-04_An Incomplete Work of Vedantic Exegesis

The VIEW of cosmic evolution which has been set forth in the first book of this exegesis,¹ may seem deficient to the ordinary religious consciousness, which is limited and enslaved by its creeds and to which its particular way of worship is a master and not a servant, because it leaves no room for a "Personal" God. The idea of a Personal God is, however, a contradiction in terms. God is Universal, he is Omnipresent, Infinite, not subject to limits. This all religions confess, but the next moment they nullify their confession by assuming in Him a Personality. The Universal cannot be personal, the Omnipresent cannot be excluded from any thing or creature in the world He universally pervades and possesses. The moment we attribute certain qualities to God, we limit Him and create a double principle in the world. Yet no religion ²

Brahman, we have seen, is the Universal Consciousness which Is and delights in Being; impersonal, infinite, eternal, omnipresent, sole-existing, the One than whom there is no other, and all things and creatures have only a phenomenal existence in³ Brahman and by Brahman.

In the Vedantic theory of this Universe and its view of the nature of the Brahman and Its relations to the phenomena that make up this Universe, there is one initial paradox from which the whole Vedantic philosophy, religion and ethics take its start. We have seen that in existence as we see it there is something that is eternal, immutable and one, to which we give the name of Brahman, amidst an infinite Real⁴ hat is transient, mutable and multifold. Brahman

as the eternal, immutable and one, is not manifest but latent; It supports, contains and pervades the changing and unstable Universe and gives it eternity as a whole in spite [of the] transience of its parts, unity as a whole in spite of the multiplicity of its parts, immutability as a whole in spite of the mutability of its parts. Without It the persistence of the Universe would be inexplicable, but itself is not visible, nameable or definable except as Sachchidananda, absolute and therefore unnameable and indefinable self-existence, self-awareness, self-bliss. But when we ask what is it there which is mutable, transient, multiple, and whether this is something other than and different from Brahman, we get the reply that this also is Brahman and that there can be nothing other than Brahman, because Brahman is the One without a second, ekamevadvitiyam. This One, eternal, immutable became the many who are transient and mutable, but this becoming is not real, only phenomenal. Just as all objects and substances are phenomena of and in the single, eternal and unchanging ether, so are all existences animate or inanimate, corporeal, psychical or spiritual phenomena of and in Brahman. This phenomenal change of the One into the Many, the Eternal into the perishable, the Immutable into the ever-changing, is a supreme paradox but a paradox which all scientific investigation shows to be the one fundamental fact of the Universe. Science considers the One eternal and permanent reality to be eternal Matter, Vedanta for reasons already stated holds it to be eternal Consciousness, of which Spirit-Matter are in phenomena the positive-negative aspects. This Brahman, this Sachchidananda, this eternal Consciousness unknowable, unnameable and indefinable, which reason cannot analyse nor imagination put into any shape, nor the mind and senses draw within their jurisdiction, is the Transcendent Reality which alone truly exists. The sole existence of this Turiya Brahman or Transcendent Eternal Consciousness is the basis of the Adwaita philosophy.

But where in all this is there any room for religion, for the spirit of man, for any idea of God? Who is the Lord, Isha. Maheshwar, Vishnu, Rudra, Indra. the Lord of the Illusion, the Ruler, the Mighty One of which all the Upanishads speak? Who is this triple Prajna-Hiranyagarbha-Virat? Who is this twofold Purusha-Prakriti. God and Nature, without which the existence of the phenomenal world and consciousness in matter would not be intelligible or conceivable?

To whom does the Bhakti of the Bhakta, to whom do the works of the Karmayogin direct themselves? Why and Whom do men worship? What is it to which the human self rises in Yoga? The answer is that this also is Brahman, - Brahman not in His absolute Self but in relation to the infinite play of multiplicity, mobility, mortality which He has phenomenally created for His own delight on the surface of His really eternal immutable and single existence. Above is the eternal surge, the innumerable laughters of the million-crested, multitudinous, ever-marching, ever-shifting wilderness of waves; below is the silent, motionless, unchanging rest of the Ocean's immeasurable and unvisited depths. The rest and immobility is the Sea, and the mutable stir and motion of the waves is also the Sea, and as the Sea is to its waves, so is Brahman to His creations. What is the relation of the Sea of Brahman to its waves? Brahman is the One Self and all the rest, innumerable souls of creatures and innumerable forms of things are His Maya, illusions which cannot be eternal and therefore cannot be true, because there is only One Eternal: the One Self is real, all else is unreal and ends. This is Adwaita. But even though Brahman be the One Self, He has become Many by His own Ichcha or Will and the exercise of His Wll is not for a moment or limited by time and space or subject to fatigue, but for ever. He is eternal and therefore His Ichcha is eternal and the Many Selves which live in Him by His Ichcha are eternal and do not perish, for they also being really Brahman the Self are indistinguishable from Him in nature and though their bodies, mind-forms and all else may perish, cannot themselves perish. He may draw them into Himself in utter communion but He can also release than again into separate communion, and this is actually what happens. All else is transient and changes and passes, but the Self that is One and the Self that is Many are both of them real and eternal; and still they are One Self. This is Visishtadwaita. This eternity of the One Self and eternity of the Many-Selves shows that both are real without beginning and without end and the difference between them is therefore without beginning and end. The One is true and the Many are true, and the One is not and cannot be the Many, though Many live in and for the One. This is Dwaita.

The only tests to which we can subject these three interpretations of the relation between the One and the Many, all of which are equally

logical and therefore equally valid to the reason, are the statements of the Upanishads and the Gita and the experiences of Yoga when the Jivatman or individual Self is in direct communion with Paramatman or Supreme Universal Self and aware therefore of its real relations to Him. The supreme experience of Yoga is undoubtedly the state of complete identification in Sachchidananda in which the Jivatman becomes purely self-existent, self-aware and self-joyous and phenomenal existence no longer is. Adwaita, therefore, is true according to the experience of Yoga. On the other hand the Jivatman can come out of this state and return into phenomenal existence, and there is also another Yogic state in which it is doubly conscious of its reality apart from the world and its reality in the world or can see the Universe at will in itself or outside itself possessing and enjoying it as an omniscient, omnipotent, all-seeing, all-hearing, all-conscious Being; Visishtadwaita therefore is also true. Finally, there is the state in which the Jivatman is entirely aware only of itself and the Paramatman and lives in a state of exalted love and adoration of the Eternal Being: and without this state¹

To put the individual Self in intimate relation with the Eternal is the aim of Hindu life, its religion, its polity, its ethics. Morality is not for its own sake, nor for the pleasures of virtue, nor for any reward here or in another life, nor for the sake of society: these are false aims and false sanctions. Its true aim is a preparation and purification of the soul to fit it for the presence of God. The sense-obscured, limited and desire-driven individual self must raise itself out of the dark pit of sense-obsession into the clear air of the spirit, must disembarrass itself of servile bondage to bodily, emotional and intellectual selfishness and assume the freedom and royalty of Universal love and beneficence, must expand itself from the narrow, petty, inefficient ego till it becomes commensurate with the infinite, all-powerful, omnipresent Self of All; then is its aim of existence attained, then is its pilgrimage ended. This may be done by realising the Eternal in oneself by knowledge, by realising oneself in Him by love as God the Beloved, or by realising Him as the Lord of all in His universe and all its creatures by works. This realisation is the

true crown of any ethical system. For whether we hold the aim of morality to be the placing of oneself in harmony with eternal laws, or the fulfilment of man's nature, or the natural evolution of man in the direction of his highest faculties, Hinduism will not object, but it insists that the Law with which man must put himself into relation is the Eternal in the Universe, that in this permanent and stable Truth man's nature fulfils itself out of the transient seemings of his daily existence and that to this goal his evolution moves. This consummation may be reached by ethical means through a certain manner of action and a certain spirit in action which is the essence of Karmamarga, the Way of Works, one of the three ways by which the spirit of man may see, embrace and become God. The first law of Karmamarga is to give up the natural desire for the fruits of our works and surrender all we do, think, feel and are into the keeping of the Eternal, and the second is to identify ourself with all creatures in the Universe both individually and collectively, realising our larger Self in others. These two laws of action together make what is called Karmayoga or the putting of ourselves into relation with that which is Eternal by means of and in our works. Before, then, we can understand what Karmayoga is, we must understand entirely and utterly what is this Eternal Being with whom we must put ourselves in relation and what are His relations with our self, with the phenomena of the Universe and with the creatures that people it. The Vedantic knowledge of Brahman, the Vedantic Cosmogony, the Vedantic explanation of the coexistence of Brahman with the Universe, the Eternal with the Transient, the Transcendent with the Phenomenal, the One with the Many, are what we have first to study.

