Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 3

Letter ID: 729

Sri Aurobindo — Roy, Dilip Kumar

April 25, 1936

With your grace I have worked like a door-nail and finished the last 150 pages of my novel today working till 2.30 p.m. when I ate three fried potatoes with a virtuous and impenitent glow! It will now need a final revision of about a month’s fairly hard work when the chiselling, polishing, etc. (not by any means less important than the working out of the inspiration) will give it the finishing touch: then to press. It will be a longish novel, you know, full of psychic intimations of how many pages do you think? Not less than 600 pages in print. In about a month and a half. Not bad work, eh?

Prodigious!

Maya’s letter: please note what Esha says marked in red. She is a truly surprising sort of a girl, truly. It is a really curious case – eh? Rather a pleasing case though in this world of anti-divinism, what?

She is one of the “New Children”, but not very lucky in her choice of a father and surroundings. Let us hope she will overcome this handicap and fulfil herself.

I enclose Buddhadev’s letter and Rs.1,8 annas for a signed photograph of yours for his brother Professor of Dehradun. He asks also for a copy of Mother’s Conversations which I trust Mother will grant him.

Right. Both request will be attended to.

Lastly I enclose a syllabus of music. The reason? Voila;

My publisher sends me this and eggs me on to write the text. It would be easy enough for me, a little bit of hard work for a fortnight only. A little money in the game to be offered at yours and Mother’s feet. So your blessing needed. Needed particularly as there will be not a little competition. I have just written a long letter to my Vice-Chancellor friend (he was once very friendly to me, don’t know how he feels towards me now though!) Syama-prasad Mukerjee (Ashutosh’s son)¹ saying that I am ready to take it up if he wishes me to take it up. For lots of people will be eager to write this text (thousands of copies will be sold willy-nilly) and so I am hesitant about taking up a task unless the Vice-Chancellor is prasanna [pleased] towards me. I am not afraid of competition – but I am not on the spot you see, others will submit and flatter and entreat, etc. which I am not fitted by nature to do – besides it can’t be done from here for that matter. So send a little force, as it will easily fetch a few thousands – rather a wind-fallish sort of a thing don’t you know, in these days of slump. Send some force on the Vice-Chancellor to make him smile to Dilip that’s all, if you know what I mean, eh?

Well, University authorities like all authorities present many hurdles in the way of the hopeful – but let us tackle the hurdle.

I intend lolling for a day or two after a lot of protracted hard work for weeks – with novels, mountainous proofs, music, poetry, letters (heaps I had to write) and what not. How best to loll though is a problem, and I don’t expect you could help me out with illuminating suggestions? Well, well. I will sleep anyhow, and take more sea-baths. By the way please note I am taking sea-bath fairly regularly. It is doing me a lot of good (to my neck rheumatism that is). I thought I had better let you know. You are right about that Banerji tenant of mine. Have written to him to lay his case to Prithwi.

All right about the sea-baths. As for lolling there is no how about it, one just lolls – if one has the genius for it. I have, though opportunities are now lacking for showing my genius. But it can’t be taught, nor any process invented – it is just a gift of Nature.

By the way I have a letter from Prithwisingh – it appears that it was your uncle who pressed him to accept the Brahmana Sabha offer of 35,000 [thirty five thousands] saying it was a very advantageous offer – all whom he consulted concurred. Your uncle Khagendranath Majumdar asked him to write and tell Dilip it is a good offer and should be accepted and he thinks the family interest would not be lost as it is a public body that buys(!). Prithwisingh hopes to get forty thousand for the other house.

¹ Syamaprasad Mukherjee (6.7.1901-23.6.1953), was an illustrious son of an illustrious father. Sir Ashutosh (29.6.1864-25.5.1924) was a great achiever. Among many other things – a lawyer who became a High Court Judge, a mathematician of the first water, he published twenty valuable papers on maths in ten years, he was a double M.A. and so on – he was Calcutta University’s Vice-Chancellor for four consecutive terms (1906-1914), and innovatively reorganized the University. But specifically he fought for the autonomy of the University. Later, when the British offered him again the post of Vice-chancellor, he contemptuously rejected to work under the conditionalities imposed by the Government. For that act an admiring populace called him the “Bengal Tiger”.

Syamaprasad was no mean achiever either. He brilliantly completed his law studies. In 1934 he became the Vice-chancellor of Calcutta University, and introduced new subjects. He left a mark as an educationist. But his imprint as a politician is deeper. He was a minister when Fazlul Huq formed his second ministry in Bengal in 1941. Became a Cabinet minister in Nehru Government in 1947 when India gained a fractured independence. He was also a member from Bengal of the Constituent Assembly. Following his bitter opposition to Nehru’s Pakistan appeasement policy and the government turning a blind eye to the massacre of Hindus there, he resigned. Jawaharlal was afraid of this rival. He protested the Indian Government’s Kashmir policy, was imprisoned there and died in prison in 1953 under suspicious circumstances.

At any rate it was him that Mother invited. It was under the Presidentship of Sri Syamaprasad Mukherjee that an all-India Convention was held on 24th and 25th April 1951 for the establishment of Sri Aurobindo International University Centre, Pondicherry.

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