Originally posted on sciy.org by Debashish Banerji on Sun 25 Jan 2009 04:02 PM PST
The front cover gives the first impression of Peter Heeh's new biography, The Lives of Sri Aurobindo. It features a fine photograph of Sri Aurobindo, which makes the book a delight to keep physically near, whatever one's ultimate reaction to the text. The second impression, from the back cover, is of a different nature. A long quote is featured from Jeffrey Kripal (author of Kali's Child, a controversial Freudian analysis of Sri Ramakrishna), praising Heeh's book for, among other things, the way it “problematizes†Sri Aurobindo
In the preface, the author makes it clear he intends to eschew “hagiographyâ€. He comments that a famous photograph of Sri Aurobindo “falsifies the 'real' Sri Aurobindo†because it had been retouched to remove blemishes. As a historical biographer, he feels he must take documents as he finds them, “not giving special treatment even to the subject's own version of eventsâ€. He notes the particular problems of writing about a historical subject's mystical experiences: “Perhaps they are only hallucinations or signs of psychotic breakdownâ€.
After such initial impressions, one can imagine Sri Aurobindo admirers bolting for the door, not caring to read further in this book. Let me therefore say up front that a complete read of the book shows that while the author does indeed maintain the attitude of an empirical, rationalistic historian, and the adoption of such an attitude towards Sri Aurobindo is obviously open to criticism, the author presents on balance a clear appreciation of Sri Aurobindo. I don't see how anyone who has actually read the entire book could sensibly claim the author wrote it with malevolent intent to defame or diminish Sri Aurobindo. That said, there are many valid criticisms to be made of the text.
Referring to Sri Aurobindo as simply “Aurobindo†makes sense in some contexts, for example when writing about Sri Aurobindo's childhood. But the author decides to maintain the “Aurobindo†reference until late in the book when the narrative reaches 1926, as that was when the name “Sri Aurobindo†came into definitive use. This results in the grating employment of the “Aurobindo†reference even while the author describes all of Sri Aurobindo's major written works. Better to have made the switch much earlier.
In some places, the author's attempt to maintain the appearance of a balanced, critical appraisal gets expressed in a rather snarky tone. As part of an excessively detailed account of young Aurobindo's failure to appear for the Indian Civil Service riding exam, reference is made to an official asking Aurobindo to meet the riding instructor. This follows: “He did not bother to meet the man. Called to the office to explain, Aurobindo told a series of liesâ€. The footnote references the bureaucrat's records, which were surely better left undisturbed in their obscurity.
The author frequently poses a critical question concerning Sri Aurobindo, and then ultimately answers it in a manner favorable to Sri Aurobindo. The author seemed to think this a useful way of anticipating a skeptical reader's possible doubts or objections, then leading the reader to the desired conclusion. Unfortunately, this technique has significant downside risk, not the least of which is lending itself to having quotations lifted from their context and claimed to be the author's own view. There is also a general unsettling effect from posing such questions about Sri Aurobindo, no matter what the intent.
At times the critical questions seem completely inappropriate. Describing an incident when Sri Aurobindo spoke harshly to a secretary in the Bande Mataram office, the author quotes Hemchandra Prasad who witnessed the event as having said afterward “Babu Aurobindo Ghose is an extremely strange man. And I suspect a tinge of lunacy is not absent in him. His mother is a lunaticâ€. The author goes on to say that despite this quote from Mr. Prasad, “the explosion of December 12 was exceptional. Throughout his life Aurobindo was noted for his freedom from angerâ€. If a man is known for his freedom from anger, why such space should be given to an isolated, inflammatory counter-accusation is far from clear. Editing out a selected set of similar miscues would have made for a much more successful book.
The author makes an ill-advised return to the same theme later when preparing to write more extensively about Sri Aurobindo's sadhana. Again a discussion of mystical experiences vis-à -vis psychotic delusions ensues, and we are treated to a repeat of Mr. Prasad’s comment. The author concludes with a list of arguments in favor of Sri Aurobindo's sanity, e.g. his supremely rational writings, the accounts of so many finding him established in a deep calm and contentment, etc. The author seems again to be anticipating doubts from a skeptical reader, and attempting to answer them. One wishes his “inner editor†had alerted him to the troubling inappropriateness of raising such questions about one such as Sri Aurobindo, even when intending to answer them appropriately. If the book's intended audience really needs such assurances, one wonders if they are worth writing for at all.
