Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 3. 1936-37

Fragment ID: 18145

1936-37

The Doctor advises me to talk more. Will talking remove the inertia and depression or bring in the vital force necessary to remove them?

I don’t know whether it will. The Doctor goes upon ordinary psychological grounds, viz. that talking and mixing with others helps to keep the vital active and cheerful, whereas solitude and repression of the social instincts makes one shut up in oneself and can lead to moroseness and melancholy. One can forgo the ordinary freedom of vital interchange only if one has something to support one within, peace or joy or the satisfaction of the inner life. When this inner peace, sukha, or satisfaction (atma-rati) is there, then the need of social talk etc. disappears and it becomes even disturbing or lowering to the consciousness – only talk from the source within or with a true meaning must be felt as tolerable.