Three verses of the Isha Upanishad describe directly the Brahman and His relations with the Universe, the fourth and fifth

Kavir manisi paribhuh svayambhur yathatathyato rhan vyada-dhacchasvatibhyah samabhyah.

We may for the present postpone the minuter considerstion of the last verse and proceed on the basis of the earlier two alone.

The first conclusion of Vedanta is that the Brahman in this shifting, multifold, mutable Universe is One, stable and unmoving, therefore permanent and unchanging.

The second conclusion of Vedanta is that Brahman pervades this Universe and possesses it.

The third conclusion of Vedanta is that Brahman which pervades, possesses, causes and governs the world is the same as the Absolute Transcendental Existence of which metaphysics speaks. Of this Transcendental Existence Vedanta always speaks in the neuter as Tat, that or it; of the Eternal Will which pervades and governs the Universe it speaks in the masculine as स, He. But in the [fourth] verse we find that to Tat are attributed that universal action and pervasiveness which is properly only attributable to स, the Eternal and Universal Will; the identification of the two could not be more complete. It is yet more strikingly brought out in the eighth verse where the description of the cosmical action of Brahman begins with स, but the negative attributes of this masculine subject immediately following are in the neuter as appropriate only to the Conditionless Brahman and those that follow later on and apply to the Universal Will revert to the masculine, - all without any break in the sentence.

The fourth conclusion of the Vedanta is that Brahman is not only the Absolute Transcendental Self, not only the One; Stable Immutable Reality in the phenomenal Universe, not only pervades, possesses, causes and governs it as an Eternal Universal Will, but contains and in a figurative sense is it as its condition, continent, material cause and informing force. Tasminnapo matarisva dadhati.

We have now ascertained in some detail the nature of the Vedantic Cosmogony and have some idea of the relations of Brahman to His Universe; but to us human beings, the crown and last glorious evolution of conscious phenomenal existence in psycho-physical matter, the real question of interest is not a knowledge of the nature of the Universe for its own sake, but a knowledge of our selves. [gnothi seauton], Know thyself, is still and always the supreme command for humanity, and if we seek to know the Universe, it is because that knowledge is necessary to the more important knowledge of ourselves. Science has adopted a different view; looking only at man as a separate bodily organism it fairly enough regards the Universe as more important than man and seeks to study its laws for their own sake. But still it remains true that humanity persists ill; its claim and that only those discoveries of the physicist, the zoologist and the chemist have been really fruitful which have helped man practically to master physical nature or to understand the laws of his own life and progress. Whatever moralist or philosopher may say, Yajnavalkya's great dictum remains true that whatever man thinks or feels or does, he thinks, feels and does not for any other purpose or creature but for the sake of his Self. The supreme question therefore yet remains imperfectly answered, "So much then for Brahman and the Universe ; but what of the things we have cherished so long, what of religion, what of God, what of the human soul?" To some extent the answer to this question has been foreshadowed, but before we get our foundations right for the structure of a higher ethical conception of life and conduct, we must probe to the core in comparison with the current and long-standing ideas on the subject the nature of the Supreme Being as set forth by the Vedanta and His relations to the individual self in man which are the chief preoccupation of religion. We may postpone till later the question whether ethics can or cannot be satisfactorily based on a materialistic interpretation of the world and non-religious sanctions and aims.

A question of the first importance arises at once, how far does the Vedanta sanction the ordinary ideas of God as a Personal Active Being with definite qualities which is all the average religionist understands by the Divine Idea. Whether we regard him with the Jews as a God of Power and Might and Wrath and Justice, or with the Moslems as God the Judge and Governor and Manager of the world or with the early Christians as a God of Love, yet all agree in regarding Him as a Person, definable, imaginable, limited in His Nature by certain qualities though not limited in His Powers, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent and yet by a mysterious paradox quite separate from His creatures and His world. He creates, judges, punishes, rewards, favours, condemns, loves, hates, is pleased, is angry, for all the world like a man of unlimited powers, and is indeed a Superior Man, a shadow of man's soul thrown out on the huge background of the Universe. The intellectual and moral difficulties of this conception are well-known. An Omnipotent God of Love, in spite of all glosses, remains inconsistent with the anguish and misery, the red slaughter and colossal sum of torture and multitudinous suffering which pervades this world and is the condition of its continuance; an Omnipotent God of Justice who created and caused sin, yet punishes man for falling into the traps He has Himself set, is an infinite and huge inconsistency, an insane contradiction in terms; a God of wrath, a jealous God, who favours and punishes according to His caprice, fumes over insults and preens Himself at the sound of praise is much lower than the better sort of men and, as an inferior, unworthy of tile adoration of the saints. An omnipresent God cannot be separate from His world, an infinite God cannot be limited in Time or Space or qualities. Intellectually the whole concept becomes incredible. Science, Philosophy, the great creeds which have set Knowledge as the means of salvation, have always been charged with atheism because they deny these conceptions of the Divine Nature. Science and Philosophy and Knowledge take their revenge by undermining the faith of the believers in the ordinary religions through an exposure of the crude and semi-savage nature of the ideas which religion has woven together into a bizarre texture of clumsy paradoxes and dignified with the name of God. They show triumphantly that the ordinary conceptions of God, when analysed, are incredible to the intellect, unsatisfactory

and sometimes revolting to the moral sense and. if they succeed in one or two cases in satisfying the heart, succeed only by magnificently ignoring the claims of the reason. They find it an easy task to show that the attempts of theologians to reconcile the difficulties they have created are childish to the trained reason and can find no acceptance with any honest and candid intellect. Theology in vain denies the right of reason to speak in matters of spiritual truth, and demands that the incredible should be believed at its command. Reason is too high a faculty to be with impunity denied its rights. In thus destroying the unsatisfactory intellectual conceptions with which it has been sought to bring the Eternal Being into the province of the reasoning powers, the core and essence of popular religion which is true and necessary to humanity is discredited along with its imperfect coverings; materialism establishes itself for a while as the human creed and the intellect of man holds despotic empire for a while at the expense of his heart and his ethical instincts, until Nature revenges itself and saves the perishing soul of mankind by flooding the world with a religious belief which seeks to satisfy the heart and the ethical instincts only and mocks at and tramples upon the claims of the intellect. In this unnatural duel between faculties which should work harmoniously for our development, the internal peace and progress of the human self is marred and stunted. Much that has been gained is repeatedly being lost and has to be recovered with great difficulty and not always in its entirety.

If reason unaided could solve the enigma of the world, it would be a different matter. But the reason is able only to form at the best an intellectually possible or logically consistent conception of the Eternal in the Universe; it is not able to bring Him home to the human consciousness and relate the human soul to Him as it should be related if He exists. For nothing is more certain than this that if a universal and eternal Consciousness exists, the life and development of the human soul must be towards It and governed by the law of Its nature: and a philosophy which cannot determine these relations so as to bring light and help to humanity in its long road is merely an intellectual plaything and might just as well have been kept as a private amusement when minds of a ratiocinative turn meet in the lecture-room or the study. Philosophy can see clearly that the Universe can be explicable only in the terms of the Eternal

Consciousness by which it exists. Either God is the material universe in which case the name is a mere convenient abstraction like the materialist's "Nature", or He is the Self within the Universe. If the Self, then He is either transcendent and beyond phenomena and the phenomenal Universe can only be Maya, an imagination in the Universal Mind, or else He is involved in phenomena. Consciousness His soul, the Universe His form, Consciousness the witnessing and inspiring Force, the Universe the work or Energy of the Consciousness. But whichever of these possibilities be the truth. Knowledge is not complete if it stops with this single conception and does not proceed to the practical consequences of the conception. If the universe is Maya, what of the human soul? Is that also Maya, a phenomenon like the rest which disappears with the dissolution of the body or is it permanent and identical with the Eternal Consciousness? If permanent, why then has it confused itself with phenomena and how does it escape from the bondage of this confusion? On the other hand if He is involved in phenomena, what is the relation of the human consciousness to the Eternal? Are our souls parts of Him or manifestations or emanations? And if so do they return into Him at the dissolution of the body or do they persist? And if they persist, what is their ultimate goal? Do they remain by individuality separated from Him for ever even after the end of phenomena or are both the Universe and the individual soul eternal? Or is the individual soul only phenomenally different from the eternal, and the phenomenal difference terminable at the pleasure of the Eternal or by the will of the individual Ego? What are the present relations of the self to the Eternal? What are sin and virtue? pleasure and pain? What are we to do with our emotions, desires, imaginations? Has the Eternal Consciousness any direct action on the phenomenal Universe and, if so, how is He different from the popular conception of God?

