1When the author wrote this book in 1939, Life Divine in its complete form was not published.—Trans.
2Dilip Kumar Roy had the audience of Sri Aurobindo before he settled down permanently in Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. Dilip Kumar Roy was the son of the great author, patriot and composer D.L Roy. Dilip was a Tripos in Mathematics from University of Cambridge where Subhas Chandra Bose (Netaji) was his friend. He was received by Sri Aurobindo and had personal audience with the Master.—Trans.
3A Maharashtrian Yogi. Sri Aurobindo came in contact with him in Baroda. Sri Aurobindo never had formal initiation from Lele Maharaj, he only took some basic lessons on yoga from Lele Maharaj.
4When the author penned this work, Sri Aurobindo had been living in Pondicherry for 30 years.—Trans.
5Available as Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, Centenary Edition, Vol. 15.—Trans.
6World War II broke out while the author was writing this book.—Trans.
7This letter had been collected by the eminent journalist Shri Amal Home and was published in the illustrated English weekly, The Orient.
8Sri Aurobindo was then a student at Cambridge University.
9According to Hindu mythology, Bhagirath is the one who invoked the holy River Ganga to come down from Heaven and flow into the lives of the human on earth.—Trans.
10My Reminiscences, Rabrindranath Tagore, “Patriotism”, Macmillan & Co. Ltd. London 1971, pp. 147–149.—Trans.
11Collected Poems, Complete Works, Centenary Edition, 1972, Vol. 5, p. 123.
12A translated line of a famous Bengali poetry Meghnad Vadh Kavya by Michael Madhusudan Dutta. —Trans.
13An Englishman, he was a leader of the Indian National Congress and he had a very close connection with Rajnarayan Bose, the maternal grandfather of Sri Aurobindo; later on, he became the President of the Bengal Legislative Council. —Trans.
14He breathed his last on 6 February 1939. The State of Baroda was merged with the Indian Union on 1 May 1949.
15This is the translator’s attempt to render this poem in English. Originally written in Bengali by Suresh Chandra Chakraborty in Sri Aurobindo Jeevan Gatha, 1951.
16A large and beautiful house where Sri Aurobindo lived is today a Centre for Studies on Sri Aurobindo, which has also a gallery of photographs of that era, a mediation hall and a library. This house has a sprawling compound where the spotless samadhi shrine is also maintained.—Trans.
17Vice Chancellor Mr. Reddy commented, “Mr. Clarke was a perfect materialist. I cannot understand how that practical but wonderful man guessed the glimpses of Truth which till then had not manifested in Sri Aurobindo.”
18He was in Baroda for a certain period of time helping Sri Aurobindo learn Bengali.
19Sri Aurobindo was from his early age was much above the one sided view of the world. He was not only familiar with the Indian yoga system but also familiar with the Islamic spiritual system, as we discover in his book The Riddle of this World. Of course, there is no doubt about his deep knowledge on Christian spirituality.
20A famous line from the Bengali poem Meghnad Vadh Kavya by Michael Madhusudan Dutta.—Trans.
21Sri Aurobindo and His Ashram, published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1948.
22In 1921, Subhash Chandra Bose passed with distinction the I. C. S examination but he did not accept the job after announcing openly his decision in this regard. Sri Aurobindo did not abandon the royal service by making a similar public declaration for two reasons: Firstly, in those days it would have been grossly imprudent for anyone to stand alone in an open manner like Subhas Chandra Bose. Secondly, Sri Aurobindo was reluctant to propagate anything pertaining to himself. Besides, had he given a public declaration as to the real reason of his abandonment, it would have surely been unacceptable to his relatives.
23William Ewart Gladstone was a British Liberal politician. He was prime minister of the United Kingdom four times.—Trans.
24One of the poems written by Sri Aurobindo during his adolescence is in the praise of Parnell. (Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish nationalist political leader and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party. He was one of the most important figures of 19th century Great Britain and Ireland, and was described by Prime Minister William Gladstone as the most remarkable person he had ever met.) Poems on Charles Parnell, in The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, Centenary Edition, vol. 3, p. 15.
