Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Fragment ID: 15719

(this fragment is largest or earliest found passage)

Sri Aurobindo — Sahana Devi

Undated

The Mother told him the truth about the situation –with regard to persons – the truth about himself, his masculine vanity ..., self-centred egoism and the mistakes of the others also. He tells one side to others, keeps for himself, I suppose, what is too humiliating to his own self-esteem, but it broke much of his ego. It would not have had that effect, if Mother had charged the whole thing against him and taken only the side of the others – he would have felt it as a one-sided injustice. As for breaking his egoism completely, that is not easy – and would perhaps be a little dangerous so long as he is not more conscious of his own soul and cannot yet support himself n that alone – for it might leave him dejected, without self-respect of any kind, given up to mere despair. One must not treat human nature like a machine to be handled according to ‘rigid mental rules – a great plasticity is needed in dealing with its complex motives.