Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
SABCL 26
Fragment ID: 7724
I use the language of the mind because there is no other which human beings can understand,– even though most of them understand it badly. If I were to use a supramental language like Joyce, you would not even have the illusion of understanding it; so, not being an Irishman, I don’t make the attempt. But, of course, anyone who wants to change earth-nature must first accept it in order to change it. To quote from an unpublished poem1 of my own:
He who would bring the heavens here,
Must descend himself into clay
And the burden of earthly nature bear
And tread the dolorous way....
25-8-1935
1 “A God’s Labour”, subsequently published in Poems Past and Present. See Collected Poems (Centenary Edition, 1972), p. 99.