{"id":1633,"date":"2013-07-13T01:36:07","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1633"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:36:07","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:07","slug":"16-remarks-on-spiritual-figures-in-india-vol-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram\/16-remarks-on-spiritual-figures-in-india-vol-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","title":{"rendered":"-16_Remarks on Spiritual Figures in India.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tSection Four<\/font><\/span><\/b> <\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t 
\n<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\nRemarks on Contemporaries 
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\nand on Contemporary Problems<\/font><\/span><\/b>  
\n  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nRemarks on Spiritual Figures in India<\/font><\/span><\/b>
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nRamakrishna Paramhansa
\n<\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI would have been surprised to hear that I regard (in agreement with an advanced sadhak) Ramakrishna as a spiritual pigmy, if I
\nhad not become past astonishment in these matters. I have said, it seems, so many things that were never in my mind and done
\ntoo not a few that I have never dreamed of doing! I shall not be surprised or perturbed if one day I am reported to have declared,
\non the authority of advanced or even unadvanced sadhaks, that Buddha was a poseur
\n<\/i>or Shakespeare an overrated poetaster or
\nNewton a third-rate college Don without any genius. In this world all is possible. Is it necessary for me to say that I have
\nnever thought and cannot have said anything of the kind, since I have at least some faint sense of spiritual values? The passage
\nyou have quoted is my considered estimate of Ramakrishna.1
\n\t\t\t<\/font><\/sup> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n3 February 1932
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI have heard that if one learns logic or philosophy it can be
\na great help in the yoga, because it makes the mind wider to spiritual experiences so that once the mind gets beyond the
\nintellect and reaches the intuitive, it is able to bring down or express knowledge which an unintellectual mind could not do.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tAn unintellectual mind cannot bring down the Knowledge? What then about Ramakrishna? Do you mean to say that the
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n1 <\/span> <\/font> “And in a recent unique example, in the life of Ramakrishna Paramhansa, we see<\/font><\/i>
\na colossal spiritual capacity first driving straight to the divine realisation, taking, as it<\/font><\/i>
\nwere, the kingdom of heaven by violence, and then seizing upon one Yogic method after<\/font><\/i>
\nanother and extracting the substance out of it with an incredible rapidity, always to<\/font><\/i>
\nreturn to the heart of the whole matter, the realisation and possession of God by the<\/font><\/i>
\npower of love, by the extension of inborn spirituality into various experience and by the<\/font><\/i>
\nspontaneous play of an intuitive knowledge.” \u2014  Sri Aurobindo,
\n<\/font> <\/i>The Synthesis of Yoga<\/font>,<\/font><\/i>
\nvolume 23 of <\/font> <\/i>T<\/font>HE<\/font> C<\/font>OMPLETE<\/font> W<\/font>ORKS OF<\/font> S<\/font>RI<\/font>
\nA<\/font>UROBINDO<\/font>, p. 41.<\/font><\/i>
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 161<\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\nmajority of the sadhaks here who have not learned logic and are ignorant of philosophy will never get Knowledge?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n4  November 1936 <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n“An unintellectual mind cannot bring down the Knowledge?” Certainly it can. But don’t you think there is a world of difference between the expression of an intellectual mind and an unintellectual one?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tExpression is another matter, but Ramakrishana was an uneducated, nonintellectual man, yet his expression of knowledge was
\nso perfect that the biggest intellects bowed down before it. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n5 November 1936<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhat a difference there is between Ramakrishna’s expressions
\nof knowledge and those of a perfectly developed intellect like yourself!
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHis expressions are unsurpassable in their quality. Don’t talk nonsense. Moreover I never developed my intellect and I made
\nzero marks in Logic.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWho preached Ramakrishna’s gospel to the world? Vivekananda, a highly developed mind.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd who taught Vivekananda the Truth? Not a logician or
\nhighly developed intellect certainly? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n13 November 1936
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI have heard different things about Ramakrishna from different people. Some say he was an Avatar and some that he was not. Do you think he was an Avatar as he said in his
\nautobiography? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tHe never wrote an autobiography. What he said was in conversation with his disciples and others. He was certainly quite as much an Avatar as Christ or Chaitanya.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n13 November 1936 <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*
\n  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>162<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tRamakrishna himself never thought of transformation or tried for it. All he wanted was bhakti for the Mother and along with
\nthat he received whatever knowledge she gave him and did whatever she made him do. He was intuitive and psychic from the
\nbeginning and only became more and more so as he went on. There was no need in him for the transformation which we seek;
\nfor although he spoke of the divine man (Ishwarakoti) coming down the stairs as well as ascending, he had not the idea of a
\nnew consciousness and a new race and the divine manifestation in the earth-nature.
\n\t<\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nSwami Vivekananda<\/span><\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI do not remember what I said about Vivekananda.2<\/font><\/sup> If I said he
\nwas a great Vedantist, it is quite true. It does not follow that all he said or did must be accepted as the highest truth or the best.
