{"id":1664,"date":"2013-07-13T01:36:22","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1664"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:36:22","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:22","slug":"08-his-temperament-and-character-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\/08-his-temperament-and-character-vol-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","title":{"rendered":"-08_His Temperament and Character.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\nHis Temperament and Character<\/font><\/b>
\n <\/span>
\n <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe Battle of Life<\/span><\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nBut what strange ideas again \u2014  that I was born with a supramental temperament and had never any brain or mind or any
\nacquaintance with human mentality \u2014  and that I know nothing of hard realities. Good God! my whole life has been a struggle with hard realities, from hardship and semi-starvation in England through the fierce difficulties and perils of revolutionary leadership and organisation and activity in India to the far greater difficulties continually cropping up here in Pondicherry,
\ninternal and external. My life has been a battle from its early years and is still a battle,
\n\u2014  the fact that I wage it now from
\na room upstairs and by spiritual means as well as others that are external makes no difference to its character. But of course
\nas we have not been shouting about these things, it is natural, I suppose, for the sadhaks to think I am living in an august,
\nglamorous, lotus-eating dreamland where no hard facts of life or nature present themselves. But what an illusion, all the same!
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\nChange of Nature<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIt is perfectly possible to change one’s nature. I have proved that in my own case, for I have made myself exactly the opposite
\nin character to what I was when I started life. I have seen it done in many and I have helped myself to do it in many. But
\ncertain conditions are needed. At present in this Asram there is an obstinate resistance to the change of nature
\n\u2014  not so much
\nin the inner being, for there are a good number who accept change there, but in the outer man which repeats its customary
\nmovements like a machine and refuses to budge out of its groove. X<\/i>‘s case does not matter
\n\u2014  his vital has always wanted to be
\n  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>44<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nitself and follow its own way and his mental will cannot prevail over it. The difficulty is far more general than that.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThat however would not matter \u2014  it would be only a question of a little more or less time, if the divine action were
\nadmitted whole-heartedly by the sadhaks. But the conditions laid down by them and the conditions laid down from above
\nseem radically to differ. From above the urge is to lift everything above the human level, the demand of the sadhaks (not all,
\nbut so many) is to keep everything on the human level. But the human level means ignorance, disharmony, strife, suffering,
\ndeath, disease \u2014  constant failure. I cannot see what solution there can be for such a contradiction
\n\u2014  unless it be Nirvana.
\nBut transformation is hardly more difficult than Nirvana. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n17 October 1934
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\nPeople of sattwic temperament in the ordinary life behave
\npractically in the same manner as sadhaks who realise spiritual peace as a result of Yoga. Can it be said that in sattwic people
\nthe peace descends but in a hidden manner? Or is it due to their past lives?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nOf course they have gained their power to live in the mind by a past evolution. But the spiritual peace is something other
\nand infinitely more than the mental peace and its results are different, not merely clear thinking or some control or balance
\nor a sattwic state. But its greater results can only be fully and permanently manifest when it lasts long enough in the system or
\nwhen one feels spread out in it above the head and on every side stretching towards infinity as well as penetrated by it down to
\nthe very cells. Then it carries with it the deep and vast and solid tranquillity that nothing can shake
\n\u2014  even if on the surface there
\nis storm and battle. I was myself of the sattwic type you describe in my youth, but when the peace from above came down, that
\nwas quite different. Sattvagun<\/font>a <\/i>disappeared into nirgun<\/font>a <\/i>and negative nirgun<\/font>a <\/i>into positive traigun<\/font>yatita<\/i>.
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n23 July 1935
\n <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>45<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\nKeeping Silence<\/b>
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI suppose I am silent, first, because I have no “free-will” and,
\nsecondly, because I have no Time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLess metaphysically and more Yogically, there are periods
\nwhen silence becomes imperative, because to throw oneself outward delays the “work that has to be done”.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nI suppose someday I will write about Free Will, but for the moment there is no effective will, free or otherwise, to do it.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n7 April 1931 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPeace and Ananda<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nMy own experience is not <\/i>limited to a radiant peace; I know very well what ecstasy and Ananda are from the Brahmananda
\n down to the śārīra ānanda<\/i>, and can experience them at any time.
\nBut of these things I prefer to speak only when my work is done \u2014  for it is in a transformed consciousness here and not only
\nabove where the Ananda always exists that I seek their base of permanence.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n4 August 1934 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe Burden of Love<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIt is only divine love which can bear the burden I have to bear, that all have to bear who have sacrificed everything else to the
\none aim of uplifting earth out of its darkness towards the Divine. The Gallio-like “<\/span>Je m’en fiche<\/span>“-ism (I do not care) would not
\ncarry me one step; it would certainly not be divine. It is quite another thing that enables me to walk unweeping and unlamenting
\ntowards the goal. <\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\nSolid Strength<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIf silence does not contain the fire within, will it not be the
\nsilence of a dead man? What can one accomplish without fire, zeal, enthusiasm?
