11 Midnapore The Seed of Revolution The fire that burned in Rajnarain's heart from a young age had reduced to ashes all moral fear that he may have had. When widow remarriage became a law in 1856, he at once got his cousin and his younger brother married to widows —the third and fourth such marriages. It was specially this act of his that his uncle Harihar resented most. On 12 May 1849, Rajnarain was appointed to the post of Second Master in the English department of the Sanskrit College at Calcutta with a monthly salary of Rs.70. There he taught English not only to students but to men like Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. After two ye

14 Darjeeling "Up to the age of five I was in Rangpur," Sri Aurobindo remarked, contradicting a statement by a biographer, "as my father was in Rangpur, not in Khulna. I went to Khulna long after returning from England." Sri Aurobindo reminisced. "Before the Swadeshi movement started, Debabrata Bose1 and myself went on a tour of Bengal to study the conditions of the people. We lived simply on bananas. D. Bose was very persuasive and could win anybody round. We found the people steeped in pessimism, a black weight of darkness weighing over the whole country. Only four or five of us stood for independence. We had great difficulty in convincing people. At Khulna,

6 The Veda OM BHŪR BHUVAH SWAH TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM BHARGO DEVASYA DHĪMAHI DHIYO YO NAH PRACHODAYĀT Thus runs the Gayatri mantra,1 the chosen formula of the ancient Vedic search. It is addressed to Surya, the Sun, "as a God of revelatory knowledge by whose action we can arrive at the highest truth." This "sacred Vedic formula, of the Gayatri," observes Sri Aurobindo, "was for thousands of years repeated by every Brahmin in his daily meditation; and we 1. A translation: "O Lord, who pervades the earth, the intermediate world and the world of light, we meditate on the supreme light of the illumining Sun-god, that he may impel our

30 Dream or Destiny ? "It was father's fault that I failed in the riding test," Sri Aurobindo said, recalling that particular episode in his life. It was 16 January 1939, and the conversation was recorded by Purani. "He did not send money and the riding lessons at Cambridge then were rather costly. The teacher was also careless ; so long as he got his money he simply left me with the horse and I was not particular." The final rejection of A. A. Ghose's candidature by the India Office was conveyed to him in a letter dated 7 December 1892. By the time the news reached Calcutta, Dr. K. D. Ghose was dead. The Bengalee, "We are very much concerned," i

21 Steal the Boy From Sri Aurobindo and Manmohan we have understood clearly enough their father's financial difficulties. Yet it is on record that from 1884, when Dr. Ghose was first posted at Khulna as the Chief Medical Officer of the District, he was drawing a salary of Rs.625. By 1890 (by then he was also officiating as an Honorary Magistrate of Khulna and Satkhira1), his monthly earnings had risen to Rs.775 —a considerable sum in those days when one paisa was enough for a man to satisfy his hunger. So what was the matter? There was, naturally, the Doctor's own establishment at Khulna to keep up in the European style he favoured. Apart from the main hous

-27_King^s College.htm 25 King's College Sri Aurobindo was at Cambridge, "borne there by his own ability." Cambridge, "the nursery of blooming youth," as a poet saw it. Following is the letter Sri Aurobindo wrote to his father when he went up to Cambridge in October 1890. "Last night I was invited to coffee with one of the dons and in his rooms I met the great O. B., otherwise Oscar Browning, who is the feature 'par excellence' of King's. He was extremely flattering, passing from the subject of cotillons to that of scholarship he said to me, 'I suppose you know you passed an extraordinarily high examination. I have examined papers at thirteen examinations and I have never duri

19 Holiday Walks What did the boys do during school holidays? From Manmohan's letters1 to his poet friend, Laurence Binyon, we gather that at least during the long summer breaks they went to some hill or seaside resort. Getting away from London must have been a relief. The first letter, dated August 10, 1886, Tuesday, is from Keswick (c/o Miss Scott, Ambleside Road) where the brothers were holidaying that summer. The two friends were still students at St. Paul's. "I am sorry you cannot come to the Lake District —but I quite understand your difficulties in the way of expense and luggage, for we have been feeling the same. And Derbyshire, I can tell you

-12_Rishi Rajnarain Bose Sri Aurobindo^s Grandfather.htm 10 Rishi Rajnarain Bose Sri Aurobindo's Grandfather We find the roots of this Tree in Rajnarain's Bengali autobiography, Atmacharit. "My great grandfather, SUKDEB BOSE, received in dream the formula of a medicine," writes Rajnarain. And, as is to be expected, Sukdeb never charged anybody anything for it. Nor did his descendants. "My grandfather, RAMSUNDAR BOSE, was a most generous-hearted man. Every morning, an umbrella slung over his shoulder, he would visit every house in the village and inquire if they had food for the day. And if there was no food in somebody's house, he would send some from his own. Also

7 The Stream Let us look again at our Lotus, Aurobindo. But that Lotus was not only a flower. He was a fruit. A fruition. And what mighty Tree bore that Fruit? What seeds pushed forth that mighty Tree? How far-spread were its roots? Again, what soil nourished it, and sent the sap coursing through the Tree's mighty trunk and into its branches? And in which jungle was that Tree to be found ? The soil was the land known as India. The jungle was the Indian society. Shall we go into the jungle and explore? Who knows what we may stumble across! * * * However, before we step into the jungle, let us be clear about one thing. F

MOTHER'S CHRONICLES - BOOK FOUR - Mother's Chronicles book four MIRRA SRI AUROBINDO On Her Way to Ancient Times On His Way to Modern Times SUJATA NAHAR INSTITUT DE RECHERCHES EVOLUTIVES, Paris & MIRA ADITI, Mysore Already published in the series: Book One: MIRRA Book Two: MIRRA THE ARTIST Book Three: MIRRA THE OCCULTIST To be published: Book Five: MIRRA MEETS THE REVOLUTIONARY Book Six: MIRRA IN JAPAN Book Seven: MIRRA THE MOTHER Mother's Chronicles - B