These are the questions which Philosophy has to answer, and in answering them the great difficulty it has to meet is its inability to find any better sanction for its conclusions than the play of speculative logic or to evolve anything better than a speculative system of metaphysics which may satisfy the argumentative faculty of the mind but cannot satisfy the reason of the heart or find its way to a mastery of that inner self in man which controls his life. Religion,

however imperfect, has the secret of that mastery; religion can conquer the natural instincts and desires of man, metaphysics can only convince him logically that they ought to be conquered — an immense difference. For this reason philosophy has never been able to satisfy any except the intellectual few and was even for a time relegated to oblivion by the imperious contempt of Science which thought that it had discovered a complete solution of the Universe, a truth and a law of life independent of religion and yet able to supercede religion in its peculiar province of reaching and regulating the sources of conduct and leading mankind in its evolution. But it has now become increasingly clear that Science has failed to substantiate its claims, and that a belief in evolution or the supremacy of physical laws or the subjection of the ephemeral individual to the interests of the slightly less ephemeral race is no substitute for a belief in Christ or Buddha, for the law of Divine Love or the trust in Divine Power and Providence. If Philosophy failed to be an ethical control or a spiritual force, Science has failed still more completely, and for a very simple reason — the intellect does not control the conduct. There is quite another mental force which controls it and which turns into motives of action only those intellectual conceptions of which it can be got to approve. We arrive therefore at this dilemma that Philosophy and Science can satisfy the reason but cannot satisfy the heart or get mastery of the source of conduct; while Religion which satisfies the heart and controls conduct, cannot in its average conceptions permanently satisfy the reason and thus exposes itself to gradual loss of empire over the mind.

A religion therefore which claims to be eternal, must not be content with satisfying the heart and imagination, it must answer to the satisfaction of the intellect the questions with which philosophy is preoccupied. A philosophy which professes to explain the world-problem once for all, must not be satisfied with logical consistency and comprehensiveness; it must like Science base its conclusions not merely on speculative logic, but on actual observation and its truths must always be capable of verification by experiment so that they may be not merely conceivable truth but ascertained truth; it must like religion seize on the heart and imagination and without sacrificing intellectual convincingness, comprehensiveness and accuracy impregnate with itself the springs of human activity; and

it must have the power of bringing the human self into direct touch with the Eternal. The Vedantic religion claims to be the eternal religion because it satisfies all these demands. It is intellectually comprehensive in its explanation of all the problems that perplex the human mind; it brings the contradictions of the world into harmony by a single luminous law of being; it has developed in Yoga a process of spiritual experience by which its assertions can be tested and confirmed; the law of being it has discovered seizes not only on the intellect but on the deepest emotions of man and calls into activity his highest ethical instincts; and its whole aim and end is to bring the individual self into a perfect and intimate union with the Eternal.

The answer to all philosophical problems hinges on the one question, What is myself. It is only by knowing man's real self that we can know God; for whatever we may think or know, the value of the thought and the knowledge must hinge upon the knower, the means of knowledge and^l

Vedanta's final and single answer to all the questions of philosophy is contained in a single mighty and ever-memorable phrase, So' ham. I am He, or more explicitly, or to the question of the inquirer,अहं ब्रह्मास्मि, I am Brahman. Cutting through all tremours and hesitations, scorning all doubt or reserve it announces with a hardy and daring incisiveness the complete identity of man and God. This is its gospel that the individual Self who seems so limited, thwarted, befouled, shamed and obscured with the bonds and shackles, the mud and stains of earthly life and the pure, perfect and illimitable Being who possesses and supports all existence, to Whom this vast and majestic Universe is but an inconsiderable corner of His mind and infinite Time cannot end and infinite Space cannot confine and the infinite net of cause and effect is powerless to trammel are equal, are of one nature, power, splendour, bliss, are One. It seems the very madness of megalomania, the very delirium of egoism. And yet if it be true?

And it is true. Reason can come to no other conclusion, Yoga ends in no less an experience, the voices of a hundred holy witnesses who have seen God face to face, bring to us no less wonderful a message. And since it is true, what eagerness should not fill us to

Ego or Self is an Ens which is not knowable by sight or any of the senses; it can only be grasped in the innate conception, "I am".

This intuitive and inherent self-perception is called subjective illumination; for there are two kinds of direct knowledge, one called subjective, the other objective illumination and the difference is that while objective illumination or as it is called the Supra-intelligence has for its object both the known and unknown, the object of subjective illumination is that which is perpetually and inevitably known, since even the Supra-intelligence is illumined or revealed by the light of the Ego. For as it is said, "The subtle self has consciousness for its

It has been said with a singularly subtle ineptitude that the existence of the One Formless Nameless Indivisible without Qualities and without desires may be admitted; and the existence of a multifold world of phenomena may be admitted; but that the one excludes the other. It is not possible that the Absolute should limit itself even illusorily; for any such limitation is an act and an act implies an object; but an Existence without desires can have no object to serve and cannot therefore act. Moreover the Infinite excludes the possibility of the Finite. This is a juggling with words. The Infinite instead of excluding the Finite supposes the Finite. When we think of the Infinite, it is not at first as a blind and limitless expanse but as the Finite Existence we know spreading on and on without beginning or limit. Having once formed the idea of the Infinite, we may then by an effort of the mind blot out that vision of finite things informing it and imagine Infinity as a blind and limitless expanse; but even so Infinity only exists to us on condition of the possibility of the Finite; it is there possible, latent, manifested in the past, to be yet manifested in the future. Destroy the possibility of the Finite and the Infinite becomes unimaginable. This is expressed in the Puranic philosophy of the Parabrahma absorbing all things into himself for a while only to put them forth again. Nor is the objection that an act implies an object, in itself tenable; an act may be pure and objectless, ceasing indeed to be an action in the ordinary human sense of the word but not in the philosophic or scientific sense. The sun acts when it shines though it has no object in doing so ( जड़वत् सदाचरेत्).

The Visishtadwaita recognizing that the Infinite implies the Finite within it, bases its ontology on the fact; the Adwaita points out however that the existence of the Finite is only a possibility and when it occurs implies no real change in the Infinite, nothing essential and permanent, but the objectless action of the Absolute or the working of a force which as it creates nothing real and lasting may well be called Maya or illusion. All turns on whether the Finite is a real. i.e. an essential and permanent existence or a mere condition of thought. If the former, the Visishtadwaita view is correct, but if the latter the Adwaita must claim our adherence.

IT IS no part of Sri Aurobindo's philosophical teaching that the jiva is a temporary creation , - what he has maintained [is that] the One and the Many are both of them eternal aspects of the Absolute Parabrahman. which is Itself neither one nor many in an exclusive sense. It is beyond unity and multiplicity in its essential truth as it is beyond all other oppositions, but neither unity nor multiplicity, neither the One nor the Many are illusions, they are both of them truths of the Absolute, otherwise they could have no existence nor could they come into existence. The world is a manifestation , and in it the absolute Parabrahman manifests as the Ishwara, the one Eternal. but also It manifests the multiplicity of the One in the jiva. This creates in the manifestation the double aspect of Being and Becoming. But Becoming does not mean that Being becomes what it never was before or that it ceases to be its eternal self; it manifests something that is already in its existence, a truth, a power, an aspect of itself; only the forms are temporal and can be deformed by the Ignorance. The Power of itself which thus manifests what is in Its being is its Shakti, Maya or Prakriti, three names for the same thing. It is called Prakriti when it is seen in its executive aspect as working out the manifestation for the Purusha or Ishwara.

