Amal Kiran's Correspondence with The Mother

20 November 1937

Mother,

I dipped into The Teaching and the Asram of Sri Aurobindo and read:

“Everything in the Asram belongs to the Teacher; the sadhaks (those who practise under him) have no claim, right or voice in any matter. They remain or go according to his will. Whatever money he receives is his property and not that of a public body. It is not a trust or a fund, for there is no public institution. . . . All depends on the Teacher and ends with his life-time, unless there is another Teacher who can take his place.”

Won’t this prove rather tough meat for an Englishman? It was written in this downright way when that anti-Asram movement was in full career in Pondy, but to Lord Nuffield it may smack too much of dictatorship, and the dictatorships known to Europe are hardly of an appealing kind to an Englishman. The charity he is accustomed to is rather of a public nature. What do you advise about the book? Will the “Life-Sketch” in the other book counteract the impression likely to be given by it and make him a believer in the benevolence of the Teacher in question?

You need not send “The Teaching and the Asram”.

20 November 1937