Chapter 16Relations with Persons Outside the Ashram

to pierce to make itself felt exteriorly, can in the least help you to get rid of the “clinging impediments”.

You are quite conscious of the aspiration and the aim of your soul; you are quite conscious of what your soul wants you and expects you to become. It is only some consequences of this present physical formation that stand in the way, and now, it is only a steady and patient working out of these impediments that can solve the difficulty.

So, from the yoga point of view, any “taking leave” would be a kind of “giving way” to the obstinacy of the resistance. This, for me, is quite clear.

But are you quite sure that there is not the remembrance of an attachment lurking in some corner of the mind which makes you answer unknowingly to the insistence of a pressure coming from outside? In that case the problem would have to be considered from another angle.

* It is obvious that your inner being is not very strong and does not have the power to counteract the pernicious influence of an environment full of sterile doubts, defeatist pessimism, egoism and unfaithfulness.

Our path is not easy, it demands great courage and untiring endurance. One must work hard and make a great effort with quiet stability to obtain results which at times are scarcely perceptible outwardly.

There are many human beings who need to roll in the mire in order to feel the necessity to cleanse themselves.

If the desire is too persistent for you to have the strength to overcome it, ask the people you know to find you a post (this is usually not too difficult for the young people going out from the Ashram) and go and face the ordinary life until you learn the true value of the life you would have left.

One must have heroism to be a precursor; for, generally, men have faith only in what is already accomplished, evident, visible, and recognised even by the most sceptical.

* I shall be sorry to see you go and hoped it would not be necessary. But if you are feeling so miserable and so little sure of yourself, it might be better to go for awhile and recover your poise. I will leave the door open for you and as soon as you become strong enough, you will come back.

My blessings are and will always be with you. And if next time you can come for the yoga and to lead the divine life, then everything will become easy.

* I am happy if your stay here has widened your vision and understanding and deepened your consciousness.

Relations with Persons Outside the Ashram I appreciate your feelings about what a sadhak ought to be and from that point of view, what you say is quite true. But it is well understood that the Ashram is not exclusively composed of sadhaks. The Ashram is a reduced image of life where those who practice yoga are a minority, and if I were to keep here only those who are quite sincere in their sadhana, very few indeed would remain.

Sri Aurobindo always reminds us of the fact that the Divine is everywhere and in everything, and asks us to practise a true compassion, as is so beautifully expressed in this aphorism which I am just commenting upon, “Examine thyself without pity, then thou wilt be more charitable and pitiful to others.”

And in this light, I must ask you to let X come and see his mother who loves him dearly and would be very miserable if she were deprived of his visits.

As for his work it is a matter between myself and him, and I know we shall come to some satisfying arrangement.

So I must ask you once more to be in peace, and to trust in the Divine’s Grace and Wisdom.

26 January 1962

* The proximity of the heart and feelings is much stronger and truer than the proximity of the bodies.

Love truly your mother and without sorrow or suffering you will let her go to America, knowing that the earth is small and the love is vast.

22 July 1968

* My dear child,

Certainly we are your true parents, and your true duty is towards the Divine.

Let the ignorant say according to their ignorance and keep in you the light, knowledge and peace of the Divine Consciousness.

With our love and blessings.

* I am glad you are taking all this “drama” as it deserves to be taken, that is to say with a good laugh.

They call you “refugees” but it is indeed a glorious thing to be God’s refugees and to enjoy his shelter and His love...

Let them write if it pleases them to display their lack of faith in the Divine Life, we cannot be affected by that.

* Sri Aurobindo says:

Better to put behind you your past altogether and not reestablish broken ties.

It would be better not to write nor to send a wire.

* A good advice to all the Ashramites in their dealings with visitors and foreigners (and even among themselves):

“When you have nothing pleasant to say about something or somebody in the Ashram, keep silent.

“You must know that this silence is faithfulness to the Divine’s work.”

*

I am thinking of inviting articles for publication in our journal from two writers whose names have been rec-ommended to me by X. But I do not know what is their attitude towards Sri Aurobindo. X tells me that they are competent writers and have studied Sri Aurobindo and so they will be able to write well for our journal. My experience is that these writers, if they are open-minded and progressive, sometimes write about Sri Aurobindo from a new angle which is very interesting. But more often they try to judge Sri Aurobindo from their own narrow and conditioned intellectual outlook. So I would like to have Your guidance in this matter.

Not to ask anything from people we do not know and we are not sure of their mind.

What I have written holds for all of them.

22 October 1965

*

Mother, in the letter below Sri Aurobindo has written about the necessity of restricting our contacts with the outside world and separating ourselves from the ordinary life, in order to carry on our special work of bringing down a new consciousness for the earth.

This letter was written in 1933. But now all types

of people from the outside world are freely allowed to come to the Ashram, and the sadhaks of the Ashram also freely mix with them. Is it because we have now reached a new stage in our work in which the earlier restrictions in our contacts with the outside world are no longer necessary? Will you please enlighten me on this point?

(Question to Sri Aurobindo)

“Love of the Divine in all beings and the constant perception and acceptance of its workings in all things”1 — if this is one of the ways of realising the Divine and seeing Him in all, why do we here restrict our contacts