Guidance from Sri Aurobindo - Volume 3

Introduction

This third and final volume of letters contains my correspondence with Sri Aurobindo during the fourth and fifth years of sadhana, 1936 and 1937.

For those who have not read the first and second volumes, it may be well to repeat here a part of the original Introduction, which throws light on the circumstances surrounding the exchange of letters. The reader should especially keep in mind that Sri Aurobindo was replying to a boy in his late teens:

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.

NAGIN DOSHI