{"id":518,"date":"2013-07-13T01:28:32","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=518"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:28:32","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:32","slug":"07-corrections-of-wrong-statements-in-the-press-vol-26-on-himself-volume-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/26-on-himself-volume-26\/07-corrections-of-wrong-statements-in-the-press-vol-26-on-himself-volume-26","title":{"rendered":"-07_Corrections of wrong Statements in the Press.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nIV.  CORRECTIONS OF WRONG STATEMENTS<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n


\n\t\tIN THE PRESS<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

        \u00b9This is my answer
\nto the questions arising from your letter. Except on one point which calls for
\nsome explanation, I confine myself to the plain facts.<\/span><\/p>\n

1.
\nI was the writer of the series of articles on the "Passive
\nResistance" published [in the Bande Mataram}<\/i> in April 1907 to which
\nreference has been made; Bepin Pal had nothing to do with it. He ceased his
\nconnection with the paper towards the end of 1906 and from that time onward was
\nnot writing any editorials or articles for it. I planned several series of this
\nkind for the Bande Mataram<\/i> and at least three were published of which
\nthe "Passive Resistance" was one.<\/span><\/p>\n

2.
\nThe articles published in Dharma<\/i> during February and March 1910 were not
\nwritten by me. The actual writer was a young man on the sub-editorial staff of
\nthe paper. This is well known to all who were then in the office or connected
\nwith it, e.g., Nolini Kanta Gupta who was with me then as he is now still with
\nme here.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>3. I did not go to the Bagbazar Math on my way
\nto Chandernagore or make praṇāma<\/i> to Sri Saradeshwari Devi. In fact
\nI never met her or even saw her in my life. It was not from Bagbazar but
\nanother Ghat (Ganga Ghat) that I went straight by boat to Chandernagore.<\/span><\/p>\n

4.
\nNeither Ganen Maharaj nor Nivedita saw me off at the Ghat. Neither of them knew
\nanything about my going: Nive\u00addita learned of it only afterwards when I sent a
\nmessage to her asking her to conduct the Karmayogin<\/i> in my absence. She
\nconsented and from that time to its cessation of publication was in control of
\nthe paper; the editorials during that period were hers<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9 Girija Shankar <\/span>Roy<\/span> Chaudhuri, a Bengali
\nliterary critic, wrote a series of articles on Sri Aurobindo in the Bengali
\njournal Udbodhan.<\/i> One issue especially (Ashadh<\/i> 1351 B.S. June,
\n1944) contained a number of inaccurate statements. Some points in this article
\nwere referred to Sri Aurobindo for verification by the late C. C Dutt. This
\nletter is Sri Aurobindo’s reply to him giving right factual information on
\nthese points. Sri Aurobindo also dictated a few notes correcting some wrong
\nstatements in Girija Shankar’s article referred to him. These notes along with
\nthe wrong statements (shown in italics) are placed after the letter.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\nPage – 56<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n

\n5.\u00a0 <\/span>I did not take my wife for initiation to Sri
\nSaradeshwari Devi; I was given to understand that she was taken there by
\nSudhira Bose, Debabrata’s sister. I heard of it a considerable time afterwards
\nin <\/span>Pondicherry<\/span>. I was glad to know that she had found so great a spiritual refuge,
\nbut I had no hand in bringing it about.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>6. I did not go to Chandernagore on Sister
\nNivedita’s advice. On a former occasion when she informed me that the
\nGovernment had decided to deport me, she did urge me to leave <\/span>British India<\/span> and do my work
\nfrom outside; but I told her I did not think it necessary, I would write
\nsomething that would put a stop to this project. It was in these circumstances
\nthat I wrote the signed article "My Last Will and Testament".
\nNivedita afterwards told me that it had served its purpose, the Government had
\nabandoned the idea of deportation. No occasion arose for her to repeat the
\nadvice nor was it at all likely that I would have followed it: she knew nothing
\nbeforehand of the circumstances that led to my departure to Chandernagore.<\/span><\/p>\n

