Autobiographical Notes

and Other Writings of Historical Interest

 

CONTENTS

 

Pre-content

 

 

PART ONE

 

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

   
 

Section One

 

Life Sketches and Other Autobiographical Notes

   
 

Sri Aurobindo: A Life Sketch

   

Sri Aurobindo: A Life Sketch

   

Appendix: Letters on “Sri Aurobindo: A Life Sketch”

     
 

Incomplete Life Sketches

   

Incomplete Life Sketch in Outline Form, c. 1922

   

Fragmentary Life Sketch, c. 1928

     
 

Other Autobiographical Notes

   

A Day in Srinagar

   

Information Supplied to the King’s College Register

     
 

Section Two

 

Corrections of Statements Made in Biographies and Other Publications 

     
 

Early Life in India and England, 1872 – 1893

   

Language Learning

   

At Manchester

   

School Studies

   

In London

   

Early Poetry

   

At Cambridge

   

The Riding Examination

   

Political Interests and Activities

   

The Meeting with the Maharaja of Baroda

   

Departure from England

     
 

Life in Baroda, 1893 – 1906

   

Service in Baroda State

   

Language Study at Baroda

   

Poetry Writing at Baroda

   

Meetings with His Grandfather at Deoghar

     
 

Political Life, 1893 – 1910

   

A General Note on Sri Aurobindo’s Political Life

   

The Indu Prakash Articles

   

Beginnings of the Revolutionary Movement

   

Attitude towards Violent Revolution

   

General Note (referring especially to the Alipur Case and Sri Aurobindo’s politics)

   

Sister Nivedita

   

Bhawani Mandir

   

The Indian National Congress: Moderates and Extremists

   

The Barisal Conference and the Start of the Yugantar

   

Principal of the Bengal National College

   

Start of the Bande Mataram

   

The Policy of the Bande Mataram

   

The Bande Mataram Sedition Case

   

The Surat Congress

   

The Alipore Bomb Case

   

The Open Letters of July and December 1909

   

The Karmayogin Case

     
 

The Departure from Calcutta, 1910

   

To Charu Chandra Dutt

   

To the Editor, Sunday Times

   

On an Article by Ramchandra Majumdar

   

To Pavitra (Philippe Barbier Saint Hilaire)

     
 

Life in Pondicherry, 1910 – 1950

   

Meeting with the Mother

   

The Arya

   

The Development of the Ashram

   

Support for the Allies

   

Muslims and the 1947 Partition of Bengal

     
 

Early Spiritual Development

   

First Turn towards Spiritual Seeking

   

Beginnings of Yoga at Baroda

   

Meeting with Vishnu Bhaskar Lele

   

Sadhana 1908 – 1909

     
 

Philosophy and Writings

   

Sources of His Philosophy

   

Perseus the Deliverer

   

Essays on the Gita

   

The Future Poetry

   

The Mother

   

Some Philosophical Topics

   
 

Appendix: Notes of Uncertain Origin

     
 

PART TWO

 

LETTERS OF HISTORICAL INTEREST 

     
 

Section One

 

Letters on Personal, Practical and Political Matters,1890 – 1926

     
 

Family Letters, 1890 – 1919

   

Extract from a Letter to His Father

   

To His Grandfather

   

To His Sister

   

Extract from a Letter to His Brother

   

To His Uncle

   

To His Wife

   

To His Father-in-Law

   
 

Letters Written as a Probationer in the Indian Civil Service, 1892

   

To Lord Kimberley

     
 

Letters Written While Employed in the Princely State of Baroda, 1895 – 1906

   

To the Sar Suba, Baroda State

   

To Bhuban Babu

   

To an Officer of the Baroda State

   

Draft of a Reply to the Resident on the Curzon Circular

   

To the Dewan, on the Government’s Reply to the Letter on the Curzon Circular

   

To the Naib Dewan, on the Infant Marriage Bill

   

A Letter of Condolence

   

To R. C. Dutt

   

To the Principal, Baroda College

   

To the Dewan, on Rejoining the College

   

To the Maharaja

   

A Letter of Recommendation

   
 

Letters and Telegrams to Political and Professional Associates, 1906 – 1926

   

To Bipin Chandra Pal

   

A Letter of Acknowledgement

   

To Hemendra Prasad Ghose

   

To Aswinicoomar Banerji

   

