Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 4
The Mother has had read to her your letter of yesterday night and I am now writing to you her answer. She had taken Timirbaran’s arrangement of the Bande Mataram song as something to start from, not because she is perfectly satisfied with it, especially as part of it was unsuitable for the theme of Anu’s dance, but more as a pis alier, since it was the only orchestration then available. She had arranged the theme of Anu’s dance, but she had finally decided nothing else and had kept herself free to arrange things for the best in a concrete way for the success of the dance. But if you take up the theme and orchestrate the Bande Mataram song for it, nothing could be better. The Mother will explain the theme of the dance to you personally in its five parts and you can see for yourself what would be needed and arrange it. Mother has especially noticed the middle, the free and flowing part of the song as especially suitable for the theme; the only difficulty would be the last part which has not the necessary strength; but you yourself could put the needed strength into it and with proper execution everything could be satisfactorily arranged and the dance could be made a great success. The Mother is ready to send Sunil1 and his people to you with the necessary directions to hear your music and follow your directions about it for the execution and if everybody proved amenable and did his part, all could be satisfactorily done.
The difficulty is not there, but it lies in Sunil’s apprehension about his being able to command entire obedience or sufficient obedience from all the members of his company. He has already had apprehensions of the kind for another dance, not being sure of their acceptance of his arrangement of the music. But here he is still more apprehensive of the resistance from some for the reasons of which you yourself have spoken. He himself is perfectly willing and he is always amenable to any direction given to him by the Mother, but he is afraid of meeting with opposition, even a flat refusal from one or two of his orchestra who are not always ready to accept his directions as all should from the head, who should be in the position of a captain, obeyed by all if there is to be any success. We can hope for the best and see if the difficulty can be overcome and the apprehension falsified; though where egoism and prejudice are very much alive, the hope may be disappointed. If it turns out to be so and his directions and the Mother’s are not followed, if the opposing egoism proves too strong, then the only course would be for the Mother to give up the idea of Anu’s dance; she will have to tell Anu that in these circumstances and with so much egoism about, nothing else can be done. It will be a disappointment for us all; but we can do our best and, if it has to be given up, the fault will lie elsewhere.