Coming Home

My family’s connection to Sri Aurobindo goes back more than a century. My great-great-grandfather, Upendra Nath Banerjee, was a revolutionary in the group that Sri Aurobindo led. He was one of the principal members, along with Sri Aurobindo’s younger brother, Barindra Kumar Ghosh.

Upendra was arrested at the Maniktala garden house, along with the entire group of revolutionaries, including Sri Aurobindo. They all were put on trial for ‘Waging war against the Emperor’. This was the famous Alipore bomb trial. But unlike Sri Aurobindo, Upendra was convicted and deported for life to the Cellular Jail in Port Blair in the Andaman Islands.

After 10 years, there was a general amnesty and he was released. Once again he became active in political work and became a journalist. He also visited Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry. That was the time of the evening talks, as recorded by Purani, and he attended some sessions. But soon he was re-arrested. After his release he joined C.R. Das’s Swarajya Party, later took charge as editor of a leading Bengali daily Dainik Basumati and was also a prolific columnist and also authored books. His most famous book is Nirbasiter Atmakatha (Autobiography of an Exile, 1921) – a classic in Bengali literature – which like Sri Aurobindo’s Tales of Prison Life contains a vivid picture of the life lived by the revolutionaries in the Cellular Jail in Port Blair. Rabindranath Tagore, had high praises for the book and made it mandatory reading in his Visvabharati at Santiniketan.

Upendra was the mentor of Nolini-da during the revolutionary period. When I was just a little over two years old, Nolini insisted that I be sent to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram for my education. That was in 1979. I joined the Centre of Education a year after. So I never had the benefit of meeting The Mother personally; but growing up in the Ashram I lived and interacted with those who had been very close to Her, in particular Nolini-da, Jugal Kishore Mukherjee, my teacher in Knowledge, and of course, Pranab, who really nurtured my life. It was Pranab who gave me insights into the life and ways of The Mother, it is from him that I imbibed my urge to work for a larger cause in life. I didn’t meet Kireetbhai at the time, as he had already left the Ashram to become Special Secretary of the Ministry of Education.

So I grew up during the phase of disturbances between the Sri Aurobindo Society and the Aurovilians but I was too young to register all that. Only later did we become conscious of what had happened. Pranab, though very close, did not influence my thoughts about Auroville. He believed that Auroville had been a mistake of The Mother, and throughout his life kept a strong stand against Auroville. But though he was an imposing figure, he never imposed his views on those around him. He was a formidable leader in his own right and his doors were always open to Aurovilians who wished to meet him in their individual capacity.

Joining politics

Right from the beginning, it was clear to me that if I would not take up the Ashram life, I had to do something different. For me, that was doing some national service, being in public life, working for India. That ideal, which I had imbibed from being in the Ashram, was actively supported by my mentors. Added to that was, of course, the sense of dedication, of selflessness, of sacrifice as explained by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, and at the same time the tenacity to hold on and dedicate yourself to what you have chosen to be your part in life. Those were the points that Jugal-da stressed over and again, and all this contributed to my larger understanding of what The Mother wanted. Pranab always encouraged my eagerness to be in public life, he supported my intellectual quest and to work for the country.

I have sometimes been criticised for ‘going into politics’, as The Mother so often said that the Ashramites should not be involved in politics. But I believe that injunction holds for those who have decided to take up the Ashram life. Mother herself was always very concerned about India and about the need to have contacts with political personalities of that period. She invited Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, for example, to preside over the Sri Aurobindo Memorial Convention in 1950 and maintained contacts on the political level with people such as Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Ms. Indira Gandhi. Also Sri Aurobindo had devotees who were involved with politics, such as Surendra Mohan Ghosh, who he said was ‘his man in Delhi’ and to whom he gave, exceptionally, private darshans and political and yogic advice. And there were others, like K.M. Munshi was deeply influenced by Sri Aurobindo from his days in Baroda and had his darshan of the Sage as late as July 1950.

