Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 2. 1934 — 1935
Letter ID: 524
Sri Aurobindo — Roy, Dilip Kumar
December 5, 1934
(Written on Barin’s letter)
Found the letter too. What do you think of it?
What do you think of his “world seething with gods and goddesses?” Does he still see the gods while we, alas, don’t? Then is he not better off than us?
Kilbil korche [seething] is admirable – it reminds me of a satire I read somewhere that 1 lakh of gods, 2 lakhs of Asuras and 3 lakhs of Rākṣasas, Piśācas, Pramathas1 et hoc genus omne2 are contained in a man’s big toe. I may be out a little in the figures and the locality, I write from distant memory – it may have been the heel for instance, but big toe sounds more literary and more probable. So you see the divine killbillany (or should it be killbillitude) of this world of his (or hers? or theirs?) is not a patch on that of a human big toe. However, if the gods are so cheap and plentiful, it is no wonder they are seen so easily. Ours probably are a shyer and rarer breed – that’s why they don’t offer themselves to publicity with the same readiness. Seethe, godheads, seethe!
1 Rakṣasas, Piśācas, Pramathas: hostile beings and demons.
2 et hoc genus omne: latin for “and the whole tribe”.