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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="center">
<b><font size="4">v</font></b></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="center">
<b>SHYAMPUKUR</b></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="center">
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="justify">On 
coming out of jail, Sri Aurobindo found shelter in the house of his maternal 
uncle, Krishna Kumar Mitra; the place was known as the <i>Sanjivani</i> Office. Bejoy 
Nag and myself had got our release along with him, but we could not yet make up 
our minds as to what we should do next; we were still wandering about like 
floating weeds or moss. But both of us used to go and see him every afternoon.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
About this time, he went out on a tour for a short while in the Assam area in 
connection with political work and he took the two of us along. I shall speak 
about that on another occasion. On return from the tour he told me one day that 
he had decided to bring out two weekly papers, one in English and the other in 
Bengali. The premises were ready, the arrangements were practically complete and 
we could both of us come and stay there. He asked me if I had any practice in 
writing. I said that I had never written anything beyond college essays, but I 
could try. &quot;Then get hold of an English newspaper tomorrow,&quot; he said, &quot;pick out 
some of the important items of news, write them out in Bengali and bring them to 
me. I shall see.&quot; I did that the next day. He seemed to be pleased on seeing my 
writing and said that it might do. He gave me the task of editing the news 
columns of his Bengali paper <i>Dharma.</i> Half of it would be articles, etc., and the 
rest would be news. Needless to say, I accepted the offer. He added that for 
this work he would give me a stipend often rupees per month and that I should 
not take that amiss. For, he explained, this was for him a matter of principle 
as he did not consider it fair to exact work without giving its due reward. That 
was why he offered this token payment and I should accept it as part of my 
pocket-expenses. This was the first time I was going to earn any money.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">So 
we came to stay at Shyampukur, on the Dharma and Karmayogin premises. There were 
two flats or sections. In the front part were set up the press and the office, 
and at</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="center">
<font size="2">Page-34</font></p>
<hr>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="justify">&nbsp;the back, in the inner appartments, so to say, we set up our household. 
There were three or four rooms on the first floor and downstairs there were the 
kitchen and stores and things.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
Sri Aurobindo used to come here every afternoon from his uncle&#39;s place. He would 
first look to the work in the office and then come to our rooms. Till about ten 
in the evening he used to spend his time with us.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">It 
is here that began our true education, and perhaps, nay certainly, our 
initiation too. Three of us were permanent residents, Bejoy Nag, Suresh 
Chakravarti and myself. But there turned up practically every day Ramchandra 
Majum-dar, Biren Ghosh and Saurin Bose (a brother-in-law of Sri Aurobindo) who 
came with us to Pondicherry and stayed here many long years. A frequent visitor 
was Ganen Tagore of Ramakrishna Mission who acted as the link with Sister 
Nivedita. There were a few others who came once in a while. Sri Aurobindo had 
his own novel method of education. It did not proceed by the clock, nor 
according to a fixed routine or curriculum, that is, there was nothing of the 
school about it. It went simply and naturally along lines that seemed to do 
without rules. The student did not realise that he was being educated at all. Is 
there not something very similar about his <i>s<font face="Times New Roman">&#257;</font>dhana</i>? Of fixed rules and processes 
determined in advance there is none; it moves by different paths and along 
different lines, depending on the time and circumstances; its form and movement 
vary according to the individual seeker. Even the seeker hardly seems to realise 
that he is doing any <i>s<font face="Times New Roman">&#257;</font>dhana.</i> Does a fish living in water know that it has 
learnt to swim?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">By 
giving me that work of editing the news he made me slowly grow into a journalist 
underwriter. Next there came to me naturally an urge to write articles. Sri 
Aurobindo was pleased with the first Bengali article I wrote. Only, he made a 
slight change at one place, I remember. I had written &quot;In the past, India held 
to the illusionist view. But in the present age, she cannot afford to reject 
life and the physical world; these she must accept.&quot; He corrected the first 
phrase to &quot;At a particular stage in our past.&quot; This my first article</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="center">
<font size="2">Page-35</font></p>
<hr>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="justify">&nbsp;was 
published in the 11th issue of <i>Dharma</i> dated 15th November, 1909. I was twenty 
then. Some of my other articles came out in Dharma afterwards. My writings in 
English began much later.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
Now we started collecting a few books. At the very outset he suggested two 
tides: <i>Carlyle&#39;s French Revolution and Green&#39;s History of the English People,</i> 
perhaps in consideration of our taste for history and revolution. Arrangements 
soon came to be made, all of a sudden and it seemed as if by accident, for our 
coaching in Hindi as well. A Marwari gentleman who used to help Sri Aurobindo in 
his journalistic work had a Pundit as his prot<font face="Times New Roman">é</font>g<font face="Times New Roman">é</font> to whom he had to pay 70 or 75 
rupees per month as an honorarium. So he asked Sri Aurobindo if instead of the 
Pundit being paid for nothing he could not be made to give some service. It was 
accordingly agreed that the Pundit would come and teach us Hindi for an hour 
every day. He was a Brahmin of the rigid orthodox type. But once in the grip of 
iconoclasts like us, his orthodox habits were soon broken to bits. For instance, 
he was made to drink water from taps in place of holy Ganges water brought from 
the river by a carrier; he even accepted to eat sweets obtained from the market 
instead of living entirely on his own cooking. Hindi has now embarked on its 
career of empire and perhaps it was in anticipation of this that Sri Aurobindo 
wanted to get us ready from that early date. But the Muse of Hindi did not 
prosper much in our hands.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">It 
was here at Shyampukur itself that Suresh Chandra had his first inspiration for 
poetry.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
One day, in the midst of all this, Sri Aurobindo asked me all of a sudden if I 
had any desire to learn languages—any of the European languages, French for 
example. I was a little surprised at the question, for I had not observed in me 
any such ambition or inclination. None the less, I replied that I would like to. 
