Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

SABCL 26

Fragment ID: 7731

Fits of depression and darkness and despair are a tradition in the path of sadhana – in all Yogas, oriental or occidental, they seem to have been the rule. I know all about them myself – but my experience has led me to the perception that they are an unnecessary tradition and could be dispensed with if one chose. That is why whenever they come in you or others I try to lift up before them the gospel of faith. If still they come, one has to get through them as soon as possible and get back into the sun.

9-4-1930

Q: No joy, no energy. Don’t like to read or write – as if a dead man were walking about. Do you understand the position? Any personal experience?

A: I quite understand; often had it myself devastatingly. That’s why I always advise people who have it to cheer up and buck up.

To cheer up, buck up and the rest if you can, saying, “Rome was not built in a day” – if you can’t, gloom it through till the sun rises and the little birds chirp and all is well.

Looks however as if you were going through a training in vairāgya. Don’t much care for vairāgya myself, always avoided the beastly thing, but had to go through it partly, till I hit on samatā as a better trick. But samatā is difficult, vairāgya is easy, only damnably gloomy and uncomfortable.

3-6-1936