\n <\/i> His ideal of sevā <\/i>was a need of his nature and must have helped
\nhim \u2014  it does not follow that it must be accepted as a universal spiritual necessity or ideal. Whether in declaring it he was the
\nmouthpiece of Ramakrishna or not, I cannot pronounce. It seems certain that Ramakrishna expected him to be a great power for
\nchanging the world-mind in a spiritual direction and it may be assumed that the mission came to the disciple from the Master.
\nThe details of his action are another matter. As for proceeding like a blind man, that is a feeling that easily comes when a Power
\ngreater than one’s own mind is pushing one to a large action; for the mind does not realise intellectually all that it is being pushed
\nto do and may have its moments of doubt or wonderment about it and yet it is obliged to go on. Vedantic (Adwaita) realisation
\nis the realisation of the silent static or absolute Brahman \u2014  one may have that and yet not have the same indubitable clearness
\nas to the significance of one’s action \u2014  for over action for the Adwaitin lies the shadow of Maya.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n24 December 1934 <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n<\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

\n2 Sri Aurobindo is referring here to the passage from <\/i>The Synthesis of Yoga
\n<\/span>
\n<\/font>
\n
\nthat is<\/font><\/i> reproduced on page 94 of the present volume. \u2014  Ed.<\/font><\/i>
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>163<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

\nI am thinking of reading Vivekananda. What he has said in his lectures \u2014  is it all truth, something directly inspired?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI cannot say that it is all truth \u2014  he had his own opinions about certain things (like everybody else) which can be questioned. But
\nmost of what he said was of great value.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI wish to read some good books on yoga or philosophy. Will
\nyou please give me some names?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI am not sure what books would interest you and I am myself so
\nfar away from books that it is difficult to remember names. If you have not read V’s things you can read them or any books that
\nwould give you an idea of Vedanta schools and Sankhya. There is Mahendra Sircar’s
\nEastern Lights<\/i>. It is Indian philosophy you
\nwant, I suppose? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n25 September 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI hear that there is a file of unpublished letters by Vivekananda,
\nin one of which he says: “The time has now come to follow Aurobindo Ghose.” Because of this it seems the Ramakrishna
\nMission keeps always an interested eye on what is going on in Pondy. Do you know anything of that reference by
\nVivekananda and in what connection it was made?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhere on earth is this extraordinary file? How could Vivekananda know anything about me? Trikaldrishti?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n5 July 1937
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGod knows where that extraordinary file of Vivekananda’s
\nletters is. I got news of it from X <\/i>who heard about it from a man of the Ramakrishna Mission who came here.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWhat I want to know is when did Vivekananda write that or what led him to take notice of me. I no longer remember when
\nhe left his body, but my impression is that it was when I was a blissfully obscure Professor of Baroda College and neither in
\npolitics nor Yoga had put on the tedious burden of fame. Why then should Vivekananda say anything about me at all, much
\n  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>164<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n\tless a thing like that \u2014  unless it was as the trikaldarshi Yogi that he spoke?
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n7 July 1937 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nSwami Ramatirtha<\/span><\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFrom the standpoint of sadhana Vivekananda has never attracted me \u2014  he was more of a missionary. As far as I have
\nstudied Ramatirtha, he seems to have been on a higher level. <\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThat can be judged from the personal experience only
\n\u2014  not
\nfrom the books which are too highly mentalised to give any indication of the full achievement in the lower part of the nature.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n2 December 1933 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRamatirtha used to say that all beings were himself in different forms and to address others as “myself in the form of . . .”.
\nThis sounds a little fantastic! <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt is fantastic<\/span><\/i>.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCan this not be called an example of the transformed mind and vital, for he seems to have been engrossed in the Self in
\nthe waking life as well as in meditation. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI think Ramatirtha’s realisations were more mental than any
\nthing else. He had opening of the higher mind and a realisation there of the cosmic Self, but I find no evidence of a transformed
\nmind and vital; that transformation is not a result of or object of the Yoga of Knowledge. The realisation of the Yoga of Knowledge is when one feels that one lives in the wideness of something silent, featureless and universal (called the Self) and all else is
\nseen as only forms and names; the Self is real, nothing else. The realisation of “my
\n<\/i>self in other forms” is a part of this or a step
\ntowards it, but in the full realisation the “my” should drop so that there is only
\nthe <\/i>one Self or rather only the Brahman. For the
\nSelf is merely a subjective aspect of the Brahman, just as the Ishwara is its objective aspect. That is the Vedantic “Knowledge”.
\nIts result is peace, silence, liberation. As for the active Prakriti,  
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>165<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n(mind, vital, body), the Yoga of Knowledge does not make it its aim to transform them
\n\u2014  that would be no use as the idea is
\nthat if the liberation has come, it will all drop off at death. The only change wanted is to get rid of the idea of ego and realise as
\ntrue only the supreme Self, the Brahman. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n25 June 1934
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nRamana Maharshi<\/span><\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI did not ask X <\/i>to prevent you from going to Ramana Maharshi
\nand I never had the least thought or intention of requesting him to intervene at all. He tells me that it is true he told you Sri
\nAurobindo had approved of his speaking to you about the right attitude etc. and he had inferred that from a phrase in my answer
\nto a letter of his. But that inference was a mistake \u2014  the phrase did not carry that meaning, nor was there in the context any
\nreference to Ramana Maharshi. He adds, “But I did not <\/i>say I was authorised by Sri Aurobindo to try to detain him here.”
