{"id":3750,"date":"2020-05-13T12:29:47","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T10:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/contrib.city\/?p=3750"},"modified":"2020-06-07T21:03:06","modified_gmt":"2020-06-07T19:03:06","slug":"dialogue-with-prithwindra-mukherjee-the-ashram-and-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/contrib.city\/index.php\/en\/2020\/05\/13\/dialogue-with-prithwindra-mukherjee-the-ashram-and-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Dialogue with Prithwindra MUKHERJEE \u2013 The \u00e2shram in Pondicherry & the European Influence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bertrand de Foucauld<\/span><\/span><\/em>: <\/span><\/span>\u201cWhy were you put in a school (\u00e2shram) located more than 1,800 km from the parental home? “<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Prithwindra Mukherjee<\/span><\/span><\/em>: \u201cThe territories that Sri Aurobindo had known in his life can be summarized as follows: (a) 1872-1879: birth in Calcutta, pension in Darjeeling; (b) 1879-1893 perfect English training, please, with a Latinist, away from contact with India; brilliant graduate of Hellenist, candidate for a post in India (the coveted Indian Civil Service); 1893-1905: employed by the princely state of Barod\u00e2, he is notably a professor; he uses his leisure on one side to plunge back into Indian tradition until the discovery of a key to the Vedic mysteries; on the other hand, to urgently free his people from slavery that suffocated them, he comes into contact with some members of a secret society (including the great Tilak) who will be able to bring water to his mill; in 1902, he received the visit of Niv\u00e9dit\u00e2, an Irish revolutionary disciple of Viv\u00e9k\u00e2nanda, who invited him: \u201cThe Master has left us\u2026 Bengal is waiting for you. “; in 1903 Sri Aurobindo and Jatindra Mukherjee meet in Calcutta; Jatindra accepts the proposal to form a clandestine society capable of managing an armed revolution of the kind of the “guinea pig rebellion” of 1857; thus mandated, with a dozen years of perseverance, Jatindra creates the powerful federated network of non-centralized cells called Jug\u00e2ntar (“End of an era”), having as emissaries at work everywhere in India and in the world ; taking advantage of the visit to Calcutta of the Crown Prince of Germany, son of William II, in 1912, Jatindra will obtain a promise of Indo-Germanic collaboration known in History as Zimmermann Plan; 1905-10, Aurobindo dominated the pan-Indian political arena; 1910-50, like a meteor, before disappearing to carry out an intensive spiritual quest in Pondicherry, Aurobindo will leave the order to follow Jatindra Mukherjee.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

True to his mandate, Jatindra rocked the British Empire in 1915 with his formidable plan for Indo-German collaboration. Knowing that a country that has been a slave for centuries cannot suddenly achieve independence, a country rotten by multiple fears: fear of living, fear of dying. Above all, we should learn to die, die for a cause, die for the fatherland. <\/span><\/span>We will die … so that the Nation is born!<\/span><\/span><\/em> He had said, in the context of an uprising, September 9th, 1915, while he waited on the coast of Balasore in Oriss\u00e2, with four desperate companions, the considerable delivery of weapons loaded in three boats from the coast of California and dispatched by von Papen, Military Attach\u00e9 of Germany stationed in the United States, under the direction of Ambassador von Bernstorff.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Although, still in 1948, Pondicherry was a French territory, although the distance between Calcutta and Pondicherry was impressive, although to be admitted to the ashram one had an authorization from the Mother, this multiple interior historical and emotional proximity was necessary and sufficient. “<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bertrand de Foucauld<\/span><\/span><\/em>: <\/span><\/span>“What drove you to France? “<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Prithwindra Mukherjee<\/span><\/span><\/em>: “Prabodh Chatterjee, my mother’s cousin, was a two-time gold medalist from the University of Calcutta for his research and teaching in the field of physical science. During the War, he began to learn two languages \u200b\u200bwhich he considered fundamental for the exercise of his trade: French and Arabic. Out of affection, he gave me some lessons in these two languages. Having no <\/span><\/span>French without Toil<\/span><\/span><\/em>, he was far from the real pronunciation of French words (which he pronounced loune-Di, m\u00e8r-Di\u2026 Di-m\u00e8n-tchi[1]<\/sup><\/a>For the respective French words: <\/span><\/span>lundi, mardi, dimanche<\/span><\/span><\/em>. Generally speaking, in the French language, the “e” at the end of a word is not pronunced. Note from BdF<\/span><\/span>