On Sri Aurobindo S First Dream
On Sri Aurobindo’s first “dream”:
“A revolutionary movement which would create
a free and united India.”
Draft
Compiled by Gilles Guigan
December 2013 version
Summary
In his message for India’s independence, on 15th August 1947, Sri Aurobindo wrote:
On this day I can watch almost all the world-movements which I hoped to see fulfilled in my lifetime, though then they looked like impracticable dreams, arriving at fruition or on their way to achievement…
The first of these dreams was a revolutionary movement which would create a free and united India.
This compilation focuses on the advance knowledge Sri Aurobindo and the Mother had of India’s freedom and of its future unity. As their views and actions on the matter are very well documented in their own books and in those of their disciples, they are not exposed here.
For most Indians, the main heroes of the freedom struggle were M.K. Gandhi and S.C. Bose. Only a few know that Sri Aurobindo was the first Indian politician to demand full independence for India and that a century ago he was considered by the highest British authorities in India as “the most dangerous man in India” because of his writings. Hence, this compilation starts by showing how different were the perceptions, and thus actions, of these two men compared to Sri Aurobindo’s.
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1)On the advance knowledge Sri Aurobindo and the Mother had of India’s freedom:
1908: Sri Aurobindo is told by Lele (the only yogi from whom he received some help) that “there is no chance of [India’s becoming free] by fighting.”[1]
Indeed, it is not by taking arms against the British that India obtained its freedom.
1910:Sri Aurobindo authorises“the publication of his prediction that after a long period of wars, world-wide upheavals and revolutions beginning after four years, India would achieve her freedom.”[2]
Sri Aurobindo foresaw correctly the future as, during the following 37 years (from 1910 to 1947), two World Wars were fought; the first one did start 4 years after this statement. The Russian revolution took place during WW I and that of China during WW II…
1915 or 1920:[3]After one of her daily meditations with Sri Aurobindo, Mother tells him “India is free”. To his question “How?” she answers: “Without any fight, without a battle, without a revolution. The English themselves will leave, for the condition of the world will be such that they won’t be able to do anything else except go away.”[4]
1918, December:Sri Aurobindo is able to give A. B. Purani “the assurance that India will be free.” “The decree has already gone forth – it may not be long in coming.”[5]
India did become free 27½ years later.
1927:A disciple asks how is India likely to get freedom and Mother answers: “Listen! The British did not conquer India. You yourselves handed over the country to the British. In the same manner the British will themselves hand over the country to you. And they will do it in a hurry as if a ship were waiting to take them away.” The disciple then asks when this would happen andshe replies “When a Japanese warship will come to the Indian Ocean, India will get freedom.”[6]
After WW II, the situation became so bad in India and in the world that the British were at a loss as to how to leave India in a better way than by applying the plan ‘Operation Madhouse’ which consisted in withdrawing, in an as-orderly-as-possible manner, and letting Indians kill each other. Their last hope was that Lord Mountbatten, which their government had appointed as the last Viceroy, would find an honourable way out.
Mother foresaw rightly that the British would leave“in a hurry as if a ship were waiting to take them away” because, though, on 20th February 1947, the British Government had announced its “intention of transferring power into Indian hands by a date not later than June 1948”, on 2nd June 1947, at the end of the press conference at which he announced India’s partition, Lord Mountbatten, felt the need to precipitate things dramatically and thus announced that the transfer of power would take place on 15th of August – barely two and half months later.
At the end of March 1942, India was indeed offered freedom (in the form of the ‘Dominion’ status which Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the Union of South Africa were enjoying) – this exactly at the time when – not one Japanese warship – but a large fleet of Japanese warships was spotted passing through the ‘straits’ and thus entering the Indian Ocean:
- March, 26th: a very powerful Japanese force, commanded by Admiral Nagumo (who had conducted the raid against Pearl Harbor) left the Celebes Islands (now part of Indonesia); it probably entered the Indian Oceanon 29th. This force consisted of: 6 aircraft carriers, 4 battleships, 7 cruisers, 19 destroyers, 5 submarines, several tankers and 350 planes.[7]
- March, 11th Churchill offered to create a new Indian Union with a Dominion Constitution to be framed by India’s own representatives after the War. In the meantime Indian leaders were invited to join a responsible Central Government and help in the war effort. On 22nd March, Sir Stafford Cripps landed in Delhi and, on 30th he broadcast the proposal of the British Government. On March 31st, Sri Aurobindo wrote to Cripps a letter in support of the proposal; he then sent messages through Mr. Shiva Rao to Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru that Cripps’ offer should be accepted unconditionally; lastly, he sent his envoy, Duraiswamy Iyer to Delhi to appeal to the Congress leaders for its acceptance, for sanity and wisdom to prevail. The Congress rejected the proposal. On April12th, Cripps acknowledged that his mission had failed and flew back to London.