It has been objected to the interpretation of this phrase as meaning that the supreme Nature of the Purushottama has become the jiva in the sense of manifesting itself as the individual self-embodying being, that this is a grammatical error. It is to take jivabhuta in the sense of jivibhuta, the Prakriti becoming what it never was before, whereas it is really equivalent to jivasama, the same as the jiva. Sentences are cited like purusottamasyamsabhutam kapilam, which means simply a Kapila who is a portion [of] Purushottama, upasanayah angabhutah. panyabhutam sariram. Shankara is right therefore in taking the jiva as the para prakrti of the Ishwara. This mistake of interpretation is fatal to the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.

The criticism itself suffers from a double error. Jivabhuta has not been taken in the sense of jivibhuta and it does not mean the same as the Jiva. भूत has always a sense of "becoming" on it and, where it establishes an identity it is a qualified or qualitative, not an essential and complete identity that it connotes.

Whether we regard the soul that manifests in a body as a portion of the Divine, eternal therefore like the Divine, as is held by the Gita, or the Divine himself in his aspect of multiplicity, or a separate being dependent on the Divine, as is held by the dualists, an illusory self-perception of the soul subject to Maya, the reality being the Divine himself, indivisible and ever unmanifested — one thing is certain that what appears as the jiva is something unborn and eternal.

WHEN the psychic being awakens you grow conscious of your own soul; you know your self. And you no longer commit the mistake of identifying yourself with the mental or with the vital being. You do not mistake them for the soul.

When awakened, the psychic being gives true bhakti for God or for the Guru. That bhakti is quite different from mental or vital bhakti.

In the mind one may have a strong admiration or appreciation for the intellectual or spiritual greatness of the Guru, — follow him and mentally accept his dictates. But if it is merely mental, that does not carry you very far. Of course, there is no harm in having that also. But by itself it does not open the whole of the inner being; it only establishes a mental contact.

The vital bhakti demands and demands. It imposes its own conditions. It surrenders itself to God, but conditionally. It says to God, "You are so great, I worship you. and now you must satisfy this desire of mine or that ambition; make me great: make me a great sadhaka, a great yogin'', etc.

The unillumined mind also surrenders to the Truth, but makes its own conditions. It says to the Truth, "Satisfy my judgment and my opinion." It demands of the Truth that it shall cast itself in its own (mental) forms.

The vital being also insists on the Truth throwing itself into its own vital movement of force. The vital being pulls at the Higher Power and pulls and pulls at the vital being of the Guru.

Both of them (the mental and the vital) have got an arriere pensee (mental reservation) in their surrender.

Psychic bhakti is not like that. Because it is in communication with the Divinity behind, it is capable of true bhakti. Psychic bhakti does not make any demand, it makes no reservations. It is satisfied with its own existence. The psychic being knows how to obey the Truth in the right way. It gives itself up truly to God or the Guru, and because it can give itself up truly, therefore it can also receive truly.

When the psychic being comes to the surface it feels sad if it sees that the mental or the vital being is making a fool of itself. That sadness is purity offended.

When the mind is playing its own game, or when the vital being is carried away by its impulses, it is the psychic being which says, "I don't want these things. What am I here for after all? I am here for the Truth; I am not here for these things."

The psychic sadness is a quite different thing from mental dissatisfaction or vital sadness or physical depression.

If the psychic being is strong, it makes itself felt on the mental or the vital being, and forces them to change. But if it is weak, the other parts take advantage of it and use the psychic for their own advantage.

In some cases it comes up to the surface and upsets the mental and the vital being and throws all their settled arrangements and habits into disorder, pressing for a new and divine order. But if the mind or the vital being is stronger than the psychic then it casts only an occasional influence and gradually retires behind. All its cry is in the wilderness; and the mental or the vital being goes on in its own round.

Lastly, the psychic being refuses to be deceived by appearances. It is not carried away by falsehood. It refuses to be oppressed by falsehood — nor does it exaggerate the Truth. For example, even if everything around says, "There is no God", the psychic being refuses to believe in it. It says, "I know, and I know because I feel."

And because it knows the thing behind, it is not deceived by appearances. It immediately feels the force.

Also, when the psychic being is awakened, it throws out ail the dross from the emotional being and makes it free from sentimentalism or the lower play of emotionalism.

But it is not the dryness of the mind or the exaggeration of the vital feelings. It gives the just touch to each emotion.

I DID not start with service in the College. I was put at first in the Settlement Department, not on any post, but for learning work. Afterwards I was put in the Revenue-Stamps Department, then in the Secretariat (not as Private Secretary). There were some episodes, I believe, of learning work in the Vahivatdar's office. My first work in the College was as Lecturer in French, but this was for an hour only, the rest of the time being given to other work. I have no recollection of being appointed Assistant "Private" Secretary. When I became English Professor in the College (which was after a long time) it was a permanent appointment and I went on in it uninterruptedly till I was appointed Vice-Principal, until, in fact, I left Baroda. This is what I remember. Perhaps by Private Secretary is meant an appointment in the Secretariat, but the English term does not mean that, it would mean work directly with the Maharaja. What work I did directly for the Maharaja was quite irregular and spasmodic, though frequent and I used to be called for that from my house, not from the office.

I was at Deoghur several times and saw my grandfather there, first in good health and then bedridden with paralysis. As I was not in the College, I must have gone on privileged leave.

1901. Transfer to Revenue Department 17.4.1901 (not in College) per Rs. 360/-. Chairman of Debating Society and College Union President.

At what time of the year was this? If I was in the Revenue Department, I could not at the same time be occupying these posts.

If I was in the Revenue Department from 1901-1904, what was my post and what was I doing there?

The only thing I recollect is a special work studying a sort of official history of the Administration (Gujarati¹ manuscript) perhaps for summary in English. I don't remember the dates.

1902. Service lent to College for six hours in the week for French (6th August 1902).

My own recollection is that my first connection with the College was as lecturer in French, other duties being added afterwards. There must have been a first lending of services (for French) which was not recorded. There is nothing about the first years outside the College; but I remember very well learning work in the Revenue Department (immediately after the term in the Survey Settlement Office) and also in the Secretariat without any final appointment in these earlier posts.¹

This might be [the] affair I refer to above. I had nothing to do with any current administrative report so far as I can remember. There was however private work at the Palace this time, compilation of a book (supposed to be by the Maharaja about his travels in Europe).

I received your telegram and postcard together this afternoon. I am at present in an exceedingly out of the way place, without any post-office within fifteen miles of it; so it would not be easy to telegraph. I shall probably be able to get to Bengal by the end of next week. I had intended to be there by this time, but there is some difficulty about my last months' salary without which I cannot very easily move. However I have written for a month's privileged leave and as soon as it is sanctioned shall make ready to start. I shall pass by Ajmere and stop for a day with Beno. My articles are with him; I will bring them on with me. As I do not know Urdu, or indeed any other language of the country, I may find it convenient to bring my clerk with me. I suppose there will be no difficulty about accommodating him.

I got my uncle's letter inclosing Soro's, the latter might have presented some difficulties, for there is no one who knows Bengali in Baroda — no one at least whom I could get at. Fortunately the smattering I acquired in England stood me in good stead, and I was able to make out the sense of the letter, barring a word here and a word there.

Do you happen to know a certain Akshaya Kumara Ghosha, resident in Bombay who claims to be a friend of the family? He has opened a correspondence with me — I have also seen him once at Bombay — and wants me to join him in some very laudable enterprises which he has on hand. I have given him that sort of double-edged encouragement which civility demanded, but as his letters seemed to evince some defect either of perfect sanity or perfect honesty, I did not think it prudent to go farther than that, without some better credentials than a self-introduction.

If all goes well, I shall leave Baroda on the 18th; at any rate it will not be more than a day or two later.

The Bourgeois and the Samurai. Written sometime between 1906 and 1907, this article was intended not for the Bande Mataram, the nationalist paper Sri Aurobindo was editing at that time, but for a certain "Review", probably one of the Calcutta monthlies. It was found, thoroughly revised, in one of Sri Aurobindo's notebooks of the period. While complete in one sense, the article was never prepared by the author for publication, and certain passages, especially at the beginning, were not completely worked into the text. The placement of these passages is the work of the editors. These facts should explain certain awkward transitions, etc. In one place two similar passages, one apparently an alternate version of the other, have both been retained, one being printed below the other in smaller type. The manuscript, while difficult to decipher, is sufficiently clear; a few illegible or doubtful words have been indicated. The essay was not titled by the author; the editors have provided the title given here.

