Mrinalini Devi

Organiser Home > 2004 Issues > November 28, 04 World of Women Lesser-known better half Mrinalini Devi: Her life & commitment

Generally we tend to give importance to eminent personalities. While speeches, essays, poems, books on their life are written, we have to delve deep into memory to recall the contributions made by their life partners through thick and thin. Many narratives corroborate this. Lakshman is considered a brave warrior and devoted brother but all this was made possible by his loving and brilliant wife Urmilla. Similarly, behind Siddartha's long penance and enlightenment lay the strength of his beautiful and intelligent wife Yashodhra. The auspicious role of presenting the characters of these two women goes to national poet Shri Maithilisharan Gupt through his epic poems, Saket and Yashodhara and for which the purposeful literature is ever grateful.

Mrinalini was born in a house surrounded by heavenly beauty in Shillong. She was the daughter of an England-returned high government official, Shri Bhupalchandra Basu. On the other hand, barrister Manmohan Ghose's grandson and Dr Krishandhan Ghose's son, Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta and educated in an English social and culture, in both Darjeeling and England. On returning to Calcutta, Aurobindo took to reading Bankim Chandra's literature with interest and acquried knowledge on Indian culture and civilisation. As soon as he expressed his desire to marry, the local guardian of Mrinalini, Shri Girishchandra Bose, invited Sri Aurobindo to his house. In his first glance of her, Aurobindo accepted Mrinalini as his wife.

The first year of their marriage was pleasant for both. Soon Mrinalini Devi had to return to her father's house in Shillong. Despite wanting it immensely, it could not be made possible for her to return to reside with her husband in Baroda. She had to stay either at the house of Sri Aurobindo's maternal uncle or else in her parental home at Shillong. For a short time they stayed together in a rented house in Calcutta, but Sri Aurobindo could not find time to spare for Mrinalini Devi. One day in 1908, in early morning hours at 4 a.m., the police of the British administration raided their house and on finding sand brought from Dakshineshwar, mistook it to be powder for making bombs and took him away. The incident landed such a blow on Mrinalini's heart that she lost all faith in God. She said, "Had God been omnipotent, then such wrong behaviour would not have been meted out to such an innocent soul." Sri Aurobindo was God for her: "I have observed the divine light of God in him. Whenever he looked at me, it seemed as though some dreamy eyes with their illuminating rays were inflaming my entire body."

Once, Aurobindo fell sick, then Mrinalini devoted herself with full life and vigour to looking after him. With this love-filled care, Aurobindo soon recovered from his illness. She was an embodiment of love. All the people who came in contact with her, experienced her love and care personally. Mrinalini had a deep zeal towards English language and used to lay special stress on accurate pronunciation and purity of grammar. She once said, "If Sri Aurobindo has to be understood properly and has to be emulated, then it is necessary to have good knowledge of English." In spite of his constant preoccupation, Sri Aurobindo wrote many letters to his loving wife; here it would be relevant to mention a few.

On the death of Mrinalini's brother, Aurobindo, while consoling her, wrote: "Unhappiness invariably surrounds happiness. Keeping the mind still, the only way out is to offer all happiness and sorrow at God's feet." He wrote thus about himself: "You must have realised that the one with whom your future is linked, he is a strange man, whose views, efforts desires and aspirations, all are unusual, which the people describe as madness. But if he succeeds then that man will be called a talented and great man."Pointing towards Mrinalini's nature, Sri Aurobindo said, "There is a fault in your nature and it is because you are too simple; you listen to all and that disturbs the mind and the mind fails to develop. Concentration has to be improved; on listening to a person, it is necessary to fulfill the work with a firm mind by fixing the goal.

Your tendency is towards doing good to others and making self-sacrifices. By praying to God you will acquire strength. Pray while mediating that for fulfilling your husband's life, goal and for meeting God, you will not place any obstruction in his path; you will always support him."The path shown by Sri Aurobindo seemed difficult in their period of togetherness but began to appear easy in their estrangement. She took to reading literature written by Swami Vivekananda and Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa and to meditating. She sang bhakti songs and hymns, wore simple clothes, ate a frugal diet.Sri Aurobindo, in his editorials in Karmayogini and Dharma, wrote: "At the end of dwapar yuga, I was born as Lord Krishna's elder son Aniruddha while Mrinalini was born as my wife Usha (King Bali's daughter).

Ours is a relationship of many lives."After 17 long years of separation, in December1918, she received Sri Aurobindo's letter saying, "My period of penance is over. I have reached my goal and acquired siddhi (enlightenment). I have to do a lot of work for the world. Now you can come and become my companion in this work." Her father decided to send Mrinalini Devi to Pondicherry and the government granted the permission too; but God had ordained otherwise. Mrinalini Devi fell victim to a bout of malaria that had spread like an endemic in the city. The impact of the blow to her heart received when her husband had been taken prisoner had been so immense that its mere memory was enough to strike a fatal blow and on December 17, 1918, she collapsed. Her soul left to reach her husband's ashram in Pondicherry. (Translated from Kendra Bharati, August, 2004.)