Sri Aurobindo by Promode Kumar Sen

Author:Promode Kumar Sen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India
Published: 2016-11-09T16:00:00+00:00

13

LIFE IN PONDICHERRY: THE YOGA ASHRAM

Sri Aurobindo stepped on to the jetty at Pondicherry from a French liner “Dupleix” on 4 April 1910. Since he was hiding from the police (mainly in Chandernagore), he preferred undertaking this journey by ship and not by train. Bijoy Kumar Nag was with him in this journey. Shri Suresh Chandra Chakravarti had arrived earlier to arrange accommodation for Sri Aurobindo. After a few months Nolini Kanto Gupta arrived. Gradually some more young men from different regions and states of India joined him; they all left everything and came to his shelter due to some wonderful attraction.

With them, Sri Aurobindo began creating a new world. He used to teach them as disciples, at times he would also talk humorously with them while he himself was engrossed in his deep studies and sadhana. It is not correct to say that all his connections with the previous phase of life were cut off but no longer was he a part of active politics. He set the foundation of a new life—the divine life. The calm and quietness of Pondicherry was appropriate for his spiritual work. He got directions from the Omniscient to come here. Pondicherry, in those days, had an ethereal envelope. As the poet Suresh Chandra penned,

Far–far–very far

Far from the madding crowd and of the world,

Far-very far–it’s situated...

No din rises here, no commotion spread

The poison in the sky and air

The burning of the heart of longing and lust,

All the unchecked inner hankering and greed,

As though at a Mantra, all gone to sleep.

In the quietness of Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo’s silent sadhana had begun from the bustling and action-filled world to reach a total calm. This was not like the silence during his Baroda days of profound scholarship but far above the din of life, away from the strife and turbulence of the world, a deep acquaintance with the serene eternal universal spirit as though a stream enjoying the earth’s beauty and variety, making it soft and tender, lost itself into the vastness of the great ocean. And the Yoga Ashram of Sri Aurobindo was founded at the very seashore of Pondicherry!

Lack of money or means, or severe austerity, or the vain remonstration of the aggrieved regime—nothing could perturb Sri Aurobindo. Some of the leaders of southern India’s Nationalist party had then been in self-exile in Pondicherry and were happy to have Sri Aurobindo there. They thought he would enliven the political movement from there—perhaps even plan a greater revolution. For a long time the nation too had cherished the same thought. But Sri Aurobindo has received a nobler call. It is greater than political activities and it is greater than achieving freedom for the country—that is the call of eternal India—summon of the Divine. So he could not respond to the call of the leaders.

Soon the invitation from nationalist groups of the Congress party started coming repeatedly. A number of leaders of the party travelled to Pondicherry and tried to convince him to return to the political

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