Sri Aurobindo
Autobiographical Notes
and Other Writings of Historical Interest
Part Two. Letters of Historical Interest
3. Other Letters on Yoga and Practical Life 1921–1938
To and about Public Figures 1930–1937
On a Proposed Visit by Mahatma Gandhi [6]1
Govindbhai Patel: As he has written to me to inform you, shall I answer that the Mother cannot see him or shall I remain silent? If he enquires about seeing Mother, shall I say that she will not be able to see him?
You can tell him that just now the circumstances are such that it is impossible for the Mother to receive his visit.2
16 February 1934
1 1934. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948) visited Pondicherry on 17 February 1934. At that time he was temporarily retired from politics. As he related in his letter to Sri Aurobindo (part of which is reproduced above Sri Aurobindo’s reply of 7 January 1934), he had been anxious to meet Sri Aurobindo since he returned to India from South Africa in 1915. In order to arrange a meeting, he wrote to Govindbhai Patel, a disciple of Sri Aurobindo’s who previously had been connected with Gandhi’s movement. (There is some evidence that Govindbhai had written earlier to Gandhi to suggest a meeting.) On 2 January 1934 Gandhi wrote directly to Sri Aurobindo.
2 The “circumstances” to which Sri Aurobindo refers were those created by an inquiry instituted by the government of French India into the status and finances of the Ashram. Sri Aurobindo learned about this inquiry on or shortly before 16 February 1934. See Letters on Himself and the Ashram, volume 35 of The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. – Ed.