That is how I began my French. He said, &quot;At the National College (National 
Council of Education, now Jadavpur University) they have got the books I loaned 
to them. You take this note from me. They will give you a volume of Moliere&#39;s 
Works.&quot; I started right away with </p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="center">
<font size="2">Page-36</font></p><hr>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="justify">
a play from this volume, <i>L&#39; Avare.</i> At several 
places in the margins he wrote out in his own hand the English equivalents for 
my convenience. I still possess that volume with the marginal notes in his 
handwriting.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
Sri Aurobindo himself began about this time his study of the Tamil language, 
with a Tamil gentleman who used to come to the <i>Karmayogin</i> office. A rather 
amusing incident has been narrated in this connection by Suresh Chakravarti. You 
should read Suresh Chakravarti&#39;s account along with mine in order to get a more 
complete picture of our life at Shyampukur. His Reminiscences (in Bengali) have 
just been published by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. While taking up the study of 
Tamil, Sri Aurobindo did not have the faintest suspicion that he might have to 
go to Tamil Nad one day and make that his permanent home.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
Here in Shyampukur and about the same time, there began for us another kind of 
education, another type of experience, a rather strange experience I should say. 
Everybody knows about automatic writing, that is, where the hand of the writer 
goes on automatically writing without any kind of impulsion, desire or direction 
on his own part; he remains neutral and lets himself go.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">It 
is said that through this kind of writing are brought down spirits or bodiless 
entities. The Western savant may say that all this is a play of the subconscient 
mind as the waking mind then abdicates. But that is a matter for argument. Let 
me here describe what actually happened. Sri Aurobindo showed us, or rather made 
us hear, not examples of automatic writing but of automatic speech. About eight 
in the evening, we would take our seats around him. The lights were put out and 
all was silent. We kept still for a while. Then slowly there came a voice from 
Sri Aurobindo. It was clearly not his own voice, there were many voices each of 
a different character and tone. The voice itself would say who it was. Some of 
them I remember very well. Once someone came and said many fine things about 
education, about literature, about our country. We got eager to know his name. 
After putting us off for a while he finally gave out </p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="center">
<font size="2">Page-37</font></p><hr>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="justify">that he was Bankimchandra. 
The talks were in English. He had used a word, &quot;obfuscated&quot;, and as none of us 
knew the meaning of this unusual word we asked him the meaning. His reply was, 
&quot;In our days we knew better English than you do.&quot; Another day, somebody else 
appeared and immediately announced himself in a terrible voice, &quot;I am Dan ton! 
Terror! Red Terror!&quot; He went on discoursing on the need and utility of all that 
bloodshed of the French Revolution. Another who came introduced himself thus, &quot;I 
am Theramenes.&quot; Theramenes was a political leader of ancient Greece. He spoke in 
a calm and subdued tone and gave us a lesson in political matters. So many 
others came like this, day after day, and taught us many things on various 
subjects. Someone even raised the question of Hindu-Muslim unity and offered us 
a solution as well.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
Who are these beings? Or, what are they? Do supra-physical beings exist in fact? 
