-08_One Without a Second

OM. There is Brahman alone, the One without a second. Being and Non-Being are its forms and It is also beyond Being and Non-Being. There is nothing else except That. All that is contained in the three times and all that is beyond the three times is indeed that One Brahman alone. Whatever is in the universe, small or large, noble or mean, is Brahman alone, Brahman alone. The world is also Brahman. It is true, not false.

That alone is the Transcendent Being, beyond all the three times, beyond all the worlds, penetrating all the worlds, beyond Being, beyond Non-Being, All-Being, All-Consciousness, All-Bliss, without beginning and end, the eternal Divine.

He is without quality and supports all qualities. He has qualities, infinite qualities, and enjoys the state of being without quality. He Himself transcends the state of being without qualities and the state of being with qualities. He is neither without quality nor with quality because He is One and Single.

He is beyond the worlds, yet He holds the worlds. He becomes the worlds and enters into them. He transcends Time, becomes Time. Infinite, He shines as Finite. One, He becomes Many. Formless, He assumes forms. He achieves all this by His Consciousness-Force which consists of Knowledge and Ignorance.

He himself is neither holder nor held, neither infinite nor finite, neither one nor many, neither formless nor formed, because He is One and Single.

All these are but Names, that which is called oneness and that which is called multiplicity, that which is called infinite and that which is called finite; all these Names shine out indeed in the world whose very Self is Consciousness and which consists of Consciousness alone.

OM (the triple Brahman, the outward-looking, the inward or subtle and the superconscient causal Purusha), Tat (the absolute). Sat (the supreme and universal existence in its principle). And that

which is Existence, the same is Consciousness. The world constituted of consciousness shines in the Spirit which is consciousness. It is the real light of the Real Divine.

As the reflection of the sun is one in calm water, but multiple in restless water; real is the sun, real the reflection, the real light of the real sun, it is not a dream but the light of a reality. Or as the light of the sun shines filling the solar world with its force as if running; real is that light, the real lustre of the real sun, that is not false shining, but a real lustre of a reality. Or as the flaming disc of the sun is not the sun itself, but this material form only manifests the sun-ness of the sun to our knowledge which is dependent on the material being, the sun is beyond that form; real is the sun, real the form in the shape of the disc, it is the real light of the real sun, not illusory, but the real light of a reality.

Similarly, here the World-Brahman is the true light of the Divine, not a dream, nor illusory, nor a false shining. It is the real light of the Reality, not the Divine in himself but still He himself only. This is the supreme Maya, this is the greatness of the Yoga of the mysterious Lord of Yoga, Sri Krishna. This is His blissful Lila with His Consciousness-Force, this is the inconceivable working of the Supreme.

All this is phenomenally true, but false in reality — this may be said for the satisfaction of the mind, for the comprehensive knowledge, but there is nothing unreal in the real Brahman.

OM (the triple Brahman, the outward-looking, the inward or subtle and the superconscient causal Purusha), Tat (the absolute). Sat (the supreme and universal existence in its principle). And that which is Existence, the same is Consciousness and that which is Consciousness, the same is Bliss. As for that which appears as devoid of Bliss, as suffering and weakness and ignorance, it is the deformation of that Bliss, the play of Bliss.

That, indeed, which is Jiva (individual soul) is the all-blissful Divine in disguise, descended to enjoy the self-luminous World-Brahman. This which is the experience of suffering is an experience made of bliss. The All-Blissful enjoys its bliss only.

1 This line may also be translated: The world which thus manifests is Bliss itself.

Who indeed could dare enjoy that which is devoid of bliss? He only could dare it who is all-blissful. As for him who is devoid of bliss, he while enjoying the blissless, would still not enjoy it, would rather perish without bliss. Who can become weak? He only can who is all-powerful. The weak one indeed invaded by weakness would not endure, but would perish without force. Who could enter Ignorance? Only He who is omniscient could enter it. As for the ignorant, he could not endure in that darkness, non-being would remain non-being only. It would perish without knowledge. Ignorance is the play of knowledge, concealing itself in itself. Weakness is the play of Power, blisslessness the play of bliss, the concealment of itself in itself.

Blissfully laughs the Jiva, blissfully cries, sheds tears, blissfully throbs as if shining in dark Ananda, agitated by tortures, blissfully throbs agitated by violent pleasures. For the full enjoyment of the dark ignorant portion of that Ananda he (Jiva) conceals It, becoming obscure and ignorant.

Ignorance is the root of this idea that I am but finite and therefore incapable, weak and sorrowful. I have to act, know and achieve with labour, at the expense of energy, incurring mortality. Thou art that, I am this, that which thou art I am not, that which is good for thee is bad for me, I lose by that by which thou gainest, I shall be happy only if 1 kill thee. I am not at all so illumined and happy that I may make thee happy by my own suffering, by my own loss and by my death, etc. This is the form of Ignorance in Mind.

Ego is indeed its seed. By deliverance from Ego one is delivered from Ignorance. By deliverance from Ignorance one is delivered from suffering. Knowing that I am all-blissful. He am I, I am One, I am Infinite, I am All, one becomes all-blissful, one becomes a Being of Bliss.

This indeed is liberation. Liberated, he enjoys the enjoyments of all, enjoying all joys infinitely he is not separated from finites, enjoying finites he is not deprived of the Infinite. He is One, He becomes many. He is indeed unborn and is, as it were, born. Even being born He is not born, is not bound. He has no birth. "I the Self reveal Self by Self in Self" — liberated by this knowledge one enjoys the play.

for joy. Therefore be engaged in Lila, O sons of Bliss! Being united, play. Enjoy the Bliss. Having attained the One enjoyable Divine, enjoy Him in all things.

As commanded by the Divine, I shall indeed expound the Bliss. Let the Bliss manifest itself removing the obscurity, O sons of Bliss, O sons of Bliss!

Titiksa. The power to bear steadily and calmly all sparsas without any reaction in the centre of the being, whether they are pleasant or painful. The mind or body may desire or suffer, but the observing Purusha remains unattracted and unshaken, observing only as Sakshi and as Ishwara holding the system firmly together and calmly willing the passing of the dvandvas. It does not crave for or demand the pleasure. It does not reject the pain. Even when pleasure or pain are excessive, it wills that the mind and body should not shrink from or repel them, but bear firmly. It deals in the same way with all dvandvas. hunger and thirst, heat and cold, health and disease, failure and success, honour and obloquy etc. It neither welcomes and rejoices, nor grieves and avoids. It gets rid of all jugupsa. fear, shrinking, recoil, sorrow, depression etc., i.e., ail the means by which Nature (bhutaprakrti) warns us against and tries to protect from all that is hostile. It does not encourage them, nor does it necessarily interfere with such means as may be necessary to get rid of the adverse touches; nor does it reject physically, except as a temporary discipline, the pleasant touches; but inwardly it presents an equal front of endurance to all.

Udasinata. Indifference may be of four kinds, tamasic, rajasic, sattwic and trigunatita. Tamasic indifference is associated with vai-ragya, disgust, disappointment, weariness of effort, unwillingness to make an effort. It is not really true udasinata, for it tries to avoid all as equally a cause of suffering, directly or indirectly; it is a generalisation of jugupsa and does not come from titiksa. but from its opposite. It is sometimes called rajasic. because although its nature is tamasic, its cause is rajasic, the disappointment of desire. Tamasic

udasinata is useful to the vairagi who wishes to get rid of the world by any means, but to the striver after perfection it is a stumbling-block. Its only use is to discourage the persistent rajoguna. and when it comes, it has to be admitted for" that purpose. But it does almost as much harm as good, and so long as we cannot do without it, our progress is likely to be slow, a series of oscillations between rajasic eagerness and tamasic weariness born of disappointment, with tamasic udasinata as an occasional release from the wear and tear of these opposites. To rest finally in tamasic udasinata is fatal to perfection.

Rajasic udasinata is indifference enforced by effort, sustained by resolution, habitualised by long self-discipline. It is the indifference of the moral hero, of the stoic. This is more helpful than the tamasic. but if persisted in, has a hardening and narrowing effect on the soul which diminishes in flexibility and in capacity for delight. Rajasic udasinata if used, must always be surmounted. It is an instrument which may easily become an obstacle.

Sattwic udasinata is indifference born of knowledge. It comes with the perception of the world either as an illusion or a play and of all things as being equal in the Brahman. It is calm, luminous, free from effort, tolerant of all things, smilingly indifferent to all happenings, careful to reject rajasic and tamasic reactions. Sattwic indifference is a great help and a stage which is almost unavoidable. But it has its limitations. It stands apart from the world and is a preparation for moksa, for the withdrawal from the Lila. It is unsuitable as a final resting place for the sadhak of perfection.

