Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Letters

Fragment ID: 22081

If your observation is exact, the only thing within you that can be its cause is the readiness to anger, perhaps a proneness to curt or rough speech, an impatience of other people’s ideas and actions, ways of thought and behaviour as not being yours and not right and the conveying of this feeling to them by word or manner. That could make many feel though not all timid or uneasy in speaking with you. A greater tolerance and patience would change this, though not perhaps at once.

But is your observation quite right? Some no doubt may behave like that or feel like that, but it is not likely that all would; for these are defects that are not the whole person or nature and there are always some who look beyond the partial defects of a man or woman’s nature and do not mind them so much because they feel and appreciate the finer side. Only if you are much hurt by the conduct of those who avoid contact, you may unconsciously ignore the better feeling in others and attribute to them the same reactions.