58 Where is Aurobindo Babul Calcutta. Mid-February 1910. Halley's Comet had begun to be visible in 'the Indian sky. Reports of sightings had come from different parts of the country, from Karachi and Dumka, from Bombay and Nasik____ It was 8 o'clock. Dusk had given way to night. Night had come swiftly, as it does in those climes. N°4 Shyampukur Lane, Shyambazar. A young man is seen—only there was no one to see!—trying to melt himself in the shadows, trying to avoid the bright patches of lamp lights. Furtively he enters the building, with many a backward glance, to make sure that he has not been followed. To his relief he does not see

2 Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad "Do you know Bapubhai?" Sri Aurobindo asked Purani. "I think I do," replied Purani. "Once I saw him being stopped in the street by the police for breaking a traffic rule. He gave the policeman a long lecture in English, leaving the fellow flabbergasted." Sri Aurobindo laughed. "That must be he. It is very characteristic of him. He was my first friend in Baroda. He took me to his house and I stayed there for some time. He was a nice man, but what people call 'volatile and mercurial.'" Sri Aurobindo had known Bapubhai Majumdar from his London days. During his thirteen years' service to the Baroda State Sri

41 The Strategist A Voice called. The voice of the Lord of Tempest. Millions started up from their sleep. A new dawn greeted their eyes. A glorious dawn, breaking the gloom of centuries, bathed their Mother in a golden-rose light. The loud trumpet of thunder was the music of Rudra. Its blare infused strength into their souls. "I am the Spirit of freedom and pride," pealed the Voice. "The pride in our past, the pain in our present, the passion for the future are the trunk and branches of our Indian life," wrote Sri Aurobindo expounding the concept of Nationalism. "... Nationalism is not a mere political programme ; nationalism is a religion that

35 Professor Extraordinary "The first principle of true teaching is that nothing can be taught. The teacher is not an instructor or task-master, he is a helper and a guide." Sri Aurobindo had written a series of introductory essays on a sound system of teaching applicable to national education in any country; they were published in the weekly Karmayogin between February and April 1910. The National College was first located at 191/1 Bow-bazar Street. Students came—not only those rusticated from Government Colleges. They were attracted by the Principal's method of teaching, and his personality. Their love and adoration for Sri Aurobindo was not a degre

24 Resistance to Evil Sri Aurobindo's words, "The spirit of her [India's] culture is her soul," had taken root in the heart of K. M. Munshi. Unlike his Prime Minister who never made a real discovery of India, Munshi had done it. He had imbibed her culture. He was a novelist among other things, and what pleases me more than anything else is that his heroes are no weaklings. A man of integrity, he had the moral courage to act on what he perceived as right and truth. To him the Mahatma, M. K. Gandhi, was his 'master,' but it did not prevent him from revolting to Gandhi's advice to Congressmen. Mr. M. K. Gandhi advised Hindus not to resist Muslim goon das, not to s

17 Kashmir "Quite agree with your estimate of Kashmir." Dilip had waxed eloquent on Kashmir after his recent trip there towards the end of 1938, and had written to Sri Aurobindo glowingly about the idyllic life. Agreeing, Sri Aurobindo replied, "The charm of its mountains and rivers and the ideal life dawdling along in the midst of a supreme beauty in the slowly moving leisure of a houseboat —that was a kind of earthly Paradise — also writing poetry on the banks of the Jhelum where it rushes down Kashmir towards the plains." I do wonder what both of them would have said today, when there are at least one thousand foreign tourists in houseboats on the Dal lake! —a sewage

57 Time to Leave "All the Indians are rejoicing at the acquittal of Babu Aurobindo, as God protects his devotees at last," wrote a paper of Bihar. All Indians? Not quite. Not the loyalists, and certainly not the Anglo-Indian papers. "From that very day that Srijut Arabindo came out of prison," wrote the Samaj Darpan on 4 August 1909, "the Englishman, Capital, and the Anglo-Indian newspapers of Calcutta have set themselves against him. The manner in which they are conducting themselves have led many people to fear lest something should happen to Arabindo again." Already on 28 May the Samaj had expressed its apprehension that "it is not at all impr

39 Outpourings of Sympathy The collapse of the Bande Mataram Sedition case put the nose of the bureaucracy out of joint. B. B. Upadhyay's Sandhya commented gleefully, "The Bande Mataram newspaper has pulled you by both your ears, and slapped both your cheeks and made fools of you in the midst of the market place." In its hour of trial the paper had the sympathy of the whole of Bengal at its back. "We note with satisfaction and gratitude," wrote Sri Aurobindo, "that all classes of men, rich and poor, all shades of opinion, moderate or extremist, the purveyors of ready-made loyalty alone excepted, have given us a sympathy and support which is not merely

Prologue "In the times of the Mahabharata," Sri Aurobindo wrote* "the earth was reeling under the weight of demoniac might.... If Sri Krishna had not destroyed that might and established a kingdom of the Law of Truth ... India would have fallen untimely into the hands of barbarians. "We must remember that the Kurukshetra war occurred five thousand years ago. Only after two thousand five hundred years passed was the first successful attack by barbarians able to reach the other shore of the Indus river. Therefore the Kingdom of Truth founded by Arjuna had still so much power of the warrior-force, inspired by spiritual force, that it was able to protect the country for such a lo

8 Swami Brahmananda Today's visitors can, however, see the Tapoban hills on the outskirts of Deoghar. It was in a small cave of Tapoban that Balananda Brahmachari Maharaj practised tapasya. When Rajnarain Bose was alive, Balanandaji was already engaged in his tapasya. He had great regard for Rajnarain. In 1897 when the latter became bedridden following a stroke which paralyzed his right side, Balanandaji became a steadfast visitor ... and more. The Sanskritist Gobindo Gopal Mukhopadhyay — his Sanskrit songs or duets with his wife Madhuri Devi transport one to another world —has been kind enough to give me a few lines on Balanandaji. Both his father and uncle w