-06_Notes on the Texts

Nagpur Speeches. These three speeches, delivered by Sri Aurobindo in Nagpur on 30 and 31 January and 1 February 1908, are reproduced here from an old English translation of a Marathi pamphlet. The portions of the pamphlet giving information on the circumstances under which the speeches were delivered are reproduced as Document 9 of Documents in the Life of Sri Aurobindo. The speeches, given in English, were translated into Marathi probably for publication in a Nagpur newspaper, and subsequently issued in pamphlet form. A member of the Central Provinces police then translated the pamphlet so that it could be examined by the British authorities and possibly used as evidence in a sedition case. No copy of the Marathi pamphlet (much less of the actual English speeches) is presently available. The only surviving record of the three speeches are the twice-translated texts reproduced here. They obviously cannot be taken as providing the actual words used by Sri Aurobindo, but may be presumed to give an accurate rendering of the substance, and perhaps even something of the spirit of the speeches. The translation is in places so unidiomatic that editorial emendation was necessary. The two "leaders" referred to in the first paragraph are Bipin Chandra Pal, who in January 1908 was imprisoned in Buxar Jail, and Aswini Kumar Dutt, who had been present at the Congress in Surat.

A Colloquy. There exist two versions of this Bengali dramatic fragment, both of them written apparently during the earlier years in Pondicherry (after 1910). The translator is Shri Nolini Kanta Gupta.

Hymns to the Mystic Fire. This partial translation of Rig-veda 1.31 includes excerpts from Sayana's commentary with Sri Aurobindo's remarks on them. In his manuscript Sri Aurobindo sometimes quoted from Sayana without any remark; such quotations have not been included here. Sri Aurobindo did this translation in Pondicherry, in 1917, perhaps, or not long afterwards.

Selected Hymns. The manuscripts of these translations of Rig-veda 1.61-64 were found along with translations of 1.58 and 1.60 (published in A & Vol.2, No.1, pp.48-50) and one of 1.59 that differs very little from the translation of that hymn published in the January 1920 issue of the Arya. This would indicate that this entire group of hymns (RV 1.58-64) was translated in 1919 or slightly before. All seven hymns apparently were intended for the Arya, but only one was published in that journal before it was discontinued in January 1921.

The First Hymn of the Rig-veda. Both of these translations (one fragmentary, but containing extensive commentary) were done during the years 1914-1917, most likely towards the beginning of this period.

A Commentary on the Kena Upanishad: Foreword. This fragment was written sometime around 1912.

Evolution in the Vedantic View. This piece was written during the same period as the

preceding fragment. An early draft of it was found along with the fragment's single manuscript. Only the final portion of the text (printed below the asterisk) is from the early draft; the bulk of the text is taken from a fair copy made shortly after the first writing. All the drafts connected with the piece are untitled; the title given here has been provided by the editors. It is evident from the first sentence that the piece was written as part of a larger work that either was not completed or has not survived.

The Life Divine. It appears that the fifth chapter of the "Life Divine" commentary on the Isha Upanishad, which was published in the preceding issue of A & R, is the last chapter of that commentary that Sri Aurobindo wrote. The two chapters written under the title The Life Divine appearing in the present and the next issues were evidently intended by him for an independent philosophical writing. Quite possibly they are unused drafts for the work first published in the Arya that was ultimately revised to become Sri Aurobindo's metaphysical magnum opus. These two chapters, numbered "II" and "III" in the manuscript, contain no direct commentary on the Isha Upanishad, although they occasionally mention it. They are not dated, but are written in a notebook used before them for material dated February 1913. In notes found among Sri Aurobindo's papers, he writes that between 25 and 31 July 1914 he worked on "Life Divine II". It is probably the chapter appearing in this issue that is referred to. If so, as this chapter bears no direct textual relation¹ to the chapter published as Chapter II of The Life Divine in the Aryans second number (September 1914), one must assume that Sri Aurobindo rewrote the entire chapter before September. At first he definitely intended the Arya's Life Divine to be a work based directly on traditional Vedantic philosophy. Even as late as 5 August 1914, he wrote of "The Life Divine" as a work of "Vedanta" related specifically to the Isha Upanishad. In the August 1914 issue of Arya, the first chapter of The Life Divine was published under the heading "The Affirmations of Vedanta". It was apparently shortly after this first instalment was published that Sri Aurobindo decided to make The Life Divine an independent statement of his own philosophy.

Social Reform. A detailed account of the various manuscripts of this essay is given in the article On Editing Sri Aurobindo published in this issue. The first (typewritten) version was probably written sometime around 1910-1911. (This version, minus the last three and one half sentences, was published in SABCL Volume 3, pages 120-124.) The two subsequent portions—the one beginning "But this is a general principle", and the separate passage written "For'Social Reform'" which starts "We are Hindus"—were added probably a year or two afterwards. We have separated the last passage from the main body of the text by an asterisk, since Sri Aurobindo left no definite indication of where he wanted it inserted.

1 There is some indirect, thematic relation. E.g. the eighth paragraph of the chapter printed in the present issue deals with the "materialist denial"; the "refusal of the ascetic" is touched on in the chapter passim.

Words already listed in the Glossary to the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library have generally not been included. As in that glossary, proper names, words occurring in translations, and words written in Devanagari script have been omitted. Sources of citations are given in square brackets after the definitions.

aptavakya, the word of the fit authority.

asat ekam advitiyam, non-being, one without a second. [Chhandogya Upanishad 6.2.1]

bhutastha, dwelling in beings. [Gita 9.5] ekah sanatanah, one, without beginning or end.

isa vasyam jagat, world for habitation by the Lord. [Isha Upanishad 1]

guru-parampara, succession of spiritual teachers.

kala purusa, Zeitgeist and Death-Spirit.

kalivarjya, that which is to be abandoned in the Kali age.

lokaksayakrt pravrddhah, increasing to destroy a world. [Gita 11.32]

na ca matsthani bhutani pasya me yogam aisvaram, and yet all existences are not situated in Me, behold my divine Yoga. [Gita 9.5]

naham tesu te mayi, I am not in them, it is they that are in Me. [Gita 7.12]

na pravacanena. na bahuna srutena, not by exegesis, nor by much learning of Scripture. [Mundaka Upanishad 3.2.3]

nasato vidyate bhavah, that which is nonexistent cannot come into being. [Gita 2.16]

na tarkenaisa matir apaneya, this wisdom is not to be had by reasoning. [Katha Upanishad 1.2.9]

revanche (French), return, revenge,

recovery of lost territory.

rsi, seeker and finder of knowledge.

sa iksata, he thought (saw). [Aitareya Upanishad 1.1.1]

sa tapo atapyata, he concentrated himself in thought. [Taittiriya Upanishad 3.1 etc.]

satyadrsti, the vision of the truth.

so'rthan vyadadhac chasvatibhyah sam-dbhyaJi, he has ordered objects from years sempiternal. [Cf. Isha Upanishad 8]

suksmatattva, subtle cosmic principle.

svadha (Swadha), the self-arranging self-movement of the divine Nature in man.

svaha (Swaha), the luminous self-force of the fulfilled divine Nature of the gods.

svarajya (Swarajya), self-rule, independence.

tad ejati, that moves. [Isha Upanishad 5]

tamasa (Hind.), show, entertainment.

tapas taptva, having concentrated himself in thought. [Taittiriya Upanishad 3.1 etc.]

tattva, fundamental cosmic principle.

tejo yat te rupam kalyanatamam, the Lustre which is Thy most blessed form of all.

varjanam, abandonment.

Some interest has been created by the article "The Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives and Research Library" published in our last issue. In particular the sections dealing with the publication and verification of Sri Aurobindo's works (pages 92-93) have provoked questions. It is not surprising that students of Sri Aurobindo should be interested in how his writings are prepared for publication. And if a reader should find that a much-loved poem or personally significant passage has been altered in the new edition of a book, he has a right to some idea of why and how the change has come about. It was not possible in last issue's article to give more than a summary notion about the role of the textual editor. An attempt will be made in the present essay to provide more detailed information. But the reader must not expect a full treatment of this complex subject. Here, as in any other area of specialisation, much of the background knowledge and technique can only be acquired through study and practice.

It is important to realise that textual criticism¹ is a complex and specialised field, but it is easy to dwell too much on its complexity. However much the editor may apply a technical knowledge, his greatest asset is an enlightened common sense. Behind the fine points of his discipline lies a simply stated and straightforward aim: to transmit the works of an author in error-free texts that represent the author's "final intentions". A great deal hinges on this last phrase, the implications of which will be touched on repeatedly below. Its essential meaning, however, is so simple as to be self-evident. The duty of the editor is to present the text exactly as the author would have wanted it presented. His whole difficulty is to apply this principle in the countless textual situations that arise while preparing a text for publication. And finally "every textual situation is unique",² so that even those rules and methods of procedure that can be formulated are at best only guidelines that must be applied with discrimination in each separate case.

Whatever his work, whether it is preparing an unpublished text from manuscript material or preparing a new edition of an already published work, the editor must perform certain operations, usually in a given order. In practice the steps are not always separate or in strict sequence. But it is possible and convenient to isolate nine typical stages:

1 This term, once used mostly for the establishment of scholarly texts from scribal manuscripts of classical and mediaeval works, is now given more general application. It means simply the preparation of an ideal text of a written work from whatever handwritten or printed copies of it exist. The term is preferable in a way to "textual editing", because editing in its ordinary sense sometimes includes the rewriting of material to suit the needs of a publisher—something the textual critic never does. But in this article the high-sounding title "textual critic" has been abandoned in favour of the more familiar "editor".

2 P. Gaskell, From Writer to Reader: Studies in Editorial Method (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978). p.10.

(2) Comparing ("collating") and arranging the manuscripts and/or printed copies.

