Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 2. 1934 — 1935
Please don’t be nervous about encouraging me in a new role. Je ne le jouerai point une autre fois, je vous assure [I won’t play it another time, I assure you]. But once a part is played it ought to be offered to the Divine in the Guru as I thought of you both devoutly while cooking.
The content of such an unheard-of adventure: the adventure of a poet-musician suddenly cooking? Well, Bindu challenged me I couldn’t cook and he could – because I have never cooked in my life. So I have cooked. (Confidentially, between you and me, Amiya1 gave me a few whispering directions, but don’t divulge it.) It tastes – well, it behoves me not to opine about my own handiwork. But I will assure you simply – the experience of cooking has not been quite as delectable as doing justice to it invariably is to me.
Your cooking is remarkable and wonderful – if you had not disclosed the secret about Amiya’s whispers, I could have been inclined to claim it as a Yogic miracle. Even with the whispers, it is an astonishing first success, āścaryavat paśyati kaścidenam! My palate and stomach as well as my pen have done full justice to the event.