Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 2. 1937

Letter ID: 1986

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

July 2, 1937

[The following question was put by J regarding a poem she had begun on Buddha:]

Do you think I should change the lines? I realised that I know nothing of Buddhistic teaching except the word Nirvana. Kindly say a few words on what Buddha stood for or taught his disciples.

I don’t know about the change. Buddhist teaching does not recognise any inner self or soul – there is only a stream of consciousness from moment to moment – the consciousness itself is only a bundle of associations – it is kept moving by the wheel of Karma. If the associations are untied and thrown away (they are called sanskaras), then it dissolves; the idea of self or a persistent person ceases; the stream flows no longer, the wheel stops. There is left according to some Sunya, a mysterious Nothing from which all comes; according to others a mysterious Permanent in which there is no individual existence. This is Nirvana. Buddha himself always refused to say what there was beyond cosmic existence; he spoke neither of God nor Self nor Brahman. He said there was no utility in discussing that – all that was necessary was to know the causes of this unhappy temporal existence and the way to dissolve it.