Notes on Kalidasa. Written in Baroda during the earlier part of Sri Aurobindo's stay there (i.e. 1896-1900 or thereabouts), these two pieces predate the essays connected with the proposed work on Kalidasa which are published in SABCL Volume 3.

The Music of Silence. This poem, untitled in the original Bengali, was written by Sri Aurobindo during the early part of his stay in Pondicherry (1910-1920). The translation is by Shri Nolini Kanta Gupta.

Hindu Drama. This fragment seems obviously to be related to the essay entitled Hindu Drama published in SABCL Volume 3, pages 302-07. Both pieces appear to have been intended for inclusion in the proposed work on Kalidasa (see SABCL Vol. 3, p. 323), and can be dated, like the rest of the material connected with that work, to the period in Baroda around 1904.

To the Boers. The Boer War, during which this poem was written, took place between 1899 and 1902. Sri Aurobindo at that time was in Baroda, laying the foundations of the revolution he was sure would dislodge the imperial English from his homeland. "Maxim" (p. 26, 1. 22) = Maxim-gun, an early type of machine-gun.

Hymns of the Atris (series continued). None of the eleven hymns to the Vishwa-devas by the Rishis of the Atri clan (RV 5.41-51) were translated completely by Sri Aurobindo. The first five verses of Sukta 42 are reproduced here, for the first time, from a notebook used by Sri Aurobindo around 1912. Between that year and 1915, Sri Aurobindo translated all ten of the Atris' hymns to the Maruts (RV 5.52-61).

Hymns to the Mystic Fire. These two translations, like the others published under this title, are of "hymns to Agni from the Rig-veda translated in their esoteric sense".

The manuscript which contains these renderings of RV 1.58 and 60, has also a translation of the fifty-ninth hymn, which, in a revised form, was published in the Arya in January 1920. All three translations were done shortly before this date.

The First Hymn of the Rig-veda (series continued). The treatment of this hymn next in sequence to the one given in our last issue is the "Analysis" published as the second part of The First Rik of the Rig-veda on pages 443-458 of SABCL Volume 11. This Analysis was written in a ledger-sized notebook begun by Sri Aurobindo probably in 1912. The first part of The First Rik of the Rig-veda, the commentary occupying pages 439-442 of SABCL Volume 11, was written a short while afterwards in the same notebook. Between the two pieces, the translation and linguistic commentary given here occur. The Analysis and the two commentaries all treat the entire hymn at length. In the three cases, only the passages dealing with the first rik have been reproduced, as being representative of Sri Aurobindo's Vedic and linguistic research during this period.

The Origins of Aryan Speech. As explained in the footnote on page 58, this is a continuation of that draft of The Origins of Aryan Speech reproduced incompletely on pages 163-79 of SABCL Volume 27. Sri Aurobindo wrote the one and a half chapters already published in the last pages (including the inside back cover) of one of his Baroda notebooks some seven years after he had left Baroda, that is around 1913. Paper was scarce in those days, when at one point Sri Aurobindo's fortune amounted to one rupee, eight annas. Having used up every sheet in the first notebook, he picked up another and continued writing, without, however, leaving any indication about what he was doing for his future editors. It is thus that the pages now printed escaped notice earlier.

An Incomplete Work of Vedantic Exegesis. This piece seems to have been written at Baroda a little earlier than the Karmayogin commentary reproduced in our last two issues. The probable period of its composition is 1904-1906; it was certainly done before 1908. The present piece is unfinished; all the chapters projected were not completed, and certain passages in those that were have been left hanging. The editors have reproduced the piece exactly as they found it. Note that the "first book" referred to by Sri Aurobindo is not available and that both of the surviving books were headed "Book II" by the author.

Three Fragments. These pieces are among Sri Aurobindo's earliest philosophical writings. They belong to a period earlier than that of the above piece, perhaps 1902-04.

Note on a Criticism in The Modern Review. In the August 1942 issue of The Modern Review (p. 177) appeared an adverse review of a Sanskrit-Bengali edition of the Gita prepared by Anilbaran Roy, a disciple of Sri Aurobindo. The reviewer charged that the Sanskrit phrase para prakrtir jivabhuta (cf. Gita 7.5), translated by Anilbaran according to Sri Aurobindo's interpretation as presented in Essays on the Gita (see SABCL Vol. 13. pp. 254, 257 and 502), could not bear the meaning given it: the supreme nature which has become the jiva (individual soul). This Note,

written by Sri Aurobindo to refute the critic's imputation that the philosophical basis of his interpretation was ill founded, was never published. Instead Sri Aurobindo's disciple T.V. Kapali Sastri answered the reviewer very ably from a purely grammatical point of view in an article published in the Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual of 1943 (No. 2, pp. 236-42).

On the Psychic Being. A different version of this piece has already been published in Letters on Yoga, SABCL Volume 24. pages 1103-04. It is not actually a letter, but a record in English "taken from the idea of what he [Sri Aurobindo] had said in Bengali" by Barindrakumar Ghose, Sri Aurobindo's younger brother. Two copies of this English transcript were submitted to Sri Aurobindo at different times for revision. The present version is the more thoroughly revised of the two.

Sri Aurobindo on Himself. Sri Aurobindo wrote the first of these notes sometime in the 1940s after reading a typed memorandum about his service in Baroda entitled "General Information about Shri Ghose". This had been prepared by someone who had consulted some of the related records, but it contained several erroneous statements. In certain cases the errors were more of expression than of fact: e.g. in 1904 Sri Aurobindo was appointed not "Assistant Private Secretary" but Assistant Huzur Kamdar (Crown Secretary). In fact, however, while holding this post, he often fulfilled the duties of Private Secretary. It is true, according to numerous documents, that Sri Aurobindo served as professor in the College between 1898 and 1900 and after 1904 was its Vice-Principal, but that between 1901 and 1904 he had no official connection with the College. See the Chronological Outline of Sri Aurobino's Service in Baroda, pages 105-07.

The last four notes published here were written at the same time as the first one to correct or enlarge upon certain entries in a chronology which had been submitted, along with "Information about Shri Ghose" to Sri Aurobindo. Three of these entries are given in italics above Sri Aurobindo's comments.

A Letter of Sri Aurobindo to His Grandfather. This letter to Sri Aurobindo's famous grandfather Rajnarayan Bose was written less than a year after the grandson's return from England. Beno is Benoybhusan Ghose, Sri Aurobindo's eldest brother; Soro is Sarojini, their younger sister. The articles referred to are undoubtedly parts of the series New Lamps for Old (see SABCL Vol. 1, pp. 5-56).

Words already listed in the Glossary to the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library have not been included. As in that glossary, proper names and words occurring in poems or as philological examples have been omitted.

Page
8	tilaka, caste mark.	80	प्रकृतिर्जीवभूता, (prakrtir jivabhuta), Nature which has become the jiva (individual Soul).
16	zanana (zenana) [Hind.], part of house where women are segregated.	80	jivabhuta, become the jiva.
16	sanotal (Santal) [Being.], one of a tribe of eastern India.	80	jivabhuta, become the jiva (having before been something entirely different).
55	tejomaya, brilliant, fiery.	80	jivasama, the same as the jiva.
55	suryaloka, world of the sun.	80	purusottamasyamsabhutam kapilam. a Kapila who is (has become) a portion of Purushottama.
61	guna, quality ; mind-impression.	80	upasanayah angabhutah, (that which has) become an element of worship.
61	svadham anu, according to its own self-arrangement.	80	panyabhutam sariram, a body which has become a saleable commodity.
61	rtumranu, in (according to) the straight line of the truth of things.	81	भूत (bhuta). become.
62	phratria [Greek]. brotherhood: a political division of a people.	84	vahivatdar. [Gujarali]. Collector and principal officer of a Taluk.
67	iccha (Ichcha). Will.	86	taluka (Taluk) [Hind.], a subdivision of a District.
70	सः (sa) [more properly सः (sah) ] He.
77	अहं ब्रह्मास्मि (aham brahmasmi). I am Brahman.
78	जड़वत् सदाचरेत् (jadavat sadacaret). should always move or act inertly.

