{"id":1310,"date":"2013-07-13T01:34:01","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1310"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:34:01","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:01","slug":"44-poetic-creation-and-yoga-vol-09-the-future-poetry-volume-09","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/09-the-future-poetry-volume-09\/44-poetic-creation-and-yoga-vol-09-the-future-poetry-volume-09","title":{"rendered":"-44_Poetic Creation and Yoga.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"center\">\n<table cellpadding=\"6\" width=\"100%\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\">\n<tr>\n<td>\n<div class=\"Section1\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-weight:700'><font size=\"4\">s<\/font><font size=\"2\">ection<\/font><font size=\"4\"><br \/>\nn<\/font><font size=\"2\">ine<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;line-height:150%'><font size=\"4\"><b>Poetic Creation and Yoga \u2013<br \/>\nUtility of Literature, etc. in Sadhana<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:left;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;line-height:150%'><b><br \/>\n<font size=\"2\">READING AND<br \/>\nPOETIC CREATION AND YOGA<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><font size=\"4\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A<\/font> literary man is one who loves literature and literary activities for<br \/>\ntheir own separate sake. A Yogi who writes is not a literary man for he writes<br \/>\nonly what the inner Will and Word wants him to express. He is a channel and<br \/>\ninstrument of something greater than his own literary personality. Of course<br \/>\nthe literary man and the intellectual love reading\u2014books are their mind&#8217;s food.<br \/>\nBut writing is another matter. There are plenty of people who never write a<br \/>\nword in the literary way but are enormous readers. One reads for ideas, for<br \/>\nknowledge, for the stimulation of the mind by all that the world has thought or<br \/>\nis thinking. I never read in order to create. As the Yoga increased, I read<br \/>\nvery little \u2014 for when all the ideas in the world come crowding in from within<br \/>\nor from above, there is not much need for gathering men\u00adtal food from outside<br \/>\nsources; at most a utility for keeping one\u00adself informed of what is happening<br \/>\nin the world, \u2014 but not as material for building up one&#8217;s vision of the world<br \/>\nand Truth and things. One becomes an independent mind in communion with <i><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>the cosmic<br \/>\nThinker,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Poetry,<br \/>\neven perhaps all perfect expression of whatever kind, comes by inspiration, not<br \/>\nby reading. Reading helps only to<br \/>\nacquire for the instrument the full possession of a language or to get the<br \/>\ntechnique of literary expression. Afterwards one deve\u00adlops one&#8217;s own use of the<br \/>\nlanguage, one&#8217;s own style, one&#8217;s own technique. It is a decade or two that I<br \/>\nhave stopped all but the most casual reading but my power of poetic and perfect<br \/>\nexpression has increased tenfold. What I wrote with some difficulty, often with<br \/>\ngreat difficulty, I now write with ease. I am supposed to be a philosopher, but<br \/>\nI never studied philosophy \u2014 everything I wrote came from Yogic experience,<br \/>\nknowledge and inspiration. So too my greater power over poetry and perfect<br \/>\nexpression was acquired in these last days not by reading and seeing how other<br \/>\npeople wrote, but from the heightening of my consciousness and the greater<br \/>\ninspiration that came from the heightening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>Reading<br \/>\nand painstaking labour are good for the literary man but even for him they are<br \/>\nnot the cause of his good&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%'>Page &#8211; 503<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>writing, only an aid to it. The<br \/>\ncause is within himself. As to &quot;natural&quot;, I don&#8217;t know. Sometimes<br \/>\nwhen the talent is inborn, and ready for expression, they can call it natural.<br \/>\nSometimes it awakes from within afterwards from a till then hidden nature.<\/p>\n<p align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'>11.9.1934<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b><br \/>\n<font size=\"2\">POETRY AND SADHANA<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b>1<\/b><\/p>\n<p style='margin:0;line-height:150%' align=\"justify\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It is obvious that poetry cannot be a substitute<br \/>\nfor Sadhana; it can be an accompaniment only. If there is a feeling (of devo\u00adtion,<br \/>\nsurrender etc.), it can express and confirm it; if there is an experience, it<br \/>\ncan express and strengthen the force of experience. As reading of books like<br \/>\nthe Upanishads or Gita or singing of devotional songs can help, especially at<br \/>\none stage or another, so this can help also. Also it opens a passage between<br \/>\nthe external consciousness and the inner mind