Sri Aurobindo
Autobiographical Notes
and Other Writings of Historical Interest
Part Two. Letters of Historical Interest
1. Letters on Personal, Practical and Political Matters
(1890–1926)
Letters and Telegrams to Political and Professional
Associates 1906–1926
To Anandrao1
[June 1912]
Dear Anandrao,
My Bengal correspondent writes to me that you have sent
me the following message, "The Baroda friend has left service and therefore
there is difficulty in finding money. He asks, now you have become a Sannyasin,
on what ground he can collect money. Still, if you let him know clearly your
future, the time it will take to effect your siddhi and the amount of money you
need, he will try to collect from Rs 600 to 1000."
I cannot understand why on earth people should make up
their minds that I have become a Sannyasin! I have even 
made it clear enough in the public Press that I have not taken
Sannyasa but am practising Yoga as a householder, not even a Brahmacharin. The
Yoga I am practising has not the ghost of a connection with Sannyasa. It is a
Yoga meant for life and life only. Its object is perfection of the moral
condition and mental and physical being along with the possession of certain
powers – the truth of which I have been establishing by continuous practical
experiment,– with the object of carrying out a certain mission in life which God
has given me. Therefore there is or ought to be no difficulty on that score. If
I were a Sannyasin, there would indeed be no money difficulty to solve.
The question about the siddhi is a little difficult to
answer precisely. There are four parts of the siddhi, roughly, moral, mental,
physical and practical. Starting from December 1908 the moral has taken
me three years and a half and may now be considered complete. The mental has
taken two years of regular sadhana and for the present purpose may be considered
complete; the physical is backward and nearing completion only in the immunity
from disease – which I am now attempting successfully to perfect and test by
exposure to abnormal conditions. The physical also does not matter so much for
practical purposes, as the moral, mental and a certain number of practical
siddhis are sufficient. It is these practical siddhis that alone cause delay. I
have had first to prove to myself their existence and utility, secondly to
develop them in myself so as to be working forces, thirdly to make them actually
effective for life and impart them to others. The development will, I think, be
complete in another two months, but the application to life and the formation of
my helpers will take some time – for the reason that I shall then have a greater
force of opposition to surmount than in the purely educative exercises I have
hitherto practised. The full application to life will, I think, take three years
more, but it is only for a year of that time (if so long) that I expect to need
outside assistance. I believe that I may have to stay in French India for
another year. I presume that is what the question about my future means. But on
this point also I cannot speak with certainty. If, however, it refers to my
future work, that is a big question and 
does
not yet admit of a full answer. I may say briefly that I have been given a
religious and philosophical mission, to re-explain the Veda and Vedanta
(Upanishads) in the ancient sense which I have recovered by actual experience in
Yoga and to popularise the new system of Yoga (new in arrangement and object)
which has been revealed to me and which, as I progress, I am imparting to the
young men staying with me and to others in Pondicherry; I have also to spread
certain ideas about God and life by literary work, speech and practice, to try
and bring about certain social changes and , finally, to do a certain work for
my country, in particular, as soon as the means are put in my hands. All this to
be done by God’s help only and not to be begun till things and myself are ready.
The amount of money I shall need for the year in
question, are Rs 300 to clear up the liabilities I have contracted during the
last nine or ten months (in which I have had only fortuitous help) and some Rs
1200 (or 1400, reckoning up to August 1913) to maintain myself and those I am
training. I had hoped to get the money from a certain gentleman who had promised
me Rs 2000 a year for the purpose and given it for the first year from October
1910 to October 1911. But there are great difficulties in the way and I can no
longer reckon surely on this support which would have made it unnecessary for me
to tax my friends. Please ask my friend if, with this explanation, he can manage
the money to the amount suggested. If I get other help from this side, I shall
let him know so that the [?burden can]2 be lightened.
At present I am at the height of my difficulties, in
debt, with no money for the morrow, besieged in Pondicherry and all who could
help are in temporary or permanent difficulties or else absent and beyond
communication. I take it, from my past experiences as a sign that I am nearing
the end of the period of trial. I would ask you if you can do no more, at least
to send me some help to tide over the next month or two. After that period, for
certain reasons, it will be easier to create means, if they are not created for
me.
AG.