When describing the Mother's return to Pondicherry from Japan, her growing spiritual relationship with Sri Aurobindo, and the subsequent departure of her husband Paul Richard, the author writes “Sometimes, when they were alone, Mirra took Aurobindo's hand in hersâ€. He then recounts a question from Richard to Sri Aurobindo regarding Mirra: “Suppose she claims the relationship of marriage?†Sri Aurobindo is said to have replied if Mirra ever asked for marriage, that is what she would have. Heehs ends up a few pages later leaving the clear impression that there was no romantic aspect of any kind to their relationship, but in that case why on earth hint at such a suggestion?
At other times the author contributes a personal opinion that rings arrogant and unnecessary. He describes Sri Aurobindo's Isha Upanishad as the “pithiest†of his works. “Its carefully chiseled sentences leave much for the reader to reflect upon, unlike his ordinary expository prose, in which clause is added to clause and refinement to refinement until the sentences become almost unreadable.†Whatever the author's personal reactions may be, I suspect many others find Sri Aurobindo's “ordinary†prose quite readable and find much there to “reflect uponâ€.
Occasional forays into a genre of pop psychology are also off-putting. The author suggests Sri Aurobindo's plays “may offer insights into movements in his imaginative life. If his earlier plays suggest that he was searching for his ideal life partner, Vasavadutta seems to hint that he had found the women he was seeking and was waiting for the moment when she would join him.†I suggest the correct answers are no, they don't, and it doesn't.
Regarding the Mother also, the author makes a few presumptuous pronouncements. He describes her time in Japan as “an unhappy four-year sojournâ€. Surely summing up this period of the Mother's life implying she spent it in an unhappy psychological condition as an ordinary depressed person might is highly dubious. Her diary entries (Prières et Méditations) show that her profound inner life continued during this time.
Much of the account of Sri Aurobindo's sadhana is based on the diary he intermittently kept, now published as The Record of Yoga. The soundness of this emphasis is debatable. The cryptic shorthand of the Record suggests Sri Aurobindo did not intend it to be read by others at all, let alone interpreted as a history of his sadhana. More likely he used it for his own specific spiritual and occult purposes. What he chose to write down and not write down reflects unknowable considerations of his own. No doubt it is an important source document for a historian, but the author should have shown more caution when referring to it. He observes with some surprise that there is no entry noting Sri Aurobindo's first meeting with the Mother, in fact barely any references to her. What this should prompt is more suspicion that much of Sri Aurobindo's inner life may not be represented at all in the Record.
Reading the recounting of Record entries that apparently refer to the action of certain powers and experiences of the supramental consciousness, one wishes the author had managed to convey a bit more of the awesome mystery and majesty of Sri Aurobindo's sadhana, which exceeded the ordinary thinking mind on all sides. The “critical†intellect in this context appears as a dim flashlight turned on the vast universal space above. On numerous occasions the author refers to Sri Aurobindo's attempt to “supramentalize the overmindâ€, as nonchalantly as one might refer to an ordinary person's attempt to finish a novel, build a bridge, or succeed in a business venture.
But what of the book's positive qualities? They definitely exist. The book is well written, researched, and documented. The summaries of Sri Aurobindo's major written works, especially of The Life Divine, are generally solid. Virtually all of chapter 9, “An Active Retirementâ€, covering the pivotal years from 1927 to 1950, is rather good. From the development of the Mother's capital role in the yoga and the Ashram, through the Ashram's expansion, the years of enormous correspondence with disciples, the war years, and Sri Aurobindo's passing, the narrative finally conveys something of Sri Aurobindo's living spiritual presence and personality. All those who have “received†an opinion that this book is some kind of hostile assault on Sri Aurobindo would do well to read this chapter.
The epilogue then closes the book with a thud. The final mention of Sri Aurobindo's attempts to establish the supramental consciousness on earth cries out for some reference to the Mother’s continuance of his work, some note of her efforts at physical transformation, etc. Certainly Mother’s Agenda provides source documentation for that.
In the epilogue the author writes: “The value of Sri Aurobindo's achievements can only be gauged by examining the historical and literary evidence and assessing the nature and effects of his thought and actionâ€. One might characterize this as the sustaining myth of the book. It is a misplaced faith that one can arrive at central insights into what made Sri Aurobindo such an extraordinary human being by focusing on the documented externalities of his life. In the end the result is a readable historical narrative and an interesting collection of data relevant to Sri Aurobindo’s life, but the vision it offers is through a glass darkly. The narrative also requires one to ignore a number of cringe-inducing missteps as outlined above.
The most generous interpretation of the author's approach might be that he takes very seriously Sri Aurobindo's remark concerning his reticence to speak about his use of yogic force: “These things are known to some, but they do not usually speak about them, while the public view of much of those as are known is either credulous or incredulous, but in both cases without experience or knowledge.†Perhaps the author thought his approach to presenting Sri Aurobindo's life was an attempt to steer between credulity and incredulity. But much more “experience or knowledge†needed to have come through as well.
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