{"id":9852,"date":"2013-12-02T22:44:28","date_gmt":"2013-12-03T06:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/test.collectedworksofsriaurobindo.com\/?p=9852"},"modified":"2013-12-03T00:39:03","modified_gmt":"2013-12-03T08:39:03","slug":"21-extracts-from-letters-to-the-mother-and-paul-richard-1911-c-1922-vol-36-autobiographical-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/36-autobiographical-notes\/21-extracts-from-letters-to-the-mother-and-paul-richard-1911-c-1922-vol-36-autobiographical-notes","title":{"rendered":"-21_Extracts from Letters to the Mother and Paul Richard, 1911 \u00ad c. 1922.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\n
\n

\n\t\t\t Section Two<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t Early Letters on Yoga <\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t and the Spiritual Life<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 1911 \u00ad 1928<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

\n\t\t\t Extracts from Letters to the Mother
\n\t\t\t<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t and Paul Richard, 1911 \u00ad c. 1922
\n\t\t\t<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t To Paul Richard<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

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

[1] <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI need some place of refuge in which I can complete my Yoga unassailed and build up other souls around me. It seems
\nto me that Pondicherry is the place appointed by those who are Beyond, but you know how much effort is needed to establish
\nthe thing that is purposed upon the material plane. . . .<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI am developing the necessary powers for bringing down the
\nspiritual on the material plane, and I am now able to put myself into men and change them, removing the darkness and bringing
\nlight, giving them a new heart and a new mind. This I can do with great swiftness and completeness with those who are near
\nme, but I have also succeeded with men hundreds of miles away. I have also been given the power to read men’s characters and
\nhearts, even their thoughts, but this power is not yet absolutely complete, nor can I use it always and in all cases. The power of
\nguiding action by the mere exercise of will is also developing, but it is not so powerful as yet as the other. My communication
\nwith the other world is yet of a troubled character, though I am certainly in communication with some very great powers. But
\nof all these things I will write more when the final obstacles in my way are cleared from the path. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhat I perceive most clearly, is that the principal object of my Yoga is to remove absolutely and entirely every possible
\nsource of error and ineffectiveness, of error in order that the Truth I shall eventually show to men may be perfect, and of ineffectiveness in order that the work of changing the world, so far as I have to assist it, may be entirely victorious and irresistible.
\nIt is for this reason that I have been going through so long a discipline and that the more brilliant and mighty results of Yoga
\n   <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>283<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

have been so long withheld. I have been kept busy laying down the foundation, a work severe and painful. It is only now that the
\nedifice is beginning to rise upon the sure and perfect foundation that has been laid. <\/p>\n

\n

12 July 1911 <\/p>\n

[2] <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMy Yoga is proceeding with great rapidity, but I defer writing to you of the results until certain experiments in which I am
\nnow engaged, have yielded fruit sufficient to establish beyond dispute the theory and system of yoga which I have formed and
\nwhich is giving great results not only to me, but to the young men who are with me. . . . I expect these results within a month
\nif all goes well. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t20 September 1911 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

[3] <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA great silence and inhibition of action has been the atmosphere of my Yoga for the last year and it is only now beginning to lift from me. The most serious part of my difficulties,
\n\u2014 the
\ninward struggle, \u2014 is over; I have conquered, or rather One whose instrument I am has conquered for me. I am turning now
\nto the outward struggle, preparing my powers for it, awaiting the time and the signal to begin. The details I will not write to
\nyou now; the hour has not yet struck; for the enemy in the subtle parts of the material world, although beaten, is still struggling
\ndesperately to prevent my Yoga materialising in the objective plane. I await the issue of the struggle, towards which every day
\nof the Yoga brings me nearer with a long stride.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nIn spite of that, however, my work in its foundations proceeds. There are means in this world, fortunately for the humanity,
\nwhich Govts.. & authorities cannot touch or prevent. For the outward work, I see now, why it has been held back. It was
\nnecessary for me to have myself a perfect knowledge & power before I seriously undertook it. My knowledge and my power
\n   <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>284<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nare now making rapid strides towards the necessary perfection and, once that is secured, it will be impossible for the material
\ndifficulties to remain. <\/p>\n

