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Life in Baroda, 1893 – 1906
Service in Baroda State
Sri Aurobindo was first introduced to H.H. Sri Sayajirao, the great, Maharaja of Baroda by Mr. Khaserao Jadhav in England.
Not true. Sri Aurobindo made the acquaintance of Khaserao two or three years after reaching Baroda. Cotton introduced him to the Gaekwar.
Struck by the brilliance and the learning of the young Ghose, the Maharaja invited him to be his reader and in that capacity Sri Aurobindo came to Baroda.
Reader. Nothing of the kind. There was no such invitation and this post did not exist. Sri Aurobindo joined the Settlement Department, afterwards went to the Revenue and then to the College.
Sri Aurobindo used to read voluminously and make valuable notes for H.H. with whom he had free and illuminating discussions on various subjects.
Not at all. There were no such discussions.
The Maharaja . . . made him Naib Khangi Kamgar i.e. Asst. Private Secretary.
He had nothing to do with the Khangi Department and was never appointed Private Secretary. He was called very often for the writing of an important letter, order, despatch, correspondence with [the] British Government or other document; he assisted the Maharaja in preparing some of his speeches. At one time he was asked to instruct him in English grammar by
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giving exact and minute rules for each construction etc. It was only miscellaneous things like this for which he was called for the occasion, but there was no appointment as Secretary except once in Kashmir.
In this office Sri Aurobindo had to study many important affairs of the administration and though still very young and quite new to the post, he acquitted himself with marvellous keenness and precision, and boldly expressed his views in a straight-forward manner, whether H.H. agreed with him or not. The Maharaja appreciated this frankness, and admired him all the more. Sometimes his drafts used to fix many authorities into a puzzle, as they were invulnerable in reason and clear and thrusting in style.
The whole of this para is pure fancy.
The Maharaja had taken him on tour to places like Kashmir, Ooty and Mahabaleshwar.
Sri Aurobindo was sent for to Ooty in order to prepare a précis of the whole Bapat case and the judicial opinions on it. He was at Naini Tal with the Maharaja. In the Kashmir tour he was taken as Secretary, for the time of the tour only.
Sri Aurobindo always loved a plain and unostentatious life and was never dazzled by the splendour of the court. Invariably he declined invitations to dinners and banquets at the palace though he received them repeatedly.
Sri Aurobindo had nothing to do with the Court; he does not remember to have received any such invitations.
Among his brother officers the most intimate with him were Khaserao Jadhav and Barrister Keshavrao Deshpande, with whom he discussed the problems of Philosophy, Spiritual life and the reconstruction of India.
The most intimate friend at Baroda was Khaserao’s brother,
Page – 38 Lieutenant Madhavrao Jadhav who was associated with him in his political ideas and projects and helped him whenever possible in his political work. He lived with M. in his house most of the time he was at Baroda. There was no such discussion of problems; Sri Aurobindo took no interest in philosophy at all at that time; he was interested in the sayings and life of Ramakrishna and the utterances and writings of Vivekananda, but that was almost all with regard to spiritual life; he had inner experiences, from the time he stepped on to the shores of India, but did not associate them at that time with Yoga about which he knew nothing. Afterwards when he learned or heard something about it from Deshpande and others, he refused to take it up because it seemed to him a retreat from life. There was never any talk about the reconstruction of India, only about her liberation.
He played cricket well.
Never. He only played cricket as a small boy in Mr.. Drewett’s garden at Manchester and not at all well.
It was at Sardar Majumdar’s place that he first met Yogi Lele and got some help from him in spiritual Sadhana.
No. Lele came from Gwalior in answer to a wire from Barin and met Sri Aurobindo at the Jadhavs’ house; Lele took him to Majumdar’s house for meditation on the top floor.
Shri Arvind Ghosh . . . joined Baroda State Service in February 1893 as an extra professor of English in the Baroda College . . .
Incorrect.
. . . on a salary of Rs. 300/ a month.
It was 200/ not 300/.
His age as recorded in State papers on 31st July 1899 was 26 years, 2 months and 22 days.
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Incorrect. 11 months, 16 days
In 1900 his transfer to some other department was under consideration but was postponed. . . . On 17 4 1901 he was transferred to the Revenue Department. . . . Next year (1904) in April, H.H. ordered that Shri Ghosh should work from 1st June as his Asst. Private Secretary . . .
