life. However, I may be mistaken; a writer’s opinions on his productions generally are.Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 2. 1934 — 1935
Letter ID: 578
Sri Aurobindo — Roy, Dilip Kumar
April 5, 1935
Does the man across the Atlantic – but would not that mean America? – really expect an immediate reply? I thought you hinted he was a procrastinator? Well, I had not forgotten him, but I was for one thing much pressed or oppressed with other matters and for another I wanted after all to procrastinate because I have been feeling a strong resistance to this publication of a book of small selections. It seems to me not the thing and not the time. It is a little difficult to explain in a mental form, for the mental reasons are on the surface and can be counter-argued. However, I shall perhaps try to do so on Sunday.
On Sunday also I shall look at the Urvasie1. It is a poem I am not in love with – not that there is not some good poetry in it, but it seems to me as a whole lacking in originality and life. However, I may be mistaken; a writer’s opinions on his productions generally are.
I am again obliged to put off the niṣkṛti from Nishkriti2 till tomorrow as it is 4.30 a.m. and I have not finished my other work. By the way what does this title really mean or refer to – is it a riddance or a deliverance and, in any case, whose from whom or what? It is the occurrence of the word in Shailaja’s prayer that raises this questioning.
1 “Urvasie”: one of Sri Aurobindo’s narrative poems. The theme, love of King Pururavas of the lunar dynasty and the nymph Urvasie, is taken from the Mahabharata.
2 Nishkriti: a Bengali novel by Sarat Chandra Chatterji, translated by Dilip and revised by Sri Aurobindo.