What do you think of this? Is Biren’s impression correct? Tagore is a humanitarian but I didn’t take him to be atheistic?Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 2. 1934 — 1935
Letter ID: 436
Sri Aurobindo — Roy, Dilip Kumar
March 23, 1934
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I have just received a letter from Biren Roy Chowdhuri1 who had a talk with Tagore in which he told him a good many things about you and his conception of you. Briefly it is this, Biren writes, “Rabindranath has a strand of atheism in his composition: he admits the nirākār brahma [formless Brahman] on the one hand and this material world of forms on the other. Beyond this nothing. It is true his verses depict some ideas and perceptions in between, but he himself looks upon these as creations of his imagination – phantasy that is. His religious belief is powerfully tinged by Brahmoism (or rather brahmo-prabhāv). The result is that he finds himself unable to admit the Devas and their worlds which are supraphysical relative to our world of the senses.”
What do you think of this? Is Biren’s impression correct? Tagore is a humanitarian but I didn’t take him to be atheistic?
I suppose he is not an atheist; Brahmo-prabhàv [influence of brahmoism] and Nirākār Brahma [Formless Brahman] are not atheism – but I suppose his beliefs are rather thin and vague. His idealism even is just idealism – it is good for the mind and soul to have “spiritual” ideas, but this cannot be put into concrete practice. I am told that he once expressed that idea.
But Tagore is I think fairly right in looking upon his spiritual poems not born of realisation but kalpanā jagater [the world of imagination]. It is interesting to know that he admits this. For Nolini told me this long ago that his so-called spiritual poems were more imaginative and colourful than psychic. What do you say to this?
Well, yes, he mentalises, aestheticises, sentimentalises the things of the spirit – but I can’t say that I have ever found the expression of a concrete spiritual realisation in his poetry – though ideas, emotions, ideal dreams in plenty. That is something, but –
Biren writes, “About Sri Aurobindo Tagore said that it has lately seemed to him that Sri Aurobindo was steadily delving deeper and ever deeper into the strata of the inner realms, and added that probably his nature was responsible for this. He wound up by saying that it was probably a mistake to claim him for our world of action. In a word, Tagore and the Tagorians have, by now, all but given up Sri Aurobindo for lost – as one irreclaimable. They have got this idée fixe now rooted in their minds that «Sri Aurobindo’s wings have become atrophied by his protracted seclusion in his meditative cage» – to quote Tagore – so that they have no longer the faith they once 
had that Sri Aurobindo was going to inaugurate a new era of creation in this world of fact.”
Just think of Tagore saying this in his similesque way!
I feel Tagore has come to this conclusion after reading your “Riddle of this World” which must have appeared to him more of a riddle than of an explanation. For formerly he wrote to me about you enthusiastically as a creator – sab shrishtikartāï eklā – Sri Aurobindo o tāï [All creators are lonely, so is Sri Aurobindo], etc.
I suspect also that Romain Rolland’s retraction has something to do with Tagore’s retraction – albeit private now, but I expect sooner or later he will write somewhere about your becoming a thorough introvert. There of course the whole Bengal intelligentsia (such as it is) will agree with him. Are you staggered at such a lugubrious prospect?
I cannot find any symptom of a stagger in me, not even of a shake or a quake or a quiver – all seems quite calm and erect, as far as I can make out. And I don’t find the prospect lugubrious at all – the less people expect of you and bother you with their false ideas and demands, the more chance one has to get something real done. It is queer these
intellectuals go on talking of creation while all they stand for is collapsing into the Néant without their being able to raise a finger to save it. What the devil are they
going to create and from what material? and of what
use if
a Hitler with his cudgel or a Mussolini with his castor oil can come and
wash it out or beat it into dust in a moment?
1 Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury, Zamindar of Gouripur, East Bengal. A veteran sarod player and Dilip’s close friend.
2 Sri Aurobindo and Mother to Prithwi Singh: the
3 SABCL, volume 22; Letters of Sri Aurobindo. 2 Ser. What are they
Sri Aurobindo and Mother to Prithwi Singh: What are you
4 SABCL, volume 22; Letters of Sri Aurobindo. 2 Ser.; Sri Aurobindo and Mother to Prithwi Singh: Besides what
5 SABCL, volume 22; Letters of Sri Aurobindo. 2 Ser. is it all if
Sri Aurobindo and Mother to Prithwi Singh: is it if
6 SABCL, volume 22; Letters of Sri Aurobindo. 2 Ser.; Sri Aurobindo and Mother to Prithwi Singh: come at any moment and
Current publication:
[A letter: ] Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo to Dilip / edited by Sujata Nahar, Shankar Bandyopadhyay.- 1st ed.- In 4 Volumes.- Volume 2. 1934 – 1935.- Pune: Heri Krishna Mandir Trust; Mysore: Mira Aditi, 2003.- 405 p.
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