or vital. But if one stops at<br \/>\nthat, then nothing much is gained. Sadhana must be the main thing and Sadhana<br \/>\nmeans the purification of the nature, the con\u00adsecration of the being, the<br \/>\nopening of the psychic and the inner mind and vital, the contact and presence<br \/>\nof the Divine, the reali\u00adsation of the Divine in all things, surrender,<br \/>\ndevotion, the wide\u00adning of the consciousness into the cosmic Consciousness, the<br \/>\nSelf one in all, the psychic and the spiritual transformation of the nature. If<br \/>\nthese things are neglected and only poetry and mental development and social<br \/>\ncontact occupy all the time, then that is not Sadhana. Also the poetry must be<br \/>\nwritten in the true spirit, not for fame or self-satisfaction, but as a means<br \/>\nof contact with the Divine through inspiration or of the expression of one&#8217;s<br \/>\nown inner being as it was written formerly by those who left behind them so<br \/>\nmuch devotional and spiritual poetry in India; it does not help if it is<br \/>\nwritten only in the spirit of the Western artist or <i>litt\u00e9rateur.<\/i> Even<br \/>\nworks or meditation cannot succeed unless they are done in the right spirit of<br \/>\nconsecration and spiritual aspiration gathering up the whole being and<br \/>\ndominating all else. <b>It<\/b> is lack of this gathering up of the whole life<br \/>\nand nature and<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%'>Page &#8211; 504<\/span><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\" style='text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>turning it towards the one aim,<br \/>\nwhich is the defect in so many here that lowers the atmosphere and stands in<br \/>\nthe way of what is being done by myself and the Mother<span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;color:blue'><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'>19.5.1938<\/p>\n<p class=\"fr4\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b>2<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;To be a literary man is not a spiritual aim, but to use literature as a<br \/>\nmeans of spiritual expression is another matter. Even to make expression a<br \/>\nvehicle of a superior power helps to open the consciousness. The harmonising<br \/>\nrests on that principle<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b>3<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>Every artist almost (there can be rare exceptions) has got some\u00adthing of<br \/>\nthe &quot;public&quot; man in him in his vital-physical parts, which makes him<br \/>\ncrave for the stimulus of an audience, social applause, satisfied vanity,<br \/>\nappreciation, fame. That must go absolutely, if you want to be a Yogi, \u2014 your<br \/>\nart must be a service not of your own ego, not of anyone or anything else but<br \/>\nsolely of the Divine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"fr4\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b>4<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>There should be no &quot;desire&quot; to be a &quot;great&quot; writer.<br \/>\nIf there is a genuine inspiration or coming of power to write then it can be<span>\u00a0 <\/span>done, but to use it as a means of service for<br \/>\nthe Divine is the proper spirit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'>14.5.1934<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b>5<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>It<br \/>\nis your aim to write from the Divine and for the Divine \u2014 you should then try<br \/>\nto make all equally a pure transcription from the inner source and where the<br \/>\ninspiration fails return upon your work so as to make the whole worthy of its<br \/>\norigin and its object. All work done for the Divine, from poetry and art and<br \/>\nmusic to carpentry or baking or sweeping a room, should be made perfect<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%'>Page<br \/>\n&#8211; 505<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin-top:2.0pt;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>even in its smallest external<br \/>\ndetail as well as in the spirit in which it is done; for only then is it an<br \/>\naltogether fit offering.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'><span>11.11.1931<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-weight:700'><font size=\"2\">POETIC ACTIVITY AND<br \/>\nYOGA<\/font><font size=\"2\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I<br \/>\nhave always told you that you ought not to stop your poetry and similar<br \/>\nactivities. It is a mistake to do so out of asceticism or <i>tapasy&#257;.