\n  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>46<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nZeal and enthusiasm are all right and very necessary but the spiritual condition combines calm with intensity. Psychic fire is
\ndifferent \u2014  what you are speaking of here is the rajasic vital fire of self-assertion, aggressive self-defence, exerting lawful rights
\netc.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nFire is the active expression of solid strength. But I feel that this
\nfire is more necessary than solid strength in dynamic work.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI speak from my own experience. I have solid strength, but I
\nhave not much of the fire that blazes out against anybody who does not give me lawful rights. Yet I do not find myself weak or
\na dead man. I have always made it a rule not to be restless in any way, to throw away restlessness
\n\u2014  yet I have been able to use my
\nsolid strength whenever necessary. You speak as if rajasic force and vehemence were the only strength and all else is deadness
\nand weakness. It is not so \u2014  the calm spiritual strength is a hundred
\ntimes stronger; it does not blaze up and sink again \u2014
\nbut is steady and unshakable and perpetually dynamic. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n21 November 1933
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nRudra Power<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI have dropped using the Rudra power \u2014  its effects used to be
\ntoo catastrophic and now from a long disuse the inclination to use it has become rusty. Not that I am a convert to Satyagraha
\nand Ahimsa, \u2014  but Himsa too has its inconvenience. So the fires sleep.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\nNeither Rejection nor Attachment<\/span><\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI have no special liking for the ideal of Shiva, though something of the Shiva temperament must necessarily be present. I have
\nnever had any turn for rejection of the money power nor any attachment to it; one has to rise above these things as your Guru
\ndid but it is precisely when one has risen above that one can  <\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>47<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nmore easily command them. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n15 January 1936
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\nIt depends on what is meant by asceticism. I have no desires
\nbut I don’t lead outwardly an ascetic life, only a secluded one. According to the Gita,
\ntyāga<\/i>, the inner freedom from desire and
\n attachment, is the true asceticism.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n9 July 1937 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nNot Grim and Stern<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe Overmind seems so distant from us, and your Himalayan austerity and grandeur take my breath away, making my heart
\npalpitate!
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nO rubbish! I am austere and grand, grim and stern! every blasted
\nthing that I never was! I groan in an unAurobindian despair when I hear such things. What has happened to the common
\nsense of all of you people? In order to reach the Overmind it is not at all necessary to take leave of this simple but useful
\nquality. Common sense by the way is not logic (which is the least commonsense-like thing in the world), it is simply looking
\nat things as they are without inflation or deflation \u2014  not imagining wild imaginations
\n\u2014  or for that matter despairing “I know
\nnot why” despairs. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n23 February 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\nThe mistake was an old obstinate suggestion returning so as to
\nbring about the old reactions which have to be got over. It is your old error of the greatness and “grimness” of God, Supramental
\netc. which was used to bring back the wrong ideas and the gloom. All this talk
\nabout grimness and sternness is sheer rot \u2014
\nyou will excuse me for the expression, but there is no other that is adequate. The only truth about it is that I am not demonstrative
\nor expansive in public \u2014  but I never was. Nevinson seeing me presiding at the Surat Nationalist Conference
\n\u2014  which was not
\na joke and others were as serious as myself \u2014  spoke of me as that most politically dangerous of men
\n\u2014  “the man who never
\nsmiles” which made people who knew me smile very much. You  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>48<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nseem to have somewhere in you a Nevinson impression of me. Or perhaps you agree with
\nX <\/i>who wrote demanding of me
\nwhy I smiled only with the lips and complained that it was not a satisfactory smile like the Mother’s. All the same, whatever I may
\nhave said to Y <\/i>or Y <\/i>may have said to you, I have always given a large place to mirth and laughter and my letters in that style are
\nonly the natural outflow of my personality. I have never been “grim” in my life
\n\u2014  that is the Stalin-Mussolini style, it is not
\nmine; the only trait I share with the “grim” people is obstinacy in following out my aim in life, but I do it quietly and simply
\nand have always done. Don’t set up some gloomy imaginations and take them for the real Aurobindo.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nBy the way, if you get such imaginations like the Nrisinha Hiranyakashipu one, I shall begin to think that the Overmind
\nhas got hold of you also. I don’t know the gentleman (Nrisinha) personally, but only by hearsay; if he was there I certainly did not
\nrecognise him. I always thought of him as a symbol \u2014  or perhaps a divinised Neanderthal man who sent for Hiranyakashipu
\n(whoever H. was) and cut him open in the true Neanderthal way! For myself I was sitting there very quiet and as pacific as anybody
\nat Geneva itself \u2014  more so in fact and receiving the stream of people with much inner amiability and, outwardly, a frequent
\n“lip-smile” \u2014  so where the deuce was room for Nrisinha there? Besides it seems to me that I have long overpassed the
\nman-beast stage of evolution \u2014  perhaps I flatter myself? \u2014  so again why Nrisinha. At the most there may have been some Power
\nbehind me guarding against the stream of "grim" difficulties \u2014 really grim these
\n\u2014  which had been cropping up down to the
\nDarshan eve. If so, it was not part of myself nor was I identified with it. So exit Nrisinha.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\nI do not know that I can say anything in defence of my unlovable marbleness \u2014  which is also unintentional, for I feel nothing like
\nmarble within me. But obviously I can lay no claims to the expansive charm and grace and lovability of a Gandhi or Tagore.