\n \t18 December 1912 <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n To the Mother and Paul Richard
\n\t<\/a> <\/b> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

[1] <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll is always for [the] best, but it is sometimes from the external point of view an awkward best. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tI had one of my etheric writings, “Build desolated Europe
\ninto a city of God”. I give it [to] you for what it is worth. Perhaps it is only an aspiration of the powers that have brought about
\nyour recall. But is not the whole world and not Europe only in a state of decomposition? As for the idea of a quiet country
\nsomewhere in Asia, where does it exist? The whole earth is now under one law and answers to the same vibrations and I am sceptical of finding any place where the clash of the struggle will not pursue us. In any case, an effective retirement does not seem to
\nbe my destiny. I must remain in touch with the world until I have either mastered adverse circumstances or succumbed or carried
\non the struggle between the spiritual and physical so far as I am destined to carry it on. This is how I have always seen things and
\nstill see them. As for failure, difficulty and apparent impossibility I am too much habituated to them to be much impressed by their
\nconstant self-presentation except for passing moments.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOne needs to have a calm heart, a settled will, entire
\n\t\t\tself-abnegation and the eyes constantly fixed on the beyond to live
\nundiscouraged in times like these which are truly a period of universal decomposition. For myself, I follow the Voice and
\nlook neither to right nor to left of me. The result is not mine and hardly at all now even the labour. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t6 May 1915   <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>285<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

[2] <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHeaven we have possessed, but not the earth; but the fullness
\nof the yoga is to make, in the formula of the Veda, “Heaven and Earth equal and one”. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t20 May 1915 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

[3] <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEverything internal is ripe or ripening, but there is a sort of locked struggle in which neither side can make a very appreciable
\nadvance (somewhat like the trench warfare in Europe), the spiritual force insisting against the resistance of the physical world,
\nthat resistance disputing every inch and making more or less effective counter-attacks. . . . And if there were not the strength
\nand Ananda within, it would be harassing and disgusting work; but the eye of knowledge looks beyond and sees that it is only a
\nprotracted episode. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t28 July 1915 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

[4] <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I have begun in the issue of the Arya which is just out a
\nnumber of articles on the Ideal of Human Unity. I intend to proceed very cautiously and not go very deep at first, but as if
\nI were leading the intelligence of the reader gradually towards the deeper meaning of unity,
\n\u2014 especially to discourage the idea
\nthat mistakes uniformity and mechanical association for unity.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNothing seems able to disturb the immobility of things and all that
\n\t\t\tis active outside our own selves is a sort of welter of dark and
\n\t\t\tsombre confusion from which nothing formed or luminous can emerge. It is a singular condition of the world, the very
\ndefinition of chaos with the superficial form of the old world resting apparently intact on the surface. But a chaos of long
\ndisintegration or of some early new birth? It is the thing that is being fought out from day to day, but as yet without any
\napproach to a decision.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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

\n   <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>286<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tThese periods of stagnation always conceal work below the surface which produces some advance afterwards. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t16 September 1915 <\/p>\n

[5] <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tReflection, where there is no directing voice, thought or impulse, does not carry one any farther. It only makes the mind
\ntravel continuously the round of [uncertain]1<\/font><\/sup> possibilities.<\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThese things really depend on ourselves much more than on
\noutside factors. If we do not raise difficulties by our thoughts and mental constructions or do not confirm them if they rise, if
\nwe have the calm and peace within and there is not that in us which excites the enemy to throw himself on us, then outward
\npossibilities, usually, will not concretise themselves.<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOur business at present is to gather spiritual force, calm
\nknowledge and joy regardless of the adverse powers and happenings around us so that when our work really begins we shall
\nbe able to impose ourselves on the material world in which our work lies. (This [I] am slowly doing: you, I think, more rapidly.) <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI am always of the opinion that the internal must precede the external, otherwise whatever work we attempt beyond our
\ninternal powers and knowledge is likely to fail or be broken.<\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis is precisely my present struggle to get outside the circle
\nof forces and possibilities into the light of the Truth, the vijnana.<\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAbdul Baha’s prevision is possibly correct, but at present it
\nseems to me to be put into too rigid a form. A centre of light, not necessarily translated into the terms of a physical grouping, but
\nin which a few can stand, an increasing circle of luminosity into which more & more can enter, and outside the twilight world <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t1 MS (copy) <\/i>certain  
\n<\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>287<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

struggling with the light, this seems to be the inevitable course.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

