Aravinda Ackroyd Ghosh

Name: Aravinda Ackroyd Ghosh

DOB: August 15, 1872

Date of Death: December 5, 1950 in Pondicherry

Place of Birth: Kolkata

Father’s Name: Dr. Krishnadhan Ghosh (A civil medical officer in Bengal)

Mother’s Name: Ms. Swarnalata Devi (daughter of nationalist Rajnarayan Bose)

Wife: Ms. Mrinalini (in 1901)

Introduction:
Dr. Krishnadhan Ghosh, added the middle name Ackroyd because a Miss Ackroyd, a visitor from England, was present at his birth. Aravinda and his brothers were admitted to a special school in Darjeeling, in 1877, which was meant only for English children. In 1879, the children were taken to England. The two elder boys were admitted to a school, while Aravinda, who was just seven years old, was left in the care of Rev. W. H. Drewett and his wife in Manchester. He cleared the periodical examination and the medical examination but failed to appear for the horse-riding test which was compulsory for entering the Indian Civil Service.
Just before Aravinda set foot in India, his father died of heart failure. He was only 21 and did not even possess proper qualifications. He accepted a post promised by Sayaji Rao Gaekwad of Baroda when he was in England, with a fixed salary of Rs. 200. He was first appointed in the survey settlement department, and later in the department of stamp and revenue. In 1900, Aravinda accepted the post of professor of English at Baroda College and also taught French as a part-time professor.
Aravinda was 29 years old at the time of marriage while Mrinalini was only 14. The two had very little time to spend with each other since Aravinda lived in Baroda, and Mrinalini remained in Calcutta. In one of his letters to Mrinalini, Aravinda mentioned his three beliefs. First, he believed that whatever he had: talent, virtue, high education-all belonged to God. Second, he wished to come face to face with God. Third, in his own words, "Others look upon India, their country, as a mass of matter, a number of fields, plains, forests, mountains, and rivers and nothing more." His letters to her were published as a book called "Letters to Mrinalini." Mrinalini died of influenza in 1918 in Calcutta at the age of 31.

Contribution:
Initially, Aravinda's political activities were limited to Baroda, but they soon extended to Maharashtra, Gujarat and Bengal. He learned Marathi and Gujarati and taught himself Sanskrit. He studied Bengali under litterateur Dinendra Kumar Roy. His writing became the ideal for the Indian youth. He called on the young to serve the nation as "karmayogins." Ghosh formed secret revolutionary societies which enveloped Bengal. He asked members of these secret societies to take a solemn oath to "secure the freedom of Mother India at any cost."
He stoked the fire of revolution by organizing a huge rally on November 9, 1905, in Calcutta. In the meantime, the Bande Mataram, a paper Ghosh edited, won the praise and admiration of all. The British, in an effort to curb the growing dissent, prosecuted the Bande Mataram and arrested Ghosh, who was charged with propagating sedition. The British resorted to caning anyone chanting "Bande Mataram". Aravinda was acquitted for lack of proof.
Ghosh was again arrested and put in jail in the Lal Bazar police station on May 5, 1908 as an undertrial prisoner for what came to be known as the Alipore bomb conspiracy. His secret societies practiced bomb making along with the study of revolutionary literature and the Gita. Ghosh's brother, Barin, opened a center in Ghosh's Maniktala Gardens residence in Calcutta. Following the bombing, Ghosh's residence was raided on May 2, 1908. Barin was arrested along with his associates. Ghosh was arrested at his Grey Street residence.
Ghosh was defended by the renowned Calcutta lawyer Chittaranjan Das. Ghosh exhibited his abhorrence for terrorist style militant resistance. He had propagated the idea of an open armed revolt. In his statement, Ghosh said, "The whole of my case before you is this. It is suggested that I preached the idea of freedom to my country which is against the law, I plead guilty to the charge. If it is an offence to preach the idea of freedom, I admit I have done it. I have never disputed it... I felt I was called upon to preach to my country to make them realize that India had a mission to perform in the comity of nations." Ghosh denied having engineered the attempt on Lord Kingsford's life, declaring the act as being against everything he stood for. Due to Chittaranjan Das's professional defense, Ghosh was acquitted.
On his release from jail, Ghosh came out a changed man. He seemed confident that India would attain her freedom. He now decided to devote his life to the liberation of the whole of the human race. On the advice of some friends, like Sister Nivedita, disciple of Swami Vivekananda, Ghosh left British India and moved to French Pondicherry on April 4, 1910 to avoid confrontation with the British.
Ghosh came to be known as Sri Aurobindo to the world. Aurobindo completed his "Savitri", which he began writing in 1899 and published in 1954. Words of Aurobindo in the "Savitri":
"A mightier race shall inhabit
the mortal's world.
On nature's luminous tops,
On the spirits ground,
The Superman shall reign
as a King of life,
Make earth almost the mate
and peer of heaven."

Besides the "Savitri", Sri Aurobindo compiled numerous treatise on the Vedas, Upanishads and the Gita. His "Life Divine", "The Superman", and "Ideal of Human Unity" are fine examples of work done in simple prose. In addition, his literary criticisms, poems, and plays made Sri Aurobindo a litterateur of the highest order.
On Independence Day, Sri Aurobindo's message to the nation was, "August 15, 1947 is the birthday of free India. It marks for her the end of an old era, the beginning of a new age. But we can also make it by our life and acts as a free nation, an important date in a new age opening for the whole world, for the political, social, cultural and spiritual future of humanity."