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThere was absolutely no reason why I should want to prevent you from going to the Maharshi. I have always encouraged
\npeople to go even in long past years when the Maharshi was unknown except to a few and I even sent several there who
\nwanted to come here. Even if anyone wished to leave me and go to him, I would be the last person to interfere. Everyone has the
\nright to choose his own Guru or, if he is dissatisfied or has lost his faith, to go elsewhere.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe Mother in her letter to you made it very clear that she approved of your visit and she even said it was the first thing to
\ndo. There can be no doubt therefore of her approval. Mine is contained in hers.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n2 September 1935 <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRamana Maharshi seems to agree to some extent with your views. He seems to believe in Grace and takes the position
\nthat the Real Self is in the heart, something akin to the psychic being. That means he is less of a Shankara Adwaitin.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Brunton’s description of the sadhana he (Brunton) practised under the Maharshi’s instructions, it is the Overself
\n  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>166<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n\tone has to seek within, but he describes the Overself in a way that is at once the Psychic Being, the Atman and the Ishwara. So
\nit is a little difficult to know what is the exact reading. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n25 January 1936
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI quote the following remarks of Ramana Maharshi as
\nrecorded by Paul Brunton: “All human beings are ever wanting happiness, untainted with sorrow. They want to
\ngrasp a happiness which will not come to an end. The instinct is a true one.”3<\/font><\/sup>
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tAll? It is far too sweeping a generalisation. If he had said that is one very strong strain in human nature it could be accepted. But
\nmark that it is in human physical consciousness only. The human vital tends rather to reject a happiness untainted by sorrow and
\nto find it a monotonous, boring condition. Even if it accepts it, after a time it kicks over the traces and goes to some new painful
\nor risky adventure.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Man’s real nature is <\/i>happiness. Happiness is inborn in the
\ntrue self. His search for happiness is an unconscious search for his true self. The true self is imperishable; therefore, when
\na man finds it, he finds a happiness which does not come to an end” [pp. 157 \u00ad 58<\/i>].
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe true Self is quite a different proposition. But what it has is not happiness but something more.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Even they [the wicked and the criminal] sin because they are trying to find the self’s happiness in every sin which they
\ncommit. This striving is instinctive in man, but they do not know that they are really seeking their true selves, and so they
\ntry these wicked ways first as a means to happiness” [p. 158<\/i>]. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWho is this “they”? I fear it is a very summary and misleading
\ncriminal psychology. To say that a Paris crook or apache steals,
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n3 Paul Brunton,
\n<\/i>A Search in Secret India <\/span> <\/font> (London: Rider & Company, [1934] 1943),<\/font><\/i>
\np. 157.<\/font><\/i>   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>167<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\nswindles, murders for the happiness of stealing, swindling, murdering is a little startling. He does it for quite other reasons.   He does it as his metier just as you do your doctor’s work. Do
\nyou really do your doctor’s work because of the happiness you find in it?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPeople will not seek a sorrowless, untainted, everlasting happiness, even if shown the way
\n\u2014  because they will consider it
\nbeyond their power to attain, or so it seems to me.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt is also with many because they prefer the joy mixed with
\nsorrow,
\n\t\t\t<\/span>
\n\t\t\tমানুষের হাসিকান্না<\/font><\/span>, and consider your everlasting happiness
\nan everlasting bore.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAbout the criminals, I don’t obviously include those types who
\nare born with a criminal instinct: idiots and imbeciles. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWhy not? If your generalisation is good for all, it must be good
\nfor them also.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRamana Maharshi also says that if you “meditate for an hour
\nor two every day, you can then carry on with your duties. If you meditate in the right manner . . .”
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tA very important qualification.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“then the current of mind induced will continue to flow even
\nin the midst of your work. It is as though there were two ways of expressing the same idea; the same line which you take
\nin meditation will be expressed in your activities.” The result will be a gradual change of attitude towards people, events and
\nobjects. “Your actions will tend to follow your meditations of their own accord” [p. 156<\/i>].