1942,April, early:Mother learns about the rejection of Cripps’ proposal and says: “Now calamity will befall India.”[8]
It will turn out to be all the calamities which came along with the Partition.
1946, April23rd:[9] Sri Aurobindo issues a statement in the third person in which he says:
Lately he has said that freedom was coming soon and nothing could prevent it. He has always foreseen that eventually Britain would approach India for an amicable agreement, conceding her freedom. What he had foreseen is now coming to pass and the British Cabinet Mission is the sign. It remains for the nation’s leaders to make a right and full use of the opportunity. In any case, whatever the immediate outcome, the Power that has been working out this event will not be denied, the final result, India’s liberation, is sure.
1947, June2nd:India’s Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, holdsa press conference, which is broadcast, in which he proposes the partition Indiainto two states. At the very end of the conference, he is asked when the final transfer of power would take place and, after a short reflection, he answers impromptu and to everybody’s astonishment: 15th August 1947.
Why did Lord Mountbatten opt for this particular date:
- Exactly 4 years earlier, on 15.8.43, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt had met to discuss how to carry on with the War and appointed Lord Mountbatten as Supreme Allied Commander for the South East Asia Command. (At that time, the only other Supreme Allied Commander was Dwight Eisenhower – for the European Front.)
- Exactly 2 years earlier, on 15.8.45, Japan’s emperor spoke for the first time of his life on Japan’s radio to announce the capitulation of his country after two nuclear bombs had exploded over two of its cities. The Japanese forces then surrendered en masse to Lord Mountbatten’s forces in South East Asia which they were still occupying.
15th of August was a date which brought satisfaction and pride to Lord Mountbatten.
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2)On three of the main heroes of the struggle for India’s independence
In every country which has to deal with a conflict, there are ‘doves’ and ‘hawks’ and a whole range of attitudes in between. Though their very deep sincerity, courage,love, and self-sacrifice for their country can only be admired, it must be said that Gandhi-ji was a misguided ‘dove’ and Subhas Chandra Bose a misguided ‘hawk’. As Sri Aurobindo had a far deeper perception of things, his perception, and hence his actions, differeda lot from theirs.
Example of the deep divergence of attitudes between Sri Aurobindo and Gandhi-ji:
Excerpt from an article Sri Aurobindo wrote (at the third person) on his “Political Life”:
At the beginning of [WW II, Sri Aurobindo] did not actively concern himself with it, but when it appeared as if Hitler would crush all the forces opposed to him and Nazism dominate the world, he began to intervene. He declared himself publicly on the side of the Allies, made some financial contributions in answer to the appeal for funds and encouraged those who sought his advice to enter the army or share in the war effort. Inwardly, he put his spiritual force behind the Allies from the moment of Dunkirk [in June 1940] when everybody was expecting the immediate fall of England and the definite triumph of Hitler, and he had the satisfaction of seeing the rush of German victory almost immediately arrested and the tide of war begin to turn in the opposite direction. This he did, because he saw that behind Hitler and Nazism were dark Asuric forces and that their success would mean the enslavement of mankind to the tyranny of evil, and a set-back lo the course of evolution and especially to the spiritual evolution of mankind: it would lead also to the enslavement not only of Europe but of Asia, and in it India, an enslavement far more terrible than any this country had ever endured, and the undoing of all the work that had been done for her liberation. It was this reason also that induced him to support publicly the Cripps’ offer and to press the Congress leaders to accept it.
On 8th January 1939, that is one and half year before ‘Dunkirk’, Sri Aurobindo said this during a conversation with some disciples:
I am afraid, [using non-violence to melt Hitler’s heart] would require quite a furnace! Gandhi has mainly to deal with Englishmen and the English want to have their conscience at ease. Besides, the Englishman wants to satisfy his self-esteem and wants world-esteem. But if Gandhi had to deal with the Russian Nihilists – not the Bolsheviks – or the German Nazis then they would have long ago put him out of their way.
Hitler would not have been where he is if he had a soft heart…
Men like Hitler can’t change, they have to be bumped out of existence. There is no chance of their changing in this life. He can’t get rid of his cruelty – it is in his blood.