25“Locksley Hall” is a poem written by Alfred Tennyson. Though one of his masterworks, it is less well-known than his other literature. It narrates the emotions of a weary soldier come to his childhood home, the fictional Locksley Hall.
26These writings were for long unknown to the public. They were recovered just after the publication of the First edition of this book Jiban O Jog. That is why; there is no mention of these writings in its First edition.—Trans.
27Sri Aurobindo married Mrinalini Basu in 1901.
28Bengali Writings, Letters to Mrinalini: Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, Centenary edition, Vol. 4, pp. 353.
29In 1918, when Sri Aurobindo was in Pondicherry, Mrinalini Devi breathed her last at the residence of Mr. Girish Chandra Bose, a well-known name of his time, the founder of the Bangabasi College, Calcutta.
30It is surprising that during World War II a few countries forcibly occupied by the enemies showed especially, the utility of guerrilla warfare. In our country, Jatindranath Mukhopadhyay (Bagha Jatin), the valiant, and a small group of youth displayed extraordinary skill in guerrilla warfare on the sea-shore of Orissa in 1915.
31Suresh Biswas born in 1861 in Nadia, Bengal migrated to Brazil (probably one of the first Indians to do so), and fought valiantly in the Brazilian army (late 19th century). He was made a Lieutenant in the army (and a Colonel too, later). He showed remarkable courage during the upsurge of rebellion. [Ref: Wikipedia] Colonel Biswas however settled down in Brazil as he was enchanted by the natural beauty of the country. He died there in 1905.—Trans.
32Swamiji left the mortal coil in 1902, three years before the commencement of the National movement.
33During the Swadeshi era, Nevinson, the renowned English journalist, once came on a tour to India. He has drawn a nice picture of the then India in one of his books. There he has made special mention of Sri Aurobindo and Lokmanya Tilak. That he got the touch of Sri Aurobindo’s spirit is all too evident from what he has written. The magnanimity and the generosity of Lokmanya have also been depicted admirably by him.
34A few years back, the author visited the publication office of the magazine Keshari, a place of pilgrimage hallowed by sacred memories of Tilak, in Pune. There he met Mr Ketkar, the grand-son of Tilak. Mr Ketkar presented to the author a few booklets containing tributes to Tilak published after the demise of Lokmanya. Mr Ketkar remarked that amongst the articles published on Tilak, the article written by Sri Aurobindo was by far the best. The author, however, had made no mention of Sri Aurobindo.
35On the occasion of the partition of Bengal, the noncooperation movement did not take its full form. In 1920, under the leadership of Gandhiji, the Congress adopted the policy of non-cooperation. Three years before this, the moderates had deserted the Congress. In 1907, during the Surat Congress, there was a fierce conflict between the moderates and the Nationalist Party. However, due to the absence of Sri Aurobindo, the Nationalist Party practically broke up. But within 10 years, the situation took such a turn that the moderates had to dissociate themselves from the Congress Party. What Sri Aurobindo had wanted, happened in due course.
36Desher Katha was written by Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar (1869-1912). Deuskar was a close associate of Sri Aurobindo. This book was banned during Swadeshi Movement.—Trans.
37Sri Aurobindo personally started using as far as possible swadeshi (country-made articles) immediately after his return from England. Undoubtedly, very few people of the country had then heard of khadi but even at that time Dinendra Kumar saw Sri Aurobindo wearing coarse khadi made from Ahmedabad mill.
38Even in the later phase of the national struggle, Bipin Chandra had serious differences of opinion with his friend Chittaranjan Das, or for that matter, with the Congress Party. In 1921, at the Barisal Convention of the Bengal Provincial Conference, Bipin Chandra wanted to know the true nature of Swaraj. He was thoroughly against the non-cooperation movement and he used to say: “I want logic, not magic.”
39Kuvera: the God of wealth in Indian Mythology.—Trans.