(3) Deciding on the "copy-text", i.e. that manuscript or printed text which will be used as the basis of the editor's critical version.

(6) Editing the copy-text, emending it where necessary, to establish a "critical text", i.e. the editor's ideal version.

Before going into the details of each of these operations, an editor of Sri Aurobindo must pause to anticipate an objection. "All this editing or textual criticism or what have you may be very fine for ordinary writers," a devotee of the master might say, "but when dealing with the writings of a realised yogin, it is entirely out of place. His writings are inspired revelation. To talk of editing them 'critically' bespeaks a great arrogance. To attempt to emend them smacks of blasphemy. Even if a writing of his might for some reason be in need of an editor's care, what fallible human could be entrusted with the job? Better to print his books just as they have been printed in the past, to print his unpublished writings, if indeed they should be printed at all, exactly as they were written. These are sacred scriptures that must be kept free from editorial interference." Such a line of argument is not without basis. But it completely ignores the purpose and methods of textual criticism. No printed text, whoever might have written it, is free from errors of transmission. The author is not responsible for these clerical and typographical mistakes, and it would be unjust to saddle him with them for eternity. As for unpublished manuscripts, their value is unquestionable, but it would be impossible to print any unrevised manuscript without an editor's assistance. Even the simple act of transcription is editorial — and it is often far from simple. If in preparing a new edition the editor is obliged to make alterations, it is rarely the words of the author that are changed. It is usually errors introduced by compositors, proofreaders or uncritical editors that must be weeded out. If the editor is ever obliged to resort to emendation, it is to set right a manuscript reading that is clearly not what the author intended. It must be emphasised that the textual editor is trying precisely to present the author's text exactly as it was written, without editorial interference. His success is measured by the extent to which he lets his author speak in his own voice. In other words, the editor succeeds in proportion as he makes himself invisible.

The editor's first task is to collect the materials related to the text he is working on. When all the manuscripts of a given writing survive, he will expect them to form a series that begins with a rough draft, extends through various fair-copies or typescripts (the earlier of which will have corrections carried out in the later), and ends

with a manuscript that may be considered as "final". The manuscripts of most writings of Sri Aurobindo form this sort of series. People are sometimes surprised to learn that he wrote rough drafts or corrected his typescripts. Some seem to have the idea that inspired writings must come down all at once in one inevitable gush. This is not how inspiration works, as readers of Sri Aurobindo's letters on literature know. In one he writes of the obstruction offered by the "outer consciousness" that interferes in the "pure transcript" of the inspiration and "causes the difficulty and labour of writing".³ "The very best," he says, "comes by intermittent drops".⁴When it is so, there is "no need of effort"; at other times effort becomes necessary "but only as an excuse for inducing the Inspiration to come."⁵ "Effort" here means, of course, the process of writing, correcting, rejecting, rewriting, etc. All this Sri Aurobindo went through "often enough myself".⁶ If anything, Sri Aurobindo's great drive for perfection led him to revise both his prose and poetry more rather than less than other authors. The epic Savitri, with its dozen and more versions amounting to thousands of manuscript pages, is the prime example of this. Even a short poem such as Trance, which Sri Aurobindo wrote "at one sitting",⁷ has more than one manuscript. Perhaps the only writings of his that do not. letters excepted, are ones that he abandoned midway.

A close examination of Sri Aurobindo's manuscripts does reveal certain remarkable aspects of his writing — both composition and revision. Even in rough drafts the words seem to have flowed onto the page without hesitation. There was little cancellation or backtracking during the first act of writing. Each layer of correction (and sometimes there are many) was not a rectifying of something found on rereading to be unacceptable, but rather a polishing and raising of the original expression to a higher level. For, as Sri Aurobindo said, true correction comes through "second inspiration".⁸

After Sri Aurobindo had revised a first draft and brought it to a sufficient degree of perfection, he recopied it. often making improvements as he transcribed. At times, when he had the use of a typewriter, a typescript was made. Sri Aurobindo did some typing himself, but more often his typed transcripts are the work of students or employees (in Baroda) or disciples (in Pondicherry). Material for the Arya seems often to have been written by Sri Aurobindo directly at the typewriter. Whatever their origin, typescripts were invariably hand corrected by Sri Aurobindo.

The second draft was usually corrected when it was reread. Often another transcript was then made. This process of revision continued until Sri Aurobindo was satisfied enough to publish the article, send the letter, or release the poem. And even after a work had been revised and re-revised, this indefatigable perfectionist continued to make additions and alterations. A printed copy has recently been found of The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo's most thoroughly revised work, in which he has made some marginal additions.

3 Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry and Letters on Poetry. Literature and Art (1972), p.291.

7 Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry and Letters on Poetry, Literature and Art (1972), p.412.

The article Social Reform (published in this issue) shows a complex and interesting assortment of manuscripts that demonstrates the importance of the stage of inventory-taking. The early drafts of Social Reform no longer exist. They probably were destroyed by Sri Aurobindo after the first available version of the article had been typed on five sheets of foolscap paper. These sheets were revised by hand shortly after the typing. The handwriting of this revision is in the non-cursive separate-letter ("printing") style that Sri Aurobindo used characteristically at Baro-da, occasionally at Calcutta, and sometimes during the earliest years at Pondicherry. It is exemplified in Figure 1 by the words "standard" (line 12) and "they" (bottom line), and in Figure 2 by "only" (top line) and "violently" (line 5). Sometime later the article was taken up again. The five pages were sporadically revised in a cursive hand (see the word "radical", Figure 1, line 8), and then in the same hand a long passage was added at the bottom and on the back of the fifth page. Finally, an additional passage was written, again in the same hand (and apparently around the same time), on three pages of a notebook that was in use during the early Pondicherry years. Sri Aurobindo wrote "For 'Social Reform'" at the top of this passage (Figure 3).

In time these manuscripts became dispersed. The first portion to be found after Sri Aurobindo's passing consisted of four of the five typed pages. These were transcribed and published in the journal The Advent in August 1955. Because the fifth page of the manuscript (Figure 2) was accounted lost at the time, the Advent's editor concluded the article by changing the comma after "they think" to a full stop and deleting the words that follow ("for it embraces the world, not"). At some later date one loose sheet containing most of the paragraph "For 'Social Reform'", comprising Figure 3 and the reverse of this page, was discovered. This sheet had somehow become detached and separated from the notebook that once contained it. In 1974 the contents of the sheet were transcribed and considered for separate publication; but because of the fragmentary nature of the passage, this idea was not carried out. The significance of the heading "For'Social Reform'" was not grasped at that time. It was years since the article had been published, and there was little about the manuscript to suggest connection. The fifth page of the typed manuscript (Figure 2), the one containing the long handwritten addition, was no doubt examined sometime during this period. But the examination was apparently not done by the same person who had worked with the other four typed pages. Or, if it was. it was done at a time when the memory of those pages (four pages among the thousands of pages of Sri Aurobindo's manuscripts) was no longer fresh in his mind. This fifth page was so obviously a fragment—and a difficult one to read at that—that it was not even transcribed. There remained as the last piece of the puzzle the third page of the passage "For'Social Reform'" which was still in its original notebook. The absence of the sheet which should have preceded it made it impossible to publish this fragment.

It was only recently that all the pieces were put together. The four published typed pages and the one loose one arrived at the Archives almost simultaneously. Then, as an additional stroke of good fortune, the loose sheet with the bulk of the "For'Social Reform'" passage turned up. This time the clue provided by the heading was not missed. Finally, the connection between this sheet and the notebook it originally came from was noticed. The text of the fragment still in the notebook had been filed under "miscellaneous pieces" and so was easily recoverable. Archivists, besides, develop remarkable memories for types of paper and handwriting.

Figure 2. Page five of typed version of Social Reform with handwritten addition

The difficulty of Social Reform lay not in the number of its versions, but in the scattering of its manuscripts, and the consequent difficulty of identifying and assembling them. The manuscripts of most other writings of Sri Aurobindo, although rarely found together in a neat pile, can usually be identified without much trouble and, with the help of the catalogues and card files prepared during the general inventory of the Archives' collection, put together easily. When all the manuscripts of a writing have been gathered together, the editor can begin work on the next step, which is to arrange them in chronological order. Most sets of manuscripts of a single writing form what is known as an "ancestral series", in which each draft has been copied from its immediate predecessor. The sequence can usually be determined by "collation", that is, a detailed comparison of the manuscripts with special note taken of variations. Obviously if Draft B incorporates revisions occurring first in Draft A, Draft B was written subsequently to Draft A. In handwritten or hand-corrected manuscripts, these relations are easy to discover, because the alterations, usually interlinear or overwritten, stand out clearly from the original text.

A good example of an ancestral series is provided by the various drafts and printed versions of the sonnet Transformation. The three earliest surviving stages are illustrated as Figures 4-6;⁹ the final version is the one printed in the book Collected Poems and Plays (1942). This version certainly represents the author's final intentions,¹⁰ and has been used in all subsequent printings of the poem. Incomplete collation of the drafts of other sonnets has led in some cases to an early draft being used in place of a later revised one. For example, the final draft of The Infinitesimal Infinite is a typed and revised copy produced five to ten years after the handwritten draft that has hitherto been used as text.

The principal purpose of inventory and collation is to determine the "copy-text", that version of a work which the editor uses as the basis for his critical text. When the versions being used are the author's own manuscripts, the copy-text usually is the last manuscript in the ancestral series. But occasionally the editor must combine two or more different manuscripts to make his copy-text. This must be done especially when the most thoroughly revised manuscript is not the most complete one—not a rare occurrence in the writings of Sri Aurobindo. The article The Tangle of Karma, for instance, has three drafts. The first, the last line of which may be seen at the top of Figure 7, consists of only a single paragraph. The second (Figure 7), heavily revised and difficult to decipher, may be considered complete. It was re-copied with corrections (Figure 8), but only partially. This incomplete third draft was

9 Transcriptions of Figures 4 and 5 may be found in Sri Aurobindo. Sonnets (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, 1980), pp.105 and 107.