7.
\nHere are the facts of that departure. I was in the Karmayogin<\/i> Office
\nwhen I received the word, on information given by a high-placed police
\nofficial, that the Office would be searched the next day and myself arrested.
\n(The Office was in fact searched but no warrant was produced against me; I
\nheard nothing more of it till the case was started against the paper later on,
\nbut by then I had already left Chandernagore for <\/span>Pondicherry<\/span>.) While
\nI was listening to animated comments from those around on the approaching
\nevent, I suddenly received a command from above, in a Voice well known to me,
\nin three words: "Go to Chandernagore." In ten minutes or so I was in
\nthe boat for Chandernagore. Ramachandra Majumdar guided me to the Ghat and
\nhailed a boat and I entered into it at once along with my relative Biren Ghose
\nand Moni (Suresh Chandra Chakravarti) who accompanied me to Chandernagore, not
\nturning aside to Bagbazar or anywhere else. We reached our destination while it
\nwas still dark: they returned in the morning to <\/span>Calcutta<\/span>. I
\nremained in secret entirely engaged in Sadhana and my active connection with
\nthe two newspapers ceased from that time. Afterwards, under the same
\n"sailing orders" I left Chandernagore and<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 57<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\nreached <\/span>Pondicherry<\/span> on <\/span>April
\n 4, 1910<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I
\nmay add in explanation that from the time I left Lele at <\/span>Bombay<\/span> after the
\nSurat Sessions and my stay with him in <\/span>Baroda<\/span>, <\/span>Poona<\/span> and <\/span>Bombay<\/span>, I had
\naccepted the rule of following the inner guidance implicitly and moving only as
\nI was moved by the Divine. The spiritual development during the year in jail
\nhad turned this into an absolute law of the being. This accounts for my
\nimmediate action in obedience to the ādeśa<\/i> received by me.<\/span><\/p>\n

You
\ncan on the strength of this letter cite my authority for your statements on
\nthese points to the editor of the Udbodhan.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

December 5, 1944<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SRI AUROBINDO’S NOTES ON GIRIJA SHANKAR’S ARTICLE<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sister Nivedita was invited in 1904 to <\/span><\/i>Baroda<\/span><\/i> by
\nthe Maharaja and Sri Aurobindo had talks with her about Ramakrishna and
\nVivekananda.<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I do not remember whether she was invited
\nbut I think she was there as a State guest. Khasirao and myself went to receive
\nher at the station.<\/span><\/p>\n

I
\ndo not remember Nivedita speaking to me on spiritual subjects or about
\nRamakrishna and Vivekananda. We spoke of politics and other subjects. On the
\nway from the station to the town she cried out against the ugliness of the
\nCollege build\u00ading and its top-heavy dome and praised the Dharmashala near it.
\nKhasirao stared at her and opined that she must be at least slightly cracked to
\nhave such ideas! I was very much enamoured at the time of her book Kali the
\nMother<\/i> and I think we spoke of that; she had heard, she said, that I was a
\nworshipper of Force, by which she meant that I belonged to
\nthe secret<\/span>
\nrevolutionary party like herself, and I was present at her interview with the
\nMaharaja whom she invited to support the secret revolution; she told him that
\nhe could communicate with her through me. Sayajirao was much too cunning to
\nplunge into such a dangerous business and never spoke to me about it. That, is
\nall I remember. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 58<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\nEarth of
\nDakshineshwara was found in Sri Aurobindo’s room when the police searched his
\nhouse in April, 1908.<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The earth was
\nbrought to me by a young man connected with the Ramakrishna Mission and I kept
\nit; it was there in my room when the police came to arrest me.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nthe
\n"Bande Mataram" started on <\/span><\/i>7th August, 1906<\/span><\/i>. The joint stock company was declared on <\/span><\/i>18th October, 1906<\/span><\/i>. So from August to October 1906 Bepin Pal was the editor.<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nBepin Pal started
\nthe Bande Mataram<\/i> with Rs. 500 in his pocket donated by Haridas Haldar.
\nHe called in my help as assistant editor and I gave it. I called a private
\nmeeting of the young Nationalist leaders in <\/span>Calcutta<\/span> and they
\nagreed to take up the Bande Mataram<\/i> as their party paper with Subodh and
\nNirod Mullick as the principal financial supporters. A company was projected
\nand formed, but the paper was financed and kept up meanwhile by Subodh. Bepin
\nPal who was strongly supported by C. R. Das<\/span> and
\nothers remained as editor. Hemendra Prasad Ghose and Shyam Sundar joined the
\neditorial staff but they could not get on with Bepin Babu and were supported by
\nthe Mullicks. Finally, Bepin Pal had to retire, I don’t remember whether in
\nNovember or December, probably the latter. I was myself very ill, almost to
\ndeath, in my father-in-law’s house in <\/span>Serpentine Lane<\/span>
\nand I did not know what was going on. They put my name as editor on the paper
\nwithout my consent, but I spoke to the secretary pretty harshly and had the
\ninsertion discontinued. I also wrote a strong letter on the subject to Subodh.
\nFrom that time Bepin Pal had no connection with the Bande Mataram. <\/i>Somebody
\nsaid that he resumed his editorship after I was arrested in the Alipore Case. I
\nnever heard of that. I was told by Bejoy Chatterjee after I came out from jail
\nthat he, Shyam Sundar and Hemendra Prasad had carried on somehow with the
\npaper, but the finances became impossible, so he deliberately wrote an article
\nwhich made the Government come down on the paper and stop<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 59<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

