{"id":2509,"date":"2013-07-13T01:42:05","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2509"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:42:05","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:05","slug":"62-literature-and-yoga-vol-27-letters-on-poetry-and-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/27-letters-on-poetry-and-art\/62-literature-and-yoga-vol-27-letters-on-poetry-and-art","title":{"rendered":"-62_Literature and Yoga.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLiterature, Art, Music <\/font><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tand the Practice of Yoga<\/font><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLiterature and Yoga <\/font><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPoetry and Sadhana<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

Can one gain as much profit (I mean spiritually) from writing poems, etc. as from devoting one’s time to sadhana
\n―meditation, etc. In other words, can literary activity be taken as part of one’s sadhana? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nAny activity can be taken as part of the sadhana if it is offered to the Divine or done with the consciousness or faith that it is
\ndone by the Divine Power. That is the important point. <\/p>\n

29 March 1934
\n\t\t\t<\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is obvious that poetry cannot be a substitute for sadhana; it
\ncan be an accompaniment only. If there is a feeling (of devotion, surrender etc.), it can express and confirm it; if there is an experience, it can express and strengthen the force of experience. As reading of books like the Upanishads or Gita or singing of
\ndevotional songs can help, especially at one stage or another, so this can help also. Also it opens a passage between the exterior
\nconsciousness and the inner mind or vital. But if one stops at that, then nothing much is gained. Sadhana must be the main
\nthing and sadhana means the purification of the nature, the consecration of the being, the opening of the psychic and the
\ninner mind and vital, the contact and presence of the Divine, the realisation of the Divine in all things, surrender, devotion, the
\nwidening of the consciousness into the cosmic Consciousness, the Self one in all, the psychic and the spiritual transformation
\nof the nature. If these things are neglected and only poetry and mental development and social contacts occupy all the time, then
\nthat is not sadhana. Also the poetry must be written in the true spirit, not for fame or self-satisfaction, but as a means of contact
\n   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-711<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

with the Divine through aspiration or of the expression of one’s own inner being, as it was written formerly by those who left
\nbehind them so much devotional and spiritual poetry in India; it does not help if it is written only in the spirit of the Western artist
\n\u00b4<\/i> or litterateur<\/i>. Even works or meditation cannot succeed unless
\nthey are done in the right spirit of consecration and spiritual aspiration gathering up the whole being and dominating all else.
\nIt is the lack of this gathering up of the whole life and nature and turning it towards the one aim, which is the defect in so
\nmany here, that lowers the atmosphere and stands in the way of what is being done by myself and the Mother. <\/p>\n

\n

19 May 1938 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

*<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\nWhat I wrote to you about poetry was an entirely general answer to the question of the relation of poetry to sadhana. I
\nwrote how poetry could be part of sadhana and under what conditions, what were its limitations and also that it could not
\nbe a substitute for sadhana. I made no personal application; I have not said or suggested anywhere that the ideas or bhakti
\nexpressed in your poetry were humbug or hypocrisy and I have not said or suggested anywhere that all our labour on you had
\nbeen wasted and gone for nothing. These absurd ideas, like all the rest, are imaginations and inventions of the vital ego foisted
\nby it on your mind in order to justify its pressure on you to leave Pondicherry and the Yoga. <\/p>\n

I understood from what you had written and said before that you wanted to concentrate altogether on the sadhana
\n―to
\ndo what I call “the gathering up of the whole <\/i>life and nature and turning it towards the one aim”, and I wrote that the lack of this
\nwas the defect of the majority of the sadhaks here. What I wrote implied therefore an approval of your resolution. No doubt,
\nit implied also that you had not yet made this total gathering up and turning; if you had, there would have been no need of
\nthis resolution of yours and no room for it. If your whole life and every part of your being has already been gathered up and
\nentirely consecrated to the Divine, then you are on the perfect way and there is obviously no need of any change in your way
\n   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-712<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nof life or your sadhana. But this can be said of very few in the Ashram. But that does not mean that all the people in the
\nAshram except a few are insincere and that all our work on them has been thrown away. What it means is that for our work
\nto be fully done, for the decisive realisations and the complete inner and outer change, the entire gathering up and turning
\nof the whole life and nature is indispensable and that if it is only partially done, it is a defect in the sadhana and stands in
\nthe way of a full working and decisive and total change of the consciousness. If your whole vital nature and all the movements
\nof your outer life had been already gathered up and turned towards the Divine alone without any other aim or interest,
\nhow is it that this vital revolt came about? And how is it that it whirls furiously around such things as the refusal of an easy
\nchair or an almirah or of a special room which the Mother has reserved for another purpose? Or around the gossip of sadhaks
\nand what this one may have said or that one may have said or the attitude of sadhaks towards you? It is evident that the part
\nof your vital which was concerned with these outward things or with the outward contacts with others was not yet turned solely
\ntowards the one aim, that it was still interested and affected by these things which have nothing to do with the realisation of the
\nDivine or with Yoga. <\/p>\n