40The author wrote this piece long before our Independence, in 1939.—Trans
41The efforts towards imparting national education were thwarted in two phases of the national movement and the institutions that were established for this purpose did not survive long. Only the technical school founded by the Bengal Education Council has been transformed into the present-day The College of Technology and Engineering in Jadavpur known today all over the country and bearing testimony of the achievement of the swadeshi era. Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee of the Calcutta University fulfilled partially the lack of national education through educational reforms.
42Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, Centenary Edition, Vol.1, pp. 515.—Trans.
43Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, Vol. 4, p. 261 (Bengali).— Trans.
44Sri Aurobindo and his brother Barin were associated with this movement, whose ideal and activities were aimed at total revolution. A book Aurobindo and Jugantar authored by Shri Arun Chandra Guha gives an account of this.— Trans.
45Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, Vol. 4, p. 263.—Trans.
46The complete speech of Chittaranjan is available in the book Life-Work of Sri Aurobindo written by Prof. Jyotish Chandra Ghosh. A résumé of the trial too is given there.
47Sri Aurobindo stood first in the ICS examination, while the Judge Beechcroft was placed second. (Also refer: Chapter 2)
48Even in those days certain individuals would not refrain from cutting jokes or making taunting remarks with regard to the vision of God in the prison. The English weekly Social Reformer edited by Natarajan ( now deceased ), the famous social reformer of Bombay and the Bengali edited by Surendra Nath used to publish from time to time sarcastic comments about it. The befitting repost that Sri Aurobindo would give in his columns in the Karmayogin and the Dharma was particularly interesting. In this context Sri Aurobindo mentioned that “Bipin Chandra Pal in the Buxar Prison and Sri Krishna Kumar Mitra in exile had the God-vision as they have expressed. Are these hallucinatory effect on both of them?” Bipin Chandra was imprisoned before the imprisonment of Sri Aurobindo.
49Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, Centenary Edition, Vol. 4, pp. 261-62 (Bengali).—Trans.
50Ibid., 264.—Trans.
51Ibid., 274.—Trans.
52Ibid., 275.—Trans.
53Ibid., 276.—Trans.
54Ibid., 326.—Trans.
55Ibid., 32.—Trans.
56Ibid., 278-79.—Trans.
57Ibid., 289.—Trans.
58Ibid., 290.—Trans.
59Ibid.—Trans.
60Ibid., 291.—Trans.
61Ibid.,—Trans.
62Ibid., 292.—Trans.
63Ibid., 292-93.—Trans.
64Ibid., 294-95.—Trans.
65Lokmanya Tilak was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for writing in his mouthpiece Keshari an article relating to the bomb blast in Muzaffarpur. He was kept in the prison of Mandalay, in Burma.
66Chidambaram Pillai was an eminent national leader from Madras. He was sentenced to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment in 1907 for propagating the need for boycott movement. In the prison he was maltreated like a contemptible criminal. He breathed his last in 1937.
67At that time in South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi was spearheading a peaceful resistance movement to acquire equal rights for the Indians living there.
68“Rabindranath, O Aurobindo, bows to thee!” written by Rabindranath Tagore in salutation to Sri Aurobindo.
69Dharma dated 20 December 1909 and included in the Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo (Bengali), Centenary Edition, Vol. 4. pp. 251-52.
70Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, Vol. 4, pp. 353 (Bengali).—Trans.
71Ibid., 351-52.—Trans.
72Ibid.—Trans.
73Ibid., 352.—Trans.
74Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, Vol. 4, pp. 352-53 (Bengali).—Trans.
75Dharma, Complete Works, Centenary edition, vol. 4, p. 82.—Trans.
76Sri Aurobindo openly supported the war efforts of England and America which was for the liberty from the diabolic powers which threatened to overpower the world. —Trans.
77On 6 May, 1949 while unveiling the statue of Sri Aurobindo at the Judges Court, Alipore (where he was tried for his role in the Alipore Bomb Case), Shri Upendra Nath Bandyopadhyay (a co-accused in the Alipore Bomb Case and was deported to Andaman) had openly said that Sri Aurobindo had told him this when Upendra Nath had visited him in 1920 after his release from Andaman.