All this certainly incorrect. I did not start with service in the College. I was put at first in the Settlement Department, not on any post, but for learning work. Afterwards I was put in the Revenue-Stamps Department, then in the Secretariat (not as Private Secretary). There were some episodes, I believe, of learning work in the Vahivatdar’s office. My first work in the College was as Lecturer in French, but this was for an hour only, the rest of the time being given to other work. I have no recollection of being appointed Assistant “Private” Secretary. When I became English Professor in the College (which was after a long time) it was a permanent appointment and I went on in it uninterruptedly till I was appointed Vice-Principal, until, in fact, I left Baroda.1 This is what I remember. Perhaps by Private Secretary is meant an appointment in the Secretariat; but the English term does not mean that, it would mean work directly with the Maharaja. What work I did directly for the Maharaja was quite irregular and spasmodic, though frequent and I used to be called for that from my house, not from the office.
*
1901. Transfer to Revenue Department 17.4.1901 (not in college) par Rs. 360/ . Chairman of Debating Society and College Union President.
At what time of the year was this? If I was in the Revenue Department, I could not at the same time be occupying [ ]2 these posts.
If I was in the Revenue Department from 1901 1904, what
1 See Table 2, page 568. — Ed. 2 MS be occupying
Page – 40 was my post and what was I doing there?3 The only thing I recollect was special work studying a sort of official history of the Administration (Guzerati manuscript) perhaps for summary in English. I don’t remember the dates.
1902. Service lent to College for six hours in the week for French (6th August 1902).
My own recollection is that my first connection with the College was as lecturer in French, other duties being added afterwards. There must have been a first lending of services (for French) which was not recorded. There is nothing about the first years outside the College; but I remember very well learning work in the Revenue Department (immediately after the term in the Survey Settlement Office) and also in the Secretariat (without any final appointment in these earlier posts).
He was also given the work of compiling administrative report.
This might be [the] affair I refer to above. I had nothing to do with any current administrative report so far as I can remember. There was however private work at the Palace this time, compilation of a book (supposed to be by the Maharaja about his travels in Europe).
*
Sri Aurobindo’s appointments at Baroda. He was first put in the Land Settlement Department, for a short time in the Stamps Office, then in the central Revenue Office and in the Secretariat. Afterwards without joining the College and while doing other work he was lecturer in French at the College and finally at his own request was appointed there as Professor of English. All through, the Maharaja used to call him whenever something had to be written which needed careful wording; he also employed him to prepare some of his public speeches and in other work
3 See Table 2, page 568. — Ed.
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of a literary or educational character. Afterwards Sri Aurobindo became Vice-Principal of the College and was for some time acting Principal. Most of the personal work for the Maharaja was done in an unofficial capacity; he was usually invited to breakfast with the Maharaja at the Palace and stayed on to do this work.
*
Aurobindo was appointed Private Secretary to H.H. the Maharaja of Baroda. . . . Whether as the Maharaja’s Private Secretary or as an officer in the Revenue Department or as Professor of English and later as Vice-Principal in the Baroda College, Sri Aurobindo always conscientiously “delivered the goods”.
Appointed Private Secretary not the fact. He was first sent to the Settlement Department, the idea being to train him for Revenue work. For the same reason he spent some time in the Stamps and other Departments or in the Secretariat, but for training, not with a firm appointment. [Another version:] Sri Aurobindo was never appointed to the post of Private Secretary. He was put first in the Settlement Department, not as an officer but to learn the work; then in the Stamps and Revenue Departments; he was for some time put to work in the Secretariat for drawing up dispatches etc; finally he oscillated towards the College and entered it at first as part-time lecturer in French, afterwards as a regular Professor teaching English and was finally appointed Vice-Principal. Meanwhile, whenever he thought fit, the Maharaja would send for him for writing letters, composing speeches or drawing up documents of various kinds which needed special care in the phrasing of the language. All this was quite informal; there was no appointment as Private Secretary. Once H.H. took Sri Aurobindo as Secretary on his Kashmir tour, but there was much friction between them during the tour and the experiment was not repeated.
*
He was diligent and he was serious and he had, so it might have
Page – 42 seemed to many, really settled down to a career of meritorious service.
“diligent, serious, etc.” This valuation of Sri Aurobindo’s qualities was not the Maharaja’s. He gave him a certificate for ability and intelligence but also for lack of punctuality and regularity. If instead of “diligent and serious” and “a career of meritorious service” it were said that he was brilliant and quick and efficient in work, it would be more accurate. The description, as it is, gives an incorrect picture.