It is quite true that when you first came, the Mother was
\nnot in favour of your staying and taking up the Yoga here, for you had then a very strong obscurity and impurity in your vital
\nnature and this could easily make the Yoga too difficult for you and create serious trouble. When however you persisted in
\nstaying, we gave you your opportunity as we had done in similar cases before. For it is always possible for the psychic being to
\nprevail, if it is determined to do so, over the difficulties of the vital nature, even though it may mean severe inner struggles for a
\ntime. This concession was justified by certain results; you opened in a remarkable way into the inner being by the poetic aspiration
\nand you had experiences which strengthened the psychic call and created a psychic and mental basis for your sadhana. Even you
\nwere able to throw out from the vital the sexual obsession which   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-713<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

had been one of the chief difficulties there.1<\/font><\/sup> <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

*<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIt won’t do to put excessive and sweeping constructions on what I write, otherwise it is easy to misunderstand its real significance.
\nI said that there was no reason why poetry of a spiritual character<\/i> (not any poetry like Verlaine’s or Swinburne’s or Baudelaire’s)
\nshould bring no realisation at all<\/i>. This did not mean that poetry was a major means of realisation of the Divine. I did not say
\nthat it would lead us to the Divine or that anyone had achieved the Divine through poetry or that poetry by itself can lead us
\nstraight into the sanctuary. Obviously if such exaggerations are put into my words, they become absurd and untenable. <\/p>\n

My statement is perfectly clear and there is nothing in it against reason or common sense. The Word has power
\n―even
\nthe ordinary written word has a power. If it is an inspired word it has still more power. What kind of power or power for what
\ndepends on the nature of the inspiration and the theme and the part of the being it touches. If it is the Word itself,
\n―as in certain
\nutterances of the great Scriptures ―Veda, Upanishads, Gita, ―it may well have a power to awaken a spiritual impulse, an
\nuplifting, even certain kinds of realisation. To say that it cannot contradicts spiritual experience. <\/p>\n

The Vedic poets regarded their poetry as mantras<\/i>, they were the vehicles of their own realisations and could become vehicles
\nof realisation for others. Naturally, these mostly would be illuminations, not the settled and permanent realisation that is the
\ngoal of Yoga ―but they could be steps on the way or at least lights on the way. Many have such illuminations, even initial
\nrealisations while meditating on verses of the Upanishads or the Gita. Anything that carries the Word, the Light in it, spoken or
\nwritten, can light this fire within, open a sky, as it were, bring the effective vision of which the Word is the body. In all ages spiritual
\nseekers have expressed their aspirations or their experiences in poetry or inspired language and it has helped themselves and <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t1 Sri Aurobindo broke off here. He did not send this incomplete letter in this form. It<\/i>
\nis reproduced from his manuscripts. ―Ed.<\/i>
\n  
\n<\/font> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-714<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nothers. Therefore there is nothing absurd in my assigning to such poetry a spiritual or psychic value and effectiveness to poetry of
\na psychic or spiritual character. <\/p>\n

\n 24 December 1934 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n *<\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\nI have always told you that you ought not to stop your poetry
\nand similar activities. It is a mistake to do so out of asceticism
\nor with the idea of tapasya<\/i>. One can stop these things when they drop of themselves, because one is in full experience and
\nso interested in one’s inner life that one has no energy to spare for the rest. Even then, there is no rule for giving up; for there is
\nno reason why the poetry, etc., should not be a part of sadhana. The love of applause, of fame, the ego-feeling have to be given
\nup, but that can be done without giving up the activity itself. <\/p>\n

16 April 1935
\n\t\t\t<\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is perfectly true that all human greatness and fame and
\nachievement are nothing before the greatness of the Infinite and Eternal. There are two possible deductions from that, first, that
\nall human action has to be renounced and one should go into a cave; the other is that one should grow out of ego so that
\nthe activities of the nature may become one day consciously an action of the Infinite and Eternal. But it does not follow that one
\nmust or can grow out of ego and the vital absorption at once and, if one does not, that proves incapacity for Yoga. I myself
\nnever gave up poetry or other creative human activities out of \u00af<\/i>
\ntapasya<\/i>; they fell into a subordinate position because the inner life became stronger and stronger slowly: nor did I really drop
\nthem, only I had so heavy a work laid upon me that I could not find time to go on. But it took me years and years to get the ego
\nout of them or the vital absorption, but I never heard anybody say and it never occurred to me that that was a proof that I was
\nnot born for the Yoga. . . . <\/p>\n

