Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 3. 1936-37

Fragment ID: 18257

1936-37

I thought the extra appetite of 3 p.m. might be connected with the emptiness in which the being feels void, so that the vital or physical might interpret it as empty = hungry.

Not at all. It is a physical phenomenon. Inability to eat is a sign of illness and disorganisation in the system – when that is being cured, it is quite usual for the appetite to return with a great and unusual force for a time. In the same way people who have starved themselves out of asceticism and lost the normal power of eating, become for a time great eaters when they stop and recover the normal condition.

This voidness is not a voidness of food or a feature of the physical forces. So there is no reason why it should tend to hunger.

Z had feelings of weakness, lassitude, the body being broken down and incapable in a very violent way. That was cured and with it his constant fits of vital despondency. But the latter were largely due to his not being able to lead a free vital life here.