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 [71]

X is there [outside Pondicherry] because he has not yet made up his mind about his future and Mother wants him to see fully both possibilities before him — the ordinary life and the Asram life — and choose his way. He cannot go on always oscillating between the one and the other. If he comes back to the Asram, it should be with the firm determination to stick to the Asram life. If he cannot be steady to that then he must choose the outer life and face its problems and find his way there. In that case he cannot be always dependent on you [his father], but must train himself to live his own life on his own basis. He has parts, special gifts, a fine intelligence, but no full training and no steadiness in one line. He must acquire that or he will not be able to stand in the outer life. It is during this time that he must make up his mind one way or the other.

8 November 1938