As to the born Yogi what I said was that there was a born
\nYogi in you, and I very explicitly based it on the personality that showed itself in your earlier experiences in a vivid way which no
\n   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-715<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

one accustomed to the things of Yoga or having any knowledge about them could fail to recognise. But I did not mean that there
\nwas nothing in you which was not “born Yogic”. Everyone has many personalities in him and many of them are not Yogic at all
\nin their propensities. But if one has the will to Yoga, the born Yogi prevails as soon as he gets a chance of manifesting himself
\nthrough the crust of the mind and vital nature. Only, very often that takes time. One must be prepared to give the time. <\/p>\n

\n

16 April 1935 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

*<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\nOf course when you are writing poems or composing you are in contact with your inner being, that is why you feel so different
\nthen. The whole art of Yoga is to get that contact and get from it into the inner being itself, for so one can enter directly into and
\nremain in all that is great and luminous and beautiful. Then one can try to establish them in this troublesome and defective outer
\nshell of oneself and in the outer world also. <\/p>\n

10 November 1934
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

*
\n<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

Literature and art are or can be first introductions to the inner
\nbeing ―the inner mind and vital; for it is from there that they come. And if one writes poems of bhakti, poems of divine seeking etc., or creates music of that kind, it means that there is a bhakta or seeker inside who is supporting himself by that self
\nexpression. There is also the point of view behind Lele’s answer to me when I told him that I wanted to do Yoga but for work,
\nfor action, not for Sannyasa and Nirvana, ―but after years of spiritual effort I had failed to find the way and it was for that I
\nhad asked to meet him. His first answer was, “It should be easy for you as you are a poet.” But it was not from any point of
\nview like that that Nirod put his question and it was not from that point of view that I gave my answer. It was about some
\nspecial character-making virtue that he seemed to attribute to literature. <\/p>\n

18 November 1936 <\/font> <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n*  <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-716<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

I don’t understand why Lele told you that because you are a poet, sadhana will be easy to you through poetry. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nBecause I told him I wanted to do Yoga in order to get a new inner Yogic consciousness for life and action, not for leaving
\nlife. So he said that. A poet writes from an inner source, not from the external mind, he is moved by inspiration to write,
\ni.e. he writes what a greater Power writes through him. So the Yogi karmachari has to act from an inner source, to derive his
\nthoughts and movements from that, to be inspired and impelled by a greater Power which acts through him. He never said that
\nsadhana will be easy for me through poetry. Where is “through poetry” phrase? Poetry can be done as a part of sadhana and
\nhelp the sadhana ―but sadhana “through” poetry is a quite different matter. <\/p>\n

23 May 1938 <\/font> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nIf poetic progress meant a progress in the whole range of Yoga, Nishikanta would be a great Yogi by this time. The opening in
\npoetry or any other part helps to prepare the general opening when it is done under the pressure of Yoga, but it is at first
\nsomething special, like the opening of the subtle vision or subtle senses. It is the opening of a special capacity in the inner being. <\/p>\n

8 August 1936 <\/font> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nI do not think you need be anxious about the poetry; the power is sure to re-express itself as soon as you are ready for a progress. It
\nhas probably stopped working temporarily because the pressure is now for the inner self-creation more than for the outer expression ―I am speaking, of course, of your case in particular. The expression in poetry and other forms must be, for the Yogin, a
\nflowing out from a growing self within and not merely a mental creation or an aesthetic pleasure. Like that the inner self grows
\nand the poetic power will grow with it. <\/p>\n

9 December 1931 <\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-717<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

What you say about the spontaneous development of the capacity in the metre after a silent and inactive incubation of over two
\nyears, is quite true. But it is not amazing; it often happens and is perfectly natural to those who know the laws of the being by
\nobservation and experience. In the same way one suddenly finds oneself knowing more of a language or a subject after returning to it subsequent to a short interim without study, problems which had been abandoned as unsolvable solving themselves
\nspontaneously and easily after sleep or when they are taken up again; knowledge or ideas coming up from within without reading or learning or hearing from others. Sudden efflorescences of capacity, intuitions, wellings up of all sorts of things point
\nto the same inner power or inner working. It is what we mean when we speak of the word, knowledge or activity coming out
\nof the silence, of a working behind the veil of which the outer mind is unconscious but which one day bears its results, of the
\ninner manifesting itself in the outer. It makes at once true and practical what sounds only a theory to the uninitiated,
\n―the
\nstrong distinction made by us between the inner being and the outer consciousness. It is how also unexpected Yogic capacity
\nreveals itself, sometimes no doubt as a result of long and apparently fruitless effort, sometimes as a spontaneous outflowering
\nof what was concealed there all the time or else as a response to a call which had been made but at the time and for long seemed
\nto be without an answer. <\/p>\n