10 In all but one respect. The general editorial policy of Collected Poems and Plays (1942) permitted very little indentation, and none for sonnets. But it is clear from an examination of all the manuscripts of all Sri Aurobindo's sonnets (some of which were produced after 1942) that he preferred Petrarchan sonnets to be indented in a certain way. See the arrows in Figure 6. In the recently published complete edition of Sri Aurobindo's Sonnets (see note 9), the indentation of all sonnets has been made to accord with Sri Aurobindo's preference.

discovered before the second, and was used as the text of the article when it was published in the book The Hour of God ( 1959). The second draft alone provides the conclusion of the essay, although the third gives Sri Aurobindo's final intentions as regards the opening paragraphs. A complete text obviously could be produced by using the third draft as far as it goes, and then falling back on the second. But careful collation shows that this should not be done mechanically. The third (revised) draft has this sentence: "A cosmic Will and Wisdom . . . fixes the norm and constantly enlarges the lines — or, let us say, since law is a too mechanical conception,—the truth of Karma." (Figure 8, lines 16, 18-20) In the second draft the same sentence concludes: "fixes the norm and constantly enlarges the lines of the law or let us say rather since law is itself [?] too mechanical a conception the truth of Karma." (Figure 9—the italicised words are an interlinear insertion.) The second draft obviously provides a more satisfactory reading. The phrase "since law is a too mechanical conception" in the third draft (Figure 8) should follow an explicit reference to "law", but there is none. The interlinear phrase "or let us say . . . truth" takes up and expands on "law" (an essential part of the sentence as written in the second draft (Figure 9)). but it does not make "law" unnecessary. Why then was "of the law" omitted in the third draft? A close examination of the manuscript of the second draft shows that the interlinear insertion begins almost at the lefthand margin. When the third draft was copied from the second, the transcriber's eye was led from the end of the preceding line ("enlarges the lines") directly to the beginning of the insertion ("or let us say"). He wrote out the insertion (altering it as he wrote), and then added the concluding words of the sentence written to the right of the caret. In his haste he did not notice the three words at the caret's left. This explanation, arrived at through simple analysis, is both necessary (because of the defective reading) and reasonable. It is not made less so by the fact that the copyist was the author himself. Authorial errors of transcription are encountered frequently by textual editors.¹¹

There are several possible solutions to the problem of The Tangle of Karma. One would be the approach already mentioned, to use the third version as copy-text as far as it goes, and then to fall back on the second. Where deficient, the incomplete third version could be corrected by the corresponding passage of the second. An even more conservative approach would be to choose the second version as copy-text and add the third version below this or in a footnote as an alternative (revised) opening. Perhaps the best solution would be to use the second version as copy-text and to incorporate in this all intentional changes made by the author in the third. These changes would be located by a careful collation of the two versions. For example, the first sentences of the second draft would be omitted, since they are cancelled in the third. The two adjectives in the phrase "a crude identity with the summary notions of law and justice", which were added in the third draft, would be incorporated. There would also have to be some adjustment of punctuation.

11 As in, for example, the manuscripts of the sonnets of G.M. Hopkins. Gaskell says: "There are nearly always copying errors and similar accidental mistakes made by the author himself, by copyists and by compositors." From Writer to Reader, p.1.

transcribing is done directly on the typewriter. Attention must be paid not only to the author's special habits of forming letters (for example, Sri Aurobindo's way of writing "ly" as a double loop that looks rather like a cursive "f"), but also to his methods of revision. Sri Aurobindo had a peculiar way of indicating transposition by superscript numbers. His preference of overwriting to cancellation and interlinear addition sometimes makes his corrections rather illegible.

Figure 10 shows a passage whose decipherment presented a number of interesting problems.¹² A verbatim transcription is given below the facsimile. It is evident that there are several layers of work here. The passage as originally written read as follows:

(1) & unintelligible. Hence passages which, when once fathomed, reveal a depth of knowledge

(2) & delicacy of subtle thought almost miraculous in its wealth & quality, come to an[?]

(3) ignorant reader as a mass of childish, ignorant fancies characteristic of an unformed

(4) and immature thinking. Worst of all, the spiritual experiences of the Vedantic

(5) seekers were largely lost to India as the moods [?] of the Iron Age grew upon her, as knowledge

(6) contracted, her virtues dwindled & her old spiritual valiancy lost its daring & its nerve.

No unusual problems are presented by these lines. The words followed by question marks in lines 2 and 5 are difficult to read, but neither form part of the sentence as revised. A few of Sri Aurobindo's writing particularities are demonstrated by the passage, notably the lower-case "e" formed after the Greek, and the frequent but not exclusive use of the ampersand for "and". Later additions have interfered with the comma after "childish" (line 3) and almost wholly obliterated the one after "worst of all" (line 4).

Some of the changes making up the first layer of revision may have been made during the first act of composition, e.g. the addition of "her" before "knowledge" (end line 5), and the substitution of "Vedic" for "Vedantic" by the writing of "ic" over "an" and the striking out of the remaining three letters (end line 4). The rest of the single alterations were probably made after the first writing of the essay had been completed. "Come to an¹³ ignorant reader" (lines 2-3) was changed to "strike to the casual reader today". "To" of course goes with "come" and should have been struck out along with it, but was unintentionally left uncancelled. "Obscure" (above line 3) is written over a word or word-beginning that it wholly obliterates. The carets marking the points of insertion of "today" (line 3) and "& psychological" (line 4) are placed so low that both interfere with later interlinear insertions. The second caret

12 The passage occurs in the first paragraph of The Secret of the Isha. printed in SABCL Vol.12, p.520. There are a number of mistakes in the printed text which will be discussed in the second instalment of this article to be published in the next issue.

13 It is possible that this overwritten word is "us". If so. the phrase was first written "come to us . . . ", but. before the sentence could be concluded with "as a mass . . .", "us" was overwritten by "the" and followed by "ignorant reader" etc

can easily be mistaken for a letter at the end of "obscurations" (line 5). The decipherment of this word is further complicated by the badly formed "u" and by a "t" whose top stroke can hardly be seen, since the ink did not flow out of the pen when it was made. A close examination reveals the scratch of the nib and a faint line of ink. The interference of "ignorance" (line 4a) with "obscurations" is not very troublesome.

The interlinear sentence (lines 3b, 3a and 4a) evidently forms the last layer of revision. There is no caret, but its point of insertion can be ascertained both from the context and from a knowledge of Sri Aurobindo's writing habits. It was customary for him to start such insertions immediately above and a little to the left of the insertion-point. As first written the sentence began "Rubbish, an eminent Western scholar ..." (line 3b). The gap between the first two words was necessitated by the low caret for "today". The comma after "them" has almost been lost by its running into the ampersand that precedes "psychological" (above line 4). When the insertion reaches the end of one line (3b), it is run on to the next (4a). This is also in accordance with Sri Aurobindo's usual practice. It is important to know this habit of his, otherwise one might suppose that line 4a ought to be inserted somewhere in line 5. Here the context prevents such a confusion, but in other cases the run-over words might manage to find a place in the lower line. Sri Aurobindo's starting of line 4a far to the left is his indication that it is run over from above.

The words in lines 3b and 4a have been cramped into a rather narrow space and as a result are badly formed and relatively difficult to decipher. But the obvious reference of "an eminent Western scholar" (line 3b) to Max Muller makes that reading sure. The other words of the sentence as first written may also be read confidently. The "the" inserted without caret before "babblings of ignorance" (line 4a) is little more than a blotch, but no other word could be suspected. The greatest difficulty lies in line 3a, an interlinear expansion of an interlinear line, which is squeezed into less than two millimeters of space. "& babblings of" is clear enough; and "babblings" is confirmed by "babblings of ignorance" below in line 4a.¹⁴ The words "humanity's nonage", however, are both doubtful. The "y's" of the former word is not visible, and the "a" of "nonage" is formed of too many strokes. One way to corroborate the reading of these lines would be to find and compare Max Muller's text. But Sri Aurobindo has used the same phrase in a similar context elsewhere in his writings,¹⁵ and this provides the needed confirmation.

The copy-text must be transcribed verbatim. In certain types of material a limited number of exceptions to this rule are permitted, such as the expansion of unusual abbreviations, the spelling out of the ampersand, and the correction of obvious misspellings. A verbatim copy is necessary so that all work done in the sixth stage will stand out clearly as editorial. The first transcript is usually fairly complete. A few difficult-to-decipher words might be left out, but generally a working copy can be produced that needs only a little filling in and correction.

14 This shows that line 3a was inserted while line 3b was being written and before line 4a had been completed.

editor reading aloud from the author's manuscript to another person. Since neither the editor nor, preferably, his partner have had a hand in the first transcription, this second reading will be completely independent. Cueing from the transcript is discouraged, in order that each word may be confirmed. A few errors of decipherment and of typing are usually found at this stage.

Now begins the work of editing proper, the transformation of the copy-text into an ideal or "critical text". In front of the editor is a corrected verbatim transcript of the copy-text. Any work he does will be marked clearly on this transcript, which will be kept as a record of the differences between the critical text and the author's manuscript. These will occur when the editor changes the copy-text in places where he decides it does not represent the author's final intentions. Such decisions cannot be made on the basis of the editor's preferences or even of his unaided critical judgment, but must be based on his collation and analysis of the assembled materials. Only very simple emendation may be done without this evidence, as for example minor regularisation of spelling, punctuation and capitalisation. This is almost invariably required by unrevised handwritten drafts; for no author in the course of composition and correction bothers to cross every t or to add commas before and after interlinear additions. Such minor emendment may usually be done without notification to the reader. The editor need only be careful about two things: first, that he does not emend where emendation is not required, and, secondly, that he does not work on the basis of any rigid standard (even that of "standard English"), but makes his changes in accordance with the author's usual practice, which he must have studied in detail.