Trigunatita udasinata is that which takes all things alike, making no difference between sattwic, rajasic and tamasic reactions, but holding in soul aloof from all these movements and all the dvandvas. observing them first with an absolute impartiality and by constant refusal to participate in them getting rid of them out of the mind and the prana. It neither rejoices nor grieves at their coming and going, na socati, na nandate. It regards all these things as the workings of Prakriti and their causes as the will of the Ishwara. This udasinata is the preparation for the third element of samata. nati.

Nati.. Nati is an equal submission to the will of the Ishwara. It regards all things as that will expressing itself and refuses to grieve

or revolt inwardly at anything because it is hurt in its egoistic desires, opinions, preferences etc. Its whole attitude is based on the perception of God in all things and happenings. It accepts pleasure and pain, health and disease, bad fortune and good fortune, honour and disgrace, praise and blame, action and inaction, failure and victory; but attaches itself to none of them. Nati is not a tamasic acquiescence in inaction, a subjection to failure, an indifference to life. That is tamasic udasinata. Nati is active; it accepts life and effort as part of God's will and His being, but it is prepared equally for all results. It has no longing for fruits, but works for the results pointed out to it as kartavya karma without rajasic straining or tamasic indifference.

Santi. The fullness of negative samata is measured by the firm fixity of santi in the whole being. If there is an absolute calm or serenity in the heart and prana, no reactions of trouble, disturbance, yearning, grief, depression etc., then we may be sure that negative samata is complete. If there is any such disturbance, then it is a sign that there is some imperfection of titiksa, of udasinata or of nati. This imperfection may not be in the centre of the being, but only in its outer parts. There will then be a fixed calm in the centre, but some disturbance on the surface. These superficial disturbances may even be violent and veil the inner established santi, but it always re-emerges. Afterwards the disturbance becomes more and more thin in its density and feeble in its force. It ends in an occasional depression of the force and courage and faith and joy in the soul, negative and often without apparent cause, and then disappears entirely.

Negative samata and santi are the necessary preparation of positive samata and ananda. Without this foundation ananda is always liable to be uncertain in its duration and imperfect in its even fullness. Therefore all these things — endurance of all contacts, indifference to all dualities, submission to all movements of the divine Will, perfect inner peace and tranquillity are the first step in perfection.

Negative samata and santi are the result of suddhi and the condition of mukti.

On the basis of nati we proceed to the positive samata, that is to say, to Sama Ananda. Its foundation is the Atmajnana or Brahma-jnana by which we perceive the whole universe as a perception of one Being that manifests itself in multitudinous forms and activities. This One is therefore the one Self of all beings, my Self as well as the self of all others, friend and enemy, saint and sinner, man, bird and beast, tree and stone, — and all things in the manifestation are the forms and activities of my Self. Moreover, this Self is again the Lord of the Cosmos, the Purushottama, the divine Vishnu, Shiva or Krishna, of whom every individual soul is a conscious centre, aware of its unity with Him in being and also of its difference in the universe; and the manifestation is a Lila or play of the Lord who is in His being all delight; the play, too, therefore, is not only a play of Existence and Consciousness, but also a play of delight. It is the dualities born of ego-sense in the heart, mind and body which creates grief and pain. We have to unite ourselves with this Self, Lord and One and with all things in Him, viewing them as our self, in order to get rid of pain and enjoy the divine ananda. But, first, it is necessary that we should accept without revolt the Lila equally in all its details and happenings. This comes by nati. Titiksa is the attitude of equal acceptance by the sense-mind and body, udasinata the attitude of equal acceptance by mind and heart, nati the attitude of equal acceptance by the soul. The soul accepts all things as the play of the all-Blissful Lord, the Will of the supreme self and Ishwara. It accepts action also and the results of action, without being attached to them. But, though not attached, it must learn to take delight in all things even as the Lord takes delight in them.

The first delight is that of the Sakshi or Witness, who looking upon the whole action of the universe and even his own action like one who is watching a play or a drama, takes the rasa or taste of the whole thing by the intellect, the sense and the aesthetic faculties. All things, all events are the manifestation of certain gunas or qualities in universal Being; God is anantaguna. Infinite Qualities. The rose is a manifestation of form, colour, odour and other less obvious qualities, each stamped with a particular form of the rasa, divine Delight.

1. Sri Aurobindo is the author of The Yoga and Its Objects. It must be by an error of the printers that his name has been omitted. 2-3. But the book represents an early stage of Sri Aurobindo's sadhana and only a part of it is applicable to the Yoga as it has at present taken form after a lapse of more than twenty years.

The Yogic Sadhan is not Sri Aurobindo's own writing, but was published with a note by him, that is all. The statement made to the contrary by the publishers was an error which they have been asked to correct. There is no necessity of following the methods suggested in that book unless one finds them suggestive or helpful as a preliminary orientation of the consciousness — e.g. in the upbuilding of an inner Will etc.

4. A book giving some hints about the Yoga compiled from letters to the sadhaks is about to be published,¹ but it cannot be said to be complete. There is no complete book on the subject; for even The Synthesis of Yoga, published in the Arya but not yet republished in book form, gives only the theory of different components of the Yoga (Knowledge, Works, Devotion) and remains besides unfinished; it does not cover the more recent developments of the Yoga.

5. There are no conditions for receiving the influence of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother except faith, an entire sincerity in following the spiritual path and a will and capacity to open oneself to the influence; but this capacity usually comes as the result of sincerity and faith.

6. It is quite possible to follow the Yoga while remaining outside the Ashram. There are many both in Northern and Southern India who do it.

7. You can submit your doubts for elucidation to Sri Aurobindo, if brief answers are sufficient, as he has little time. If longer and more detailed answers are necessary, it could only be done through one of his disciples.

1 The reference is doubtless to Lights on Yoga, first published in February 1935.

In the morning Sardesai dropped in and we went together to Dhond, where I arranged with Rajaram to mess with him; the dinner consisted of the usual Brahminic course, dal and rice, two chupatties with potatoes and greens and amthi, — the whole to be seasoned liberally by a great square of clarified butter at one side of the tray. Fortunately the dishes were not very pungent and, with this allowance, I have made myself sufficiently adaptable to be a Brahmin with the Brahmins.

Dinner in the morning from Rajaram, who put me cut courant with zenana politics. Not having his son to quarrel with, H.H. has filled up the gap with his wife; they have been at it hammer and tongs since the Maharani joined him at Murree, chiefly, it seems, about dhobies and other such highly unroyal topics. To spite his wife H.H. has raised the subject of Tarabai Ghadge's carriage allowance, which she has been taking very placidly without keeping any carriage; for neglect in suffering this "payment without consideration", Mohite, Raoji Sirgavkar and the Chitnis are each to be fined 105 Rs. Note that Mohite alone is to blame, having signed the usual declaration that he had assured himself the recipient had her own conveyance; but this sort of thing is becoming too common to be wondered at. Quicquid delirant reges, plectuntur officials. The order adds that if any of the stricken has objections to make, he may make them and, if found satisfactory, the fine will be withdrawn. This is perilously like hanging a man first and trying him afterwards — or to put it accurately, I throw my shoe in your face and then permit you to prove that the salutation was causeless, in which case I shall be graciously pleased to put my shoe on my foot again. Another characteristic order is that degrading Savant back from Naib Khangi Karbhari-ship to Chitnishood and ordering Mohite to make a tippan as to

whether his allowance should be continued or not. "His Highness thinks it should not, but still the K.K. should make a tippan about it." Again if translated this might run, "I sentence the criminal in the dock to six months' hard labour and the jury may now consider whether he should have been sentenced or not." The latest trouble is about "unnecessary tongas" from Murree to Srinagar; yet the Maharaja was assured that if he insisted upon starting at once, there was no other course open, and at the time he promised to sanction any expense entailed. Now that he has had his own convenience satisfied, he chooses not to remember that he ever promised anything of the sort, so that he may have the pitiful satisfaction of venting his ill temper on innocent people. He has also ordered that no one shall receive special bhutta at a hill-station, unless the matter is brought to his notice and he is personally satisfied that prices are higher than in Baroda. Where will all this shopkeeping unprinceliness and pettifogging injustice end?

Ashudada sent Visvas' son Hemchandra with a note to me; the lad is a young Hercules five foot ten in height and monstrous in muscle with a roaring voice and continual outbursts of boisterous laughter over anything in the shape of a joke good or bad — a fine specimen of the outlander Bengali. His companion, a Kaviraj, rejoices in the name of Satyendranath Banerji Kobirunjun and is something of an ass and much of a coward, but not a bad fellow withal. We adjourned in a body, Sardesai, Ambegavkar, Dr. Balabhai, myself and the two Bengalis to the Maharaja's green-cushioned boat and set out on the broad bosom of Lake Dal and through the lock and a canal into the Jhelum. The boatman swore that we should get drowned if we shot the lock, but Hem Babu, though he admitted there might be a little danger, insisted on having it done. In the result we only shipped a little water which sought the left leg of my trousers as naturally as a bird seeks its nest, but the Kaviraj was in a terrible fright and clamoured protestation till we were right in the swirl of the waters. The water was lined with houseboats of the ogre-monkeys in some of which there were marvellous specimens of Cashmeri beauty. After a visit to Ashu and then to the hospital, — where I found I turned the scale at 113, my old weight, and reached the height of 5 ft. 5 in my shoes — we adjourned through the rain to Hem Babu's house. There we met his father, the genial and hearty

Reception Officer, tall and robust in build, with a fine largely cut jovial face and a venerable beard, and several other Bengalis — let me see if I can remember their names, Chunilal Ray of the Foreign Office, with a face of pure Indo-Afghan type looking more the Punjabi or Cashmeri than a Babu, Gurucharan Dhar, a pleader, Bhabani Babu of the Commissariat, another of the Commissariat, and a certain Lolit Babu, of I know not where. No, I shall never be any good at remembering names. The tea was execrable but the cigarettes and the company were good.