To Dr. S.K. Mullick

   

Telegrams about a Planned Political Reception

   

Extract from a Letter to Parthasarathi Aiyangar

   

Note on a Forged Document

   

To Anandrao

   

To Motilal Roy

   

Draft of a Letter to Saurin Bose

   

To K. R. Appadurai

   

Fragmentary Draft Letter

   

To a Would-be Contributor to the Arya

   

To Joseph Baptista

   

To Balkrishna Shivaram Moonje

   

To Chittaranjan Das

   

To Shyamsundar Chakravarty

   
 

Open Letters Published in Newspapers, 1909 – 1925

   

To the Editor of the Bengalee

   

To the Editor of the Hindu

   

To the Editor of the New India

   

To the Editor of the Hindustan

   

To the Editor of the Independent

   

To the Editor of the Standard Bearer

   

To the Editor of the Bombay Chronicle

     
 

Section Two

 

Early Letters on Yoga and the Spiritual Life, 1911 – 1928

     
 

Extracts from Letters to the Mother and Paul Richard,

   

To Paul Richard

   

To the Mother and Paul Richard

   

Draft of a Letter

     
 

To People in India, 1914 – 1926

   

To N. K. Gogte

   

Draft of a Letter to Nolini Kanta Gupta

   

To A. B. Purani

   

To V. Chandrasekharam

   

Extract from a Letter to K.N. Dixit

   

To Ramchandran

   

To and about V. Tirupati

   

To Daulatram Sharma

     
 

To Barindra Kumar Ghose and Others, 1922 – 1928

   

To Barindra Kumar Ghose

   

To Hrishikesh Kanjilal

   

To Krishnashashi

   

To Rajani Palit

   

Draft Letters to and about Kumud Bandhu Bagchi

     
 

To People in America, 1926 – 1927

   

To Mr. and Mrs. Sharman

   

To the Advance Distributing Company

   

Draft of a Letter to C. E. Lefebvre

   

To and about Anna Bogenholm Sloane

     
 

Draft Letters, 1926 – 1928

   

To an Unknown Person

   

To and about Marie Potel

     
 

Section Three

 

Other Letters of Historical Interest on Yoga and Practical Life, 1921 – 1938

     
 

On Yoga and Fund-raising for the Ashram, 1921 – 1938

   

To and about Durgadas Shett

   

To and about Punamchand M. Shah

     
 

To and about Public Figures, 1930 – 1937

   

Draft of a Letter to Maharani Chimnabai II

   

On a Proposed Visit by Mahatma Gandhi

   

To Dr. S. Radhakrishnan

   

To and about Morarji Desai

   

On a Proposed Visit by Jawaharlal Nehru

   

To Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury

     
 

PART THREE

 

PUBLIC STATEMENTS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONSON INDIAN AND WORLD EVENTS, 1940–1950

     
 

Section One

 

Public Statements, Messages, Letters and Telegrams on Indian and World Events, 1940 – 1950

     
 

On the Second World War, 1940 – 1943

   

Contributions to Allied War Funds

   

Notes about the War Fund Contributions

   

On the War: An Unreleased Statement

   

India and the War

   

On the War: Private Letters That Were Made Public

     
 

On Indian Independence, 1942 – 1947

   

On the Cripps Proposal

   

On the Wavell Plan

   

On the Cabinet Mission Proposals

   

The Fifteenth of August 1947

     
 

On the Integration of the French Settlements in India, 1947 – 1950

   

The Future Union (A Programme)

   

On the Disturbances of 15 August 1947 in Pondicherry

   

Letters to Surendra Mohan Ghosh

   

Note on a Projet de loi

     
 

Messages on Indian and World Events, 1948 – 1950

   

On the Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi

   

On the World Situation (July 1948)

   

On Linguistic Provinces (Message to Andhra University)

   

Letters Related to the Andhra University Award

   

The Present Darkness (April 1950)

   

On the Korean Conflict

     
 

Section Two

 

Private Letters to Public Figures and to the Editor of Mother India, 1948 – 1950

   

To Surendra Mohan Ghosh

   

To Kailas Nath Katju

   

To K. M. Munshi

     
 

Notes and Letters to the Editor of Mother India on Indian and World Events, 1949 – 1950

   

On Pakistan

   

On the Commonwealth and Secularism

   

On the Unity Party

   