Most other emendation can be done only when collation has shown the existence of readings preferable to those in the copy-text. This type of editing has been discussed in relation to The Tangle of Karma above. Only rarely is any manuscript reading so impossible that the editor must provide his own alternative. An example is the word "jerry-mandered" as it occurs in one of Sri Aurobindo's Letters from Abroad (A & R, Vol.3, No.2, p.200). "Jerrymander", listed in the Concise Oxford Dictionary as a variant of "gerrymander", is actually a misspelling of that American term, which means "to divide a state, country or city into voting districts to give unfair advantage to one part in elections" (American Heritage Dictionary). The word has nothing to do with building construction, but this is the context in which Sri Aurobindo uses it: "some houses very showily built have an ugly habit of descending suddenly in ruin .... They are then said to be jerry-mandered." Sri Aurobindo evidently was thinking of a similar expression, "jerry-built", which Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines as "built cheaply and unsubstantially". The error is a simple mix-up of two similar terms. The need of emendment here is obvious: by no stretch of the imagination can "jerry-mandered" be considered correct in the context. Also obvious is the word Sri_ Aurobindo meant to write. The editor may therefore emend with confidence, knowing he is not doctoring the author's text, but providing the word that the author actually intended. Naturally the reader must be informed about such a verbal change. The note on the text of Letters from Abroad in Archives & Research (Vol.3, No.2, p.207) gives the necessary information.

Some readers might be of the opinion that, given the sanctity of Sri Aurobindo's writings, emendation should never be resorted to. There is a place for literal and verbatim transcripts, but when the book is intended for the general public a "clear-text" transcription which incorporates necessary emendations is far preferable. It is in fact this method of presentation that has been always used by Sri Aurobindo's editors, for no edition of any book of his published after 1950 is free from some amount of editorial emendation. Few books by any author are, except those destined exclusively for scholars. Not many ordinary readers would be willing to struggle through the half-punctuated, note-burdened, and sometimes misleading maze that a verbatim transcript of manuscript material almost inevitably is. One can imagine what it would be like to read an entire book printed in the style of the transcription of Figure 10. Even if only the final corrected version were to be printed, and cancelled words, insertions, etc. not indicated, the result would still be unsatisfactory. If no emendation of the passage illustrated in Figure 10 were permitted, one would be obliged to print "strike to the casual reader". It would not be doing justice to the author to foist on him such an impossibly unidiomatic expression, particularly as it is one he never intended to write. The editor has the handwritten material, some expertise and plenty of time. It is his job to pass these advantages along to the reader.

As a further illustration of the necessity of emendation, one may consider a few lines from the first paragraph of the passage written by hand "For 'Social Reform'" (Figure 3, lines 5 ff below heading). This passage, which presents no real difficulties of transcription, reads in the manuscript:

Where did Hinduism seek Him. Ancient or pre Buddhistic Hinduism sought him both on the world and outside it; it took its stand on the strength & beauty & joy of the Veda, unlike modern or postBuddhistic Hinduism . . .

This short passage is unusual in that it requires emendation, albeit slight, in no less than five places. A question mark after the first sentence is an obvious necessity. Neither "pre Buddhistic" (with space) nor "postBuddhistic" (joined) could be considered acceptable in a clear-text edition; a hyphen is necessary in both cases. The uncapitalised "him" (for "God") in "Hinduism sought him" would be allowed to stand if it were not immediately preceded by the sentence: "Where did Hinduism seek Him?" The referent of "Him" is exactly the same in both cases; to capitalise one "Him" and lowercase the other in print could only cause confusion. These four changes all concern what are known as "accidentals", minor matters of nonsignificant punctuation, capitalisation, etc. In the phrase "sought Him on the world" there is a word that needs changing—a "substantive" emendment. "On the world" is obviously unidiomatic and incorrect in the context. It is a phrase that Sri Aurobindo could never have intended to write. But "on" is clear enough in the manuscript. Sri Aurobindo's "in"s and "on"s are sometimes indistinguishable, but here the "o" is indisputable. Nevertheless, it must be considered a slip, perhaps caused by anticipation of the "on" in the next phrase. Sri Aurobindo evidently meant to write "in the world", and this is what has been printed.

Certainly emendation remains the editor's thorniest problem. It is here that his responsibility to the author and his readers is the greatest. The ethics of editing demand (1) that emendation is resorted to only if the manuscript reading is "manifestly

impossible" and misleading; (2) that the emendation suggests itself naturally; (3) that a simple explanation can be given to explain how the mistake in the manuscript occurred,¹⁶ and finally, (4) that all changes of "substantives" are explained in notes that give the manuscript readings.¹⁷

After the working copy of the copy-text has been critically edited, a transcription of the critical text must be typed for the press. The press copy is then checked from the manuscript two or three times. Each checking should be done by a different team; this permits all the entire transcription and all editorial decisions to be evaluated by a number of people. The final text will then be the result of four or five separate readings: the original transcription, the checking of that by the main editor, and two or three verifications. A wide enough net is spread by this approach to catch almost any hard reading, mistake of transcription, or editorial or typographical error. The help of experts from outside the editorial office may be sought at this point to clear up any remaining difficulties. This is especially necessary when the manuscript deals with a specialised field, such as Vedic Sanskrit. If any word remains unread, a footnote describing the situation (e.g. "three words illegible"; "bottom of MS torn off") must be provided.

After the matter has been composed by the press, the proofs must be checked at least three times. The comments of outside readers are very welcome at this point. Proofreading is done from the press copy and not from the author's manuscript, so emendation is impossible at this stage, unless the archivist is alerted.

This is in brief how a text is prepared from manuscript material. Methods for the verification of printed texts and the preparation of critical editions will be discussed in the next issue.

16 The well-known bibliographer Greg's definition of an "acceptable emendation" is "one that strikes a trained intelligence as supplying exactly the sense required by the context, and which at the same time reveals to the critic the manner in which the corruption arose." Quoted in Chakraborti. M.L., Bibliography in Theory and Practice (Calcutta: World Press. 1975). p.317.

17 A number of changes have been made in matter appearing in the present issue, but it has not been possible to explain all of them, either in this article or in the Notes on the Texts. The section of the journal with that title does not provide a suitable place for presenting even every substantive emendation. Only very significant or questionable alterations, such as "jerry-built" for "jerrymandered", have found a place there. When the works of Sri Aurobindo are reprinted in book form, each volume will contain a table giving all substantive emendations.

Meeting in College Square, Sj. Arabinda Ghose took chair—object to request Rashbehari Ghose to retire in favour of Lajpat Rai. Audience numbered about 4,000. Arabindababu pressed by people to speak and made his maiden speech (in English).

Another meeting—Beadon Square, with Pandit Mokshada Charan Samadhayi presiding. Audience would not rest till they heard Sj. Arabinda Ghose speak. So he had to and said, "I have made it a rule not to speak in public and 1 have good reasons for it. I went to England when too young to learn mother tongue and I can't speak it. And rather than address you, my countrymen, in a language which is not mine and which is not yours I kept 'self silent'." He then explained the position of the nationalists.

Sjts. Arabinda Ghose and Syam Sundar Chakraborty left for Surat today. They had collected about 360/- for nationalist delegates to go to Surat.

With a canvas bag in my hand and a blanket over my shoulder I came to the Howrah Station and was shown by volunteers into a third class compartment in the Congress Special packed full of Congress delegates. Sri Aurobindo and Syam Sundar Chakra-varty were sitting smiling in that compartment while J. Ghosal, the Congress Secretary of the moderate party, was travelling in a first class compartment in perfect European clothes and style. The train started in the midst of deafening cries of "Bande Mataram" and the whole thousand-miles route from Kharagpur to Surat was a triumphal journey of lights, crowds, and continued cheering. The way-side stations even which the special did not touch were lined with admiring crowds and lights flashed and cheer after cheer rose and fell as the train leaping for a time into the lighted yard again rushed into the darkness of the night. We alighted at Amraoti and Nagpur. In both places a sea of heads covered the station and the adjoining grounds, and short halts were made in order to deliver appropriate speeches.

every small and big station a frantic crowd rushed about in the station platform looking for him in the first and second class carriages, while all the time Aurobindo sat unobserved in a third class compartment. By the time this fact became known and he was found out, the train was about to start. In these days of style, luxury and easy leadership, no one could imagine that Aurobindo — nurtured and educated in England and a high official of His Highness the Gaikwad's service, who could leap into an all-India fame in such a short time, — would dream of travelling third class. J. Ghosal felt small in contrast and tried again and again to invite Aurobindo into his first class carriage and keep him there to save his face.

This simplicity of Aurobindo was natural and quite unostentatious. All his life he wore nothing but his country-made dhoti, piran (Indian shirt) and a urani [shawl] with gold threads in its border. Small in stature and slender in build, this quiet unobtrusive man was very often lost in the crowd of his own admirers. When he rose to speak his voice was hardly audible except to those nearest to him, —that thin and almost girlish voice which in measured cadence gave vent to truths ringing with strength and beauty. Crowds of thousands materialised as if by magic and were kept spell-bound as it were in a dream by his wonderful personal magnetism.

We detrained in Bombay; there a meeting was arranged on the sea beach. We could hardly walk to the place through the living streams converging through the streets and lanes towards the chosen spot, automatically stopping all vehicular traffic for a time. It was a sight for the Gods to see : the awakening of a whole nation from its age-long sleep and inertia into conscious life of flaming aspiration.

