At the Feet of the Master

Interval

In spite of the encomiums paid to Indian culture by Western savants and thinkers like Max Muller, Emerson, Annie Besant, Woodroffe, Havell and others, Indians had lost faith in their own religion, philosophy, poetry, music, painting, sculpture and other arts, sciences, and hoary institutions. They were blindly imitating Western manners and customs and following its ways of life and institutions. It was at this time that the Indian Renaissance movement started. The pioneers of this movement were Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Dayananda, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. Sri Aurobindo, Tagore, Tilak and Gandhi gave an impetus to this movement and worked for the political, social, economic, and spiritual regeneration of India.

Students of my generation in 1921 took to English education mostly to get jobs in State service, and had no serious views of life. Simple living and high thinking were at a discount. When Mahatma Gandhi came to our hostel in a loincloth, and on seeing the huge waste of food scattered in the dining halls, he advised us to be frugal and simple in our habits and tastes, many students laughed at him, not understanding the great soul. I read with great interest Sri Aurobindo’s essays entitled “A Defence of Indian Culture” and advised my friends to study them and the Master’s other works. But they had no inclination to study this literature as they considered it “serious”, but wasted their time in wading through detective, sensational novels. After my first contact with Sri Aurobindo, I lost interest in my class books though the degree examination was nearing. With a great gusto, I studied Sri Aurobindo’s essays in the Arya entitled “The Psychology of Social Development” (“The Human Cycle”), “The Future Poetry”, etc., which helped me later on to successfully answer my examination papers also. I wrote to Sri Aurobindo whom I regarded as my Master from now onwards, about some of my spiritual experiences and sent my prose-poems also to him. I wrote a few essays on cultural subjects at this time, besides doing some sadhana.

In or about March 1921, Sri Paul Richard came to Madras and stayed in Adyar for some time. I visited him frequently and was much benefited by his conversations on philosophy and Yoga. He was eminently intellectual, and his admiration and devotion for the Master were profound. In his published books, “The Sons of Heaven” and “The Dawn over Asia”, he predicted the resurgence of Asia, and hailed the Master as the Superman of the age, who was destined to bring New Light on Earth.

I appeared for the degree examination in April 1921 as per the Master’s advice, but my friend after his return from Pondicherry joined the Non-Cooperation Movement, and later joined Lala Lajpat Rai’s school of politics, and finally became a political prisoner. The summer vacation commenced after the examinations. I wanted to go and spend the vacation with the Master. But a friend of mine drew me to Pithapur to see a saint called Muthukrishna Paramahamsa, who was alleged to possess miraculous occult powers. I thought he would be like the great Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, and I was attracted by the appellation of “Paramahamsa”, being a novice in spiritual matters.

I stayed with the Paramahamsa for about a month. Muthukrishna was an old wiry person, with a robust constitution, donning silks always, and was a good Ayurvedic physician. He seemed to be an adept in the practice of Pranayama exercises and my friend told me that he knew the science and art of alchemy. I did not receive much of spiritual instruction from him. But, he treated me kindly, and was giving me plenty of fine mangoes offered to him by the Maharajah of Pithapuram and his other disciples, as well as the sweet medicated lehayams prepared by him; and the herbal oils prepared by him to cool the brain were at my disposal. The Paramahamsa was not conversant with English, but knew only Tamil and Malayalam and a little of my mother tongue, Telugu. At this time I became interested in Telugu literature and came into touch with some Telugu poets and scholars, as the Maharajah was a patron of Telugu literature. The Paramahamsa wanted me to continue the practice of pranayama, which I wanted to avoid, as it appeared to me artificial and difficult and had to be done with great care and guidance.

I thought of Pondicherry once again and went to Sri Aurobindo, for the second time in about the month of May 1921. I narrated to him the story of my stay at Pithapur and my impressions of the Paramahamsa. I was put up in a hotel and I was allowed to be with him for the evening meditation along with the ten or twelve disciples that gathered round him at the time. The Mother was living then in one of the first floor rooms in the Master’s house, along with the other disciples. She was then regarded as an elder co-disciple of the Master. None knew then about the mystic and occult powers possessed by the Mother, as she was generally reserved and very silent, and spoke little. After a fortnight’s stay with the Master, I took leave of him and came to Madras and there learnt that I had passed my B.A. degree examination, long after the results were announced. I owe the result to the Master’s blessing alone.

As I was not corresponding with my relatives, they gave me up for lost or thought I was leading a wayward life somewhere. When I suddenly went to see my relatives, it was a surprise to them, and they thought that I would seek some employment; and they advised me strongly to do so. When I told them that I would go to my village and lead a quiet life, they dissuaded me and my father-in-law offered to finance me for my law examination. I was wavering and did not know what to do, whether to go back to the Master, or study for a Law course. I wrote to my Ashram friend, Sri Satyendranath Varma ⁸ about my indecision, and he promptly wrote me affectionately to follow the inner call. The inner command was to go to the Master, but the external pulls were too strong and tempting and I told my people that I would pursue the Law course and took the amount of Rs. 200/-given to me by my father-in-law for paying the college fees etc., and started for Madras. After reaching Madras, I changed my mind and the inner command to go to the Master became resonant and clear. So, without joining the College of Law, I sped to my Master to practise Yoga. It was the beginning of July 1921. Sometime after reaching Pondicherry, I wrote to my father-in-law and other relatives that I was with the Master and that they need not be anxious about my whereabouts. It was of course a great shock to my wife who was only fifteen years old then and to her father and others.