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

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWe live still more in the reflection of the light than in the light itself, and until we get nearer to the centre we cannot know. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Scheme that was sent me seems to me to be a mental
\nconstruction formed largely under the influence of the environment. I do not think it could be put into practice; for the world
\nis not ready and if any such thing were attempted it would not be loyally initiated or loyally executed. . . . A change in the
\nheart of mankind, a new heart, would be necessary before any such scheme could at all serve the great ends we contemplate. I
\nwould prefer a general breaking up to any premature formation, however harmful this dissolution might be. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t18 November 1915 <\/p>\n

[6] <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe experience you have described is Vedic in the real sense,2<\/font><\/sup> though not one which would easily be recognised by the modern
\nsystems of Yoga which call themselves [Vedic]3<\/font><\/sup>. It is the union of the “Earth” of the Veda and Purana with the divine Principle,
\nan earth which is said to be above our earth, that is to say, the physical being and consciousness of which this world and the
\nbody are only _images. But the modern Yogas hardly recognise the possibility of a material union with the Divine. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t31 December 1915 
\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

[7] <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe difficulties you find in the spiritual progress are common to us all. In this Yoga the progress is always attended with these
\nrelapses into the ordinary mentality until the whole being is so remoulded that it can no longer be affected either by any <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t2 See The Mother, <\/i>Prayers and Meditations (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram,<\/i>
\n2003), pp. 311 \u00ad 12; entry of 26 November 1915.<\/i>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t3 MS (copy) <\/i>Yogic  
\n<\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 288<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ndownward tendency in our own nature or by the impressions from the discordant world outside or even by the mental state of
\nthose associated with us most closely in the Yoga. The ordinary Yoga is usually concentrated on a single aim and therefore less
\nexposed to such recoils; ours is so complex and many-sided and embraces such large aims that we cannot expect any smooth
\nprogress until we near the completion of our effort, \u2014 especially as all the hostile forces in the spiritual world are in a constant
\nstate of opposition and besiege our gains; for the complete victory of a single one of us would mean a general downfall among
\nthem. In fact by our own unaided effort we could not hope to succeed. It is only in proportion as we come into a more and
\nmore universal communion with the Highest that we can hope to overcome with any finality. For myself I have had to come
\nback so often from things that seemed to have been securely gained that it is only relatively that I can say of any part of my
\nYoga, “It is done”. Still I have always found that when I recover from one of these recoils, it is always with a new spiritual gain
\nwhich might have been neglected or missed if I had remained securely in my former state of partial satisfaction. Especially, as
\nI have long had the map of my advance sketched out before me, I am able to measure my progress at each step and the
\nparticular losses are compensated for by the clear consciousness of the general advance that has been made. The final goal is far
\nbut the progress made in the face of so constant and massive an opposition is the guarantee of its being gained in the end.
\nBut the time is in other hands than ours. Therefore I have put impatience and dissatisfaction far away from me. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAn absolute equality of the mind and heart and a clear purity and calm strength in all the members of the being have long
\nbeen the primary condition on which the Power working in me has insisted with an inexhaustible patience and an undeviating
\nconstancy of will which rejects all the efforts of other powers to hasten forward to the neglect of these first requisites. Wherever
\nthey are impaired it returns upon them and works over and again over the weak points like a workman patiently mending
\nthe defects of his work. These seem to me to be the foundation   <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>289<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

and condition of all the rest. As they become firmer and more complete the system is more able to hold consistently and vividly
\nthe settled perception of the One in all things and beings, in all qualities, forces, happenings, in all this world-consciousness and
\nthe play of its workings. That founds the Unity and upon it the deep satisfaction and the growing rapture of the Unity. It is
\nthis to which our nature is most recalcitrant. It persists in the division, in the dualities, in the sorrow and unsatisfied passion
\nand labour, it finds it difficult to accustom itself to the divine largeness, joy and equipoise
\n\u2014 especially the vital and material
\nparts of our nature; it is they that pull down the mind which has accepted and even when it has long lived in the joy and
\npeace and oneness. That, I suppose, is why the religions and philosophies have had so strong a leaning to the condemnation
\nof Life and Matter and aimed at an escape instead of a victory. But the victory has to be won; the rebellious elements have to
\nbe redeemed and transformed, not rejected or excised.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhen the Unity has been well founded, the static half of
\nour work is done, but the active half remains. It is then that in the One we must see the Master and His Power,
\n\u2014 Krishna
\nand <\/p>\n

