Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1. 1935

Letter ID: 1351

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

June 9, 1935

We had a discussion on Divine Love yesterday at D’s place. Can we say the Divine may love one more than another? The expression would then be a little misleading because it will bring in human comparisons.

Not only a “little”, but very misleading.

I would like to ask something about it. It is said that the Divine loves all equally; yet it is a fact that some are dearer to Him than others. I believe, you too say the same thing in the Gita!

I don’t say; it is the Gita that says it – or rather there are two separate slokas: one says that the Divine makes no differences – the other says that Arjuna is specially dear to him.

Sometimes I feel that if the Divine loves all equally, even then D and myself, for example, transgressing some vital rules of the Ashram, will not be equally treated. In my saner moments I have tried to look at it more rationally.

That does not stand. Sometimes you might get nothing except perhaps an invisible stare; sometimes I might say “Now, look here, Nirod, don’t make an immortal ass of yourself – that is not the transformation wanted.” Still another time I might shout “Now! now! What the hell! what the blazes!” So it would depend on the occasion, not only on the person.

There are many instances to show that some persons are dearer to the Divine than others. Besides Krishna and Arjuna, we have the instance of Buddha and Ananda.

There is also St. John, the beloved disciple.

Then again, Vivekananda was dearer to Ramakrishna than the other disciples. Chaitanya showered his grace on Madhai and Jagai, but were they closer to him than Nitai?

But he had love for them (তাই বলে কি প্রেম দিব না?).¹

Some say that because through one person, chances of manifestation are greater, or because he is more open, or is a Vibhuti, he will be nearer to the Divine. That, I think, can be swept aside since degrees of manifestation can never be a criterion. What is it that determines this – I really don’t know.

Of course you don’t – nor does anybody. Is love a creation of the reason? or dealt out by this or that scale? Or does the Divine calculate “This fellow has so much of this or that quality! I will give him just so much more love than to that other?”

This question is not only of theoretical interest to us, but also of practical importance, since in our stumblings and gropings the Divine here may have a soft corner for some, and not perhaps for others to the same extent.

All that is rather beside the point. There is a universal divine love that is given equally to all – but also there is a special relation with each man – it is not a question of more or less, though it may appear so. But even that less or more cannot be judged by human standards. The man who gets a blow may, if he has a certain relation, feel it as a divine caress; he may even say, erecting his own standard, “She loves me more than others, because to others she would not [have] given that blow, to me she felt she could give it,” and it would be quite as good a standard as the kind treatment one – as standards go. But no standards apply. For in each case it is according to the relation. The cause of the relation? It differs in each case. Cast your plummet into the deep and perhaps you shall find it – or perhaps you will hit something that has nothing at all to do with it.

¹ tāi bale ki prema diba nā. The well-known words of Chaitanya: “Shouldn’t I love them for that reason?”

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