Sarada Devi
(Sri Aurobindo to the editor of Sunday Times:) “I am authorised by Sri Aurobindo to contradict the statement quoted in your issue of the 17th instant from the Hindusthan Standard that he visited Sri Saradamani Devi on the day of his departure to Pondicherry (?) and received from her some kind of diksha. There was a story published in a Calcutta monthly some time ago that on the night of his departure for Chandernagore in February 1910 Sri Aurobindo visited her at Bagbazar Math to receive her blessings, that he was seen off by Sister Nivedita and a Brahmachari of the Math and that he took this step of leaving British India at the advice of Sister Nivedita. All these statements are opposed to the facts and they were contradicted on Sri Aurobindo’s behalf by Sri Charu Chandra Dutt in the same monthly.
Sri Aurobindo’s departure to Chandernagore was the result of a sudden decision taken on the strength of an adesh from above and was carried out rapidly and secretly without consultation with anybody or advice from any quarter. …
It may be added that neither at this time nor any other did Sri Aurobindo receive any kind of initiation from Sarada Devi; neither did he ever take any formal diksha from anyone.”[1]
See also