I am extremely sorry that we have misled you concerning the date of Carthage's arrival in Bombay in January 1893. The entry in the Nautical Reports, dated 1892, led us to believe this referred to the month of December, but in fact we discovered it referred to the month of January and we therefore gave you the itinerary for the previous year. The following itinerary is the true one, which seems to fit in more neatly with your presumed date of Sri Aurobindo's arrival about 8 February 1893: -

Lloyd's was able to give us some information on a ship wrecked off Portugal towards the end of 1892. She was a vessel of the Anchor Line (owned by Henderson Brothers) named ROUMANlA, which was wrecked in heavy weather at the mouth of the river Arelho, near Peniche (about 50 miles from Lisbon), on 27 October 1892 while on passage from Liverpool to Bombay. There were 55 passengers and 67 crew on board. A total of 113 people were lost - only two passengers and seven seamen being saved. ^l

We have not yet heard from the Public Record Office on the results of their search, but in order not to delay sending you the information we have so far managed to find, any supporting evidence they may unearth that Sri Aurobindo was on board Carthage will be forwarded to you later.

A letter from Miss F.M.M. Beall, International Relations Division. The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, London, to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives and Research Library, 25 September 1972.

An examination of the relevant Board of Trade Passenger Lists (B.T. 27/135) has revealed that a person by the name of Mr. A. Ghose appears on the list of passengers who embarked on the S.S.Carthage at London on January 11,² 1893.

A letter from A.R. Ford, Public Record Office, London, to the Archives. 19 February 1975.

1 It was after hearing a report of this disaster that Dr. K.D. Ghose. Sri Aurobindo's father, thinking his son had set sail on the Roumania, died with the name "Aurobindo" on his lips.

2 Perhaps Sri Aurobindo boarded the Carthage on the eleventh, and the ship departed from London on the twelfth (see Document 1)

His Highness the Maha Raja Saheb has been pleased to order that Mr. Arvind A. Ghose who had been recently employed in the service of this State on a salary equivalent in Baba shai currency ¹ of British Rupees (200) two hundred, per mensum, should be instructed to work as an attache in the Settlement Department and also to learn the Gujerati language within six months.²

Mr. Ghose should be given Rs. 50 more from the first of this month and the Dewan should take responsible work from him and inform this office accordingly.

His Highness the Maharaja Saheb has been pleased to order that Mr. Aravind Ghose should be appointed as attache in the Dewan Office and should do the important cases given to him.

His Highness was kind enough to say that Mr. Ghose might teach in the College for one hour a day. Also that he was wanted in the afternoons by His Highness. Accordingly I made a time-table that would leave Mr. Ghose free in the afternoons. He was to have begun work on Monday at 1. but was telephoned for to go out to Makerpura ⁴ to His Highness instead . Naturally the students are greatly disappointed. They see a gift made with one hand and taken away with the other. Mr. Ghose has not corne, as he says (quite reasonably) that until hours are fixed

2 Sri Aurobindo was rather remiss about learning Gujarati. Although he picked up a little of this language and also of Marathi during his stay at Baroda. he was reprimanded in and again in 1898

4 Makerpura Palace, a residence of the Maharaja on the outskirts of the city of Baroda.

it will be impossible for him to guarantee regularity of attendance. I think it very desirable that Mr. Ghose should [be] lent to us for an hour a day. But after all it is the Baroda State that gets the credit of having a well-equipped or badly-equipped College, and I can only ask for equipment, it is for Government to grant or withhold it.

His Highness the Maharajah is willing to share the services of Mr. Ghose for the present for employment in the College. His Highness at the same time states that it is possible that Mr. Ghose may have to be employed a couple of months hence in another capacity and in that case he will have to be withdrawn from the College for some months.

This tippan¹ for continuing the services of Prof. A.A. Ghose in the Baroda College until further orders having been submitted to H.H. the Maharaja Sahib he has been pleased to order that the proposal of the Department is sanctioned until a successor is appointed to Mr. Littledale or until the Sirkar² sees it fit, even within that time, to order otherwise.

His Highness the Maharaja Saheb has been pleased to order that Mr. Aravind Ghose. who works with His Highness the Maharaja Saheb at his [Ghose's] leisure time, should be given Rs. 60 over and above his pay for the additional work he does.

I have just sent in a tippan to the Dewan Saheb pointing out that for various reasons it is essential to retain Mr. Ghose as a Professor in the College, and requesting him to obtain the orders of His Highness to that effect. What I have stated I herewith append for your information. You know as well as I do how necessary' it is that the College staff should be strengthened in order that it may emerge from second class rank. I therefore trust that you will mention this matter to His Highness,

and ask him to be kind enough to assist me in making the College a better Institution than it has hitherto been. At the same time you may add any more arguments of your own that occur to you in favour of my proposal.

His Highness the Maharaja Saheb approves of Mr. Tait's suggestion for the present and Mr. Ghosh should continue in the College as an Extra Professor.

In case a change is required His Highness will duly communicate his desire to Mr. Tait after his return to Baroda.

His Highness the Maharaja Saheb has an idea of getting the memoirs of his life and of his reign, together with a Review of the last twenty years' Administration in Baroda written soon after his return to Baroda. For this purpose the services of Professor Aravind A. Ghose of the Baroda College will be required for about a year or so. Arrangements should therefore be made to relieve Mr. Ghose from his college duties soon after the return of His Highness.

By the above arrangement Mr. Ghose will not lose his lien upon the college appointment, which he may have at present, nor would he be prevented from reverting to the college after his temporary work is finished.

(1) During the absence of Mr. French on duty in Europe, Professor Aravind A. Ghose will be in charge of the tuition of the younger Princes; and will superintend over their education.

(2) This special work, Mr. Ghose will do, over and above the work of compiling a Report on the Twenty Years' Administration of the Baroda State, entrusted to him.

A tippan No. 19 dated the 30th December 1902 having been submitted to the Huzur with the request to spare the services of Mr. Ghose for about 6 hours a week for the purpose of lecturing on French books assigned for the University Examinations, His Highness the Maharaja Sahib has been pleased to pass the following order

(2) The services of Mr. Ghose should be utilized in the College for other subjects also for more than the 6 hours in a week proposed.

Memo by Principal (kited 30 January 19i)3 citing Huzur Order dated 21 January 1903.

His Highness the Maharaja Saheb was, in the Huzur Order No.12 dated 21.1.03, pleased to place the services of Mr. Ghose at the disposal of the College for the purpose of lecturing on the French Books assigned for university Examinations. He moreover ordered that his services should be utilised for other subjects also, so as to occupy him in the College for a longer period. Accordingly he reported himself to the Principal on the 3rd February, and worked upto the 17th February as directed. Since then he has not put in an appearance and the undersigned knows nothing whatever about him.

Of course it is obvious that no French lectures or any work whatever can be carried on under such a system. The undersigned therefore brings the matter to the notice of the Dewan Saheb and requests that due orders may be issued discharging Mr. Ghose from all work in connection with the College or else causing him to return there for regular and systematic duty.

1. From the 22nd February I was absent on leave for a month. 1 had written to the Principal reporting my departure, but it appears the letter was not received.

2. Previous to that for two or three days I was called to the Palace on urgent work.

3. Subsequent to my return from leave I was taking the classes in the afternoon at my own house, as three-quarters of an hour in the morning were insufficient. I may mention that I was always in the habit of making my own arrangements with the students, which was the more necessary as I had several branches of work to attend to.

4. As I am now attached to the Swari¹ in charge of the Secretary's work during the Cashmere trip. I shall not be able to take the French classes this term.

In the interests of the College I may also remark that Mr. Ghose had acquired a reputation in the College when he was Professor of English, about 4 years back. If his services could be wholly spared to the College, he may be advantageously

entrusted with the work that I have chalked out above for a new Oxford man. With the University also, he will carry as much weight as another Englishman.

From the opinion of the Vidyadhikari (Minister of Education) dated 5 August 1904, to a Tippan of the Vice-Principal dated 2 August 1904 requesting the Huzur "to appoint an English

graduate in the College to carry on Mr. Tait's [the Principal's] work after his retirement."

His Highness the Maharaja Saheb after being shown the Tippans No. 1 dated 2.8.04 and No. 51 of 14.7.04 of the English Educational Department has been pleased to order that with regard to the proposal in the first, the services of Mr. Aravind A. Ghose can be spared for English work in the College, as suggested in the opinion of the Vidyadhikari. Mr. Ghose's work should be so arranged that he may be able to spare two hours in the day to attend for work in the Huzur whenever required by His Highness. When he finds that this double work is becoming more than he can manage, he must inform His Highness so that he may either be entirely spared to the College or replaced by someone else. The Principal will make whatever readjustment of the College work may be required as a result of the appointment.

