as
it was seven or eight years ago, but everything is changed since then and such
things are no longer possible.Sri Aurobindo
Autobiographical Notes
and Other Writings of Historical Interest
Part Two. Letters of Historical Interest
3. Other Letters on Yoga and Practical Life 1921–1938
On Yoga and Fund-raising for the Ashram, 1921–1938
To Durgadas Shett [3]1
I had given Barin an answer to your former letter, but it may either not have been sent or else delayed or lost owing to the railway strike.
A paper of the kind you are undertaking is not part of my work. My only work is that which is centralised at Pondicherry under the control of the Mother. What she gives to the sadhaks to do elsewhere or accepts as helpful for the present or the future is part of the work. All else belongs to the old movements or to the outside world. So long as one has the old mentality and is still living the old life, he can always undertake anything of the kind and according to his fortune and capacity succeed or fail. I may give some help if there is any good reason for it, but I can undertake no responsibility for the work or its results.
Suresh is not at present “one of us”, on the contrary
he has left and taken a hostile attitude. Your request to Nalini and others
[ ]2 to go over there as editor is made without any
knowledge of the present condition of the Sadhana and the present mentality of
the Sadhakas here. You write as if all were as
it was seven or eight years ago, but everything is changed since then and such
things are no longer possible.
You write about your pres[ent] [incomplete]3
1 A member of a wealthy family of industrialists based in Chandernagore, Durgadas Shett (1895–1958) sent significant amounts of money to Sri Aurobindo through Motilal Roy before 1922. In 1934 his family property was distributed, and he gave most of his share to Sri Aurobindo. Afterwards he lived an austere life; at times he was dependent on Sri Aurobindo for cash for ordinary expenses.
2 MS seems
3 This is Sri Aurobindo’s draft answer to a letter from Durgadas dated 16 July 1928. Sri Aurobindo did not complete the letter. Instead he wrote a note to Nolini Kanta Gupta in which he gave his thoughts on the points in Durgadas’s letter, presumably for communication to Durgadas in Bengali. See the next item. – Ed.