Nirodbaran's Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo

November 1934

For quite a number of days I was free from vital thoughts and impulses. But they seem again to raise their heads ... I sat down to meditate thinking that the wave would pass over my head if I plunged it deep down. The meditation was over when another huge wave swept me away, as it were.

Why these impulses after meditation?

They come in order to disturb or obstruct the meditation and if there are any results gained from it or about to be gained, to come across them.

I am trying to be silent within, but the mood of jocularity persists. Is it not, however, a sign of cheerfulness?

Not always—moreover the cheerfulness is vital. I do not say that it should not be there, but there is a deeper cheerfulness, an inner সুখহাস্য¹⁶ which is the spiritual condition of cheerfulness.

November 7, 1934

My birthday falls on the 17th. Hope my name is there?

It is there. On the I 7th after 12.

About five minutes before the end of the evening meditation, I felt such a pressure on the head as if it would burst or I would tumble down. I was then forced to open my eyes to relieve the pressure. Was it because my capacity to contain the Force was limited?

Probably the accumulated Force became more than the physical being could receive. When that happens, the right thing to do is to widen oneself (one can learn to do it by a little practice). If the consciousness is in a state of wideness, then it can receive any amount of Force without inconvenience.

I had a dream that I had gone home. My mother seeing me after a long time clasped me and pressed me so hard that I got afraid and began to call you. Is it that my vital went there or that the vital spirit of my mother came here and attacked me in this way?

It is probable that it was not your mother at all but a vital Force taking her shape so as to have a hold on you.

November 10, 1934

P.S. was telling me that cultivation of literature here hasn't much sense, since none will be able to get first class, or outclass Tagore. He must always remain the only brilliant star in literature. Others won't even get a chance to shine by his side, not to speak of outshining him. Only Dilip can be somehow given a second class privilege, but that too for his prose, and not for poetry.

He further asserts that Yoga has no power to bring any pursuit—literature, painting, etc. to a height of perfection.

I don't agree with P.S. If a man has a capacity for poetry or anything else, it will certainly come out and rise to greater heights than it would have done elsewhere. Witness D who was unable to write poetry till he came here though he had the instinct and the suppressed power in him, N whose full flow came only here. A, P whose recent poems in Gujerati seem to me to have an extraordinary beauty—though I admit that I am no expert there. H wrote beautifully before but the sovereign excellence of his recent poetry is new. There are others who are developing a power of writing they had not before. All that does not show that Yoga has no power to develop capacity. I myself have developed many capacities by Yoga. Formerly I could not have written a line of philosophy—now people have started writing books about my philosophy to my great surprise. It is not a question of first class or second class. One has to produce one's best and develop—the "class" if class there must be will be decided by posterity. Tagore himself was once considered second class by any number of people and the nature of his poetry was fiercely questioned—until the Nobel prize and consequent fame ended their discussions. One has not to consider fame or the appreciation of others, but do whatever work one can do as an offering of one's capacity to the Divine.

Of course, P.S. qualified his statement by saying that Supra-mental Force may do miracles. Such being the case, why not then direct one's energies towards spiritual achievements?

Certainly the energies should be directed towards spiritual achievement here—other things can only be a corollary or else something developed for the service of the spiritual Force.

I suppose he didn't mean born poets like Harindra and Nishikanta but the common herd like us who have no inborn talents, but who nevertheless aspire to be literary men. But even then, one cannot agree, for ff Yoga can only raise geniuses to super-geniuses and cannot make crowns out of clay, well—

Well, of course the first business of Yoga is not to make geniuses at all, but to make spiritual men—but Yoga can do the other thing also.

November 11, 1934

I have four rupees with which I wanted to buy something for you on my birthday. But an impulse has come to offer something to the sadhaks. So I asked D if biscuits could be managed. Do you approve of my proposal?

Yes—although it is not according to rule or precedent

I showed Dilip and others what you wrote about literature vs. Yoga. I hope it wasn't wrong.

No.

November 14, 1934