Guidance from Sri Aurobindo - Volume 1

Introduction

      In this series of selected letters we have Sri Aurobindo's guidance to a boy in his late teens. Some of them are published for the first time, while most are taken from the pages of the Ashram monthly. Mother India, where they appeared as several series: (1) "My Boyhood under Sri Aurobindo", (2) "Guidance from Sri Aurobindo", (3) "My Sadhana with the Mother", (4) "The Problems of the Integral Yoga". The letters, no less illuminating for all their simplicity, cover a fairly large number of subjects. As their recipient grew up more and more, the subjects naturally increased in significance.

      Perhaps it would be interesting to supply a brief personal background to the correspondence.

      I came to Pondicherry in 1931 when I was about fourteen years old. In those days the Mother did not admit youngsters into the Ashram. It was only out of her kindness that she made an exception in the case of four children: Bala, Romen, Shanti and myself. We did not have a school here at that time, nor were there

regular study classes. Before coming, my mind was occupied with only two things — study and cricket: they were my life and my world. I had almost decided to go to Europe and become a "big" doctor. I first visited the Ashram during my school vacation just for the sake of making a nice long journey, certainly not for taking up Yoga. I stayed for a month and returned in time for the reopening of my school. During that stay, what the Mother did within my being I could hardly fathom. But the result was that I returned home to stay for only two days. I hurried back here with the full realisation that I could not possibly live, either happily or unhappily, without the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Till 1933 I did not know what this strange thing called Yoga was. Hence the Mother and Sri Aurobindo were to me just like my own human mother and father. When the correspondence with Sri Aurobindo started, he had to teach me everything, not only what was meant by Yoga but also what culture, religion, philosophy and morality were. He used to correct my English, too, for quite a long time. Whatever I have gained in any way is a growth from the seeds he and the Mother sowed in me during those boyhood days.

      The correspondence with Sri Aurobindo ran up to 1937. The present selection covers only the years 1933-34 — except for a batch added from a later time for the sake of their very general interest. The remaining letters will appear in another volume.

      Nagin Doshi