Nirodbaran's Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo

May 1934

Suddenly I have dropped from a state of exaltation and peace to that of depression. The soaring, the days of exaltation seem to be so unreal—almost a chimera beside this world of reality.

? [Sri Aurobindo underlined "world of reality".]

It is surprising that I cannot live in one state for more than a few days, and yet this dejection, sadness seems so foreign to my nature!

Why do you give way to it, then? You ought to be able to detach yourself from it, see it as an intrusion and fling it out.

May 1, 1934

Would you suggest a way to increase thought power in poetry?

There is no device for that. You have to open from within to a deeper or higher source of inspiration or grow from within into a deeper or higher consciousness—there is no other way for it.

May 4, 1934

I seem to be contented with myself, in peace and bliss and have nothing to pray for. Is this not tamasic peace in a sattwic garb?

It is far more favourable to spiritual progress than being miserable and depressed or in vital revolt and agitation and disturbance.

I have ceased even to aspire, believing that you will give me inspiration. I simply refuse to make even a mental effort.

Mental effort is one thing and aspiring and holding yourself in readiness is another.

Need one aspire even for writing poetry?

Aspiration is an essential part of the sadhana.

If one waits calmly, does not the Grace descend by itself without our asking?

Not unless one is in a state of Grace—in a psychic condition.

If a person asks for something and doesn't get it, he is likely to get disappointed...

If he asks with the vital, yes.

Your mind is too active in these matters. Get your mind silent, learn to feel within, to aspire from within—then things will come more easily.

May 10, 1934

I woke up from sleep with a touch of sadness caused by some depressive dreams at night, dreams which have no correspondence in real life. For instance I saw H going to a pub and getting heavily drunk, D running after a girl in a drunken condition. Aren't these dreams a sufficient cause to awake one to a sadness?

Not unless you believe that they point to something real in the physical life. Why should one be sad for a mere dream?

Am I seeing my own condition in others' forms?

No. These are dreams on the vital plane. Such dreams may be mere formations in the vital without any actual value, they may point to something in the persons seen which was there in the past, in some cases they indicate possibilities of the future, in others things going on in the present (the last is rare, but does happen), but not always in the forms suggested by the dream. It is such things that happen on the vital plane, very rarely (though that too does happen) on the physical plane. But also they may be merely possibilities conjectured by one's own vital mind about people. So one must know which it is of these various possibilities before getting sad about dreams! For instance in H's case it is evidently an impression of something in his nature and habits that you knew to have been there in the past and which you know is not there at present.

I have been thinking whether I would not profit more by spending the time I use for writing in doing meditation instead. Has the writing work any spiritual value?

No present value spiritually—it may have a mental value. It is the same with the work—it has a value of moral training, discipline, obedience, acceptance of work for the Mother. The spiritual value and result come afterwards when the consciousness in the vital opens upward. So with the mental work. It is a preparation. If you cannot yet do it with the true spiritual consciousness, it, the work as well as the mental occupation, must be done with the right mental or vital will in it.

The Mother says in her "Prayers and Meditations" that experience is willed by the Divine. Am I then to suppose that dearth or abundance of experiences is, in any given case, willed by the Divine?

To say so has no value unless you realise all things as coming from the Divine. One who has realised as the Mother had realised in the midst of terrible sufferings & difficulties that even these came from the Divine and were preparing her for her work can make a spiritual use of such an attitude. For others it may lead to wrong conclusions.

May 14, 1934

In some cases you don't seem to like people to be engrossed in literary work. Can it be taken as a general rule?

There is no general rule; the mind is always trying to build general rules. The thing done may be the same, but it is done in different ways according to the circumstances and the nature of the people.

Well, Dilip had to work in spite of your Grace. So may I ask you in the vein of Arjuna—but alas, not with that love and surrender!—to give me one direct and decisive rule to follow in this path of poetic activity? My aspiration for your Grace and blessings in this mental occupation, is as great as for spiritual progress.

Aspire for the opening to the right plane of inspiration. You forget that D got his opening by grace and never lost it—all his work only helps him to utilise and develop what is already there.

May 22, 1934

The popular idea is that the more one is rich in practical experiences of life, the more successful he is in literary pursuits; for, then he will be able to write better, tackle various. problems of life in a better way.

Why should a creative artist write only about problems?

A littérateur of Bengal, B, used to say that it is simply unthinkable that living in entire seclusion in Pondicherry or the Himalayas one can write anything in prose or poetry. His experience is sure to be limited.

What a stupidly rigid principle! Can B really write nothing except what he has seen or experienced? What an unimaginative man he must be! And how dull his stories must be and how limited.

I wonder whether Victor Hugo had to live in a convicts' prison before he invented Jean Valjean. Certainly one has to look at life, but there is no obligation to copy faithfully from life. The man of imagination carries a world in himself and a mere hint or suggestion from life is enough to start it going. It is recognised now that Balzac & Dickens created on the contrary their greatest characters which were not at all faithful to life around them. Balzac's descriptions of society are hopelessly wrong, he knew nothing about it, but his world is much more striking and real than the actual world around him which he misrepresented—even life has imitated the figures he made rather than the other way round. Besides who is living in entire seclusion in Pondicherry? There are living men and women around you and human nature is in full play here as well as in the biggest city—only one has to have an eye to see what is within them and an imagination that takes a few bricks and can make out of them a great edifice—one must be able to see that human nature is one everywhere and pick out of it the essential things or the interesting things that can be turned into great art.

In the evening when you come on the terrace—as I look at you, the horizon behind, divides distinctly into two colours: pale pink and pale blue. Is it simply due to my gazing fixedly at you, Mother?

In that case everybody who looks fixedly at the Mother on the roof would see a horizon of pale pink and pale blue. I doubt if it is the case.

May 26, 1934

You didn't tell me the significance of the colours.

Pink is the psychic colour—pale blue may be the higher mind—but blue has several significances, so it is not certain.

I hear B left because he couldn't conquer sex-impulse within some specified period?

B left out of ambition, not because of sex.

May 31, 1934