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Letters on Himself and the Ashram
Selected Letters on His Outer and Inner Life,
His Path of Yoga and the Practice of Yoga in His Ashram
Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry, c. 19151918 Part One
Remarks on His Life and Works and on His Contemporaries and Contemporary Events
Section One
Reminiscences and Remarks on Events in His Outer Life
His Life and Attempts to Write about It
Knowing about Things in His Past
For a long time I have wanted to hear something about the early days in Pondicherry from those who lived with you then. This morning I approached X and asked him. He agreed to tell me and a few friends some stories and anecdotes. Do you think it undesirable or objectionable in any way?
I do not know whether it is of much utility. Besides, it would be only myself who could speak of things in my past, giving them their true form and significance. But as you have arranged it, it can be done. 11 August 1933 On Writing His Biography
This [a proposed book in Telugu] is not a publication for which the Asram is responsible. If the outer facts of the life are corrected there is no harm, but nothing should be said about the inner things of the life here. It is not necessary to give the book so much importance or try to make it an authoritative biography. 14 May 1933 * [B. R. DHURANDHAR TO A. B. PURANI:] My friend and colleague Mr. P. B. Kulkarni is the author of several books in Marathi, including a life of C. R. Das. He is now writing a biography of Sri Aurobindo Ghose. He has been collecting material for many years and has already written around 200 pages. As he wants the biography to be authentic he is trying to approach persons who have come into contact with Sri AG. Please be kind enough to extend your cooperation to him.
I am not interested in my own biography. Who is this Dhurandhar or this Kulkarni? Page – 5 Is there any reply to be sent to this letter?
I don't think a reply is necessary. If I am to be murdered in cold print, it had better be done without my disciples becoming abettors of the crime. 24 June 1933 *
This idea of a "Life" going into details and personalities is itself an error. I wrote the brief life given to Dilip as containing all that I wanted to be said about me for the present.1 The general public can know about my philosophy and Yoga and general character of my work, it has no claim to know anything about the personal side of my life or of that of the Asram either. 30 October 1935 *
First of all what matters in a spiritual man's life is not what he did or what he was outside to the view of the men of his time (that is what historicity or biography comes to, does it not?) but what he was and did within; it is only that that gives any value to his outer life at all. It is the inner life that gives to the outer any power it may have, and the inner life of a spiritual man is something vast and full and, at least in the great figures, so crowded and teeming with significant things that no biographer or historian could ever hope to seize it all or tell it. 9 February 1936 * Here is a tempting offer. A publisher writes to me: "We are beginning a series of biographies. . . . We propose that you take up Sri Aurobindo's biography. We shall give you very good terms, as you are well qualified for the task." If I decline
1 The "brief life" referred to here is "Sri Aurobindo: A Life Sketch", reproduced on pages 5 10 of Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, volume 36 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. See also Sri Aurobindo's letters to Dilip Kumar Roy about the "Life Sketch" and about biography in general on pages 11 13 of the same volume. Ed. Page – 6 I am sure they will just get it done by someone else. What do you say?
There is no one who can write my biography nor is this the time to do it, supposing it has to be done at all. If the outward facts of the life are meant, anybody can do that and it has no importance the best thing is to have some outsider to do that mess, if mess there must be.
Comments on the Work of a Biographer
Girija's writings are of no importance.2 I don't think there is anything on which we can call upon them to stop his articles. He will claim the right to personal judgment and interpretation of facts, as regards the mask of spirituality over the secret society and the "ruthless murders" and there is nothing else on which objection can be based. Let him go his way unnoticed.
2 Girijashankar Raychaudhuri was the author of a Bengali study of Sri Aurobindo's early life. See Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, pp. 88 and 562. Ed.
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