Afterwards the carriage took us through the streets of the town and then, the coachman being unable or unwilling to find his way out, back the same way. The streets are very narrow and the houses poor and ricketty, though occasionally picturesque, being built impartially of bricks, stones or other material imposed and intersticed irregularly and without cement, cobbled in fact rather than built. The windows are usually plastered with paper — for the sake of privacy, I suppose, — but it must make the rooms very dingy and gloomy. The roofs are often grown over with a garden of grasses and wildflowers, making a very pretty effect. The Maharaja's palace by the river in the true quaint Hindu way of building was the one building which struck me in Srinagar, — how much superior to the pretentious monstrosities of architecture at Luxmivilas Palace! This drive has finally completed and confirmed my observations of Cashmeri beauty. The men in the country parts are more commonly handsome than the town people and the Hindus than the Mohamedans.

Sri Aurobindo was first introduced to H.H. Sri Sayajirao. the great Maharaja of Baroda by Mr. Khaserao Jadhav in England.

Not true. Sri Aurobindo made the acquaintance of Khaserao two or three years after reaching Baroda.¹ Cotton introduced him to the Gaekwar.²

Struck by the brilliance and the learning of the young Ghose. the Maharaja invited him to be his reader and in that capacity Sri Aurobindo came to Baroda.

Reader. Nothing of the kind. There was no such invitation and this post did not exist. Sri Aurobindo joined the Settlement Department, afterwards went to the Revenue and then to the College.

Sri Aurobindo used to read voluminously and make valuable notes for H.H., with whom he had free and illuminating discussions on various subjects.

He had nothing to do with the Khangi Department and was never appointed Private Secretary. He was called very often for the writing of an important letter, order, despatch, correspondence with the British Government or other document; he assisted the Maharaja in preparing some of his speeches. At one time he was asked to

1 In another draft of this statement Sri Aurobindo adds:". . . through Khaserao's brother, Lieutenant Madhavrao Jadhav."

instruct him in English grammar by giving exact and minute rules for each construction etc. It was only miscellaneous things like this for which he was called for the occasion, but there was no appointment as Secretary except once in Kashmir.

In this office Sri Aurobindo had to study many important affairs of the administration and though still very young and quite new to the post, he acquitted himself with marvellous keenness and precision, and boldly expressed his views in a straightforward manner, whether H.H. agreed with him or not. The Maharaja appreciated this frankness, and admired him all the more. Sometimes his drafts used to fix many authorities into a puzzle, as they were invulnerable in reason and clear and thrusting in style.

The Maharaja had taken him on tour to places like Kashmir, Ooty and Mahabaleshwar.

Sri Aurobindo was sent for to Ooty in order to prepare a precis of the whole Bapat case and the judicial opinions on it. He was at Naini Tal with the Maharaja. In the Kashmir tour he was taken as Secretary, for the time of the tour only.

Sri Aurobindo always loved a plain and unostentatious life and was never dazzled by the splendour of the court. Invariably he declined invitations to dinners and banquets at the palace though he received them repeatedly.

Sri Aurobindo had nothing to do with the Court; he does not remember to have received any such invitations.

Among his brother officers the most intimate with him were Khaserao Jadhav and Barrister Keshavrao Deshpande, with whom he discussed the problems of Philosophy. Spiritual life and the reconstruction of India.

The most intimate friend at Baroda was Khaserao's brother, Lieutenant Madhavrao Jadhav who was associated with him in his political ideas and projects and helped him whenever possible in his political work. He lived with Madhavrao in his house most of the time he was at Baroda. There was no such discussion of problems; Sri Aurobindo took no interest in philosophy at all at that time; he was interested in the sayings and life of Ramakrishna and the utterances and writings of Vivekananda, but that was almost all with regard to spiritual life; he had inner experiences, from the time he stepped on to the shores of India, but did not associate them at that time with Yoga about which he knew nothing. Afterwards when he learned or heard something about it from Deshpande and others, he refused to take it up because it seemed to him a retreat from life. There was never any talk about the reconstruction of India, only about her liberation.

Never. He only played cricket as a small boy in Mr. Drewett's garden at Manchester and not at all well.

It was at Sardar Majumdar's place that he first met Yogi Lele and got some help from him in spiritual Sadhana.

No. Lele came from Gwalior in answer to a wire from Barin and met Sri Aurobindo at the Jadhavs' house there; Lele took him to Majumdar's house for meditation on the top floor.¹

The Heart of Nationalism. This article was written by Sri Aurobindo in late 1907 or early 1908. The notebook in which it occurs, the same as the one which contains The Bourgeois and the Samurai (A & R, April 1978), was seized by the Calcutta police when Sri Aurobindo's house was searched and he arrested in connection with the Alipore Bomb Case in May 1908. The article, transcribed and edited by the police or the prosecution, was used as evidence in the Alipore trial. Subsequently, in the same mis-edited form, it was reproduced, first in a newspaper, and later in the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library (Vol. 1, pp.906-10) under the title The New Nationalism. The article is now reproduced in the form in which it was written. Many errors of transcription have been corrected. Passages whose places of insertion are not certain have been given as footnotes. Sri Aurobindo's three separate beginnings which, in the previous edition, were spliced together, are here allowed to stand as they occur. The first two of these openings have titles: "What is Extremism?" and "The Heart of Nationalism". The second has been chosen by the editors as the title of the whole piece.

Vision and To the Modern Priam. Both of these poems were written in Baroda, i.e. before 1906.

Udyogaparva. Another translation of this portion (verses 1-25) of the Udyogaparva (Book 5 of the Mahabharata) has already been published in the Centenary Library (Vol. 3, pp.207-09 and Vol. 8, pp.59-60). The present translation seems to have been done a little before the Heart of Nationalism was written.

Hymns of the Atris (series continued). Sri Aurobindo's translations of Suktas 62-72 of Mandala 5 of the Rig-veda, the Atris' eleven hymns to Mitra-Varuna, appeared in the Arya in 1917, and are reproduced in The Secret of the Veda (pp.465-88). Sri Aurobindo's renderings of the Atris' six hymns to the Ashwins (RV 5.73-78) are being published in the present issue for the first time. The renderings were done by Sri Aurobindo during the period of the Arya (1914-1920). but were never finalised for inclusion in that journal.

Hymns to the Mystic Fire. These translations of Rig-veda 1.74-76, with reference to the commentary of the mediaeval scholar Sayanacharya, were done by Sri Aurobindo around 1917. Somewhat earlier he had made an annotated translation of Sukta 74 only. When this was published in SABCL Volume 27 (pp. 189-92), some notes on certain words in the first Rik, which are similar to the notes in the later translations, were omitted. They are now reproduced here as "Additional Notes on Rig-veda 1.74.1-2". The Appendixes referred to have not been found.

The First Hymn of the Rig-veda (series continued). This linguistic analysis of the first hymn of the Veda, similar in parts to the one published in our last issue, is written in the same notebook as that one and the two other treatments of the hymn mentioned in last issue's Notes on the Texts. As was done with those three pieces, only the passages dealing with the first Rik have been reproduced.

Aryan Origins: The Elementary Roots of Language. This incomplete essay is part of Sri Aurobindo's linguistic research done during the early part of his stay in Pondicherry (1910-1914).

The Spirit of Hinduism: God. This piece, which opens with the first words of the Mandukya Upanishad, was written by Sri Aurobindo in Baroda, probably around 1903 or 1904. The anachronism with regard to Kant and Hegel brings to mind what Sri Aurobindo once wrote about these two philosophers, and about European philosophy in general: "What little I knew about philosophy I picked up desultorily in my general reading. I once read, not Hegel, but a small book on Hegel, but it left no impression on me. . . . German metaphysics and most European philosophy since the Greeks seemed to me a mass of abstractions with nothing concrete or real that could be firmly grasped and written in a metaphysical jargon to which I had not the key. 1 tried once a translation of Kant, but dropped it after the first two pages and never tried again. . . ."

