Aspects of Sri Aurobindo

A Perplexing question About Sri Aurobindo and Its answer

While reading Sri Aurobindo's Bengali book of jail-reminiscences Karakahini (Tales of Prison-life), many readers have been puzzled by certain passages depicting the distressed state of mind in which Sri Aurobindo found himself.

Knowing that already before going to jail he had the experience of Nirvana shortly after his meeting with the Maharashtrian Yogi Lele in Baroda, one is apt to wonder how the distressed state could ever occur.

The answer can be derived from a statement of Sri Aurobindo's in the course of the talks which Nirodbaran has recorded. On December 22, 1938 Sri Aurobindo refers to the Nirvanic realisation and explains:

"My experience of peace and calm after my first contact with Lele never left me, but in my outer nature there were many agitations and every time I had to make an effort to establish peace and calm there. Ever since that early experience the whole object of my Yoga has been to change this nature into the mould of the inner realisation."

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