its
\npublication, so that the Bande Mataram<\/i> might end with some \u00e9clat<\/i>
\nand in all honour.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nGirija Shankar’s
\nstatements about Sri Aurobindo cannot be taken as they are; they are often
\nbased on false or twisted information, tend towards misrepresentation or are
\nonly inferences or guesses.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n2<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00b9I <\/sup>am authorised by Sri Aurobindo to contradict the
\nstatement quoted in your issue of the 17th inst. from the Hindustan Standard
\n<\/i>that he visited Sri Saradamani Devi on the day of his departure to
\nPondicherry (?) and received from her some kind of dīkṣā. <\/i>There was
\na story published in a Calcutta monthly some time ago that on the night of his
\ndeparture for Chandernagore in February 1910 Sri Aurobindo visited her at
\nBagbazar Math to receive her blessings, that he was seen off by Sister Nivedita
\nand a Brahmachari of the Math and that he took this step of leaving British
\nIndia at the advice of Sister Nivedita. All these statements are opposed to the
\nfacts and they were contradicted on Sri Aurobindo’s behalf by Sri Charu Chandra
\nDutt in the same monthly.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Sri
\nAurobindo’s departure to Chandernagore was the result of a sudden decision
\ntaken on the strength of an ādeśa<\/i> from above and was carried
\nout rapidly and secretly without consultation with anybody or advice from any
\nquarter. He went straight from the Dharma<\/i> Office to the Ghat \u2014 he did
\nnot visit the Math, nobody saw him off; a boat was hailed, he entered into it
\nwith two young men and proceeded straight to his destination. His residence at Chandernagore was kept quite secret; it was known only to Srijut Motilal Roy
\nwho arranged for his stay and to a few<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n1<\/span><\/sup>The Sunday Times,<\/i> a weekly
\npaper of Madras, reproduced in its issue of the 17th June, 1945 a news item
\nfrom the Hindustan Standard<\/i> saying that Sri Aurobindo received
\ninitiation from Sri Sarada Devi, wife of Sri Ramakrishna, prior to his
\ndeparture to Chandernagore. This was a completely baseless story and was contradicted
\nby this statement which appeared in the issue of the 24th June of The Sunday
\nTimes.<\/i> The statement appeared under the name of the Secretary of Sri
\nAurobindo Ashram but was dictated by Sri Aurobindo himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 60<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

others. Sister Nivedita was confidentially
\ninformed the day after his departure and asked to conduct the Karmayogin<\/i>
\nin place of Sri Aurobindo to which she consented. In his passage from
\nChandernagore to Pondicherry Sri Aurobindo stopped only for two minutes outside
\n<\/span>College Square<\/span> to take his trunk from his cousin and paid no visit except to the
\nBritish Medical Officer to obtain a medical certificate for the voyage. He went
\nstraight to the steamship Dupleix<\/i> and next morning was on his way to <\/span>Pondicherry<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

It
\nmay be added that neither at this time nor any other did Sri Aurobindo receive
\nany kind of initiation from Sarada Devi; neither did he ever
\ntake any formal dīkṣā <\/i>from anyone. <\/b>He <\/b><\/span>started
\nhis Sadhana at <\/span>Baroda<\/span> in 1904 on his own account after learning from a friend the
\nordinary formula of prāṇāyama. <\/i>Afterwards the only help he
\nreceived was from the Maharashtrian Yogi, Vishnu Bhaskar Lele, who instructed
\nhim how to reach complete silence of the mind and immobility of the whole
\nconsciousness. This Sri Aurobindo was able to achieve in three days with the
\nresult of lasting and massive spiritual realisations opening to him the larger
\nways of Yoga. Lele finally told him to put himself entirely into the hands of
\nthe Divine within and move only as he was moved and then he would need no
\ninstructions either from Lele himself or anyone else. This henceforward became
\nthe whole foundation and principle of Sri Aurobindo’s Sadhana. From that time
\nonward (the beginning of 1909) and through many years of intensive experience
\nat <\/span>Pondicherry<\/span> he underwent no spiritual influence from outside.<\/span><\/p>\n

