Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 4

Letter ID: 1021

Sri Aurobindo — Roy, Dilip Kumar

May 18, 1945

(Dilipda’s note re. Context)

Sir Chunilal Mehta¹ wrote to me in a letter dated 8.5.45 that he has been having some misgivings about the Guru’s force which Sri Aurobindo so often speaks and writes about. Iftapasya has to be done and hard tapasya at that where does the Guru’s force come in? Gurus can rely solely on his own strength and effort. Raman Maharshi says that the sadhaka has to work his way through to his own salvation himself.

And yet we see numerous disciples writing ecstatically about the Guru’s Grace: but didn’t even Vivekananda have to do a lot of uphill climbing even though he did have an experience of Samadhi at his Guru’s touch? But then when one came down from the realm of Samadhi one re-became the ordinary humdrum person he had been before the Samadhi. Such was Sir Chunilal’s line of argument or rather of questioning and doubt. In the end he suggested that he should do personal service to Sri Aurobindo and there gain admission say for three months, into his personal atmosphere. Such propinquity might help him materially in realising how far the Guru’s force might help a seeker in his great quest.

Yes, you can send the letter to Chunilal.

Perhaps you might point out to him also that there are misconceptions in his letter about the Force. The action of the Force does not exclude tapasya, concentration and the need of sadhana. Its action rather comes as an answer or a help to these things. It is true that it sometimes acts without them; it very often wakes a response in those who have not prepared themselves and do not seem to be ready. But it does not always or usually act like that, nor is it a sort of magic that acts in the void or without any process. Nor is it a machine which acts in the same way on everybody or in all conditions and circumstances; it is not a physical but a spiritual Force and its action cannot be reduced to rules.

What he quotes about the limitation of the power of the Guru to that of a teacher who shows the way but cannot help or guide is the conception of certain paths of Yoga such as the pure Adwaitin and the Buddhist which say that you must rely upon yourself and no one can help you; but even the pure Adwaitin does in fact rely upon the Guru and the chief mantra of Buddhism insists on saranam to Buddha. For other paths of sadhana, especially those which, like the Gita, accept the reality of the individual soul as an “eternal portion” of the Divine or which believe that Bhagavan and the bhakta are both real, the help of the Guru has always been relied upon as an indispensable aid. I don’t understand the objection to the validity of Vivekananda’s experience: it was exactly the realisation which is described in the Upanishads as a supreme experience of the Self. It is not a fact that an experience gained in samadhi cannot be prolonged into the waking state.

It is not possible to accept his suggestion about joining with those who are in personal attendance upon me. They were not admitted as a help to their sadhana but for practical reasons. In fact here also there is some misconception. Continual personal contact does not necessarily bring out the action of the Force.

Hriday had that personal contact with Ramakrishna and the opportunity of personal service to him, but he received nothing except on one occasion and then he could not contain the Force and the realisation which the Master put into him. The feeling of losing himself which Chunilal had was on the special occasions of the Darshan and the pranam to the Mother. That he had this response shows that he can answer to the Force, that he has the receptivity, as we say, and that is a great thing; all don’t have it and those who have it are not always conscious of its cause but only of its result. But he should reason less and rather try to keep himself open as he was in those moments. The Force is not a matter for reasoning or theory but of experience. If I have written about force, it is because both the Mother and myself have had many thousand experiences in which it acted and produced results of every kind. This idea of the Force has nothing to do with theory or reasoning but is felt constantly by every Yogin; it is a part of his yogic consciousness and his constant spiritual activity.

¹ Sir Chunilal Mehta: Dilipda and Indira Devi stayed in his house at Pune (Dunlavin Cottage) for six years after leaving Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

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