From an unpublished manuscript entitled "Sri Aurobindo (As I Understand Him)" by Barindra Kumar Ghose.

Surat, December 25th, 1907. —The first meeting of the Nationalists' Conference was held on the 24th December in the afternoon. Babu Arvind Ghose, of the Bande Mataram fame, presided. The meeting was not open to the public. Only those who paid the fee of Re.l and signed the pledge of being Nationalists were admitted. There were more than a thousand persons present. On the motion of Mr. Khaparde of Amraoti Mr. Ghose, being elected to the Chair, observed that the object of the Conference was to disseminate the gospel of Nationalism and that for that purpose the Nationalists must be prepared to make all sorts of sacrifices. For the purpose of pushing forward the work of Nationalism an organisation was necessary and hence this conference. It was the object of the Conference to enforce the views of the Nationalists on the Indian National Congress and to make the Congress, which had hitherto been a body for the concentration of opinion, a body for the concentration of work. He then called upon Mr. B.G. Tilak to state in detail the object of the Conference.

Extract from Bombay Presidency Police, Abstract of Intelligence, Volume XXI of 1908, page 5.

After the break up of the Congress at Surat Aurobindo came to Baroda, the capital city of His Highness the Gaikwar. A few months back while searching for a spiritual guide for our political workers I had been to Swami Brahmananda's Asram at Chandote on the banks of the river Nurbada. At that time there was a dawning sense growing in us—the young dedicated workers—that the deliverance of India was not possible without spiritual power. An idea of a Bhawani Mandir in the hills (a temple dedicated to that aspect of the Shakti which was worshipped by the great Sivajee of Aurangzib's time) was in the air among the secret workers. I was sent along with another friend¹ to Northern India to look for a Guru or spiritual guide who could guide India's destiny and train us—the future builders of the nation—along spiritual lines.

Deeply imbued with the cult of violence, learnt from the Irish Seinfeinners and Russian secret societies, and equally ignorant of what spiritual power actually meant, we in our blindness wanted to harness Divine power to our dark mission.... It was no wonder then that we wished to take to spiritual means for a holy war against the British, this idea of God helping the righteous even in murder and bloodshed being ingrained in man from his savage days.

The great Yogi Brahmananda of Nurbada had passed away some years before and I found his disciple Keshavananda to be a dry as dust pedant and a mechanical Hatha Yogi knowing no higher yoga at all. But quite accidentally I had met for a few minutes a Maharashtra Brahmin, Vishnu Bhaskar Lele by name, in the Chandote Asram. I did know that this man was a great and real Yogi. While returning to Bengal quite disappointed in my quest. I met Lele again in a friend's house at Navasari. He made me sit in a dark room with him for a few minutes and as a result three days afterwards I had my first glimpse of spiritual awakening, my first psychic experience.

Aurobindo hearing about him from me had expressed a desire to meet this wonderful devotee of love. As soon as the Surat Congress was over I wired to Lele requesting him to come to Baroda to meet Aurobindo. Crowds with flags and national cries followed us from the station and students unyoked a carriage and putting Aurobindo. myself and a Sannyasi, Sakhariaswami, on it. pulled it for some distance. In the midst of a surging crowd we reached Khasirao's [sic] Bungalow at 8 a.m. and immediately after Vishnu Bhaskar Lele arrived. I left Aurobindo alone with him for half an hour. When he had left I asked my brother how he found him so far as Yoga was concerned. Aurobindo said in his characteristic cryptic way. "Lele is a wonderful Yogi."

The next day Lele came again and requested Aurobindo to sit with him continuously for seven days all alone and in silence in a quiet place. At that time nothing

1 Upendranath Banerjee. Upen's account of the journey is contained in the first chapter of his Nirbasiter Atmakatha (Memoirs of a Revolutionary).

was more difficult than this to arrange. Aurobindo had become the idol of the nation and a wonderful halo surrounded him producing a mysterious magnetic attraction for him in the hearts of our young men. Anybody, who was in national work anywhere, needed and sought his advice and guidance. Day in and day out, crowds surrounded our house and programmes of public meetings were being arranged for him.

Lele suddenly spirited Aurobindo away from the midst of all this commotion to a lonely old place tucked away in the heart of the city. There, day in and day out, the two of them sat wrapped in deep meditation facing each other. Their simple needs were looked after by Vishnu Bhaskar's wife, a matriculate girl of small stature of very subdued nature. I was also there and used to sit in meditation with them morning and evening in my restless and perfunctory way. My mind was divided between my ambitious national work and this inner life of Yoga.

Seven days passed almost in continuous and silent meditation² while batches of young men traversed the town in search of their newly-found leader who had so suddenly and mysteriously disappeared from among them upsetting all their crowded programmes and arrangements. When Aurobindo was at last permitted to come out and attend a meeting in the famous gymnasium there among his ardent admirers, a great and abiding peace had descended on him which from thence forward formed the basis of all his future Sadhana. . . .

Lele had certainly acquired great yogic powers, yet he had his frailties too. He was really a khanda yogi or an imperfect Yogi. While leaving Baroda, Aurobindo could feel and clearly detect the very human frailty of this wonderful man. In the presence of the vast concourse of people assembled on the station platform to see Aurobindo off, Lele most unnecessarily made him come down from his compartment and bow down to his feet in the full view of the multitude. The whole thing was such a childish trick to show himself off as the spiritual preceptor of this great leader of all-India political fame! A yogi, conscious of his own vital nature and its weakness, will seldom yield to it as Lele did.

Aurobindo had asked him earlier in the day,³ how he could possibly do such vast amount of mental work and address meetings when his mind had become so very calm and passive but his political works demanded from him continuous application of active mental labour and efforts. Lele said in answer, "You need not think at all. Be calm and remain surrendered, leaving everything to the higher power to arrange for you. A voice will wake up in you, be your guide and speak with your tongue. When I am away, this voice will tell you what to do. You have only to obey it and both your Sadhana and your work will develop side by side automatically."

Straight from this Aurobindo went to Poona. He had to face a huge audience in a monster meeting. He rose to speak without preparing his speech and almost went through the identical experience which had come to Vivekananda before delivering his maiden speech at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago. Aurobindo got up to speak not only without previous preparation, but with a mind completely empty of

2 According to Sri Aurobindo he obtained the experience of the Silent Brahman in three days (or two or "really in one" day) of meditation with Lele. See On Himself, pp.49, 82, 84, 85. He may have remained in seclusion with Lele for some days more before going out to give lectures etc.

3 Not necessarily this day. Barin seems to have been writing under the impression that Sri Aurobindo and Lele parted at the station, but Lele in fact accompanied Sri Aurobindo to Poona and Bombay.

thoughts. A thunder roared in his ear and threw him inward and when he came out of this semi-involved state he found that the required speech had been already delivered. The next morning's papers showed him what he had actually said. It was a unique speech, and gave the already famous Aurobindo an unrivalled position as a political leader with spiritually prophetic vision unknown before in the history of India."

Information has been received that while at Poona, Arvinda Ghose was present at a private meeting (besides a public meeting) which was attended by a select few, including certain Extremists. What transpired at this meeting is not known. It is, however, stated by a Native gentleman of good position who attended the public meeting, but was not admitted to the secret conclave, that it was given out that within a definite time a blow would be struck simultaneously at Poona, Belgaum and other places, which would hasten the attainment of the aspirations of Nationalists. The gentleman can say nothing definitely as to what was referred to.

Extract from Bombay Presidency Police, Abstract of Intelligence, Volume XXI of 1908, page 324.

[Two portions of a police report on Sri Aurobindo's doings in Nasik in January 1908 were published in the first issue of Archives and Research as the introduction and text of Nasik Speech. Below we give the parts of the report that were omitted from that issue, viz. the bulk of that part of the report that precedes the speech as printed in A & R (to be read after "accompanies", A & R, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 2), and the three paragraphs of the report that follow the speech.]

Waman Sakaram Khare presided [at the meeting at Nasik on 25 January 1908] and the Babu [Sri Aurobindo] spoke in English. At the conclusion of his speech Waman Sakaram Khare asked Mr. Patankar, B.A., LL.B., to translate it into Marathi, but he excused himself on the ground that he had not sufficiently grasped what the speaker said.

Mr. Ramchandra Ganesh Pradhan, Pleader, in response to a call from the chair, eventually interpreted the speech. The following is the gist of the interpretation given:—

It is difficult to satisfactorily explain all the speaker has said. I shall, therefore,

4 The speech to which this description especially applies is the Bombay National Union speech of 19 January. In the manuscript of Barin's book, which was seen and marked by Sri Aurobindo, the sentence beginning "A thunder roared" is barred in the margin, and three exclamation marks are placed beside it. Barin may have been guilty of some romantic overstatement.

confine myself to the principal points in his speech. He commenced by explaining the meaning of swaraj which is National independence. It is essential for the welfare and existence of a nation and we should not depend upon other nations. The inhabitants of Maharashtra are not ignorant of the meaning of swaraj. Shivaji succeeded in establishing it and liberated the country from the clutches of Mahomedans. Swaraj does not mean Colonial self-Government according to the English idea, but that the country should be entirely under our control. The absence of independence means the extinction of a nation.

Illustration. — In ancient times the Romans ruled over many countries. The inhabitants of those countries like ourselves enjoyed peaceful rule, but they came to grief with the downfall of the Roman Empire owing to a lack of independence, and we are bound to share the same fate in the absence of swaraj. We should, therefore, guard ourselves against such a calamity. It is absurd to suppose that the Sovereign power will give us independence of their own free will.