November,
\n1945<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n3<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9In his reply to
\nSuresh Chakravarty’s article, my old friend Ramachandra Majumdar congratulates
\nhimself on the strength of his memory in old age. His memory is indeed so
\nstrong that<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

‘Suresh Chandra Chakravarty, a disciple of Sri Aurobindo, wrote an article on Sri Aurobindo in
\nthe Bengali journal, Prabasi<\/i> (issue of Baisakh<\/i> 1352 B.S. April,
\n1945). Ramachandra Majumdar who was on the staff of the Karmayogin<\/i>
\nwrote a reply to this article contradicting what seemed to him to be the wrong
\nstatements in S. Chakravarty’s article. Majumdar’s reply was not only based on
\nwrong memory but also included a number of entirely fictitious statements. This
\nnote was dictated by Sri Aurobindo to correct\u00a0<\/span>Majumdar’s wrong and fictitious statements;
\nit was translated into Bengali by Nolini Kanta Gupta who also wrote an article
\nin Bengali (published in Prabasi<\/i>
\nand Bartika)<\/i> which was practically a translation of this note. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 61<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\nhe not only recollects, very inaccurately,
\nwhat actually happened, but recalls also and gives body to what never happened
\nat all. His account is so heavily crammed with blunders and accretions that it
\nmay provide rich material for an imaginative and romantic biography of Sri
\nAurobindo in the modern manner but has no other value. It is a pity to have to
\ntrample on this fine garden of flowers, but historical and biographical truth
\nhas its claim. I shall correct some of the most flagrant errors in this
\nnarrative.<\/span><\/p>\n

First
\nof all, Suresh Chakravarty’s article about the journey to Chandernagore
\nconfined itself to inaccurate statements of the facts and denied the story of a
\nvisit to Sri Sarada Devi in the course of that journey. This point has now been
\npractically conceded for we see that the alleged visit has been transferred to
\nanother date a few days earlier. I may say that Suresh’s narrative of the facts
\nwas brought to the notice of Sri Aurobindo who certified that it was true both
\nas a whole and in detail.<\/span><\/p>\n

But
\nnow another story has been brought up which is full of confusions and
\nunrealities and is a good example of how myth can be established in place of
\nthe truth. Sri Aurobindo never spoke with Sister Nivedita about any case
\nintended to be brought against him by the Government in connection with the
\nmurder of Shamsul Alam, for the good reason that no such intention was ever
\nreported to him by anybody. Sister Nivedita never directed or advised him to
\ngo into hiding. What actually happened had nothing to do with the departure to Chandernagore. What happened was this: Sister Nivedita on a much earlier
\noccasion informed Sri Aurobindo that the Government intended to deport him and
\nadvised him "not to hide", but leave British India and work from
\noutside; Sri Aurobindo did not accept the advice. He said that he would write
\nan "Open Letter" which he thought would make the Government give up
\nits idea; this appeared in the Karmayogin<\/i> under the title "My Last
\nWill and Testament". Afterwards Sister Nivedita told him that it had had
\nthe desired effect and there was no more question of deportation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sri
\nAurobindo did not see Sister Nivedita on his way to<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 62<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Chandernagore; this is only a relic of the
\nnow abandoned story of his visit to the Math at Baranagar on that occasion in
\nwhich it was related that she had seen him off at the Ghat. She knew nothing
\nwhatever of his departure to Chandernagore until afterwards when he sent her a
\nmessage asking her to take up the editing of the Karmayogin<\/i> in his
\nabsence. Everything happened very suddenly. Sri Aurobindo, as he has himself
\nrelated, while at the Karmayogin<\/i> Office, heard of an approaching search
\nand his intended arrest; he suddenly received an ādeśa<\/i> to go
\nto Chandernagore and carried it out immediately without informing or con\u00adsulting
\nanybody \u2014 even his colleagues and co-workers. Everything was done in fifteen
\nminutes or so and in the utmost secrecy and silence. He followed Ram Majumdar
\nto the Ghat, Suresh Chakravarty and Biren Ghosh following at a little distance;
\na boat was hailed and the three got in and went off immediately. His stay in
\nChandernagore also was secret and known only to a few like his later departure
\nto <\/span>Pondicherry<\/span>. Sri Aurobindo never asked Ram Majumdar to arrange for a hiding
\nplace; there was no time for any such arrangement. He went unannounced, relying
\non some friends in Chandernagore to arrange for his stay. Motilal Roy received
\nhim first in his own house, then arranged in other places, allowing only a few
\nto know. This is the true account of what happened according to Sri Aurobindo’s
\nown statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\nnew story now told that Devabrata Bose and Sri Aurobindo both asked to be
\nadmitted into the Ramakrishna Mission and Devabrata was accepted but Swami
\nBrahmananda refused to accept Sri Aurobindo, is another myth. Sri Aurobindo
\nnever even dreamed of taking Sannyasa or of entering into any established order
\nof Sannyasis. It ought to be well known to everybody that Sannyasa was never
\naccepted by him as part of his Yoga; he has founded an Ashram in <\/span>Pondicherry<\/span> but its
\nmembers are not Sannyasis, do not wear the ochre garb or practise complete
\nasceticism but are Sadhaks of a Yoga of life based on spiritual realisation.
\nThis has always been Sri Aurobindo’s idea and it was never otherwise. He saw
\nSwami Brahmananda only once when he went on a boat trip to visit the Belur
\nMath; he had then about fifteen minutes’ conversation with Swami Brahmananda
\nbut there was no talk about spiritual things. The <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 63<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\nSwami was preoccupied with a communication
\nfrom the Government and consulted Sri Aurobindo as to whether there was any
\nneed of an answer. Sri Aurobindo said no, and the Swami agreed. After seeing
\nthe Math Sri Aurobindo came away and nothing else happened. He never by letter
\nor otherwise communicated with Swami Brahmananda before or afterwards and
\nnever directly or indirectly asked for admission or for Sannyasa.<\/span><\/p>\n