\n

22 February 1935 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

*<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

I like very much both the feeling and the form of your poem.
\nOf course when you are writing poems or composing you are in contact with your inner being, that is why you feel so different
\nthen. The whole art of Yoga is to get that contact and get from it into the inner being itself, for so one can enter directly into and
\nremain in all that is great and luminous and beautiful. Then one can try to establish them in this troublesome and defective outer
\nshell of oneself and in the outer world also. <\/p>\n

20 November 1934
\n\t\t\t<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tPage-718<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

This poetry, even if it does not lead to any realisation, ―though
\nthere is no reason why it should not, since it is not mundane, ―is yet a link with the inner being and expresses its ideal. That is
\nits value for the sadhana. <\/p>\n

\n

25 December 1934 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

*<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe use of your writing is to keep you in touch with the inner
\nsource of inspiration and intuition, so as to wear thin the crude external crust in the consciousness and encourage the growth of
\nthe inner being. <\/p>\n

24 July 1938 <\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What do you wish me to be, an artist, a literary man, or a
\npoet? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA sadhak ―all these things can be included in sadhana. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why is my mind so wretchedly limited, my soul such a feeble
\nflame? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIt is not the question, for this is not a question of personal
\ncapacity but of the development of the receptivity and for that the sole thing necessary is an entire or at least a dominant will
\nto receive. What you call your mind and your soul are only a small surface part of you, not your whole being. Personal
\ncapacity belongs to the temporary surface personality which you have put forward in this life and which is mutable, is already
\nchanging and can change much farther ―e.g. the poems you are writing are certainly beyond what was your original capacity
\n\t― they belong to a range of experience to the Word of which you have opened by a development beyond your old mental self
\n\t― a farther development beyond not only your old mental self but also your old vital self is needed to get the concrete realisation
\nof that range of experience. <\/p>\n

What is standing in the way is something that is still attached to the limitations of the old personality and hesitates to take the plunge because by doing so it may lose these cherished
\n   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-719<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

limitations. It stands back in apprehension from the plunge because it is afraid of being taken out of its depths
\n\t―but unless
\none is taken out of the very shallow depth of this small part of the self, how can one get into the Infinite at all? Further
\nmore, there is no real danger in finding oneself in the Infinite, it is a place of greater safety and greater riches, not less; but
\nthis something in you does not like the prospect because it has to merge itself into a larger self-existence. You asked the
\nMother to press on you the lighting of the fire within and she has been doing so, but this is standing back with the feeling
\n“Oh Lord! what will become of me if this flame gets lit.” You must get rid of this clinging to the past self and life, then
\nyou can have a fire which will not be feeble. You have not fallen between two stools,
\n\t―you are hesitating between two
\nconsciousnesses, the old and the new, the small and the great, that is all. <\/p>\n

As for the poetry, well
\n―you have developed up to a point at which your work is of a very rare and unique quality
\n―in
\nno way inferior to that of the others of whom you speak, ―the difficulty of intermittency of production is nothing, for all
\nfeel that except Nishikanta and Dilip who have no misgivings about their creative power. Yours rises probably from the fact
\nthat in order to have free command of the highest planes of poetry, you have to rise into them and not only open to the
\nWord from them ―it is therefore the same difficulty in another form. Otherwise, if you had the old self-satisfaction of
\nwhich you draw so glowing a picture, you would have found your present poetry marvellous and gone on writing freely only
\noscillating between the different planes achieved and content to do so. This is not a proof of incapacity but of the will to
\ngreater things. Only that will must not be in the mind only but take full hold of the vital also and must be a will that
\nwhat you write of shall be a part not only of thought but of life. Which comes back to what I have written above
\n―get free
\nfrom the obscure hesitation to open and let the force do its work. <\/p>\n

One must either do that if one wants a rapid change or go   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-720<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nquietly and wait for the slower working from behind the veil to reduce and break the obstacle. <\/p>\n

\n 10 August 1937 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n *<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThere is nothing definite that I can tell you. Mother finds no conscious opposition in your mind or will to surrender and
\ntransformation. But probably the difficulty lies in the vital (not mind) of the artist (the poet, painter etc. in you), because the
\nvital of the artist is always accustomed to its independence, to follow its own way, to make and live in its own world and pursue
\nthe impulses of its nature. If that element changes then probably surrender and transformation could be more rapid, but it is not
\nalways easy for it to change at once, it usually goes by a gradual and almost unobserved change. <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

