Yog-biyog etc., but they are as nauseating to me as quinine which I had to gulp in childhood. And see the trick of Fate, it is such things now that I am called upon to do.Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 1. 1936
Letter ID: 1598
Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar
April 10, 1936
By “my big photo” I meant your photo, which would be drawn by Sanjiban.
You are always plunging me into new mysteries. If it is a photo, how can it be “drawn” by anybody? And what is the tense, connotation and psychological and metaphysical annotation of “would be” here?
You see the photo is being eaten up by insects, so it has to be tightened and papered, I suppose. I should have written Biren’s treatment, but since Sanjiban has drawn it, I thought it was his case. So all interrogations answered, permission granted?
Yes.
Why did you stop your treatment – or rather R’s?
Did you really want me to chant the mantra? I took it as a big piece of a hearty joke. Who knew that so much Biblical significance and value were hiding behind this simple mantra?...
You couldn’t realise that Tut Tut Tut was a serious mantra with immense possibilities? Why, it is the modern form of तत्1 and everybody knows that ॐ तत् सत्2 is a mantra of great power. Only you should as a penance for not having accepted at once do it, not 15,000, but 150,000 times a day – at a gallop, e.g. OM Tut a Tut, tut a tut, tut a TUT and so on at an increasing pace and pitch till you reach either Berhampur3 or Nirvana.
I am not only ignorant about all things spiritual, Atma, Yog-biyog etc., but they are as nauseating to me as quinine which I had to gulp in childhood. And see the trick of Fate, it is such things now that I am called upon to do.
You are justly punished – but what is Yog-biyog? I thought that had to do with mathematics, not spiritual philosophy.
Is it for nothing that I see the Red Light burning in the subtle worlds, as the outcome of my misadventure?
Take courage. Say Tut tut tut to the misadventure and go ahead.
1 tat. That, the Absolute, pronounced “tut”.
2 om tat sat: Om That which Is.
3 A place known for its lunatic asylum.