51 The High Court of History When Sri Aurobindo was imprisoned and it became apparent that it would be a long-drawn-out case, K. K. Mitra persuaded his niece to make a public appeal for her brother's defence. Saro's appeal was as a sister for the defence of her brother to every brother and sister in the country. Her brother was a sannyasin who was a devoted servant of the Motherland, he was the brother of all Bengalis, the brother of all Indians. Small contributions helped fill the kitty, coming as often from remote villages or poor labourers as from the educated elite. Swarnakumari Devi, well-known litterateur and Rabindranath's elder sister, gave

13 To Boromama "c/o Rao Bahadur K. R. Jadhava Near Municipal Office Baroda 15 August 1902 "My dear Boromama," wrote the nephew to his maternal uncle, Jogindranath Bose. So far we have heard others on 'Aurobindo' or 'Auro-dada.' This letter gives Sri Aurobindo's own view on his life as it then unfolded itself. It was his 30th birthday. "My dear Boromama, "I am sorry to hear from Sarojini that Mejdada has stopped sending mother's allowance and threatens to make the stoppage permanent unless you can improvise a companion to the Goddess of Purulia.1 This is very characteristic of Mejdada ; it may even be described in one word as Manomaniac.

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