I hesitate to write in this high tone: “I am the Light of the
\nOne,” etc. It sounds too high and grand. Some don’t like this tone at all. Dilip is one. They call it insincere. Is there no
\njustification for a poet-sadhak to use this tone? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIf such poems are put as a claim, or vaunted as a personal
\nexperience of Yoga, they may be objected to on that ground. But a poet is not bound to confine himself to his personal experience.
\nA poet writes from inspiration or from imagination or vision. Milton did not need to go to Heaven or Hell or the Garden
\nof Eden before he wrote Paradise Lost<\/i>. Are all Dilip’s bhakti poems an exact transcription of his inner state? If so, he must
\nbe a wonderful Yogi and bhakta. <\/p>\n

14 April 1938
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Poetry, Peace and Ananda<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I seek for Ananda, it eludes me
\n\t―Love, Peace are nowhere. If
\npoetry doesn’t give them, what’s the use? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPoetry does not give love and peace, it gives Ananda, intense but
\nnot wide or lasting.   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-721<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

You will say that it is my mind that obstructs by its struggle. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nYour mind has obstructed the free flow of the poetry
\n―but
\nwhat it has obstructed more is the real peace and Ananda that is “deep, great and wide”. A quiet mind turned towards the 
\n  is what you need. <\/p>\n

28 July 1936
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Literary Activity and Sadhana <\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I have no hesitation at all and feel very glad when I tell you of
\nmy aspiration to do the sadhana through literary activity. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nLiterary activity can be made a part of sadhana like other things,
\nbut sadhana through literary activity is a phrase whose meaning is not very clear. <\/p>\n

29 June 1937 <\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is the use of literature if the nature stays just the same? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nGood heavens! where did you get this idea that literature can
\ntransform people? Literary people are often the most impossible on the face of the earth. <\/p>\n

10 November 1936 <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We may have progressed in literature, but the outer human nature remains almost the same. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nOuter human nature can only change either by an intense psychic development or a strong and all-pervading influence from
\nabove. It is the inner being that has to change first ―a change which is not always visible outside. That has nothing to do
\nwith the development of the faculties which is another side of the personality. That is another question altogether. But such sadhana means a slow laborious work of self-change in most cases, so why not sing on the way? <\/p>\n

11 November 1936 <\/font> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nTo be a literary man is not a spiritual aim; but to use literature as a means of spiritual expression is another matter. Even to
\n   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-722<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nmake expression a vehicle of a superior power helps to open the consciousness. The harmonising rests on that principle.<\/p>\n

\n 19 September 1936 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n *<\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\nLiterature like everything else can be made an instrumentation for the Divine Life. It can be made of some spiritual importance
\nif it is taken up with that aim and, even so, it cannot have that importance for everybody. In ordinary life no particular pursuit
\nor study can be imposed as necessary for everybody; it cannot be positively necessary for everybody to have a mastery of English
\nliterature or to be a reader of poetry or a scientist or acquainted with all the sciences (or encyclopaedia of knowledge). What is
\nimportant is to have an instrument of knowledge that will apply itself accurately, calmly, perfectly to all that it has to handle. <\/p>\n

29 December 1934 <\/font> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nLiterature, poetry, science and other studies can be a preparation of the consciousness for life. When one does Yoga they can
\nbecome part of the sadhana only if done for the Divine or taken up by the Divine Force, but then one should not want to be a
\npoet for the sake of being a poet only, or for fame, applause, etc. <\/p>\n

16 April 1935 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

*
\n<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

Has my writing any spiritual value? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nNo present value spiritually
\n―it may have a mental value. It
\nis the same with the work ―it has a value of moral training, discipline, obedience, acceptance of work for the Mother. The
\nspiritual value and result come afterwards when the consciousness in the vital opens upward. So with the mental work. It is a
\npreparation. If you cannot yet do it with the true spiritual consciousness, it, the work as well as the mental occupation, must
\nbe done with the right mental or vital will in it. <\/p>\n

14 May 1934
\n\t\t\t<\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-723<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Well, of course the first business of Yoga is not to make geniuses at all, but to make spiritual men
\n―but Yoga can do the other
\nthing also. <\/p>\n

\n

11 November 1934 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

*<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Am I right in feeling that the writing is doing me some good
\nat present? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nYes, as it keeps you in the right frame of mind without the
\nsinking into tamas and nervous troubles. <\/p>\n

