Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1. 1933-34

Fragment ID: 16427

1934

Yesterday you wrote, “Sat and Chit with Shanti”. Why “with Shanti” – that is to say, “with peace”?

The three things are Sat, Chit and Ananda – but at this stage there is more usually the Shanti than the Ananda.

Shanti is peace or calm – it is not Ananda. There can of course be a calm Ananda.

Ananda comes afterwards – even if it comes at the beginning it is not usually constant. Wideness does not come because the consciousness is not yet free from the body. Probably when what is felt above the head comes down, it will be liberated into the wideness.