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIf the meditation brings poise, peace, a concentrated condition or even a pressure or influence, that
\ncan <\/i>go on in the work,
\nprovided one does not throw it away by a relaxed or dispersed state of consciousness. That was why the Mother wanted people
\nnot only to be concentrated at pranam or meditation but to  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>168<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n\tremain silent and absorb or assimilate afterwards and also to avoid things
\nthat relax or disperse or dissipate too much \u2014
\nprecisely for this reason that so the effects of what she put on them might continue and the change of attitude the Maharshi
\nspeaks of will take place. But I am afraid most of the sadhaks have never understood or practised anything of the kind
\n\u2014  they
\ncould not appreciate or understand her directions.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOf course, he adds that setting apart time for meditation is
\nfor spiritual novices. You too wrote to me to meditate at least half an hour a day, if only to bring a greater concentration in
\nthe work. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt does bring the effects of meditation into work if one gives it a
\nchance.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nYou know that meditations are not always successful.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tYou forget that with numbers of people they are successful.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nEven if they were, how does this affect the whole day’s work?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt doesn’t, if one does not take care that it should do so \u2014  if one takes care, it can.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIs it something like charging a battery which goes on inducing an automatic current?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt is not exactly automatic. It can be easily spoilt or left to sink into the subconscient or otherwise wasted. But with simple and
\nsteady practice and persistence it has the effect the Maharshi speaks of \u2014  he assumes, I suppose, such a practice. I am afraid
\nyour meditation is hardly simple or steady \u2014  too much kasrat<\/i> and fighting with yourself.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nRamana Maharshi seems a real Maharshi.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nHe is more of a Yogi than a Rishi, it seems to me. The happiness
\ntheory does not impress me, \u2014  it is as old as the mountains but  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>169<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\nnot so solid. But he knows a lot about Yoga. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n9 February 1936
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRamana Maharshi has seen the truth. Can he not be called a
\nRishi? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tHe has experienced certain eternal truths by process of Yoga \u2014
\nI don’t think it is by Rishilike intuition or illumination, nor has he the mantra.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n10 February 1936 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI recently have read of some of Ramana Maharshi’s disciples, who have the power of vision to a greater degree than
\nX<\/i>. But
\nit seems that the beings they see do not come and help them in their difficulties. Usually these beings show them certain things
\nwhich strengthen their faith; but their difficulties remain. It is they or their guru who have to solve them.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt is quite usual at a certain stage of the sadhana for people who have the faculty to see or hear the Devata of their worship and
\nto receive constant directions from him or her with regard either to action or to sadhana. Defects and difficulties may remain, but
\nthat does not prevent the direct guidance from being a fact. The necessity of a Guru in such cases is to see that it is the right
\nexperience, the right voice or vision \u2014  for it is possible for a false guidance to come as it did with
\nY <\/i>and Z<\/i>.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMoreover, Maharshi dissuaded his disciples from cultivating this power of vision, since it had nothing to do with the
\nrealisation of the self. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tMaharshi is very much of a Vedantist. He does not believe in
\nwhat we believe or in the descent etc. At the same time he himself has had experiences in which the Mother interfered in a
\nvisible, even material form and prevented him from doing what he intended to do.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n7 July 1936 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt is evident that my ideas about visions and views on occult things were poor and ignorant from the very beginning. They
\n  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>170<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nbecame all the more ignorant when I read that the Maharshi, whom you have called a great man and one who “lives al
\nways in the light” and therefore in the truth consciousness, discouraged his disciples from using their occult gifts.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tBecause he is a great man does it follow that everything he thinks or says is right? or because he lives in the light, does
\nit follow that his light is absolute and complete? The “Truth-Consciousness” is a phrase I use for the supermind. Maharshi is
\nnot in the supermind. He may be and is in a true Consciousness, but that is a different matter.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThey were not misusing their gifts, rather they were making spiritual progress through them.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tHe discouraged his disciples because his aim was the realisation of the inner Self and intuition
\n\u2014  in other words the fullness
\nof the spiritual Mind \u2014  visions and voices belong to the inner occult sense, therefore he did not want them to lay stress on
\nit. I also discourage some from having any dealing with visions and voices because I see that they are being misled or in danger
\nof being misled by false visions and false voices. That does not mean that visions and voices have no value.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n9 July 1936 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIf the true being behind the usual emotional heart is the psychic, how is it that Ramana Maharshi says, and all the
\nUpanishads too say, that in the core of the heart is the Self, the Atman? Maharshi says the place of the Self is not in the
\ncentre of the chest but two fingers to the right \u2014  whereas the psychic is located in the middle.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Upanishads do not say that about the Atman \u2014  what they say about the Atman is that it is in all and all is in it, it is
\neverywhere and all this universe is the Atman. What they speak of as situated in the deeper inner heart is the Purusha in the heart
\nor Antaratman.4<\/font><\/sup> This is in fact what we call the psychic being,
\n\tcaitya purusa<\/i>. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t4 angusthamātrah puruso antarātmā.<\/i>
\n˙  ..<\/i>    .<\/i>
\n    <\/i>  
\n  
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>171<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

\nThe heart spoken of by the Upanishads corresponds with the physical cardiac centre; it is the
\nhrtpadma <\/i>of the Tantriks.
