To Ramchandran1Sri Aurobindo
Autobiographical Notes
and Other Writings of Historical Interest
Part Two. Letters of Historical Interest
2.Early Letters on Yoga and the Spiritual Life 1911–1928
To People in India, 1914–1926
To Ramchandran1
[30 September 1925]
Dear Ramchandran,
I am answering your second letter which reached me today. And first I must say something about the very extraordinary line of conduct you propose to adopt in case of not hearing from me. I think it is because, as you say, your mind is not in a completely right condition that you have proposed it. No one with any common sense and certainly no one with a clear moral sense would support you in your intention. As to the law, it is not usual in France to take up things of this kind but only public offences against morals. The court would probably take no notice of your self-accusation and in any case it would not proceed in the absence of evidence from others which would here be lacking. But supposing it were otherwise, what would your action amount to? First, it would be putting an almost insuperable obstacle in the way of your own mental and moral recovery and of your leading a useful life in future. Secondly, it would be bringing an unmerited disgrace upon your father and family. Thirdly, it would mean, if it took any form, the ruin of the life of someone else, for, if I understand rightly what you say, some other or others would be involved, and your suggestion that you are entirely responsible would be absurd in law and could have no value and all this havoc you propose to cause merely in order to satisfy a morbid moral egoism. It would be, in fact, if it could be seriously executed, a greater immorality than anything you have yet done. The true way to set yourself right for your act is not to do untold harm to others in the name of honesty or any other virtue but to put yourself right inwardly and do otherwise in future.
I shall answer briefly the questions you put in your
second para. (1) The way to set yourself right is, as I have said, to set your
nature right and make yourself master of your vital being and its impulses. (2)
Your position in human society is or can be that of many others who in their
early life have committed excesses of various kinds and have afterwards achieved
self-control and taken their due place in life.
If you [were]2 not so ignorant of life, you would
know that your case is not exceptional but on the contrary very common and that
many have done these things and afterwards become useful citizens and even
leading men in various departments of human activity. (3) It is quite possible
for you to recompense your parents and fulfil the past expectations you spoke
of, if you make that your object. Only you must first recover from your illness
and achieve the proper balance of your mind and will. (4) The object of your
life depends upon your own choice and the way of attainment depends upon the
nature of the object. Also your position will be whatever you make it. What you
have to do is, first of all, to recover your health; then, with a quiet mind to
determine your aim in life according to your capacities and preferences. It is
not for me to make up your mind for you. I can only indicate to you what I
myself think should be the proper aims and ideals.
Apart from external things there are two possible inner
ideals which a man can follow. The first is the highest ideal of ordinary human
life and the other the divine ideal of Yoga. I must say in view of something you
seem to have said to your father that it is not the object of the one to be a
great man or the object of the other to be a great Yogin. The ideal of human
life is to establish over the whole being the control of a clear, strong and
rational mind and a right and rational will, to master the emotional, vital and
physical being, create a harmony of the whole and develop the capacities
whatever they are and fulfil them in life. In the terms of Hindu thought, it is
to enthrone the rule of the purified and sattwic buddhi,
follow the dharma, fulfilling one’s own
svadharma and doing the work proper to one’s capacities, and satisfy
kāma and artha under the control of the
buddhi and the dharma. The object of the
divine life, on the other hand, is to realise one’s highest self or to realise
God and to put the whole being into harmony with the truth of the highest self
or the law of the divine nature, to find one’s own divine capacities great or
small and fulfil them in life as 
a sacrifice to
the highest or as a true instrument of the divine Śakti.
About the latter ideal I may write at some later time. At present I shall only
say something about the difficulty you feel in fulfilling the ordinary ideal.
