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 [72]

I have already told you that {{0}}X[[The same person as in the preceding letter. — Ed.]] has not the capacity for disciplined study sustained for a long time. What is the use of forcing him any farther and trying to make him do what he will not because he cannot do? It will be a sheer waste of time and energy.

I cannot sanction his coming here to stay, for under present conditions his vital being will not remain steady here and it will take him away again. The one thing to do is what he himself wants to do, to take a job requiring intelligence and energy rather than book-learning and maintain himself; there must be plenty of jobs of that kind and it ought not to be difficult for him to get one when men are so much needed. Once he has shown to himself and others that he is not helpless in the world, then the vital conditions will be much better for his taking up the Asram life if he wants to do it. This is the one thing to be done and at present there is no other way that is worth taking.