54 The Karmayogin Sukumar Mitra had gone to Agra to see if he could do something for his father, Krishna Kumar Mitra, held a prisoner in the Agra Fort from December 1908. So he was not at home to welcome his cousin when he was released from Alipore Jail. Upon his return he found his Auro-dada at home in N°6 College Square which was their house as well as the Sanjibani office. It was to remain Sri Aurobindo's anchor from then on until he left Calcutta and politics behind in February 1910. Saro was living there as well. For after Sri Aurobindo's arrest she had gone to live with Na'masi, and not with her elder brothers, Beno or Mano. Needless to say that it was n

30 The King and the Taxpayer "The water tax, the land laws, the Colonisation Act legalising the oppressions and illegalities under which Punjab landholders and peasantry have groaned, had generated the feeling of an intolerable burden," wrote Sri Aurobindo in the Bande Mataram issue of 6 May 1907. After he had stopped writing the political articles in the Indu Prakash, Sri Aurobindo had suspended all public activity of this kind and worked only in secret till 1905. First of all he studied the conditions in the country so that he might be able to judge more maturely what could be done. The first thing his study revealed to him was the oppre

26 Planchette After the Puja holidays the family returned to Baroda. This time, apart from Didi and Sejo-Baudi, an aunt of theirs joined them. Barin had recently read some books on spiritism. So to while away the evening hours he began experimenting with planchette and table-tapping. Once begun it caught hold of everyone, and they would sit daily for two to three hours. Barin says that among all those who sat for it, the automatic writing came mostly or more easily to him and to Sejda. Sri Aurobindo himself practised automatic writing for a time at Calcutta and at Pondicherry. The book Yogic Sadhan was written at Pondicherry in that fashion —the 'spirit' was

11 Nineteen Hundred Looking back on the century gone by, Sri Aurobindo said, "The nineteenth century in Europe was a pre-eminently human era —now the vital world seems to be descending there." The invasion of the Vital caused the rout of the Intellect. "The setback to the human mind in Europe is amazing," reflected Sri Aurobindo in January 1939. "We had thought during the last years of the nineteenth century that the human mind had attained a certain level of intelligence and that it would have to be satisfied before any new idea could find acceptance. But it seems one can't rely on common sense to stand the strain. We find Nazi ideas being accepted; fifty year

44 Surat On Christmas eve, the Nationalist Party from Bengal reached Surat. There were already many delegates who had come and they kept arriving from all over the country. Among them were Ashwini Kumar Dutt from Bengal, G. S. Khaparde and Dr. Munje from the Central Provinces, Lala Lajpat Rai from Punjab, Chidambaram Pillai from the South1 —in fact, all the leaders worth their salt. And, of course, Tilak from Maharashtra, who had reached Surat a day earlier, on the 23rd. The happenings from December 24 onwards are now history. In point of fact, historians have written extensively on them; scholars have presented learned papers; numerous eyewitness accounts have been le

18 Christianity Poor Christ. A nice enough gentleman from most accounts. Yet those who swear by him keep him hanging on the cross. Poor, poor Christ. He who could not tolerate sham in the name of religion. Remember his going to a Jewish temple—he was a Jew—with a broom and determinedly sweeping out all the pretentious priests? He must be hanging his head in shame at the doings of his 'followers.' Christian clergy and the laity alike felt no shame in doing everything in the name of their Lord. The wars fought in the name of the 'Apostle of Peace,' and the cruelties perpetrated by the Roman Catholic Church in the name of the 'Apostle of Love,' b

16 West Europeans "But these early dawns cannot endure in their purity, so long as the race is not ready," wrote Sri Aurobindo in The Human Cycle. Because, after a time, the force dies down; then comes a static condition of the human mind and human life, entailing stagnation, decay, disintegration. The reason? "The multitude remains infrarational in its habit of mind," Sri Aurobindo explains, adding "though perhaps it may still keep in capacity an enlivened intelligence or a profound or subtle spiritual receptiveness as its gain from the past." Just exactly what happened to the Indian people. Besides, the time of the Europeans had come. A spirit of advent

3 The Arrival Sri Aurobindo had landed on the Coromandel coast in 1910. What happened at the Guest House—his fifth house— happened from 1914 onwards. During those four preceding years at Pondicherry what type of life did Sri Aurobindo and, incidentally, his young companions lead? Let me try to be logical—chronological should I say?—and begin at the beginning. S.S. Dupleix had left her berth, N°l Esplanade Moorings, on the Hooghly river on Friday the first April, at 6:30 a.m. Under the command of Captain Musseau, the French mail steamer made steady progress as she steamed down the Bay of Bengal with her precious 'cargo.' On 4 April 1910, around four in the aft

-30_^Spasa^ Means Spy.htm 27 'Spasa' Means Spy Those who have read the Ramayana know how one day Rishi Vishwamitra came to the court of King Dasaratha of Ayodhya. Welcoming him and expressing great happiness at his coming, the king said that he was ready to do any bidding of the Rishi. Pleased, Vishwamitra replied that he had "begun to perform a yajna (sacrificial rites), but two Rakshasas, Marich and Subahu, along with their hosts, were giving too much trouble. They were raining down flesh and blood over the sacrificial platform. Would the king send his eldest son Rama with him for the ten nights of the ceremonies, so that Rama might protect the performing priests and destroy the Ra

-26_Sundar Chetty^s House.htm 23 Sundar Chetty's House The observant reader has surely noticed the change of address in Sri Aurobindo's letter. It was actually in October 1910 that the change took place. It was a rented house, let by one Sundar Chetty at Rs. 20 a month. Sri Aurobindo with Bejoy and Moni had already spent some six months—'less three and half days' to quote Moni— at Shankar Chetty's house. Then Sri Aurobindo's brother-in-law, Saurin Bose, turned up on 30th September, the 'last day' (Moni says) at Shankar Chetty's, and passed the night with the two young men. Next day, on the forenoon of 1st October, the four of them moved to their new residence. The move br