I look at it this way. I was not suitable for the Indian Administrative Service. I chose to go into politics as a means to do that service which I always wanted to do, which is to help India regain her rightful place in the comity of nations on which Sri Aurobindo himself has so extensively written.

I aspire to be an instrument for that purpose.

Now, when one is in political life, one has to choose a platform from which to act. For me, that platform is the BJP, for I feel it to be the political formation which in terms of political articulation and understanding has a deeper understanding of Sri Aurobindo than any other. There may be individuals in other parties who are also deeply knowledgeable about Sri Aurobindo; but as a collective, this is the platform with which I feel most affinity and comfort, where I can carry out my functioning in consonance with the deeper ideals I have imbibed from the Ashram.

I am convinced that Shri Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, is definitely working towards manifesting Sri Aurobindo’s views on India. He not only wants to see India positioning herself in the comity of nations as a great and self-reliant power, but is also concerned about India’s spiritual mission and her deeper cultural and civilisational identity and dimension. Sri Aurobindo, in his last public message to the Andhra University, (December 1948) wrote about India becoming a powerful nation but at the danger of forfeiting its Swadharma, losing its soul. This, I believe, is what the Prime Minister is trying to prevent: he is searching to manifest a deeper coalition, a deeper harmonisation of these two dimensions – outer prosperity and preservation of Swadharma. His twitter message on the occasion of August 15th, India’s Independence Day and the birthday of Sri Aurobindo, shows this twofold mission: “I pay my tributes to Sri Aurobindo on his Jayanti. His rich thoughts and grand vision for India continue to be a great source of inspiration.”

The Mother spoke about the need for people ‘to go beyond politics’. Over the last decades, we haven’t seen that. The politics of division have intensified and the fault lines between divided communities have widened. But I think that we are now seeing the emergence of the politics of aspiration, where there is no longer a differentiation on the basis of religion, caste or creed, a new India which has resolved to fight against divisive tendencies, against social challenges and generate a new narrative. As director of the Syama Mookerjee Foundation, which is often referred to as ‘the think tank of the BJP’, I work with the party on a large number of issues but it is precisely in these areas where I strive to develop the party and India further.

Talking about Auroville

I have heard complaints in Auroville about the lack of sufficient support from the Government of India. On the one hand, I consider it a blessing, though on the other I agree that it delays Auroville’s development.

I am reminded of a speech Dr. Mookerjee gave in parliament when debating the Visva Bharati University bill. Mookerjee said that institutions like Tagore’s Visva Bharati University and the Sri Aurobindo Ashram (Auroville did not exist at that time) should be given a great degree of autonomy and that the Indian government should only facilitate the experiment. His words were not heeded, and the government take-over of Tagore’s university initially caused a lot of distress: it went totally under the control of the government, and gradually its soul and the original vision were subdued.

But there is a change today. The present government has given Indian institutions of higher learning more autonomy than they ever had before. I think it is a very wise move, because these institutions have unique characteristics that have evolved over time following the inspiration of their specific philosophies.

So for Auroville, it is good that the Government keeps its distance and allows Auroville the freedom to grow organically; but there definitely should be more support. The government should recognize that Auroville is a unique experiment, conceived by some of the greatest minds of our era to happen on the soil of India. This soil was thought fit for such an experiment and consequently, there should be an attempt to recognize Auroville as an Institution of National Importance so that it can be given some kind of special protection. We should also actively try to find solutions to some of the long pending problems of Auroville, in terms of land, visas, green belt, town planning etc. But all this will take time; we cannot expect the entire government machinery to immediately appreciate the importance of Auroville. There are people of goodwill in all stations and I am sure incremental progress will be made.

I am grateful to have been appointed member of the Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation, which allows me once again to be in close contact with Auroville and help manifest its ideals. I visited Auroville when I was in the Ashram kindergarten, and I often visited Auroville in my student days. Then, for a long time, I could not come; until two months ago, when I accompanied Mr. Amit Shah, national president of the BJP, on his visit to the Matrimandir.

This time, it was a longer visit.

It felt like coming home.