Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 2. 1938

Letter ID: 2071

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

April 4, 1938

I shall be very careful with D, and even if I have nothing to write to him, I shall write rubbish!

Right! Rubbish is usually better appreciated than things worth saying.

Formerly I heard that X didn’t much appreciate D’s singing, but now – just see! Is it a change in D or a “pretence” of X?

Everybody agrees that D’s singing has undergone a great change – so it may be that.

Doesn’t X, a great intellect, realise that whatever D has achieved, has been done because of some inner gain through your Force?

A man may have a great intellect and yet understand nothing about spiritual things or spiritual force. X’s knowledge in these matters does not seem to go beyond closing his eyes and feeling nice and peaceful.

I wonder why these people don’t understand the work you are doing.

How the deuce do you expect them to understand something quite foreign to their own nature and experience?

I suppose they don’t recognise your spirituality. Otherwise how to explain X’s and others’ love for Buddha and their miscomprehension regarding you?

Love for Buddha is an established tradition, so anybody can follow it. Even the Europeans praise Buddha.

I read the other day a talk between a Moslem and Sarat Chatterjee about our Asram. The Moslem says that the whole Asram has grown up from abnormal circumstances as it were; by which he means that you fled away from the political field: “defeated, discouraged, disheartened”, a failure, in one word, and started on Asram.

Have read it. The Moslem was K.N., if I remember right – a flaring atheist and God-beater. So what do you expect?

And he says that the Asram, judging by the ideals it stands for, is a great enemy to the society... It doesn’t recognise the “individual entity”; somebody gets “Light” and everything has to be done according to his dictates.

Very bad that. To do according to the dictates of the masses i.e. ignorance multiplied to the millionth is so much better!