Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
First Series
Fragment ID: 20425
See letter itself (letter ID: 449)
Sri Aurobindo — Roy, Dilip Kumar
May 4, 1934
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I have objected in the past to vairagya of the ascetic kind and the tamasic kind.... The vairagya of one who has tasted the world’s gifts or prizes but found them insufficient or tasteless and turns away towards a higher ideal or the vairagya of one who has done his part in life’s battles but seen that something greater is demanded of the soul, is perfectly helpful and a good gate to the Yoga.... By ascetic vairagya I mean that which denies life and world altogether and wants to disappear into the Indefinable – I object to it because my aim is to bring the Divine into life. But if one is satisfied with life as it is, then there is no reason to seek to bring the Divine into life. So vairagya in the sense of dissatisfaction with life as it is is perfectly admissible and even in a certain sense indispensable for my yoga.
1 SABCL, volume 22; Sri Aurobindo to Dilip.- Vol. 2; CWSA, volume 29: finally tasteless
2 SABCL, volume 22; Sri Aurobindo to Dilip.- Vol. 2; CWSA, volume 29: and more beautiful ideal
3 SABCL, volume 22; Sri Aurobindo to Dilip.- Vol. 2; CWSA, volume 29: the ascetic
4 SABCL, volume 22; Sri Aurobindo to Dilip.- Vol. 2; CWSA, volume 29: for those who come to this yoga because
5 SABCL, volume 22; Sri Aurobindo to Dilip.- Vol. 2; CWSA, volume 29: it is incompatible with my aim which is to
Current publication:
Sri Aurobindo. Letters of Sri Aurobindo: In 4 Series.- First Series [On Yoga].- Bombay: Sri Aurobindo Sircle, 1947.- 416 p.
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