December 25, 1962
What have you brought? Your book? Do you have your book?
A bit of it, yes.
All right, begin with that.
It’s getting to be heavy going, you know….
Oh!
I’m under a lot of pressure … I’m thinking of the “Bulletin,” of everything that remains to be done.
No.
But I have to!
Just let it come naturally, like that.
Don’t think ahead. Just put a piece of paper in front of you and let it come.
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Otherwise you give yourself a headache.
All right, I am listening; read what you’ve brought.
It’s not perfect yet.
No problem.
I am perfecting it – all I have to do is hear it.
!?
You don’t believe it, do you? But I can assure you!
Actually, words serve only to put people in contact with something else, a knowledge, a light, a force or an action, or … whatever. So as long as you manage to put one into the other, [[The force or the light into the words of the book. ]] that’s all that’s necessary.
If you knew…. You can’t imagine how stupid people are! They put exactly what they want into what they read or hear, whatever they have in their heads. Only when you have the power to break that can something get in – and that can happen through any word at all, it doesn’t matter.
That’s what I try to bring in when I listen to your book.
So go ahead now, I am listening.
***
(After the reading:)
There’s just one thing … I don’t know … it’s when you say Sri Aurobindo “succumbed” on December 5, 1950. He didn’t “succumb.” It’s not that he couldn’t have done otherwise. It’s not the difficulty of the work that made him leave; it’s something else. You can’t mention this in your book, of course, it’s impossible to talk about for the moment, but I would like you to use another word. What was your sentence again?
I said: “Sri Aurobindo succumbed to this work on December 5, 1950.”
He didn’t succumb.
We have to use another word, not “succumb.” It was truly his CHOICE – he chose to do the work in another way, a way he felt
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would bring much more rapid results. But this explanation is nobody’s business, for the moment. So we can’t say that he succumbed. “Succumbed” gives the idea that it was against his will, that it just happened, that it was an accident – it CANNOT be “succumbed.”
Yes, I understand.
You could simply say that he did the work up to that moment , .. that’s all, giving no reason.
We could simply say: “Sri Aurobindo left this life on December 5, 1950.”
Read the beginning of the passage again.
“The seeker of transformation must thus face all the difficulties, even death, not to vanquish but to change them – one cannot change things without taking them upon oneself. ‘Thou shalt bear all things,’ says Savitri, ‘that all things may change.’ Sri Aurobindo succumbed to this work …”
Can’t you just put “that’s why,” without giving any explanation?… That’s why Sri Aurobindo left his body. That’s much more powerful. You said “even death,” so just put: “That’s why Sri Aurobindo left his body.”
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