The East and the West and the Upanishads. This hitherto unpublished fragment is the first chapter of an incomplete work of exegesis, the bulk of which is published as The Philosophy of the Upanishads in SABCL Volume 12 (pp.1-50). Unfortunately, the first page of the manuscript has been lost, so that not only the opening of the text, but also Sri Aurobindo's titles of the work and of the first chapter are unavailable. The present title is the editors'.

The Life Divine: A Commentary on the Isha Upanishad. The Foreword and first three and one half chapters of this commentary have been published in Volume 27 of the Centenary Library (pp.299-344). The rest of the fourth chapter and the beginning of another chapter (left incomplete) are reproduced here for the first time from Sri Aurobindo's manuscript. This was recently found in a notebook different from the one that contains the manuscript of the first chapters. Although no indication is given by the author of the relation between the two pieces, the continuity is clear enough. For this reason the last passage of the previously published portion has been reproduced here from SABCL Volume 27 (page 344). Sri Aurobindo wrote in both notebooks in pencil, and the writing is sometimes badly faded, In addition the second notebook has been damaged in places, so that some words and phrases have been lost. This is especially true of the beginning and the end of the segment reproduced in this issue. The commentary seems to have been written in 1912; the indirect reference to the Titanic disaster, which took place in April 1912, tends to confirm this. There is also what appears to be a mention of the work in a letter written by Sri Aurobindo to Motilal Roy shortly after August 1912 (see SABCL Vol. 27, pp.433-35, where the date is given, probably erroneously, as [1913?]). Here Sri Aurobindo says that he is busy with an "explanation of the Isha Upanishad in twelve chapters; I am at the eleventh now and will finish in a few days." The pencil draft of the "Life Divine" commentary, as published in SABCL Volume 27 and here, consists, as we have said, of only four chapters and part of another, which we have called "Chapter V". In fact Sri Aurobindo wrote either "Chapter II" or "Chapter 11" (his writing is not clear) —this may account for the number "eleven" mentioned by Sri Aurobindo in his letter, if, indeed, the

present piece is the "explanation" referred to by him there. He never completed this pencil draft of the "Life Divine". Instead, during the years 1913 and 1914, he began it again from scratch, recasting and considerably enlarging the commentary. The longer draft will appear in subsequent issues of Archives and Research.

One Without a Second. This untitled essay was written in Sanskrit by Sri Aurobindo during the early part of his stay in Pondicherry (1910-1914). The piece was edited and translated into English by Shri Jagannath Vedalankar.

Shanti Chatushtaya. This piece, which is related to Sapta-Chatushtaya (SABCL Vol. 27, pp.356-75, was written several years after it, and deals only with part of the first catustaya. Shanti Chatushtaya is incomplete even within its limits, as the samabhoga and sama ananda parts of positive samata were not gone into.

A Letter of Sri Aurobindo. Part of this letter to an aspirant has already been published in SABCL Volume 16, page 409. Its date is given there as 28 October 1934.

A Day in Srinagar. Sri Aurobindo was in Kashmir from late May to early September 1903. as private secretary to the Maharaja of Baroda (see p 197). Documents written by him there for the Maharaja show that the party was in Srinagar at least three times: from 28 May or slightly before to 6 or 7 June, for a few days around 23 June and again for a week or less after 5 September. Various references in the present journal notations (written not in a diary, but in isolation in a notebook taken by Sri Aurobindo on the trip), indicate that they were set down during the first visit to the Kashmiri capital, that is, between 28 May and 6 June. The only Saturday during this period (omitting 6 June itself, which must have been spent making preparations to go to Icchabal or "Archibal". as Sri Aurobindo spelled it), was 30 May 1903. It is likely then that this is the date of these notes. The longer and shorter pieces separated by an asterisk were written by Sri Aurobindo on separate pages of his notebook. Only the first one gives "Saturday"" as the day. But the reference to "dinner in the morning" in both pieces, makes it likely that the boat ride and other events mentioned in the second one took place on the same day as the "Brahmanic" repast. The Sardesai mentioned in the first piece is no doubt Govind Sakharam Sardesai, the well known Marathi historian, who was an officer in the Maharaja's service. The Maharaja was often referred to as His Highness (H.H). His chief Baroda residence was Lakshmivillas Palace, an imposing building which rather unsuccessfully attempts to combine Italian, Indian and other architectural elements.

Sri Aurobindo — An Officer in the Baroda State. These notes were written in the 1940s to correct statements, given by us in italics, written by someone without much real knowledge about Sri Aurobindo's Baroda career.

Words already listed in the Glossary to the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library have not been included. As in that glossary, proper names, words occurring in poems or as philological examples, and words written in the text in Devanagari script have been omitted. Words are Sanskrit unless otherwise indicated; those marked "Hindi" are often common to several North Indian languages.

adityavarnam tamasah parastat, refulgent as the sun beyond the darkness.

ajna, ignorant.

amrtatvam, immortality.

amati (amthi) [Marathi], a sour sauce prepared with tamarind.

anejat, the unmoving.

antarasya sarvasya, within all this.

anupasyati, he sees everywhere.

apamana, dishonour, insult.

asatya, (that which is) false.

atma va idam eka evagra asit—sa iksata —sa iman lokan asrjata, in the beginning this was all the Atman, He alone. He looked and put forth these worlds.

au courant [French], up to date, in the know.

babu [Hindi], a Bengali of the higher and middle classes.

bhatta [Hindi], travelling allowance.

bhuta, that which has become as opposed to that which eternally is.

bhutaprakrti, (elemental) Nature.

bhutesu bhutesu vicitya dhirah, the wise distinguish That in all kinds of becomings.

Camunda Kali (Chamunda Kali), a terrible form of the goddess Kali.

capati (chuppathie) [Hindi], a small flat unleavened bread.

citanis (Chitnis) [Marathi], the officer who keeps the diary of the court.

dal [Hindi], split pulse.

ejat, the moving.

ekah tatha sarvabhutantaratma rupam rupam pratirupo bahisca, so there is one Spirit within all creatures, but it shapes itself to form and form; it is likewise outside these.

Gauri, a name of Parvati, the wife of Siva.

khanagi [Gujarati], private, domestic, household.

mana, honour, respect.

na nandate, he does not grieve.

nanyacchrnoti. he hears nothing else.

nanyat pasyati, he sees nothing else.

na socati, he does not rejoice.

navam dyu, a new life.

nayab khanagi karabhari (kamdar) (Naib Khangi Kharbari or Kamdar) [Gujarati], assistant house-hold manager.

OM ityetad aksaram idam sarvam, OM is the imperishable Word, OM is the Universe.

pasya me yogamaisvaram, behold my yoga of Divine power.

prajnanam, intellectual knowledge.

punah krtam, "made again", a new body.

quicquid delirant reges. plectuntur officials [Latin], whatever madness possesses the chiefs, it is the officials who suffer.

sarvabhutani atmaivabhuvan, all existences have become (disappeared into, blotted themselves out in) Self.

sarvam hyetad brahma. ayam atma brahma, so'yam atma catuspat, all this universe is the Eternal Brahman, this Self is the Eternal, and the Self is fourfold.

sarvapranisu, in all living creatures.

sarvasundara, the All-Beautiful.

sparsas, touches.

tamo tamasa gudham, darkness concealed by darkness. tanga (tonga) [Hindi], a two-wheeled

carriage drawn by one horse. tato na vijugupsate, shrinks not thereafter from aught.

tatra, there.

tatra ko mohah kah sokah ekatvam anupasyatah, how shall he be deluded, whence shall he have grief who sees everywhere oneness?

tipan (tippan) [Marathi], note; a formal proposal.

vehis [Latin], thou carriest.

vijrmbhitani, self-deployings.

vratam, pure arrangement of the soul's

nature in knowledge. yasmin, in whom. yasya, of whom.

zanana (zenana) [Hindi], part of house where women are segregated.

vijrmbhitani, self-deployings.

vratam, pure arrangement of the soul's

nature in knowledge. yasmin, in whom. yasya, of whom.

zanana (zenana) [Hindi], part of house where women are segregated.

Sri Aravind Babu first came to the Baroda College as Professor of French. Afterwards, in 1905, when Principal Clarke proceeded on leave, he was appointed to Clarke's post. I was in Inter at that time. Sri Aravind was teaching Burke's French Revolution. As his method of teaching consisted in going to the roots, one could never forget what he taught, even though the whole text was not completed. His mastery of the English language was phenomenal. Sometimes he examined our composition books. He wrote on them such remarks as "Fit for Standard III" and "How have you come to the College?"

