Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Himself and the Ashram

The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Volume 35

His Life and Attempts to Write about It
Outer Life in Pondicherry 1910 – 1950

Relations with the Government of French India, 1934 – 1935 [5]

X has passed along these two pieces of news about the Asram:

(1) During his tour Mahatma Gandhi went to Pondicherry and with a view to meet Sri Aurobindo wrote a letter to him. In reply Sri Aurobindo wrote a letter to the Mahatma, which the local authorities withheld. It was after this that Sri Aurobindo published his statements about the Asram and his {{0}}teaching.[[The “statements” referred to here were first published in a newspaper on 20 February 1934 and later brought out in pamphlets and as a booklet. See Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, volume 36 of The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, pp. 530 – 31 and 547 – 50. For Gandhi’s visit to Pondicherry see pp. 442 – 44 of the same volume. — Ed.]]

(2) The French authorities at Pondicherry have enacted a law, the effect of which was to prevent the Mother from purchasing any more houses in the town for the purposes of the Asram.

You can write about the stories of the Asram that they are not true. The publication had no connection with Gandhi’s visit to Pondicherry. No “law” has been passed by the French Government, nor could be. The relations of the Asram with the French Government are very friendly. But there was a housing crisis in Pondicherry and some complaints from the officials that they could not get houses to live in because the Asram had occupied so much of the better part of the town, so it was suggested to us that we might build houses in future rather than buy them.

1 July 1935