Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

4. The Mother in the Life of the Ashram

Fragment ID: 19819

Is it the atmosphere of the Dispensary that raises these things? Your letter marks the beginning of the same attitude towards X as Y’s was before it became acute, the idea that you alone are medically great and competent (which was his), a big “I” sprawling egoistically all over the pages, the sense of being in charge = a masterful possession of the Dispensary, the disposition to arrange and command everything imperiously and imperially in that kingdom. Please stop all that before it grows. The work is the Mother’s and has to be carried out in harmony and the big “I” has to draw in its horns and become small, even if it cannot disappear altogether.

The Mother has given charge of the Dispensary not to you, but to you and X together (she does not want to renew a one man rule there, after what has happened). She accepted the arrangement suggested by both of you, because you were working in harmony and it seemed the one possible arrangement. She expects you to continue working in harmony – otherwise the running of the Dispensary will become impossible.

5 January 1935