This ideal involves the building of mind and character
and it is always a slow and difficult process demanding patient labour of years,
sometimes the better part of the lifetime. The chief difficulty in the way with
almost everybody is the difficulty of controlling the desires and impulses of
the vital being. In many cases as in yours, certain strong impulses run
persistently counter to the ideal and demand of the reason and the will. The
cause is almost always a weakness of the vital being itself, for, when there is
this weakness it finds itself unable to obey the dictates of the higher mind and
obliged to act instead under the waves of impulsion that come from certain
forces in nature. These forces are really external to the person but find in
this part of him a sort of mechanical readiness to satisfy and obey them. The
difficulty is aggravated if the seat of the weakness is in the nervous
system. There is then what is called by European science a neurasthenia tendency
and under certain circumstances it leads to nervous breakdowns and collapses.
This happens when there is too great a strain on the nerves or when there is
excessive indulgence of the sexual or other propensities and sometimes also when
there is too acute and prolonged a struggle between the restraining mental will
and these propensities. This is the illness from which you are suffering and if
you consider these facts you will see the real reason why you broke down at
Pondicherry. The nervous system in you was weak; it could not obey the will and
resist the demand of the external, vital forces, and in the struggle there came
an overstrain of the mind and the nerves and a collapse taking the form of an
acute attack of neurasthenia. These difficulties do not mean that you cannot
prevail and bring about a control of your nerves and vital being and build up a
harmony of mind and character. Only you must understand the thing rightly, not
indulging in false and morbid ideas about it and you must use the right means.
What is needed is a quiet mind and a quiet will, patient, persistent, refusing 
to yield either to excitement or discouragement, but always insisting
[tranquilly]3 on the change needed in the
being. A quiet will of this kind cannot fail in the end. Its effect is
inevitable. It must first reject in the waking state, not only the acts habitual
to the vital being, but the impulses behind them which it must understand to be
external to the person even though manifested in him and also the suggestions
which are behind the impulses. When thus rejected, the once habitual thoughts
and movements may still manifest in the dream-state, because it is a well-known
psychological law that what is suppressed or rejected in the waking state may
still recur in sleep and dream because they are still there in the subconscient
being. But if the waking state is thoroughly cleared, these dream-movements must
gradually disappear because they lose their food and the impressions in the
subconscient are gradually effaced. This is the cause of the dreams of which you
are so much afraid. You should see that they are only a subordinate symptom
which need not alarm you if you can once get control of your waking condition.
But you must get rid of the ideas which have stood in the way of effecting this self-conquest.
(1) Realise that these things in you do not come from any true moral depravity, for that can exist only when the mind itself is corrupted and supports the perverse vital impulses. Where the mind and the will reject them, the moral being is sound and it is a case only of a weakness or malady of the vital parts or the nervous system.
(2) Do not brood on the past but turn your face with a patient hope and confidence towards the future. To brood on the past failure will prevent you from recovering your health and will weaken your mind and will, hampering them in the work of self-conquest and rebuilding of the character.
(3) Do not yield to discouragement if success does not come at once, but continue patiently and steadfastly until the thing is done.
(4) Do not torture your mind by always dwelling on your 
weakness. Do not imagine that they unfit you for life or for the
fulfilment of the human ideal. Once having recognised that they are there, seek
for your sources of strength and dwell rather on them and the certainty of
conquest.
Your first business is to recover your health of mind and body and that needs quietness of mind and for some time a quiet way of living. Do not rack your mind with questions which it is not yet ready to solve. Do not brood always on the thing. Occupy your mind as much as you can with healthy and normal occupations and give it as much rest as possible. Afterwards when you have your right mental condition and balance, then you can with a clear judgment decide how you will shape your life and what you have to do in the future.
I have given you the best advice I can and told you what seems to me the most important for you at present. As for your coming to Pondicherry, it is better not to do so just now. I could say to you nothing more than what I have written. It is best for you so long as you are ill, not to leave your father’s care, and above all, it is the safe rule in [an] illness like yours not to return to the place and surroundings where you had the breakdown, until you are perfectly recovered and the memories and associations connected with it have faded in intensity, lost their hold on the mind and can no longer produce upon it a violent or disturbing impression.
Aurobindo Ghose
1 Nothing is known about the recipient of this letter.
2 MS (copy) are
3 MS (copy) tranquility