monopoly of warriors alone : it will not be much of an exaggeration to say that Avatars, the incarnations of the Divine, have done little besides that. And what of the Divine Mother herself? The main work of an Avatar is often to subdue the evil doers, those that follow and pull others to follow the Wrong Path. And the Divine Mother, She who harbours in her bosom the supreme Truth and Consciousness and Bliss, is in one of her essential aspects the slayer of the Demon, of the Asura."

When Churchill took office he was hailed as a national hero.

30."The contribution of Jews towards the world progress in every branch is remarkable."—Sri Aurobindo.

31.From three to six million according to various estimates.

32."The Camp Commandant told me that he had liquidated eighty thousand in the course of one half year ... He used monoxide gas and I did not think that his methods were very efficient. So I used Cyclon B.... it took from three to fifteen minutes to kill people in the chamber.... After the bodies were removed, our special commandos took off the rings and extracted the gold from the teeth of the corpses., we built our gas-chamber to accommodate two thousand people at one time..," —Hitler by Alan Bullock, p.352.

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From his speeches and actions it was clear that he was open to higher influence and had the power to rise to the occasion. He had three outstanding qualities - fearlessness, dash and drive and a clear vision.³³

To entertain fear is to play into the hands of the anti-divine forces. For fear in itself, according to the Mother, is "one of the greatest impurities, one of those that come directly from anti-divine forces which want to destroy the divine action upon earth.."³⁴

In the face of massive destruction at home and heavy defeats abroad, Churchill never nourished fear in his heart. Let us listen to him after the fall of Singapore :

"Singapore has fallen. All the Malaya Peninsula has been overrun. Other dangers gather round us there.... This, therefore, is one of those moments when the British race and nation can show their quality and their genius. This is one of those moments when it can draw from the heart of misfortune the vital impulse of victory." (February 15,1942, London).

Whenever there was a speech by Churchill the Mother and the Master would listen to it intently. He had become their timely instrument for the proper conduct of the war and a final smash-up of the adverse forces.

Formerly, there was no radio in the Ashram, and for a long time people were not encouraged to have one. In fact, anything in the form of personal enjoyment, however harmless or innocent it might appear, was not encouraged unless it had something to do directly with the Divine Service. From that viewpoint,

33."I declare to you here, on this considerable occasion, even now when misguided or suborned Frenchmen are firing upon their rescuers, I declare to you my faith that France will rise again. While there are men like General de Gaulle and all those who follow him... in the cause of France, my confidence in the future of France is sure." - The Wisdom of Winston Churchill, by F.B.Czarnomski, p. 143.

34.Bulletin, February 1961, p. 55.

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listening to the radio was no exception; moreover, it was felt that along with the radio waves many subtler waves of undesirable forces would infiltrate into the Ashram atmosphere. Long afterwards, perhaps in 1938 or 40, a radio set found its way into the Ashram. But there was no question of anybody using it. The Mother had it kept in the store-room.

In the early days of the War, a young man, a local devotee, who was listening to his own radio at home, was noting the gist of the war news and sending it to Sri Aurobindo daily. Why and how he got the inspiration of doing so is not known to us. But very religiously he was sending it, although in length it was not more than half a handwritten foolscap sheet. This used to be read by Pavitra to Sri Aurobindo, and later it was put up on the Ashram noticeboard for the Ashramites to read.

As the war began to take a serious turn — by that time Paris had fallen into Hitler's hands — and Sri Aurobindo wished to have more detailed news, the chance for using that radio lying idle in the store-room camp up. So the Mother entrusted Pavitra— an ex-Captain of the French Army in the First World War, and therefore the fit person — to furnish a more detailed account of the War. Pavitra did the job admirably, and from that time on we also got the opportunity of reading a few sheets of detailed information of the World War II, well-typed by an assistant of Pavitra's. They were put up on the noticeboard after Sri Aurobindo had finished with them. This helped people to have the authentic information from the side of the Allies and discouraged false rumours.

When the War entered upon a crucial phase things began to move too fast for these news bulletins. Sri Aurobindo wanted to be constantly informed about the events. It was felt necessary to shift the radio to the main compound of the Ashram (so long it was in another building near by); the obvious choice was Pavitra's room. So from that time again the process changed. Pavitra

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now began taking notes himself and immediately going to Sri Aurobindo and reading them to him, a number of times daily. By then more than one radio had replaced the old one in Pavitra's room, as by constant use the apparatus was getting out of order. And some people who could afford to buy a radio took the opportunity to have the Mother's sanction to use it.

With the War taking its definite turn on the fall of Dunkirk, mentioned earlier, Sri Aurobindo also concentrated himself all the more on the struggle. From that time on he wanted to listen directly to the War news and more especially to the speeches of Churchill etc. So a direct loudspeaker connection, branched from the main radio in Pavitra's room, was made in Sri Aurobindo's room; and from now Pavitra's job of reporting was dropped, and Sri Aurobindo began to listen to the radio himself from as many quarters of the globe as the radio could pick up, of course all from the sources of the Allies, both in English and in French. Sri Aurobindo never heard Nazi broadcasts nor did he allow them in the Ashram. It may be interesting to note that all the finest and epochmaking speeches of Churchill, of President Roosevelt and of General de Gaulle started from this time, and Sri Aurobindo and the Mother listened to them.

