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
To and about Public Figures 1930–1937
On a Proposed Visit by Mahatma Gandhi [1]1
Govindbhai Patel: Here is a postcard from Gandhi. If you think he can receive something from you, please grant him permission to meet you.
You will have to write that I am unable to see him because for a long time past I have made it an absolute rule not to have any interview with anyone – that I do not even speak with my disciples and only give a silent blessing to them three times a year. All requests for an interview from others I have been obliged to refuse. This rule has been imposed on me by the necessity of my sadhana and is not at all a matter of convenience or anything else. The time has not come when I can depart from it.
28 December 1933
1 1934. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948) visited Pondicherry on 17 February 1934. At that time he was temporarily retired from politics. As he related in his letter to Sri Aurobindo (part of which is reproduced above Sri Aurobindo’s reply of 7 January 1934), he had been anxious to meet Sri Aurobindo since he returned to India from South Africa in 1915. In order to arrange a meeting, he wrote to Govindbhai Patel, a disciple of Sri Aurobindo’s who previously had been connected with Gandhi’s movement. (There is some evidence that Govindbhai had written earlier to Gandhi to suggest a meeting.) On 2 January 1934 Gandhi wrote directly to Sri Aurobindo.