<\/i><br \/>\nOne can stop these things when they drop of themselves because one is full of<br \/>\nexperience and so interested in one&#8217;s inner life that one has no energy to<br \/>\nspare for the rest. Even then, there is no rule for giving up, for there is no<br \/>\nreason why poetry, etc., should not be a part of Sadhana. The love of applause,<br \/>\nof fame, the ego-feeling have to be given up, but that can be done without<br \/>\ngiving up the activity itself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; What<br \/>\nyou write is perfectly true, that all human greatness and fame and achievement<br \/>\nare nothing before the greatness of the Infinite and the Eternal. There are two<br \/>\npossible deductions from that: first that all human action has to be renounced<br \/>\nand&nbsp;one should go into a cave; the other is that one should grow out&nbsp;of<br \/>\nego so that the activities of the nature may become one day consciously an<br \/>\naction of the Infinite and Eternal. I myself never gave up poetry or other<br \/>\ncreative human activities out of <i>tapasy&#257;;&nbsp; <\/i>they fell into a<br \/>\nsubordinate position because the inner life became&nbsp;stronger and stronger<br \/>\nslowly: nor did I really drop them, only I had so heavy a work laid upon me<br \/>\nthat I could not find time to<b><sup> <\/sup><\/b>go on. But it took me years and<br \/>\nyears to get the ego out of them or the vital absorption, but I never heard<br \/>\nanybody say nor did it ever occur to me that that was a proof that I was not<br \/>\nborn for Yoga. You say I had made the mistake of my life in pronouncing you to<br \/>\nbe a &quot;born Yogi\u201d? I had not. I very explicitly based my remark on the<br \/>\npersonality that showed itself in your earlier experiences in a very vivid way<br \/>\nwhich no one accustomed to the things of the Yoga or having any knowledge about<br \/>\nthem could fail to recognise. But I did not mean that there was nothing<br \/>\nin&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%'>Page &#8211; 506<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>you which was<br \/>\nforeign to a &quot;born Yogi&quot;. Everyone has many personalities in him and<br \/>\nmany of them are not Yogic at all in their propensities. But if one has the<br \/>\nwill to Yoga, the &quot;born Yogi&quot; prevails as soon as he gets a chance of<br \/>\nmanifesting himself through the crust of the mind and vital nature. Only, very often<br \/>\nthat takes time.<b> <\/b><span>One<\/span> must<br \/>\nbe prepared to give the time.<span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;color:blue'><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-weight:700'><font size=\"2\">SILENCE AND CREATIVE<br \/>\nACTIVITY<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It would be a mistake to silence the poetic flow on principle; the<br \/>\ncreative habit is a tonic to the vital and keeps it in good con\u00addition and the<br \/>\npractice of Sadhana needs a strong and widening vital for its support. There is<br \/>\nno real incompatibility between the creative power and silence; for the real<br \/>\nsilence is something inward and it does not or at least need not cease when a<br \/>\nstrong activity or expression rises to the surface.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-weight:700'><font size=\"2\">CREATION BY THE WORD<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The word is a sound expression of the idea. In the supra-physical plane<br \/>\nwhen an idea has to be realised, one can by repeating the word-expression of<br \/>\nit, produce vibrations which prepare the mind for the realisation of the idea.<br \/>\nThat is the principle of the Mantras and of Japa. One repeats the name of the<br \/>\nDivine and the vibrations created in the consciousness prepare the realisation<br \/>\nof the Divine. It is the same idea that is expressed in the Bible: &quot;God<br \/>\nsaid. Let there be Light, and there was Light&quot;. It is crea\u00adtion by the<br \/>\nWord.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'>6.5.1933<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-weight:700'><font size=\"2\">INNER SELF-DEVELOPMENT AND THE GROWTH OF<br \/>\nPOETIC POWER<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b>1<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>I do not think<br \/>\nyou need be anxious about the poetry; the power<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%'>Page &#8211; 507<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>is sure to<br \/>\nre-express itself as soon as you are ready for a progress. It has probably<br \/>\nstopped working temporarily because the pres\u00adsure is now for the inner<br \/>\nself-creation more than for the outer expression \u2014 I am speaking, of course, of<br \/>\nyour case in particular. The expression in poetry and other forms must be, for<br \/>\nthe Yogi, a flowing out from a growing self within and not merely a mental<br \/>\ncreation or an aesthetic pleasure. Like that the inner self grows and the<br \/>\npoetic power will grow with it.