Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 2. 1936

Letter ID: 1780

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

November 19, 1936

Guru, Mother said I was receptive? But how? I don’t know really.

How the devil can you know, when you are not conscious?

That is the whole trouble in your Yoga, Sir, that everything goes on in an unconscious stream.

It always does in the earlier stages.

All I know is that I tried to be calm and silent, forgetting by mind-effort that an outer world exists. That is receptivity?

Nonsense! It is only the proper condition for receptivity. Naturally, it is the proper thing to do if you want to be receptive or become conscious of inner things. So long as the mind is jumping about or rushing out to outside things, it is not possible to be inward, collected, conscious within.

The Mother said to me in the interview that my inner mind asked for vital stability and faith, which can be established by bringing the psychic to the front. How to do that? I consulted your books and found that by silence, self-offering and aspiration, it has to be done.

Yes, that is the proper way.

But aspiration for what?

Aspiration for the Divine or aspiration for faith and consciousness and the perfection of self-giving – aspiration for divine love, bhakti, anything that connects the soul with the Divine.

Does the psychic come to the front even if the vital is impure?

Well, it may; anything is possible; but if it does, it will certainly say “Fie, fie, what! all this dirt in the temple. Sweep me the temple clean.”

Or the emergence of the psychic purges the vital of its impurities?

Yes, provided you give your assent.

I find that so long as sex is strong, no ascent or descent is possible.

That is not true. It is possible but damnably unsafe.

But in spite of these things which you say are not mine alone, if I could get rid of these two devils – doubt and despondency!

They are not uniquely yours either.

J does not claim to know any sadhana but still to have an inner peace and joy. It must be true, for I find J very happy and cheerful.

Well, yes, many people are like that. Calm or peace or happiness or cheerfulness, so long as there is no cause for disturbance; but immediately there is, then boil, seethe, simmer, growl, howl, yowl. The calm which causes of disturbance cannot disturb is the thing.

You say the working of the Force is not altogether in vain in spite of serious defects in people’s nature. But surely they must have satisfied some essential conditions for gaining the experiences.

Yes, of course. But it varies with different people. It may be faith, it may be earnestness and persistence. It may be love for the Divine. There are many other things it may be. Like the Mahomedan with his tuft, you must give a handle somewhere for the Angel of the Lord to catch hold of you and lift you up.

Otherwise I could have those experiences as well, but I can’t, why?

Mind bubbling, vital disturbed and despondent, physical inert.

Or would you say that it has taken those people 7 or 8 years?

Yes, it has – what you would call damned slow progress – but, slow or not, they arrive.

It seems to me there must have been some difference between X and me, for instance, for which she had the experiences and I didn’t. She took sadhana by the “right end” you said, which means surely that she had no doubt or despondency?

No, sir, she had these in fits and very bad fits too like everybody else almost. But she preferred to believe, to be devoted, to fight against herself and conquer. She did not like Y take a pride in doubting and using the intellect for the purpose, was sensible enough to see that that wasn’t what she came here for. She didn’t want to question everything and be satisfied in her limited intellect before she took the way of spiritual self-giving and inner experience.

How did this “fundamental calm” get established in her?

It came of itself through the sincerity of her will to open and to live for the Divine – there was insincerity and ego on the surface but the psychic could make itself heard owing to this – so the inner being slowly grew.