Sri Aurobindo: Life and Times of the Mahayogi (The Pre-Pondicherry Phase)

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"The most extraordinary Indian to come to King's College was Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1890). His career is all the more remarkable for its abrupt changes. His father, a M.D. of Edinburgh University, wanted him to be brought up in the best British tradition. The son (then known as Arvinda Ackroyd Ghose) was sent over at the age of seven, went to school later at St. Paul's, and won a classical scholarship to King's in 1890. He got a First in his Tripos... The tutor Prothero gave him a glorious testimonial-Besides his classical scholarship he possessed a knowledge of English literature far beyond the average for undergraduates, and wrote a much better English style than most young Englishmen... He passed into the I.C.S., for which he had worked simultaneously, with record marks in classics; but disliking horses he omitted to take the obligatory riding test, so he became instead Professor of English, Lecturer in French and Vice Principal at the Baroda College under an enlightened Maharaja."

MANOJ DAS (1934-2021), born in a village on the sea in Odisha, was a youth leader with radical ideals. Events in that eventful phase of his life included a term of incarceration and participating in the Afro-Asian Students Conference in Bandung. However, before long he was drawn to Sri Aurobindo and joined the Ashram in 1963. He taught English literature at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education.

He was a creative writer in Odia and English and, through his essays and tales, had been an interpreter of problems and events from a spiritual light. The accolades he received include D.Litt. (Honori Causa) from five universities, along with Padma Shri followed by Padma Bhushan.

The list of national and regional awards he received from all parts of India includes the Sahitya Akademi Award, followed by the Akademi's highest honour "Fellowship" and the Saraswati Samman instituted by K. K. Birla Foundation.

Sri Aurobindo: Life and Times of the Mahayogi is a development over a much smaller work, Sri Aurobindo in the First Decade of the Century, published in 1972, its reprint in 2003 bearing the title Sri Aurobindo in the First Decade of the 20th Century. Incorporating a few changes, I reproduce the Preface to the said reprint entitled 'Looking Back':

In January 1971 I wrote a series of three articles in The Illustrated Weekly of India, then the foremost news-cum-literary journal in the country. The series narrated the saga of a heroic battle fought by the legendary revolutionary Jatindranath Mukhopadhyay (1879-1915), famous as Bagha Jatin (because while in his teens he had killed a tiger singlehanded in a village), with a well-armed huge police force, on the outskirts of Balasore (Baleswar) town, the headquarters of my home district in Odisha.

I had substantiated my facts by the help of some rare documents and photographs in the possession of Shri Tejendranath Mukhopadhyay, Bagha Jatin's son who was an inmate of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. The thrilling account of the fight which ended only when the Bagha and his brave lieutenants exhausted their ammunition and were severely wounded, received warm appreciation from the Weekly's readers. One day I received a note from the editor, Shri Khushwant Singh, enclosing a letter addressed to him by the Press Secretary of Shri Ghanashyam Das Birla. Shri Singh advised me to reply to Shri Birla.

Shri Birla, who read my series with great interest, had pointed out what he thought to be an error about the identity of the British officer leading the police force. I wrote to Shri Birla's secretary asserting that there was no error in my report. The response to my letter came from Shri Birla who in his exemplary humility, admitted to my being right. He also narrated an incident when he was sought to be arrested by that particular officer, Charles Tegart (later knighted) because of his association with Bipin Bihari Ganguly, a famous follower of Bagha Jatin.

He authored many best-selling books for children as well as adults for the National Book Trust, India, such as Books Forever, Stories of Light and Delight, My Little India and Bridge in the Moon-lit Night and Other Stories (a selection of short stories).