Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 2. 1934 — 1935
Letter ID: 474
Sri Aurobindo — Roy, Dilip Kumar
August 25, 1934
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But, great snakes! when did I ever tell you that faith in Haradhan (!)1 and his statements and the greatness of his poetry was a binding part of the Divine Law? Or that to 
believe every blamed thing that is said by every blessed body is a necessity of sadhana? Or that if you don’t have an implicit, a total and dogged faith in all the marvellous and miraculous things related by Bejoy Goswami’s disciples about their master, you will be shut out for ever from the Divine Grace? I am not three-fourths insane, par exemple, nor four-fourths either!
I ask you to have faith in the Divine, in the Divine Grace, in the truth of the sadhana, in the eventual triumph of the spirit over its mental and vital and physical difficulties, in the Path and the Guru, in the existence of things other than are written in the philosophy of Haeckel or Huxley or Bertrand Russell, because if these things are not true, there is no meaning in the Yoga. As for particular facts and asseverations about Bejoy Goswami or anybody else, there is room for discrimination, for suspension of judgment, for disbelief where there is good ground for disbelief, for right interpretation where the facts are not to be denied or questioned. But all that cannot be for the sadhak as it is for the materialistic sceptic founded on a fixed pre-judgment that only what is normal, in consonance with the known (so-called) laws of physical nature is true and that all which is abnormal or supernormal must a priori be condemned as false. The abnormal abounds in this physical world; the supernormal is there also. In these matters, apart from any question of faith, any truly rational man with a free mind (not tied up like the rationalists or so-called free thinkers at every point with triple
cords of a priori irrational disbelief) must not cry out at once “Humbug! falsehood!” but suspend judgment until he has the necessary experience and knowledge. To deny in ignorance is no better than to affirm in ignorance. If your method has saved you from quack gurus, that shows that everything in this world has its uses, doubt and denial also, but it does not prove that doubt and denial are the best way of discovering the Truth. One can apply here the epigram of Tagore about the man who shut and locked up all the doors and windows of his house so as to exclude Error – but, cried Truth, by what way then shall I enter?
The faith in spiritual things that is asked of the sadhak is not an ignorant but a luminous faith, a faith in light and not in darkness. It is called blind by the sceptical intellect because it refuses to be guided by outer appearances or seeming facts – for it looks for
the truth behind – and does
not walk on the crutches of proof and evidence. It is an intuition – an intuition not only waiting for experience to justify it, but leading towards experience. If I believe in self-healing, I shall after a time find out the way to heal myself. If I have a faith
in transformation, I can end by laying my hand on and unravelling the whole process
of transformation. But if I begin with doubt and go on with more doubt, how far am I likely to go on the journey?
However, this is only a retort, not my reply for which I have no time tonight. My reply will come lengthier and later.
1 (Sri Aurobindo’s note:) Haradhan owes nothing to me except his “philosophy” – in his faith in himself etc., he is his own creator – a self-made man. And do you mean to say that because faith is misused by Haradhan or others, it is not to be used at all? If electricity is bungled by an ignoramus, must electricity be rejected from use?
2 SABCL, volume 22: the triple
3 CWSA, volume 28: to
4 SABCL, volume 22: and because it does
5 CWSA, volume 28: faith
6 SABCL, volume 22: process
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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