On French India and on Pakistan

   

On Cardinal Wyszynski, Catholicism and Communism

   

On the Kashmir Problem

   

On “New Year Thoughts”

   

Rishis as Leaders

   

On Military Action

   

The Nehru-Liaquat Pact and After

   

On the Communist Movement

     
 

PART FOUR  

 

PUBLIC STATEMENTS AND NOTICES CONCERNINGSRI AUROBINDO’S ASHRAM AND YOGA, 1927 – 1949 

     
 

Section One

 

Public Statements and Notices concerning the Ashram,1927 – 1937

     
 

Public Statements about the Ashram, 1927 and 1934

   

On the Ashram’s Finances (1927)

   

On the Ashram (1934)

     
 

Notices for Members of the Ashram, 1928 – 1937

   

Notices of May 1928

   

Notices of 1929 – 1937

     
 

Section Two

 

Public Statements about Sri Aurobindo’s Path of Yoga, 1934 and 1949

   

Sri Aurobindo’s Teaching

   

A Message to America

     
 

NOTE ON THE TEXTS

     

 

Part Three

 

Public Statements and

Other Communications on

Indian and World Events

1940 ­ 1950


Section One

Public Statements, Messages,

Letters and Telegrams on

Indian and World Events

1940 ­ 1950


On the Second World War

1940 ­ 1943

 

Contributions to Allied War Funds

We are placing herewith at the disposal of H.E. the Governor of Madras a sum of Rs. 500 as our joint contribution to the Madras War Fund. This donation, which is in continuation of previous sums given by us for the cause of the Allies (10,000 francs to the French Caisse de Défense Nationale before the unhappy collapse of France and Rs. 1000 to the Viceroy's War Fund immediately after the Armistice) is sent as an expression of our entire support for the British people and the Empire in their struggle against the aggressions of the Nazi Reich and our complete sympathy with the cause for which they are fighting.

We feel that not only is this a battle waged in just self-defence and in defence of the nations threatened with the world-domination of Germany and the Nazi system of life, but that it is a defence of civilisation and its highest attained social, cultural and spiritual values and of the whole future of humanity. To this cause our support and sympathy will be unswerving whatever may happen; we look forward to the victory of Britain and, as the eventual result, an era of peace and union among the nations and a better and more secure world-order.

19 September 1940

 

Notes about the War Fund Contributions

 

[1]

 

As to your suggestion about a note on the subject of the contribution to the War Fund Sri Aurobindo does not feel very much inclined to enter into any public explanation of his action or any controversy on the subject. In his letter he made it very clear that it was on the War issue that he gave his full support and he indicated the reason for it. Hitler and Nazism and its  

 

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push towards world domination are in his view an assault by a formidable reactionary Force, a purely Asuric force, on the highest values of civilisation and their success would mean the destruction of individual liberty, national freedom, liberty of thought, liberty of life, religious and spiritual freedom in at least three continents. In Europe already these things have gone down for the time being except, precariously, in a few small countries; if Britain were defeated, that result would be made permanent and in Asia also all the recent development such as the rise of new or renovated Asiatic peoples would be miserably undone, and India's hope of liberty would become a dead dream of the past or a struggling dream of a far-off future. The abject position to which the Nazi theory relegates the coloured races is well known and that would be the fate of India if it conquered and dominated the world. Mankind itself as a whole would be flung back into a relapse towards barbarism, a social condition and an ethics which would admit only the brute force of the master and the docile submission of the slave. It is only by Britain's victory in the struggle to which she has challenged this destructive Force that the danger can be nullified, since she alone has shown at once the courage and power to resist and survive. This is Sri Aurobindo's view and, holding it, he could do nothing else than what he has done. There is no just reason here for any misunderstanding. This is what you can explain to anybody who questions, if it is necessary.

 

[2]

 

This letter should not be sent.1 This is a time to remain quiet. I did not intend by my contribution and letter to the Madras Governor to start any political action or political controversy. Let them stand for themselves. If anything farther is necessary at any time about it, I shall myself see to it.

22 October 1940

 

1 The letter referred to was written by Anilbaran Roy, a disciple of Sri Aurobindo's, in answer to questions raised by an acquaintance. — Ed.  