There
\nhave been hints or statements about Sri Aurobindo taking or asking for
\ninitiation from certain quarters about this time. Those who spread these
\nlegends seem to be ignorant that at this time he was not a spiritual novice or
\nin need of any initiation or spiritual direction by anybody. Sri Aurobindo had
\nalready realised in full two of the four great realisations on which his Yoga
\nand his spiritual philosophy are founded. The first he had gained while
\nmeditating with the Maharashtrian Yogi Vishnu Bhaskar Lele at Baroda in January
\n1908; it was the realisation of the silent, spaceless and timeless Brahman
\ngained after a complete and abiding stillness of the whole consciousness and
\nattended at first by an overwhelming feeling and perception of the total
\nunreality of the world, though this feeling disappeared after his second realisation
\nwhich was that of the cosmic consciousness and of the Divine as all beings and
\nall that is, which happened in the Alipore jail and of which he has spoken in
\nhis speech at Uttarpara. To the other two realisations, that of the supreme
\nReality with the static and dynamic Brahman as its two aspects and that of the
\nhigher planes of consciousness leading to the Supermind he was already on his
\nway in his meditations in the Alipore jail. Moreover, he had accepted from Lele
\nas the principle of his Sadhana to rely wholly on the Divine and his guidance
\nalone both for his Sadhana and for his outward actions. After that it was
\nimpossible for him to put himself under any other guidance and unnecessary to
\nseek help from anyone. In fact Sri Aurobindo never took any formal initiation
\nfrom anyone; he started his Sadhana on his own account by the practice of prāṇāyāma<\/i>
\nand never asked for help except from Lele.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nOne or two less important points have to be mentioned to show how little
\nreliance can be placed on the details of Ramchandra’s narrative. His statement about
\nthe automatic writing  <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 64<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\nis only an imaginative inference and
\nin fact quite groundless. Sri Aurobindo totally denies that he used the
\nautomatic writing for any kind of moral or other edification of those around
\nhim; that would have meant that it was spurious and a sort of a trick, for no
\nwriting can be automatic if it is dictated or guided by the writer’s conscious
\nmind. The writing was done as an experiment as well as an amusement and nothing
\nelse. I may mention here the circumstances under which it was first taken up.
\nBarin had done some very extraordinary automatic writing at Baroda in a very
\nbrilliant and beautiful English style and remarkable for certain predictions
\nwhich came true and statements of fact which also proved to be true although
\nunknown to the persons concerned or anyone else present: there was notably a
\nsymbolic anticipation of Lord Curzon’s subsequent unexpected departure from
\nIndia and, again, of the first suppression of the national movement and the
\ngreatness of Tilak’s attitude amidst the storm; this prediction was given in
\nTilak’s own presence when he visited Sri Aurobindo at Baroda and happened to
\nenter first when the writing was in progress. Sri Aurobindo was very much struck
\nand interested and he decided to find out by practising this kind of writing
\nhimself what there was behind it. This is what he was doing in <\/font> <\/span>
\nCalcutta<\/font><\/span>. But the results did not
\nsatisfy him and after a few further attempts at <\/font> <\/span>
\nPondicherry<\/font><\/span> he dropped these experi\u00adments
\naltogether. He did not give the same high value to his efforts as Ramchandra
\nseems to have done, for they had none of those remarkable features of Barin’s
\nwritings. His final conclusion was that though there are sometimes phenomena
\nwhich point to the intervention of beings of another plane, not always or often
\nof a high order, the mass of such writings comes from a dramatising element in
\nthe subconscious mind; sometimes a brilliant vein in the subliminal is struck
\nand then predictions of the future and statements of things known in the
\npresent and past come up, but otherwise these writings have not a great value.
\nI may add that Ramchandra’s details are incorrect and there was no guide named
\nTheresa, in fact no guide at all, though someone calling himself Theramenes
\nbroke in from time to time. The writings came haphazard without any spirit
\nmentor such as some mediums claim to have.<\/font><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 65<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n

