Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

SABCL 26

Fragment ID: 7988

Lies? Well, a Punjabi student at Cambridge once took our breath away by the frankness and comprehensive profundity of his affirmation: “Liars! But we are all liars!” It appeared that he had intended to say “lawyers”, but his pronunciation gave his remark a deep force of philosophic observation and generalisation which he had not intended! But it seems to me the last word in human nature. Only the lying is sometimes intentional, sometimes vaguely half-intentional, sometimes quite unintentional, momentary and unconscious. So there you are!...

Of course you are right about the lies – these are of all sorts – and also about all men being durācāra,– only some are virtuous durācāras, some sinful ones and some a mixed lot! I don’t mean to deny that there are Harischandras and Shukadevas here and there but. one has to take a microscope or a telescope to find them.