I was in the B.A. Class in 1906. At that time he was giving us (students of Jr. B.A. with voluntary English) notes on English literature. The College started at 11.00 a.m

That same year agitation began in Bengal and his attention turned to it. He went on leave and the Bande Mataram paper was founded. We were subscribing to it in the College Reading Room. After his return from leave we asked if he was going away. He replied in the negative, but it was certain that he was leaving. We, therefore, thought of giving him a send-off. Principal Clarke declined to permit the use of the College Hall, so we decided to have a photograph taken and refreshments served in the studio of the Vivid Kala Mandir, which was in Pawar's Wada opposite Ramji Mandir. Three group photographs were taken there:

There, of course, while speaking, he told us that he was going and reprimanded us for asking for the use of the Central Hall, as if there was no other place. Of those in the second group I was sitting at the feet of Sri Aravind Babu. My dress at that time consisted of a long coat, Hungarian cap and dhoti. Sri Aravind Babu used to wear English dress — coat, waistcoat and pants — but on his head a white turban [rumal or pheta], with an embroidered border. It was not customary at that time for students to go to his residence and so we did not go to the bungalow.

Then, after the break-up of the Congress at Surat, he came to Baroda for five or six days to speak on behalf of the Extremist party. There four lectures were delivered in the Bankaneer Theatre. We used to go and sit two hours before the

time. His dress then was Bengali dhoti, khamis (shirt) and a shawl wrapped around him, but nothing on his head. One story which I heard :

While taking tea in the morning in a group with His Highness in Kashmir, he put a question and answered it himself. Seeing the mehatar doing his work of sweeping, he put the question : "Who is happy in this camp?" Answer: "The Maharaja as he has the company of the Maharani and next this mehatar, as his wife is also here with him." When this tale was carried to His Highness, he enjoyed a hearty laugh.

Another hearsay story is that after the Delhi Darbar incident, the letter which was sent to Lord Curzon was drafted by Sri Aravind Babu. Both these stories are matters of hearsay.

The buggy in which he went to the College from Khaserao Saheb's bungalow had purple glass panes.

Letter of Sanker Balwant Didmishe dated 18 September 1967 (Translated from Marathi).

1. Sri Arabindo advertised in newspapers for a bride. My father's lifelong friend late Principal Girish Ch. Bose of Bangabasi College negotiated the marriage. Sri Arabindo saw my sister in Girish Babu's house personally and selected his bride.

2. Marriage ceremony was performed according to strict Hindu rites. Sri Arabindo being a Brahmo and my sister being the daughter of an England-returned Hindu, both of them had to be purified by Prayaschitya before marriage.¹ My uncle gave away the bride.

3. Principal guests at the marriage were late Lord Sinha, Byomkesh Chakravarty, Principal G.C. Bose, late Sir J.C. Bose and others.

4. Location of the marriage — in a rented house in Baitak-Khana Road. Calcutta.

5. Date of marriage of Sri Aurobindo 16th Baisack 1308 (April, 1901). My sister at the time of her marriage had just completed her 14th year. Sister's birthday was 6th March 1887 (25th Falgoon, 1294).

6. Soon after marriage Sri Arabindo returned to Baroda with his wife via Deoghur and Nainital. The popular photograph in which Sri Arabindo is seen with his wife² was taken at Nainital.

Statement of Sisir Bose (brother of Mrinalini Ghose), Ranchi, 25 November 1941.

1 "As Sri Aurobindo had gone to England the question of purificatory rites was raised Sri Aurobindo flatly refused, even as his father. Dr. K.D. Ghose had in his day. At last there was a proposal of shaving the head. When that was turned down 'an obliging Brahmin priest satisfied all the requirements of the Shastra for a monetary consideration!'" (Purani. The Life of Sri Aurobindo [1978], p. 50)

I. Her father and mother both belong to the Jessore district. The ancestral home of the Basu family is situated in a village named Meherpore on the left bank of the Kapadaka river, 24 miles to the south of the district town of Jessore. Mrinalini's father, Bhupal Chandra Basu (born 1861) —the writer of this short note—graduated from the Calcutta University (1881) and received an agricultural training as a State scholar at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, in England, and after his return to India, served for two years as a teacher in the Bangabasi School and College of which he was a joint founder with his lifelong friend Srijut Girish Chandra Bose, entered Government service in 1888 and after serving as an Agricultural Officer for 28 years in Bengal and Assam, retired in 1916 and settled down at Ranchi soon after his retirement.

During service his headquarters were for a year (1888-89) at Ranchi, then in Calcutta (1889-97) and finally for nineteen years at Shillong (1897-1916), and Mrinalini spent portions of her life at all these places. This note would be incomplete without a special mention of the very intimate and affectionate relations which have existed ever since the year 1883 between her father and his family on the one hand and Sj. Girish Chandra Bose and his family on the other. So much so that to most of their acquaintances Mrinalini's father is known as a younger brother of the latter. Mrinalini spent considerable periods of her life under her uncle Girish Babu's roof and was regarded as a daughter of his house. It was Girish Chandra who looked after her education while she was a boarder at the Brahmo Girls' School in Calcutta. It was he who negotiated her marriage and did everything in connection with that ceremony and it was under his roof that Mrinalini passed away in December 1918.

II. Mrinalini, the eldest child of her father, saw the light of day on the . . .¹ 1887 in Calcutta in a house in Eden Hospital Street (or lane), which with the entire lane was demolished after a year or two and merged in the extension grounds of the Calcutta Medical College.

III. Mrinalini spent her early childhood in Calcutta. She was at first educated under a private teacher, and soon after her father's transfer to Shillong, she was sent down to Calcutta and lived as a boarder for nearly three years at the Brahmo Girls' School until the time of her marriage in April 1901. She evinced no exceptional abilities or tendencies at this age, indeed at no stage of her life.

There was nothing remarkable about her short school career. She however contracted two notable friendships during this time. One of the two was Miss Swarnalata Das, M.A., eldest daughter of a very intimate friend of her father Sj. Raj Mohan Das, a distinguished Officer of the Assam Police, who after his retirement, devoted his heart and soul to the work of uplifting the depressed classes in East Bengal, and is now living a retired life at Dacca. Swarnalata was several years her senior in age and acted towards her as an elder sister during her school life. After graduating in Calcutta Swarnalata was sent to England for higher training in the art of teaching and after her return worked as a senior teacher of the Brahmo

Girls' School of which she acted for a time as the Lady Superintendent. She was cut off in the prime of life leaving behind a memory which for purity and sweetness cannot be excelled. Mrinalini's second friend was Miss Sudhira Bose, a classmate of hers with whom she lived in closest intimacy till the day of her death. Sudhira was a younger sister of late Devabrata Bose, an associate of Sri Aurobindo in the Alipore Bomb Case, who after his acquittal at the trial, turned a Sannyasin and joined the Ramakrishna Mission. Miss Sudhira too joined the same Mission and worked as a teacher of the Sister Nivedita School, of which, after Sister Christine left for America shortly before the war, she became the head. Sudhira too was not destined to live long. She fell a victim to a sad railway accident at Benares in December 1920, thus surviving her friend by exactly two years.

Mrinalini, though she was surrounded by Brahmo friends and was a boarder in a Brahmo School never evinced any special interest in the Brahmo movement nor in any of the social reforms associated with that movement. The whole religious bent of the later years of her life was in the direction of the Hindu revival movement inspired by Paramhansa Ramakrishna and his great disciple Swami Vivekananda.

IV. There was no relationship, nor even acquaintance between the Boses and the Ghose family, except that Mrinalini's father once came in contact with Sri Auro-bindo's father, Dr. Krishnadhan Ghose, while he was stationed as Civil Surgeon at Khulna. It must have been about the year 1890 when Sri Aurobindo was preparing himself in England for the I.C.S. examination.

Sri Aurobindo first met Mrinalini at the house of her uncle Sj. Girish Chandra Bose in Calcutta in the course of his search for a mate to share his life, and chose her at first sight as his destined wife. Their marriage took place shortly afterwards in April 1901. It is not possible for the writer or for anybody else to say what psychical affinity existed between the two, but certain it is that as soon as he saw the girl, he made up his mind to marry her. The customary negotiations were carried on by Girish Babu on the bride's side. Sri Aurobindo was at the time employed either as a Professor or as Vice-Principal of the Gaekwar's College at Baroda.¹ He was then 28 years 9 months old, and his wife was only 14 years and 3 months, the difference in age being over 14 years.

V. The writer knows next to nothing about the married life of the couple at Baroda. After Sri Aurobindo came to Bengal and during the stormy years that followed, Mrinalini had little or no opportunity of living a householder's life in the quiet company of her husband. Her life during this period was one of continuous strain and suffering which she bore with the utmost patience and quietude. She spent the greater period of the time either with Sri Aurobindo's maternal relatives at Deoghar or with her parents at Shillong. She was present with her husband at the time of his arrest at 48, Grey Street in May 1908 and received a frightful menial shock of which the writer and others saw a most painful evidence in the delirium of her last illness ten years later.

The writer is unable to say from his own knowledge how far Mrinalini agreed with and helped her husband in his public activities, but he can say this much for

1 On 15 April 1901 Sri Aurobindo was "relieved from the College work" (he had been Professor of English) and instructed to "draw his salary from the Sar Subha's [Chief Collector's] office"

certain that she never stood in the way of his work. She never evinced any aspiration for public work.