\nA smaller but
\nmore amazing myth presents Sri Aurobindo as a poet in Tamil \u2014 and this
\napparently after only a few days of study. Far from writing Tamil poetry Sri
\nAurobindo never wrote a single sentence even of Tamil prose and never spoke a
\nsingle phrase in the Tamil language. He listened for a few days to a Nair from
\nMalabar who read and explained to him articles in a Tamil newspaper; this was a
\nshort time before he left <\/span>Bengal<\/span>. At <\/span>Pondicherry<\/span> he took up the study of Tamil, but he did not go very far and his
\nstudies were finally interrupted by his complete retirement.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nABOUT SRI AUROBINDO’S QUESTION
\nOF <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n


\nBECOMING A KING<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nRamchandra’s
\nwhole account is crammed with reckless inaccuracies and unreal details. Sirish
\nGoswami has pointed out in a letter that the astrological writings of Sri
\nAurobindo of which Ramchandra speaks were only some elementary notes and had no
\nimportance. Sri Aurobindo drew them at <\/span>Baroda<\/span> to refresh
\nhis memory when he was studying the subject with the idea of finding out what
\ntruth there might be in astrology. He had never any intention of figuring as an
\nastrologer or writer on astrology. These notes did not form a book and no book
\nof Sri Aurobindo on this subject appeared from the Arya Publishing House.<\/span><\/p>\n

It
\nis not a fact that Sri Aurobindo’s wife, Mrinalini Devi, was residing at Sj. K.
\nK. Mitra’s house in College Square; Sri Aurobindo himself lived there
\nconstantly between the Alipore trial and his departure to French India. But she
\nlived always with the family of Girish Bose, Principal of Bangabasi College.
\nOne is unable to understand the meaning of the saying attributed to Sri
\nAurobindo that he was a man rising to humanity unless we suppose that he was
\nonly the animal man rising towards the status of a thinking being; certainly
\nSri Aurobindo never composed such a resonant and meaningless epigram. If it
\nhad been to a Divine Humanity it might have had some meaning but the whole
\nthing sounds unlike what Sri Aurobindo might have said. In fact all that Ramchandra puts into Sri Aurobindo’s mouth <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 66<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n


\nis of a character foreign to his habits of speech, e.g., his alleged
\nShakespearean and Polonius-like recommendation to Ramchandra himself while departing to Chandernagore. He may have enjoined
\nsilence on Ramchandra but not in that flowery language.<\/span><\/p>\n

This
\nshould be enough; it is unnecessary to deal with all the inaccuracies and
\nimaginations. But I think I have said enough to show that anyone wanting the
\ntruth about Sri Aurobindo would do well to avoid any reliance on Ramchandra’s
\nnarrative. It can be described in the phrase of Goethe, "poetic fictions
\nand truths", for the element of truth is small and that of poetic fiction
\nstupendous. It is like the mass of ale to the modicum of bread in Falstaff’s
\ntavern bill. In fact it is almost the whole.<\/span><\/p>\n

