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 [19]1
[1914–1915]
Dear M.
Your letter and enclosure (50) reached us all right. We
have not received the Rs. 200 due from Das. As for the Rs. 500, that has nothing
to do with the garden money of my uncle, it is a sum promised to me which Saurin
was to have brought, but it was not paid in time. He tells me he told you about
it before he came and he wrote also from here. Our actual expenses here are Rs.
115 a month; this can be reduced if we get another house, but you know that is
not easy in Pondicherry. I note that we are to get Rs. 50 from you in the latter
part of this month.
So much for money
matters. It is regrettable that the Government should think you are mixed up in
political matters and that you are on the list of suspects. But once they get
that idea into their heads, it is impossible to change it; once a suspect,
always a suspect is their rule. They are particularly good at purchasing trouble
for themselves and others in this way and just now they are all fear and
suspicion and see revolutions in every bush. The only thing is to be extremely
careful. You should not on any account move out of Chandernagore so long as the
war measures are in force; for in these times innocence is no defence.
It is regrettable that Bengal should be unable to find
anything in the Arya, but not surprising. The intellect of Bengal has been so
much fed on chemical tablets of thought and hot spiced foods that anything
strong and substantial is indigestible to it. Moreover people in India are
accustomed only to secondhand thoughts,– the old familiar ideas of the six
philosophies, Patanjali etc. etc. Any new presentation of life and thought and
Yoga upsets their expectations and is unintelligible to them. The thought of the
Arya demands close thinking from the reader; it does not spare him the trouble
of thinking and understanding and the minds of the people have long been
accustomed to have the trouble of thought spared them. They know how to indulge
their minds, they have forgotten how to exercise them.
It does not matter very much just now, so long as the
people who practise the Yoga, read and profit. The Arya presents a new
philosophy and a new method of Yoga and everything that is new takes time to get
a hearing. Of course, in reality it is only the old brought back again, but so
old that it has been forgotten. It is only those who practise and experience
that can at first understand it. In a way, this is good, because it is meant to
change the life of people and not merely satisfy the intellect. In France it has
been very much appreciated by those who are seeking the truth, because these
people are not shut up in old and received ideas, they are on the lookout for
something which will change the inner and outer life. When the same state of
mind can be brought about here, the Arya will begin to be appreciated. At 
present, Bengal only understands and appreciates politics and
asceticism. The central ideas of the Arya are Greek to it.
Soon after the Arya began, I got a letter from some
graduates saying that what they wanted was “man-making”. I have done my share of
man-making and it is a thing which now anybody can do; Nature herself is looking
after it all over the world, though more slowly in India than elsewhere. My
business is now not man-making, but divine man-making. My present teaching is
that the world is preparing for a new progress, a new evolution. Whatever race,
whatever country seizes on the lines of that new evolution and fulfils it, will
be the leader of humanity. In the Arya I state the thought upon which this new
evolution will be based as I see it, and the method of Yoga by which it can be
accomplished. Of course, I cannot speak plainly yet my whole message, for
obvious reasons, I have to put it in a severe, colourless fashion which cannot
be pleasing to the emotional and excitement-seeking Bengali mind. But the
message is there, for those who care to understand. It has really three parts
(1) for each man as an individual to change himself into the future type of
divine humanity, the men of the new Satyayuga which is striving to be born; (2)
to evolve a race of such men to lead humanity and (3) to call all humanity to
the path under the lead of these pioneers and this chosen race. India and
especially Bengal have the best chance and the best right to create that race
and become the leaders of the future – to do in the right way what Germany
thought of doing in the wrong way. But first they must learn to think, to cast
away old ideas, and turn their faces resolutely to the future. But they cannot
do this, if they merely copy European politics or go on eternally reproducing
Buddhistic asceticism. I am afraid the Ramakrishna Mission with all its good
intentions is only going to give us Shankaracharya and Buddhistic
humanitarianism. But that is not the goal to which the world is moving.
Meanwhile remember that these are very difficult times and careful walking is
necessary. It is just possible that the war may come to an end in a few months,
for the old immobility is beginning to break down and the forces at work behind
the veil are straining towards a solution. While the war 
continues, nothing great can be done, we are fettered on every side.
Afterwards things will change and we must wait for the development.
K.