Sri Aurobindo
Autobiographical Notes
and Other Writings of Historical Interest
Part Three. On Indian and World Events 1940–1950
1. Messages
The Present Darkness (April 1950)1
You have expressed in one of your letters your sense of
the present darkness in the world round us and this must have been one of the
things that contributed to your being so badly upset and unable immediately to
repel the attack. For myself, the dark conditions do not discourage me or
convince me of the vanity of my will to “help the world”, for I knew they had to
come; they were there in the world nature and had to rise up so that they might
be exhausted or expelled so that a better world freed from them might be there.
After all, something has been done in the outer field and that may help or
prepare for getting something done in the inner field also. For instance, India
is free and her freedom was necessary if the divine work was to be done. The 
difficulties that surround her now and may increase for a time,
especially with regard to the Pakistan imbroglio, were also things that had to
come and to be cleared out. Nehru’s efforts to prevent the inevitable clash are
not likely to succeed for more than a short time and so it is not necessary to
give him the slap you wanted to go to Delhi and administer to him. Here too
there is sure to be a full clearance, though unfortunately a considerable amount
of human suffering in the process is inevitable. Afterwards the work for the
Divine will become more possible and it may well be that the dream, if it is a
dream, of leading the world towards the spiritual Light, may even become a
reality. So I am not disposed even now in these dark conditions to consider my
will to help the world as condemned to failure.
4 April 1950