Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 2. 1936

Letter ID: 1699

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

August 10, 1936

In your yesterday’s answer you wrote that I have indicated the panacea in my poem. I thought I spoke of faith and surrender! Is that it?

You described very admirably the attitude of perfect nirbhar¹ which is the great secret of the most perfect kind of sadhana.

You have not said how to get into touch with the central being, and get it into action.

There is no how. One decides to do it and one does it.

My mental will itself is weak.

It can be made strong.

I can try to call down the Mother’s force, but faith and surrender would require a wonderful Yogic poise and power possible only in born Yogis, I think.

Not at all. A wonderful Yogic poise and power would usually bring self-reliance rather than faith and surrender. It is the simple people who do the latter most easily.

When you spoke of “poetic power” in my poetry, what did you mean? I asked D. He says “poetic power” means a dynamism, a vigorous living force which we find in Madhu-sudan... But we find in Shakespeare both power and beauty, while Swinburne has hardly power predominant.

No power in Swinburne?

Did you mean by “poetic power” a power or capacity of expression?

Of course that was what I meant. The other kind of power would not be prefaced by the epithet poetic. One would simply say “there is great power in his style” etc.

¹ Reliance.

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