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 [6]1
[June – July 1913]
Dear M.
Your letter, money etc have reached me without delay or
mishap. Please make it a rule, in future, not to be anxious or troubled when you
get no answer; when I do not reply, it is 
not
because I have not received your letters, but because silence was necessary, for
my siddhi, for yours or for the work that has to be done. At such times, keep
calm, repel any suggestions of perplexity or anxiety and do not allow any
disturbing mental waves to interfere between. A still heart, a clear mind and
untroubled nerves are the very first necessity for the perfection of our Yoga.
I enclose a letter for C. R. Das. Please transmit it
and get a reply written or verbal. You will see, I did not authorise Bhaga to
ask him for money; at the same time, in doing so, he obeyed an unspoken general
vyapti from myself which his mind seems to have got hold of and mixed up
with its own desires and anxieties. I am drawing now towards the close of my
internal Yogic tapasya and the time is not very distant when I shall have to use
its results for the work God has sent me to do in the world. For that work I
shall need large sums of money. So long as I was only perfecting myself and
sending out Shakti to others, all I needed was enough for the maintenance of
myself and those who are with me. This charge I gave to you and the charge is
not withdrawn; but, as you know, it covers only the bare physical necessities of
our life in Pondicherry. More than that, you are not likely to be able to
afford; and certainly you could not provide me with the sums I shall need even
in the earlier part of my work. To limit myself to the Rs 85 a month you can
send me, would be to deny myself the material means for doing what I have to do
and to accept stagnation and quiescence. It is true I am not beginning that work
immediately, but, before it begins, I have to bend circumstances to my will in
this very particular so that the obstacle of paucity of means which has been my
chief stumbling block for the beginning may be got rid of once for all. My will
has to become effective on this point above all and the impediments both
subjective and objective to its mastery have to be eliminated. Therefore I have
sent out the general vyapti I spoke of. Biren’s action was one of the first
responses, but, as it was [an] impure response, it has created more golmal than
effect. As to confining the appeal for pecuniary assistance to those who are
entirely of one way of thinking with ourselves, it 
was a good rule for you to observe; but it cannot bind me when I begin my larger
movement. From whatever quarter money or help comes to me, it comes from God.
With regard to the Tantric books, the Psalmodist was here, and wrote to you and went away, expecting to return in a fortnight; but several fortnights have passed without his return. He has written to us to say he has received money from you and we have written to him to come here. He is expected daily, but he does not arrive. He will, no doubt, be a good karmavira in time; but at present he is too rajasic, with intervals of tamas, has too much faith in European religions and the arms of the flesh and too little faith in Yoga and the arms of the spirit. He went northward on his own initiative; I could have told him his efforts there would be fruitless, but it is always well for a man to get experience for himself, when he will not take the benefit of superior experience. Your scheme about the books is impracticable under present conditions of which you are ignorant. When he comes, we will consult together and see if any blameless way can be found. But there is a time for all things and the time for free publication of Tantric works has not arrived. Still, your particular order may be met. Your letter to him, if addressed to Pd, did not reach us; whether he got it in Madras or not, I do not know.
Your working, remember, is not yet definitive working; it is still in the nature of experiment, with some minor results. When your sadhan of our tantric kriya has become more perfect and the necessary spiritual force can be sent from here,– then, real Tantra can begin. Meanwhile, don’t be over-eager; let nothing disconcert, discourage or perplex you. Eagerness, anxiety and discouragement are all different faces of one defect. I shall write to you on all matters connected with the Tantra after the Psalmodist arrives. Also about the Vedanta. If he does not come soon, I shall write all the same.
Bejoy was to have seen Ramchandra in Calcutta and given
you news of us, on his way to Khulna, but from your not sending the June money
and from Sudhir’s letter, it seems the interview did not take place or else no
report was given to you. Please send the money.
I am going on somehow, but the money I am doing with, will have to be replaced.
Kali
P.S. The Psalmodist has written, announcing his immediate arrival here, but he has so often disappointed us that I send off this letter, without farther waiting. If he comes, I shall write to you as soon as anything is settled.
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”.