Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 2. 1936

Letter ID: 1748

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

October 11, 1936

From your answer I couldn’t very well make out whether I should go and see T, but I went once in the morning.

Yes, that was included in “all that was needful”.

What strikes me is that T is so terribly afraid, goodness knows why. I am dumbfounded to see him so! I had always a great admiration for the fellow’s bravery. D.L. has unmanned his manliness?

He was a very courageous man. Of course, even courageous men are not always courageous at every point and perhaps he was always robust and healthy so never tested at this point. But what I see is that it is part of the terror that has fallen on many others and has manifested in him in spite of his natural temperament because he absorbed something from D.L. during her illness – something that was the cause both of his malady and of his fear. Mysterious? Well, these occult things always are.

I feel somehow that you don’t want me to attend to the case. Anyway Dr. Becharlal comes and tells me and we consult things.

Whatever is “needful”.

5 p.m. Dr. B reports that T is better. By the way, the fear in T has to be executed mercilessly by your letters and advice.

Umph! He wanted his brother to come and receive his last will and testament. I told him I saw no pressing need for troubling the brother.

Since no poetry is on the horizon, what about my trying to write some prose, say, stories? Give me some Force please, in that direction, if you see any possibility.

As an experiment? All right.

I hope my defective style won’t come in as a hostile force, against future poetic development.

I suppose it won’t.

Nirod

I forward you two pages of a letter from M. Will you and Becharlal at once find somebody to replace M in the attendance on T? M is evidently not meant to be there. I don’t want him to see the ghost and the condition of his head is a thing I don’t like. Mother was thinking you might consult the Surgeon again to know if any precautionary measures were necessary. Anyhow please keep an eye on his head – for these accidents often produce their subtler results long after.

Sri Aurobindo