Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1. 1933

Letter ID: 1113

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

May 12, 1933

The Mother, in “Conversations”, says that the first effect of yoga is to take away the mental control so that the ideas and desires which were so long checked become surprisingly prominent and create difficulties.

They were not prominent because they were getting some satisfaction or at least the vital generally was getting indulged in one way or another. When they are no longer indulged then they become obstreperous. But they are not new forces created by the Yoga – they were there all the time.

What is meant by the mental control being removed, is that the mental simply kept them in check but could not remove them. So in Yoga the mental has to be replaced by the psychic or spiritual self-control which could do what the mental cannot. Only many sadhaks do not make this exchange in time and withdraw the mental control merely.

I find already that at certain moments this life seems distasteful, dull and dreary.

What is meant by dull and dreary is that the ordinary preoccupations and amusements of the vital are not there. The whole of one’s life and action has to be turned into sadhana and then it is not dull.

I hear you do not like the gate-keepers to do any writing, reading, etc., when on duty. Is it true?

It was because people were neglecting their duty in the absorption of reading and writing, allowing undesirable people to enter etc. If that does not happen, one can read or write – only when one is on duty, the duty comes first.