2. Mr. Ghose's official designation will be that of Vice-Principal and from the time he takes up the duties of the post, his pay will be increased by Rs. 100 British.

I have been directed by H.H. the Maharaja Saheb to join the College immediately if that were possible so that there might be no delay in my beginning to draw the increment in my salary. In accordance with these instructions I have reported myself to Mr. Clarke today, having forwarded the original order of my appointment in due course. I am also instructed, as there will be vacation for three months, to continue to help Mr. Karandikar in the work of Huzur Kamdar as before.

These directions will, I presume, emend the last paragraph of the Huzur Order of the 26th September 1904 on the tippan for Mr. Clarke's confirmation as Principal, since in the original order it is directed that the increment shall begin from the day I join the College.

From a letter Aravind A. Ghose, Huzur Kamdar (Crown Secretary), to Dewan dated 28 September 1904.

Handed over charge of the Office of the Principal, Baroda College to Aravind A. Ghose Esq., Vice-Principal, Baroda College today after office hours.

Received the above in charge from A.B. Clarke Esq. Principal, Baroda College, today after office hours.

It was Sri Aurobindo's study of Tamil, begun in 1909 or 1910. which opened for him the doors not only to a new science of language, but also to a new interpretation of the Veda. Before this time his study of languages had been, for the most part, literary. He spoke English from his earliest childhood, and was tutored in French and Latin before entering St. Paul's School, London, at the age of eleven. At St. Paul's he improved his Latin and learned Greek so well that when he entered King's College. Cambridge, in 1890, it was after having passed the Scholarship examination with record marks. At King's he perfected his knowledge of Latin and Greek , studied Sanskrit . Bengali, and Hindustani (having by then forgotten the little Hindustani he had spoken, along with English, as a child in Bengal) and picked up enough German, Italian and Spanish to be able to read the classics of these languages in the original. Thus by 1892 Sri Aurobindo was already a versatile " linguist" in the old sense of the word, i.e. a, profoundly cultured polyglot. His knowledge of the new science of linguistics, or philology, as it was then called, was of a very general nature.

On his return to India in 1893 Sri Aurobindo began an intensive study of the languages and literatures of India. He concentrated on Sanskrit and Bengali, but also learned a little Gujarati and Marathi (the two languages of the Baroda state, where he was serving), and also a certain amount of Hindi. At first it was India's rich secular literature that attracted him. He read and translated into English passages from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and classical writers such as Kalidasa. In Bengali it was to Bankimchandra and Madhusudhan Dutt that his attention was chiefly turned, although he also read and translated mediaeval poets such as Chandidasa. Later he became more interested in India's vast spiritual heritage and read the Gita and the Upanishads in the original Sanskrit (translating much of what he read into English) and also examined, in translation, the primary source of India's culture, " the fount of our philosophies, the bedrock of our religions. the kernel of our thought. the explanation of our ethics and society, the summary of our civilisation, the rivet of our nationality ... Veda. "¹

This was written around 1905. But, despite his intuitive appreciation of the importance of the Veda (and it should be noted that the term is used above in its widest sense to include the Brahmanas, Upanishads and even the Gita), before coming to Pondicherry Sri Aurobindo "like the majority of educated Indians... had passively accepted without examination . . . the conclusions of European Scholarship both as to the religious and as to the historical and ethnical sense of the ancient hymns."² That is to say, he considered them relatively recent compositions, hardly older than the Homeric poems, "the hymnal of an early, primitive and largely barbaric society"³ which had descended upon Dravidian India from

the plains of Central Asia and the Ukraine, "a half-superstitious, half-poetic allegory of Nature with an important astronomical element."¹ Valued by Sri Aurobindo as "an important document of our national history," they "seemed of small value or importance for the history of thought or for a living spiritual experience." It was the Upanishads, the Vedanta rather than the Veda proper, which Sri Aurobindo, "following again the ordinary line taken by modernised Hindu opinion ... regarded ... as the most ancient source of Indian thought and religion, the true Veda, the first Book of Knowledge."²

Sri Aurobindo's first real "contact with Vedic thought came indirectly while pursuing certain lines of self-development in the way of Indian Yoga"³ apparently in Chandernagore in 1910. Certain symbolic names connected with specific yogic experiences came into his mind, and along with them were seen figures of three Vedic Goddesses, who represented to him "three out of the four faculties of the intuitive reason."⁴ But it was not until after his arrival in Pondicherry, a short while later, that Sri Aurobindo's thoughts were first seriously turned to the Veda. "Two observations," he writes, "that were forced on my mind gave a serious shock to my second-hand belief in the racial division between the Northern Aryans and Southern Dravidians." These were the inconclusiveness of the "supposed difference between the physical types of the Aryan and Dravidian" and the no less striking lack of evidence to support the supposedly "definite incompatibility between the northern Sanskritic and southern non-Sanskritic tongues."⁵

For on examining the vocables of the Tamil language, in appearance so foreign to the Sanskritic form and character, I yet found myself continually guided by words or by families of words supposed to be pure Tamil in establishing new relations between Sanskrit and its distant sister. Latin, and occasionally, between the Greek and the Sanskrit. Sometimes the Tamil vocable not only suggested the connection, but proved the missing link in a family of connected words. And it was through this Dravidian language that I came first to perceive what seems to me now the true law, origins and, as it were, the embryology of the Aryan tongues.⁶

It was not only the sense of the Veda and of his own yogic experiences that were illuminated by his research ; "my first study of Tamil words," he wrote, " had brought me to what seemed a clue to the very origins and structure of the ancient Sanskrit tongue ; and so far did this clue lead that I lost sight entirely of my original subject of interest, the connections between Aryan and Dravidian speech, and plunged into the far more interesting research of the origins and laws of development of human language itself." ⁷

Sri Aurobindo passed from a casual examination of the local language of Pondicherry to an assault on the frontiers of human ignorance. And the central field of the engagement was the Veda.

Much of Sri Aurobindo's Vedic and linguistic research has never been published. His psychological interpretation of the Rig-veda may, of course, be found in the pages of The Secret of the Veda. In the same book and in Hymns to the Mystic Fire are many translations of Vedic hymns. For an idea of his linguistic theories one must read brief passages scattered throughout such works as The Secret of the Veda, The Future Poetry and Kena Upanishad. Sri Aurobindo never completed the major work on the origins of Aryan speech that he intended to write, although drafts of chapters for the proposed treatise exist, which have been published in SABCL Volumes 10, 11 and 27¹. But there remains a large body of Vedic and linguistic notes, drafts of translations and explanations of Vedic hymns and presentations of Vedic and linguistic theory which have never appeared in print. In the last issue of Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research we began the publication of two series of such material. The first, a continuation of Sri Aurobindo's Arya series Hymns of the Atris, is the first step towards the complete presentation of his Vedic translations. It should be noted that Sri Aurobindo's unpublished Vedic renderings were done by him during different periods and were never completely revised. But while they thus do not constitute a unified translation (Sri Aurobindo at one time planned to edit, gloss and translate the entire Rig-veda²), they yet will be of great value to scholars interested in seeing how he applied his psychological theory at different times to more than one quarter of the hymns of the Rig-veda. For many hymns several translations are available. The editors have chosen the version that appeared to them to be the latest, i.e. the one which represents best the final form of Sri Aurobindo's theory, which was in constant development between the second and fifth decades of this century. This chronological element is given prominence in the second series begun in our last issue, The First Hymn of the Rig-veda. Here will appear translations and explanations of the first Sukta of the Veda, which Sri Aurobindo, over the course of forty years, rendered or wrote about more than a dozen times. This series should suggest the richness and depth of Sri Aurobindo's Vedic studies, as well as the prolonged and constantly perfected effort he put into them. In the present issue a third series of new material is commenced, a continuation of Hymns to the Mystic Fire, in which translations of hymns to Agni from the Rig-veda which have not already been printed in SABCL Volume 11 will appear.

1 A continuation of the draft published incompletely in Volume 27 appears on pages 58 to 64 of this issue

Compiled from documents at the Central Record Office. Baroda: the Faculty of Arts, M.S. University (formerly Baroda College) and other authentic sources.

