Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

CWSA 35

Fragment ID: 8303

Speculations about His Past Lives [4]

The Mother or you are said to have declared that a divine descent was attempted during the Renaissance, with Leonardo da Vinci as its centre – a very credible report since we believe you were Leonardo and the Mother Mona Lisa. I shall be much interested to know something about the inner side of this phenomenon. Was Leonardo aware of a semi-avatarhood or a pressure of spiritual planes?

Never heard before of my declaring or anybody declaring such a thing. What Leonardo da Vinci held in himself was all the new age of Europe on its many sides. But there was no question of Avatarhood or consciousness of a descent or pressure of spiritual planes. Mysticism was no part of what he had to manifest.

15 July 1937