\nFor one thing I have never been able to establish a cheerful   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>49<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nhail-fellow contact with the multitude, even when I was a public leader; I have been always reserved and silent except with the few
\nwith whom I was intimate or whom I could meet in private. But my reference to Nevinson and the Conference was only casual;
\nI did not mean that I regard the Darshan as I would a political meeting or a public function. But all the same it is not in the
\nnature of a private interview; I feel it is an occasion on which I am less a social person than a receptacle of a certain Power
\nreceiving those who come to me. I receive the sadhaks (not X <\/i>or others) with a smile however unsatisfactory or invisible to you
\n\u2014  but I suppose it becomes naturally a smile of the silence rather than a radiant substitute for cordial and bubbling laughter.
\n<\/span>
\nQue<\/i>
\n<\/span>
\nvoulez-vous<\/span>? <\/span> <\/i>
\nI am not Gandhi or Tagore.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll that I really wanted to say was that the inwardness and
\nsilence which you feel at the time of Darshan and dislike is not anything grim, stern, ferocious (Nrisinha) or even marble. It is
\nabsurd to describe it as such when there is nothing in me that has any correspondence with these epithets. What is there is a
\ngreat quietude, wideness, light and universal or all-containing oneness. To speak of these things as if they were grim, stern,
\nfierce and repellent or stiff and hard is to present not the fact of my nature but a caricature. I never heard before that peace
\nwas something grim, wideness repellent, light stern or fierce or oneness hard and stiff like marble. People have come from
\noutside and felt these things, but they have felt not repelled but attracted. Even those who went out giddy with the onrush of
\nlight or fainted like Y<\/i>, had no other wish but to come back and they did not fly away in terror. Even casual visitors have
\nsometimes felt a great peace and quiet in the atmosphere and wished that they could stay here. So even if the sadhaks feel
\nonly a terrifying grimness, I am entitled to suppose that my awareness of myself is not an isolated illusion of mine and to
\nquestion whether grimness is my real character and a hard and cold greatness my fundamental nature.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nI suppose people get a sense of calm and immobility from my appearance. But what is there terrifying in that? Up till now it
\nused to be supposed that this was the usual Yogic poise and that  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>50<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nit could soothe and tranquillise. Am I to understand that I have turned it into something fierce and Asuric which terrifies and
\nis fierce, grim and repellent? I find it rather difficult to believe. Or is it that I live too much within and have too much that
\nis unknown and incomprehensible? I have always lived within, and what else could be expected of me? There is something to
\nbe manifested and it is only within that it can be found \u2014  there is a world struggling to be born and it is only from within that
\none can find and release it. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n24 February 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\nAll this insistence on grandeur and majesty makes me remember
\nShakespeare’s remarks \u2014  the greatness that is thrust on one. I am unaware, as of grimness, so of any stiff majesty or pompous
\ngrandeur \u2014  the state of peace, wideness, universality I feel is  <\/i>
\n <\/i> perfectly easy, simple, natural, degage<\/i>, more like a robe of ease
\nthan any imperial purple. Between X<\/i>‘s palpitating testimony to my
\ngrandeur and your melancholy testimony to my majesty \u2014
\nit appears I sit like the Himalayas and am as remote as the stratosphere \u2014  I begin to wonder whether it is so and how the
\ndevil I manage to do the trick. Unconscious hypnotism? No, for I begin to feel not like the juggler but like the little boy who has
\nto climb his rope and perch there in a perilous and uncomfortable elevation
\n\u2014  and it seems to be rather a self-hypnotism by
\nthe spectators of the show. All the same it was a relief to find someone writing of a beautiful and “loving” darshan and others
\nwho describe it in a similar tone. From which I conclude that the quality of
\nthe object lies in the eye of the seer \u2014 <\/span>নানা মত নানা
\nমুনির<\/font> .<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nSense of Humour<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe Divine may be difficult, but his difficulties can be overcome
\nif one keeps at Him. Even my smilelessness was overcome which Nevinson had remarked with horror more than twenty years
\nbefore \u2014  “the most dangerous man in India”, Aurobindo Ghose “the man who never smiles”. He ought to have added, “but who
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>51<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nalways jokes”; but he did not know that, as I was very solemn with him, or perhaps I had not developed sufficiently on that
\nside then. Anyhow if you could overcome that, you are bound to overcome all the other difficulties also.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n11 February 1937 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\n[From a report of a meeting with Sri Aurobindo:<\/i>] “He laughed till his body shook; it was rollicking. . . .”