<span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;color:blue'><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'>9.12.1931<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;line-height:150%' align=\"center\"><b>2<\/b><span>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;line-height:150%' align=\"center\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It<\/span> is not the question, for this is<br \/>\nnot a question of personal capa\u00adcity but of the development of the receptivity<br \/>\nand for that the sole thing necessary is an entire or at least a dominant will<br \/>\nto receive. What you call your mind and your soul are only a small surface part<br \/>\nof you, not your whole being. Personal capacity belongs to the temporary<br \/>\nsurface personality which you have put forward in this life and which is<br \/>\nmutable, is already changing and can change much farther \u2014 e.g. the poems you<br \/>\nare writing are certainly beyond what was your original capacity \u2014 they belong<br \/>\nto a range of experience to the Word of which you have opened by a development<br \/>\nbeyond your old mental self\u2014 a farther development beyond not only your old<br \/>\nmental self but also your old vital self is needed to get the concrete<br \/>\nrealisation of that range of experience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; What is standing in the way is something that is still attached to the<br \/>\nlimitations of the old personality and hesitates to take the plunge because by<br \/>\ndoing so it may lose these cherished limitations. It stands back in<br \/>\napprehension from the plunge be\u00adcause it is afraid of being taken out of its<br \/>\ndepths \u2014 but unless one is taken out of the very shallow depth of this small<br \/>\npart of the self, how can one get into the Infinite at all? Furthermore, there<br \/>\nis no real danger in finding oneself in the Infinite, it is a place of greater<br \/>\nsafety and greater riches, not less; but this something<i><span> <\/span><\/i>in you does not like the prospect<br \/>\nbecause it has to merge itself<i> <\/i>into a larger self-existence. You asked<br \/>\nthe Mother to press on you the lighting of the fire within, and she has been doing<br \/>\nso, but<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%'>Page<br \/>\n&#8211; 508<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>this is standing back with the<br \/>\nfeeling, &quot;Oh Lord! what will be\u00adcome of me if this flame gets lit.&quot;<br \/>\nYou must get rid of this cling\u00ading to the past self and life; then you can have<br \/>\na fire which will not be feeble. You have not fallen between two stools ^\u2014 you<br \/>\nare hesitating between two consciousnesses, the old and the new, the small and<br \/>\nthe great; that is all.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; As for the poetry, well \u2014 you have developed up to a point at which your<br \/>\nwork is of a very rare and unique quality in no way inferior to that of the<br \/>\nothers of whom you speak, \u2014 the difficulty of controlling production is<br \/>\nnothing, for all feel that except X <span>\u00a0<\/span>and Y<br \/>\nwho have no misgivings about their creative power. Yours rises probably from<br \/>\nthe fact that in order to have free com\u00admand of the highest planes of poetry,<br \/>\nyou have to rise into them and not only open to the Word from them \u2014 it is<br \/>\ntherefore the same difficulty in another form. Otherwise if you had the old<br \/>\nself-satisfaction of which you draw so glowing a picture, you would have found<br \/>\nyour present poetry marvellous and gone on writing it \u2014 only oscillating<br \/>\nbetween the different planes achieved and content to do so. This is not a proof<br \/>\nof incapacity but of the will to greater things. Only that will must not be in<br \/>\nthe mind only but take full hold of the vital also and must be a will that what<br \/>\nyou write of should be a part not only of thought but of life. Which comes back<br \/>\nto what I have written above \u2014 get free from the obscure hesitation to open and<br \/>\nlet the fire do its work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; One must either do that if one wants a rapid change or go quietly and<br \/>\nwait for the slower working from behind the veil to reduce and break the<br \/>\nobstacle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'><span>10<b>.<\/b><\/span>8.1937<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<b><font size=\"2\">INNER CHANGE AND ARTISTIC SELF-EXPRESSION<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It is absurd to say that you have narrowed or deteriorated because one no<br \/>\nlonger sings erotic songs. One is not narrowed if one loses taste for jazz and<br \/>\ncan hear with a rich pleasure only the great masters or music of a high or<br \/>\nexquisite quality. It is not deterioration when one rises from a lower to a<br \/>\nhigher plane of thinking, feeling or artistic self-expression. Can one say of<br \/>\nthe<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%'>Page<br \/>\n&#8211; 509<\/span><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>man who has grown out of<br \/>\nchildishness and no longer plays with nursery toys that he has narrowed and<br \/>\ndeteriorated by the change?<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'>27.8.