On 17thJune 1940, after ‘Dunkirk’ the French signed an armistice with Hitler’s Germany and Britain stood alone against its might. It looked like it wouldn’t be able to resist for long. On 4th July 1940, Gandhi-ji wrote this in a letter to Britain’s Prime Minister, Winston Churchill:
I appeal for cessation of hostilities because war is bad in essence. You want to kill Nazism. Your soldiers are doing the same work of destruction as the Germans. The only difference is that perhaps you are not as thorough as the Germans. I venture to present you with a nobler and a braver way worthy of the bravest soldiers. I want you to fight Nazism without arms or with non-violent arms. I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. Invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions. Let them take possession of your beautiful island with your many beautiful buildings. You will give these but not your souls not your minds.
Example of the deep divergence of attitudes between Sri Aurobindo and Subhas Chandra Bose:
Excerpt from an article written by Sri Aurobindo (at the third person) on his “Political Life”:
He had not, for various reasons, intervened with his spiritual force against the Japanese aggression until it became evident that Japan intended to attack and even invade and conquer India. He allowed certain letters he had written in support of the war affirming his views of the Asuric nature and inevitable outcome of Hitlerism to become public. He supported the Cripps’ offer because by its acceptance India and Britain could stand united against the Asuric forces and the solution of Cripps could be used as a step towards independence. When negotiations failed, Sri Aurobindo returned to his reliance on the use of spiritual force alone against the aggressor and had the satisfaction of seeing the tide of Japanese victory, which had till then swept everything before it, change immediately into a tide of rapid, crushing and finally immense and overwhelming defeat. He had also after a time the satisfaction of seeing his previsions about the future of India justify themselves so that she stands independent with whatever internal difficulties.
Excerpt from a letter Sri Aurobindo wrote to a disciple who intended to write a book eulogising Subhas Chandra Bose, who sought and obtained Japan’s help in creating his Indian National Army:
You will remember that both the Mother and I were very angry against Subhas [Bose] for having brought the Japanese into India and reproached him with it as a treason and crime against the Motherland. For if they had got in, it would have been almost impossible to get them out. The Mother knows the Japanese nation well and was positive about that. [Dr. Shumei] Okawa[10], the leader of the Black Dragon (the one who shammed mad and got off at the Tokyo trial[11]) told her that if India revolted against the British, Japan would send her Navy to help, but he said that he would not like the Japanese to land because if they once got hold of Indian soil they would never leave it, and it was true enough. If the Japanese had overrun India, and they would have done it if a powerful Divine intervention had not prevented it and turned the tables on them, they would have joined the Germans in Mesopotamia and the Caucasus and nothing could have saved Europe and Asia from being overrun. This would have meant the destruction of our work and a horrible fate for this country and for the world. You can understand therefore the bitterness of our feelings at that time against Subhas and his association with the Axis and the disaster to his country for which he would have been responsible. Incidentally, instead of being liberated in 1948, India would have had to spend a century or several centuries in a renewed servitude. When therefore the Mother heard that you were writing a book eulogising Subhas, she disapproved strongly of any such thing issuing out of the Ashram and she wanted that you should be asked not to publish it...
India became free on Sri Aurobindo’s birthday, August 15th – not “afortuitous accident”
In his message for India’s independence, Sri Aurobindo wrote:
August 15this my own birthday and it is naturally gratifying to me that it should have assumed this vast significance. I take this coincidence, not as a fortuitous accident, but as the sanction and seal of the Divine Force that guides my steps on the work with which I began life, the beginning of its full fruition.
August 15th marked also the de facto end of WW II because it is on that day that Japan’s Emperor spoke for the first time on his country’s radio – to announce Japan’s capitulation – andon that day that Clement Atlee announced on the BBC its acceptation by the Allies.[12] Considering the (occult) work Sri Aurobindo did for the Allies’ victory, it seems obvious that the fact that WW II ended also on his birthday, August 15th, wasn’t “a fortuitous accident” either. Sri Aurobindo’s disciples consider that, from his room in Pondicherry, he played a key role in these two major world events.
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3)Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s words on India’sreunification:
1947,June 3rd:[13] after hearing the Viceroy’s broadcast announcing India’s partition, Mother issues this statement:
A proposal has been made for the solution of our difficulties in organising Indian independence and it is being accepted with whatever bitterness of regret and searchings of the heart by Indian leaders.
But do you know why this proposal has been made to us? It is to prove to us the absurdity of our quarrels.
And do you know why we have to accept these proposals? It is to prove to ourselves the absurdity of our quarrels.
Clearly, this is not a solution; it is a test, an ordeal which, if we live it out in all sincerity, will prove to us that it is not by cutting a country into small bits that we shall bring about its unity and its greatness; it is not by opposing interests against each other that we can win for it prosperity; it is not by setting one dogma against another that we can serve the spirit of Truth. In spite of all, India has a single soul and while we have to wait till we can speak of an India one and indivisible, our cry must be: