25 Barin But again I have got ahead of myself so let us take the back trail. One who was closely associated with Sri Aurobindo's revolutionary activity, and had great responsibility, was his younger brother Barin. After their father's death in December 1892, Barin and Sarojini were taken to their grandfather's at Deoghar, where for the first time they were to meet their three elder brothers. It was at Deoghar that Barin went to school. He passed his Matriculation from Patna University in 1900, then continued his college studies at Dacca. His 'Mejodada' Manmohan, who was then professor at Dacca University, offered him hospitality. Barin then fancied the caree

22 Palleri Cap It was a Marathi student of Sri Aurobindo's, Sanker B. Didmishe, who gave another comprehensive statement (in Marathi). "I was in Inter at that time. Sri Aravind was teaching Burke's French Revolution. As his method of teaching consisted in going to the roots, one could never forget what he taught, even though the whole text was not completed. His mastery of the English language was phenomenal. Sometimes," disclosed Didmishe, "he examined our composition books. He wrote on them such remarks as 'Fit for Standard III' and 'How have you come to the College ?' "I was in the B.A. Class in 1906. At that time he was giving us (students of Jr. B.A. with

14 Pranayama "He never gave even a remote hint," wrote an overwhelmed Dinendra Kumar Roy, "of all the sleepless nights he kept vigil over my sickbed." He was speaking of how Sri Aurobindo took care of him in 1899, when he was stricken with high fever. They were then living at Mir Bakarali's wada, at Baroda. A military doctor treated him, and "Aurobindo nursed me." D. K. Roy said, "When day after day I lay unconscious owing to the intensity of the fever, he spent sleepless nights nursing me.... All I understood was that without his nursing care I would not have survived.... When, after a long spell, the fever left me, he said to me one day, smiling, 'Roy, this time

16 Break the Habit In the course of a single night Sri Aurobindo could cure a person of a fever and send him fresh and full of strength to his work. A cure without medicines. And Mother. She healed. She healed all wounds —inner or outer —that life is wont to inflict on us. She had such a tender way of doing it too! Oh, how many times did I see her with children who had fallen sick, removing their pain, curing them of fever by passing her hand over and over again, so gently, from the top of the head to the back and down the spine. Then, when she knew that the action was done, Mother would stoop and kiss the forehead of the child. A good night's sleep, and the

12 Lotus and Lotus Dinendra Kumar Roy remarked that in 1900 "Aurobindo was eager to get married." In fact, Sri Aurobindo advertised in Calcutta newspapers for a bride. He was twenty-nine years old and he selected a girl of fourteen for his bride. Her name was Mrinalini Bose. Curiously enough 'Mrinalini' and 'Aurobindo' both mean 'Lotus.' Now olden Hindu traditions say that a wife is the partner in her husband's spiritual life, and helper in the execution of his chosen Dharma. They are companions who walk the same road in life. There is a fullness of sharing between them. Remarkably this couple shared even their names! Aurobindo and Mrinalini. LOTUS and LOTUS. T

21 From His Students It was the evening of 30 december 1938, barely a month after Sri Aurobindo's accident on 24 November. Those attending upon him stood around his bed. The talk turned to his brother Manmohan as a hard-working professor. Sri Aurobindo confirmed that generally the professors don't work so hard. Then, looking at Purani, he said, "I was not so conscientious as a professor." Purani begged to differ. "But," he said, "people who heard you in College and those who heard you afterwards in politics differ from you. They speak very highly of your lectures." "I never used to look at the Notes," recalled Sri Aurobindo, "and sometimes my explanation

45 A Mahratta Shoe "History very seldom records the things that were decisive but took place behind the veil; it records the show in front of the curtain," said Sri Aurobindo. "Very few people know that it was I (without consulting Tilak) who gave the order that led to the breaking of the Congress and was responsible for the refusal to join the new-fangled Moderate Convention which were the two decisive happenings at Surat." He then added, "Even my action in giving the movement in Bengal its militant turn or founding the revolutionary movement is very little known." The morning of Friday, 27 December, dawned. Few had slept the two previous nights as the emi

37 The Bureaucracy The Anglo-Indian bureaucrats were tearing their hair. What was the vernacular press doing? To add insult to injury here was the Bande Mataram merrily using a language that was 'a direct incentive to violence and lawlessness.' But they felt helpless. The Government shared the view of the editor of The Friend of India (The Statesman) who complained that the editorials were too diabolically clever, crammed full of sedition between the lines, but legally unattackable because of the skill of the language. "This agitation," wrote Sri Aurobindo in the Bande Mataram of 4 September 1906, a few days after he had actually joined the paper, "is not an

Table of Illustrations Page Frontispiece, From old issues of The Modern Review (courtesy Patrice Marot) 23 , 54, 214 , 425, 475, 557 12 Krishna Dhan Ghose, from Sukumar Mitra's article on Sri Aurobindo in Basumati, Phalgun 1358 38 Bankim Chandra Chatterji 59 Sarojini Ghose (courtesy Sri Lab Kumar Bose and the late Sri Nirmal Ranjan Mitra) 66 Sri Aurobindo at Deoghar, c.1894 (detail from a group photograph, courtesy Smt. Lahori Chatterjee) 76 Rajnarain Bose's house (courtesy Sri Lab Kumar Bose and the late Sri Nirmal Ranjan Mitra) 86 Bombay's Victoria Terminus early this century (from an old p

27 The National Mantra The Vindhyas, where Barin had gone in search of a temple site, are a chain of mountains that roughly divides India into North and South. Legend has it that once upon a time the mountain began to grow and grow. It grew till it pierced the sky. And then the Sun could not cross it. At a standstill in the northern sky, the sun beat fiercely down on the earth there and burned all creatures great and small. A perpetual day in the North. In the South it was perpetual night. Consternation! Everybody prayed to Rishi Agastya to come to the rescue. As Vishnu always came to the rescue of the heavenly gods, so did Agastya come —time and time a