Illustration. — Supposing I were to usurp another man's house and restore it to the owner, I should be homeless. It is, therefore, idle to suppose that the people who have conquered this country with intent to drain its wealth will quit it. It is also absurd to suppose that they will be so liberal as to confer on us self-Government which we so sadly need. If we make efforts to obtain it, a struggle between us, the swaraj-seekers, and the Sovereign power, is bound to ensue. The Moderates seem to be dubious of success owing to our weakness. It is not a mathematical problem, but a question of confidence. We should trust in God. Man is God's creature and He should be trusted. We should consider ourselves mentally independent, though bodily we are not. The Irish people, though slaves of the English, enjoy freedom of thought, and if we ventilate our views we shall in the end undoubtedly succeed in obtaining swaraj. Bengalis thoroughly understand these principles.

"No matter what calamity may befall me I will reach the goal" should be the motto of all Indians. Bengalis trust the people of Maharashtra to carry out this object.

An account of the Babu's arrival at the station, his reception in the City and his speech are given on page 2 of the Nasik Wrata of the 25th instant which accompanies. There is a vast difference in his speech as given in the Wrata as compared with the interpretation rendered by Mr. Pradhan.

On the 25th idem the Babu made another speech in the temple of Rama, Punchevate, to an audience of about 200. He said "It is needless to exhort people of Nasik, as they know by past history how to ameliorate their condition." He then quoted the following passage from the Bhagwat Gita;— "To save the pious, to punish the wicked, to protect religion I create myself in every age" [and continued:] "So said God. This you will only realize by belief and firm faith. Three demons have been created in the world. The first is a nation having a desire to enrich itself by looting wealth of others. The second is a nation having a desire to extend supremacy over other nations by grinding them down. The third is an atheist.

"The time is near at hand when God will appear in the world. We should put aside self-interest and work in unity with each other. When the time comes the 33 crores of gods will destroy the above said demons. We should, therefore, trust in

At the close of his speech he was thanked by Mr. Hari Rowji Moothe, who also invited him to visit Nasik again. He was then garlanded and presented with an address in Sanskrit, after which the meeting dissolved. He was then escorted to his lodgings amid tumultuous yells of Bande Mataram and subsequently left Nasik Road Station by the Delhi Express for Dhulia.

Extract from Bombay Presidency Police, Abstract of Intelligence, Volume XXI of 1908. pages 80-82.

West Khandesh. January 29th.—The District Magistrate writes on the 26th instant:— "Mr. Aravind Ghosh of Bande Mataram fame arrived in Dhulia yesterday by the 5 p.m train. Two pleaders Messrs. Dev and Chhandorkar, had gone to Chalisgaon to meet him and bring him here. A great demonstration was made on his arrival to welcome him. He was garlanded by many. Songs were sung in his honour and the carriage was dragged by the school-boys. Pan supari and garlands were given every few paces. The procession lasted for two hours, the distance being only 1¹/₂miles. Shouts of Bande Mataram and Shri Shivajiki jai were frequent. A few houses in the city were illuminated. The procession finished by torchlight.

"This morning he gave a lecture at the Vijayanand Theatre. The theatre and compound was crowded—about two to three thousand men and boys being present. All the school-boys of Dhulia and all the pleaders were present, "Nationalists' volunteers with their flags were present. Mr. Gadre, an ex-vakil, took the chair. The subject-matter of the lecture was swadeshi, boycott, swarajya and national education. I hear he was very moderate and reasonable in his speech, but I have not got the full reports yet.

Extract from Bombay Presidency Police, Abstract of Intelligence, Volume XXI of 1908, pages 57-58.

Babu Arvinda is staying with me with his companion. The young man arranged a procession in the evening. It was very grand and Arvinda was taken round the city. I could not accompany him. But my desire to attend his lecture was so great that in spite of fever I went to "Indrabhuwan Theatre" at 7 p.m. The place was crowded to suffocation and though it caused me great inconvenience I am glad I went to Arvinda Babu's lecture. It repaid all troubles. It was [a] really theosophic address giving the basis of Indian nationalism.

My illness has increased. To my great sorrow I could not attend Arvinda Babu's lecture in Jog Square.

The fact that Babu Aravinda Ghosh will stop at Nagpur on his way back to Calcutta from the Surat Congress and that he has even started from Bombay being known to the people of Nagpur, the impatience of young men increased daily. The exact date of his arrival being unknown, many of them had been visiting the railway station almost daily during the whole week. He had to stop at Nasik, Dhulia. Akola and Amraoti on his way, in response to the importunate requests of his countrymen. Everywhere he was accorded a grand reception. The people of Dhulia, Akola and other places welcomed him, forgetting their party differences. At every place he delivered lectures full of eloquence, enthusiasm and love, such as would enkindle a flame of national devotion in the hearts of the people. Babu Aravinda Ghosh reached Nagpur on the morning of 30th January 1908 by the mail. Though, for want of previous intimation, there was not a large gathering at the railway station, still Dr. Munje and other leaders received him. He had put up in the house of Kesheo Rao Gokhale at Sitabaldi, Nagpur. On Thursday evening he delivered a beautiful lecture on "The aims of the Nationalist Party" at the Surat Congress, in the Venkatesh Theatre, Nagpur. After Mr. Alekar (pleader) had explained the reason why no president was elected that evening, Babu Aravinda Ghosh spoke as follows:—

The next day on that very spot there was a large gathering at 7-30 a.m. as settled before. A resolution expressing public sympathy for Moulvi Leakat Hussain, congratulating him for the wonderful courage exhibited by him, was unanimously passed. Afterwards Babu Aravinda Ghosh made a speech full of earnestness and pathos on "Our Work in the Future". The audience was spell-bound when Babu Aravinda Ghosh spoke, and there was such a silence that one could have heard the falling of a needle. Everyone who heard his lectures was deeply touched. He began by saying:

After this (speech) a Pada or song on the present condition of Sanmitra Samaj of Poona was sung.

Babu Sahib was to go away on Saturday by the mail but was prevailed upon to stay on this day. He delivered his third lecture before the merchants of the Itwari Bazar, Nagpur, on Saturday. Babu Aravinda Ghosh stood up amidst thundering cheers and loud shouts of Bande Mataram and spoke as follows:—

Translation (slightly edited) by A.A. Khan, Extra-Assistant Commissioner on Special Duty, of a Marathi pamphlet entitled "Lectures Delivered by Babu Aravinda Ghosh at Nagpur."

My name is Bulwant Krishan, by caste I am a Brahmin. I am [an] inhabitant of Nagpore. I am a Head Constable.

Witness walked up to the dock to identify Babu Arabindo Ghose, which he did with difficulty.

Did you see him at Nagpore?—Yes, on the 5th [should be 22nd] December 1907 and 30th and 31st January 1907.

On the 27th [should be 22nd] December, did you go to the station?—Yes, I saw Arabindo at the station. There was also Keshab Gopal Gokhale, a Nagpore pleader, and Nairan Rao Alkar on the platform. Dr. Munji was also there. Nairan Rao is a pleader. Dr. Munji is an eye doctor. . . .

What did they do with Mr. Arabindo Ghose's carriage?—They dragged it for some distance.

Where was the lecture delivered?—At the Raghubir Theatre. There were three or four thousand people present. Arabindo Ghose was introduced by Dr. Ghadrie and Keshab Gopal Gokhale, pleader. Arabindo was introduced as the Editor of the "Bande Mataram" while he was going to the Surat Congress. Arabindo did not contradict that statement. He spoke in English. . .

Witness said he followed Arabindo to the Railway station, where the students gave him a grand ovation, when he left. . . .

After the tiffin interval, the examination of the same witness, Bulwant Rao, Constable. Nagpore, was resumed by Mr. Norton. Witness read out his Hindi report of an English speech, delivered by Aurobindo Ghose at Nagpur.

The witness read out another report in Hindi describing the visit of Aurobindo Ghose to Nagpore accompanied by Shamsundar Chakravorti, and reproducing the substance of his speech delivered in English [in January/February 1908].

These speeches were [sic] an exhortation to the people in favour of the Swadeshi movement and national education.

Was Aurobindo driven from Silabari to the temple of Namaleli in a carriage of 4 horses followed by 40 torches, and a musical party?—Yes.

Chakravorti, Srikrishna Khaparde. Lala Lajpat Roy and Bal Gangadhar Tilak?— Yes.

Is not this sort of pomp and pageantry displayed on the occasion of Raja's visits?—Yes.

Testimony given at Alipore Sessions Court on 28 January 1908, as reprinted the next day in the Bengalee (Calcutta).

The Jessore District Conference nominated Arabindo Ghose as one of the delegates to the Surat Congress. He left Calcutta with Syam Sunder Chakravarty, Hemendra Prosad Ghose,⁵ Abinash Bhattacharjee, Suresh Chandra Samajpati and Barendra Kumar Ghose for Surat on 21st December 1907 to attend the Indian National Congress. On his way he broke his journey at Nagpore on 22nd December 1907. He was received at the railway station by Dr. Gadre and others and was taken to the garden of Gopal Rao Buti. At 5 p.m. he addressed some 400 men and 400 boys at the Raghubir Theatre on swadeshi and swaraj and urged their attendance at the Indian National Congress. He left Nagpore at 6 p.m. on the same day.

On the 24th December 1907 at Surat Arabindo presided over the first meeting of the Nationalists' Conference held in camera. The object of this Conference was to spread the gospel of nationalism, and the Conference requested the Congress to move resolutions on swaraj, boycott and national education.

On the same day at 6 p.m. a public meeting was held at "Balajis Tekdi" at Surat when Arabindo with Tilak, Ajit Singh and others spoke to impress the cult of the nationalist upon the audience. Another meeting was convened by the extremists at Haripara Ghukanta Wadi at 5 p.m. on 28th December 1907. It was presided over by Arabindo who spoke on the split in the Congress and only the extremists were allowed to attend it.

