Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1. 1935

Letter ID: 1482

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

November 22, 1935

R gave S soup with a very strong dose of pepper and ginger; he said he had sent Mother a sample of it...

Mother has told Dyuman now that pepper, ginger etc. should not be put.

My mistake was that I didn’t ask Dyuman what soup he intended to give and I should have tasted it myself.

Yes, it is better to see to these things. It is difficult for the kitchen in these darshan days to do things specially, so they must be giving the soup of the vegetables cooked. But all vegetables are not proper for an invalid, esp. an invalid of this illness. So it is better if you see to that. R is of no use for this, he seems to be entirely ignorant. He actually asked for soup of spinach. But spinach water is poisonously unwholesome and spinach is never boiled in its own water which is carefully thrown away. This is done more than once even so that no trace of it shall remain. Then fancy soup of spinach – S would have sailed on it to Paradise. But R’s syllogism was simple. Greens are good for health – Spinach is a powerful green – So spinach soup must be powerfully good for S’s health. You see how logic can mislead!

Now R is thinking of presenting his exhibit, S, to you on Darshan. Has he gone mad?

He has threatened us that if S is not allowed for darshan he is likely to get another crisis through which he may not pull this time!

You have got the report of the signatories on the wonderful state of the patient rescued by R – his high eulogies on them, etc. seem to prove that R has a pucca dramatist in him.

A lyrist, dramatist, epist, everything.

Do you want me to write S’s report, tomorrow being the eve of the Darshan?

Not tomorrow evening. No correspondence allowed then.