Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1. 1935

Letter ID: 1239

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

January 12, 1935

It comes as a great surprise to hear that you consider enthusiasm so important for want of which you didn’t utilise my medical knowledge!

I meant that as you had no enthusiasm for drugs, you might just as well be busy with timber.

I am really puzzled by your question; the more so because you have said that I am progressing more than I would have done if I were a literary or a medical gent.

Well, Mother had thought of you when we wanted somebody to fill up the hole left by the erratic D.S. and we also don’t know what we shall do when B goes for his periodic inspection of his affairs in Gujerat. We had rejected the idea because we thought you might not only be not enthusiastic but the reverse of enthusiastic about again becoming a medical gent. When however you spoke lovingly and hungeringly about the Rs. 20,000, I rubbed my eyes and thought “Well, well! here’s a chance!” That’s all.

If you seriously think that I may add my little strength to help the Divine and call me to do it I am thrice seriously your man.

We will think of it in case of need.

You speak as if the Energy or Force is just above the head, and one has only to snatch it down.

There is a lid in between. Remove that and the Force will come tumbling down into you.

And even if it were, how can I put the Force on the carpenters? Does it not also depend on the receptivity of the individuals?

Much more easy if you have the force to make a carpenter carpent properly than to propel a sadhak in the way he should go. Receptivity is all-important for the sadhana – it counts but not so much in getting an ordinary thing done by an ordinary man.