 

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On the War: An Unreleased Statement

 

Sri Aurobindo's decision to give his moral support to the struggle against Hitler, which was made at the very beginning of the war, was based like all his actions on his inner view of things and on intimations from within.2 It was founded on his consciousness of the forces at work, of their significance in the Divine's leading of the world, of the necessary outer conditions for the spiritual development in which he sees the real hope of humanity. It would not serve any purpose to speak here of this view of things: but some outer considerations of a most material kind easily understandable by everyone can be put forward which might help to explain his action to the general mind, although they do not give the whole meaning of it; it is only these that are developed here.

The struggle that is going on is not fundamentally a conflict between two imperialisms — German and English, — one attacking, the other defending itself. That is only an outward aspect, and not the whole even of the outward aspect. For the Germans and Italians believe that they are establishing a new civilisation and a new world-order. The English believe that they are defending not only their empire but their very existence as a free nation and the freedom also of other nations conquered by Germany or threatened by the push to empire of the Axis powers; they have made it a condition for making peace that the nations conquered shall be liberated and the others guaranteed against farther aggression. They believe also that they are standing up for the principles of civilisation which a Nazi victory would destroy. These beliefs have to be taken into consideration in assessing the significance of the struggle.

It is in fact a clash between two world-forces which are contending for the control of the whole future of humanity. One

 

2 The textual basis of this statement was an essay written by Anilbaran Roy and submitted to Sri Aurobindo for approval. Sri Aurobindo thoroughly revised and enlarged the first four paragraphs and added seven new ones, transforming Anilbaran's essay into an entirely new piece that may be considered his own writing. In revising, he retained Anilbaran's third-person "Sri Aurobindo". — Ed.  

 

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force seeks to destroy the past civilisation and substitute a new one; but this new civilisation is in substance a reversion to the old principles of dominant Force and a rigid external order and denies the established values, social, political, ethical, spiritual, altogether. Among these values are those which were hitherto held to be the most precious, the liberty of the individual, the right to national liberty, freedom of thought; even religious liberty is to be crushed and replaced by the subjection of religion to State control. The new ethics contemn and reject all the principles that can be summed up in the word "humanitarianism"; all that is to it a falsehood and a weakness. The only ethical values admitted are those of dominant Force on the one side and, on the other, of blind obedience and submission, self-effacement and labour in the service of the State. Wherever this new idea conquers or can make its power felt, it is this order of things that it seeks to establish; it is not satisfied with setting itself up in one country or another, it is pushing for world conquest, for the enforcement of the new order everywhere, securing it, — this at least Germany, its principal agent, conceives to be the right method and carries it out with a scientific thoroughness by a ruthless repression of all opposition and a single iron rule.

The other Force is that of the evolutionary tendencies which have been directing the course of humanity for some time past and, till recently, seemed destined to shape its future. Its workings had their good and bad sides, but among the greater values it had developed stood the very things against which the new Force is most aggressive, the liberty of the individual, national liberty, freedom of thought, political and social freedom with an increasing bent towards equality, complete religious liberty, the humanitarian principle with all its consequences and, latterly, a seeking after a more complete social order, which will organise the life of the community, but will respect the liberty of the individual while perfecting his means of life and helping in every way possible his development. This evolutionary world-force has not been perfect in its action, its working is still partial and incomplete: it contains many strong survivals from the past which have to disappear; it has, on the other hand, lost  

 

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or diminished some spiritual elements of a past human culture which ought to recover or survive. There are still many denials of national freedom and of the other principles which are yet admitted as the ideal to be put in practice. In the working of that force as represented by Britain and other democracies there may not be anywhere full individual freedom or full national liberty. But the movement has been more and more towards a greater development of these things and, if this evolutionary force still remains dominant, their complete development is inevitable.

Neither of these forces are altogether what we need for the future. There are ideas and elements in the first which may have their separate value in a total human movement; but on the whole, in system and in practice, its gospel is a worship of Force and its effect is the rule of a brutal and pitiless violence, the repression of the individual, not only a fierce repression but a savage extinction of all that opposes or differs from it, the suppression of all freedom of thought, an interference with religious belief and freedom of spiritual life and, in an extreme tendency, the deliberate will to "liquidate" all forms of religion and spirituality. On the side of the other more progressive force there are, often, a limited view, grievous defects of practice, an undue clinging to the past, a frequent violation of the ideal; but at the same time the necessary elements and many of the necessary conditions of progress are there, a tendency towards an enlargement of the human mind and spirit, towards an increasing idealism in the relation of men with men and of nation with nation and a tolerant and humane mentality. Both are, at present, or have been largely materialistic in their thought, but the difference is between a materialism that suppresses the spirit and a materialism that tolerates it and leaves room for its growth if it can affirm its strength to survive and conquer.

