Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 2. 1938

Letter ID: 2195

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

September 22, 1938

[Sri Aurobindo and the Mother]

“The rich magnificence of the wandering sun

Reflects my splendour from still height to height...”

I say, there ought to be a limit to your splendour.

If we transfer the splendour from you to God, it becomes all right – results of your extraordinary condition.

Can you tolerate God twice?

I can’t – once is enough for him, so I have turned him out of one line, but brought him by pronominal implication into the whole poem throughout. I think that gives it more consistence.

I send you one of Nishikanta’s recent Bengali poems, to share my joy with you. The lines I have marked seem to have your O.P. touch, don’t they? He seems to have struck a new grandeur and beauty, no?

It is certainly very powerful and beautiful. By O.P. I presume you mean Overhead Poetry. That I can’t say – the substance seems to be from there, but a certain kind of rhythm is also needed which I find more difficult to decide about in Bengali than in English.

Didn’t you find Vasanti [suffering from anaemia] better than before?

[Mother:] Much better.

I saw Sankar Ram limping. I called him and examined him... The symptoms point towards Purpura. But the treatment is simple, which as you know, is more dietetic: fresh fruits and vegetables; iron and arsenic by mouth. We can examine his urine also.

[The Mother marked “fresh fruits... urine also”.]

[Mother:] Yes.

I fear a simple local treatment won’t be very effective. Of course, if you want us to leave him alone, we can.

[Mother:] It is better to treat him.