it as something undivine and a cause for despair. This seems to me excessive.Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume IV - Part 2
Fragment ID: 13978
The difficulty you feel or any sadhak feels about sadhana is not really a question of meditation versus bhakti versus works, it is a difficulty of the attitude to be taken, the approach or whatever you like to call it. Yours seems to be characterised on one side by a tremendous effort in the mind, on the other by a gloomy certitude in the vital which seems to watch and mutter under its breath if not aloud, “Yes, yes, go ahead, my fine fellow, but – কিছুই কখনও হয়নি, কিছুই হচ্ছেনা, কিছুই হবেনা”,1 and at the end of the meditation, “What did I tell you, কিছুই হবেনা”.2 A vital so ready to despair that even after a “glorious” flood of poetry, it uses the occasion to preach the gospel of despair. I have passed through most of the difficulties of the sadhak, but I cannot recollect to have looked on delight of poetical creation or concentration in it as something undivine and a cause for despair. This seems to me excessive.
1 Nothing has ever happened, nothing is happening, nothing will happen. – Ed.
2 Nothing happened. – Ed.