A Word with You, Please Hello! Hello! Friends. Are you still there? My absence has been pretty long, hasn't it? But only a wink in time, no? This probably calls for an explanation. But knowing my readers, I don't think it's necessary. As you enter this story you will understand the reasons for the length of time taken over this book. The time span covered is only four years, but, oh my! What years they turned out to be! It's a secret for the moment and I wouldn't want it to be immediately noised abroad. I let each of you discover for yourself. I must, however, divulge a few secrets. Our friend, Patrice Marot, obtained for me a pile of documents regarding

52 The Himalayas in Rue Dupleix "Listen," Mother told Satprem on 29 May 1962, because Satprem wanted to go to the Himalayas, away from Pondicherry's heat, to write his book on Sri Aurobindo.1 "Listen, I also had a longing to go to the Himalayas, I had a great longing for it when I was in France. When I came here the first time it was fine, I was very happy, everything was beautiful, everything was perfect, but ... oh, to go to the Himalayas for a while! (I always loved mountains.) I was living over there in the Dupleix house, and I used to meditate while walking back and forth. There was a small courtyard with a dividing wall, and shards of glass

8 Search and Seizure The third option was time-consuming. The government now concentrated on finding some indiscretions on the part of its 'dangerous adversary.' Any statement that Sri Aurobindo made was submitted to the closest scrutiny. The Intelligence Bureau, the police, even high government officers were roped in to analyse his speeches and writings. Oh, if only he would commit a blunder! The British government was ready to pounce on his slightest slip. But neither his actions nor his public utterances seemed to lend themselves to a new charge for sedition. Months and months passed. Then on 25 December a second signed letter was publis

36 A Spiritual Adventure "I regard the spiritual history of India" wrote Sri Aurobindo in a letter (18 August 1935), "as a constant development of a divine purpose, not a book that is closed, the lines of which have to be constantly repeated. Even the Upanishad and the Gita were not final though everything may be there in seed. In this development the recent spiritual history of India is a very important stage." Decades earlier, in an article in the Karmayogin (26 March 1910), Sri Aurobindo had given three names—Rama-krishna Paramahansa, Swami Vivekananda, and Bijoy Goswami —as examples. They had then indicated to him "the lines from which the future s

19 Enter the French During the Second World War, specially after the Normandy landing by the Allied forces, Saint-Malo was much in the news. I still remember the horror we felt when in August 1944 we heard from the BBC that before capitulating to the army of General Patton, the Germans had set fire to the city and destroyed almost three fourths of it. But when our recital opens, it was a flourishing port on the estuary of the river Rance. It had become a part of France in 1491, and a hundred years later it had become fully integrated. The Malouins, as the inhabitants of St-Malo are called, were first-class navigators, and the ships they used were eminen

39 The Programme "What has happened to you?" Purani could not refrain from exclaiming. He was astonished to see Sri Aurobindo so much changed when he saw him again in 1921; for it was but in December 1918 that he had seen him! But what a change! "In 1918 the colour of the body was like that of an ordinary Bengali—rather dark—though there was a lustre on the face and the gaze was penetrating." This time though as he went up the stairs like last time, in the same Guest House, a great surprise awaited Purani. "I found his cheeks wore an apple-pink colour and the whole body glowed with a soft creamy white light. So great and unexpected was the change that I could no

1 He for Whom I Was Waiting "He for whom I was waiting"—"celui que j'attendais," wrote Mirra in France, in one of the innumerable visions she had early this century. In this particular vision she found herself in her 'family' house—not that she knew it physically! She was living there with her father and two brothers. All the three were big and strong. The two brothers were men of 'not much goodwill,' or rather, they had a disbalanced vital. The father, though not highly developed, was a man of 'goodwill.' All of them were assembled in a vast rectangular hall. A great big window open to the south-west let in the light. The walls were oak-pa

10 God to the Rescue We have digressed. Let us see what was going on in the British House of Commons. Ramsay MacDonald may not have understood Sri Aurobindo properly, but there is no doubt at all of the impact the latter made on him. He again put his question on 14 April to which Montagu gave only a partial reply. To an additional query on the fate of the publishers he replied that the Secretary of State was 'not aware' of any other warrants in this matter. Amrita Bazar Patrika, in its editorial on 20 April expressed great surprise. "Mr. Montagu, the Under Secretary of State for India, said in answer to Mr. Ramsay MacDonald: that he was not a

46 Foetus of Language Recently I was reading a book, The Druids,^ and I came across the following: "Like most world religions, the Celts started with a 'mother goddess' concept. In the case of the Celts, the mother goddess was Danu ('water from heaven') and it is significant that the great river Danube takes its name from her; significant, that is, because it was at the headwaters of the Danube that Celtic civilization is acknowledged to have evolved."2 Danu? That rang a bell. In Indian tradition the great mother goddess is Aditi ('the infinite'). She has twelve sisters who are the root-mothers of a particular species, like Vinata mother of birds

29 The French League Ashe, the Collector of Tinnelvelly, was shot at close range on the platform of Maniyachi Railway Station in the same District on 17 June 1911. He later died. Vanchi Aiyer who shot Ashe, committed suicide. On his body was found a letter in Tamil which stated that every Indian was trying to drive out the English and that "3000 Madrasis had taken a vow to kill George V as soon as he landed in the country." Fourteen persons were implicated and went on trial at the Madras Court. The Special Bench, comprising Sir Charles Arnold White (Chief Justice), Justice Sankaran Nair, and Justice Ayling, pronounced its preliminary verdict on 15 February 1