At present the balance in the development of human thought and action has been turning for some time against the larger evolutionary force and in favour of a revolutionary reaction against it. This reaction is now represented by totalitarian governments and societies, the other tendency by the democracies;  

 

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but democracy is on the wane everywhere in Europe, the totalitarian idea was gaining ground on all sides even before the war. Now with Hitler as its chief representative, this Force has thrown itself out for world-domination. Everywhere the results are the same, the disappearance of individual and national liberty, a rigid "New Order", the total suppression of free thought and speech, a systematic cruelty and intolerance, the persecution of all opposition, and, wherever the Nazi idea spreads, a violent racialism denying the human idea; outside Europe what is promised is the degradation of the coloured peoples to helotry as an inferior, even a subhuman race. Hitler, carrying with him everywhere the new idea and the new order, is now master of almost all Europe minus Great Britain and Russia. [Faced with the stubborn opposition of Britain he is turning southwards and if the plan attributed to him of taking Gibraltar and the Suez Canal and forcing the British fleet out of the Mediterranean and its coasts were to succeed, he would be able with his Italian]3 ally to dominate Africa also and to turn towards Asia, through  Syria and Palestine. There [ ]4 would be then nothing that could stand in his way except Russia; but Russia has helped his projects by her attitude and seems in no mood to oppose him. The independence of the peoples of the Middle East and Central Asia would disappear as the independence of so many European nations has disappeared and a deadly and imminent peril would stand at the gates of India.

These are patent facts of the situation, its dangerous possibilities and menacing consequences. What is there that can prevent them from coming into realisation? The only material force that now stands between is the obstinate and heroic resistance of Great Britain and her fixed determination to fight the battle to the end. It is the British Navy alone that keeps the war from our gates and confines it to European lands and seas and a strip of North Africa. If there were defeat and the strength of Britain and her colonies were to go down before the totalitarian nations,

 

3 Sri Aurobindo cancelled the bracketed passage during revision but did not write anything to replace it. — Ed.

4 MS there  

 

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all Europe, Africa and Asia would be doomed to domination by three or four Powers all anti-democratic and all pushing for expansion, powers with regimes and theories of life which take no account of liberty of any kind; the surviving democracies would perish, nor would any free government with free institutions be any longer possible anywhere. It is not likely that India poor and ill-armed would be able to resist forces which had brought down the great nations of Europe; her chance of gaining the liberty which is now so close to her would disappear for a long time to come. On the contrary, if the victory goes to Britain, the situation will be reversed, the progressive evolutionary forces will triumph and the field will lie open for the fulfilment of the tendencies which were making India's full control of her own life a certainty of the near future.

It is hardly possible that after the war the old order of things can survive unchanged; if that happened, there would again be a repetition of unrest, chaos, economic disorder and armed strife till the necessary change is made. The reason is that the life of mankind has become in fact a large though loosely complex unit and a world-order recognising this fact is inevitable. It is ceasing to be possible for national egoisms to entrench themselves in their isolated independence and be sufficient for themselves, for all are now dependent on the whole. The professed separate self-sufficiency of Germany ended in a push for life-room which threatens all other peoples; nations which tried to isolate themselves in a self-regarding neutrality have paid the penalty of their blindness and the others who still maintain that attitude are likely sooner or later to share the same fate; either they must become the slaves or subservient vassals of three or four greater Powers, or a world-order must be found in which all can be safe in their freedom and yet united for the common good. It will be well for India, if in spite of the absorption of her pressing need, she recognises that national egoism is no longer sufficient. She must claim freedom and equality for herself in whatever new order is to come or any post-war arrangement, but recognise also that the international idea and its realisation are something that is becoming equally insistent, necessary and  

 

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inevitable. If the totalitarian Powers win, there will indeed be a new world-order, — it may be in the end, a unification; but it will be a new order of naked brute Force, repression and exploitation, and for the people of Asia and Africa a subjection worse than anything they had experienced before. This has been recognised even by the Arabs who were fighting England in Palestine before the war; they have turned to her side. Not only Europe, Asia and Africa, but distant America with all her power and resources is no longer safe, and she has shown that she knows it; she has felt the peril and is arming herself in haste to meet it. In the other contingency, there will be not only the necessity for a freer new order, but every possibility of its formation; for the idea is growing; it is already recognised as an actual programme by advanced progressive forces in England and elsewhere. It may not be likely that it will materialise at once or that it will be perfect when it comes, but it is bound to take some kind of initial shape as an eventual result in the not distant future.

