the first is always recommended in cases of nervous strain or weakness, for the second the Doctors of the Ashram, especially Upendranath and Becharlal, always recommend because they have seen its effects and believe in it.Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 1
Letter ID: 395
Sri Aurobindo — Roy, Dilip Kumar
September 7, 1933
I can only say that Imagination when a little wildly active can be a Shakespeare and create in real life a new Much Ado about Nothing!
But why suppose that when I send the Doctor to see somebody it is with full instructions what to say and what to recommend? I don’t. I send him in his medical capacity to find out what is wrong, report to me and make recommendations which we accept or reject according to our lights. I sent him because vivid reports were sent to me by Nolini and Amiya herself about her bad condition of health and nocturnal sufferings. I knew of course that it was the nerves but for the physical mind the appearance of medical Authority on the spot is sometimes indispensable. Nothing was recommended about any maunavrata [vow of silence] being necessary, nor had I any intention of imposing anything of the sort. As for the recommendation of quiet and the opening to the Force, the first is always recommended in cases of nervous strain or weakness, for the second the Doctors of the Ashram, especially Upendranath and Becharlal, always recommend because they have seen its effects and believe in it.
I do not understand about this fear. The Mother has never been severe with either Amiya or Nalina1, but always kind, patient and indulgent. If it exists it must be the child of imagination or of Ashram gossip or a prolonged echo of the theories of Barin and others. Obviously it is by love or faith that one opens to the Divine, not by fear.
I do not understand either about this bathroom affair. The Mother naturally does not care to spend money on this house for which we have no lease nor any hope of one at present. But she did not refuse Amiya’s request about cementing – it was only postponed because the B.D. [Building Department] was full of work elsewhere. I think I myself wrote to that effect – then why these ideas about it?
Your idea of exchange of houses if carried out, could not be done till the repairs are over – a delay of two months. But for you also and Anilkumar some arrangement seems urgently necessary till then. Mother suggests that Amiya and Nalina should shift temporarily to Cocotiers upstairs – that being the only possible other place now – and you and Anilkumar should go to Vigie. When the Trésor is ready, we can see what decision is to be finally made. What do you all say to that?
1 Sahana’s elder sisters. They had arrived in January 1932 and were living in a rented house, Budi, on the seashore.