Kali as I name them using the terms of our Indian religions; the Power occupying the whole of myself and my nature which
\nbecomes Kali and ceases to be anything else, the Master using, directing, enjoying the Power to his ends, not mine, with that
\nwhich I call myself only as a centre of his universal existence and responding to its workings as a soul to the Soul, taking upon
\nitself his image until there is nothing left but Krishna and Kali. This is the stage I have reached in spite of all setbacks and recoils,
\nimperfectly indeed in the secureness and intensity of the state, but well enough in the general type. When that has been done,
\nthen we may hope to found securely the play in us of his divine Knowledge governing the action of his divine Power. The rest is
\nthe full opening up of the different planes of his world-play and the subjection of Matter and the body and the material world
\nto the law of the higher heavens of the Truth. To these things towards which in my earlier ignorance I used to press forward
\nimpatiently before satisfying the first conditions \u2014 the effort,<\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>290<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

\n

however, was necessary and made the necessary preparation of
\nthe material instruments \u2014 I can now only look forward as a subsequent eventuality in a yet distant vista of things. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo possess securely the Light and the Force of the supramental being, this is the main object to which the Power is
\nnow turning. But the remnant of the old habits of intellectual thought and mental will come so obstinate in their determination
\nto remain that the progress is hampered, uncertain and always falls back from the little achievement already effected. They are
\nno longer within me, they are blind, stupid, mechanical, incorrigible even when they perceive their incompetence, but they
\ncrowd round the mind and pour in their suggestions whenever it tries to remain open only to the supramental Light and the
\nhigher Command, so that the knowledge and the will reach the mind in a confused, distorted and often misleading form. It is,
\nhowever, only a question of time: the siege will diminish in force and be finally dispelled. <\/p>\n

23 June 1916 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDraft of a Letter
\n<\/a>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe wishes me to say that he sent back the MS according to your request because he felt that it was quite impossible for him
\nto deal with it in the near future.4<\/font><\/sup> He is now living entirely retired and engrossed in his yoga. He has put off all external activities
\nand so organised his time as to be able entirely to concentrate upon it alone. He has removed from his immediate surroundings
\nall who are out of harmony with the atmosphere necessary to the yogic quietude. He sees no one and receives no visits. His
\nfriends in Madras do not see him when they come. Even his old guru Vishnu Lele who proposed to come here at this time has
\nbeen requested to postpone indefinitely his visit. For the same reason he has ceased altogether to write. His own works, even
\nthose of which the publication has been arranged, \u2014 except the few of which others take the responsibility and which make no
\ndemand on him, \u2014 are lying unpublished for want of time to<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t4 In this draft, Sri Aurobindo referred to himself in the third person because he intended<\/i>
\nthe letter to be sent over the signature of his secretary. \u2014 Ed.<\/i>  
\n\t\t\t<\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>291<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

retouch them. It is not only that he does not wish but that he cannot any longer allow himself to be disturbed or interrupted
\nby anything that would perturb the balance or break the mould of his present arrangement of his life or draw him aside from
\nthe concentration of his energies. All else must be postponed until he has finished what he has to do and is free again to apply
\nhimself to external things and activities. Under these conditions a work so considerable as the retranslation or revised translation
\nof the “<\/span>Seigneur des Nations<\/span>” becomes quite impossible. If he undertook it, he would not be able to carry it out. He hopes
\ntherefore that you will be able to make some other arrangement for it, as for the translations of your recent addresses which
\nhave been admirably done. Once you understand in the light of the above the
\nconditions here, you can understand also why \u2014
\napart from all other considerations \u2014 he is unable to assent to the suggestions in your letter.
\n  
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>292<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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