These are some of the more obvious external considerations which have taken form in Sri Aurobindo's contribution to the War Fund accompanied by his letter. It is a simple recognition of the fact that the victory of Great Britain in this war is not only to the interest of the whole of humanity including India, but necessary for the safeguarding of its future. If that is so, the obligation of at least a complete moral support follows as a necessary consequence.

It is objected that Britain has refused freedom to India and that therefore no Indian should support her in the War. The answer arises inevitably from the considerations stated above. The dominant need for India and the World is to survive the tremendous attack of Asuric Force which is now sweeping over the earth. The freedom of India, in whatever form, will be a consequence of that victory. The working towards freedom was clear already in the world and in the British Empire itself before the War; Eire, Egypt had gained their independence, Iraq had been granted hers; many free nationalities had arisen in Europe and Asia; India herself was drawing nearer to her goal and the

 

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attainment of it was coming to be recognised as inevitable. If the totalitarian new order extends over Asia, all that will disappear; the whole work done will be undone. If there is the opposite result, nothing can prevent India attaining to the object of her aspirations; even if restrictions are put upon the national self-government that is bound to come, they cannot last for long. In any case, there is no moral incompatibility between India's claim to freedom and support to Britain in the struggle against Hitler, since it would be a support given for the preservation of her own chance of complete liberty and the preservation also of three continents or even of the whole earth from a heavy yoke of servitude.

There remains the objection that all War is evil and no war can be supported; soul-force or some kind of spiritual or ethical force is the only force that should be used; the only resistance permissible is passive resistance, non-cooperation or Satyagraha. But this kind of resistance though it has been used in the past with some effect by individuals or on a limited scale, cannot stop the invasion of a foreign army, least of all, a Nazi army, or expel it, once it is inside and in possession; it can at most be used as a means of opposition to an already established oppressive rule. The question then arises whether a nation can be asked to undergo voluntarily the menace of a foreign invasion or the scourge of a foreign occupation without using whatever material means of resistance are available. It is also a question whether any nation in the world is capable of this kind of resistance long-enduring and wholesale or is sufficiently developed ethically and spiritually to satisfy the conditions which would make it successful, especially against an organised and ruthless military oppression such as the Nazi rule; at any rate it is permissible not to wish to risk the adventure so long as there is another choice. War is physically an evil, a calamity; morally it has been like most human institutions a mixture, in most but not all cases a mixture of some good and much evil: but it is sometimes necessary to face it rather than invite or undergo a worse evil, a greater calamity. One can hold that, so long as life and mankind are what they are, there can be such a thing as a righteous war, — dharmya  

 

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yuddha. No doubt, in a spiritualised life of humanity or in a perfect civilisation there would be no room for war or violence, — it is clear that this is the highest ideal state. But mankind is psychologically and materially still far from this ideal state. To bring it to that state needs either an immediate spiritual change of which there is no present evidence or a change of mentality and habits which the victory of the totalitarian idea and its system would render impossible; for it would impose quite the opposite mentality, the mentality and habits on one side of a dominant brute force and violence and on the other a servile and prostrate non-resistance.

1940

 

India and the War

 

[1]

 

Calcutta is now in the danger zone. But the Mother does not wish that anyone should leave his post because of the danger. Those who are very eager to remove their children can do so, but no one should be under the illusion that there is any safe place anywhere.

