Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

Letter ID: 196

Sri Aurobindo — Roy, Dilip Kumar

1932 (?)

I don’t think I can suggest any corrections in Suhrawardy’s letter, except perhaps that “awe-struck importance” ought strictly to be “awe-striking”, since it is not the importance but the people who feel it who are awe-struck or want to be. The rest I find perfectly correct and well-written.

The “symbol” explanation is certainly one of the weakest of the many weak concessions that have been made to “Western rationalism” by Indian apologists who try to save their case by giving away nine-tenths of it. In a certain sense the gods are symbols, I suppose, but in that sense everything and everybody is a symbol, including the said surrenderful apologists themselves (...)