\nAs a subtle centre, cakra<\/i>, it is supposed to have its apex on the
\nspine and to broaden out in front. Exactly where in this area one or another feels it does not matter much; to feel it there and be
\nguided by it is the main thing. I cannot say what the Maharshi has realised \u2014  but what Brunton describes in his book as the
\nSelf is certainly this Purusha Antarātmā but concerned more with mukti <\/i>and a liberated action than with transformation of the nature. What the psychic realisation does bring is a psychic change of the nature purifying it and turning it altogether towards the
\nDivine. After that or along with it comes the realisation of the cosmic Self. It is these two things that the old Yogas encompassed and through them they passed to Moksha, Nirvana or the departure into some kind of celestial transcendence. The Yoga
\npractised here includes both liberation and transcendence, but it takes liberation or even a certain Nirvana, if that comes, as a
\nfirst step and not as the last step of its siddhi. Whatever exit to or towards the Transcendent it achieves is an ascent accompanied
\nby a descent of the power, light, consciousness that has been achieved and it is by such descents that is to be achieved the
\nspiritual and supramental transformation here. This possibility does not seem to be admitted in the Maharshi’s thought,
\n\u2014  he
\nconsiders the Descent as superfluous and logically impossible. “The Divine is here, from where will He descend?” is his argument. But the Divine is everywhere, he is above as well as within, he has many habitats, many strings to his bow of Power, there are
\nmany levels of his dynamic Consciousness and each has its own light and force. He is not confined to his position in the heart or
\nto the single cord of the psycho-spiritual realisation. He has also his supramental station above the heart-centre and mind-centres
\nand can descend from there if He wants to do so. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n3 March 1937
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI am giving below the best brief account by Paul Brunton of
\nthe Maharshi’s technique of discovering what Brunton calls the Overself. It occurs in the book named
\nA Message from<\/i>
\n  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>172<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n\t
\n\tArunachala<\/i>:
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n“When the mind is deeply engaged in a train of thought,
\nit tends to become unconscious of external surroundings as concentration deepens. When this condition is carried to a
\nprofound extent, then the mind becomes one-pointed. If, at this degree, the subject of the meditation could be some
\nhow dropped, the ensuing vacuum would swiftly cause the hidden world of man’s soul to arise and fill it. In that apparent emptiness he would become aware of a new visitant, his Overself. Such is the essential principle behind this process of
\nself-knowing. . . . <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n“It [the Maharshi’s method<\/i>] consists in taking as the subject of meditation the inquiry, `Who Am I<\/i>?’ The mind must centre itself upon this single question, pressing deeply inward
\nin the effort to discover the elusive inhabitant of the body. If the concentration is complete and the persistence undiminished;
\nif the inquiry is conducted in the correct manner; if the person is really sincere; then an extraordinary thing will happen. The
\nmental current of self-questioning, the attempt to ferret out what one really is, the watching of one’s thoughts in the earlier
\npart of the process, ultimately pins all thinking down to the single thought of personal existence. `I’ is the first thought
\nsprayed up by the spring of life’s being, but it is also the last. As this final thought is held in the focus of attention and
\nquestioned in a particular way, it suddenly disappears and the Overself takes its place, overwhelming both questioner and
\nquestion in its divine stillness.”5<\/font><\/sup>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nWhat do you think, from this, the Overself of the Maharshi is? Is it the Antaratman leading to or widening into the Cosmic Self or is it the silent Self of the Jnanis, the traditional
\nAtman, realised directly? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t[Sri Aurobindo did not immediately answer this question, posed<\/i>
\non 4 March 1937. The correspondent sent two reminders, to<\/i> which Sri Aurobindo answered as follows on 6 and 7 March:<\/i>]
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI had started answering your questions but it took on too long a development and I could not finish it
\n\u2014  I don’t suppose I shall
\nfind time.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n5 Paul Brunton, <\/i>A Message from Arunachala (London: Rider & Co., n.d. [1936]<\/i>),<\/i>
\npp. 205 \u00ad 7.<\/i>  
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>173<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

\nIn the first place I do not want to go farther into the question of the Maharshi’s realisation which does not really concern us.
\nAs I have said comparisons are of no use; each path has its own aim and direction and method and the truth of one does not
\ninvalidate the truth of the other. The Divine (or if you like, the Self) has many aspects and can be realised in many ways
\n\u2014  to
\ndwell upon those differences is irrelevant and without use.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nTransformation is a word that I have brought in myself
\n(like supermind) to express certain spiritual concepts and spiritual facts of the integral Yoga. People are now taking them up
\nand using them in senses which have nothing to do with the significance which I put into them. Purification of the nature
\nby the “influence” of the Spirit is not what I mean by transformation; purification is only part of a psychic change or a
\npsycho-spiritual change \u2014  the word besides has many senses and is very often given a moral or ethical meaning which is foreign
\nto my purpose. What I mean by the spiritual transformation is something dynamic (not merely liberation of the self, or realisation of the One which can very well be attained without any descent). It is a putting on of the spiritual consciousness
\ndynamic as well as static in every part of the being down to the subconscient. That cannot be done by the influence of the
\nSelf leaving the consciousness fundamentally as it is with only purification, enlightenment of the mind and heart and quiescence
\nof the vital. It means a bringing down of a Divine Consciousness static and dynamic into all these parts and the entire replacement
\nof the present consciousness by that. This we find unveiled and unmixed above mind, life and body and not in mind, life and
\nbody. It is a matter of the undeniable experience of many that this can descend and it is my experience that nothing short
\nof its full <\/i>descent can thoroughly remove the veil and mixture and effect the full spiritual transformation. No metaphysical or
\nlogical reasoning in the void as to what the Atman “must” do or can do or needs or needs not to do is relevant here or of any
\nvalue. I may add that transformation is not the central object of other paths as it is of this Yoga
\n\u2014  only so much purification and
\nchange is demanded by them as will lead to liberation and the  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>174<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n\tbeyond-life. The influence of the Atman can no doubt do that \u2014  a full descent of a new Consciousness into the whole nature