6 April 1942

 

[2]

 

It appears that there are some who think of Pondicherry as a safe place and this is one of their reasons for remaining. This may turn out to be a serious error. Pondicherry can be a safe place only if the Japanese think it not worth their attention because it has no military objectives and no importance as a port or an industrial centre. Even then bombs might fall by accident or mistake, as the town is well in the war-area. But there are local circumstances which might lead them to think it a place of capital importance from the military point of view and in that case it would be exposed to all the dangers and horrors of modern warfare, a place under military occupation and a field of battle. Those who elect to remain here, must dismiss all idea of an assured personal security. Either they should be  

 

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463 those who prefer to die here rather than live elsewhere or, at the least, they must be prepared to face any eventuality, any risk, discomfort or suffering. These are not times when there can be a guarantee of safety or ease. It is a time of great ordeals, an hour for calm, patience and the highest courage. Reliance on the Divine Will should be there, but not the lower vital's bargain for a guaranteed or comfortably guarded existence.

 

On the War: Private Letters That Were Made Public

 

[1]

 

You have said that you have begun to doubt whether it was the Mother's war and ask me to make you feel again that it is. I affirm again to you most strongly that this is the Mother's war. You should not think of it as a fight for certain nations against others or even for India; it is a struggle for an ideal that has to establish itself on earth in the life of humanity, for a Truth that has yet to realise itself fully and against a darkness and falsehood that are trying to overwhelm the earth and mankind in the immediate future. It is the forces behind the battle that have to be seen and not this or that superficial circumstance. It is no use concentrating on the defects or mistakes of nations; all have defects and commit serious mistakes; but what matters is on what side they have ranged themselves in the struggle. It is a struggle for the liberty of mankind to develop, for conditions in which men have freedom and room to think and act according to the light in them and grow in the Truth, grow in the Spirit. There cannot be the slightest doubt that if one side wins, there will be an end of all such freedom and hope of light and truth and the work that has to be done will be subjected to conditions which would make it humanly impossible; there will be a reign of falsehood and darkness, a cruel oppression and degradation for most of the human race such as people in this country do not dream of and cannot yet at all realise. If the other side that has declared itself for the free future of humanity triumphs, this terrible danger will have been averted and conditions will have  

 

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been created in which there will be a chance for the Ideal to grow, for the Divine Work to be done, for the spiritual Truth for which we stand to establish itself on the earth. Those who fight for this cause are fighting for the Divine and against the threatened reign of the Asura.

July 29th, 1942.

Sri Aurobindo

 

[2]

 

What we say is not that the Allies have not done wrong things, but that they stand on the side of the evolutionary forces.5 I have not said that at random, but on what to me are clear grounds of fact. What you speak of is the dark side. All nations and governments have been that in their dealings with each other, — at least all who had the strength and got the chance. I hope you are not expecting me to believe that there are or have been virtuous governments and unselfish and sinless peoples? But there is the other side also. You are condemning the Allies on grounds that people in the past would have stared at, on the basis of modern ideals of international conduct; looked at like that all have black records. But who created these ideals or did most to create them (liberty, democracy, equality, international justice and the rest)? Well, America, France, England — the present Allied nations. They have all been imperialistic and still bear the burden of their past, but they have also deliberately spread these ideals and spread too the institutions which try to embody them. Whatever the relative worth of these things — they have been a stage, even if a still imperfect stage of the forward evolution. (What about the others? Hitler, for example, says it is a crime to educate the coloured peoples, they must be kept as serfs and labourers.) England has helped certain nations to be

 

5 The paragraphs that follow were extracted from a letter that Sri Aurobindo wrote to a disciple in answer to questions raised by him. The complete letter is reproduced in Letters on Himself and the Ashram, volume 35 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. The extracted passages were revised by Sri Aurobindo and published in 1944 in The Advent, an Ashram-related journal, and in a booklet issued by the Ashram. — Ed.  

 

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free without seeking any personal gain; she has also conceded independence to Egypt and Eire after a struggle, to Iraq without a struggle. She has been moving away steadily, if slowly, from imperialism towards co-operation; the British Commonwealth of England and the Dominions is something unique and unprecedented, a beginning of new things in that direction: she is moving in idea towards a world-union of some kind in which aggression is to be made impossible; her new generation has no longer the old firm belief in mission and empire; she has offered India Dominion independence — or even sheer isolated independence, if she wants that, — after the war, with an agreed free constitution to be chosen by Indians themselves. . . . All that is what I call evolution in the right direction — however slow and imperfect and hesitating it may still be. As for America she has forsworn her past imperialistic policies in regard to Central and South America, she has conceded independence to Cuba and the Philippines. . . . Is there a similar trend on the side of the Axis? One has to look at things on all sides, to see them steadily and whole. Once again, it is the forces working behind that I have to look at, I don't want to go blind among surface details. The future has to be safeguarded; only then can present troubles and contradictions have a chance to be solved and eliminated. . . .

