Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume III - Part 4

Fragment ID: 13131

It is always possible to have realisations of a kind on the mental-spiritual plane even if the vital is still impure. There is a sort of separation of the mental Purusha and Prakriti which results in a knowledge that has no transforming effect on the life. But the theory of these Yogis is that one has to know the Self; life and what one does in life do not matter. Have you not read of the Yogi who came with his concubine and Ramakrishna asked him, “Why do you live like that?” He answered, “All is Maya, so it does not matter what I do so long as I know the Brahman.” It is true Ramakrishna replied, “I spit on your Vedanta”, but logically the Yogi had a case. For if all life and action are Maya and only the silent Brahman is real – well!