1892	November	Sri Aurobindo meets Sayajirao Gaekwar, the Maharaja of Baroda, in London; the Maharaja engages his services at Rs. 200 per month.
1893	12 January	Departure from London on the steamship Carthage.
	6 February	Lands at Bombay.
	18 February	First reference to Sri Aurobindo in the Baroda State records; he begins his service as a probationer in the Survey Settlement Department, his pay retroactive to 8 February.
1894	1 March	Transferred (still as a probationer) to the Revenue Department.
1895	May	Called to Ootacamund by the Maharaja to prepare a precis on the Bapat case.
	October	Salary increased by Rs. 50 per month.
	November	Appointed Attache in Dewan's Office (Huzur English Office); serves here until February 1898. often doing personal work for the Maharaja.
1897	January	A- plan for Sri Aurobindo to begin work in the Baroda College, teaching French, miscarries; it is likely, however, that from this time Sri Aurobindo's services are lent to the College informally.
1898	February	Appointed Extra Professor of English at the Baroda College; salary increased to Rs. 300 per month.
	August	Elected President of Managing Committee of Baroda State Library, a position he holds until the end of 1901.
1898-1901		Working in the College; active throughout this period in the College Union, taking charge of the Debating Society and the College Miscellany.
1899	22 July	Address to the Baroda College Social Gathering.
	April	Salary increased to Rs. 360 for work done by Sri Aurobindo, during his spare time, for the Maharaja.
	15 May	Given cash bonus of Rs. 2000.
	1-17 August	On privileged leave in Bengal (where he works to organise the revolutionary movement).
	September	The Principal presses the Maharaja to make Sri Aurobindo's appointment in the College permanent; the Maharaja (who is in Europe) declines, saying he wants Sri Aurobindo to ghostwrite his memoirs, prepare a Twenty Years' Report of the Baroda administration etc.
1901	April	Relieved from College work; instructed to draw his salary from the office of the Sar Subha (Chief Collector).

	19 April	"Given charge of the tuition of the younger Princes" and asked to prepare the twenty years' report; the first work was done by Sri Aurobindo during the absence of the regular tutor, the second was never taken up.
	May-June	After his marriage (30 April 1901) Sri Aurobindo and his wife stay with the Maharaja in Nainital.
1902	May	On privileged leave; organises revolutionary work in Bengal.
	June	At Lonavla with the Maharaja.
	6 August	A recommendation and promotion¹ (salary increased to Rs. 450) given by the Maharaja after Sri Aurobindo submits a 72 page report on trade in Baroda State; he is entrusted with the work of compiling annual administrative reports (a task he never fulfils).
	October	Sister Nivedita meets the Maharaja and Sri Aurobindo in Baroda.
1903	Feb.-April	Works on state correspondence with the Government of India about proposed visit of the Maharaja to Europe.
	February	Serves as French lecturer in the College for two weeks.
	Feb.-March	On leave in Bengal; again devotes himself to political work.
	May-Sept.	On tour in Kashmir (Srinagar, Archibal, Gulmarg, Ganderbal) as Private Secretary to the Maharaja; returns (via Murree and Lahore) to Baroda by October.
1904	1 June	Begins work as Assistant Huzur Kamdar (Crown Secretary).
	27 September	By a Huzur Order of this date Sri Aurobindo is appointed Vice-Principal of the College and given an increment of Rs. 100 (making his pay Rs. 550); he continues working as Assistant Huzur Kamdar until December.
1905	3 March	Made Acting Principal of the College, given allowance of Rs. 160: continues to hold this position until February 1906. For a time serves also as Acting Minister of Education.
1906	February	Resumes position of Vice-Principal of the College.
	March	Leaves Baroda for Calcutta on two months' privileged leave: openly joins the swadeshi-boycott movement.
	June	Returns to Baroda and takes one year's leave without pay. This marks the end of Sri Aurobindo's Baroda service.

Sri Aurobindo came to Baroda in February 1893. His "first friend" there was Bapubhai Majumdar, a young man he had known in England. "He took me to his house and I stayed there for some time," Sri Aurobindo once remarked. (Purani, Evening Talks, Series One, pp. 305-06.) During the next thirteen years, the period of his active service in Baroda State, Sri Aurobindo lived at one lime or another in as many as a half-dozen houses in the city of Baroda. One of these was in the Camp near the bazaar and another behind the College on the way to the Camp (Government Quarters). There was also Mir Bakarali's wada, near Shiapura, and Kiledar's wada, on the way to Makerpura Palace. Sri Aurobindo seems to have stayed in the latter house during the first outbreak of plague in Baroda (1896-97). Another house occupied for some time was a certain bungalow on Racecourse Road. It was probably to this place that Sri Aurobindo was referring when, in September 1903, in response to a request from King's College, Cambridge, he gave his address as "Racecourse Road, Baroda, or the Baroda Officers' Club, Baroda Gymkhana."

But the house where Sri Aurobindo seems to have spent most of his time at Baroda was the bungalow of his friend Khaserao Jadhav. This place, Bungalow 15 in Dandia Bazar, was built especially for Khaserao by the Maharaja and was completed in 1896. It was around this time that Sri Aurobindo first made Khaserao's acquaintance. The following passage, which includes a description of the bungalow, is taken from an unpublished biography of Sri Aurobindo by his younger brother, Barindra Kumar.

"One fine morning I took a rickshaw at Baroda railway station of G.I.P. line and with my cheap canvas valise and in travel-stained clothes appeared before the red brick-built two-storied house of Khaserao Jadhav, Naib-Suba (Chief Collector)¹ of Navsari in Guzrat.

"The butler of the house met me at the door and dubiously ushered me into the fine drawing room near the portico. He was hard put to it to believe me and take such a loafer in dirty clothes as the brother of the great Ghose Saheb of the Maharaja Sahib of Baroda. He disappeared somewhere upstairs to announce my arrival. Almost immediately after, Sri Aurobindo came hurriedly down the grand staircase and spirited me away to a bath-room before his friends could find his youngest brother in that sorry plight. After a refreshing bath, [in] new clothes borrowed from him and a shirt too long at the sleeves, I came out — a shy callow juvenile youth and had to meet Khaserao at the table — the wittiest tormenter in Baroda society. Khaserao's house was a sweet nest of repose and culture after my arduous and sordid life at B. Ghose's tea stall near the College gate, which I had started in Patna along with a small stationery shop.

"Madhavrao Jadav, Khaserao's younger brother, a lieutenant in the army, was just then getting ready to go to Japan for his military education.

"A rather big hall, facing the lawn, beyond which ran the main street from the railway station to Luxmi Vilash Palace, two rooms on its right and a covered inner courtyard, with a dining-room on one side and servants' quarters on the other,

1 Naib-Suba means Assistant Collector; Khaserao was in fact Sar Suba or Chief Collector |Ed.)

this was how the house was built. The same number of rooms were repeated upstairs, of which the hall was Sri Aurobindo's study. A table, a sofa, a number of chairs, all heaped pellmell with books and a revolving book-case groaning under their weight - all thinly covered with dust; a quiet small unassuming man buried there for hours in a trance of thought and very often writing page after page of poetry, that was the habitual picture I became accustomed to daily.

"Aurobindo was a late riser, waking up at nine in the morning. He used to sit down to his study after a cup of tea and toast. My room downstairs, nestling in the remote corner of the lawn, was the rendezvous of the family for gossip and merry talk. There used to come at noon my sister with her austere, silent face, Sri Aurobindo with his far-off detached look and absent-minded smile and his wife Mrinalini with her timid eyes and shy half-veiled face."

A picture of Khaserao's bungalow, taken some years ago, before it was presented to the Sri Aurobindo Society, Baroda, is reproduced as Plate 2.

It has long been known that Sri Aurobindo once was called to the South Indian hill-station of Ootacamund (or "Ooty") in order to prepare a precis of the Bapat case for the Maharaja. Bapat was a land settlement officer of the Baroda State who was defended in this celebrated and long-drawn-out trial by B.G. Tilak. Recent research in the Central Record Office, Baroda, has established the dates of Sri Aurobindo's visit. Contemporary documents show that he was called to Ooty on 24 May 1895 and arrived there on the twenty-sixth. He was at that time twenty-two years old. The Maharaja's residence in the Nilgiris mountain resort was "Farrington House" (see Plate 4). This small bungalow looks across a lovely valley to what was in 1895 the mansion of the Governor of Madras.