\nfrom top to bottom to transform life here is not needed at all for the spiritual escape from life.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n6 March 1937 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSundays are no better than other days. A number of people always choose it for long letters demanding replies. But apart from
\nthat to write what you demand of me would mean a volume, not a letter \u2014  especially as these are matters of which people
\nknow a great deal less than nothing and would either understand nothing or misunderstand everything. Some day I suppose I shall
\nwrite something, but the supramental won’t bear talking of now. Something about the spiritual transformation might be possible
\nand I may finish the letter on that point6<\/font><\/sup> \u2014  if I find leisure, but that is doubtful.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n7 March 1937 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe methods described in the account are the well-established methods of Jnanayoga7<\/font><\/sup>
\n\u2014  (1) one-pointed concentration followed by thought-suspension, (2) the method of distinguishing or finding out the true self by separating it from mind, life, body
\n(this I have seen described by him more at length in another book) and coming to the pure I behind; this also can disappear
\ninto the Impersonal Self. The usual result is a merging in the Atman or Brahman
\n\u2014  which is what one would suppose is meant
\nby the Overself, for it is that which is the real Overself. This Brahman or Atman is everywhere, all is in it, it is in all, but it
\nis in all not as an individual being in each but is the same in all \u2014  as the Ether is in all. When the merging into the Overself is
\ncomplete, there is no ego, or distinguishable I, or any formed
\nseparative person or personality. All is ekākāra <\/i>\u2014  an indivisible
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n6 The “letter” referred to here is presumably the one on pages 173 \u00ad 75, which Sri<\/i>
\nAurobindo wrote below the date 6 March 1937. He apparently had not finished writing<\/i>
\nit when he wrote this note dated (Sunday) 7 March 1937. \u2014  Ed.<\/i>
\n<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n7 This is Sri Aurobindo’s reply to the correspondent’s question of 4 March 1937 (see<\/i>
\npp. 172 \u00ad 73), containing Paul Brunton’s account of Ramana Maharshi’s methods.
\n\u2014  Ed.<\/i>
\n  
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>175<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

\n\tand indistinguishable Oneness either free from all formation or carrying all formations in it without being affected
\n\u2014  for one
\ncan realise it in either way. There is a realisation in which all beings are moving in the one Self and this Self is there stable in
\nall beings; there is another more complete and thoroughgoing in which not only is it so but all are vividly realised as the Self, the
\nBrahman, the Divine. In the former, it is possible to dismiss all beings as creations of Maya, leaving the one Self alone as true
\n\u2014  in the other it is easier to regard them as real manifestations of the Self, not as illusions. But one can also regard all beings
\nas souls, independent realities in an eternal Nature dependent upon the One Divine. These are the characteristic realisations
\nof the Overself familiar to the Vedanta. But on the other hand you say that this Overself is realised by the Maharshi as lodged
\nin the heart-centre, and it is described by Brunton as something concealed which when it manifests appears as the real Thinker,
\nsource of all action, but now guiding thought and action in the Truth. Now the first description applies to the Purusha in the
\nheart, described by the Gita as the Ishwara situated in the heart and by the Upanishads as the Purusha
\n\tAntarātmā; the second could apply also to the mental Purusha, manomayah
\n\tprānaśarīra<\/i>
\nnetā <\/i>of the Upanishads, the mental Being or Purusha who leads
\nthe life and the body. So your question is one which on the data I cannot easily answer. His Overself may be a combination of
\nall these experiences, without any clear distinction being made or thought necessary between the various aspects. There are a
\nthousand ways of approaching and realising the Divine and each way has its own experiences which have their own truth and
\nstand really on a basis, one in essence but complex in aspects, common to all, but not expressed in the same way by all. There is
\nnot much use in discussing these variations; the important thing is to follow one’s own way well and thoroughly. In this Yoga,
\none can realise the Psychic Being as a portion of the Divine seated in the heart with the Divine supporting it there
\n\u2014  this
\npsychic being takes charge of the sadhana and turns the whole being to the Truth and the Divine, with results in the mind,
\nthe vital, the physical consciousness which I need not go into  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>176<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n\there, \u2014  that is a first transformation. We realise it next as the one Self, Brahman, Divine, first
\nabove <\/i>the body, life, mind and
\nnot only within the heart supporting them \u2014  above and free and unattached as the static Self but also extended in wideness
\nthrough the world as the silent Self in all and dynamic too as the active cosmic Divine Being and Power, Ishwara-Shakti,
\ncontaining the world and pervading it as well as transcending it, manifesting all cosmic aspects. But, what is most important
\nfor us, is that it manifests as a transcending Light, Knowledge, Power, Purity, Peace, Ananda of which we become aware above
\nand which descends into the being and progressively replaces the ordinary consciousness by its own movements
\n\u2014  that is the
\nsecond transformation. We realise also the consciousness itself as moving upward, ascending through many planes physical, vital,
\nmental, overmental to the supramental and Ananda planes. This is nothing new; it is stated in the Taittiriya Upanishad that there
\nare five Purushas, the physical, the vital, the mental, the Truth Purusha (supramental) and the Bliss Purusha; it says that one has
\nto draw the physical self up into the vital, the vital into the mental, the mental into the Truth Self, the Truth Self into the Bliss
\nSelf and so attain perfection. But in this Yoga we become aware not only of this taking up but of a pouring down of the powers of
\nthe higher Self, so that there comes in the possibility of a descent of the Supramental Self and nature to dominate and change our
\npresent nature and turn it from nature of Ignorance into nature of Truth-Knowledge (and through the supramental into nature
\nof Ananda) \u2014  this is the third or supramental transformation. It does not always go in this order, for with many the spiritual
\ndescent begins first in an imperfect way before the psychic is in front and in charge, but the psychic development has to be
\nattained before a perfect and unhampered spiritual descent can take place, and the last or supramental change is impossible so
\nlong as the two first have not become full and complete. That’s the whole matter, put as briefly as possible.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\nMarch 1934 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>177<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

\nI wish I had learned logic. One needs to know it before entering into a discussion with you. In a recent letter you say, as if
\nlogically: “If I think that the human plane is like the plane or planes of infinite Light, Power, Ananda, infallible Will Force,
\nthen I must be either a stark lunatic or a gibbering imbecile or a fool. . . .” Surely no one ever thought of you in these terms!