6 September 1934 <\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThere is no incompatibility between spirituality and creative
\nactivity ―they can be united. <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n


\nCreative Activity Subordinate to One’s Spiritual Life<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nNirod, Nolini and Sahana are all wrong in laying down a rule of that kind for my conduct. I do not base my action on mental
\nrules which have to be applied to every case. It is a still greater error to suppose that because I (or the Mother) do something
\nin the case of one person or another, we are bound to do it for everybody and to complain of our not doing it as “making a
\ndifference”. All that belongs to the ignorance and clamour of the vital egoistic nature and has nothing to do with spiritual life. <\/p>\n

I cannot allow myself to be drawn back into a preoccupation with the poetry of the sadhaks. I have much more serious things
\nto deal with on which depends the whole work and Yoga. I have ceased to deal with Bengali poetry
\n―if any is sent, which is no
\nlonger done, I send it back with or without a word of comment. But neither can I spend time in teaching beginners how to write
\nEnglish verse. Nirod’s case is one in which for special reasons I have made an exception, nor is he any more a beginner. Neither
\non his own nor on Romen’s poems have I need to spend a long time. Even so, I do it only because I have a few moments to
\ndispose of; if they claimed it as a right, I would refuse. <\/p>\n

The spiritual life and one’s own inner psychic and spiritual
\n   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-724<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nchange should be the first preoccupation of a sadhak ―poetry or painting is something quite subordinate and even then it should
\nbe done not to be a great poet or artist but as a help to the inner sadhana. It is time that everyone got away from the vital view
\nof things to the psychic and spiritual on which alone can stand Yoga and the spiritual life. <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n Fiction-Writing and Sadhana <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

Will it do any harm to my sadhana if I attempt stories or a
\nnovel? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nYou can try, if you like. The difficulty is that the subject matter
\nof a novel belongs mostly to the outer consciousness, so that a lowering or externalising can easily come. This apart from
\nthe difficulty of keeping the inner poise when putting the mind into outer work. If you could get your established peace within,
\nthen it would be possible to do any work without disturbing or lowering the consciousness. <\/p>\n

21 August 1934 <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t*<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sahana once told me that she gave up writing because you thought it was doing harm to her sadhana. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nWhat is necessary for one, need not be necessary for another. <\/p>\n

6 September 1934
\n\t\t\t<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We remembered that Sahana had said you stopped her writing a novel, because her mind or consciousness was being externalised. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThat is when one is already in a steady stream of spiritual experience, living partly at least in an inner realisation, while the rest
\nof the being is not yet in it. Writing a novel means then going out of the inner state of experience and stimulating the rest of
\nthe nature. If the writing is something in harmony with the inner consciousness, then there would be no necessity for one to stop.
\nOn the other hand if one has attained the full consciousness in   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-725<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

both the inner and the outer nature then also one could write anything one is moved by that consciousness to write, whatever
\nit might be. In certain cases this rule may not hold. One may be strong enough to do all kinds of outward things without affecting the inner state of experience. But ordinarily this can be done freely only in the earlier stages before one is drawn inwards and
\nkept there or in the later stages when one is fully conscious spiritually in the outer being also. It is simply a question of “spiritual
\ntactics” not a hard and fast rule for all in all states and stages. <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Why did Sahana find it necessary to stop? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nBecause she was losing hold of her inner experience and thinking only of her novel. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When I was writing that novel or even while busy with poems, I had often a curious experience. I used to feel an inclination
\nto read a passage from Sri Aurobindo’s Essays on the Gita<\/i>. . . . There I felt a depth which moved and inspired me and I could
\nthen sit down to write my novel. . . . What has a novel to do with the Gita or with Truth Supramental? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThere is obviously nothing on their surface connecting the two. It may have been that the literary quality of the
\nEssays <\/i>and
\nits depth of thought satisfied some ideal in your temperament and therefore put you into touch with the creative force behind
\nyou. A poet for instance can feel himself stimulated enough to creation after reading Homer, yet his own work may be quite
\ndifferent, not epic at all and dealing with quite another order of ideas and things. It is only that the reading stimulates his inner
\nbeing to create, but according to its own quite different way and purpose. <\/p>\n

26 October 1935 <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reading and Sadhana <\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If I intend to take literature as a work to be done for sadhana, I must read all good stories, novels, poems, dramas etc., must
\nI not?   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-726<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nNo rule can be made, it differs with different people. <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

I felt that it will be a mistake to give up all that and to want to
\nmeditate all the time or to do only such things which do not hinder me from an inner concentration on you. I felt that all
\nour faculties and capacities have to be given to you. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIt is a question of the right consciousness
\n\t―no unvarying mental
\nrule can be made for these things. <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

