Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 2. 1936

Letter ID: 1687

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

July 27, 1936

Today another poem by J. I’m staggered by her speed in writing. She says lines, chhanda, simply drop down, and she jots them down. She feels as if somebody is writing through her.

But that is how inspiration always comes when the way is clear and the mind sufficiently passive. Something drops or pours down; somebody writes through you.

I don’t know that by one’s mind one can write such things. What do you say?

Not possible. There would be something artificial or made up in them if it were the mind that did it.

How has she opened to the mystic plane? Something akin to her nature or one just opens?

It may be either.

Even when a thing drops down, isn’t it rather risky to accept it as it comes, specially the chhanda part of it?

If anything is defective, it can be only by a mistake in the transcription.

Does the chhanda also come down with inspiration or has one to change it afterwards?

Yes, it comes and is usually faultless – if the mind is passive and the source a high, deep or true one. Of course metre as the Supraphysical understand it!

I shall illustrate my point. J says she sometimes rejects lines because she doesn’t understand their meaning. But since they repeatedly throw themselves on her, she accepts them. When the poem is completed the meaning becomes clear.

The mind ought to be quiet till all is written. Afterwards one can look and see if there is anything to be altered.

All this is really funny. How has she got this Blakish opening without even reading him? Was she Blake or Mrs. Blake by any chance?

Not necessarily. She was certainly not Blake. What I meant was not that they were just like Blake’s or a reproduction of his, but simply that they have a kindred mystical stamp and come from a similar source of inspiration. The figures, the form, the general vision are quite different from Blake’s.

Lines come down in her meditation or she actually hears them!

Why not? It is quite common with many here.

How do you find the metre of this poem? It seems a bit jerky to me. And how do you like the word উল্লাসে¹?

I don’t know really the law of Bengali metre in this respect. In an English stanza it would be quite natural to have these variations, especially if they go by pairs as here. But you should know better what is or is not admissible in Bengali. Of course Bengalically the last line may be dropped – but উল্লাসে spoils the symmetry of the sense a little, as it is intended to refrain the idea of the opening lines. However if necessary as metre, উল্লাসে will do very well.

You didn’t write anything about Jatin’s room business?

Forgot, by Jove!

¹ ullāse: in exultation.

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