VI. The famous letter of Sri Aurobindo to his wife bears the date 30th August without mention of the year.¹ There is a reference in the letter to the death of a brother of hers (a second bereavement to her parents) from which the writer makes out the year to be 1905. It was the month of the declaration of the Bengal Boycott. Sri Aurobindo was apparently then at Baroda, and Mrinalini with her parents at Shillong.

The writer has never seen any of Mrinalini's letters to her husband and is therefore unable to say whether they contained anything noteworthy.

VII. The writer cannot throw any light on the mutual relations between Mrinalini and her husband, except that they were characterised by a sincere though quiet affection on the side of the husband and a never questioning obedience from the wife. One can gather much in this respect from Sri Aurobindo's published letters. After Sri Aurobindo left Bengal, the two never met again, but all who knew her could see how deeply she was attached to her husband and how she longed to join him at Pondicherry. The fates however decreed it otherwise.

During the first 3 or 4 years of his exile, Sri Aurobindo lulled her with the hope that some day (which we thought could not be very distant) he would return to Bengal. His letters to his wife as well as to the writer were few and far between, but they gave ample grounds for such a hope. At last Sri Aurobindo ceased to write at all, possibly because of his exclusive preoccupation with Yoga, but to the last day of her life Mrinalini never ceased to hope.

VIII. There was no issue of the marriage. During Sri Aurobindo's trial at Alipore which lasted a full twelve months Mrinalini lived with her parents at Shillong or with her uncle Girish Babu in Calcutta. She paid several visits to her husband at Alipore Central Jail in the company of her father. She never evinced any visible agitation during those exciting times, but kept quiet and firm throughout.

IX. Sri Aurobindo disappeared from Calcutta at the end of February or beginning of March 1910. Mrinalini was living at the time in Calcutta. We did not know his whereabouts, until several weeks later it was announced in the papers that he had escaped to Pondicherry to get out of the reach of the British Courts.

Sri Aurobindo never called his wife to Pondicherry for Sadhana. They never met again. Her father made a serious attempt after his retirement from Government service in 1916 to take her to Pondicherry but the attitude of Government at the time prevented him from realising this wish.

These long years of separation (1910-18) she spent with her parents at Shillong and Ranchi, paying occasional visits to Calcutta. She devoted these years almost exclusively to meditation and the reading of religious literatures which consisted for the most part of the writings of Swami Vivekananda and the teachings of his Great Master.

The writer believes she perused all the published writings of the Swami and all the publications of the Udbodhan Office. Of these she has left behind an almost complete collection.

Office in Bagbazar, who treated her with great affection, calling her Bau-Ma (the normal Bengali appellation for daughter-in-law) in consideration of the fact that the Holy Mother regarded Sri Aurobindo as her son.

Mrinalini desired at one time to receive diksha from one of the Sannyasins of the Ramakrishna Mission. Her father wrote to Sri Aurobindo for the necessary permission but the latter in reply advised her not to receive initiation from anyone else and he assured her that he would send her all the spiritual help she needed. She was content therefore to remain without any outward initiation .
X . Mrinalini passed away in Calcutta in the 32nd year of her life on the 17th of December 1918, a victim of the fell scourge of influenza which swept over India in that dreaded year.

There was nothing notable about her death. In fact but for the fate which united her for a part of her short life to one of the most remarkable and forceful personalities of the age, her life had nothing extraordinary about it.

Nothing happens in the world without serving some purpose of the Divine Mother, and no doubt she came and lived to fulfil a Divine purpose which we may guess but can never know.

For sometime before she passed away, she had been selling her ornaments and giving away the proceeds in charity and what remained unsold, she left with her friend Miss Sudhira Bose, at the time Lady Superintendent of the Sister Ni-vedita School. Soon after her death Sudhira sold off the ornaments and the whole of the proceeds, some two thousand rupees was, with Sri Aurobindo's permission, made over to the Ramakrishna Mission and constituted into an endowment named after Mrinalini, out of the interest of which a girl student is maintained at the Sister Nivedita School.

XL Mrinalini in the Mother — the writer would rather say nothing about this. If the facts relating to the descent of Mrinalini's spirit in the Mother which the writer heard from the Mother herself are to be published, it is proper that the Mother's permission be taken by the publisher and she be approached for an authentic and firsthand account of the incident. The writer is greatly afraid that he might be guilty of grave mistakes if he were to narrate it from his own memory.

Regarding the details of the exact location of the Kali Mandir and its historical background, the following are my findings:

The temple is generally called "Mahakali Mandir of Karanali". It is situated on the northern bank of the river Narmada, just near the famous Kubereshwar Temple. One has to climb about 100 steep steps to reach the Kali Temple after about a mile's boating in Narmada from Chandod.¹ The Shrine is approximately 300 years old. Sri Somvargiriji Maharaj, a Mahant of Niranjani Akhada took to the Sri Chakra Upasana — worship of the Divine Shakti — three centuries ago.

He got the three Sri Chakras drawn on three triangular pieces of metal and did Tantra Sadhana for some years. Ultimately he got "siddhi" and acquired occult powers, with great spiritual consciousness. It is said that he had realised Mahakali through the Siddha Chakras and She used to manifest before him often. He was a great yogi and Tantrik. A few days before his death he installed the three Siddha Chakras and Kali idol in front of his yajna-kund¹ by the side of a wall and erected a small temple. Since then it is looked after and worshipped by Niranjani Sadhus. The beautiful idol of Mahakali in the temple is about three feet high and a folding wooden tiger is fixed near her feet in such a way that it appears as if the Goddess is mounted on the tiger with Her face in the west direction.² An iron trisul³ is placed by the side of the idol. The three yantras are not visible. The entire atmosphere of the place is surcharged with powerful spiritual vibrations. The temple is not at all famous and is in dilapidated condition.

From the year 1903 to 1922, Niranjani Mahant, Sri Himmatpuriji was worshipping the Kali idol. With Lele⁴ and Deshpande Sri Aurobindo visited the temple in 1906 during this Mahant's life time and when he looked at the idol of Kali, he saw the Mother Mahakali "a living Presence, deathless and divine".⁵

I have gone through the Rowlatt Committee Report. It does not contain any information in regard to the date of publication of the pamphlet. "Bhawani Mandir" is referred to in the Report as one of the three books considered by the Rowlatt Committee of "specially inflammatory kind". The other two books mentioned are "Bartaman Rananiti" and "Mukti Kon Pathe".⁶

The date and authorship of "Bhawani Mandir" is referred to in some detail in James Campbell Ker's Political Trouble in India, 1907-1917 (Calcutta Government Printing, 1917). This was a confidential publication and its author, a member of the Indian Civil Service, was Personal Assistant to the Director of Criminal Intelligence from 1907 to 1913. I quote below the relevant extract from this work.

This pamphlet first came to notice in August, 1905, when a copy was sent anonymously from Baroda to the Head Clerk to the District Magistrate of Broach. There is nothing on the pamphlet to show who the author or the publisher is, but the Head Clerk stated at the time that he thought the author was "a Mr. Bose, a Bengali Babu who is in the employ of the Baroda Durbar and once passed for the I.C.S. but was rejected for failing to pass the test in riding." Though the name is wrong this obviously refers to Arabindo Ghose, who was a Professor in the Gaekwar's College at Baroda at the time, and there

4 It is unlikely that V .B. Lele ever went to Karanali with Sri Aurobindo.
5 Sri Aurobindo. "The Stone Goddess", Collected Poems'', page 139.

6 "Modern Warfare" and "What Path to Freedom?", both published by the Jugantar group, of which Sri Aurobindo's brother Barin was the leader.

is no doubt that he was the author. In the course of the searches in Calcutta in May, 1908,¹ a copy of this pamphlet in English, with the name Barin K. Ghose on the cover, was found in the Bande Mataram office; a copy was also found in the bomb store at 134, Harrison Road, and another in the house of De-babrata Bose, who was committed for trial as a member of the conspiracy but acquitted.

From a letter of V.C. Joshi, Deputy Director, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, to the Archives, dated 13 February 1973.

Sri Aurobindo's Vedic and linguistic research is contained in more than one hundred notebooks, over fifty of which are devoted solely or principally to these subjects. There are also a large number of loose Vedic and linguistic manuscripts. Among the first notebooks used by him in Pondicherry for this research are two large ledgers, the first of which is inscribed inside the cover: "The Rigveda./with a Translation and Commentary in English". The second bears the inscription: "Origines Arycae./Material for a full philological reconstruction/of/the old Aryabhasha/from which the Indo Aryan and Dravidian languages/are all derived." As is the case with most of the notebooks of Sri Aurobindo, he did not proceed very far in either before material unrelated to his stated subjects began to appear. Meanwhile he had begun using a number of more modest exercise books, where a part here and another part there of his theory was elaborated. Many of these manuscripts contain one or more series of what the editors have called "classified notes". To begin such a categorised series, all or part of a notebook was prepared by marking pages with the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, the names of Vedic divinities, etc. Then, as Sri Aurobindo pursued his reading, words, with references and sometimes with comments, would be entered on the appropriate page. Dozens of such classified series exist, some having hundreds of entries, some barely any. Two types are recurrent: lists of Vedic words and lists of gods and other figures. In the second, one may find the beginnings of a Vedic subject concordance. The first was a conscious effort on Sri Aurobindo's part to compile an etymological dictionary of the Vedic language.