And do they come and disclose their identity before men in this manner? It is a 
very obscure and complicated affair indeed. Supraphysical beings do exist. But 
the supraphysical world is not of a single piece. There are worlds upon worlds 
in a regular series, from the most gross to the most subtle; above the physical 
is the subtle-physical, above that is life, and above life mind, the series 
continues above mind also; and in each of these there are several layers or 
planes. Any of the beings from any of these worlds or planes can manifest 
himself. But he has to manifest through the instrumentality of the human medium, 
through the substance of the medium&#39;s mind, life and body. Therefore he cannot 
easily manifest his real nature or true being, he has to gather his materials 
from the medium&#39;s own substance. Very often it is the make-up of the medium that 
predominates and the being that manifests preserves very little of his own. But 
it may on the other hand be quite otherwise. All will depend on the capacity of 
the medium. With an impure or unfit medium there will be a greater possibility 
of charlatanism and falsehood.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">In 
many cases it is not the true soul of a dead person that comes; what comes is 
some portion of him, some fragments</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="center">
<font size="2">Page-38</font></p><hr>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="justify">of his mind, life or subtle body that may 
have survived in the corresponding worlds or in some other worlds. By animating 
these parts and using them as vehicles, some other being or entity or force may 
come, as if a representative of the whole man. Or else it might even happen that 
an entirely different being presents himself under a false name. There is really 
no end to the complexities that may arise in these supraphysical worlds. There 
may also be a medium who knows how to keep under his control the action and 
modality of such appearances, that is to say, determine in advance the 
particular beings or types of beings that will come or will not come, the kind 
of things they will say or will not be allowed to say. Or he may, if he chooses, 
open the g^tes for anyone to appear, simply in order that he may watch and 
examine what takes place. Needless to add that when Sri Aurobindo made himself a 
medium, something like this used to happen.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">As 
a record of one of his experiments along this line, Sri Aurobindo himself has 
said or rather left in writing something that ve all know. The book entitled 
Yogic <i>S<font face="Times New Roman">&#257;</font>dhan </i>was written entirely in this manner through his hand by somebody 
else. And judging by the fact that at the time of the writing Sri Aurobindo had 
seen the subtle presence of Rammohan Roy around, it may be inferred that the 
book was written or inspired by Rammohan Roy. Sri Aurobindo has likewise told us 
that the subtle being of Vivekananda came to him in Alipore Jail to give him 
certain instructions.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
Meanwhile there came to us running, one afternoon, a young man—Satish Sarkar—to 
give Sri Aurobindo the news that Shamsul Alam, the Police Inspector who had been 
the mainstay of Government in the Alipore bomb case, had just been shot down, on 
the steps of the High Court, by Bifen (Birendranath Dattagupta). He added that 
he too had been with Biren, but had managed to escape, although he doubted if 
Biren could have escaped. Biren actually got arrested and was hanged. Satish 
himself absconded. Afterwards he came to us in Pondicherry and stayed here for 
some time, perhaps for a year or so. We christened him &quot;Junior</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="center">
<font size="2">Page-39</font></p>
<hr>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="justify">
Sinner&quot;—as he was, as it were, a younger brother to us. But he developed into a 
<i>m<font face="Times New Roman">&#257;</font>y<font face="Times New Roman">&#257;</font>vadin</i> (illusionist) and finally left us as he could not reconcile himself to 
our viewpoint. Afterwards he became a <i>s<font face="Times New Roman">&#257;</font>nnyasin.</i> He has an ashram and receives 
an allowance from Bengal Government as a political sufferer.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
Our life in Shyampukur went on in its regular course, when, one evening as we 
gathered for our usual stance, our friend Ramchandra suddenly appeared with the 
news that the Government had decided to arrest Sri Aurobindo again; everything 
was ready, he said, and it might even be that very evening. Sri Aurobindo 
listened to him in silence. Then he said, &quot;Come, let us move out just now.&quot; He 
had received the Divine Command, as he told us later, to leave immediately for 
Chandernagore. He came out of the house and made straight for the river-side, 
accompanied by Ramchandra, Biren and Suresh Chakravarti. Suresh has given an 
accurate and full account of what happened next, and I shall not repeat that 
here. You should read it in his Reminiscences.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
The story of this sudden exit or disappearance of Sri Aurobindo has appeared in 
several versions, with many distortions and not without a touch of colour. For 
instance, someone has said that it was on Nivedita&#39;s advice and at her 
insistence or request that Sri Aurobindo took shelter in French territory. 
Another has given a vivid cinema-like picture of how Sri Aurobindo had to jump a 
wall, how he lost his way among the narrow lanes and finally landed on 
somebody&#39;s doorsteps and the dramatic dialogue that ensued, and so on. But all 
this is sheer myth and romance. Sri Aurobindo himself has left his record on the 
point, and his companions of that evening have also written out the true facts.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
Those of us who were left behind continued to run the two papers for some time; 
Nivedita was of particular help in regard to the English journal. But 
afterwards, we too found it impossible to carry on and our pleasant home had to 
be broken up. For news came that the police were after our blood; it became 
imperative therefore that we too should disperse and go into hiding. I have said 
that there were three </p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="center">
<font size="2">Page-40</font></p>
<hr>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="justify">
permanent residents in that house. Of these three, Suresh Chakravarti, at Ganen Tagore&#39;s instance, disappeared among the Tagore family, in 
the house of Gaganendranath Tagore. Bejoy removed to a friend&#39;s in Calcutta 
itself. And I decided to leave for an obscure little village in distant Barisal; 
there I put up with a friend of mine, Satish Chandra Sengupta who afterwards 
became professor of philosophy at the City College in Calcutta.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
That expedition of mine was not less romantic than any Antarctic trip. First I 
went by train; next came the ferry steamer that carried me across rivers; then I 
had a country-boat that paddled along the little channels of East Bengal; and 
finally I had to walk the last lap of my journey before reaching the 
destination, Kumeru.<sup>2</sup> Perhaps I shall tell you about that romantic 
episode in more detail later if there is luck. I spent a couple of months there, 
enjoying all kinds of delicious dishes and fine hospitality and lorded it over 
in the football fields out there. Then I got the news that the time had come for 
starting on my travels again—this time on a far distant trip, to the verge of 
Cape Comorin almost.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
1 If &quot;Sumeru&quot; could stand for the North Pole, surely &quot;Kumeru&quot; has a
claim on the South. - Translator</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="center">
<font size="2">Page-41</font></p><hr>
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