Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 2. 1934 — 1935

Letter ID: 650

The Mother — Roy, Dilip Kumar

November 19, 1935

Your warning is apposite and timely. For I do often find I enjoy such high praises with a beatific smile as you put it. I am trying very sincerely however (I have just a redeeming feature or two in my composition I hope?) not to accept such praises for my separate and egoistic enjoyment. But having been “a spoilt child of Fortune and Nature” as you put it it is difficult not to “smile” secretly upon such “spoilers”. But I do try and am fully conscious and my aspiration as well as will are entirely d’accord that I should and must get rid of every vainglory and egoistic and aesthetic satisfaction, etc. I do very often pray earnestly to be able to repudiate such praises, etc. as not the dues of my ego but to look upon every delight I can give to others as the gift and grace of my guru and Mother. Truly. You don’t believe? Mais vous devez, car c’est la vérité [But you ought to, because it is the truth].

Right. But there is no objection to aesthetic satisfaction, that is needed for the work. It is only Jack Horner who has to disappear.