In his stay of over a decade in Pondicherry, Bharati used to have many visitors. Some of them were spies sent by the Government of India with the connivance of the French authorities. The British thought that Nilakanta Brahmachari and Madaswami, two of the accused in the Ashe murder case who had fled to Pondicherry, were being harboured by Bharati or V.V.S. Aiyar, both equally noted freedom fighters.

Once, in a well outside the house where V.V.S. Aiyar lived, a jar with its mouth sealed was found. It had been placed there by the agents of the Crown. V.V.S. Aiyar, smelling a rat, took the jar to the police station, where it was opened in front of the police officials. The jar contained leaflets, asking his countrymen to rise in revolt against the British. If V.V.S. Aiyar had not found it and handed it over to the police, he would have faced charges of treason. On another occasion, the police searched the house of Aurobindo and found on his table books in Greek. The young police officer asked Aurobindo if he knew Greek and Latin and, when the answer was in the affirmative, he left rather abashed.

V. Venkatesa Subramaniam Aiyar (April 2, 1881 – June 3, 1925),  popularly known as Va Ve Su Aiyar, was a close associate of Bharati. Aiyar studied law and qualified as a pleader (junior lawyer) from Madras University in 1902. After a stint as lawyer in Tiruchi, he moved to Rangoon in 1906. He worked there as a junior to a British lawyer. He left for London in 1907 and enrolled in Lincoln’s Inn to become a Barrister. In London, he came in contact with V.D. Savarkar and began taking an active part in the freedom movement, which resulted in an arrest warrant being issued against him. Fearing arrest, he fled to Paris.

From there, Aiyar sailed to Pondicherry. En route, from Rome, he sent a copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy by post to Mandayam Srinivasachari in Pondy. In due course, Aiyar, disguised as a bearded Muslim, landed up in Srinivasachari’s house and asked if he had received a copy of the Divine Comedy. The name of the book was the password!

In Pondy, Aiyar became close to both Aurobindo and Bharati. The Government of India, looking for a case against Aiyar, blamed him for the shelling of Madras by the Emden and urged the French Government to deport him to South Africa. This, however, did not materialise and Aiyar on the other hand, became a littérateur, writing several Tamil articles, translating the Thirukkural into English, etc. Later, he moved to Madras and edited Desabhaktan, a Tamil journal He was arrested in 1921 and given a nine months’ sentence. It was then that he wrote A study of Kamba Ramayana.

Aiyar died in 1925 by drowning at the Papanasam falls, while trying to save his daughter Subhadra who was struggling in the water. However, many people believed that his death was not natural!

After the episode in Aurobindo’s residence, the police searched Bharati’s house in Dharmaraja Koil Street. The officer found only poems by Bharati, and left without any further ado. But the matter did not end there. All three, Aurobindo, V.V.S. Aiyar and Bharati, had to go to the police station for interrogation.

Once, Bharati had a strange visitor, a sanyasi! Replete with matted locks, staff, bowl and saffron robes, the caller looked quite venerable. The mistake he made was greeting Bharati with folded hands. Bharati knew the custom, according to which the sanyasi had to be first greeted with respect, and then the sanyasi would bless the host. Bharati knew at once that he was a fake sanyasi, actually an agent of the CID. Bharati was in fact more amused than bewildered. He admonished the person for stooping to such low levels for the sake of a livelihood. On another occasion it was a diamond merchant who called on him. Bharati knew instantly that the person was also from the CID. The person started saying that he had come to sell precious stones, whereupon Bharati told him, “I agree, but I too have some gems of immense value and would like to show them to you.” The visitor was perplexed. Bharati showed him drafts of his poetry and said, “Each of these is a priceless gem of all nine varieties.” The bogus merchant left in a hurry. Others came as budding poets seeking Bharati’s blessings! But there were also many who were good friends.

While in Pondy, one Ethirajulu Naidu (popularly known as Surendranath Arya) called on Bharati. V. Ramaswami Iyengar was present when this meeting took place. VaRaa records: “One day in the morning at about 7, a gentleman came into the house shouting ‘Bharati’. I was wondering who could call this great man by name! As soon as Bharati saw him, both were moved and they embraced each other. The visitor said that he had been released from jail only a couple of weeks earlier. When Bharati’s friend went to have a wash, Bharati told me that the visitor was Surendranath Arya, who was released after six years’ R.I. When they sat down later to have something to eat, the stranger informed Bharati that he had converted to Christianity. ‘You may not know, but I was helped both inside and outside the prison by Danish Christian Missionaries. Because of their help I became a Christian myself’.”

Bharati remarked; ‘I can’t blame you; our Hindu society is to blame! But at the same time if every Hindu out of frustration becomes a Christian, what shall happen to our religion? For the fault of a husband, a wife committing suicide, or a husband seeking sanyasa because of the fault of the wife, will not help either; hereafter you will be acting according to what priests ordain for you; your great patriotism will also disappear!’ I did not know what to do! As I had never seen Bharati in tears, I was shocked!”

Then Arya replied that he was leaving for the U.S. where he was to study religion (later he became a Doctor of Divinity).

When Bharati passed away in 1911, Arya was present at the funeral and sang in Telugu Sakkarai Chettiar, the other person to speak at the funeral, was also with Bharati in Pondy. He too was a Christian convert. He has recorded that Bharati wanted to translate The Bible in verse form into Tamil.