Sri Aurobindo

Autobiographical Notes

and Other Writings of Historical Interest

Part One. Autobiographical Notes

2. Sri Aurobindo’s corrections of statements in a proposed biography

Early Life in India and England. 1872–1893

The Riding Examination [2]

After a couple of years of intense study, he graduated from King’s College in 1892, with a First Class in Classical Tripos.

This happened earlier, not after the Civil Service failure.

At the end of the period of probation, however, he did not choose to appear for the departmental Riding examination; a something within him had detained him in his room. . . .

[The last phrase altered to:] prevented his arriving in time.

Nothing detained him in his room. He felt no call for the I.C.S. and was seeking some way to escape from that bondage. By certain manoeuvres he managed to get himself disqualified for riding without himself rejecting the Service, which his family would not have allowed him to do.