Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 3
Letter ID: 891
Sri Aurobindo — Roy, Dilip Kumar
January 18, 1937
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Dhurjati wrote to me yesterday a short letter asking me to wire his brother (at Calcutta) your blessings on the eve of his departure for change. In sheer chagrin and vexation I tore it off and thought I would not even let you know. I utterly dislike this Kasmandaism for it is the same. Why on earth should you wire, fancy! Then suppose his brother takes an ill-turn: won’t they say with a knowing smile and wise head-shaking, “Ah-h-h! Didn’t we tell Dhurjati –”, etc. I know our Calcuttan critics and I can’t dream of being instrumental in making my guru their butt. You may not mind but I do. So I decline. If you care to wire your blessings it’s your business – not mine – for my heart is far from compassion débordante pour les gens qui n’approchent Ie Divin que lorsqu’ils sont malades1. Yet I thought it would be wrong of me not to let you know even. For you may send a force, qui sait [who knows] – in spite of Kasmandaism and Dhurjati-ism. Do, if you can afford the time – that is entirely your affair. I tell you this to tell you in all sincerity that I am disgusted – disgusted – no milder word will describe my disappointment with this Dhurjatyism and Kasmandaism under the guise ofdevotionalism 
and sudden-turn-ism. Humbug! You have to send your blessings by wire to his brother who (for ought we know) maybe of the type described by Shakespeare in Macbeth, “Nothing became them in life so much as their leaving it.” (I quote the idea from memory.) Even the Kasmandas didn’t dare so much, what?
P.S. Whatever you may say. Guru, I respond still with Sri Ramakrishna’s ideology, “To ask the Divine to cure this cage of flesh and bone! fie!” I was reading even the other day his prayer, “Mā erā tomār kāchhe ese ki nā prārthanā kare “rog bhālo karo – bhakti dāo e prārthanā chhere? ki hīna buddhi!” [Mother, they come to you and then pray to be cured from illnesses, instead of praying “give me bhakti!” What low mentality!] hīna buddhi indeed! “Sots” – c’est Ie mot juste, n’est-ce pas? [“Idiots” is the right word, isn’t it?] (Though by way of cautious reservation I may butt in this – that in such a moment of weak sottise [foolishness] I too may pray to be cured if I am ill – but that doesn’t invalidate the truth behind my present contempt of such prayers, i.e. of all prayers which concentrate on gifts not quintessential to Divinity like Truth, Knowledge, Purity, Fidelity, Vairagya, etc. Bless me that I may be an orthodox ascetic on this point in all sincerity. Let that be my birthday prayer anyhow.
That is all right. It is a proper spirit for the spiritual training.
Obviously to seek the divine only for what one can get out of Him is not the proper attitude; but if it were absolutely forbidden to seek Him for these things, most people in the world would not turn towards Him at all. I suppose therefore it is allowed so that they may make a beginning – if they have faith, they may get what they ask for and think it a good thing to go on and then one day they may suddenly stumble upon the idea that this is after all not quite the one thing to do and that there are better ways and a better spirit in which one can approach the Divine. If they do not get what they want and still come to the Divine and trust in Him, well, that shows they are getting ready. Let us look at
it as a sort of infants’ school for the unready. But of course that is not the spiritual life, it is only a sort of elementary religious approach. For the spiritual life to give and not to demand is the rule. The sadhak, however, can ask for the Divine Force to aid him in keeping his health or recovering it if he does that as part of his sadhana so that his body may be able and fit for the spiritual life and a capable instrument for the Divine Work.
As for the wire of blessings, I do not see much necessity for it. All that is necessary is that he should send information whenever necessary.
1 My heart is far from overflowing compassion for people who approach the Divine only when they are sick.
2 CWSA, volume 29: on
Current publication:
[A letter: ] Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo to Dilip.- 1st ed.- In 4 Volumes.- Volume 3. 1936 – 1937 / edited by Sujata Nahar, Michel Danino, Shankar Bandopadhyay.- Pune: Heri Krishna Mandir Trust; Mysore: Mira Aditi, 2003.- 305 p.
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