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Contact with People Outside the Ashram
Correspondence with Outsiders
You can tell him about the arrangements for correspondence. We do not write ourselves. He can always write to the Mother or to myself (we have received his letters); but answers, if any, are given on our instructions to Nolini who has the general charge of the correspondence or in certain cases by someone else specially deputed for the purpose. 21 August 1931
Does Not Give Advice on Mundane Matters
Since he has sent a stamped envelope, you can write to him (in Bengali) that it is no use putting these matters before Sri Aurobindo, as he makes it a rule not to advise people in their mundane affairs and confines himself only to what is proper to the spiritual life and for the rest to his own path of Yoga.
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I hope you will help me and send your reply to the following queries: (1) How long will the business partnership last with my partner? (2) Will I be able to recover my money from him in September? (3) What kind of business am I likely to do in future? (4) When will I have children and how many in all?
Write to him that these are not questions that ought to be put to me. It is to another class of persons that he should go for the answer. 28 July 1928
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Reply to him (at X‘s address) that we cannot tell him what job he should do — it depends on his opportunities, tastes and
Page – 526 capacities. All that we can tell him about is his sadhana. If he progresses in his sadhana, opens his consciousness, can feel a higher and wider consciousness and the Divine Presence or Power at work, he will then be able to get our inner guidance for his life. 27 February 1933
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Can you induce my Gurudev Sri Aurobindo to think kindly of me, even though the terrible situation I am placed in is of my own folly and creation? I do not know if I am doing the right thing by writing this letter. But with full love and confidence in you I hope to be kindly excused.
Nolini, you can answer him as he has sent a stamp. Sri Aurobindo does not usually extend any personal help or direction to any but accepted disciples who are practising a serious Yoga. Worldly life is a field of Karma (a field of growth) in which the soul progresses through the play of energies inner and outer, personal and universal producing a complexity of results until it is ready for the spiritual change. Once one practises this Yoga, the life becomes a part of the sadhana. Even so Sri Aurobindo seldom gives directions or advice in specific matters; only the Mother’s Force is there to help and if the sadhak is open and sincere, he can receive and become aware of help and guidance. For discipleship a certain readiness is necessary. To be able to bear adverse fortune with a calm equanimity and inner strength (not a tamasic inert acceptance) would be a very strong qualification for it. 19 March 1936
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Sri Aurobindo has asked me to reply on his behalf to your letter. I informed him at the time of all that your wife told me of your difficulties. Sri Aurobindo does not as a rule give any advice in secular affairs, but only spiritual advice and spiritual support and blessings. In this matter the trouble seems to be the result of an education or influences, common enough at the present time, which turn the mind away from all living faith in the old beliefs
Page – 527 and standards of life and from any openness to the Truth that was embodied in them. It does not seem likely that a return to them can be brought about easily now. If the mind affected could come to receive that Truth in a new light, that might be the remedy. For you and your work Sri Aurobindo sends his blessings. Where there is sincerity of heart and selflessness in purpose and an openness to the help from above, difficulties however great can be overcome or turned in course of time. December 1939
Does Not Give Instructions in Yoga to Outsiders
X has sent a letter to you, which I enclose. He would like some upadeśa from you.
I do not usually give upadeśa like that. I believe he complains of an inability to concentrate his mind or feel bhakti, but that is not due to past karma and cannot be got rid of by any prāyaścitta — it is the inherent disability of the human mind that goes outward and not inward.
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Sri Aurobindo does not usually give instructions of this kind. It is only those who have been accepted into his own path of Yoga to whom he gives spiritual guidance. Suggest to him that as he is a devotee of Sri Ramakrishna, he would find his natural guides in the Ramakrishna Mission. 4 February 1931
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You can write to him that Sri Aurobindo does not intervene by giving instructions in the Yoga of anybody except his own disciples. His own way of Yoga being of a separate kind and not meant for all to follow. 26 November 1932
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I am instructed by Sri Aurobindo to reply that he does not give advice or instructions to anybody except his own disciples (already accepted by him), those whom he finds fitted and ready
Page – 528 to prepare themselves for his path. This path has neither the same aim nor the same method as the ordinary Yoga, it aims at a realisation of which their results are only component parts; it may be said to begin its capital experiences where these end and its object is one that they would consider impossible. Much of it is virgin ground in which the paths have yet to be cut and built. The obstacles and difficulties in the way of success are formidable and demand either a strength and patience or a faith and unquestioning reliance on the Guru who is the pathfinder and leader. Or otherwise they have to have so strong and clear a call that no difficulties matter, or else to be in some way predestined to follow this path and no other, to cleave to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as Guru and to no other. Your preparation seems to be mainly intellectual and for this Yoga the intellect is not sufficient; relied upon as the chief guide it may become instead a barrier. This Yoga depends upon a supra-intellectual knowledge which can come only from the soul or psychic being within and the secret spirit above. Moreover attachment to ideas, people, things are hampering obstacles in this Yoga. You could perhaps understand for yourself that there may be many obstacles in the way of your accepting this Yoga. All the same, if you still wish and are able to come for Darshan next August, you may do so. But for the moment for the reasons pointed out Sri Aurobindo is not able at present to give you any instruction or suggest a discipline. 17 October 1934
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Is it not possible that you tell me about my weaknesses, defects and deficiencies so that I may try to remove them?