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThis won’t do. It is a too exhilarating over-description. It calls up to my mind a Falstaff or a Chesterton; it does not fit in my
\nstyle of hilarity. It is long since my laughter has been continuous and uncontrolled like that. For that to be true I shall have to wait
\ntill the Year 1, S.D. (Supramental Descent). And “rollicking”? The epithet would have applied to my grandfather but not to
\nhis less explosive grandson. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n1945
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nRising above Depression<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI am still not able to maintain the right attitude in my own
\nsadhana and yet I try to pose as an adviser and instructor. <\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nWell, one can give good advice even when one does not follow it
\noneself \u2014  there is the old adage “Do what I preach and not what I practise.” More seriously, there are different personalities in
\noneself and the one that is eager to advise and help may be quite sincere. I remember in days long past when I still had personal
\nstruggles and difficulties, people came to me from outside for advice etc. when I was in black depression and could not see my
\nway out of a sense of hopelessness and failure, yet nothing of that came out and I spoke with an assured conviction. Was that
\ninsincerity? I think not, the one who spoke in me was quite sure of what he spoke. The turning of all oneself to the Divine is not
\nan easy matter and one must not be discouraged if it takes time and other movements still intervene. One must note, rectify and
\ngo on अनिर्विण्णेन चेतसा.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n24 February 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>52<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nWe hear that you also had to undergo a lot of suffering and despair \u2014  to the extent of wanting to commit suicide!
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nWhat nonsense! Suicide! Who the devil told you that? Even if I knew that all was going to collapse tomorrow, I would not think
\nof suicide, but go on to do what I still could for the future. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n21 June 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nAttitude towards Work<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIt is not a question of liking but of capacity \u2014  though usually
\n(not always) liking goes with the capacity. But capacity can be developed and liking can be developed or rather the
\nrasa <\/i>you
\nspeak of. One cannot be said to be in the full Yogic condition \u2014  for the purposes of this Yoga
\n\u2014  if one cannot take up with
\nwillingness any work given to one as an offering to the Divine. At one time I was absolutely unfit for any physical work and
\ncared only for the mental, but I trained myself in doing physical things with care and perfection so as to overcome this glaring
\ndefect in my being and make the bodily instrument apt and conscious. It was the same with some others here. A nature not
\ntrained to accept external work and activity becomes mentally top-heavy \u2014  physically inert and obscure. It is only if one is
\ndisabled or too physically weak that physical work can be put aside altogether. I am speaking of course from the point of view
\nof the ideal \u2014  the rest depends upon the nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs for the deity presiding over control of servants, godown
\nwork as well as over poetry or painting, it is always the same \u2014 the Shakti, the Mother.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n11 December 1934 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\nI have such a push to write poetry, stories, all kinds of things, in Bengali!
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nAmbitions of that kind are too vague to succeed. You have to limit your fields and concentrate in order to succeed in them. I
\ndon’t make any attempt to be a scientist or painter or general. I have certain things to do and have done them, so long as the
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>53<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nDivine wanted; others have opened in me from above or within by Yoga. I have done as much of them as the Divine wanted.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n19 September 1936 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nGenius for Lolling<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI intend to loll for a day or two after weeks of protracted hard work. How best to loll is a problem. By the way please note I
\nam taking a regular sea-bath. It is doing me a lot of good.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nAll right about the sea-baths. As for lolling there is no how
\nabout it, \u2014  one just lolls, \u2014  if one has the genius for it. I have, though opportunities are now lacking for showing my genius.
\nBut it can’t be taught, nor any process invented \u2014  it is just a gift of Nature.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>54<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

His Temperament and Character   The Battle of Life   But what strange ideas again \u2014  that I was born with a supramental temperament and…<\/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-1664","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\/1664","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=1664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}