1945<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

4<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00b9The account
\nwhich seems to have been given to X and recorded by her on pages 317-324 of her
\nbook is, I am compelled to say, fiction and romance with no foundation in
\nactual facts. I spent the first part of my imprisonment in Alipore jail in a
\nsolitary cell and again after the assassination of Noren Gossain to the last
\ndays of the trial when all the Alipore case prisoners were similarly lodged
\neach in his own cell. In between for a short period we were all put together.
\nThere is no truth behind the statement that while I was meditating they
\ngathered around me, that I recited the Gita to them and they sang the verses,
\nor that they put questions to me on spiritual matters and received instructions
\nfrom me; the whole description is quite fanciful. Only a few of the prisoners
\nhad been known to me before I met them in prison; only a few who had been with
\nBarin had practised Sadhana and these were connected with Barin and would have
\nturned to him for any help, not to me. I was carrying on my Yoga during these
\ndays, learning to do so in the midst of much<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n1<\/span><\/sup>A French lady, interested
\nin Indian spirituality, published a book in French on Sister Nivedita’s life\u2014Nivedita,
\nfille de l’Inde\u2014<\/i>in which she made some statements about Sri Aurobindo and
\nhis contacts with Sister Nivedita. A French disciple of Sri Aurobindo, who
\nbrought these statements to his notice, received from him this reply.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 67<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nnoise and clamour but apart and in silence and
\nwithout any participation of the others in it. My Yoga begun in 1904 had always
\nbeen personal and apart; those around me knew I was a Sadhak but they knew
\nlittle more as I kept all that went on in me to myself. It was only after my
\nrelease that for the first time I spoke at Uttarpara publicly about my spiritual
\nexperiences. Until I went to Pondicherry I took no disciples; with those who
\naccompanied me or joined me in Pondicherry I had at first the relation of
\nfriends and companions rather than of a Guru and disciples; it was on the ground
\nof politics that I had come to know them and not on the spiritual ground.
\nAfterwards only there was a gradual development of spiritual relations until the
\nMother came back from Japan and the Ashram was founded or rather founded itself
\nin 1926. I began my Yoga in 1904 without a Guru; in 1908 I received important
\nhelp from a Mahratta Yogi and discovered the foundations of my Sadhana; but from
\nthat time till the Mother came to India I received no spiritual help from anyone
\nelse. My Sadhana before and afterwards was not founded upon books but upon
\npersonal experiences that crowded on me from within. But in the jail I had the
\nGita and the Upanishads with me, practised the Yoga of the Gita and meditated
\nwith the help of the Upanishads; these were the only books from which I found
\nguidance; the Veda which I first began to read long afterwards in Pondicherry
\nrather confirmed what experiences I already had than was any guide to my Sadhana.
\nI sometimes turned to the Gita for light when there was a question or a
\ndifficulty and usually received help or an answer from it, but there were no
\nsuch happenings in connection with the Gita as are narrated in the book. It is a
\nfact that I was hearing constantly the voice of Vivekananda speaking to me for a
\nfortnight in the jail in my solitary meditation and felt his presence, but this
\nhad nothing to do with the alleged circumstances narrated in the book,
\ncircumstances that never took place, nor had it anything to do with the Gita.
\nThe voice spoke only on a special and limited but very important field of
\nspiritual experience and it ceased as soon as it had finished saying all that it
\nhad to say on that subject.
\n            Then about my
\nrelations with Sister Nivedita \u2014 they were<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 68<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

\npurely in the field of politics.
\nSpirituality or spiritual matters did not enter into them and I do not remember
\nanything passing between us on these subjects when I was with her. Once or
\ntwice she showed the spiritual side of her but she was then speaking to someone
\nelse who had come to see her while I was there. The whole account about my
\nstaying with her for 24 hours and all that is said to have passed between us
\nthen is sheer romance and does not contain a particle of fact. I met Sister
\nNivedita first at <\/span>Baroda<\/span> when she came to give some lectures there. I went to receive her at
\nthe station and to take her to the house assigned to her; I also accompanied
\nher to an interview she had sought with the Maharaja of Baroda. She had heard
\nof me as one who "believed in strength and was a worshipper of Kali"
\nby which she meant that she had heard of me as a revolutionary. I knew of her
\nalready because I had read and admired her book Kali the Mother.<\/i> It was
\nin these days that we formed our friendship. After I had started my
\nrevolutionary work in <\/span>Bengal<\/span> through certain emissaries, I went there personally to see and
\narrange things myself. I found a number of small groups of revolutionaries
\nthat had recently sprung into existence but all scattered and acting without
\nreference to each other. I tried to unite them under a single organisation with
\nthe barrister P. Mitra as the leader of the revolution in <\/span>Bengal<\/span> and a central council of
\nfive persons, one of them being Nivedita. The work under P. Mitra spread
\nenormously and finally contained tens of thousands of young men and the spirit
\nof revolution spread by Barin’s paper Yugantar<\/i> became general in the
\nyoung generation; but during my absence at <\/span>Baroda<\/span> the council
\nceased to exist as it was impossible to keep up agreement among the many
\ngroups. I had no occasion to meet Nivedita after that until I settled in <\/span>Bengal<\/span> as Principal of the <\/span>National<\/span> <\/span>College<\/span> and
\nthe chief editorial writer of the Bande Mataram.<\/i> By that time I had
\nbecome one of the leaders of the public movement known first as extremism, then
\nas nationalism, but this gave me no occasion to meet her except once or twice
\nat the Congress, as my collaboration with her was solely in the secret revolutionary
\nfield. I was busy with my work and she with hers, and no occasion arose for
\nconsultations or decisions about the conduct of the revolutionary movement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 69<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n

