Sri Aurobindo
Letters on Himself and the Ashram
The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Volume 35
Remarks on Public Figures in India
Mahatma Gandhi [1]
As for Gandhi, why should you suppose that I am so
tender for the faith of the Mahatma? I do not call it faith at all, but a rigid
mental belief, and what he terms soul-force is only a strong vital will which
has taken a religious turn. That, of course, can be a tremendous force for
action, but unfortunately Gandhi spoils it by his ambition to be a man of
reason, while in fact he has no reason in him at all, never was reasonable at
any moment in his life and, I suppose, never will be. What he has in its place
is a remarkable type of unintentionally sophistic logic. Well, what this 
reason, this amazingly, precisely unreliable logic brings about is
that nobody is ever sure and, I dont think, he is himself really sure what he
will do next. He has not only two minds, but three or four minds, and all
depends on which will turn up topmost at a particular moment and how it will
combine with the others. There would be no harm in that, on the contrary there
might be an advantage if there were a central Light somewhere choosing for him
and shaping the decision to the need of the action. He thinks there is and calls
it God but it has always seemed to me that it is his own mind that decides and
most of the time decides wrongly. Anyhow I cannot imagine Lenin or Mustapha
Kemal not knowing their own minds or acting in this way even their strategic
retreats were steps towards an end clearly conceived and executed. But whatever
it be, it is all mind-action and vital-force in Gandhi. So why should he be
taken as an example of the defeat of the Divine or of a spiritual Power? I quite
allow that there has been something behind Gandhi greater than himself and you
can call it the Divine or a Cosmic Force which has used him, but then there is
that behind everybody who is used as an instrument for world ends, behind Kemal
and Lenin also, so that is not germane to the matter.
29 July 1932