Early Life & Marriage
Mrinalini Devi, the wife of Sri Aurobindo, was born into a respected Bengali family in Calcutta. In 1901 she married Sri Aurobindo, who was then a young professor beginning his career in the Baroda State Service. Their marriage was arranged by Sri Aurobindo’s father, Dr. Krishnadhan Ghose.
For most of their married life Mrinalini lived in Calcutta while Sri Aurobindo worked in Baroda, and the couple met only rarely. It was during these years of separation that Sri Aurobindo wrote her some of his most intimate and revealing letters.
The Three Madnesses
In a letter of 30 August 1905, Sri Aurobindo described to his wife the three “madnesses” that possessed his life. The first was the madness of God — the irresistible call to realise the Divine, the one achievement beside which nothing else mattered. The second was the madness of his ancestors — the call of his motherland India, for whose freedom he felt destined to labour. The third was the madness of the Guru — the search for a spiritual Master who would show him the way to the realisation he sought.
This remarkable letter, written in Bengali and later published among Sri Aurobindo’s letters to his wife, is one of the clearest statements of the motives that shaped his life and work.
Spiritual Dedication
After Sri Aurobindo left Calcutta for Chandernagore and then Pondicherry in 1910, Mrinalini lived a life of quiet seclusion. She devoted herself to spiritual practice, and received her initiation (diksha) from Swami Saradananda of the Ramakrishna Mission, a brother-disciple of Swami Vivekananda.
Mrinalini Devi passed away in Calcutta on 17 December 1918, without meeting Sri Aurobindo again after his departure to Pondicherry.
Download the Letters
The letters Sri Aurobindo wrote to his wife — including the letter of the three madnesses — are collected in Sri Aurobindo’s Letters to His Wife, available to read online and download free.