Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 2. 1936

Letter ID: 1690

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

July 30, 1936

Yesterday I had a very strange dream – not exactly a dream. 3 or 4 of us were listening to D singing with his teacher Majumdar (now dead) who was playing the harmonium. Majumdar joined D in the song. Then the harmonium stopped; Majumdar, carried away by the bhāva, made very fine rhythmic movements, uttering some lines now and then. Oh, the whole thing was exquisite. Then the funniest thing happened; Majumdar was turned into D, and I found it was D who was uttering the lines and making the movements with a bare upper body. Then the bust became luminous and he went on singing, dancing and gradually his luminous bust rose in the air and vanished away! Someone cried out – he is an avatar, avatar... The whole thing so influenced me that even after my sleep broke, I remained quiet, thinking of that very pleasant vision. It was 3.15 a.m. What’s this now?

A very queer dream in the vital plane – rather mixed with contributions from the subconscient. Possibly it was the element of Majumdar that D had absorbed which you saw in that figure, then it disappeared into D himself, the inner progress he had made through his music being figured in the bust being luminous. But the vanishing away and the avatar beat me.

I enclose a poem of J with the corrected version which is decidedly better than the original. She says formerly she used to aspire for things beautiful etc. instead of letting herself go. Now she remains passive – and this poem is the result. Any answer?

There is no incompatibility between aspiring and letting the thing come through. The aspiration gives the necessary intensity so that what comes has a better chance of being a true transcription. In this case probably the pain she felt in the neck etc. was a proof of some fatigue in the physical parts which spoiled the transmission...

I am afraid there is plenty of work for you tonight. You can keep my poem.

I am obliged to do so. I am issuing a notice for “Stop correspondence” but that need not deter you from sending your or J’s poems with comments.