All meditation and no work is not good and helpful to sadhana, I have heard; I don’t know if it is true. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nWriting and reading absorb the mind and fill it with images and
\ninfluences; if the images and influences are not of the right kind they naturally turn one away from the true consciousness. It is
\nonly if one has the true consciousness well established already that one can read or write anything whatever without losing it
\nor without any other harm. <\/p>\n

17 May 1934 <\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To acquire a good style in prose I am reading any and every
\nbook in Bengali. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nAny and every! That is more likely to spoil the style. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But I don’t want to lose the peace and the joy I am in now. If you think that over-reading or reading anything will lower
\nthe consciousness I shall lessen the activity. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI do not know whether the peace and joy will stand over-reading.
\nIt may if it is very strong. <\/p>\n

8 June 1934 <\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA “literary man” is one who loves literature and literary activity
\nfor their own separate sake. A Yogi who writes is not a literary man for he writes only what the inner Will and Word wants
\nhim to express. He is a channel and an instrument of something greater than his own literary personality.
\n   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-727<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Of course the literary man and the intellectual love reading
\n―books are their mind’s food. But writing is another matter.
\nThere are plenty of people who never write a word in the literary way, but are enormous readers. One reads for ideas, for
\nknowledge, for the stimulation of the mind by all that the world has thought or is thinking. <\/p>\n

Poetry, even perhaps all perfect expression of whatever kind, comes by inspiration; reading helps only to acquire for the outer
\ninstrument the full possession of a language or to get the technique of literary expression. Afterwards one develops one’s own
\nuse of the language, one’s own style, one’s own technique. Reading and painstaking labour are very good for the literary man,
\nbut even for him they are not the cause of his good writing, only an aid to it. The cause is within himself. <\/p>\n

If one lives in the inner consciousness, if the inner mind or higher mind become dynamic, all the ideas in the world and
\nall sorts of knowledge come crowding in from within or from above; there is little or no need of outside food any longer. At
\nmost reading can be then an utility for keeping oneself informed of what is happening in the world
\n―but not as food or one’s
\nown seeing of the world and Truth and things. One becomes an independent Mind in communion with the cosmic Thinker. It
\nis a decade or two that I have stopped all but the most casual reading. Poetry too need no longer depend on any outer stimulus; the power of poetical and perfect expression can of itself increase tenfold; what was written with some difficulty, often
\ngreat difficulty, comes with ease. There is a heightening of the consciousness and the greater inspiration that comes from the
\nheightening. <\/p>\n

11 September 1934 <\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nReading and study though they can be useful for preparing the
\nmind, are not themselves the best means of entering the Yoga. It is self-dedication from within that is the means. It is with the
\nconsciousness of the Mother that you must unite, a sincere self-consecration in the mind and heart and the Will is the means
\nfor it. The work given by the Mother is always meant as field<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-728<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

for that self-consecration, it has to be done as an offering to her so that
\nthrough the self-offering one may come to feel her force acting and her
\npresence. <\/p>\n

\n

27 February 1935 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

*<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI do not think you should stop reading so long as the reading itself does not,
\nas a passion, fall away from the mind; that happens when a higher order of
\nconsciousness and experiences begins within the being. Nor is it good to force
\nyourself too much to do only the one work of painting. Such compulsion of the
\nmind and vital tends usually either to be unsuccessful and make them more
\nrestless or else to create some kind of dullness and inertia. <\/p>\n

\nFor the work simply aspire for the Force to use you, put yourself inwardly in
\nrelation with the Mother when doing it and make it your aim to be the instrument
\nfor the expression of beauty without regard to personal fame or the praise and
\nblame of others. <\/p>\n

8 October 1936 <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reading and Real Knowledge <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDoes not the knowledge of yoga come by itself? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nYes. The real knowledge comes of itself from within, by the touch
\n\t\t\tof the Divine. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIf so, then isn’t it better to have only that knowledge and not the
\n\t\t\tknowledge obtained by reading? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nReading can be only a momentary help to prepare the mind. But the
\n\t\t\treal knowledge does not come by reading. Some preparation for the
\n\t\t\tinner knowledge may be helpful ―but the mind should not be too
\n\t\t\tsuperficially active or seek to know only for curiosity’s sake. <\/p>\n

6
\n\t\t\tJuly 1933   <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-729<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Novel-Reading and Sadhana <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Reading novels is always distracting if you are deep in sadhana. It is better to
\navoid it now. <\/p>\n

