Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 2. 1937

Letter ID: 2006

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

July 24, 1937

You know V is having difficulty in breathing through the left nostril. Maybe due to polypus. Do you know what he does? He has got some string, besmears it with bee’s wax. passes it through one nostril, brings it out through the mouth, and then puts it into the other nostril. Feels much better! Hathayogic treatment, he says. I have no idea, have you? Any danger in it? Can’t opine myself; only I think the rope is misplaced!

It is done by the Hathayogis with a cloth, I believe, just as they clean their entrails from throat to anus with a cloth. For them there is no danger, for they are trained but if it is done by a self-sufficient ass or even by an untrained amateur simply there may be danger in these things. Mudgaokar the Bombay judge (known to me) tried the cleaning of the nose with water, a simple Hathayoga process, and had trouble with his proboscis in consequence. It did not approve of his way of dealing with it.

Really, Sir, you have caught a magnificent fellow for Supramentalisation, what?

Well, sir, in the supramental world all kinds will be needed, I suppose. Then why not a supramental ass?