Sri Aurobindo to Dilip - Volume II

Appendix

July 5, 1932

It may be philosophic to say nothing about the loss, though that would depend on the philosophy—and the philosopher;

but it is perhaps more practical to make a row so that the gentleman of the bathroom may not be tempted to repeat his joke. We are not out to imitate the bishop of the "Misérables" or the Sannyasi who ran after the thief to make him a present of his remaining vessels.

It is best however to ascertain first the probabilities. I am asking Kodandarama who is the new scavenger in question (we knew all our facts) and asking him too to make enquiries personally.

July 2, 1932

It is certainly "symphony" and not "sympathy"; I don't know whether the transformation was due to a slip of my pen or to a slip of Nolini's typing finger.

The sonnet is a good one with a very effective clinching couplet; but I do not find the subject mundane.

I admit that the world is full of Houses and uncles, but I cherish in spite of them a hope that it will change. House after all is only staving off destiny with a broom handle and in doing so he is just acting "according to the nature of the beast" in the end his speeches do not very much matter. I hope there is no foundation for the suspicion about Subhash.

My "poem" is not a poem, but an episode in "Savitri, a legend and a symbol" and covers several hundred lines. I was

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putting it in shape but was interrupted by a hundred things— for the present by the necessity of preparing 'The Yoga of Divine Works" (Synthesis of Yoga, Vol. Ill) for publication. When it is finished I hope to complete the episode.

Undated

Mom's "poem" is of a very inferior stuff and certainly not the kind of writing that ought to come from here, but it does not pass the last limits. I have, at least hitherto, been tolerant up to a certain point, leaving the rest to people's own evolution. But sometimes they seem to evolve in the wrong direction; I suppose I shall have to be more strict as to certain things in the future.

Your poem shows always an increasing power to express thought and feeling with subtlety (both of rhythm and expression) and ease and force. Certainly, to express is not all; but I am not inclined to regard it dubiously—done in the right way and from the right source, it helps to bring out what is in the inner being and to clarify the rest.

As for the "meannesses," they are the very substance of these movements of the nature—I refer to that range of the "little vital" which is occupied with philandering on one side and the animal passion on the other (these are the two borders of one and the same region); it is a part of the nature in which ... [incomplete]

Undated

Well, I don't know that I want you to go as far as Anilbaran or give up speaking and singing! One Anilbaran is enough

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for a single Ashram and variety can be the spice of Yoga as well as of life.

But what is the matter with Bejoy Chatterji?¹⁵² This fantastic case has lifted him up beyond earthly realities ? Or he has been taking bhang with the Sannyasis? Whence these stupendous imaginations ? You might suggest to him that if he wants to invite the Kutch river or the mountain Chitrakoot to Calcutta to preside over this affair, he need not be shy about it—per- haps they might consent. As for myself, I am trying to have a vision of myself presiding over a Congress of all religions. God! before it was well on its way I would have evaporated into the formless (and Congressless) Brahman. As such evaporation is not in my programme, I must unregretfully decline.

Undated

(...) As for facts each mind always arranges them in its own way. It is a well-known phenomenon which psychologists constantly emphasise that each mind arranges facts according to its own impressions, predilections, convenience and while this may be partly done with a conscious twist, conscious omissions and additions, it is quite or as often and more often done without any willful intentions, and by a sort of subconscious selection in the mental hinterland. That is why no three witnesses of an incident can give the same account of it—unless of course they have talked it over together —each tells a different story.

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Undated

(...) When he speaks of his power in him and his self-surrender, well! one can only wish that if and when people are so wonderful, they should be less eloquent about their wonderfulness. One never knows to what this excessive self-appreciation will lead and the past examples do not encourage. (...)

Undated

Re. Dilip's note: As to who tempts first—man or woman ?

I quoted from Addison's Sir Roger de Coverlay who

used to say, importantly in every blessed controversy,

"Much can be said on both sides."

It is six of one and half-a-dozen of the other. To throw it all on the woman is Adamism. To ignore the man's part is feminism. Both are in error. Sir Roger was right.

Undated

Is it that the body does not accept the sex-thoughts and desires? If so, you are entitled to reject it as something external to you or at most existing only in the subconscient. For it is only what something in us accepts, supports, takes pleasure in, or still mechanically responds to, that can still be called ours. If there is nothing of that, it belongs to general Nature but not to us. Of course, it returns and tries to take possession of its lost territory, but that is a foreign invasion. The rule of these things is that they have to be extruded outside the

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individual consciousness. Rejected by the mind and higher vital, they still try to hold on to the lower vital and physical. Rejected from the lower vital, they still hold the body by a physical desire. Rejected from the body, they retire into the environmental consciousness (sometimes into the subconsient also, rising in dreams)—I mean by the environmental a sort of surrounding atmosphere which we carry about with us and by which we communicate with the universal forces— and try to invade from there. Rejected from there, they become in the end too weak to be more than external suggestions till that too ends—and they are finished and nonexistent.

You need not think that anything can alter our attitude towards you. That which is extended to you is not a vital human love which can be altered by external things: it remains and persistently we shall try to help and lift you up and lead you towards the Light where in the union of soul and heart you will recognise the Friend and the Mother.

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