Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1. 1935

Letter ID: 1276

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

March 2, 1935

You thrashed me for calling you grave and austere at the Darshan time [23.235]. But see, when we go to the Mother, how seraphically she smiles, while your Self being near, appears still far away at some Olympian height. It is difficult to discern the gravity or the jollity of a face at such a height. But I suppose, our conception of the gods was formed from the vision of such a figure.

Neither gravity nor jollity, but a large, easy, quiet, amiable condition. The gods can’t be amiable?

The very fact that there remains no question about the Mother’s feeling and attitude, shows that we are not probably all wrong and devoid of sense.

Look here, what are you saying? The Mother’s feeling and attitude are being constantly questioned by the sadhaks, “You didn’t smile! You were severe! You are displeased with me! You don’t love me! What wrong have I done?” etc., etc. much to the Mother’s astonishment, as she had no consciousness of such things in her!

A smile may be nothing to some, but if you look at it a little sympathetically and humanly, you will give it its proper importance. Considering the fact that one has left behind all joys and pleasures of life and come to a desert – at least at the primary stage – you can’t ask us to be above all expectations of touches of soft breezes, can you?

The poet says or ought to have said, “It is the mind that makes its hell or heaven.” The proof is that some people find it for a long time not a desert, but as they call it, a Paradise. Of course it is neither,– it is what one makes of it.

I am thinking of taking some milk-tea and butter in the morning! Will it be a move to the left? If so, I give it up at once.

Butter in milk-tea? Never heard of such a meal before! Is it symbolic of the supramental?