\n

12 May 1933 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

*<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIf novels touch the lower vital or raise it, they ought not to be
\n\t\t\tread by the sadhak. One can read them only if one can look at them
\n\t\t\tfrom the literary point of view as a picture of human life and
\n\t\t\tnature which one can observe, as the Yogi looks at life itself,
\n\t\t\twithout being involved in it or having any reaction. <\/p>\n

28
\n\t\t\tMarch 1936 <\/font><\/p>\n


\nReligious and Secular Literature <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHow is it that sometimes secular literature moves one more, and
\n\t\t\tgives a greater light and illumination than religious literature? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nReligious literature inspires only the religious-minded, ―and most
\n\t\t\treligious literature, apart from the comparatively few great books,
\n\t\t\tis poor stuff. Secular literature either appeals to the idealistic
\n\t\t\tmind or to the emotions or to the aesthetic element in us, and all
\n\t\t\tthat has a much easier and more common appeal. As for spiritual
\n\t\t\tlight, it is another thing altogether. Spirituality is other than
\n\t\t\tmental idealism and other than religion. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn literary expression, I think, it is the inner man that counts.
\n\t\t\tBut that would be tantamount to saying that an insincere man can’t
\n\t\t\twrite things which will move readers with a genuine and concrete
\n\t\t\tsomething. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPlenty of insincere men have written inspiring things. That is
\n\t\t\tbecause something in them felt it, though they could not carry it
\n\t\t\tout in life, and that something was used by a greater power behind.
\n\t\t\tVery often in his art, in his writings, the higher part of a man
\n\t\t\tcomes out, while the lower dominates his life. <\/p>\n

18
\n\t\t\tOctober 1935 <\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*
\n  <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-730<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nHow is it that one person reads sacred books, yet is very far from the Divine,
\nwhile another reads the most stupid so-called literary productions and remains
\nin contact with the Divine? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIt is not reading that brings the contact, it is the will and
\n\t\t\taspiration in the being that bring it. <\/p>\n

11 August
\n\t\t\t1933 <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Development of the Mind and Sadhana<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe development of the mind is a useful preliminary for the sadhak;
\n\t\t\tit can also be pursued along with the sadhana on condition that it
\n\t\t\tis not given too big a place and does not interfere with the one
\n\t\t\timportant thing, the sadhana itself. <\/p>\n

1933 <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nLanguage-Study and Yoga <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLearning languages makes the mind active. Does not the Yoga mean to
\n\t\t\tkeep the mind quiet and turn it always to the Divine? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nDo you mean to say that in order to have quietness of the mind one
\n\t\t\tmust do nothing? Then neither the Mother nor I nor anyone else here
\n\t\t\thas a quiet mind. <\/p>\n

6 April 1937 <\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhat is the need for so many here to learn French? Are you preparing
\n\t\t\tthem for giving lectures or opening centres in France or
\n\t\t\tFrench-knowing countries? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nAre life and mind to be governed only by material utility or
\n\t\t\toutward practicality? Spiritual life would then be inferior even to
\n\t\t\tordinary mental life where people learn for the sake of acquiring
\n\t\t\tknowledge and culturing the mind and not only for the sake of some
\n\t\t\toutward utility. <\/p>\n

24 March 1937 <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reading Newspapers and Yoga <\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIs it very important in our sadhana to give up reading newspapers? I
\n\t\t\tfind that almost all the sadhaks including some of the best ones
\n\t\t\tlike Anilbaran read them. Moreover, since you also   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-731<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\nread, there is an excuse that it is useful to read newspapers, otherwise one
\nremains uninformed and blank. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThese things depend on oneself and one’s own conditions ―there can
\n\t\t\tbe no general rule. It is true I read newspapers, but Mother never
\n\t\t\tdoes unless her attention is called to a particular item. I dare say
\n\t\t\tif Anilbaran stopped reading papers for a year, it might be very
\n\t\t\tgood for him. One has to see what is one’s necessity for the sadhana.
\n\t\t\tIf the newspapers disperse the mind or externalise the
\n\t\t\tconsciousness too much, they should be avoided. If on the other hand
\n\t\t\tone is dawdling over the sadhana and having no particular inner
\n\t\t\tendeavour one can read newspapers ―it is no worse than anything
\n\t\t\telse. On the other hand if the newspapers do not affect the formed
\n\t\t\tor forming inner consciousness in any way (by dispersion, lowering,
\n\t\t\texternalisation etc.) one can read them. I read the newspapers
\n\t\t\tmainly because I have to see what events are happening which might
\n\t\t\tany day have an effect on my work etc. I don’t read for the interest
\n\t\t\tof reading. <\/p>\n

9 July 1936   <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-732<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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