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This is a part of a series of postings from Sri Aurobindo's writings
on his experiences in Alipore jail. Below he speaks of the inhumanity of
the British prison system and hopes that it would not be pertuated in
India once she is free.
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"I have described my mental state on the
first day of solitary confinement. For a few days I had to
go without books or any other aid to spend the period of
forced isolation. Later on Mr. Emerson
came and handed over to me the permission to get some
clothes and some reading material
from home... among books I asked for the Gita and
the Upanishads...Before that I had enough leisure
to realise the enormity or the dangerous potentiality
of solitary confinement. I could understand
why even firm and well-developed intellects break down in
such a state of confinement and
readily turn toward insanity. At the same time, I could
realise God's infinite mercy and the rare
advantage offered by these same conditions. I was in the
habit of sitting down in meditation
for an hour in the morning and the evening. In this
solitary prison, not having anything
to do, I tried to meditate for a longer period. But
for those unaccostomed it is not easy to
control and steady the mind pulled in a thousand directions.
"Somehow I was able to concentrate
for an hour and a half or two, later the mind
rebelled while the body while the body too was
fatigued. At first the mind was full of thoughts
of many kinds. Afterwards, devoid of human
conversation and isufferable listlessness due
to abscence of any subject of thought, the mind
gradually lost its capacity to think. There
was a time a condition when it seemed a thousand
indistinct ideas were hovering round the doors
of the mind but with the gates closed; one
or two that were able to get through were frightened
by the silence of these mental states
and quietly ran away. In this uncertain, dull state
I suffered an intense mental agony. In the hope
of mental solace and resting the overheated brain
I looked at the beauties of nature outside,
but with that solitary tree, a sliced sky and the
cheerless prospects in the prison in the prison
how long can the mind, in such a state, find consolation?
I looked towards the blank wall.
Gazing at the lifeless white surface the mind seemed to
grow even hopeless, realising the
the agony of the imprisoned condition the brain was
restless i n the cage. I again sat down to
meditate. It was impossible....
"I was amazed at this condition! True, while outside,
I never wished to stay idle
or without any activity, still I had spent long
periods in solitary musings. Had the mind now
become so weak that solitude of a few days could
make so restless? Perhaps, I thought,
there is a world of difference between voluntary
and compulsary solitude. It is one thing to
stay alone in one's home, but to have to stay,
forced by others, in a solitary prison
cell is quite another. There one can turn at will
to men for refuge, find shelter in book knowledge
and its stylistic elegence, in the dear voice of the friends,
the noise on the roadside, in the varied
shows of the world, one can find joy of mind and
feel at ease. But here bound to wheels
of an iron law, subservient to the whim of others,
one had to live deprived of every other
contact. According to the proverb, one can who
stand solitude is either a go or a brute,
it is discipline quite beyond the power of men.
Previously I was unable to believe this
in what the proveb said but now I could feel that
even for one accustomed to yogic life
this discipline is not easy to acquire. I remember
the terrifying end of the Italian regicide, Breci.
His cruel judges, instead of ordering seven years'
solitary confinement. Within a year Breci had
gone mad. But he had endured for some time! Was my
mental strength so poor? Then I did not
know that God was having a game with me, throught
which He was giving me a few necessary
lessons. First, He showed me the state of mind
in which prisoners condemned to solitary
cells move towards insanity, and turned me wholly
against the inhuman cruelty of the wester prison
administration., so that I might, to the best of my
ability, turn my countrymen and
the world from these barbarous ways to the path of a
more humane prison organization. This was
the first lesson.
"I remembered, fifteen years back, after return
home from England, I had written some
bitterly critical articles from Induprakash, of Bombay,
against the petetionary ethics of
the then Congress. Seeing that these articles were
influencing the minds of the young,
the late Nahadeo Govind Ranade had told me,
when I met him, for nearly half an an hour,
that I should give up writing these articles
and advised me take up some other Congress
work. He was desirous of my taking up the work
of prison reform. I was astonished
and unhappy at the unexpected suggestion and had
refused to undertake that work. I did not know
then that this was a prelude to the distant future
and that one day God Himself would keep me
in prison for an year and make me see the cruelty
and futility of the system and the need for reform.
Now I understood that in the present political atmosphere
there was no possibility of any
reform of the prison system, but I resolved
before my conscience to propagate and argue
in its favor so that these hellish remnants of an
alien order were not perpetuated in a self-determining
India."
Sri Aurobindo
Tales of Prison Life (Karakahani)
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