Sri Aurobindo
Letters on Himself and the Ashram
The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Volume 35
Admission, Staying, Departure
Admission to the Ashram, 1927 – 1943 [33]
It is certainly quite true that the psychic contact can
exist at a distance and that the Divine is not limited by place, but is
everywhere. It is not necessary for everybody to be at Pondicherry or
physically near the Mother in order to lead the spiritual life or to practise
this Yoga, especially in its earlier stages. But that is only one side of the
truth; there is another. Otherwise the logical conclusion might be that there
was no necessity for the Mother to be here at all or for the existence of the
Asram or for anyone to come here.
The psychic being is there in all, but in very few is
it well developed, well built up in the consciousness or prominent in the front;
in most it is veiled, often ineffective or only an influence, not conscious
enough or strong enough to support the spiritual life. It is for this reason
that it is necessary for those drawn 
towards
this Truth to come here in order that they may receive the touch which will
bring about or prepare the wakening of the psychic being — that is for them the
beginning of the effective psychic contact. It is also for this reason that a
stay here is needed for many — if they are ready — in order that under the
direct influence and nearness they may have this development or building up of
the psychic being in the consciousness or its coming to the front. When the
touch has been given or the development effected, so far as the sadhak is at the
moment capable of it, he returns to the outside world and under the protection
and guidance even at a distance is able to keep the contact and go on with his
spiritual life. But the influences of the outside world are not favourable to
the psychic contact and the psychic development and, if the sadhak is not
sufficiently careful or concentrated, the psychic contact may easily be lost
after a time or get covered over and the development may become retarded,
stationary or even diminished by adverse influences or movements. It is
therefore that the necessity exists and is often felt of a return to the place
of the central influence in order to fortify or recover the contact or to
restore or give a fresh forward impulse to the development. The aspiration for
such nearness from time to time is not a vital desire; it becomes a vital desire
only when it is egoistically insistent or mixed with a vital motive,— but not if
it is an aspiration of the psychic being calm, deep and without clamour in it or
perturbing insistence.
This is for those who are not called upon or are not
yet called upon to live in the Asram under the direct pressure of the
central Force and Presence. Those who must so live are those called from the
beginning or who have become ready or who are for some reason or another given a
chance to form part of the work or creation which is being prepared by the Yoga.
For them the stay here in the atmosphere, the nearness are indispensable; to
depart would be for them a renunciation of the opportunity given them, a turning
of the back upon the spiritual destiny. Their difficulties are often in
appearance greater than the struggle of those who remain outside because the
demand and the pressure are greater; but so also is their opportunity 
greater and the power and influence for development poured upon them
and that too which they can spiritually become and will become if they are
faithful to the choice and the call.
7 October 1931