 

***

 

For us the question does not arise. We made it plain in a letter which has been made public that we did not consider the war as a fight between nations and governments (still less between good people and bad people) but between two forces, the Divine and the Asuric. What we have to see is on which side men and nations put themselves; if they put themselves on the right side, they at once make themselves instruments of the Divine purpose in spite of all defects, errors, wrong movements and actions which are common to human nature and all human collectivities. The victory of one side (the Allies) would keep the path open for the evolutionary forces: the victory of the other side would drag back humanity, degrade it horribly  

 

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and might lead even, at the worst, to its eventual failure as a race, as others in the past evolution failed and perished. That is the whole question and all other considerations are either irrelevant or of a minor importance. The Allies at least have stood for human values, though they may often act against their own best ideals (human beings always do that); Hitler stands for diabolical values or for human values exaggerated in the wrong way until they become diabolical (e.g. the virtues of the Herrenvolk, the master race). That does not make the English or Americans nations of spotless angels nor the Germans a wicked and sinful race, but as an indicator it has a primary importance. . . .

 

***

 

The Kurukshetra example is not to be taken as an exact parallel but rather as a traditional instance of the war between two world-forces in which the side favoured by the Divine triumphed, because the leaders made themselves His instruments.6 It is not to be envisaged as a battle between virtue and wickedness, the good and the evil men. After all, were even the Pandavas virtuous without defect, quite unselfish and without passions? . . .

Were not the Pandavas fighting to establish their own claims and interests — just and right, no doubt, but still personal claims and self-interest? Theirs was a righteous battle, dharmyayuddha, but it was for right and justice in their own case. And if imperialism, empire-building by armed force, is under all circumstances a wickedness, then the Pandavas are tainted with that brush, for they used their victory to establish their empire, continued after them by Parikshit and Janamejaya. Could not modern humanism and pacifism make it a reproach against the Pandavas that these virtuous men (including Krishna) brought about a huge slaughter that they might become supreme rulers over all the numerous free and independent peoples of India?

 

6 Sri Aurobindo's correspondent had objected to a paragraph in an essay written by Nolini Kanta Gupta and published by the Ashram, in which Nolini compared the Allies to the Pandavas and the Axis powers to the Kauravas. — Ed.  

 

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That would be the result of weighing old happenings in the scales of modern ideals. As a matter of fact such an empire was a step in the right direction then, just as a world-union of free peoples would be a step in the right direction now, — in both cases the right consequences of a terrific slaughter. . . .

We should remember that conquest and rule over subject peoples were not regarded as wrong either in ancient or mediaeval or quite recent times, but as something great and glorious; men did not see any special wickedness in conquerors or conquering nations. Just government of subject peoples was envisaged but nothing more — exploitation was not excluded. The modern ideas on the subject, the right of all to liberty, both individuals and nations, the immorality of conquest and empire, or such compromises as the British idea of training subject races for democratic freedom, are new values, an evolutionary movement; this is a new Dharma which has only begun slowly and initially to influence practice, — an infant Dharma which would have been throttled for good if Hitler succeeded in his "Avataric" mission and established his new "religion" over all the earth. Subject nations naturally accept the new Dharma and severely criticise the old imperialisms; it is to be hoped that they will practise what they now preach when they themselves become strong and rich and powerful. But the best will be if a new world-order evolves, even if at first stumblingly or incompletely, which will make the old things impossible — a difficult task, but not absolutely impossible.

The Divine takes men as they are and uses men as His instruments even if they are not flawless in virtue, angelic, holy and pure. If they are of good will, if, to use the Biblical phrase, they are on the Lord's side, that is enough for the work to be done. Even if I knew that the Allies would misuse their victory or bungle the peace or partially at least spoil the opportunities opened to the human world by that victory, I would still put my force behind them. At any rate things could not be one-hundredth part as bad as they would be under Hitler. The ways of the Lord would still be open — to keep them open is what matters. Let us stick to the real, the central fact, the need to remove  

 

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the peril of black servitude and revived barbarism threatening India and the world, and leave for a later time all side-issues and minor issues or hypothetical problems that would cloud the one all-important tragic issue before us.

Sri Aurobindo

3. 9. 1943  

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