Thus a greater portion of the Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's time and energy got concentrated on inwardly conducting the war and saving the God-given destiny of man. Few people know that their help was there at every crucial turn in the course of the war.

The Mother and Sri Aurobindo willed the return to power, for the fourth term, of President Roosevelt, because he was the only man of strong determination and will-power, just the man needed for the hour. Other such instances have been given in their proper places.

It is the subtle power that serves as the sustaining force.

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Sri Aurobindo has said:

"The occult working and the material working can and do join, the occult power gives to the material working its utmost efficiency. As for the one who is helped not feeling the Force at work, his knowing might help very substantially the effective working but it need not be indispensable, the effect can be there even if he does not know how the thing is done."³⁵

Except for five or six hours, day and night Sri Aurobindo worked for the Allied Victory. Like a Guardian Angel of the Allied Cause, he spent most of his time in hearing the news, following the events and watching the effect of his subtle working. To quote his own words : "My force... is being largely used for helping the right development of the war and for change in the human world."³⁶

Whenever there was a piece of good news from the Allied front, the Ashram put on a bright face. In pre-war days our whole energy had centred round our sadhana. Sadhana first, all else next. When the Mother and Sri Aurobindo directed their attention to winning the war, "Victory" became as dominant a note in the atmosphere.

Just as Hitler had chosen the 15th of August, 1940 to mark his victory over Britain, Churchill, five years later, on the same day, made an announcement in the House of Commons:

"Once again the British Commonwealth and Empire emerges safe, undiminished and united from a mortal struggle. Monstrous tyrannies which menaced our life have been beaten to the ground and are in ruin ...The light is brighter because it comes not only from the fierce but fading glow of military achievements...but because there mingle with it in mellow splendour the hopes, joys

35.a) Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual, No.8, p. 86,

b) In one of his speeches (I quote from memory) Churchill said, "I feel an unseen hand guiding me."

36.Sri Aurobindo on Himself and on the Mother, p. 276

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and blessing of almost all mankind."³⁷

In the hour of victory Churchill did not totally forget the power that had saved the world :

"...the House., desired to offer thanks to Almighty God, to the great Power which seems to shape and design the fortunes of nations and the destiny of man; and I therefore .. move that the House do now attend at the Chruch of St. Margaret, West-minister, to give humble and reverent thanks to Almighty God for our deliverance from the threat of German domination."³⁸

This day August 15,1945 marked the end of the Axis powers with the surrender of Japan. "He (Sri Aurobindo) had not, for various resons, intervened with his spiritual force against the Japanese aggression until it became evident that Japan intended to attack and even invade and conquer India³⁹... When negotiations (with Cripps) failed, Sri Aurobindo returned to his reliance on the use of spiritual force alone against the aggressor and had the satisfaction of seeing the tide of Japanese victory, which had till then swept everything before it, change immediately into a tide do rapid, crushing and finally immense and overwhelming defeat."⁴⁰

After the Allied victory we had the joy of being the participants in the dawn of India's independence. Sri Aurobindo hailed it as the beginning of a new era.

The Dawn of India's Independence

To us it was a matter of special joy because the independence came on the day which is the birthday of our Master. He lived to

37.The Wisdom of Winston Churchill by F. B. Czanomski, p. 162.

38.The Wisdom of Winston Churchill by F. B. Czanomski, p. 30.

39.Cf. " I now began to sense that the Government anticipated a Japanese attack on India... The Japanese would make an attempt to occupy Bengal. They (the Government) thought that the Japanese would attack by sea and advance on Calcutta."—Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, India wins Freedom, p. 72.

40.Sri Aurobindo and His Ashram, p. 32.

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see a great life-long dream of his fulfilled. Was it merely a coincidence or a divine dispensation ? According to the original scheme India's liberation was fixed for "a date not later than June 1948".⁴¹ Who intervened to advance it to August 15,1947 ?

Let the next great goal be fulfilled, let spiritual India rise in her full glory to clasp all humanity to her soul; then the time will come for humanity to assess who chose this date to make India "enter a new era" and why in 1910 Sri Krishna had taken Sri Aurobindo away from his political activities.

In 1914 the Mother had visioned India's independence and had told of it to Sri Aurobindo. Some idea of these details may be had from what she disclosed to A long after in 1927.

In those days the Mother used to pay special visits to the rooms of the sadhaks. One day he asked her: "How is India likely to get freedom ?"

Mother: "Hear! The British did not conquer India. You yourselves handed over the country to the British. In the same manner the British will themselves hand over the country to you. And they will do it in a hurry as if a ship were waiting to take them away."

A asked when this would happen.

The Mother replied: "When a Japanese warship will come to the Indian Ocean, India will get freedom."

The Mother said this to A in 1927 - all of it was fulfilled to the letter in 1947.

In the divine vision of the Mother, August 15, the birthday of Sri Aurobindo, is a date of capital importance in the life of the earth, from the physical point of view; and India's independence or the birth of a free nation on that great day was its natural consequence; and its ultimate consequence will be the divinisation of Matter, the object of the last Avatar.

41 "On February 20, 1947, the British Government announced its intention of transferring power into Indian hands by a date not later than June, 1948," - Cuthbert Collin Davis, Reader in Indian History, Oxford University, in Encyclopaedia Britannica (1960), Vol.12 p. 178.

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