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 Motilal Roy [4]1
[February 1913]
Dear M
I have received Rs 60 by wire and Rs 20 by letter. It
was a great relief to us that you were able to send Rs 80 this time and Rs 85
for March; owing to the cutting off of all other means of supply, we were
getting into a very difficult position. I welcome it as a sign of some
preliminary effectiveness, through you, in this direction, in which, hitherto,
everything has gone against us; also, as one proof of several, that the quality
of your power 
and your work is greatly
improving in effectiveness and sureness. I need not refer to the other proofs;
you will know what I mean. But just now, I find every forward step to be made is
violently combated and obstinately obstructed. Our progress is like the advance
of a modern regiment under fire in which we have to steal a few yards at a run
and then lie down under covert and let the storm of bullets sweep by. I neither
hope for nor see yet any prospect of a more successful rapidity.
I have been lying down under covert ever since the middle of February, after a very brilliant advance in January and the early part of February. I keep the positions gained, but can make as yet no sure progress farther. There is only a slow preparation for farther progress. The real difficulty is to bring force, sureness and rapidity into the application of power and knowledge to life,– especially sureness,– for it is possible to bring force and rapidity, but if not attended by unfailing sureness of working, they may lead to great errors in knowledge and great stumbles and disasters in action which counteract the successes. On the other hand, if sureness has to be gained only by not stepping except where everything is sure (which is the first stage of action and knowledge necessary to get rid of rajasic rashness) progress is likely to be slow. I am trying to solve the dilemma.
I have not kept your last letter and I only remember that you asked me to write something about your sadhan. I cannot just now, but I shall try to do it in my next, as I expect by then to be clear of some of my present difficulties.
There is the pressing cry for clothes in this quarter, as these articles seem to be with us to remind us now constantly of the paucity of matter. I have received Bepin Pal’s Soul of India. Can you add to it by getting from Hiranyagarbha Sister Nivedita’s My Master as I saw him. I am also in need, as I wrote to you once before, of R. C. Dutt’s Bengali translation of the Vedas. Neither of these books is urgently wanted but please [ ]2 keep them in mind and send them when you can.
Kali
1 In February 1910, Sri Aurobindo left Calcutta and took temporary refuge in Chandernagore, a small French enclave on the river Hooghly about thirty kilometres north of Calcutta. There he was looked after by Motilal Roy (1882–1959), a young member of a revolutionary secret society. After leaving Chandernagore for Pondicherry in April, Sri Aurobindo kept in touch with Motilal by letter. It was primarily to Motilal that he was referring when he wrote in the “General Note on Sri Aurobindo’s Political Life” (p. 64 of this volume): “For some years he kept up some private communication with the revolutionary forces he had led through one or two individuals.” In these letters, which were subject to interception by the police, he could not of course write openly about revolutionary matters. He developed a code in which “tantra” meant revolutionary activities, and things connected with tantra (yogini chakras, tantric books, etc.) referred to revolutionary implements like guns (see Arun Chandra Dutt, ed., Light to Superlight [Calcutta: Prabartak Publishers, 1972], pp. 27–30). The code sometimes got rather complicated (see the note to letter [3] below). Sri Aurobindo did not use his normal signature or initials in the first 22 letters. Instead he signed as Kali, K., A. K. or G. He often referred to other people by initials or pseudonyms. Parthasarathi Aiyangar, for example, became “P. S.” or “the Psalmodist”.
2 MS them