On the 29th December a strictly confidential meeting was held under the Presidentship of Arabindo Ghose at 2 p.m. at Ghukanta Wadi with the object of starting an organisation for teaching how to preach on the subject of nationalism.

On the 13th January 1908 at 6 p.m. a public meeting of the citizens of Poona was held in Gaekwad's Wada under the presidentship of Mr. Anna Saheb Patwardhan. Arabindo delivered an address giving a brief sketch of the new movement of the nationalists in the region of politics.

On the 24th January Arabindo Ghose arrived at Nasik Road station and was taken to the house of W.S. Khare. On the same day at about 10-15 a.m. he addressed in English an open-air meeting in front of the old Wada.

He was first given two addresses, one in English and the other in Sanskrit, and then he delivered a speech on swadeshi and swaraj. He then left Nasik by the Delhi express for Dhulia.

Arabindo Ghose arrived at Dhulia by the 5 p.m. train on the 25th January 1908 and was received with a great ovation at the railway station. On the morning of the

26th January Arabindo addressed an audience of 2 to 3 thousand men and boys on swadeshi, boycott, swaraj and national education. This meeting was presided over by Mr. Gadre, an ex-vakil.

On the invitation of pleaders at Akola, he broke his journey at Akola on his way back to Calcutta. He stayed with Mr. Paranjpe, a pleader. At Rama Theatre he delivered a speech on "The means to improve the status of India" to nearly 1,000 men.

Arabindo arrived at Amraoti on the 28th January from Dhulia and Akola and stayed there as a guest of G.S. Khaparde to whose house he was taken from the railway station. At 5-40 p.m. Arabindo left Khaparde's house in his victoria along with the procession of nearly 4,000 people organised in his honour, and reached the Undrabhubon [sic] Theatre at 7 p.m. when he addressed about 3,000 people in English on swadeshi, swaraj and national education. On the next day, i.e., the 29th January. Arabindo again delivered a speech before a large number of people on the song "Bande Mataram" at Jog's Square in front of the Kasi Bai private school. He left Amraoti for Nagpore on the 30th January 1908.

Arabindo arrived at Nagpore on the 30th January and was received by Dr. Mughi [? Munji], Dr. Gadre and others. He was taken to the house of K.R. Gokhal. In the evening Arabindo delivered a speech regarding the Congress fiasco before the extremist leaders and an audience of nearly 300 or 400 people, mostly boys, at the Venkatesh Theatre. On the next day, i.e., the 31st January, Arabindo again made a speech at the same place on the Congress fiasco, and affairs in Bengal. Nearly 500 boys attended the meeting. On the evening of the 1st February Arabindo Ghose travelled in procession from Sitabaldi to Nana Teli's Mondir in the city where he delivered his third and last speech in English before an audience of 800 people on trade, education and municipality.

On the 2nd February 1908 a number of people, chiefly Maharatta Brahmins, came to the railway station at Bilaspore to meet Arabindo Ghose and on the 3rd the Modi boys attending the Kampti High School met him at the Kampti railway station and garlanded him when he was returning from Nagpore to Calcutta.

Extract from Government of India, Home Department. Political A, Numbers 33-40, pp. 70-71.

"My weapon is the pen and not the tongue," said Sri Aurobindo,¹ and it is true that he had more influence as a writer than as a speaker. But for a short time in the early part of this century his oratory became a powerful force in India's political arena.

Throughout 1906 and most of 1907, although Sri Aurobindo attended many political meetings, he spoke at none. One reason for his unwillingness to address his countrymen was his lack of perfect mastery over any Indian language. By 1907 he could read Bengali with ease, and write it without difficulty, but his conversation remained somewhat halting.² It would be two years before he would utter even a few words in Bengali at a public meeting.³ But by the end of 1907 the people were so eager to hear the voice of the man who had gained overnight fame as the editor of Bande Mataram, that he was obliged to speak to them in English. His "maiden speech" was delivered at a meeting in College Square, Calcutta, on 14 December 1907 (Document 1). The next day Sri Aurobindo was again called upon to address a meeting, this time in Beadon Square. Shyam Sundar Chakravarty, a fiery orator in Bengali, also spoke here, stirring up the audience with words suggesting (at least to a police spy who was present) that the Nationalists should break up the Congress at Surat. Sri Aurobindo. by his silence, seemed to the spy to approve this revolutionary suggestion. During the course of the meeting some enthusiastic members of the audience threw stones at the police. As a result, two days later Mr. Kingsford, Chief Presidency Magistrate, banned assemblies in five squares in northern Calcutta.

On 21 December Sri Aurobindo, Shyam Sundar, and many other Nationalists and Moderates left by train for Surat (Document 1). The next day, during a stopover in Nagpur, Sri Aurobindo gave a speech at a local theatre. Seated on the front bench was Moropant Joshi, who had been in England for his education at the same time as Sri Aurobindo. In London the two men had been present at the first, and, as it turned out, the only meeting of a revolutionary society styled "Lotus and Dagger". Now Joshi was a leader of the Moderates in the Central Provinces, and Sri Aurobindo one of the most prominent Extremists in the country. During his speech, as Sri Aurobindo later recounted, "Joshi was all along gaping at me."⁴ Another whistle-stop meeting addressed by Sri Aurobindo was held, probably the same day, at Amraoti. And when the train reached Bombay, probably on the twenty-third, he spoke at a huge meeting on the shores of the Arabian Sea (Document 2).

Sri Aurobindo arrived in Surat on the twenty-fourth of January. As noted in our last issue, he was the chairman of a Nationalist conference held that same day. In the present issue a brief report of what he said there is given (Document 3). Sri Aurobindo addressed several other "large meetings at Surat".⁵ At one, however, as an English journalist relates: "Grave and silent—I think without saying a single word

2 Nolini Kanta Gupta, Reminiscences (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1969), p. 17.

4 Cf. A.B. Purani, Evening Talks, Second Series (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram. 1974), p.287.

— Mr. Arabindo Ghose took the Chair and sat unmoved, with far-off eyes, as one who gazes at futurity."⁶

Sri Aurobindo had been practising yoga since 1904 or 1905. After making some initial progress, he suffered a "complete arrest" shortly before going to Surat.⁷ This was due, among other reasons, to his absorption in political activities, which prevented him from practising regularly. Now he was desirous of meeting a guru who could put his sadhana on the right footing. Earlier in the year his brother Barin had met a Maharashtrian bhakti yogin named Vishnu Bhaskar Lele.⁸ Barin spoke highly of Lele to Sri Aurobindo, and Sri Aurobindo asked to meet him. Lele was at the time staying at Gwalior, in Central India. Barin telegraphed him there, asking him to come to Baroda, where Sri Aurobindo was planning to go after the Congress session. He had not seen his Baroda friends and associates for nearly a year and a half, and must have had much he wished to do in his old home-town.

In Document 4 Barin gives a graphic description of Sri Aurobindo's meeting with Lele. The inner significance of this crucial event has been touched upon by Sri Aurobindo in several of his letters.⁹ Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the whole affair is that only days after his attainment of the silent Brahman consciousness or Nirvana, an experience that generally is considered the supreme yogic state, Sri Aurobindo was again delivering speeches and meeting political workers. Yet all the while his mind was absorbed in a state of absolute silence. How was it possible? In the following words Sri Aurobindo describes how the most famous of the speeches came to be delivered:

In that very silence, in that thought-free condition, we went to Bombay. There I had to give a lecture at the National Union. So, I asked him [Lele] what I should do. He asked me to pray. But I was absorbed in the silent Brahman, and so I told him I was not in a mood to pray. Then he said he and some others would pray and I should simply go to the meeting and make namaskar to the audience as Narayana, the all-prevading Divine, and then a voice would speak through me. I did exactly as he told me. On my way to the meeting somebody gave me a paper to read. There was some headline there which caught my eye and left an impression. When I rose to address the meeting the idea flashed across my mind and then all of a sudden something spoke out. . . .

All the speeches that I delivered on my way to Calcutta from Bombay were of the same nature—with some mixture of mental work in some parts.¹⁰

Sri Aurobindo gave either three or four lectures at Baroda,¹¹ one of them at Professor Manik Rao's gymnasium. A photograph taken there is reproduced as Plate 1.¹²

6 H.W. Nevinson, The New Spirit in India (Delhi: Metropolitan Book Co., Pvt., Ltd., 1975), p.260.

9 Sri Aurobindo. On Himself (1972). pp.79-80. 85 etc. Details about the outer circumstances of the meeting are given in Archives and Research. Vol.2, No.2, p. 198. See also Plates 5 and 6 in that issue.

10 A.B. Purani. Evening Talks. Second Series (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram. 1974). p.62.

11 Three according to A.B. Purani (The Life of Sri Aurobindo (1978). p. 100); four according to S.B. Didmishe (Archives and Research. Vol.2. No.2, p.204). Both men were present at the meetings.

12 The original print from which this reproduction has been made has the inscription "Dec./1907/ Baroda/At Manek Rao's institution." Sri Aurobindo was in Surat until 31 December 1907 (see A & R,

Plate 5. Room in G. S. Khaparde's house where Sri Aurobindo stayed in January 1908

Sri Aurobindo left Baroda for Poona on the tenth or eleventh of January. Tilak had invited the popular young leader to his city, and also arranged a speaking tour of Maharashtra towns that he would pass through on his way to Bengal. Sri Aurobindo gave the speeches, but, according to him:

There was no tour. Sri Aurobindo went to Poona with Lele and after his return to Bombay went to Calcutta. All the speeches he made were at this time (except those at Bombay and at Baroda) at places on his way wherever he stopped for a day or two.¹³

By denying that there was a "tour", Sri Aurobindo apparently was trying to remove the impression that he had consciously planned to display himself on the platform. But Tilak had been planning the thing for some time. On 19 December 1907, a week before the Congress, he wrote to Sri Aurobindo in Calcutta asking him to bring six Bengali speakers with him when he came. In any case, "tour" or not, the fact is that Sri Aurobindo gave more than a dozen speeches in most of the major towns of northern Maharashtra within a period of little more than two weeks.