Sri Aurobindo's reading of the Veda was extensive. It is apparent from certain indications left in his notebooks that he considered this pravacana to be part of his sadhana. At times he kept a careful record of his progress: the entire ninth mandala was read in four days of May 1914. The extent and range of his notes and of his references in works such as The Secret of the Veda make it clear that he read the entire Rig-veda several times over. Parts or all of some mandalas were copied, annotated, translated or explained; sometimes one or more of these operations was repeated half a dozen or more times for a given group of hymns. It is hard to convey to the reader a good idea of the amount of sustained and careful labour Sri Aurobindo gave to his Vedic studies. Far from being plunged in some incommunicable Absolute for days on end, there is rather every indication that he undertook, along with his intense sadhana, the care of his disciples, and his various literary labours, a scholastic toil which has very few precedents. And yet this immense work was not done for his own intellectual satisfaction. The passages quoted in the last issue from The Secret of the Veda show clearly the connection between Sri Aurobindo's Vedic studies and his Yoga. The same connection existed for the linguistic research: "Sri Krishna has shown me the true meaning of the Vedas," wrote Sri Aurobindo to a disciple around 1912, "not only so but he has shown me

a new Science of Philology showing the process and origins of human speech so that a new Nirukta [science of etymological interpretation] can be formed and the new interpretation of the Veda based upon it."¹

We noted that Sri Aurobindo intended to write a full treatise on the origins of Aryan speech, in which "the old Aryabhasha from which the Indo Aryan and Dravidian languages are all derived" would be reconstructed. Subtract "Dra-vidian" and you have the Proto-Indo-European of modern-day linguists. Yet, as we have seen, Sri Aurobindo was convinced that the "original connection between the Dravidian and Aryan tongues was far closer and more extensive than is usually supposed."² Sri Aurobindo knew, like the modern linguist, that the key to the problem lay not in the developed vocabulary of any ancient or modern language, but in "the roots of the original language" and also in "the elemental word-formations and so much of the original significance" as had survived the process of mentalisation that has attended the growth of human speech. Thus the first necessity was "a kind of science of linguistic embryology".³

Just as from the study of the formed outward man, animal, plant, the great truths of evolution could not be discovered or, if discovered, not firmly fixed, ... if the origin and unity of human speech can be found and established, if it can be shown that its development was governed by fixed laws and processes, it is only by going back to its earliest forms that the discovery is to be made and its proofs established.⁴

Four languages were chosen for "dissection" and study: Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and Tamil. The first three of these were well known by Sri Aurobindo, the fourth was chosen because it was through Tamil that he "came first to perceive . . . the embryology of the Aryan tongues."⁵ To the data gathered from the study of these languages was to be added supporting evidence from four others: German, Celtic, Persian and Arabic. The division between Semitic and Aryan (i.e. Indo-European) tongues was, in Sri Aurobindo's opinion, as "unscientific" as the Aryan-Dravidian split.

There are among Sri Aurobindo's linguistic notes a good number of studies of Greek, Latin and Tamil root-systems. For example, roots in m, especially the root mal, in all these languages, as well as in Sanskrit, were examined and classified. The relations between Tamil and Sanskrit were made an object of special study. But it was on Sanskrit itself that Sri Aurobindo's linguistic research centred. For Sanskrit, "by a peculiar fidelity to its origins, presents us with a true primary form of speech, in which the vocabulary indeed is late — a new structure of word flesh and tissue, but the basis of the structure is primitive, and reveals the roots of its being and betrays the principles of its formation."⁶ Pages of notes exist in which different Sanskrit "root-clans", as Sri Aurobindo called them, were arranged alphabetically and by significance-group. The central aim was to discover the

"Guna" of each particular sound, "some natural property ... to create under given conditions a particular kind of impression on the mind which, constantly associated with that sound, became the basis of a number of special intellectual significances, called by us the meaning of words."¹ In a typical example of research into one root-clan, the various families of roots beginning with the letter ध् (dh). Sri Aurobindo began by writing down practically all attested words formed from the root in alphabetical groups. First came primary roots (e.g. dhi, dhi, dhe); then secondaries, subdivided into the traditional phonetic series: guttural (e.g. dhiks), dental (e.g. dhinv) sibilant (e.g. dhis), etc. Where present, tertiary roots also were noted (e.g. dhyai). But when this meticulous notation was finished, only half the work was done; the same words had also to be classified by semantic group. There were fourteen such groupings for the dh root-clan, the first being "State/to sit, place, hold — to place so as to cover, stand"; others were Emotion, Pressure, etc.

After a detailed study of a particular root-clan had been made, Sri Aurobindo sometimes put down tentative explications and conclusions in discursive prose. On other occasions he wrote drafts of the proposed final work, in which he explained his theories, methods etc. Two of these drafts, both entitled The Origins of Aryan Speech, have been published in the Centenary Library, the last part of one of them appearing for the first time on pages 58 to 64 of the last issue of Archives and Research. Pages 63 to 64 contain an incomplete statement of his findings as regards the dh roots.

Sri Aurobindo's Vedic and linguistic research was pursued steadily between 1912 and 1914. The beginnings of the Vedic work seem, in retrospect, to be rather experimental; but a firm basis was soon found, and by March 1914 Sri Aurobindo could write: "Veda is now taking a clear form; the definite interpretation has begun." After August 1914 much of his Vedic research was channelled into the pages of the Arya in such series as The Secret of the Veda and Hymns of the Atris. Sri Aurobindo intended at one time to serialise The Origins of Aryan Speech in the same journal; but this plan was never carried out. Soon the writing of the Arya and other work, the composition of Savitri, for example, made it impossible for him to complete his linguistic research.

The lectures on Augustan and post-Augustan poetry reproduced in the first two issues of this journal have given the reader an idea of Sri Aurobindo's approach to the teaching of English-literature. The letter reproduced on pages 204-05 of the present issue gives us some more glimpses of "Professor Ghose" at Baroda. There is a reference in that letter to Sri Aurobindo's "dictation" on Augustan poetry. It Is clear that by 1906 Sri Aurobindo had stopped writing down his lectures.

We have recently found, in a notebook used by Sri Aurobindo at about the time he wrote the lectures (i.e. about 1898), lists of authors and poems which seem to be either selections for a course he was giving or the contents of a compilation he intended to publish. One of the lists consists of the names of a number of mostly minor eighteenth-century poets, many of whom are mentioned in the written lectures. But more prominence is given to three major poets: Keats, Milton and Dryden. Sri Aurobindo's lists of their works, entitled collectively "English Extracts", run as follows: Keats: "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer"; "On the Grasshopper and Cricket"; "When I have Fears . . ."; "Staffa"; Endymion — "Hymn to Pan", "Beneath my palm trees. . ."; "On Fame"; "On the Sonnet": "On a Dream"; "To the Nile"; "La Belle Dame sans Merci"; "On Ailsa Rock": "In a drear-nighted December..."; "Ben Nevis"; "Ode on a Grecian Urn"; "To Homer"; "To Fancy"; "On Melancholy"; "The Human Seasons"; "Ode to Maia"; "Ode to Psyche"; "Ode to Autumn"; "Ode to a Nightingale" (omitting the stanza, "Fade far away . . ."); "Time's sea hath been five years at its slow ebb..."; "Bright Star! would I were steadfast as thou art". Milton: "On the Death of a Fair Infant"; "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity" — "It was the winter wild . . ."; "On Shakespeare"; "L'Allegro"; "II Penseroso"; "Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester"; "Nymphs and Shepherds, dance no more . . ." [from Arcades]; "The star that bids the shepherd fold . . .", "Sabrina fair . . ." [both from Comus]; "To Cyriack Skinner"; "Lycidas"; "When the Assault Was Intended on the City"; "To the Lord General Cromwell"; "On his Deceased Wife"; "On the Late Massacre in Piedmont"; "On his Blindness"; "It is not virtue, wisdom, valour, wit . . ."; "While their hearts were jocund and sublime . . Dryden: "The longest tyranny that ever swayed . . . Had been admired by none but savage eyes" [lines 1-20 of "To Dr. Charleton"]; "The Tears of Amynta"; "St. Cecilia's Day"; "Alexander's Feast"; "Great God of Love..." (Song to Chloris) [i.e. "A Song to a Fair Young Lady"]: "Chloe and Amyntas" ["Rondelay"]: "Fair, sweet and young . . ." ["A Song"].