\nLater on I began to make time to go and see
\nher occasionally at Bagbazar.<\/span><\/p>\n

In
\none of these visits she informed me that the Government had decided to deport
\nme and she wanted me to go into secrecy or to leave <\/span>British India<\/span> and act from
\noutside so as to avoid interruption of my work. There was no question at that
\ntime of danger to her; in spite other political views she had friendly
\nrelations with high Government officials and there was no question of her
\narrest. I told her that I did not think it necessary to accept her suggestion;
\nI would write an open letter in the Karmayogin <\/i>which, I thought, would
\nprevent this action by the Government. This was done and on my next visit to
\nher she told me that my move had been entirely successful and the idea of
\ndeportation had been dropped. The departure to Chandernagore happened later and
\nthere was no connection between the two incidents which have been hopelessly
\nconfused together in the account in the book. The incidents related there have
\nno foundation in fact. It was not Gonen Maharaj who informed me of the impending
\nsearch and, arrest, but a young man on the staff of the Karmayogin,<\/i>
\nRamchandra Mazumdar, whose father had been warned that in a day or two the Karmayogin<\/i>
\nOffice would be searched and myself arrested. There have been many legends
\nspread about on this matter and it was even said that I was to be prosecuted
\nfor participation in the murder in the High Court of Shamsul Alam, a prominent
\nmember of the C.I.D., and that Sister Nivedita sent for me and informed me and
\nwe discussed what was to be done and my disappearance was the result. I never heard
\nof any such proposed prosecution and there was no discussion of the kind; the
\nprosecution intended and afterwards started was for sedition only. Sister
\nNivedita knew nothing of these new happenings till after I reached
\nChandernagore. I did not go to her house or see her; it is wholly untrue that
\nshe and Gonen Maharaj came to see me off at the Ghat. There was no time to inform
\nher; for almost immediately I received a command from above to go to Chandernagore and within ten minutes I was at the Ghat; a boat was hailed and I
\nwas on my way with two young men to Chandernagore. It was a common <\/span>Ganges<\/span> boat rowed by two
\nboatmen, and all the picturesque <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 70<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

details about the French boat and the
\ndisappearing lights are pure romance. I sent someone from the office to
\nNivedita to inform her and to ask her to take up editing of the Karmayogin <\/i>in
\nmy absence. She consented and in fact from this time onward until the
\nsuspension of the paper she had the whole conduct of it; I was absorbed in my
\nSadhana and sent no contributions nor were there any articles over my
\nsignature. There was never my signature to any articles in the Karmayogin<\/i>
\nexcept twice only, the last being the occasion for the prosecution which
\nfailed. There was no arrangement for my staying in Chandernagore at a place
\nselected by Nivedita. I went without previous notice to anybody and was
\nreceived by Motilal Roy who made secret arrangements for my stay; nobody except
\nhimself and a few friends knew where I was. The warrant of arrest was
\nsuspended, but after a month or so I used a manoeuvre to push the police into
\nopen action; the warrant was launched and a prosecution commenced against the
\nprinter in my absence which ended in acquittal in the High Court. I was already
\non my way to <\/span>Pondicherry<\/span> where I arrived on April 4. There also I remained in secrecy in the
\nhouse of a prominent citizen until the acquittal, after which I announced my
\npresence in French India. These are all the essential facts and they leave no
\nroom for the alleged happenings related in the book. It is best that you
\nshould communicate my statement of facts to X so that she may be able to make
\nthe necessary corrections or omissions in a future edition and remove this
\nwrong information which would otherwise seriously detract from the value of her
\nlife of Nivedita.<\/span><\/p>\n

13-9-1946<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 71<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IV.  CORRECTIONS OF WRONG STATEMENTS IN THE PRESS           \u00b9This is my answer to the questions arising from your letter. Except on one point…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-26-on-himself-volume-26","wpcat-11-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}