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tNo need of logic to see that \u2014  a little common sense is sufficient. If anyone, no matter who he be, thinks that this world of ignorance, limitation and suffering is a plane of eternal and infinite Light, Power and Ananda, infallible Will and Power, what can
\nhe be but a self-deceiving fool or lunatic? And where then would be the need of bringing down the said Light, Power etc. from
\nthe higher planes, if it was already gambolling about all over this blessed earth and its absurd troop of human-animal beings?
\nBut perhaps you are of the opinion of Ramana Maharshi, “The Divine is here, how can he descend from anywhere?” The Divine
\nmay be here, but if he has covered here his Light with darkness of Ignorance and his Ananda with suffering, that, I should think,
\nmakes a big difference to the plane and, even if one enters into that sealed Light etc., it makes a difference to the Consciousness
\nbut very little to the Energy at work in this plane which remains of a dark or mixed character.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n3 May 1937 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nSwami Ramdas
\n<\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn the April number of The Vision<\/i>, Ramdas concludes his editorial letter with the words, “When all are kind to us,
\nwe realise God’s own kindness, because God dwells in all \u2014  God is verily all.”8 But what cogent objection is there to
\ncontinuing: “When all are cruel or indifferent to us, we realise God’s own cruelty or indifference, because etc.”? The stock
\nanswer is to acknowledge human incapacity to fathom an inscrutable Providence; but then why profess to do so in the
\ncase of kindness or similar circumstances of happiness (beauty, health, powers and capacities of different kinds)? It seems to
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n8 The Vision, vol. 1 (April 1934), p. 146.<\/i>  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>178<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tbe loading the dice \u2014  to be placing in the mouth of Providence some such words as “Heads I win, tails you lose”.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nEarlier in the letter there is this sentence: “God is the one power who provides for and guides all the works of the
\nAshram [i.e. Anandashram<\/i>] as He does also all the affairs of the world.” This put me in mind of a missionary who, trying
\nhard to be liberal and fair-minded about Taoism in China, acknowledged defeat when confronted with the spectacle of
\nTaoist priests conducting a religious ceremony in a brothel for the success of the business. Would it be possible for you to
\nindicate which of your writings would clear up my perplexity? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI have not read Ramdas’s writings nor am I at all acquainted
\nwith his personality or what may be the level of his experience. The words you quote from him could be expressions either of
\na simple faith or of a pantheistic experience; evidently if they are used or intended to establish the thesis that the Divine is
\neverywhere and is all and therefore all is good, being Divine, they are very insufficient for that purpose. But as an experience,
\nit is a very common thing to have this feeling or realisation in the Vedantic sadhana
\n\u2014  in fact without it there would be
\nno Vedantic sadhana. I have had it myself on various levels of consciousness and in numerous forms and I have met scores of
\npeople who have had it very genuinely \u2014  not as an intellectual theory or perception, but as a spiritual reality which was too
\nconcrete for them to deny whatever paradoxes it may entail for the ordinary intelligence.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nOf course it does not mean that all here is good or that in the estimation of values a brothel is as good as an Asram,
\nbut it does mean that all are part of one manifestation and that in the inner heart of the harlot as in the inner heart of
\nthe sage or saint there is the Divine. Again his experience is that there is one Force working in the world both in its good
\nand in its evil \u2014  one Cosmic Force; it works both in the success (or failure) of the Asram and in the success (or failure) of the
\nbrothel. Things are done in this world by the use of the force, although the use made is according to the nature of the user,
\none uses it for the works of light, another for the works of   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>179<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\nDarkness, yet another for a mixture. I don’t think any Vedantin (except perhaps some modernised ones) would maintain that all
\nis good here \u2014  the orthodox Vedantic idea is that all is here an inextricable mixture of good and evil, a play of the Ignorance
\nand therefore a play of the dualities. The Christian missionaries, I suppose, hold that all that God does is morally good, so they
\nare shocked by the Taoist priests aiding the work of the brothel by their rites. But do not the Christian priests invoke the aid
\nof God for the destruction of men in battle and did not some of them sing Te Deums over a victory won by the massacre of
\nmen and the starvation of women and children? The Taoist who believes only in the Impersonal Tao is more consistent and the
\nVedantin who believes that the Supreme is beyond good and evil, but that the Cosmic Force the Supreme has put out here works
\nthrough the dualities, therefore through both good and evil, joy and suffering, has a thesis which at least accounts for the double
\nfact of the experience of the Supreme which is All Light, All Bliss and All Beauty and a world of mixed light and darkness,
\njoy and suffering, what is fair and what is ugly. He says that the dualities come by a separative Ignorance and so long as you
