Sri Aurobindo

Autobiographical Notes

and Other Writings of Historical Interest

Part Three. On Indian and World Events 1940–1950

1. Messages

On the Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi [2]¹

I would have preferred silence in the face of these circumstances that surround us. For any words we can find fall flat amid such happenings. This much, however, I will say that the Light which led us to freedom, though not yet to unity, still burns and will burn on till it conquers. I believe firmly that a great and united future is the destiny of this nation and its peoples. The Power that brought us through so much struggle and suffering to freedom, will achieve also, through whatever strife or trouble, the aim which so poignantly occupied the thoughts of the fallen leader at the time of his tragic ending; as it brought us freedom, it will bring us unity. A free and united India will be there and the Mother will gather around her her sons and weld them into a single national strength in the life of a great and united people.

February 5, 1948

¹ Mahatma Gandhi was murdered on 30 January 1948. Asked on 5 February for a message on the subject by All India Radio, Tiruchirapalli, Sri Aurobindo wrote this paragraph, which presumably was broadcast by the station. On 8 February it was published in the Hindu, and at the end of February was reproduced in the Advent, a quarterly journal of Madras, and also as a separate leaflet. Both messages were also reproduced in the pamphlet Messages of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother (1949).

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