It is not a question of defects and weaknesses. You have to grow spiritually from within till it is certain that your call is to this Path. Till then it is not possible for me to give you any definite verbal guidance. What comes to you must come from within yourself at present. 11 April 1935
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Page – 529 You had better write to her saying that Sri Aurobindo does not usually give instructions to anyone but those who follow his path of Yoga which is a difficult path and not possible for everybody. Nor is it by oral instructions that he helps his disciples as he speaks with none nowadays and lives entirely retired. There would therefore be no utility in coming here. It would be difficult for anyone suffering from nervous debility to follow Yogic processes; the recovery of health would be a necessary preliminary. It would be especially dangerous in Sri Aurobindo’s path of Yoga. 1 May 1935
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[Letter from an outsider to one of Sri Aurobindo’s disciples:] Can you enlighten me as to the reason for Sri Aurobindo’s silence?
Just as I see no one, so I answer usually no letters except those of the disciples and many of these even are not answered by myself personally if they are outside the Asram.
Will you also advise me how I can obtain his krpā?
My spiritual work is limited to a very small field and a particular purpose. Outside that field I never intervene whether for spiritual instructions or worldly matters. This limitation is absolutely necessary otherwise I could not do the work I have to do. All depends on whether the man who comes to me is meant for the spiritual path and its work — if not, then all I can do is to give him the kalyānecchā which one can always give. The rest depends upon himself or his karma. I shall ask Nolini for X‘s letters and see. But at present I can say nothing. 25 January 1936
Does Not Grant Interviews or Personal Darshans
You had better write to him that an interview is impossible, that I see and speak with none, not even my disciples, — except on three days of the year when they and a few others specially
Page – 530 permitted come and make pranam and receive a silent blessing, for even then I do not speak. 28 January 1930
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Write that the paragraph in the Jyoti is a sheer invention. I have said nothing about the present movement to either disciple or visitor. I could not have done so, because since it began, I have seen and spoken to no one. My rule of giving no interview to anyone, of speaking with none, even on the three days when I come out, remains unchanged. 25 April 1930
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A Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University wrote some time back asking if it was possible to meet Sri Aurobindo during a proposed visit to South India. I let him know that he may write to Sri Aurobindo and if he was lucky he may find it possible to see Sri Aurobindo. He has written again. What reply shall I give him?
In such cases you should not write anything without consulting me. What he wants is evidently to talk with me and that is impossible. You will have to write to him now regretting that it is not at all likely that I shall come out of my retirement just now. 13 January 1932
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If the Baba Maharaj asks for an answer, you will tell him that it is impossible for me to satisfy his requests. I am in entire retirement, seeing no one, not even my disciples, so I cannot see him. As for the Asram, it is a strict rule that none but disciples can reside in it; the whole life of the Asram is besides governed by a system elaborated in all details and it is only the disciples trained to this life who can conform to it. 16 September 1932
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I am afraid I don’t see how I can see William Arthur Moore — how can I extend to him so extraordinary a privilege (since I see nobody) which I would not have conceded to Sarat Chatterji?
Page – 531 You say Barin certifies him as a bhakta — but Barin’s language is apt to be vivid and exaggerated; he probably means only an admirer. I think he must be answered that certainly he would have been allowed a meeting with me if I had been coming out but the entire seclusion has been taken as a rule for Sri Aurobindo’s sadhana and it may not be subjected to exception so long as the rule is in force. If he is really a bhakta, that will give him a ray of distant hope and if he isn’t, the impression made does not very much matter. Barin surely exaggerates the power of the publicist — after all he is only the editor of the Statesman — but even otherwise that is not the main consideration. By the way why have you transmogrified Moore into Jones? — there was a Jones there but he has departed and yielded the place to Moore. 17 August 1933
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I pray for Sri Aurobindo’s Darshan once more before I leave. I know that it is against the rule but I hope you won’t mind relaxing it for the sake of a bhakta.
I am afraid it is impossible. No separate personal Darshan can be given at this stage — it is not a rule, it is a necessity for the work that Sri Aurobindo is doing. 17 August 1934
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The Maharani’s request was placed by the Mother before Sri Aurobindo. But it has been his strict rule for many years past to see no one except on the three darshan days in the year and no exception has been made up till now. If an exception were made now, it would be difficult for him to maintain the rule in future. There is no possibility of keeping the matter secret and publicity would be undesirable for the Maharani and also Sri Aurobindo, as it would give rise to many requests for a special darshan or interview from others. It is therefore better that the Maharani should not maintain her request. But if on her way back she wishes to visit the Mother, the Mother will be glad to see her. 31 January 1938
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Page – 532 There seems to be some misunderstanding about Mr. C. R. Reddy’s visit to the Ashram. He was sent to Pondicherry by the Chancellor of the Andhra University to present the medal of the humanities prize given by the University and accepted by Sri Aurobindo. The Chancellor was to have come himself, but as it turned out that he was unable to do so the Vice Chancellor came as his representative. Sri Aurobindo when he accepted had expressed his inability to leave Pondicherry in order to receive the medal but had consented to this official visit for the purpose. There was therefore no question of Mr. Reddy coming for a personal visit. The last visit of that kind Sri Aurobindo received was from Tagore very long ago. The only exception made to his rule of seclusion has been for the giving of instructions and receiving the report of a disciple entrusted with some work or some mission. It is difficult or even impossible for Sri Aurobindo to relax his rule any farther, still less to make any departure that would have the result of opening the doors widely or altogether. He might make some relaxation if a compelling occasion arose or if he felt it necessary because of some public emergency or some need of his work or the necessity of an exceptional case. But at the moment he still feels it essential to maintain his rule for some time at least and not less strictly than before. 10 January 1949
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