In our note on Sri Aurobindo's second lecture in the issue of December 1977 (p.92), we quoted two passages from A.B. Purani's Life of Sri Aurobindo. The second of these extracts was from the memoirs of R.N. Patkar, a former student of Sri Aurobindo. Another relevant extract from this interesting document that has never been published before is reproduced below:

with him. While I was in Matriculation class, I once asked him how I should improve my English, what author I should read and study. I had read some portion of Macaulay's "Lives of Great Men" and I was fascinated by his style. I asked him if I should read Macaulay. Then, as was usual with him he smiled and replied, "Do not be anybody's slave, but be your own master. By reading Macaulay or any other writer you will never be like him. You will not be a Macaulay but a faint echo of Macaulay. You will be but a copy to be derided by the world, but never an original. Therefore you may read any good author carefully, but should think for yourself and form your own judgment. It is likely you may differ from the views of the writer. You should think for yourself and cultivate a habit of writing and in this way you will be the master of your own style."

Another student of Sri Aurobindo at Baroda College was K.M. Munshi. In Bhavan's Journal (Vol. VIII, No. 26, 22 July 1962) Munshi reminisced about his former teacher:

Prof. Arvind Ghosh, later to be known as Sri Aurobindo, was our Professor of English, though at times he acted as Private Secretary to Sayajirao III, the Gaekwad of Baroda.

To the students of our College, Prof. Ghosh was a figure enveloped in mystery. He was reputed to be a poet, a master of many languages and in touch with Russian nihilists. Many stories of his doings were whispered from mouth to mouth among the students almost with awe.

The Russo-Japanese War, declared in 1904, shook some of us in the College to our very depth. Port Arthur fell to the Japanese in January 1905. Admiral Togo destroyed the Russian Fleet in May. Asia had successfully challenged the mastery of Europe!

Prof. Ghosh, as our acting Principal, declared a prize in an essay-cum-debate competition on "Japan and the Japanese". . . .

Under the influence of Prof. Arvind Ghosh, which, however, was remotely felt through Mohanlal Pandya, an employee of the Agricultural Department of Baroda State, a group of young students in the College were highly agitated over the question [of the partition of Bengal]. We heard of the echoes of coming army movements to overthrow the British and of plans of terrorist activities by secret societies.

We became ardent revolutionaries. We talked of Garibaldi and the French Revolution, and hoped to win India's freedom by a few hundred drachms of picric acid. . . .

I remember only one occasion when I directly talked to Prof. Arvind Ghosh. "How can nationalism be developed?" I asked. He pointed to a wall-map of India and said something to this effect:

Look at that map. Learn to find in it the portrait of Bharatmata.¹The cities, mountains, rivers and forests are the materials which go to make up Her body. The people inhabiting the country are the cells which go to make up Her living tissues. Our literature is Her memory and speech.

The spirit of Her culture is Her soul. The happiness and freedom of Her children is- Her salvation. Behold Bharat as a living Mother, meditate upon Her and worship Her in the nine-fold way of Bhakti. . . .

During the Partition movement. Prof. Arvind Ghosh resigned his post of the professor in our College. While leaving Baroda, he gave us a stirring speech, the substance of which I noted down on the spot. The summary of that speech and his messianic utterance, the Uttarpara Speech, remained the source of inspiration for me for years.

The Baroda College Golden Jubilee Commemoration Volume (Ed. Prof. A.K.. Trivedi [Bombay: Times of India Press, 1933]) contains the following statements by other students of Sri Aurobindo.

Mr. Littledale was succeeded [as Professor of English] by Mr. Arwind Ghosh, now of all India reputation and whose command over English was second to that of none, not even to that of an Englishman.

The speech he delivered at one of the annual social gatherings was a piece of chaste and polished English, the like of which I have never heard. It occupied only three pages of the College Miscellany, but it set an example in classical English.¹ Professor Ghosh gave us essays to write. He corrected all the essays. He used to teach us that every sentence should logically follow from the preceding sentence and similarly every para, should logically follow from the preceding one. Correct composition leads to correct thinking. (Mr. M.H. Kantavala, p.24)

Professors Manubhai and Arvind Ghose, no doubt, held the students spellbound during the time of their lectures; but they did not mix with the students as much as Masani, Tapidas and Naik. . .

Professor Ghose too dictated notes to the students and in doing so. asked the students to give out to him the last sentence of his previous notes and would then continue his notes further. (Mr. M.K.. Sharangpani, pp. 39-40)

Mr. Arvind Ghose who joined service about 1894 also used to grace the Debating Society's meetings with his presence. Once or twice he was accompanied by Mr. K.G. Deshpande, B.A., Bar-at-Law. . . . Rarely they addressed the meeting but when they did it was really an intellectual feast that seemed to us.

Later on Ghose was appointed Lecturer in French and English. His tutorial work was much appreciated. He took an active part in the literary activities of the College boys. (Mr. N.K. Dikshit. p.42)

He was revered by all, but being by nature shy and reserved was not easily accessible. His reading of English Texts was very simple and did not create an impression in students' minds of his Rhetorics, but we were all stunned at his genius when he dictated extemporaneous notes in a very lucid style. One sentence followed another naturally. I owe to him and his notes on "Pride and Prejudice" for my effort in writing a

Gujarati novel. While we were in the B.A. class, Mr. S.C. Mallick, a friend to Prof. Ghose, delivered us a lecture laying stress on Swadeshi, and many of us took to the Swadeshi vow from that date. Prof. Ghose also spoke and we were enamoured of his Rhetorics full of sentiments and ardour. Every syllable that he spoke was full of patriotic spirit. (Mr. R.S. Dalai, p.46)

As can be gathered from the extract from Barin Ghose's biography printed in our last issue. Sri Aurobindo was a voracious reader. Dinendra Kumar Roy, who lived with Sri Aurobindo as his companion and Bengali tutor in 1898 and 1899, writes that Sri Aurobindo regularly received books "by railway parcel" from two Bombay firms. All the books would soon be read and he would place fresh orders. Sri Aurobindo was in the habit of listing in his notebooks titles of books that interested him. Such lists, which include books in French, German, Greek, etc., as well as English, show his tastes to be very decidedly literary. A similar impression is given by a collection donated by Sri Aurobindo to the Bengal National College shortly after he left Baroda in 1906. Of a total of 155 books, 79 are works of English (and American) poetry and 21 of other forms of English literature. 21 books are biographies of English men of letters and 7 works of other literatures. There are 8 works on history or geography (travel), and 5 books about philosophy (but not one philosophical text). Among the remaining volumes there is no single book on science or mathematics.

Some of the books in the National College collection contain marginal notes. These are mostly glosses on hard words, e.g. this note on "Codille" in Pope's Moral Essays: "in quadrille when those who defended the pool made more tricks than those who stood the game (ombre & his partner who held the king he called for) won the codille"; or this one on the word शाल्योदन in the Nitishataka: "boiled rice of fine kind/ शलि = rice ओदन = food , boiled rice". Other notes explain biographical or historical allusions, like this one on "Linian", mentioned in Chaucer's Clerk's Prologue: "Giovanni di Lignano/Prof. of Canon Law at Bologna 1363 died 1383."

The National College collection includes two Sanskrit literary texts. In another set of books owned by Sri Aurobindo in Baroda there are some other works in that language as well as a large number of Bengali books and bound periodicals. The Bengali books include Anand Math, the sonnets of Michael Madhusudan Dutt and Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita.

During the years 1900 and 1901 Sri Aurobindo was in the habit of noting down the books he was studying and sometimes also the number of pages read each day. These notes give us some idea of the diversity and rapidity of his reading. In September 1900 Sri Aurobindo was engrossed in a Sanskrit text of the Mahabharata. On the fourth of September, besides correcting his class's examination papers, he read the 63 slokas of suktas 53 and 54 of the Virataparva. He had read up to this point (i.e. 54 suktas containing 1533 slokas) in just eight days. In three more days he read twice over the whole first part ("Purvamegha") of Kalidasas famous Meghaduta or Cloud-Messenger.

On 3 January 1901 Sri Aurobindo began another poem of Kalidasa, his epic the Raghuvansha. At the same time he was studying other works in Sanskrit, English and German. The following is a verbatim extract from one of Sri Aurobindo's notebooks:

The Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives and Research Library is happy to announce the acquisition of a valuable collection of manuscripts and newspapers. The collection, which was donated by Shri Arun Chandra Dutt. President, Prabartak Samgha. Chandernagore, includes a number of letters of Sri Aurobindo to Motilal Roy, Sri Aurobindo's original manuscript of Saptachatushtaya, and seven volumes of the daily Bande Mataram.

Edited and Published by Harikant Patel for the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Publication Department and Printed by Jayantilal Parekh at the All India Press, Pondicherry 605002