Sri Aurobindo spoke twice in Poona.¹⁴ The first lecture, delivered on the twelfth, has not been preserved. In it Sri Aurobindo held up Ramamurti Naidu, "the Indian Hercules", as an example to the youth of Maharashtra. The speech delivered the next day at Gaikwad Wada, Tilak's residence, has been reproduced as Poona Speech in the Centenary Library."

While at Poona Sri Aurobindo met a number of political leaders. Some of their meetings were open to the public, but at least one was not. According to Tilak's biographer:

Prof. S.M. Paranjpe had invited Arvind to his residence.¹⁶ The scheduled time of the reception was a very late hour in the evening. The real purpose of the reception began to dawn as darkness began to advance. A band of young men had, in strict secrecy, succeeded in manufacturing a few crude bombs. Arvind Babu's presence was hailed by this enthusiastic band as the right opportunity for demonstrating their experiment. Tilak who accompanied Arvind was naturally an eye-witness to all that happened that night at Paranjpe's place.¹⁷

The Extremists managed to exclude police spies from this meeting. (They were not always so careful, at least in Bengal.) The Bombay Presidency Police's report (Document 5) does not mention the chief attraction of the night.

Sri Aurobindo returned to Bombay by the fifteenth of January. That day he gave a lecture on national education in the Girgaum section of the city.¹⁸ Four days later he gave the famous Present Situation speech, whose genesis has been described above. One can only suppose that the three speeches that preceded this one were

Vol.3. No.l, p.99); the picture therefore must have been taken in January 1908. The same photograph is sometimes said to have been taken in Calcutta. This certainly is incorrect.

14 The photograph reproduced as Plate 4 was probably taken on one of these occasions.

17 S.L. Karandikar, Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak (Poona: S.L Karandikar, 1957), p.279. See also Tara Chand, History of the Freedom Movement in India (New Delhi: Ministry of Education. I972),p.336.

delivered in much the same fashion, for "the condition of silence of the mind to which he [Sri Aurobindo] had come by his meditation for 3 days with Lele in Baroda ... he kept for many months and indeed always thereafter."¹⁹ Some of Sri Aurobindo's Bombay friends thought him to be "dazed" at this time, but this impression was due to the fact that instead of answering their questions he "took refuge in silence"²⁰—the silence of Brahma-nirvana.

When I was in Bombay, from the balcony of a friend's house, I saw the whole busy movement of Bombay city as a picture in a cinema show—all unreal, shadowy. That was a Vedantic experience. Ever since I have maintained that peace of mind, never losing it even in the midst of difficulties."²¹

After spending a week or more in Bombay, Sri Aurobindo started on his return journey. In Nasik on 24 January he made the first of several stops. Sri Aurobindo's reception and speeches in Nasik are described in Document 6. The speeches, of course, were given in English. Sri Aurobindo knew some Marathi from his Baroda days, but it would have been even less possible for him to address an audience in that language than in Bengali. This brings up an interesting sidelight. The fact that a Marathi translation of his speech of the twenty-fourth was found necessary, that even "Mr. Patnakar, B.A., LL.B." could not grasp it sufficiently, shows that many, perhaps most of his listeners could not understand him. A British official once contemptuously described Sri Aurobindo as a Mazzini with no knowledge of Italian. He might have saved his contempt. Barin states well enough in Document 2 what the people's reaction to Sri Aurobindo's speeches was. For those unimproved by foreign learning, they were occasions of darsan. To the English-knowing they were intellectually charged moments when the aspirations of awakening India found inspired utterance.

Sri Aurobindo seems to have tried to beg off going to Dhulia, but a telegram from there stating "Any change in programme will inconvenience many and disappoint all"²² was apparently enough to deter him. He arrived in the West Khandesh town on the evening of the twenty-fifth. That day he gave a speech on swaraj, swadeshi, boycott, and national education—the four planks of the Nationalists' programme (Document 7). After spending the night at the home of a pleader named Shanker Srikrishna Rao, Sri Aurobindo delivered another speech the next day before one thousand people.²³ His next stop was Akola, where he seems to have spent the twenty-seventh. He gave a speech here before one thousand men at the Rama Theatre on "The means to improve the status of India" (Document 11). On the twenty-eighth he reached Amraoti, home of his friend G.S. Khaparde, with whom he stayed (see Plate 5). Khaparde could not join a procession held in the evening (Document 8), but he did attend Sri Aurobindo's lecture delivered at the Indrabhuwan Theatre (Plate 6). Here again Sri Aurobindo spoke on the four

21 A.B. Purani, Evening Talks, Second Series (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1974). p.62. The sonnet Nirvana (Collected Poems, p.61), is a description of this experience.

22 Evidence presented in Alipore Sessions Court on 14 August 1908 as reported the next day in the Bengalee (Calcutta).

23 Evidence given in Alipore Sessions Court on 29 January 1909 as reported the next day in the Bengalee.

principles of the Nationalists.²⁴ The speech of the twenty-ninth, delivered "in the Grand Square of the National school", otherwise Jog Square, was on the subject of the national song "Bande Mataram", the singing of which had opened the meeting.²⁵

The mail train deposited Sri Aurobindo at Nagpur the next morning. He was met by Dr. Munje and other local leaders (Document 9). In the evening and on the morning of the next day he spoke at the Venkatesh Theatre (Document 9; for the speeches see pages 121 ff). Desirous of leaving the next day (Saturday, 31 January 1908), Sri Aurobindo was prevailed upon to address the merchants of the Itwari Bazar. He accepted the invitation, speaking to the audience, many of whom were of the Marwari community, on their duties in the current crisis. In the course of his speech he referred to the planned construction of bungalows by the British on Parsvanath Hill, a sacred place of the Jains. The people of this religion, many of them Marwaris, were vehemently opposed to this desecration.

Document 10, the examination-in-chief and cross-examination of Public Witness No. 197 at the Alipore Sessions, provides vivid details about Sri Aurobindo's reception at Nagpur. We have seen that in many places—Baroda, Nasik. Dhulia, Nagpur—Sri Aurobindo's carriage was drawn by enthusiastic students. While a British official remarks that at Nasik this was done "at the instigation of a local leader,²⁶ it is certain that the adulation implied in the act was quite genuine. "I was one of the party to draw your carriage through a muddy road in an obscure station on the Eastern frontier of India." wrote an admirer who had paid this tribute to Sri Aurobindo in 1909. adding "you were then the idol of Bengal." How did the idol react to such treatment? On 6 February 1908, shortly after his return to Calcutta from Surat, Sri Aurobindo wrote in the Bande Mataram:

The man whose carriage is today dragged through great cities by shouting thousands amid cries of "Bande Mataram" and showers of garlands, will tomorrow be disregarded, perhaps hissed and forbidden to speak.... Men who are now acclaimed as Extremists, leaders of the forward movement, preachers of Nationalism, and embodiments of the popular feeling will tomorrow find themselves left behind, cast aside, a living monument of the vanity of personal ambition . . . When our work is done, we should realise it and feel glad that we have been permitted to do so much. Is it not enough reward for the greatest services that we can do, if our names are recorded in History among those who helped by their work or their speech or better, by the mute service of their sufferings to prepare the great and free India that will be? Nay, is it not enough if unnamed and unrecorded except in the Books of God, we go down to the grave with the consciousness that our finger too was laid on the great Car and may have helped, however imperceptibly, to push it forward? . . . Do we serve the Mother for a reward or do God's work for hire? The patriot lives for his country because he must; he dies for her because she demands it. That is all."²⁷

The second page of the note published as On the Yoga of Transformation and the Psychic (A & R, Vol.3, No.2, pp.202-03) has recently been found. This page has only six words written on it: "and with the self and spirit". Adding these words to the text as published, the last sentence reads: "It [the soul] is something that once it is released from obscuration by its instruments at once creates a direct contact with the Divine and with the self and spirit." The note remains incomplete, since Sri Aurobindo left it off here, but it need no longer be considered a fragment.

In the article The Symbol of Sri Aurobindo (A & R. Vol.3, No.2, pp.211-13) this sentence occurs: "The Mother went on to say [on 15 December 1962] that the square in Theon's symbol was very elongated, by which she meant apparently that the four outer triangles at the sides of the square with their very long bases give the entire figure an elongated look." (pp.212-13) In fact the Mother never spoke of an "elongated square". Her exact words were: "Tu vois, pour avoir le carre touchant les quatre coins, ils ont ... la chose tres allonge, comme ca." (You see, in order to have the square touching the four corners [of the intersecting triangles] they have . . . the thing very elongated, like that.) The phrase". . . the thing very elongated" is rather vague, as it leaves the verb unexpressed, but it states the situation correctly. It is the entire figure ("la chose") that is given an elongated look by the triangles as drawn. In the printed transcript of this talk that was available when the article was written, an attempt was made to give some precision to the Mother's statement, but the result was to put in her mouth the geometrical impossibility of an elongated square.

The wording of the first sentences of the second to the last paragraph of the same article (page 213) has unfortunately given some readers the impression that the final change in the symbol's design was made without the Mother's approval. This impression is contrary to the fact. It was the Mother who, despite her previous satisfaction with the design of October 1962 [Figure 5], affirmed early in 1964 that it would not do. Even after being shown the drawing on which she had written "This is the correct symbol of Sri Aurobindo" and had signed, she insisted that a new design must be made. It was probably Pavitra who prepared the final design [Figure 7] under the Mother's instructions. This was shown to her and certainly received her approval before being published in July 1964.