{"id":1652,"date":"2013-07-13T01:36:16","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1652"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:36:16","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:16","slug":"10-on-himself-as-a-writer-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\/10-on-himself-as-a-writer-vol-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","title":{"rendered":"-10_On Himself as a Writer.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n
\nSection Three<\/font><\/b> <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nRemarks on Himself as a Writer<\/font><\/b>
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nand on His Writings<\/font><\/b>
\n  
\n  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\nOn Himself as a Writer<\/font><\/b>
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nYoga and Intellectual Development<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nCan it be that in course of the sadhana, one may have certain intellectual or other training by the direct power of yoga? How
\ndid your own wide development come?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIt came not by “training”, but by the spontaneous opening and
\nwidening and perfecting of the consciousness in the sadhana. <\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\nYoga and Literary Expression<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nSuppose you had not studied English literature; would it be
\nstill possible for you to say something about it by Yogic experience?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nOnly by cultivating a special siddhi, which would be much too bothersome to go after. But I suppose if I had got the Yogic
\nknowledge (in your hypothetical case) it should be quite easy to add the outer one.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n29 December 1934 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\nWhen one hears that you had to plod through a lot, one wonders whether the story of Valmiki’s sudden opening of
\npoetic faculties is true \u2014  whether such a miracle is really possible.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPlod about what? For some things I had to plod \u2014  other things came in a moment or in two or three days like Nirvana or the
\npower to appreciate painting. The “latent” philosopher failed to come out at the first shot (when I was in Calcutta)
\n\u2014  after
\nsome years of incubation (?) it burst out like a volcano as soon as I started writing the
\nArya<\/i>. There is no damned single rule for
\nthese things. Valmiki’s poetic faculty might open suddenly like a   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>63<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nchampagne bottle, but it does not follow that everybody’s will do like that.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n1 April 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nAvoidance of Certain Subjects<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIf I write about these questions from the Yogic point of view, even though on a logical basis, there is bound to be much that is in
\nconflict with your own settled and perhaps cherished opinions, e.g. about “miracles”, persons, the limits of judgment by sense
\ndata etc. I have avoided as much as possible writing about these subjects because I would have to propound things that cannot be
\nunderstood except by reference to other data than those of the physical senses or of reason founded on these alone. I might have
\nto speak of laws and forces not recognised by physical reason or science. In my public writings and my writings to sadhaks I have
\nnot dwelt on these because they go out of the range of ordinary knowledge and the understanding founded on it. These things
\nare known to some, but they do not usually speak about it, while the public view of such of them as are known is either credulous
\nor incredulous, but in both cases without experience or knowledge. So if the views founded on them are likely to upset, shock
\nor bewilder, the better way is silence. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\nDecember 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nOn His Philosophy in General<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI do not mind if you find inconsistencies in my statements. What
\npeople call consistency is usually a rigid or narrow-minded inability to see more than one side of the truth or more than their
\nown narrow personal view or experience of things. Truth has many aspects and unless you look on all with a calm and equal
\neye, you will never have the real or the integral knowledge. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n22 December 1934
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\nOne Kishorlal G. Mashriwala has written a book in which he
\nsays that your “language” has been responsible for creating confusion, etc. X
\n<\/i>seems to have written to him about this and
\n  <\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 <\/font>64<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ngot a reply that Kishorlal has not been satisfied with your philosophy nor with any of your disciples whom he has seen,
\nbut that he may change his views if he gets a quarter of an hour’s talk with you.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nWell, there seems evidently to be a confusion in his ideas about my philosophy,
\n\u2014  though what has been responsible for creating
\nit? \u2014  well, it is perhaps the goodness of his thinking! I fear the pleasure and honour of having a quarter of an hour’s talk with
\nthe Yogi Kishorlal is too high a thing for me to wish to attain to it in this life. I must try to obtain
\npun<\/font>ya <\/i>first and strive to be
\n born again in order to deserve it.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n13 April 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\nI am thinking of writing a book on your teachings in a systematic Western form in three main sections: (1) Metaphysics,
\n(2) Psychology, (3) Ethics. But to make it presentable in the academic fashion would require a large reading of some past
\nand present Western philosophers and psychologists. And where is the time for it?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI am afraid it would be a rather too colossal affair. But why ethics? I don’t think that there is any ethics; because ethics depends upon fixed principles and rules of conduct, whereas here any such thing can only be for sadhana purposes as conditions
\nfor getting the spiritual or higher consciousness and afterwards everything is freely determined by that consciousness and its
\nmovements and dictates. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n26 July 1936
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\nYou wrote to X <\/i>that though people call you a philosopher you
\nhave never learnt philosophy.1<\/font><\/sup> Well, what you have written in the Arya <\/i>is so philosophical that the greatest philosopher of
\nthe world can never expect to write it. I don’t mean here the bringing down of the new Truth, but the power of expression,
\nthe art of reasoning and arguing with intellect and logic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n1
\n<\/font> See the letter of 31 August 1934 on page 70.
\n\u2014  Ed.<\/font><\/i>
\n  
\n66<\/i> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>65<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nThere is very little argument in my philosophy \u2014  the elaborate metaphysical reasoning full of abstract words with which the
\nmetaphysician tries to establish his conclusions is not there. What is there is a harmonising of the different parts of a
\nmany-sided knowledge so that all unites logically together. But it is not by force of logical argument that it is done, but by a clear vision
\nof the relations and sequences of the knowledge. <\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>66<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Section Three   Remarks on Himself as a Writer and on His Writings       On Himself as a Writer   Yoga and Intellectual…<\/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-1652","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\/1652","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=1652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}