\naccept this separative Ignorance, you cannot get rid of that, but it is possible to draw back from it in experience and to have the
\nrealisation of the Divine in all and the Divine everywhere and then you begin to realise the Light, Bliss and Beauty behind all
\nand this is the one thing to do. Also you begin to realise the one Force and you can use it or let it use you for the growth of the
\nLight in you and others \u2014  no longer for the satisfaction of the ego and for the works of the ignorance and darkness.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nAs to the dilemma about the cruelty of things, I do not know what answer Ramdas would give. One answer might be
\nthat the Divine within is felt through the psychic being and the nature of the psychic being is that of the divine light, harmony,
\nlove, but it is covered by the mental and separative vital ego from which strife, hate, cruelty naturally come. It is therefore
\nnatural to feel in the kindness the touch of the Divine, while the cruelty is felt as a disguise or perversion in Nature, although
\nthat would not prevent the man who has the realisation from  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>180<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n\tfeeling and meeting the Divine behind the disguise. I have known even instances in which the perception of the Divine in all ac
\ncompanied by an intense experience of universal love or a wide experience of an inner harmony had an extraordinary effect in
\nmaking all around kind and helpful, even the most coarse and hard and cruel. Perhaps it is some such experience which is at
\nthe base of Ramdas’s statement about the kindness. As for the Divine working, the experience of the Vedantic realisation is
\nthat behind the confused mixture of good and evil something is working that he realises as the Divine and in his own life he
\ncan look back and see what each step, happy or unhappy, meant for his progress and how it led towards the growth of his spirit.
\nNaturally this comes fully as the realisation progresses; before that he had to walk by faith and may have often felt his faith
\nfail and yielded to grief, doubt and despair for a time.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nAs for my writings, I don’t know if there is any that would
\nclear up the difficulty. You would find mostly the statement of the Vedantic experience, for it is that through which I passed and,
\nthough now I have passed to something beyond, it seems to me the most thorough-going and radical preparation for whatever
\nis Beyond, though I do not say that it is indispensable to pass through it. But whatever the solution, it seems to me that the
\nVedantin is right in insisting that one must, to arrive at it, admit the two facts, the prevalence of evil and suffering here and the
\nexperience of that which is free from these things \u2014  and it is only by the progressive experience that one can get a solution
\n\u2014  whether through reconciliation, a conquering descent or an escape. If we start from the basis taken as an axiom that the
\nprevalence of suffering and evil in the present and in the hard, outward fact of things, disproves of itself all that has been experienced by sages and mystics of the other side, the realisable Divine, then no solution seems possible.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n15 April 1934 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nJ. Krishnamurti
\n<\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAt one time I tried to come into imaginative contact with J. Krishnamurti. I imagined as follows: He has acquired a quiet
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>181<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

\nmind and a semi-quiet vital and has glimpses through them of the Self. He receives some things intuitively in his mind. But
\nhe goes no further than that. He has neither the knowledge nor the power nor bliss of the higher planes.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWhat he speaks is all purely mental \u2014  if he has any glimpses of realisation, they are in the mind only.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n4 September 1933 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI don’t think there is much either in this man himself or in his teachings. It does not seem to me that he is a yogi in the
\ntrue sense of the word but rather a man with some intellectual ability who is posing as a spiritual teacher. His photograph gives
\nan impression of much pretension and vanity and an impression also of much falsity in the character. As for what he teaches, it
\ndoes not hang together. If all books are worthless, why did he write a book and one of this kind telling people what they should
\ndo, what they should not do and if all teachers are unhelpful, why does he take the posture of a teacher since according to his
\nown statement that cannot be helpful to anybody? Krishnamurti was, before he broke away on his own, certainly the disciple of
\ntwo Gurus, Leadbeater and Annie Besant: if he has denounced Mrs. Besant, Krishnaprem is quite entitled to denounce him as a
\n\t\t\tgurudrohī<\/i>.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n9 December 1949  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>182<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \t\t\t<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Section Four   Remarks on Contemporaries  and on Contemporary Problems       Remarks on Spiritual Figures in India   Ramakrishna Paramhansa   I would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","wpcat-37-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1633","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=1633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}