[When he arrived in India, Sri Aurobindo knew no Indian language except a smattering of Bengali, which was one of the subjects he had to study for the I.C.S. examination.]
Bengali was not a subject for the competitive examination for the I.C.S. It was after he had passed the competitive examination that Sri Aurobindo as a probationer who had chosen Bengal as his province began to learn Bengali. The course of study provided was a very poor one; his teacher, a retired English Judge from Bengal was not very competent, but what was learnt was more than a few words. Sri Aurobindo for the most part learnt Bengali for himself afterwards in Baroda.
*
In Baroda, Sri Aurobindo engaged Pundits and started mastering both Bengali and Sanskrit.
A teacher was engaged for Bengali, a young Bengali litterateur — none for Sanskrit.
*
[Sri Aurobindo took regular lessons in Bengali from Dinendra Kumar Roy at Baroda.]
No, there were no regular lessons. Dinendra lived with Sri Aurobindo as a companion and his work was rather to help him to correct and perfect his knowledge of the language and
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to accustom him to conversation in Bengali than any regular teaching.
[Another version:] Sri Aurobindo was not a pupil of Dinendra Kumar; he had learnt Bengali already by himself and only called in Dinendra to help him in his studies.
Sri Aurobindo . . . engaged a teacher — a young Bengali litterateur — and started mastering Bengali. . . .
About the learning of Bengali, it may be said that before engaging the teacher, Sri Aurobindo already knew enough of the language to appreciate the novels of Bankim and the poetry of Madhusudan. He learned enough afterwards to write himself and to conduct a weekly in Bengali, writing most of the articles himself, but his mastery over the language was not at all the same as over English and he did not venture to make speeches in his mother tongue.
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[He studied Hindi at Baroda.]
Sri Aurobindo never studied Hindi; but his acquaintance with Sanskrit and other Indian languages made it easy for him to pick up Hindi without any regular study and to understand it when he read Hindi books or newspapers. He did not learn Sanskrit through Bengali, but direct in Sanskrit itself or through English.
*
In Baroda after making a comparative study of all literatures, history, etc., he began to realise the importance of the Veda.
No. Started study of V. at Pondicherry.
[Five of the poems in the book Songs to Myrtilla, were written in England, the rest in Baroda.]
It is the other way round; all the poems in the book were written
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*
Vidula . . . originally appeared in the Weekly Bandemataram of June 9, 1907; Baji Prabhou appeared serially in the Weekly Karmayogin in 1910. It is not, however, unlikely that they had been actually written, or at least mentally sketched, during Sri Aurobindo’s last years in Baroda.
No, these poems were conceived and written in Bengal during the time of political activity.
Meetings with His Grandfather at Deoghar
I was at Deoghar several times and saw my grandfather there, first in good health and then bedridden with paralysis. As I was not in the College, I must have gone on privileged leave.
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[In Deoghar, he stayed with his in-laws (beaux-parents).]
Sri Aurobindo always stayed at Deoghar with the family of his maternal grandfather Raj Narayan Bose. The beaux-parents did not live at Deoghar.
*
[Sri Aurobindo owed his views on Indian Nationalism to the influence of Rajnarayan Bose. His turn towards philosophy may be attributed to the same influence.]
I don’t think my grandfather was much of a philosopher; at any rate he never talked to me on that subject. My politics were shaped before I came to India; he talked to me of his Nationalist activities in the past, but I learned nothing new from them. I admired my grandfather and liked his writings “Hindu Dharmer [Sresthata]4” and “Se Kal ar E Kal”; but it is a mistake to think that he exercised any influence on me. I had gone in England far
4 MS Sreshtatwa
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beyond his stock of ideas which belonged to an earlier period. He never spoke to me of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda.
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[His meetings with his grandfather were for political purposes.]
This is not correct. In these visits he was not concerned with politics. It was some years afterwards that he made a journey along with Devabrata Bose, Barin’s co-adjutor in the Yugantar, partly to visit some of the revolutionary centres already formed, but also to meet leading men in the districts and find out the general attitude of the country and the possibilities of the revolutionary movement. His experience in this journey persuaded him that secret action or preparation by itself was not likely to be effective if there were not also a wide public movement which would create a universal patriotic fervour and popularise the idea of independence as the ideal and aim of Indian politics. It was this conviction that determined his later action.
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