Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Himself and the Ashram

The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Volume 35

Sadhana in the Ashram

Retirement and Progress in Yoga [1]

Would not rejection of the problems of the lower vital be better done in retirement?

It is very doubtful. Our experience is that, generally, it does not succeed very well. Sometimes there is a great improvement so long as the person remains sequestered but it does not stand the test of again coming out into contact with others. Sometimes it has led to an exalted inner activity, occasionally sound but often too unsound, the sadhak in retirement losing in the latter case the power of discrimination between subjective formations and valid truths of fact (X and others). In other cases the result has been a complete failure (Y, Z). As a general rule we consider it safer at the very least to combine some activity of outer life with retirement if any is made.

2 December 1933