78These two books are now included in the Complete Works Sri Aurobindo, Centenary Edition, (1972), Vol. 14, pp. 345-433.—Trans.
79Bengali Writings of Sri Aurobindo in Complete Works Centenary Edition vol. 4.—Trans.
80Those who tried to bring him back to politics among them, Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das was in the forefront. Before the 1922 Congress session in Gaya, Deshabandhu himself travelled to Pondicherry and requested Sri Aurobindo to join politics again. The reply Sri Aurobindo gave him has been mentioned in the book Anami by Dilip Kumar Roy.
81These writings were published as books, and are now available in the Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, Centenary Edition. Vol. 10-13 and Vol. 18-19.—Trans.
82This was published in 1936 edition of the Bengali journal Bharatvarsha and later got space in the book Edeshe O Deshe (Our Land, The Other Land).
83Sri Aurobindo and his Ashram, Ashram Publication, 1939.
84“Selected Letters of Charles Darwin”.—Trans.
85Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, Centenary Edition, Vol.5, p. 40 (the Bengali translation has been rendered by Dilip Kumar Roy in Anami). Also available in Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, Centenary Edition, Vol. 20-21.— Trans.
86The expression “Utilisable Crust” does not appear in Sri Aurobindo’s writings in this short form. The author might have taken this expression from the The Riddles of This World (1933): “And this is evidently because Science has missed something essential; it has seen and scrutinised what has happened and in a way how it has happened, but it has shut its eyes to something that made this impossible possible,... for you remain embedded in a huge surface crust of manageable and utilisable appearance.”—Trans.
87First published in the Arya in 1914 before the start of World War I. In 1939, before the beginning of World War II, the greatest gift to humanity, The Life Divine was published. Again in another juncture in 1948, it was published in the book The Synthesis of Yoga which is the steps towards realisation of Brahman.
88Mayavada is the philosophical doctrine of Shankaracharya.—Trans.
89“Who”, a poem by Sri Aurobindo, Complete Works, Centenary Edition, Vol-5, 40.—Trans.
90“The Vedantin’s Prayer” poem by Sri Aurobindo, ibid., 49.—Trans.
91Mr. Smythe (Frank Smythe), a British mountaineer, author, photographer and botanist.
92Lights on Yoga, Sri Aurobindo Complete Works, Centenary Edition, vol. 24.
93The Riddles of This World (1933) included in Letters on Yoga, Sri Aurobindo Complete Works, Centenary Edition, Vol. 22.
94Tapas may be interpreted as “asceticism”—worshiping God with severe self-discipline.—Trans.
95This word has been explained by Sri Aurobindo in The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, Centenary Edition, Vol. 18, p. 550 and Vol. 22, p. 9. “The Inconscience is an inverse reproduction of the supreme superconscience: it has the same absoluteness of being and automatic action, but in a vast involved trance; it is being lost in itself, plunged in its own abyss of infinity. Instead of a luminous absorption in self- existence there is a tenebrous involution in it, the darkness veiled within darkness of the Rig Veda...”— Trans.
96The Secret of the Veda, Sri Aurobindo Complete Works, Centenary Edition, vol. 10.
97Now available in a single volume in Sri Aurobindo Complete Works, Centenary Edition, vol. 13.—Trans.
98The Bengali magazine Dharma was a weekly magazine started by Sri Aurobindo. It is now included in Complete Works, Centenary Edition, vol. 4.—Trans.
99Dharma, Issue 23, included in Complete Works, Centenary Edition, vol. 4.—Trans.
100Essays on Gita, Sri Aurobindo Complete Works, Centenary Edition, vol. 13.—Trans.
101The Riddles of this World, “Letters on Yoga” in Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, Centenary Edition. Vol. 22, p. 24.—Trans.
102Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a saint of the fifteenth century and the initiator of Bhakti Movement.—Trans.
103Essays on the Gita, vol. 13.—Trans.
104It is a state in yoga-meditation when the yogi enters into a meditative state of immobile trance.—Trans.
105The Mother, Sri Aurobindo Complete Works, Centenary Edition, vol. 25, p. 26. The One whom we adore as the Mother is the divine Conscious-Force that dominates all existence, one and yet so many-sided that to follow her movement is impossible even for the quickest mind and for the most free and most vast intelligence.
106The scholars presume that before the expansion of the Aryan civilisation, each and every individual was of fourfold nature. Even in the present age, it is being perceived that in order to become a complete man, one has to be of four-fold nature. The racial discrimination and the caste system are gradually disappearing because of the pressure of circumstances. [This comment was provided by the author in the Bengali edition as a note.]
107Ibid., 54. Only when the Four have founded their harmony and freedom of movement in the transformed mind and life and body, can those other rarer Powers manifest in the earth movement and the Supramental action become possible.—Trans.
108Ibid., 39. In each man she answers and handles the different elements of his nature according to their need and their urge and the return they call for, puts on them the required pressure or leaves them to their cherished liberty to prosper in the ways of the Ignorance or to perish.—Trans.
109Ibid., 59. The Mother is dealing with ignorance in the fields of the Ignorance; she has descended there to handle it.—Trans.
110The Mother, Sri Aurobindo Complete Works, Centenary Edition, vol. 25, p. 35.—Trans.
111William Inge was an English author, Anglican priest, professor of divinity at Cambridge, and Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, which provided the appellation by which he was widely known, “Dean Inge.”—Trans.
112When the author wrote this book, Television was merely a promise.—Trans.
113It is strange that the daughter of Woodrow Wilson, self-motivated and spontaneously came far from America to live in Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, and died in Pondicherry. The author had the good fortune of a meeting with her.
114In fact that has exactly happened so. The main imperialist the British has left India and Burma. The British Empire is transformed to Commonwealth countries.
115The author had probably included these sentences in the second edition of the book. Although the revision date is 1949, it was printed in 1952 due to delay.—Trans.
116For this reason, even though India chanting the mantra of non-violence since 1920 had to observe helplessly the bloodshed in 1947.
117The ideal of the Russian Revolution 1917 was internationalism. Now it is explicitly Nationalism and as a result of that it is morphed to Imperialism. The Soviet Government at present is engaged in the publicity of Russian achievements, national uniqueness, and superiority- all full of ego. (This footnote was added by the author in the 1949 revision of the book.)
118According to Indian mythology, Saint Vishwamitra (creator of Gayatri Mantra) created a world for Trishanku, whom he sent with his mortal body to heaven but he could not be admitted for the jealousy of the cosmic gods.— Trans.
119According to Indian mythology, King Bhagirath invoked the descent of the holy River Ganga from the heaven above to the earth.—Trans.
120A quote from the Upanishads.—Trans.
121The heroine of Kalidasa’s Sanskrit play Abhigyanam Shakunatalam.—Trans.
122Rabindranath Tagore had written this piece onboard the liner Chantilly when he was on his trip to Europe on 29 May 1928; this was published in the Bengali magazine Probashi in the same year.—Trans.
123The author wrote this in the revised edition of the book in 1949.—Trans.
124A line from Indian National Anthem Jana Gana Mana composed by Rabindranath Tagore.—Trans.
125This a well-known line from a patriotic Bengali song of Dwijendra Lal Roy (D.L. Roy) titled “Mother India”. Dilip Kumar Roy, who has been mentioned at several places in this book, is his son.—Trans.
126Pondicherry was under French rule till 1956.—Trans.
127Dr. Nirodbaran : (i) Sri Aurobindo I am here, I am here (ii) Twelve Years with Sri Aurobindo In these two books Dr. Nirodbaran has given a heart-rending description of this time.—Trans.
128Published in Sri Aurobindo Circle, vol. 7, Bombay.—Trans.