<span>1933<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-weight:700'><font size=\"2\">SPIRITUAL VALUE OF<br \/>\nPOETRY<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b>1&nbsp;<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It<br \/>\nwon&#8217;t do to put excessive and sweeping constructions on what I write, otherwise<br \/>\nit is easy to misunderstand its real significance. I said there was no reason<br \/>\nwhy poetry of a spiritual character (not any poetry like Verlaine&#8217;s or<br \/>\nSwinburne&#8217;s or Baudelaire&#8217;s) should bring no realisation at all. This did not<br \/>\nmean that poetry is a major means of realisation of the Divine. I did not say<br \/>\nthat it would lead us to the Divine or that anyone had achieved the Divine<br \/>\nthrough poetry or that poetry by itself can lead us straight into the<br \/>\nsanctuary. Obviously, if such exaggerations are put into my words, they become<br \/>\nabsurd and untenable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>My statement is perfectly clear and there is nothing in it against reason<br \/>\nor common sense. The Word has power \u2014 even the ordinary written word has a<br \/>\npower. If it is an inspired word it has still more power. What kind of power or<br \/>\npower for what depends on the nature of the inspiration and the theme and the<br \/>\npart of the being it touches. If it is the Word itself, -^ as in certain<br \/>\nutterances of the great Scriptures, Veda, Upanishads, Gita, it may well have a<br \/>\npower to awaken a spiritual and uplifting impulse, even certain kinds of<br \/>\nrealisation. To say that it cannot contradicts spiritual experience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The Vedic poets regarded their poetry as Mantras, they were the vehicles<br \/>\nof their own realisations and could become vehicles of realisation for others.<br \/>\nNaturally, these mostly would be illu\u00adminations, not the settled and permanent<br \/>\nrealisation that is the goal of Yoga \u2014 but they could be steps on the way or at<br \/>\nleast lights on the way. I have had in former times many illuminations, even<br \/>\ninitial realisations while meditating on verses of the Upanishads or the Gita.<br \/>\nAnything that carries the Word, the Light<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%'>Page &#8211; 510<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>in it, spoken or written, can<br \/>\nlight this fire within, open a sky, as it were, bring the effective vision of<br \/>\nwhich the Word is the body. You yourself know that some of your poems deeply<br \/>\nmoved people who had the tendency towards spiritual things. Many have got openings<br \/>\ninto realisation while reading passages of the <i>Arya \u2014<\/i> which are not<br \/>\npoetry, have not the power of spiritual poetry \u2014 but it shows all the more that<br \/>\nthe word is not without power even for the things of the spirit. In all ages<br \/>\nspiritual seekers have expressed their aspirations or their experiences in<br \/>\npoetry or inspired language and it has helped them and others. There\u00adfore there<br \/>\nis nothing absurd in my assigning to such poetry a spiritual or psychic value<br \/>\nand effectiveness of a psychic or spiritual character.<\/p>\n<p class=\"fr4\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b>2<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; If poetic progress meant a progress in the whole range of Yoga, X would<br \/>\nbe a great Yogi by this time. The opening in poetry or any other part helps to<br \/>\nprepare the general opening when it is done under the pressure of Yoga, but it<br \/>\nis at first something special, like the opening of the subtle vision or subtle<br \/>\nsenses. It is the opening of a special capacity in the inner being.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'><span>8.8.1936<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-weight:700'><font size=\"2\">UTILITY OF<br \/>\nLITERATURE, ETC. IN YOGA<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b>&nbsp;1&nbsp;<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Literature<br \/>\nlike anything else can be made an instrumentation for the Divine Life. It can<br \/>\nbe made of some spiritual importance if it is taken up with that aim and, even<br \/>\nso, it cannot have that importance for everybody. In ordinary life no<br \/>\nparticular pursuit or study can be imposed as necessary for everybody; it<br \/>\ncannot be positively necessary for everybody to have a mastery of English<br \/>\nliterature or to be a reader of poetry or a scientist or acquainted with all<br \/>\nthe sciences (or encyclopaedia of knowledge). What is <i>I&nbsp;&nbsp;<br \/>\nimportant is to<\/i> have an instrument of knowledge that will apply&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%'>Page<br \/>\n&#8211; 511<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin-top:2.0pt;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>itself accurately, calmly,<br \/>\nperfectly to all that it has to handle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b>2<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Literature, poetry, science and other studies can be a prepa\u00adration of<br \/>\nthe consciousness for life. When one does Yoga they can become part of the<br \/>\nSadhana only if done for the Divine or taken up by the divine Force, but then<br \/>\none should not want to be a poet for the sake of being a poet only, or for<br \/>\nfame, applause, etc.