Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 2. 1936

Letter ID: 1814

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

December 30, 1936

I understand that the curry given on Thursday evening is the residue of the soup, with some potatoes added. It has not much nutritional value since boiling for a long time takes all the stuff out, except a dead residue of cellulose. I propose humbly to the Mother to change this meal.

We don’t know anything of the kind. According to chemical analysis in France, half of the nutritive elements goes into the soup, half remains in the vegetables and these are eaten in France so as to have the full value of the food used.

I am afraid it is not good for the stomach either.

Why are you afraid? This soup affair on Thursday is done on the principle of the French national dish called pot-au-feu (as much the national dish as beefsteak is for England) in which the food is boiled in the soup and then the soup and the vegetables etc. cooked in it are taken. If it is so bad for the health, how is it that the French are not a nation of dyspeptics with bad stomachs and livers?

I have answered from the scientific and health point of view above. But since there is this prejudice and auto-suggestion as well probably as a strong dislike for it, Mother has stopped the whole soup affair. It is a very costly business and there is no use in spending so much if there is a dislike for the arrangement.