Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 2. 1935

Fragment ID: 17770

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Sri Aurobindo — Doshi, Nagin

April 13, 1936

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1935

In the same book Brunton has discussed the central teachings of some great Yogis of modern India. I find nothing new in them. They seem like a repetition of the Yogas of ancient India. To leave the world and seek self-realisation is their goal. All that does not appear to me a very difficult stage.

Wonderful! The realisation of the Self which includes the liberation from the ego, the consciousness of the One in all, the established and consummated transcendence out of the universal Ignorance, the fixity of the consciousness in the union with the Highest, the Infinite and Eternal is not anything worth doing or recommending to anybody – is “not a very difficult stage”!

Nothing new! Why should there be anything new? The object of spiritual seeking is to find out, what is eternally true, not what is new in Time.

From where did you get this singular attitude towards the old Yogas and Yogis? Is the wisdom of the Vedanta and Tantra a small and trifling thing? Have then the sadhaks of this Ashram attained to self-realisation and are they liberated Jivan-muktas, free from ego and ignorance? If not, why then do you say, “it is not a difficult stage” “their goal is not so high” “is it such a long process”?

I have said that this Yoga is “new” because it aims at a change in this world and not only beyond it and at a supra-mental realisation. But how does that justify a superior contempt for the spiritual realisation which is as much the aim of this Yoga as of any other?

¹ SABCL, volumes 22, 26; `Doshi, Nagin. Guidance... Vol. 1.; CWSA, volumes 29, 35: from ego

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² SABCL, volumes 22, 26; `Doshi, Nagin. Guidance... Vol. 1.: the

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³ SABCL, volumes 22, 26; `Doshi, Nagin. Guidance... Vol. 1.; CWSA, volumes 29, 35: a very difficult

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⁴ SABCL, volumes 22, 26; `Doshi, Nagin. Guidance... Vol. 1.; CWSA, volumes 29, 35: not high

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⁵ CWSA, volumes 29, 35: was

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⁶ SABCL, volumes 22, 26; `Doshi, Nagin. Guidance... Vol. 1.; CWSA, volume 29: the

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⁷ SABCL, volumes 22, 26; `Doshi, Nagin. Guidance... Vol. 1.; CWSA, volume 29: integrality of the Divine

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Current publication:

Doshi, Nagin. Guidance from Sri Aurobindo: Letters to a Young Disciple.- In 3 volumes.- Volume 1. 1933-34

Other publications:

Sri Aurobindo. Letters on Yoga // SABCL.- Volume 22. (≈ 28 vol. of CWSA).- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1971.- 502 p.

Sri Aurobindo. On Himself // SABCL.- Volume 26. (≈ 35 vol. of CWSA)

[Largest or earliest found passage: ] Sri Aurobindo. Letters on Himself and the Ashram // CWSA.- Volume 35. (≈ 26 vol. of SABCL).- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2011.- 658 p.

Sri Aurobindo. Letters on Yoga. II // CWSA.- Volume 29. (≈ 22-24 vol. of SABCL).- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2013.- 522 p.

Sri Aurobindo. Letters of Sri Aurobindo: In 4 Series.- Forth Series [On Yoga].- Bombay: Sri Aurobindo Sircle, 1951.- 652 p.