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'>April,<br \/>\n1935<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b>3<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b>&nbsp;<\/b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; This poetry,<br \/>\neven if it does not lead to any realisation, \u2014 though there is no reason why it<br \/>\nshould not, since it is not mundane, \u2014 is yet a link with the inner being and<br \/>\nexpresses its ideal. That is its value for the Sadhana.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'>28.12.1934<\/p>\n<p class=\"fr4\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b>4<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The use of your writing is to keep you in touch with the inner source of<br \/>\ninspiration and intuition so as to wear thin the crude <i>external<\/i> crust in<br \/>\nthe consciousness and encourage the growth of<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>the inner being.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'>24.7.1938<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b>5<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:left;line-height:150%'><b>&nbsp;<\/b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; No present value<br \/>\nspiritually\u2014it [writing work] may have a mental value. It is the same with the<br \/>\nwork \u2014 it has a value of moral training, discipline, obedience, acceptance of<br \/>\nwork for the Mother. The spiritual value and result come afterwards when the<br \/>\nconsciousness in the vital opens upward. So with the mental work. It is a<br \/>\npreparation. If you cannot yet do it with the true spiritual consciousness, it,<br \/>\nthe work as well as the mental occu\u00adpation, must be done with the right mental<br \/>\nor vital will in it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'>14.5.1934<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%'>Page &#8211; 512<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b><br \/>\n<font size=\"2\">LITERATURE AND<br \/>\nCHANGE OF NATURE<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b>1<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Good heavens! where did you get this idea that literature can transform people?<br \/>\nLiterary people are often the most impossible on the face of the earth&#8230;.<br \/>\nOuter human nature can only change either by an intense psychic development or<br \/>\na strong and all-<span>\u00a0 <\/span>pervading influence<br \/>\nfrom above. It is the inner being that has to change first \u2014 a change which is<br \/>\nnot always visible outside. That has nothing to do with the development of the<br \/>\nfaculties which is another side of the personality. That is another question<br \/>\nalto\u00adgether. But such Sadhana means a slow laborious work of self-change in<br \/>\nmost cases, so why not sing on the way?<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<b><font size=\"2\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; DEVELOPMENT OF MIND AND SADHANA<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The development of the mind is a useful preliminary for the Sadhak; it<br \/>\ncan also be pursued along with the Sadhana on condi\u00adtion that it is not given<br \/>\ntoo big a place and does not interfere with the one important thing, the<br \/>\nSadhana itself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'>1933<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br \/>\n<b><font size=\"2\">READING<\/font><\/b><b><font size=\"2\"> AND REAL<br \/>\nKNOWLEDGE<\/font><\/b>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Yes, the real<br \/>\nknowledge comes of itself from within by the touch of the Divine. Reading<br \/>\ncan be only a momentary help to prepare the mind. But the real knowledge does<br \/>\nnot come by reading. Some preparation for the inner knowledge may be helpful \u2014<br \/>\nbut the mind should not be too superficially active or seek to know only for<br \/>\ncuriosity&#8217;s sake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<b><font size=\"2\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; NOVEL-READING IN SADHANA<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Reading novels is always distracting if you are deep in Sadhana It is<br \/>\nbetter to avoid it now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'>1933<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%'>Page &#8211; 513<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b>2<\/b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>If novels touch the lower vital or raise it, they ought not to be read by<br \/>\nthe Sadhak. One can read them only if one can look at them from the literary<br \/>\npoint of view as a picture of human life and nature which one can observe, as<br \/>\nthe Yogi looks at life itself, without being involved in it or having any<br \/>\nreaction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'>28.3.1936<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><font size=\"2\">Page &#8211; 514<\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>section nine Poetic Creation and Yoga \u2013 Utility of Literature, etc. in Sadhana &nbsp; READING AND POETIC CREATION AND YOGA &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A literary man&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-09-the-future-poetry-volume-09","wpcat-29-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}